Feature Request: Envelope Tool

[Steven]

I got this idea when editing an audio file with Audacity. It has an "Envelope Tool" that lets you draw a curve with time on the X axis and volume on the Y axis.

I visualize the equivalent tool in the Sequence Editor. You would select a range of channels and cells, then you'd get a line that started horizontal at 100%, but you could drag points down as low as 0%. It would then scale events in that range.

One example for using this starts with the "candle flicker" sequence that someone posted here. That sequence is a bunch of shimmers at "random" intensities that change at different times for different channels. I'd like to fade the candles, but all existing tools will cause them to lose the randomness that makes them look like candles.

[bob]

I don't think I understand. Could you please explain it again?

As for this specifically:

That sequence is a bunch of shimmers at "random" intensities that change at different times for different channels. I'd like to fade the candles, but all existing tools will cause them to lose the randomness that makes them look like candles.

I might not understand this either, but could you not use (say) the "Fade Up" tool in conjunction with Foreground Effects mode? If not, what would that do differently than what you're trying to accomplish with these candles?

[Surfing4Dough]

That is a good idea Steven. Here is a video that demonstrates the envelope tool to help visualize how easy it could make fades and such in a sequence.

[Steven]

bob wrote:

I don't think I understand. Could you please explain it again?

In this thread, Orville showed how to make a realistic flickering candle. Go to the 2nd post and look at the middle of the screen shot. There are 5 candle channels that are all flickering. They can't all flicker the same because it wouldn't look realistic.

Now look at the video that Surfing4Dough posted. If you imagine that audio waveform is the candle channels from the other post, that gives you an idea of how the Envelope Tool could work.

I might not understand this either, but could you not use (say) the "Fade Up" tool in conjunction with Foreground Effects mode? If not, what would that do differently than what you're trying to accomplish with these candles?

The Foreground Effects mode wouldn't work in this case for 2 reasons:

First, the candle flicker effect Orville created is varying intensities that never go to 0. (When real candles flicker the intensity never goes to 0, because that would mean the flame would go out!) Thus, everything is in the foreground!

Second, the different candle channels have different intensities. The Foreground Effects with Fade Up would set them all to the same intensity. This would make them seem less like real candles.

[ItsMeBobO]

Love the idea Steven. This is like interlacing the ramp up tools intensity and ramp down without having to go to the settings over and over.

up20-40 i40 up40-60 dn60-25 i25 up25-35
A smooth transition tool between effects we have now.