I’m thinking of making some tweaks to Filmulator to make it even easier for new users to learn.
Import
First off is adjusting the Import tab to ensure that users can achieve their goals even before they fully understand the Filmulator workflow. Right now the Import tab is set up in a way that lets the user control what importing does well, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s obvious how to set it up to do common tasks.
So I have two changes in mind that I want to make:
Make the Import in Place/Copy to Directory radio button unselected at first, forcing the user to actively choose an option.
Have a few buttons in the unused space to the right for each common goal, such that clicking the button sets up the Import tab switches and radio buttons for that specific goal. I’d have “Import new photos from a memory card”, “Import photos already existing in a directory for editing”, and “Update location of photos that have been moved”
Queue
No big changes here, but when the queue is empty, I’ll have a message “Work queue empty. Import new photos on the Import tab or load existing ones from the Organize tab by double-clicking on the photos or by choosing to Enqueue All photos currently visible."
Organize
When no photos are visible, I’d likewise have a message explaining how to double-click to load images into the queue, how to find images in the date histogram and select date ranges, and how to enqueue all photos currently visible.
Filmulate
When no photo is selected, a message will explain to select an image from the work queue below by double-clicking or by pressing right or left.
I didn’t make the radio button unselected, because that would probably be confusing.
Instead, I made the import scenario buttons at the right be highlighted whenever their conditions were met, regardless of whether you set the Import settings manually or whether you click the buttons.
Below, in the work queue, I’ve placed a message indicating what that area is and how to get stuff in there. Naturally, it goes away when an image is loaded.
Hi there. I stumbled on this wonderful website after reading about Filmulator. I am very impressed - it does what is says on the tin!
A bit of feedback for you:
I would like to be able to reset processed images to default for a restart. Any ideas?
I would like to have some control over naming outputs.
The novel use of rotating tools is excellent - a rough fix followed by fine-tuning.
I use tif outputs for color, and jpeg outputs for B&W. Then I blend them in Adobe. The outcome is very filmic compared with the hyped-up commercial apps.
Filmulator has some quirks - but don’t they all, and believe me I have tried them all.
I much appreciate your philosophy of keeping the software and workflow as simple as possible. I hope you avoid the temptation to add little bits here and there, which often leads to distracting clutter!
All the best, PJ.
The reason Filmulator doesn’t have resetting to default is mostly I’m hesitant to dedicate a button to that. I’m not sure where would be the appropriate place for such a button…
For the version after next, I’m planning to add a “save as” dialogue where you can specify an output size, compression level for JPEG, and whether or not to include EXIF data, as well as the location and filename.
