In T14753#261024, @aronkvh wrote:

Here are some of my ideas:
Physical effects, glass.
Ui elements building while morphing to the improved Ocean style.
Sunlight, water/caustics lighting - as in ocean

After thinking about it a bit more and reading the (thankfully mostly constructive) criticism on my Dolphin video; I'm not sure about these ⬆️.
KDE interfaces are purposefully not trendy and fancy; focusing on usability and efficiency, so the promo videos should probably cater to people who like this mindset on their desktop- and its promo videos. Our (at least my) fancy 3d is never gonna be comparable to the ads made for Microsoft or Apple, but often can feel (and kinda is) copying those.

On the other hand, the video for the 25th Anniversary Edition should probably be more than just screencasts , (and I really like the materials I sent above)

Don't give up on 3D!
We can still use it to make the video more understandable. Take a look at the Gnome 40 promo
They used 3D to make it more understandable like showcasing the keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures, instead of going "ooo! take a look at this new thing!"
@aronkvh , the references you sent are awesome, though I don't think we can be that good.

I suggest using 3D animations on 2D elements. Firstly, the priority should be the info we provide in the video, every sentence should be short and concise with respective visual elements.
I recommend something like this https://youtu.be/sLib5QX9qMw

Notice how the animations match the music, this is something we should do too. Simple backgrounds with text, then you show a feature the text was talking about. Making windows and everything 3D kinda doesn't work, what we should do instead is use animations strictly for smooth transitions and 3D animations for constructing a 2D view of the plasma apps and UI with the help of 2D floating elements.

Going the Microsoft's all-3D route introduces a lot of visual redundancy that does not represent the final product in any shape or form and it also does not inform the audience of what the product actually is not to mention the ton of work that would be required to make visually-pleasing pointless 3D animations.

It's easier for me when someone give me some ideas, because it is difficult to come up with your own, plus need to make the together-video looks consistent and everyone will like it.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

That Gnome video is very slick and clearly popular. I cannot find much to object, save that visually, it is a bit run-of-the-mill (albeit, very well done). That said, personal objections are not good reason to not do something. The view count is impressive and the comments positive. and that is what counts. I would like to see come insights, see if there is a drop off in viewers after the first, say, 30 seconds, because the video does become very much the same of the same after that. But as we don't have access to that, I guess we will never know.

I would definitely use it as inspiration for future videos, not for whole videos and maybe not for Plasma - 25th Anniversary Edition

Mood of the video is very important.
Gnome's video is nice but doesn't inspire, or doesn't make Gnome look amazingly better than their competition. I think the 'energetic' music works better with fast visuals, Gnome's video has fast changing text, not backgrounds which kinda make it look slow paced and not very feature-packed than it should be.
The mood will be influenced largely by music, so we have to make a choice here what we want the Plasma trailer to look like.

I have selected a few songs, with the moods I think they best describe. I had to go through a huge library of audio, but these are the ones I think would fit an epic tech-product trailer.

Energetic, Funky
https://youtu.be/8xXFbq4J52E

Sleek, Intricate
https://youtu.be/DoKZRPL0umo

Laid back, chill
https://youtu.be/WvXJm9seiJM

Stylish, Royal
https://youtu.be/t56oek7m3CQ

Something amazing, full of possibilities
https://youtu.be/82HUAZMGO7c

New, Modern & Funky
https://youtu.be/YYb_ZKBMrko

I personally don't feel like any of these are perfect, I'll keep searching but till then, please let me know what mood are we going for.

I've been referring to Avdan's concept trailers for his music choice. He seems to select electronic music with calmer reverberated melodic intros and energetic drops. https://youtube.com/c/Avdan/videos

I don't know if anyone has news about this rn, but in the meantime, here's my first take on a storyboard (which we should really have soon)

Regarding the music, I think we all appreciate the leads, but the selection in audiolibrary is very obviously stock and quite bland. That said, I can see

Sleek, Intricate
https://youtu.be/DoKZRPL0umo

Laid back, chill
https://youtu.be/WvXJm9seiJM

Stylish, Royal
https://youtu.be/t56oek7m3CQ

working.

I would prefer we looked at more daring combinations, though. We have broken moulds in our video creation and the reaction from our audiences has been good. Let's continue down that path.

The problem with audiolibrary music is that it is the sort of music used in literally 100s of 1000s of corporate videos. Totally unoriginal, boringly predictable.

Why not check out FMA and look beyond the "elevator" music at ethnic, pop/rock, power pop, folk, jazz, etc.?

Stuff that you would not believe goes together, you can often make go together. Take, for example, this scene from Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" and how he uses flamenco music in a scene that doesn't happen in Spain and there is no dancing. However, because it is Martin Scorsese film, it is very well chosen.

Since you suggested 5 audiolibrary tracks, let's do an experiment and look for at least another 5 that are not stock music and also (and not by Incompetech, please) and see if we can fit them in.

In T14753#263237, @paulb wrote:

I would prefer we looked at more daring combinations, though. We have broken moulds in our video creation and the reaction from our audiences has been good. Let's continue down that path.

The problem with audiolibrary music is that it is the sort of music used in literally 100s of 1000s of corporate videos. Totally unoriginal, boringly predictable.

Why not check out FMA and look beyond the "elevator" music at ethnic, pop/rock, power pop, folk, jazz, etc.?

Stuff that you would not believe goes together, you can often make go together. Take, for example, this scene from Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" and how he uses flamenco music in a scene that doesn't happen in Spain and there is no dancing. However, because it is Martin Scorsese film, it is very well chosen.

