Media editing application with capability to focus on graphical composite elements in a media compositing area

• US 8,856,655 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2009
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Pendergast, Colleen, Meaney, Brian, Marr, Jason, Yerbury, Eleanor
• Primary Examiner(s): Pesin, Boris
• Assistant Examiner(s): BADAWI, ANGIE M
• Application Number:
  US12/434,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20100281378A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,985 Days
• Field of Search: 715/723
• US Class Current: 715/723
• 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 provide a media editing application that allows a user to focus on a subset of media clips that the application combines to create a composite presentation. The media editing application of some embodiments includes a display area for displaying the composite presentation that the application creates by compositing several media clips (e.g., audio clip, video clip). The multimedia editing application of some embodiments also includes a composite display area (e.g., an area with multiple tracks that span a timeline) for displaying graphical clips representations of media clips that are part of the composite presentation. To focus on a subset of clip representations in the composite display area, the application of some embodiments also includes a tool for causing a first emphasized subset of clip representations (also referred to as “in-focus clips”) to appear larger in the composite display area than a second de-emphasized subset of clip representations (also referred to as “out-of-focus clips”) that are being concurrently represented in the composite display area.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a media editing application for creating media presentations, said application comprising a graphical user interface (GUI), said GUI comprising:

a preview display area for displaying a preview of a composite presentation that the application creates by compositing a plurality of media clips;

a composite display area for (i) displaying a graphical representation of the composite presentation in terms of graphical representations of media clips that are part of the composite presentation, and (ii) receiving a selection of a subset of the clip representations; and

a tool for (i) enlarging a size of each clip representation in the subset of clip representations, (ii) collapsing any clip representation that is unselected, and (iii) concurrently displaying the enlarged and collapsed clip representations in the composite display area in order to focus on the selected subset of clip representations in the composite display area,

wherein enlarging the size of the clip representation in the subset of clip representations comprises increasing a height of the clip representation while maintaining a width of the clip representation, wherein collapsing the clip representation that is unselected comprises decreasing the height of the unselected clip representation while maintaining the width of the unselected clip representation.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the tool is further for enlarging a size of a first part of a particular unselected clip representation and collapsing a second different part of the particular unselected clip representation in order to focus on the subset of graphical representations.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein a set of unselected clip representations comprises any unselected clip representation that is within a buffer threshold distance of any selected clip representation.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the clip representations that are not in the subset include any unselected clip representation that is outside a buffer threshold distance of any selected clip representation.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the subset of clip representations includes two non-adjacent clip representations, wherein at least one clip representation that is not in the subset is located between the two non-adjacent clip representations.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein enlarging the size of the clip representation comprises increasing the width of the clip representation while maintaining the height of the clip representation, wherein collapsing the unselected clip representation comprises decreasing the width of the unselected clip representation while maintaining the height of the unselected clip representation.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the tool is further for reducing the size of the selected subset of clip representations and expanding any clip representation that is unselected in the composite display area.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the composite display area comprises a timeline, wherein the graphical representations span the timeline to define a sequence of media clips for the composite presentation.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for creating media presentations, said computer program executable by at least one processor, said computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying a preview of a composite presentation in a preview display area, said composite presentation created by compositing a plurality of media clips;

displaying a graphical representation of the composite presentation in a composite display area, the graphical representation of the composite presentation comprising a set of graphical representations representing a set of media clips that are part of the composite presentation; and

emphasizing a first subset of clip representations in the composite display area by (i) enlarging a display size of each clip representation in the first subset of clip representations on a first track of the composite display area (ii) reducing a display size of each clip representation in a second subset of clip representations on a second track of the composite display area that is different from the first track, and (iii) concurrently displaying the enlarged and reduced clip representations in the composite display area,

wherein enlarging the display size of the clip representation in the first subset of clip representations comprises increasing a height of the clip representation while maintaining a width of the clip representation, wherein reducing the display size of the clip representation in the second subset of clip representations comprises decreasing the height of the clip representation while maintaining the width of the clip representation.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the first subset of clip representations comprises at least one selected clip representation, wherein the second subset of clip representations comprises at least one unselected clip representation.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for emphasizing the first subset of clip representations comprises a set of instructions for reducing the width of the each clip representation in the second subset of clip representations.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for emphasizing the first subset of clip representations comprises a set of instructions for increasing the width of each clip representation in the first subset of clip representations.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for emphasizing the first subset of clip representations further comprises a set of instructions for reducing a display size of a third subset of clip representations on a third track of the composite display area, said third track different from the first and second tracks.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for emphasizing the first subset of clip representations further comprises a set of instructions for collapsing a third subset of clip representations on the second track of the composite display area.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program that when executed by at least one processing unit provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for editing media clips, the GUI comprising:

