Edo is a hybrid CPU+GPU video compositing program. The user can create compositions of arbitrary complexity thanks to Edo's powerful node graph visual interface, familiar from high-end composition packages such as Apple Shake. By mixing GPU- and CPU-based image operations in the same composition, the user can create a balance of performance and precision. CPU-based filters use 128-bit floating point color precision by default, which eliminates traditional image compositing artifacts like clipping and banding. For GPU operations, a fast video data path permits compositing multiple QuickTime video sources in realtime. This makes Edo suitable for realtime applications (e.g. live VJ performances) in addition to the post-production / motion graphics uses that traditional compositing packages accomodate.
If that looks too much like condensed jargon to you, please read on...
If your work or hobby involves image manipulation, motion graphics, 3D rendering or live video performance, you may find Edo a useful tool. The following paragraphs compare Edo to other applications used in these fields.
After Effects uses a layer-based compositing paradigm familiar from Photoshop. In contrast, Edo’s node graph interface offers a more process-oriented approach to compositing. Both interfaces have their benefits. For most tasks involving masks and passes (for example combining multiple passes created in a 3D rendering application), a node graph is easier to manage than layers and nested compositions. For other tasks like creating animated layouts with text and video, a layer-based interface is easier to manipulate.
The node graph approach offers more flexibility in building a compositing setup. With Edo, you can choose which parts of your composition you want to execute on the video card’s GPU and which parts you want to process with the computer’s CPU. The GPU is a very fast specialized graphics chip, so you get real-time feedback and various 3D effects. On the other hand, the GPU is typically too specialized to perform true pixel-level operations, and it can only offer limited color precision. For this kind of effects, you can use the CPU. (Traditional graphics software like Photoshop processes everything on the CPU.)
For professional production use, these packages are unbeatable. However, their pricing puts them out of reach for hobbyists, individual artists and other private users. Edo offers some similar features for a very bearable price :)
Edo’s fast GPU compositing makes it possible to create many kinds of effects completely in realtime. Multiple layers of QuickTime video can be processed even at high DV quality. The node graph lets you create an ”effect setup” beforehand, and you can manipulate all the values and connections in realtime to create varying and evolving performances. A ”video deck” lets you switch between multiple video sources easily for even more variety.
The main view of a Edo project is the Project window. It has two separate views, Clips and Effects.
Clips displays all the material that your project contains. When you’ve started a new project, the Clips view is completely empty. You should start by creating a composition.
The ”New” menu in the Clips view lets you create compositions and import clips.
Double-click on a composition to open the Composition window.
When importing clips, recommended clip types are QuickTime movies (.mov) and TIFF images (.tif, .tiff). The QuickTime movies that you include in your project should be compressed in a format that permits direct access to an individual frame (for example Sorenson and MPEG video use inter-frame compression, which means that a frame depends on the previous frames and therefore it’s not possible to access any frame at will). Recommended compressors are DV and Photo JPEG.
You can drag-and-drop from the Clips view into the Composition window to include the clip in your composition. A new ”source node” is created in the composition view.
Effects displays all the effects installed in Edo. Click on a category on the left to view the effects belonging to the category in the right-side list.
You can drag-and-drop from the Effects view into the Composition window to create a new node for the effect in the composition.
A composition is represented as a graph of nodes, each representing an image processing operation (or a mathematical operation). The graph is like a structure of pipes: when an image is rendered, rendering starts at the top of the graph, images ”trickle down” through connections from node to node, and finally a single resulting image ends up at the root node.
Therefore the root node is located at the bottom of the composition window. It represents this composition’s output.
There are three types of connections that exist between nodes in Edo, and thus three types of data that you can process:
- Image. An image is a pixel map with a specific width and height. There is no difference between passing an image to a GPU processing node or a CPU processing node – the data gets automatically converted as necessary.
An image connection is represented with purple input / output spheres on a node.
- Drawing. A drawing is a series of GPU commands. Typically this might be one or more 3D objects, or perhaps just a plane. See the effects in the GPU Generators category for examples of what kind of drawings a node can produce.
A drawing connection is represented with green input / output spheres on a node.
- Number. A number is just that – a single value passed from node to node. All nodes that have numeric parameters (for example, the Scale node has width and height parameters) accept number input.
A number connection is represented with grey input / output spheres on a node.
[under construction]
Press [apple key + I] to open the node inspector. When you click on a node in the composition window, the inspector updates to reflect the node’s properties.
Press the ”Show Output” button in the top right corner of the composition window to show the composition’s output.
The movie deck permits fast switching between video clips in a composition. To use the movie deck, create a ”Deck source” in your composition. Then drag-and-drop clips from the project window into the movie deck.
Select a deck source in the Switchers list to activate it. To attach a movie to a deck source, double-click on the movie in the movie deck.
The bottom-left corner shows the selected movie’s properties. Try Ctrl- and Alt-clicking on the playhead while a movie is playing to set the in / out times for the movie!
[under construction]
This manual and related pages (c) 2004 Pauli Olavi Ojala. All rights reserved