I'll dump ideas here for interesting visuals:

• keep the breeze, ocean keywords/feeling
• Building a UI -2d this , or 3d
• A live recording of someone using Plasma (@grapejuice?) then transitioning to a minimalistic 3d space where the UI is shown on a screen-like surface (a mix of this and this)
• I really like the Montserrat font ( and would be consistent with the last video)

(While I'm really into fancy 3d lighting and surfaces, of course I'd also love something new and original from new people and I'm aware that we probably don't have the resources rn for 3d stuff)

I took another look at how M$ or 🍏 markets updates, and made the conclusion that it's probably ok to include even fewer specifics.
and here's an idea for a storyboard:

@aronkvh I really like your storyboard! I would suggest to re-order the plot a bit, so that it is like:

> basic features
> advanced features
> real life org use cases
> thanks for all your contribution

so it builds up to a peak, which is real people using it successfully.
I guess you won't mention M$ and @ by name in the video? because the features actually speak for themselves.

Regarding 3d and Rendering. I can prepare animations if you share the scenes and basic building blocks you already prepared. But rendering knocks out my machine. I like the screenrecording in 3d very much, rendering background can speed up with 3D background sphere with prerendered 360 texture to also have depth of field effect. I uploaded a proposal for this in autumn last year.

Text should also fly around in 3D dont you think?

For the 25th anniversary I had an idea to show the concept of multiscreen+virtual desktops+activities+access shortcuts. which could be demonstrated with flat screen canvas in 3D space best. But I had not enough time. And:
with 25th edition also came a new custom accent color feature. Now I supposed a usablity feature of having accent color based on desktop background image. Nate Graham formulated a appropriate title here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=444676
So I decided to wait for the feature before do any screen recordings in this direction, because the visual benefit while doing multi-workspace setups has to be shown off.

But I can start building animations to show this kind of plasma use case described above, yet without the accent color feature. The accent color feature can be shown based on this animation anyhow as soon as it is implemented (and I am still learning C to prepare for C++, so no DIY yet)

Anyway what do you think about it?
Do you have a blender scene to work with?

@aronkvh your wrote:

Building a UI -2d this , or 3d

the videos are pretty good! a synthesis of both could be very beneficial regarding rendering time. and less rendering time, also leads to more contribution from people who won't effort rendering farms.
Personally I am not a big fan of 3D rounded corners nor extruded text. It just costs too much rendering time without any informational benefit.
But to work more with 3D canvas (sprites) of prerendered/recorded information is super effective!
Also text can be a 3D sprite without extrusion and still look readable though.
I also can think of cropping areas out of the screen recording with kdenlive and render the UI component videos. Then import the various component videos into blender as canvas with video texture.

EDIT:
I wrote:

I also can think of cropping areas out of the screen recording with kdenlive and render the UI component videos.

actually this thought is BS because screen recordings can be cropped on Blender canvas directly without kdenlive involved.

EDIT 2:
Regarding "Perfect Harmony": I am afraid some user could feel offended with that motto.
Demonstrating a practicable solution for differentiated visual indicators of virtual desktop & activities is a MUST IMHO, at least on the long run. Per-Desktop&Activity accent color can probably add some interpersonal "Harmony". I would love to help showing that effort.
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341143
and further this: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=444676
@paulb @ngraham @davidedmundson I know, discussion should go to matrix, but none invited me yet. what do you think about this from a marketing point of view?

@aronkvh

The introductory four slides don't "go" with the rest. Best start directly with the video proper with the intro title and then move on to slide 5.

Remove the group image from the last slide. It is the opposite of "harmonious". Just fade in the acknowledgement over white (or a cream-white) background and then cut/fade to any other credits.

@domson

Why is the motto offensive?

Please don't add people to the task who do not intervene in making and who have never expressed interest in making videos. You are just cluttering up their mailboxes. They'll subscribe by their own accord if they want to.

Everybody:

We had this problem for the last Gear video: too much bikeshedding not enough video making. It is time to show samples of what you mean in the promovideo room.

@paulb

We had this problem for the last Gear video: too much bikeshedding not enough video making. It is time to show samples of what you mean in the promovideo room

Didnt you remove yourself from the promovideo room because you prefered matrix back then?
I'd call it "intellectual offensiveness".
https://phabricator.kde.org/conpherence/36/

Is there a new promovideo room? or is it the closed matrix room?

In T15183#270077, @domson wrote:

@paulb

We had this problem for the last Gear video: too much bikeshedding not enough video making. It is time to show samples of what you mean in the promovideo room

Didnt you remove yourself from the promovideo room because you prefered matrix back then?
I'd call it "intellectual offensiveness".
https://phabricator.kde.org/conpherence/36/

Is there a new promovideo room? or is it the closed matrix room?