Since you suggested 5 audiolibrary tracks, let's do an experiment and look for at least another 5 that are not stock music and also (and not by Incompetech, please) and see if we can fit them in.

The reason why I've been looking at the same kind of music (electronic, chill, piano intro) is because I'm trying to find music that sound like the ones Avdan uses. His music selection choice has been highly appreciated by his viewers, and his method is tried and tested with millions of video views and I belive if we do something similar, the video will be even more loved and shared.

Sure, we can try to do something totally outlandish but It's hard to make things fit when they don't more often than not.

If we want to invite a new generation of Plasma users, youngsters, something more modern and electronic would fit perfectly.
Other than the ones I've mentioned, I really liked this one (not from audio-library), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-J13HkSRYA
I've been looking at audio library because they rarely post unprofessional music. FMA had a lot of songs made by unprofessional producers with no proper understanding of rythm or beats iirc, that's why I was looking at audio library primarily but it's not a problem, I'll try to find some good ones from FMA :)

@aronkvh I can see your storyboard working. I was thinking along different lines, but I think now it is a different video, and we should probably make both.

I like the blue text on white. It is elegant and has character, but not overbearing. I would suggest experimenting with a few other fonts first, though, even if it is just to check you have the best choice.

The retro intro... good idea. We have recently gained access to some virtual machines that can run old versions of Plasma/KDE (like kde 2 and 3 old). We can make the intro with screencasts from them synched to the intro of the song. Then, as the intro fades, WHAM! Plasma 25th Anniversary Edition and you segue into the new features.

I asked the mind behind "Above The Sky" and "Hills And Valleys" -- an IMHO talented artist from Germany -- if he has interest/ideas in contributing a voluntary propasal, so I linked him to this discussion page. Hopefully he has muse and time. I first encountered his sound on SomaFM/Defcon radio. I think his Synthpop/Synthwave sound is pretty catchy and nostalgic with kind of kraftwerk'esque bikeride-drive and also strong positive synthie-mood. And as KDE is a pretty old dinosaur :-) synthwave can maybe catch the spirit. Currently I am voluntary working on several music videos for "Above The Sky" produced with KDE+Kdenlive

@NayamAmarshe Who is Avdan? Not saying you're wrong, but there are many reasons why some videos work and others don't . Attributing success to the music, boring music besides, may be a bit simplistic.

Also, I am not recommending "outlandish". I am recommending "different". "Tried-and-tested" be damned!

Thanks for the feedback @paulb!
Where can I play with those VMs?

Avdan is a very famous Youtuber who makes concept advertisements for macOS, iOS, Windows, ipadOS etc.

How long is the video supposed to be?
The amount of info shown and music style depends on that.
As a rule of thumb, the shorter the video, the more high energy and unique it must be to stick in the viewer's memory.

about the intro vm screenshots, it might look better if the same windows are in the same location.
And btw @paulb You are right, music is not a great way to determine the success of a video, but it is a factor. Positive reaction does require the viewers mood to be good, and thus good music choice is necessary.

Here's a short demo video I made, we can include clips like these

In T14753#263247, @VicFic18 wrote:

How long is the video supposed to be?

A minute, 2 tops.

The amount of info shown and music style depends on that.
As a rule of thumb, the shorter the video, the more high energy and unique it must be to stick in the viewer's memory.

about the intro vm screenshots, it might look better if the same windows are in the same location.

I must warn we have not managed to get all resolutions working on all VMs. If I remember right, the maximum we have achieved with KDE 2 is 640x480, for example. Although I agree that making the screencasts as similar as possible to each other to facilitate transitions is a good idea, it may be a bit difficult.

And btw @paulb You are right, music is not a great way to determine the success of a video, but it is a factor. Positive reaction does require the viewers mood to be good, and thus good music choice is necessary.

I know. I have made many, many videos for KDE (as has @aronkvh) and some have been praised for their music, while others... well, one, has been panned. But our main goal in Promo is that we have to always try and break out of our bubble, so doing things like other people, i.e. not taking risks, is not allowed.

Retro VMs are here.

In T14753#263265, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

Here's a short demo video I made, we can include clips like these

I like this. I like the retro background. I think we may have to zoom in (and then zoom out) on each screen so it is a bit clearer for the viewer what we are showing them, but great start.

In T14753#263265, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

Here's a short demo video I made, we can include clips like these

I like it too, but not that background

@paulb @VicFic18 @NayamAmarshe hi folks!
just got positive response from Theo who produces the Synthwave/Synthpop projects I mentioned above (Hills And Valleys; Above The Sky)! He says that his studio is currently under development and not effectively usable, but he basically likes to contribute to interesting projects, and so he asks if there is a deadline - if there is interest from the community he can compose and produce a kde-track. But he also offered to contribute a track from "Hills and Valleys"-Project depending on the deadline.
What do you think about the sound?

In T14753#263340, @domson wrote:

@paulb @VicFic18 @NayamAmarshe hi folks!
just got positive response from Theo who produces the Synthwave/Synthpop projects I mentioned above (Hills And Valleys; Above The Sky)! He says that his studio is currently under development and not effectively usable, but he basically likes to contribute to interesting projects, and so he asks if there is a deadline - if there is interest from the community he can compose and produce a kde-track. But he also offered to contribute a track from "Hills and Valleys"-Project depending on the deadline.
What do you think about the sound?

