Common terms defined?

[SQ]

I dunno if this goes here.

But I'm defining a lot of terms we commonly overlook here, and wanted to make sure if the definitions are right, and if I'm missing something, or something should be added, etc.

They're not in alphebetical order yet because a.) I'm lazy. b.) This is still the planning stage, and c.) I don't have any word processing programs with autosort(So if you do and would sort them, I would love you).

So here's the terms, let me know what you think?

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Action Synch: Commonly referred to as the changing of scenes and how well they match the changes of the music. An example

would be changing scenes when a drum beat occurs.

Lyric Synch: 1. To match in a scene what a song artist is saying. An example would be, "Wake me Up" and show a picture of a

character waking up while the words are being sung.
2. The ability to follow the "flow" of a singer's voice with the anime. Example being a scene fading out while a singer's

voice softens.

Beat: A steady succession of units in rhythm for music.

Cut: A simple change in scene for video. For example, pulling out a clip at 4 seconds, then switching to a clip from 4

minutes within the source footage, where switching would be the cut.

Source footage: For our purposes, the DVD rip you made using EADFAG.

clip: A part of the source footage.

Timeline: Where you place your video and music in your editing software. It is where you edit clips to music.

Timecode: A format of how time is displayed. For example, 01:02:03 is 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 3 seconds. Anything followed

behind a semicolon ( ; ), is frames. For example, 00:00:00;21 is 21 frames. 30 frames are in one second.
Additionally, a shorter version of time code is 00:00 which is minutes, then seconds. A common even shorter term is :00,

which is to indicate seconds only. Frames by themselves and in timecodes are rarely used, unless looking to do something

extremely precise.

Frame: A single picture from the source footage. There are 30 frames in one second.

fps: Stands for "Frames Per Second". There are 30 frames in a second when reading timecode, however, fps is also a variable in exporting video. The common fps is 29.97 (30), but 15 fps is usually used in production of video games. The informal rule is to never go below 15 fps, but for AMVs, anything under 29.97 fps is usually unaccepted. (For convention, project, and contest entries).

Export: Transfer out of your editing program into an actual video file, such as .avi.

Import: To put footage into your editing program to work with:

Footage: For this guide, anything you will use inside your project.

Project: Commonly used to describe what you are working on and everything included with it.

Codec: A container for video and audio files that compresses them.

Compress: Make a file smaller by either reducing the quality, resolution, or otherwise.

Resolution: How big the Video is. Widescreen is a resolution. Also known as Aspect Ratio.

Lossy: Commonly used to describe codecs that reduce quality to make a smaller file size.

Lossless: Commonly used to describe codecs that reduce file size without reducing video or sound quality.

[Scintilla]

Footage: For this guide, anything you will use inside your project.

I don't know if audio and stills would count.

Codec: A container for video and audio files that compresses them.

Must distinguish between "codec" and "container" here. Also note that "co<b>dec</b>", by definition, also includes a decoder.

Compress: Make a file smaller by either reducing the quality, resolution, or otherwise.

Lossless compression doesn't reduce anything except the filesize.

Resolution: How big the Video is. Widescreen is a resolution. Also known as Aspect Ratio.

Aspect ratio refers to the ratio between the dimensions of the picture (or of each pixel if we're talking about PAR).
I wouldn't say widescreen is a resolution, rather a vague term used to describe a number of aspect ratios, including 16:9 and 2.35:1.

[trythil]

Timecode: A format of how time is displayed. For example, 01:02:03 is 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 3 seconds. Anything followed

behind a semicolon ( ; ), is frames. For example, 00:00:00;21 is 21 frames. 30 frames are in one second.
Additionally, a shorter version of time code is 00:00 which is minutes, then seconds. A common even shorter term is :00

Incorrect definition.
The meaning of each field in a timecode is dependent on the timecode format.

Frames by themselves and in timecodes are rarely used, unless looking to do something extremely precise.

This is an opinion, not a definition. I personally edit framewise all the time; it makes calculations and cutting much easier.

Frame: A single picture from the source footage. There are 30 frames in one second.

Incorrect definition. The number of frames per second is arbitrary.

fps: Stands for "Frames Per Second". There are 30 frames in a second when reading timecode, however, fps is also a variable in exporting video. The common fps is 29.97 (30), but 15 fps is usually used in production of video games. The informal rule is to never go below 15 fps, but for AMVs, anything under 29.97 fps is usually unaccepted. (For convention, project, and contest entries).

Incorrect definition.

Timecode and frames per second are independent.
29.97 is not equal to 30 and is not even close to 30, no matter what anyone says. Hell, if you're Dedekind, 29.97 is (countably) infinitively far away.[/quote]

Export: Transfer out of your editing program into an actual video file, such as .avi.

Ambiguous definition. You use "actual video files" when you edit; what's the difference?

Footage: For this guide, anything you will use inside your project.

So audio is footage?

Codec: A container for video and audio files that compresses them.

Incorrect definition.
The container is the container. The codec is the compression and decompression scheme.

Compress: Make a file smaller by either reducing the quality, resolution, or otherwise.

"Reducing filesize" would be better. This definition implies that compression involves loss of quality, which isn't true.

Resolution: How big the Video is. Widescreen is a resolution. Also known as Aspect Ratio.

Incorrect definition.
Resolution and aspect ratio are separate concepts.
Widescreen is a label for a number of aspect ratios, but is not a label for any resolution.