There is one promovideo room on matrix, with all the people invited.
We can of c. invite you too just send your username.

unfortunately it shall not be right now. first neochat crashed. now it says: Login Failed: Monthly Active User Limit Exceeded.

so anyways.. I will focus on the actual impementation of the "wallpaper based accent color per activity" feature first, before I can contribute the demo sample. I will contact you regarding matrix invitation, thanks!!

Regarding 3D GUI, I will experiment further with the "Glass Panes" I showed in autumn 2021: https://phabricator.kde.org/file/download/uc6wabxb3hynryjkhecz/PHID-FILE-g3zscidumahdtc6htjeb/showroom.prototype.v2.mkv
I think it is a nice visual way to demonstrate the concept of multiple Screens/Desktops/Activities and quickly switching them by accessing windows by keyboard shortcut - it will target the multitask users.

But I need a way to screenrecord the desktop background as alpha channel to achieve the glass-effect, because it does not really work with "greenscreen". The window gui itself has too many green tones.

Didnt you remove yourself from the promovideo room because you prefered matrix back then?

There is one promovideo matrix room that has been open for... I don't know, over a year now? Probably more, a long time. And we have discussed all the other videos there and would prefer to continue doing so. Are you using something else? If so please bring it to the matrix room, because it will cause confusion and duplication of efforts otherwise. If you tell us your matrix handle, we can send out an invitation.

I'd call it "intellectual offensiveness".

Okay, but without more context, I don't know what that means.

https://phabricator.kde.org/conpherence/36/

Thanks, but I do not have permissions to see that. Can you expand please? Maybe you could explain in the Matrix room when you get the invitation

@paulb

the matrix room obviously demands invitation. I invited you to phabricator room some month ago, you left the room, so you cannot see the link anymore. The link shows a quick glass-pane-gui concept in blender with trashy 80s synth music, the blender scene is already shared.
NeoChat crashes regularly and throws server errors about exceeded user limits, as already mentioned above. I'll investigate in that as soon as I have more time.

In T15183#270127, @domson wrote:

@paulb

the matrix room obviously demands invitation. I invited you to phabricator room some month ago, you left the room,

Yes, because we already had the promovideo room set up on Matrix.

so you cannot see the link anymore. The link shows a quick glass-pane-gui concept in blender with trashy 80s synth music, the blender scene is already shared.

Sounds fun, especially the "trashy 80s music".

Would you mind bringing all that to the Matrix room? Spreading things over several rooms when we have one already set up for that is counterproductive, don't you think?

NeoChat crashes regularly and throws server errors about exceeded user limits, as already mentioned above. I'll investigate in that as soon as I have more time.

Ok. When you are ready, please bring your contributions to the promovideo room. I see someone has already sent you an invitation.

@bcooksley @lydia
I added a "Confidential Showreel" home theatre room. Members of the project "KDE Promo: Confidential" and regular participants are able to see its content. https://phabricator.kde.org/Z36
Furthermore I think the tasks related to "promo video" should become a sub-project of "KDE Promo" named "Videos". Producing HQ videos is not a single task anyway. Additionally it enables me to grant members of "KDE Promo/Videos" access to the Confidential Showreel Room. Such simple refactoring could make projects like "KDE Promo: Confidential" obsolete.
I experience project-related communication via Matrix inconsistent regarding Onboarding and Access Management. Matrix/irc have their unquestionable benefits for sure, but kde is complex enough.

just in case, here's another great way to find noteworthy features in plasma source: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=opened&label_name[]=Noteworthy&label_name[]=Feature

In T15183#270257, @domson wrote:

just in case, here's another great way to find noteworthy features in plasma source: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=opened&label_name[]=Noteworthy&label_name[]=Feature

This is not necessary. We already share videos over Matrix or on Collaborate for larger files.

In T15183#270260, @paulb wrote:

In T15183#270257, @domson wrote:

just in case, here's another great way to find noteworthy features in plasma source: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=opened&label_name[]=Noteworthy&label_name[]=Feature

This is not necessary. We already share videos over Matrix or on Collaborate for larger files.

did you even read the quoted text?

I prefer phabricator and gitlab functionality for project-related tasks to keep track on things. I cannot afford loosing time on matrix. I want to stay close with the code base.

In T15183#270261, @domson wrote:

In T15183#270260, @paulb wrote:

In T15183#270257, @domson wrote:

just in case, here's another great way to find noteworthy features in plasma source: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-workspace/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=opened&label_name[]=Noteworthy&label_name[]=Feature

This is not necessary. We already share videos over Matrix or on Collaborate for larger files.

did you even read the quoted text?