I think the sounds are a bit too retro and have a slower tempo than what I would imagine using for a product showcase. I have produced some music too: Lo-Fi, Dark-Synth and I can certainly create a track for the video but It'd take a lot time and it's better to just use something funky, upbeat from FMA or other sites imho and focus more on the video production once the music is selected.

In T14753#263342, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

I think the sounds are a bit too retro and have a slower tempo than what I would imagine using for a product showcase. I have produced some music too: Lo-Fi, Dark-Synth and I can certainly create a track for the video but It'd take a lot time and it's better to just use something funky, upbeat from FMA or other sites imho and focus more on the video production once the music is selected.

Yeah I know lots of talented musicians out there can produce music (probably in time), but my point was actually to target the uniqueness factor. IMHO its a modern synthpop interpretation of retro, and there are several tracks with faster tempo also. I'll try to cut a prototype-video today, to show how/if it can work.
Do you collect the KDE1-5 (+Steamdeck!!) video footage on a Repo already?

In T14753#263343, @domson wrote:

In T14753#263342, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

I think the sounds are a bit too retro and have a slower tempo than what I would imagine using for a product showcase. I have produced some music too: Lo-Fi, Dark-Synth and I can certainly create a track for the video but It'd take a lot time and it's better to just use something funky, upbeat from FMA or other sites imho and focus more on the video production once the music is selected.

Yeah I know lots of talented musicians out there can produce music (probably in time), but my point was actually to target the uniqueness factor. IMHO its a modern synthpop interpretation of retro, and there are several tracks with faster tempo also. I'll try to cut a prototype-video today, to show how/if it can work.
Do you collect the KDE1-5 (+Steamdeck!!) video footage on a Repo already?

I think a retro, high-pitch synth-style track may be fitting for the birthday video, but for the release/features video that's looking towards the future (at least for such a big one) it's better to appear 'professional and modern, cool' than super unique

Another nice reference with smooth animations but no fancy physical 3d

In T14753#263346, @aronkvh wrote:

Another nice reference with smooth animations but no fancy physical 3d

Really nice one.

In T14753#263346, @aronkvh wrote:

Another nice reference with smooth animations but no fancy physical 3d

Love it!
Transitions, Transitions, Transitions, that's what we need and also, matching those transitions with the music.

In T14753#263346, @aronkvh wrote:

Another nice reference with smooth animations but no fancy physical 3d

Hate the music, love the transitions. Excellent find. Can you do something like that?

Talking music: @domson ... This music would be perfect for a John Carpenter movie from the 80s (nothing wrong with that: I love John Carpenter movies from the 80s and their soundtracks). For this video? Not so much.

Some people here did not like the music of Plasma 5.22 video. But I will tell you something that that music did achieve, though: It got viewers pumped. If you read the comments, there are a lot containing exclamation marks and saying things like "Let's go!" and "F--k yeah!". I would contend that is what we want: to spark enthusiasm. There is a reason why political rallies and many ads use rock: you want to achieve the "F--k yeah!" mood, and rock does that.

The music you are linking to is perfectly valid, and nice to listen to, but it does not generate that mood. Mainly because it is not made to do that. This, I repeat, is in no way a reflection on its quality.

My advice here is this: distance yourselves from your tastes. Listen to stuff in styles outside what you would usually listen to.

I once made a video using "Hola Hola Bossanova" by The Juanitos. This is a group and a song I would never have in my playlist (I do not hate them either, mind), but it fitted the mood I wanted for the video (yeah, I know: it is terrible technically, but, what do you want? It was one of my first).

@paulb How does this sound? Tempo too slow?

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/as-above-so-below/fully-paid

In T14753#263352, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

@paulb How does this sound? Tempo too slow?

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/as-above-so-below/fully-paid

It is nice and it sounds like you are going in the suggested direction. But, yeah, a wee bit too melancholic. I guess it depends on the mood you want to imprint to the video. This music is classy and moody, like the atmosphere in an elegant, but decadent nightclub in South America. I think it could work for an ad for some expensive alcoholic beverage ;-).

@paulb yeah the horror movie guy sure... funny. but Blue or Yellow are of course on a different page. Going down the ukulele-happy-clapping-road focusing on "Looks" is probably not the right target audience.

Do you produce the video on Windows with After Effects? If you find an efficient way to perform those Kurzgesagt-Style-transitions on KDE please tell us. Maybe Blender? Until 14th october. But maybe it just consumes too much time to animate all this. What about recording real-world video old school? And combine it with 4K screenrecordings projected into 3D space in blender to follow the zoom focus with the virtual camera? Add bezier curves to timeline, some motion blur effect.

I really recommend to show out-of-the-box functionality/usability and also advanced setups (hacker movie poser style on 3 screens, or on a OpenPandora/Pyra, Smartphone, Steam Deck) which can catch the potential user (students, young craftswomen and -men and academics, gamers). Maybe the storyboard should guide through a regular usage day, and also occasions where powerful/individual configurations are applied on the fly, video footage of real people holding the device in their hands and use it. But more abstract concepts like the multiscreen/virtual desktop/activities can be demonstrated with projected screenrecordings in blender 3D space.

The videos you linked above are all a bit superficial and hardly show any practical benefit of the presented GUI. Probably users would think: "Another GUI that only wants to look better." Thats how some marketing gurus make content for "the masses" like: "yeah present them some new Icons and switch from sharp corners back to round corners." or: "yay, lets pay some botnets in pakistan to leave positive comments." IMHO KDE/Linux is more the practical type of thing. Most features speak for themselves, are intuitive and dont need much additional mumbojumbo on top of the visual demonstration. I think lots of people are reasonable and digitally experienced enough to understand what a good feature is about by just seeing the workflow happen directly. Users are underestimated.

