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Definitions & Shortcuts Glossary

Kamua Glossary

☕️ TL;DR – This is a quick reference guide to the terms we use for features and elements in Kamua.

Advanced Timeline

A version of the Timeline that shows each Clip stretched to fit the time scale of the Project. So, if you add a 1-second Clip and a 5-second Clip, the 5-second Clip will occupy 5 times the space on the Timeline when in Advanced Timeline mode. Read more about the Timeline here.

Aspect Ratio 

We’ve all heard of “9 by 16” or 9:16, known as “Portrait” or “Vertical,” “1 by 1” or 1:1 known as “Square,” and “16 by 9” or 16:9, known as “Landscape” or sometimes “HDTV.” These ratios represent the width of the display and the height of the display. So a 160cm x 90cm screen is 16:9. In Kamua, you can choose the Aspect Ratio (16:9, 9:16, 4:5, 1:1, etc) that you need from a simple drop-down menu or by inputting the exact dimensions you need for whatever display device your video will be shown on. This is accessible from the Settings  panel or from underneath the Workspace in Preview  mode.

AutoCrop

If your video contains action sequences, people or objects that are not in the center of the video and you need to crop the video for a mobile format, you can use AutoCrop to crop either the entire video or just the Clips that have movement.

AutoCut

AutoCut detects the cut points in videos and automatically splits the video at each cut point, saving you valuable time. The resulting “pieces” of the video are called Shots and can be split further or merged according to what you need.

Captions

When you want to automatically convert the speech in a video to text (subtitles) on the screen, you can use our Captions feature. Note that this is not available to all account levels, so check if your account has access to this feature.

Clip

A Clip is what we choose to call a sequence on the Timeline that has its roots in a Shot. It can be the exact same duration, speed, etc, as the original Shot, or it can be trimmed, copied, and altered without changing the original Shot.

Crop 

Removing visible portions of a video in Kamua is easily done, and this is commonly known as a Crop or Cropping. You’re probably familiar with the crop symbol and where you see it in Kamua, that means you have accessed a feature that allows you to crop your videos for mobile and other screens that need something other than the original video. You can also fully automate your cropping by using AutoCrop.

Crop Box

The light blue outline box that appears around or on top of your video in the Preview Window, indicating the area that will be included in the Crop once you Render your video. If you change Aspect Ratio, the Crop Box will appear on top of the video, because some parts of the image will be cropped out. If you do not change the Aspect Ratio, then the Crop Box will surround the video in the Preview Window.

Frame

“In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a Frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture. The term is derived from the fact that, from the beginning of modern filmmaking toward the end of the 20th century, and in many places still up to the present, the single images have been recorded on a strip of photographic film that quickly increased in length, historically; each image on such a strip looks rather like a framed picture when examined individually.” Source

Frame Rate or FPS

The number of Frames per second of video, also expressed as fps. In video, there are standards like 24 fps (23.976 fps – “PAL”), 30 fps (29.97 fps – “NTSC”) and 60 fps (59.94 fps). Kamua always shows the position of each Frame in milliseconds, not in fps. So when you see the Playhead on the Timeline displaying 3.96, that is 3.96 seconds into the video, not 3 seconds and 96 Frames.

Hard Cut

A clear cut between one Shot and the next Shot, with no Transitions. Shot 1 ends, Shot 2 begins the very next frame and there are no wipes or dissolves or other Transitions.

KeyFrame

In Kamua, a KeyFrame is any Frame that initiates or terminates changes in the Position or the Zoom level of your Crop Window. So, if you are cropping a video from Landscape to Portrait, and you want to Pan across the video, you set a KeyFrame at the start of the Pan and at the end of the Pan. This enables you to create panning and/or zooming effects with precision and accuracy. Learn more.

Library 

This is where all of your Media are stored. Whether you Upload a video or Link a video from a hosting service (YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS, etc), we make the video accessible for you in your Library. You can view the video in the Library, and start a new Project directly from the video.