You are right. I responded to the wrong comment. My apologies

I prefer phabricator and gitlab functionality for project-related tasks to keep track on things. I cannot afford loosing time on matrix. I want to stay close with the code base.

As there are more, many more, people in the project who would prefer to use Matrix (i.e. what the team has been using for a few years now), I guess you are on your own. We will not be using these resources you are spending so much time on setting up because we get already have the same functionality in what we are already using, making your efforts pointless and redundant. Thus I would suggest you find a better way to help.

Actually this is not the right place to discuss this over and over again at all. I dont want to change your habits just right now. My aim is to explore the limits of the platform directly available (phabricator) before switching into the next infrastructural thingy.

Forcing new contributers into matrix is just another inhibition threshold, which I consider bikeshedding. even user names and profile pics are more consistent across gitlab<>phabricator, which helps me a lot bringing consumer, promo and dev closer in means of project management, to cultivate a kind of interdisciplinary prosumerism. you are still free to use matrix for your highly confidential encrypted core teamspeak.

making phabricator rooms more popular is a great way to help I can conclude by now. These conphrooms have NOT been used by the many many more people at any time in the past as I can see.
the room's access management is pretty nice and can be tightly connected to project memberships.
MOV files are embedded as videos nicely, perfectly simple.

sidenote 1: content creation can also be performed collaboratively with gitlab, but needs some git knowledge. maybe there is a way of bridging Collaborate & Gitlab on a filesystem level.

sidenote 2: some questions posed on forum.kde.org are unanswered for years, thats hard to take for an external observer like me. I would conclude a community drifts apart with its infrastructural diversity, which is a delicate balance.

In T15183#270127, @domson wrote:

the matrix room obviously demands invitation.
NeoChat crashes regularly and throws server errors about exceeded user limits, as already mentioned above. I'll investigate in that as soon as I have more time.

You can easily connect to Matrix with our embedded client.

https://webchat.kde.org/

Surely this is much easier to do than creating new Phabricator projects with restricted access.

In T15183#270266, @dcahal wrote:

In T15183#270127, @domson wrote:

the matrix room obviously demands invitation.
NeoChat crashes regularly and throws server errors about exceeded user limits, as already mentioned above. I'll investigate in that as soon as I have more time.

You can easily connect to Matrix with our embedded client.

https://webchat.kde.org/

Surely this is much easier to do than creating new Phabricator projects with restricted access.

you got me wrong. phabricator ROOMs allow fine grained access control on the user base already existing on phabricator. webchat is super slow on my side, for what benefit? To read a ton thick thread of non-task-related chattery.

In T15183#270268, @domson wrote:

In T15183#270266, @dcahal wrote:

In T15183#270127, @domson wrote:

the matrix room obviously demands invitation.
NeoChat crashes regularly and throws server errors about exceeded user limits, as already mentioned above. I'll investigate in that as soon as I have more time.

You can easily connect to Matrix with our embedded client.

https://webchat.kde.org/

Surely this is much easier to do than creating new Phabricator projects with restricted access.

you got me wrong. phabricator ROOMs allow fine grained access control on the user base already existing on phabricator. webchat is super slow on my side, for what benefit? To read a ton thick thread of non-task-related chattery.

This is the absolute bikeshedding, everyone having to follow a huge thread about communication instead of actually planning and doing the video.
I understand that you prefer conpherence, but everyone else doesn't. it's not worth switching everyone over. and takes 3mins to sing up to Matrix for a new contributor. So, please, either create a new task to discuss switching everyone to conpherence or join matrix and stop bikeshedding.

This is the absolute bikeshedding, everyone having to follow a huge thread about communication instead of actually planning and doing the video.
I understand that you prefer conpherence, but everyone else doesn't. it's not worth switching everyone over. and takes 3mins to sing up to Matrix for a new contributor. So, please, either create a new task to discuss switching everyone to conpherence or join matrix and stop bikeshedding.

you perfectly know that I never asked anyone to switch away from matrix nor mailing lists.
I am not the one telling everyone that matrix is the way to go, before any demo tape can be shown to anyone. Because it is just not true. It is prohibiting contribution at most.

A: hey, I made some nice screencap
B: install this and that, another account there and here. identity.kde.org? not yet.

thats happening in your universe. here on this end I'd prefer:
A: awesome screencaaaap!
B: room/Z[0-9]+, provide a MOV file please.

btw "Videos" should be a permanent subproject of "KDE Promo" on phabricator IMHO, cause it is a long term process accompanying feature dev. "KDE Promo: Confidential" can be cleaned up IMHO. It is just misleading.