In T14753#261025, @paulb wrote:

Top down, @aronkvh. This is the order you have to think about stuff:

What do you want to achieve
          ↓
 Who is your audience
          ↓
 What is your message
          ↓
    Script outline
          ↓
     Storyboard
          ↓
  Collect / Make Stuff

@aronkvh Are there any 4K KDE1-5 (+25th Edition) screenrecordings showing some features/functionality available to work with? My low-end machine is not capable of recording the screen in 4K (nvidia DSR for example), but 3D rendering of projected 4K footage should hopefully be possible on my machine. Maybe the target group are people with low budget anyway, but zoomed screenrecordings should be at least be 4K I think.

In T14753#263364, @domson wrote:

@paulb yeah the horror movie guy sure... funny.

I was not joking. I do enjoy Carpenter's 80s movies and the music he made for them. They have a similar vibe to that of your links.

Going down the ukulele-happy-clapping-road focusing on "Looks" is probably not the right target audience.

Agreed. I already wrote about this:

People who use bland ukulele music have a special place in hell, as far as I am concerned.

Do you produce the video on Windows with After Effects?

Kdenlive, Blender and maybe some other Free Software tools on Linux. No proprietary software allowed. It is the only way we can guarantee that everyone can use and re-use the media without having to use closed source software.

@aronkvh Are there any 4K KDE1-5 (+25th Edition) screenrecordings showing some features/functionality available to work with? My low-end machine is not capable of recording the screen in 4K (nvidia DSR for example), but 3D rendering of projected 4K footage should hopefully be possible on my machine. Maybe the target group are people with low budget anyway, but zoomed screenrecordings should be at least be 4K I think.

4K is probably overkill. 1080p is perfectly adequate for purposes.

I have no specific suggestions for this video, but this artist provides a huge number of songs with the most varied styles. All of his tracks are CC-BY. I bet we can find something here:

https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/library/ (use the sidebar to classify by mood and genre)

The visuals of the video would have to change to fit the style of music chosen though.

In T14753#263367, @Guilhermems wrote:

I have no specific suggestions for this video, but this artist provides a huge number of songs with the most varied styles. All of his tracks are CC-BY. I bet we can find something here:

https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/library/ (use the sidebar to classify by mood and genre)

The visuals of the video would have to change to fit the style of music chosen though.

Scott makes great music, I've been following him for quite a while but his style of music is very cinematic and dramatic, so probably not a good fit for the trailer.

There's another channel btw, Royalty Free Planet, they post CC music exclusively and they have a lot of good songs.
https://youtube.com/c/RoyaltyFreePlanetOfficial

In T14753#263368, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

In T14753#263367, @Guilhermems wrote:

I have no specific suggestions for this video, but this artist provides a huge number of songs with the most varied styles. All of his tracks are CC-BY. I bet we can find something here:

https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/library/ (use the sidebar to classify by mood and genre)

The visuals of the video would have to change to fit the style of music chosen though.

Scott makes great music, I've been following him for quite a while but his style of music is very cinematic and dramatic, so probably not a good fit for the trailer.

There's another channel btw, Royalty Free Planet, they post CC music exclusively and they have a lot of good songs.
https://youtube.com/c/RoyaltyFreePlanetOfficial

The fact his songs sound cinematic and everyone wants something "different" is why I linked him, but you're right, it doesn't fit Plasma.

Anyway, I was playing with Blender and I made this small video based on the storyboard Aron posted. It just shows a title, a spinning gear and at the end, it grows to transition to whatever would come next. I don't know much of Blender so I can't really contribute to the making of the video itself but I hope this helps visualize and inspire what kind of transitions/animation style would work best:

In T14753#263364, @domson wrote:

@paulb yeah the horror movie guy sure... funny. but Blue or Yellow are of course on a different page. Going down the ukulele-happy-clapping-road focusing on "Looks" is probably not the right target audience.

Do you produce the video on Windows with After Effects? If you find an efficient way to perform those Kurzgesagt-Style-transitions on KDE please tell us. Maybe Blender? Until 14th october. But maybe it just consumes too much time to animate all this. What about recording real-world video old school? And combine it with 4K screenrecordings projected into 3D space in blender to follow the zoom focus with the virtual camera? Add bezier curves to timeline, some motion blur effect.

I really recommend to show out-of-the-box functionality/usability and also advanced setups (hacker movie poser style on 3 screens, or on a OpenPandora/Pyra, Smartphone, Steam Deck) which can catch the potential user (students, young craftswomen and -men and academics, gamers). Maybe the storyboard should guide through a regular usage day, and also occasions where powerful/individual configurations are applied on the fly, video footage of real people holding the device in their hands and use it. But more abstract concepts like the multiscreen/virtual desktop/activities can be demonstrated with projected screenrecordings in blender 3D space.

The videos you linked above are all a bit superficial and hardly show any practical benefit of the presented GUI. Probably users would think: "Another GUI that only wants to look better." Thats how some marketing gurus make content for "the masses" like: "yeah present them some new Icons and switch from sharp corners back to round corners." or: "yay, lets pay some botnets in pakistan to leave positive comments." IMHO KDE/Linux is more the practical type of thing. Most features speak for themselves, are intuitive and dont need much additional mumbojumbo on top of the visual demonstration.

