▼Authoring muvee Styles
►4 Anatomy of a muvee
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4.1 Automatic editing
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4 Anatomy of a muvee

A muvee puts together user content in a specific way that is described in the diagram below.

Video and picture segments
User media is selected for inclusion in the muvee as a sequence of overlapping segments. A picture segment shows one picture for a duration and a video segment shows a portion of one of the input video files for a duration.

Segment effects
Each video or picture segment can be given a treatment that is specific to the segment. These are usually referred to in this documentation as segment effects. For example, pictures might be presented in a photo-frame format and video might be presented within a TV graphic. These will be segment effects.

Transitions
When two segments overlap, a transition is used to specify how to compose the two segments into the scene. Examples of transitions include the traditional dissolve, different types of wipes, etc. A zero duration transition is known as a cut.

The global effect
The global effect determines a uniform treatment that is applied to the entire muvee. For instance, this could be a "sepia" tone that is used to give the muvee an aged look.

The music track
This consists of all the music files given in muvee Reveal’s "music" panel. The style has no control over the composition of the music track.

4.1 Automatic editing

The muvee editing engine - which we call The Constructor - automatically decides the timing of each segment and which piece of the user’s media goes into each of them. The constructor takes into account the specifications provided by the muvee Reveal user such as muvee duration and magic moments when generating the segment structure.

A style customizes the result of constructor’s output by providing its own treatments for the segments, transitions and the muvee as a whole.

As with all things, a bit more is involved. Before the construction process begins, all the video, pictures and music are analyzed for features. Video is analyzed for faces, quality, brightness and movement. Pictures are analyzed for face regions and aspect ratios. Music is analyzed for beats. These analyses are also factored in by the constructor. For example, the timing of the segments is tied to the beats in the music to give the muvee a music video-ish feel, portions of the video with faces can be given a higher chance of inclusion into the muvee, etc.

Although the diagram above simplifies the notion of a style, a style does have some say over how the analyses are used by the constructor. Styles therefore serve as a panel of switches and sliders you can tweak to influence the contructor.

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