METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MODIFYING ATTRIBUTES OF MEDIA ITEMS IN A MEDIA EDITING APPLICATION

• US 20100281367A1
• Filed: 05/31/2009
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Liberto, Samuel Joseph III, Langmacher, Tom
• Granted Patent: US 8,458,593 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/716
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention provide novel methods for editing the value of an attribute of a media item (e.g., a media content or a media operation) for a media editing application. Such attributes of a media item can include scale, rotation, opacity, pan, volume, etc. In some embodiments, a media editing application represents the changing value of such an attribute over a duration (e.g., a duration of time, a duration of frequencies, etc.) as a key-indexed geometry. A user of the media editing application can manipulate these geometries to change the attribute value over a duration. Such geometries may include graphs and shapes. For such applications, some embodiments provide novel compressed geometric representations (i.e., collapsed views) of one or more uncompressed key-indexed geometries (e.g., graphs or shapes). Additionally, other embodiments provide a novel method for editing the value of one or more attribute directly in a preview display area used to view the composite presentation created in the media editing application.

Claims

1. A method of defining a media editing application comprising a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

), the method comprising;

defining a plurality of modifiable attributes for editing content;

defining a collapsed representation for representing a key-indexed geometry that specifies the value of an attribute over a duration; and

defining a plurality of user-modifiable interpolation marks for the collapsed representation, the interpolation marks for representing the interpolation of the attribute value between different key indices and for allowing a user to modify the interpolation while the collapsed representation is displayed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interpolation marks are user selectable for manipulating the value of an attribute over the duration that is defined between two key indices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the distance between each interpolation mark represents the speed at which the attribute value changes over time.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a smaller distance between each interpolation mark represents a faster change in the attribute value over the duration and a larger distance between each interpolation mark represents a slower change in the attribute value over the duration.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein a larger distance between each interpolation mark represents a faster change in the attribute value over duration and a smaller distance between each interpolation mark represents a slower change in the attribute value over duration.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises defining a zoom tool for displaying a portion of the key-indexed geometry that corresponds to the same portion of the key-indexed geometry'"'"'s collapsed representation.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the media editing application with the defined modifiable attributes, collapsed representations, and user-modifiable interpolation marks on a physical storage medium.

8. A computer readable medium storing a media editing application for execution on a computing device, the media editing application for creating a media presentation, the application comprising a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

), the GUI comprising;

a plurality of modifiable attributes for editing content;

a collapsed representation for representing a key-indexed geometry that specifies the value of an attribute over a duration; and

a plurality of user-modifiable interpolation marks for the collapsed representation, the interpolation marks for representing the interpolation of the attribute value between different key indices and for allowing a user to modify the interpolation while the collapsed representation is displayed.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the modifiable attributes are attributes associated with the content.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the modifiable attributes are attributes associated with editing operations performed on the content.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the key-indexed geometry is a key-indexed graph.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the key-indexed geometry is a key-indexed shape.

13. A computer readable medium storing a media editing application for execution on at least one electronic devices, the media editing application for editing media presentations, the media editing application comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying a plurality of modifiable attributes for editing content;

displaying a collapsed representation for representing a key-indexed geometry that specifies the value of an attribute over a duration; and

displaying a plurality of user-modifiable interpolation marks on the collapsed representation, the interpolation marks for representing the interpolation of the attribute value between different key indices and for allowing a user to modify the interpolation while the collapsed representation is displayed.

14. The media editing application of claim 13 further comprising a set of instructions for receiving a user'"'"'s selection of the user-modifiable interpolation marks.

15. The media editing application of claim 14 further comprising a set of instructions for receiving a user'"'"'s dragging of the user-modifiable interpolation marks in a first direction.

16. The media editing application of claim 13 further comprising a set of instructions for increasing and decreasing the distances between the plurality of user-modifiable interpolation marks based on a user'"'"'s modifications.

17. The media editing application of claim 13 further comprising a set of instructions for modifying the interpolation of an attribute value between two key indices based on a user'"'"'s modification of the user-modifiable interpolation marks.

18. A method for providing a media editing application comprising a graphical user interface (GUI), said method comprising:

providing a presentation display area for displaying a presentation of content at a particular point in time;

providing a composite display area for displaying graphical representations of content that is being composited; and

providing a plurality of tools for editing at least one or more attributes of the content in the display area, wherein the plurality of tools comprises a tool for defining at least one key index and a tool for defining the interpolation between a first key index and a second key index for each of the at least one or more attributes begin edited in the display area.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising providing a timeline and a playhead that spans the timeline, wherein the particular point in time is defined by the position of the playhead.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the tool for defining at least one key index defines a first key index at the playhead.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the second key index is pre-existing and is a first key index before of the playhead.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the second key index is pre-existing and is a first key index after the playhead.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the tool for defining at least one key index specifies a pre-defined duration of the interpolation created in the display area, wherein the pre-defined duration ends at the playhead.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the tool for defining at least one key index defines a second key index before the playhead, where the pre-defined duration is equal to the duration between the second key index and the playhead.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the tool for defining at least one key index specifies a pre-defined duration of a transition created in the presentation display area, wherein the pre-defined duration starts at the playhead.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the tool for defining at least one key index defines a second key index after the playhead, where the pre-defined duration is equal to the duration between the second key index and the playhead.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the tool for defining the interpolation between two key indices presents pre-defined interpolations set by the media editing application.

28. A computer readable medium storing a media editing application for execution on a computing device, the media editing application for creating a media presentation, the application comprising a graphical user interface (“

GUI”

), the GUI comprising;

a presentation display area for displaying a presentation of content at a particular point in time; and

a plurality of tools for editing at least one or more attributes of the content in the presentation display area, wherein the plurality of tools comprises tools for defining at least one key index and an interpolation between a first key index and a second key index for each of the at least one or more attributes begin edited in the presentation display area.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the tool for defining the interpolation between two key indices presents user-defined interpolations created in the media editing application.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the plurality of tools are selectable through user interface items in the presentation display area.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the plurality of tools are selectable through context menus that can only be invoked in the presentation display area.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the plurality of tools are graphical items displayed directly on the content displayed in the presentation display area.

33. A computer readable medium storing a media editing application for execution on at least one electronic devices, the media editing application for editing media presentations, the media editing application comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying a frame of a media content on a presentation display area, wherein the frame of the media content is the frame defined by the position of a playhead over the content;

displaying a plurality of tools for creating a pre-defined interpolation over a pre-defined duration, wherein the plurality of tools are for manipulating one or more attributes of the media content.

34. The media editing application of claim 33 further comprising a set of instructions for displaying a graphical representation of at least one tool for manipulating an attribute in the presentation display area.

35. The media editing application of claim 33 further comprising a set of instructions for receiving a user'"'"'s selection of one of the plurality of tools on a presentation display area.

36. The media editing application of claim 33 further comprising a set of instructions for receiving a user'"'"'s modification of an attribute of the media content using a tool displayed in the presentation display area.

37. The media editing application of claim 33 further comprising a set of instructions for creating at least one key index for each attribute manipulated in the presentation display area based on a pre-defined duration.

38. The media editing application of claim 37 further comprising a set of instructions for computing the interpolation between two key indices for each attribute manipulated in the presentation display area based on a pre-defined interpolation.