I think lots of people are reasonable and digitally experienced enough to understand what a good feature is about by just seeing the workflow happen directly.

We don't want to reach experienced Linux users who are fine with a screencast explaining the new features.
We want to impress new viewers who haven't heard about KDE and often doesn't see Linux as a viable alternative just a hobbyist os and kde as 'outdated look' - that's why we need immersive graphics + one of the main features of this release is that it looks better.
but I see that the reference may be too flashy and not informative enough. I sent it for the animation style, not the content.

@aronkvh Are there any 4K KDE1-5 (+25th Edition) screenrecordings showing some features/functionality available to work with?

I couldn't get the VMs to work yet.

In T14753#263369, @Guilhermems wrote:

Anyway, I was playing with Blender and I made this small video based on the storyboard Aron posted. It just shows a title, a spinning gear and at the end, it grows to transition to whatever would come next. I don't know much of Blender so I can't really contribute to the making of the video itself but I hope this helps visualize and inspire what kind of transitions/animation style would work best:

Thanks, that looks really good.
Could you upload to Share?

In T14753#263384, @aronkvh wrote:

In T14753#263369, @Guilhermems wrote:

Anyway, I was playing with Blender and I made this small video based on the storyboard Aron posted. It just shows a title, a spinning gear and at the end, it grows to transition to whatever would come next. I don't know much of Blender so I can't really contribute to the making of the video itself but I hope this helps visualize and inspire what kind of transitions/animation style would work best:

Thanks, that looks really good.
Could you upload to Share?

Done. I uploaded the video and the .blend file to promo/events/25th_anniversary/artwork

In T14753#263382, @aronkvh wrote:

We don't want to reach experienced Linux users who are fine with a screencast explaining the new features.
We want to impress new viewers who haven't heard about KDE and often doesn't see Linux as a viable alternative

I was talking about the regular MS Windows/Mac users who have to deal with Windows/Mac productivity limits and unflexibility every day at work. There are studies which show that MS Win make users aggressive. For example: try to rename a folder if its content is opened somewhere else. The small things sum up over time. Most people are practical thinkers and want to see solutions for real problems - thats what KDE is made for: "25 years of taming the dragon."

just a hobbyist os and kde as 'outdated look' - that's why we need immersive graphics + one of the main features of this release is that it looks better.

Also I am talking about demonstrating a whole sequence of tasks performing a workflow. BTW @paulb : 4K screenrecordings (nvidia DSR) could be important to project it on a 2D plane inside Blender. Then one can move the virtual camera inside Blender towards the plane ("zoom-in" in 3D space). If you do that with regular screenrecordings you can see the pixels of the GUI elements. DSR allows one to record a regular 1K resolution screen in 4K, so the GUI elements have the same size, but are 4x more detailed. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/technologies/dsr/technology/

BTW most fancy people are using MSW/Mac because of Gaming/Adobe. You will hardly never reach them to try a dual boot regularly. I think the target audience are people who really want to get work done, masses of billion people forced to do office work, try to stay organized in chaotic everyday life of an SME. But per se those are not Gamers nor Creatives.

but I see that the reference may be too flashy and not informative enough. I sent it for the animation style, not the content.

I couldn't get the VMs to work yet.

I see. Yesterday I tried to project some of my own screenrecordings on a 2d plane in Blender, I think it can be fun to fly around with the camera following a regular office workflow for example, demonstrating some new features on the way, motion blur, slo-mo and stuff. But the projected screenrecording is too pixeled if the camera gets closer to the plane, so the screenrecording should be done in 4K, just to have 4 times more detailed GUI elements. Do you need help with VM?

@Guilhermems I am moving your clip to

Promo Team Resources/Announcements/Plasma/5.23/Video/

ok?

I feel the 25th anniversary folder may get a bit messy in the coming weeks and we don't want these resources to get lost.

I think this clip would probably make a nice transition, with the original clip occupying the upper part of the frame, then the gear comes in and the next clip comes in from the centre of the gear.

I'll make an example and show what I mean.

In T14753#261809, @VicFic18 wrote:

@aronkvh , the references you sent are awesome, though I don't think we can be that good.

omg redhat infiltrated. The Gnome 40 spot demonstrates what KDE already is since 2017. Also the Windows 12 spot mentioned above shows what KDE actually is as one makes use of its features.
the clapping-hands-music suggests a mood of optimism for new unknow territory, like saying: "hey folks, we managed to imitate KDE."
Even MS developers use KDE to get inspired once in a while.

I like the idea of projecting movie-like onto 3D objects, @domson. I made a 3D scene for something else

but I don't think they liked it, so it may not be used.

But one of the things I was thinking was to project images or screencasts of older versions of the desktop and apps onto the 25, the background or the whole scene. Combine that with some smooth camera movements and you got yourself and intro, I guess.

Edit: I am aware the materials and lighting still look bad. I would have to retouch those.

In T14753#263390, @paulb wrote:

I think this clip would probably make a nice transition, with the original clip occupying the upper part of the frame, then the gear comes in and the next clip comes in from the centre of the gear.

I'll make an example and show what I mean.

@paulb @Guilhermems you could make a socalled Wipe Transition (black/white) out of it to use in kdenlive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih7c65LsLZc
EDIT Or even use the transition as alpha-operation, to have the next scene inside the gear, and previous scene in background for example.