Link

One of the two primary methods for adding videos to your Library is to Link it from a hosting source, such as YouTube or Google Drive. Soon we will publish a full list of supported hosting services. To Link a video, make sure that you have the rights to edit or repurpose the video, or that you are using the video under Fair Use 

Media 

This is a generic term for files that are either videos (available now), photos (coming soon) or audio tracks (coming soon). You start a Project by adding Media to it.

Pan

A technique where you move the Crop Box across the video to simulate the movement of a camera lens across a Shot. This can be done manually using KeyFraming or automatically using AutoCrop.

Playhead

A positional guide showing you where in the video you currently are, on the Advanced Timeline or Source Timeline, displayed in minutes, seconds and milliseconds. Note that we choose to use seconds/milliseconds and not seconds/frame number as other editing programs do. You can advance frame by frame using the left and right arrow keys on your Keyboard. See the Keyboard Shortcuts article for more info.

Preview 

This is a view mode in the Kamua Studio where you can see a preview of the edits and changes you have made to one or more Clips

Project 

You open a new Project to edit, repurpose, resize and add Captions to your videos. Each project is a self-contained file that is automatically stored in the Kamua Cloud, complete with the settings and outputs from that Project. Projects rely on Source Media that are contained in your Library.

Render

There are Draft Renders (low quality, watermarked – for testing) and Full Renders (high quality, no watermark). Clicking Render does 2 things: 

  1. It saves a version of your current Project, so that all of the edits and settings you did in that Project are accessible in the future, even if you make further changes.
  2. It processes your Project from an edit into a video, at the highest resolution possible based on your Source Media.

Settings 

There are two types of Settings: Project Settings and Clip Settings. Project Settings are applied to your whole Project and all Clips that are added to the Timeline. Clip Settings are accessed for each Clip and can override the Project Settings in most cases. Learn more about Project Settings and Clip Settings.

Shot

A Shot is automatically cut from Source video and doesn’t get altered or deleted in the Project. A Shot becomes a Clip when it is added to the Timeline. Clips can be trimmed, copied, and altered without changing the original Shot. More.

Simple Timeline

A version of the Timeline that shows each Clip in its entirety, without stretching the Clip to match a time scale. Each Clip can be played individually on mouse-over. Generally the Simple Timeline is easier to use for shorter videos or videos that do not have a lot of clips in them. There is also an Advanced Timeline that shows the time scale of the video and stretches each Clip to match the time scale. 

Shot List 

The Shot List shows you the Shots that Kamua AutoCut has made from your video, so you don’t have to find cut points manually. Each Media Asset (source) has its own Shot List. You add Shots to your Timeline to get started with your edit. To get to the Shot List, click on the icon on the left nav bar. More.

Source (Media)

When you start a Project and Upload or Link a video we call that your Source Media. For now, we only support videos as Media, but in the future we will have still photos and audio files as well under Media. Any time you edit a video in Kamua using the Studio you have access to the Source that is stored in your Library while you are editing, via a feature called the Source Timeline.

Source Timeline

When you are in the Advanced Timeline mode, you can access the Source Timeline with a simple click. This allows you to see where in the original Source Media the Clip that you are editing is located. This is great for quickly making mashups and compilations from existing footage.

Studio

The main suite of tools in Kamua where you do most of your video edits and repurposing. The Studio contains the Shot List, Preview, Timeline, and Settings.

Timeline 

The Timeline is an interface where you lay Clips in a linear fashion to create a video. It is found at the bottom of the Kamua Studio, and can be enabled or disabled with by using the button on the bottom of the left nav bar. There is a Simple Timeline and an Advanced Timeline, depending on the complexity of your Project and your own editing skill level.

Transition 

When there is no clear “Hard Cut” between one Shot and another, it gets marked as a Transition. This indicates that there is either an in-camera effect, or a transition inserted by the original editor of the video to transition between the two Shots.

Upload

There are 2 primary methods of adding videos to your Library. One is to Upload a video from a local drive; the other is to Link a video from a hosted source such as YouTube or Google Drive. 

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