Slow motion editor-like speedramp suggestion

Suggestion
1

The Speed: forward has been a great addition to simplify the Time remap filter (which honestly is still way too difficult for me to properly use) so I propose another addition to the family, the “Speed: slow motion editor” (or a better name I guess).

The main use for this is to slow down (or speed up) a short portion of a high fps clip. I basically do this all the time but the longer way: I manually split the video in 3 separate clips and change the speed property of the middle clip.

The filter would need 3 inputs:

  • 2 buttons for “start here” and “end here” to set the slow
  • one slider to set the speed inside the “selected” time (hmm, probably also needs another slider for the regular “outside” speed as my phone apparently stores 240fps slow motion as already slowed down 30fps video so technically I’ll need to speed up to normal speed the outside selection)

Basically the workflow needs to be as easy as the default slow-motion editor on a phone: just choose the start and the end and everything gets slowed down smoothly:

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2

The same concept as filter trimming we have in nearly all other filters, omitted in time filters for some technical reason (something to do with timing).

The same concept as simple keyframes, also omitted in time filters.

3

Indeed, filter trimming on a Speed: forward filter would be a workaround to this. But I do think a separate filter would be easier to find and use.

4

I will probably not accept more Speed-like filters. The existing ones may be improved. Otherwise, it gets confusing about which one to choose. More is not usually better.

5

I think we could add simple keyframes to the Speed: Forward filter. I will bookmark this thread to revisit later.

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6

I have implemented simple keyframes for the speed filters. I do not think it is very useful because it ramps the speed during the in and out animations. So it doesn’t create three segments of normal, slow and normal. Instead, it makes three segments of “slowing down”, slow, “speeding up”.

Also, users have asked for the clip to be automatically stretched (increase/decrease duration) as the speed is adjusted. That will also not be done for reasons that have been discussed in other threads.

I do not think we will ever have a variation of the speed manipulation that matches the phone. However, I spent some more time practicing with the existing keyframe controls, and I still find it simple and intuitive.

  1. Increase the clip duration to be longer than you will need
  2. Add the speed filter (the first and last keyframes are automatically set to speed 1.0 - normal)
  3. Set the second keyframe to 1.0 where you want the speed start slowing down
  4. Set the third keyframe to the desired speed where you want it to be slow
  5. Set the 4th keyframe to 1.0 where you want the speed to start speeding back up
  6. Trim the out point of the clip where you want the clip to be done

There you have it. It is as simple as two duration changes and 3 keyframes.

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