In T14753#263392, @paulb wrote:

I like the idea of projecting movie-like onto 3D objects, @domson. I made a 3D scene for something else

but I don't think they didn't like it, so it may not be used.

But one of the things I was thinking was to project images or screencasts of older versions of the desktop and apps onto the 25, the background or the whole scene. Combine that with some smooth camera movements and you got yourself and intro, I guess.

Edit: I am aware the materials and lighting still look bad. I would have to retouch those.

Thats awesome!!! "25 years taming the dragon" maybe the 25 block as concrete stone with moss on it, and the KDE gear in shiny metal. ;-D

EDIT: Background on the ocean beach?

I did some research on blender yesterday: to simulate the a running screencast on a light emitting screen is perfectly possible. Maybe 60 fps can be recorded also, then one can simulate slo-mo screencast of routined workflows too quick to see with the naked eye. maybe some fish-eye'ish wide angle, to get some actioncam mood. Also some real-world kde usage would be fun, filmed with action cam 120fps typing/"hitting" the keyboard to get the bug fixed and stuff like that. What about the 90s toy commercial style? A little bit of absurdity, but showing the power of kde at the same time, could be mindblowing contrast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CXT_vISgFc

I meant to say "I don't think they liked it". For the background, we have @aronkvh 's wallpaper. As we have the blends also, we can leave the ocean-like grid (which, if I remember right, Aron himself suggested doing) and we have an elegant understated backdrop.

I like the ideas, but I really think we shouldn't try to be funny /retro/synthwave or rock music /90's commercial parody- for the release video; and save cute dragons and humour and absurdity and the action movie style for the birthday video, for fans who understand it more and appreciate it more

In T14753#263395, @paulb wrote:

I meant to say "I don't think they liked it". For the background, we have @aronkvh 's wallpaper. As we have the blends also, we can leave the ocean-like grid (which, if I remember right, Aron himself suggested doing) and we have an elegant understated backdrop.

A combination of those ideas would be very interesting!
Maybe the original file of the background image was done in Blender? Then the 25 year-block and dragon figures could be placed inside this background scene. And also the simulated 3D screencasts can happen inside this ocean-inspired background (which I like very much btw)
For the video those floating orange triangles can be changed with floating keyboard keys or other input devices indicating the usage workflow. Maybe their color goes from black to orange as they are clicked/pressed. Something like that.

In T14753#263395, @paulb wrote:

I meant to say "I don't think they liked it". For the background, we have @aronkvh 's wallpaper. As we have the blends also, we can leave the ocean-like grid (which, if I remember right, Aron himself suggested doing) and we have an elegant understated backdrop.

Paul, is there a chance you' ll have acces to BlenderGrid rendering in october?
Just to know how eeve/simple 2d style should I experiment in (for example with animating that wallpaper grid)

@NayamAmarshe could you upload the 'we made history' animation to Share pls?
I'd like to try a couple things.

In T14753#263396, @aronkvh wrote:

I like the ideas, but I really think we shouldn't try to be funny /retro/synthwave or rock music /90's commercial parody- for the release video; and save cute dragons and humour and absurdity and the action movie style for the birthday video, for fans who understand it more and appreciate it more

Its just brain storm out of the box. I do not mean to imitate something else. But to create something new. Actually I am more into the naughty camera work/movements of the 90s commercials, not it's actual content.
A virtual camera (blender) angle of 120-170°. A 3D scene of the background image

Some real footage of device usage would be nice and conveys some "trueness".

@aronkvh @paulb the mythological figure of the dragon (especially in china) symbolizes the hardly predictable forces of natural phenomena in many cultures. Today we call it Tensors, with which we try to simulate complex systems. The background design reminds me of this approach describing reality as multilinear geometry (geological, metereological models etc). It's about "taming the dragon"

@aronkvh @paulb btw its a bit tendentious to rule out a certain type of music, without ever having seen it in action. the more approaches can be presented, the better.
As soon as some raw video footage of screencasts is available, we could experiment with all kinds of music.

In T14753#263237, @paulb wrote:

The problem with audiolibrary music is that it is the sort of music used in literally 100s of 1000s of corporate videos. Totally unoriginal, boringly predictable.

and

Since you suggested 5 audiolibrary tracks, let's do an experiment and look for at least another 5 that are not stock music and also (and not by Incompetech, please) and see if we can fit them in.

As soon as the footage is ready we can experiment with all kinds of music. Maybe the footage should be rendered with 60fps to give more flexibility with time remapping in Kdenlive to fit the rythm and stuff.

Is this scene available as 3D?

The VM screencasts do not work yet. For experimenting purposes 1K screencasts are fine. IMHO for production 4K screencasts should be used.
Anyone capable of doing this?

In T14753#263401, @domson wrote:

@aronkvh @paulb the mythological figure of the dragon (especially in china) symbolizes the hardly predictable forces of natural phenomena in many cultures. Today we call it Tensors, with which we try to simulate complex systems. The background design reminds me of this approach describing reality as multilinear geometry (geological, metereological models etc). It's about "taming the dragon"

I wish it had so much meaning lol :)
and after the intro /history part or the breeze ocean part the windows (textured onto planes) could float in and creating the final screenshot.
I'm not sure if the style of Konqi and Katie would mach with the wallpaper tough.
+ if we want the elements to reflect in the 'ocean' or it to animate (maybe the wireframe building or waves) to give the feeling of power we would need to ask for someone's help with a powerful gpu or use a renderfarm service. rendering one frame of the wallpaper takes almost an hour (on my pc at least).

the wallpaper file is at https://collaborate.kde.org/f/96750
(some small things were fixed in post)

In T14753#263403, @aronkvh wrote:

In T14753#263401, @domson wrote:

It's about "taming the dragon"

I wish it had so much meaning lol :)

I guess it does, we just didnt know it yet. I just read about it coincidentally.

and after the intro /history part or the breeze ocean part the windows (textured onto planes) could float in and creating the final screenshot.

yes!! but please let the history part happen on 3d screens inside the background scene. :-D

I'm not sure if the style of Konqi and Katie would mach with the wallpaper tough.