Resolution might be better defined as a measure of the granularity of detail.

Lossy: Commonly used to describe codecs that reduce quality to make a smaller file size.

Ambiguous definition.
"Lossy" refers to the fact that you remove information in the compression stage, not that you lose quality. Indeed, the entire idea behind lossy codecs is that you can compress some types of information without substantial losses in perceived quality.

Lossless: Commonly used to describe codecs that reduce file size without reducing video or sound quality.

Ambiguous definition -- see above.

[godix]

Action Synch: Commonly referred to as the changing of scenes and how well they match the changes of the music. An example would be changing scenes when a drum beat occurs

I'd define it as any editing designed to match the music. Scene changes, flashes, fades, matching the pace of the clip with the musics mood, or anything else specially meant to mirror what they music is doing would be action sync.

30 frames are in one second.

Not always. Especially if someone has done IVTC like the guides suggest. Don't get so hung up on having 30fps, many use 24fps instead. I even recall of one case that used 12fps although I'm sure the guy who did it wishes I wouldn't remember that.

Resolution: How big the Video is. Widescreen is a resolution. Also known as Aspect Ratio.

Resolution and aspect ratio are two different, though related, things. Resolution is simply how many pixels wide and high the video is. Aspect ratio is the proportion of width to height required to make the picture look as it was designed to appear. 1024x100 is a resolution but it's certainly not a correct aspect ratio. OTOH 4:3 is an aspect ratio that can describe different resolutions, IE 320x240, 640x480, 1280x960, etc.

[trythil]

1024x100 is a resolution but it's certainly not a correct aspect ratio.

Sure it is, if the material was originally captured at 1024x100.

[Pwolf]

i see action sync as being both "beat sync" and "lyric sync" as well as syncing to tone and ptich....

about time code... as far as premiere is concered... a : is different from a ;... when you see the timecode with :'s that means it's non-drop frame... ; means it's drop frame (might be the other way around, don't quite remember at the moment)...

soruce footage and footage are pretty much the same and should include any audio, video and still pictures... basically anything that you'll be using to make a video.

about FPS... never heard anything about 15fps being used for games o.O 15fps is most commonly used for the web... at least thats what the books and teachers tell me, lol...

Resolution and aspect ratio should be described better... resolution <i>isn't</i> aspect ratio. and widescreen isn't resolution... widescreen is a term use to describe a certain type of resolution.


Pwolf

[godix]

Sure it is, if the material was originally captured at 1024x100.

Pedant.

[downwithpants]

Action Synch: Commonly referred to as the changing of scenes and how well they match the changes of the music. An example would be changing scenes when a drum beat occurs.

I would say action synch is using activity in the audio as a cue for editing, but not necessarily for scene changes. In addition to scene changes, you can add more effects, or cue an action within a scene of the video (such as a drum beat to a character landing a punch in the anime).

Lyric Synch: 1. To match in a scene what a song artist is saying. An example would be, "Wake me Up" and show a picture of a character waking up while the words are being sung.

I would say lyric synch is using the lyrics or spoken words in the audio as a cue for editing. It doesn't have to be a literal representation (for example "Wake me up" could be lyric synched to a fight scene or something in a sex scene i'll omit), but the intention is that the viewer identifies a relation between what is shown and what is said or sung.

2. The ability to follow the "flow" of a singer's voice with the anime. Example being a scene fading out while a singer's voice softens.

This is not lyric synch, it is more music synch or it could be mood synch.

Beat: A steady succession of units in rhythm for music.

A beat is point in time where a pulse is felt by the listener, whether or not a note is played. The listener uses multiple beats together to group the notes of a song into larger structures of organization.

Cut: A simple change in scene for video. For example, pulling out a clip at 4 seconds, then switching to a clip from 4 minutes within the source footage, where switching would be the cut.

More simply worded: a transition between two scenes in which one scene begins playing exactly when the other scene finishes playing.

Source footage: For our purposes, the DVD rip you made using EADFAG.

I consider audio and still images to be source footage.

clip: A part of the source footage.

"video segment [or audio segment]" might be a better word than "part". "A part of the source footage" could be interpreted as any part of the source footage, such as the audio stream or one byte of the file.

[madbunny]

I dunno if this goes here.

But I'm defining a lot of terms we commonly overlook here, and wanted to make sure if the definitions are right, and if I'm missing something, or something should be added, etc.

So here's the terms, let me know what you think?

{terms cliped for brevity}

I think having a sort of online 'dictionary' of editing terms that can be used as a reference is a good idea actually. Even though most of these things are covered in various levels of detail in the guides, a lot of people seem to have a hard time integrating them into their projects. Additionally it would be a good place to reference from within reviews, kind of like a more detailed version of the items on the number line.

I could be wrong here, but I suspect that what you are doing isn't really describing/defining the terms (such as the way that Scintilla defines the difference between a codec and a container) so much as trying to make them understandable for the novice right?

What I see with my students is that most of them just want to be able to do A -> B-> C -> video finished. I suspect really, that for the type of people that need to have this stuff explained five different ways, what they really need is some sort of 'tutorial' project that they can load up and do one tiny little baby step at a time, (Like the Avisynth tutorial where you start by learing "Version()" and then progress on to the great hights of color bars) only with other stuff like resolution, cropping and paying attention.

Most of us, I think will probably continue to learn through osmosis.

[Kalium]

OK, that's it, I'm going to expand my guide to include a glossary.