The invention relates generally to video or image editing software and, more particularly, to a means for automatically assembling a user-specified video transition.
Historically editing of video images has been limited to professional production companies using extremely expensive equipment. This was in part because the computational power necessary to edit video images was prohibitively expensive for the consumer market. Because the market for video editing equipment, e.g., video editing software, has been comprised almost entirely of professionals, it has historically been very complicated.
Innovations in the field of personal computer design have resulted in reduced costs and improved computational power of consumer-grade systems. In addition, advances in digital video technology have resulted in the wide-spread availability of high quality digital video cameras for the consumer market. The result of this combination is that professional-grade video editing capability is now available to the average consumer.
One common video editing task is to visually move from a first scene to a second scene. To blend or smooth the transition from the first scene to the second scene, many video editing software applications provide what are known as “transitions.” Transitions are visual effects which permit a user to visually move from the first scene to the second scene in a coherent and acceptable manner. For example, one common transition is the “fade” transition in which a first frame is gradually faded out and a second frame is gradually faded in. The first and second frames may come from the same video stream or movie or from different video streams or movies. Transitions may be used to visually move or transition between any two (or more) media: video, still images, multimedia, DVD menus, presentations, etc. Smooth transitions make the resulting movie look more professional. The types of transitions available in current video editing software applications, however, are limited to built-in or pre-defined transitions. That is, the user cannot define his or her own transition styles or techniques.
Another common video editing task is to set effects. A user may want to change the way a video clip is replayed, for example, combining two or more video clips into one movie or animating portions of the images. The task of setting effects is typically complicated and requires several separate dedicated applications. In addition, the choice of which effects to use may be limited by the video clips or other multimedia assets available within the application program.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide video editing software and/or video editing systems that permit a user to define his or her own transitions in terms of a collection of video assets (e.g., video streams/movies or still images) and other files or media that are automatically assembled into a cohesive transition.