Maybe all dragons can appear shortly in front of the 3d screencast, depending on what feature is presented. I think the "paper" dragon figures can look really nice within indirect illumination of the background scene and light-emitting screencast.

+ if we want the elements to reflect in the 'ocean' or it to animate (maybe the wireframe building or waves) to give the feeling of power we would need to ask for someone's help with a powerful gpu or use a renderfarm service. rendering one frame of the wallpaper takes almost an hour (on my pc at least).

I think its enough if the background image (ocean grid, sky grid) is rendered spherical, so we can use it as texture for a sphere surrounding the scene. this can speed up the rendering process. if it is rendered with a little depth-of-field nobody will notice.
And for experimental purposes the scenes can be rendered without fancy lightning. Maybe the final production scene should be rendered at the farm?

In T14753#263404, @aronkvh wrote:

the wallpaper file is at https://collaborate.kde.org/f/96750
(some small things were fixed in post)

I get "File could not be found"

In T14753#263406, @domson wrote:

In T14753#263404, @aronkvh wrote:

the wallpaper file is at https://collaborate.kde.org/f/96750
(some small things were fixed in post)

I get "File could not be found"

Do you have acces to 'promo Team Resources'?

In T14753#263405, @domson wrote:

In T14753#263403, @aronkvh wrote:

In T14753#263401, @domson wrote:

It's about "taming the dragon"

I wish it had so much meaning lol :)

I guess it does, we just didnt know it yet. I just read about it coincidentally.

Imean I made it so, not intentionally.
but it does sound way cooler than a stream crossing an ocean or someting

In T14753#263407, @aronkvh wrote:

In T14753#263406, @domson wrote:

In T14753#263404, @aronkvh wrote:

the wallpaper file is at https://collaborate.kde.org/f/96750
(some small things were fixed in post)

I get "File could not be found"

Do you have acces to 'promo Team Resources'?

no I don't. I think my account is not trusted yet. Which is basically great, but not in this case.

@domson you can create a sysadmin request and
someone will need to comfirm it
and you'll have acces then

A very brief and dirty example using the gear as a transition device:

Files are in the

Promo Team Resources/Announcements/Plasma/5.23/Video/Gear Animation

folder.

We should probably be discussing this kind of thing in the Matrix room, no?

In T14753#263422, @paulb wrote:

We should probably be discussing this kind of thing in the Matrix room, no?

Is there a telegram group?

In T14753#263423, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

In T14753#263422, @paulb wrote:

We should probably be discussing this kind of thing in the Matrix room, no?

Is there a telegram group?

no, only #promovideo:kde.org iirc

In T14753#263422, @paulb wrote:

We should probably be discussing this kind of thing in the Matrix room, no?

I guess https://webchat.kde.org does not sync with https://identity.kde.org/ right?

I'm not sure,but you can use your :matrix or any other acc as well

In T14753#263426, @aronkvh wrote:

I'm not sure,but you can use your :matrix or any other acc as well

on irc.eu.libera.chat the channel #promovideo:kde.org cant be found. other kde-related channels are there.

EDIT: promovideo:kde.org is not on Matrix, but kde-promo:kde.org is.

what about phabricator conference? https://phabricator.kde.org/Z36

In T14753#263421, @paulb wrote:

A very brief and dirty example using the gear as a transition device:

A prototype with depth of field, motion blur, 22mm lens, focus point close to mouse pointer. Camera movement is pretty raw without fine-tuning. Light emitting is too bright.
Result: 1K screen resolution becomes a bit blurry for closeups. FPS=30, should be 60 to grant more time remapping tolerance for rythm adjustment.

Rendering request towards @aronkvh : 360° sphere texture image of new wallpaper design, with perspective origin inside the scene where the orange triangle is.

I was imagining the video to be something along the lines of this, I think it showcases all the features perfectly while maintaining readability and beautiful transitions and visuals.

Demo Clip 2

In T14753#263490, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

Demo Clip 2

I am a bit sceptical about imitating windows ads. Still I recommend to use blender to render the camera movement with a little motion blur.
But I like the idea of syncing every click-drag'n'drop with the music beat/off-beat.

In T14753#263404, @aronkvh wrote:

the wallpaper file is at https://collaborate.kde.org/f/96750
(some small things were fixed in post)

Now I have access, but file still not be found...

I am a bit sceptical about imitating windows ads.

The video I sent is not an actual Windows ad, Microsoft has never made something like this iirc. It's just a fanmade concept video by Addy Visuals.

Still I recommend to use blender to render the camera movement with a little motion blur.

Blender unfortunately doesn't support Motion Blur in VSE.

But I like the idea of syncing every click-drag'n'drop with the music beat/off-beat.