a preview display for displaying a preview of a composite presentation that is created by compositing a plurality of media clips;

a timeline that represents a duration of the composite presentation;

a composite display area that spans the timeline in a horizontal direction to display a set of clip representations representing the plurality of media clips that are part of the composite presentation;

a focus tool for enlarging a size of each clip representation in a first emphasized subset of clip representations in the composite display area, reducing the size of each clip representation in a second de-emphasized subset of clip representations, and concurrently displaying the enlarged and reduced clip representations in the composite display area in order to place focus on the first emphasized subset of clip representations,

wherein enlarging the size of the clip representation in the first emphasized subset of clip representations comprises increasing a height of the clip representation while maintaining a width of the clip representation with respect to the timeline,

wherein reducing the size of the clip representation in the second de-emphasized subset of clip representations comprises decreasing the height of the clip representation while maintaining the width of the clip representation with respect to the timeline, wherein each clip representation of the first emphasized subset and the second de-emphasized subset is one of the displayed clip representations in the set of clip representations; and

at least one editing tool for performing an editing operation on at least one particular media clip that is represented by a particular clip representation that has been emphasized in the composite display area.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein performing the editing operation comprises performing a color correction operation.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein performing the editing operation comprises performing a special effects operation.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the focus tool is further for moving a first clip representation of the first emphasized subset from a first location to a second location in the composite display area.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein moving the first clip representation comprises moving the first clip representation across a collapsed area of the composite display area.

20. A method for providing media presentations, the method comprising:

providing a display area for displaying a composite presentation that an application creates by compositing a plurality of media clips;

providing a composite display area for (i) displaying a set of graphical representations representing a set of media clips in a plurality of different tracks that are part of the composite presentation, and (ii) receiving a selection of a first subset of clip representations; and

providing a tool for (i) enlarging a display size of each clip representation in the first subset of clip representations of the composite display area, (ii) reducing the display size of each clip representation in a second subset of clip representations, and (iii) concurrently displaying the enlarged and reduced clip representations in the composite display area in order to focus on the selected first subset of clip representations,

wherein enlarging the display size of the clip representation in the first subset of clip representations comprises increasing a width of the clip representation while maintaining a height of the clip representation,

wherein reducing the display size of the clip representation in the second subset of clip representations comprises decreasing the width of the clip representation while maintaining the height of the clip representation.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first subset of clip representations comprises (i) a selected clip representation and (ii) a first portion of an unselected clip representation.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first portion of the unselected clip representation is located within a threshold temporal distance of the selected clip representation along a timeline of the composite display area.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the second subset of clip representations comprises a second portion of the unselected clip representation, said second portion located outside a threshold temporal distance of the selected clip representation along a timeline of the composite display area.

24. The method of claim 20 further comprising collapsing the second subset of clip representations into a geometric shape, wherein the geometric shape is displayed in the composite display area as a vertical line that spans across the multiple tracks.

25. The method of claim 20 further comprising collapsing the second subset of clip representations into a geometric shape, wherein the geometric shape is a selectable object in the composite display area, wherein the second subset of clip representations is unpacked in the composite display area upon selection of the geometric shape.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein when a position indicator is moved or a touch operation is detected over the geometric shape, a preview of each collapsed clip representation is displayed at least partially over the composite display area without enlarging any of the second subset of clip representations.

27. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for creating media presentation, the computer program executable by at least one processor, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying a composite presentation in a display area, said composite presentation created by compositing a plurality of media clips;

displaying in a composite display area, a set of clip representations representing a set of media clips that are part of the composite presentation;

receiving a selection of first and second tracks in the composite display area;

identifying a first subset of clip representations that are displayed on the first and second tracks in the composite display area; and

enlarging a display size of each clip representation in the first subset of clip representations of the selected first and second tracks in the composite display area and reducing the display size of each clip representation in a second subset of clip representations that are concurrently displayed on an unselected third track in the composite display area in order to place focus on the first subset of clip representations in the composite display area,

wherein enlarging the display size of the clip representation in the first subset of clip representations comprises increasing a width of the clip representation while maintaining a height of the clip representation,

wherein reducing the display size of the clip representation in the second subset of clip representations comprises decreasing the width of the clip representation while maintaining the height of the clip representation.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the third track is displayed between the first track and the second track in the composite display area, wherein the first track, the second track, and the third track are separate tracks that each comprise clip representations of different media clips.