idea #405: Sequencer / Nodal Editor Symbiosis

Summary: Blender offers a wonderfully integrated package for potentially powerful non linear editing capabilities. To enhance this, the sequencer should be more tightly integrated in an seamless and transparent manner to the nodal compositor. This would both double the value of the sequencer and provide greater flexibility and features offered via the nodal compositor.

Example #1 CROSS FADING: As with the current implementation, the sequencer has a "Cross" effect used to achieve cross fading. This seems duplicated with the nodal compositor's "Mix" node. In an ideal world, the cross fading would be achieved through a pipeline into the nodal compositor. This would group allow for greater tweaking of the cross fade as well as providing a higher level of abstraction for quick application of a cross fade via the sequencer.

Example #2 BLUR: In a similar fashion to the above example, the "Blur" effect is also duplicated via the nodal compositor's tool base. Unifying the two aspects of the application would be useful for final post production polishing.

Example #3 TIME LINE: In some instances, harnessing the curve adjustment on a time node is more complicated than adjusting the time line in the sequencer. If the two were bound together, either adjustment would suffice and provide a much enhanced experience for the end-user.

In closing, more tightly integrating the sequencer with the nodal compositor would allow for a great number of positive outcomes for the Blender project, not limited to:

1) Stability. Developing only _one_ effect / node code set is far more effective than having to maintain two or more. Consider the examples above.
2) Consistency. Harnessing the same algorithms for a desired effect would increase the consistency obtained through Blender usage in output product.
3) Simplicity. Developing only one set of algorithms would reduce program size when it comes to the availability of plugins and effects.
4) Customized Noodle Effects. A group of nodes would easily be reused within the sequencer to achieve standard canned effects. This might open up avenues to build a noodle library for compositors / editors.

The above suggestion would help to address several of the issues on the current feature request page on the Blender Wiki ( http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Requests/Sequencer ).