Yep, that's what I wanted to show :)

In T14753#263589, @domson wrote:

In T14753#263404, @aronkvh wrote:

the wallpaper file is at https://collaborate.kde.org/f/96750
(some small things were fixed in post)

Now I have access, but file still not be found...

it is for me, in the shared promo folder

In T14753#263588, @domson wrote:

In T14753#263490, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

Demo Clip 2

I am a bit sceptical about imitating windows ads. Still I recommend to use blender to render the camera movement with a little motion blur.
But I like the idea of syncing every click-drag'n'drop with the music beat/off-beat.

I don't think it imitates windows more than google or apple or any other ad with dynamic typography.

In T14753#263599, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

I am a bit sceptical about imitating windows ads.

The video I sent is not an actual Windows ad, Microsoft has never made something like this iirc. It's just a fanmade concept video by Addy Visuals.

I know... so a fanmade windows ad...

Still I recommend to use blender to render the camera movement with a little motion blur.

Blender unfortunately doesn't support Motion Blur in VSE.

you can import video as 2D plane into 3d space and render camera movement with motion blur.
I also thought about screenrecording without mousepointer visible and simulate the mousepointer inside blender to follow it smoothly with the camera.

But I like the idea of syncing every click-drag'n'drop with the music beat/off-beat.

Yep, that's what I wanted to show :)

but of course it could be more pleasing with actual useful practical workflows happening. (I know its about the new design primarly, but anyway) is there a list of new features coming with anniversary edition?

In T14753#263600, @aronkvh wrote:

In T14753#263589, @domson wrote:

In T14753#263404, @aronkvh wrote:

the wallpaper file is at https://collaborate.kde.org/f/96750
(some small things were fixed in post)

Now I have access, but file still not be found...

it is for me, in the shared promo folder

there is no shared promo folder, only "Templates" and "Video"

@domson Please take this discussion to the Matrix room. We can help you better there

In T14753#263606, @paulb wrote:

@domson Please take this discussion to the Matrix room. We can help you better there

the matrix room mentioned above could not be found either. Plus phabricator rooms are of no interest as it seems. I got access to "Video" folder which is obviously not enough to re-render the new background image as 360° spherical projection for further usage in blender.

Help usually does not get better in closed rooms.

@paulb I was thinking that we should show a cool one-liner at the end. Like in my video, at the end I add Plasma then another text that is a one-liner.
I know we have used 'Simple by default, powerful when needed' but it's more like a sentence that can be added in the video at any time than a cool ending one-liner.
You must have seen me use 'Make it yours', which I honestly really like since it implies that Plasma is very flexible and personal.

In T14753#263607, @domson wrote:

the matrix room mentioned above could not be found either. Plus phabricator rooms are of no interest as it seems.

what's your matrix username? it's invite only iirc

Nayam, what did you use to make the demo clip 2?

In T14753#263614, @niccolove wrote:

Nayam, what did you use to make the demo clip 2?

I used Blender. I have sent the source files in the matrix room if you wanna take a look at it.

In T14753#263610, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

@paulb I was thinking that we should show a cool one-liner at the end. Like in my video, at the end I add Plasma then another text that is a one-liner.
I know we have used 'Simple by default, powerful when needed' but it's more like a sentence that can be added in the video at any time than a cool ending one-liner.

If I were to choose a sentence, it would be "Simple by default, powerful when needed" because, remember how Microsoft stole it from us? Time to reclaim it back!

You must have seen me use 'Make it yours', which I honestly really like since it implies that Plasma is very flexible and personal.

That said, I would like you folks to start unifying your criteria as to what the video should contain and how it should look and sound. I do not want to impose my own criteria because I think you all know it would be radically different from a lot of what you are saying here, and I do not want to throw a spanner in the works at this stage. Which brings me to:

1. you should start to compromise and agree on the look and content of the video before it becomes too late. There is a lot of bikeshedding going on this discussion and it is eating into time you should be rendering stuff and producing the actual video
2. a lot of this discussion should be happening in the Matrix room. At this stage, the stuff that goes here should be the stuff you have decided on as a group.

TL/DR: Stop bikeshedding. Make video.

In T14753#263617, @paulb wrote:

In T14753#263610, @NayamAmarshe wrote:

If I were to choose a sentence, it would be "Simple by default, powerful when needed" because, remember how Microsoft stole it from us? Time to reclaim it back!

You must have seen me use 'Make it yours', which I honestly really like since it implies that Plasma is very flexible and personal.

That said, I would like you folks to start unifying your criteria as to what the video should contain and how it should look and sound. I do not want to impose my own criteria because I think you all know it would be radically different from a lot of what you are saying here, and I do not want to throw a spanner in the works at this stage. Which brings me to:

1. you should start to compromise and agree on the look and content of the video before it becomes too late. There is a lot of bikeshedding going on this discussion and it is eating into time you should be rendering stuff and producing the actual video
2. a lot of this discussion should be happening in the Matrix room. At this stage, the stuff that goes here should be the stuff you have decided on as a group.
   
   TL/DR: Stop bikeshedding. Make video.

oh btw what about a :

• basic touch features -> "simple by default.",
• keyboard power features -> "powerful when needed.",
• drkonqi invites new maintainer -> "make it yours."
• kdevelop in action -> "tame the dragon.",
• show colorful dragon friends. fin.

I gave the other vision of a "Showroom" a quick and dirty try, here are the source files. the content is secondary, I primarly built a template for the 3D method. It renders pretty quick because of the pre-rendered environment texture, and gives a lot of camera freedom. I think with HD screencasts, and consistent storyboard/narrative it can deliver a more "cinematic" style.