Ok, to add a bit more constructive criticism to the debate, here are some examples of what I consider great viewers (vfbs, whatever you wanna call them):
Nuke (one of the very best) - attachedA pinnacle of usability. It's fast, simple, flexible and extremely customizable. Especially color management is at the cutting edge! Viewer processes are also pretty damn useful and great (create whatever nodes and combinations you want and the viewer will treat it as if it was a LUT! which is awesome). The comparison tools are top notch (wipe, fade etc...) and the toolbars are minimalistic, easy to recognize and easy to work with.
Corona should take this as a base for its VFB and copy the shit out of it.
RV - attached.This is a tool I use for review and inspection. Mainly for animation, but the point is, it is a bloody good viewer. It's fast, robust and extremely flexible (you can customize and integrate the shit out of it). So, the main thing is, it has a great color management via LUTs, scripts and gamma settings. This is a MUST!
In a more extended usage scenario, you can load up several footages (incl. different source types, resolutions, color matrices etc..) then you can start comparing or combinig those in a layered fashion.
SpeedGrade:
I've added this one for the sole reason of the vectorscope, histogram and waveform displayed directly in front of the user.
Corona should consider these features essential.
So, the main purpose of a VFB is, basically, just review. You have to see and inspect what you're rendering. My top features would be:
- Simple
- Easy to the eye (no GUI bullshit)
- Have the option to turn on/off the HISTOGRAM
- Have the option to turn on/off the WAVEFORM
- Have the option to turn on/off the VECTORSCOPE
- Display render elements individually
- Inspect pixels, i.e. what color, alpha value, position, etc...
- Comparison tools would be nice, but not necessarily a must have, since we use other tools as well that already do this
- Integrated Levels and Curves tools, as well as Gamma mapping, this is a MUST HAVE
- Integrated LUT support (most popular formats, 1D and 3D LUTs are a must - GPU accelerated!)
- FAST! I cannot stress this enough. The viewer must be snappy. No lags, no chuckles, no stutters, it has to be lighting fast to work with
- Simple UI. It has to be lucid (synoptical)
- Support for basic compositing is nice, but definitely not a must have
- Same goes for support for masking
In a production facility, my approach would be to take RV and integrate Corona into it. It'd be much much easier than writing my own viewer and the features would far exceed what I could ever do on my own. That's just a suggestion.
But generally, the last screenshot here... it's just ugly. Huge buttons with text, round corners, shadows etc... this is kindergarten "artwork", not a production ready tool.