PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-8856655-B2
Application Number: US-43461309-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Media editing application with capability to focus on graphical composite elements in a media compositing area

Abstract:
Some embodiments provide a media editing application that allows a user to focus on a subset of media clips that the application combines to create a composite presentation. The media editing application of some embodiments includes a display area for displaying the composite presentation that the application creates by compositing several media clips (e.g., audio clip, video clip). The multimedia editing application of some embodiments also includes a composite display area (e.g., an area with multiple tracks that span a timeline) for displaying graphical clips representations of media clips that are part of the composite presentation. To focus on a subset of clip representations in the composite display area, the application of some embodiments also includes a tool for causing a first emphasized subset of clip representations (also referred to as “in-focus clips”) to appear larger in the composite display area than a second de-emphasized subset of clip representations (also referred to as “out-of-focus clips”) that are being concurrently represented in the composite display area.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a media editing application for creating media presentations, said application comprising a graphical user interface (GUI), said GUI comprising:
 a preview display area for displaying a preview of a composite presentation that the application creates by compositing a plurality of media clips; 
 a composite display area for (i) displaying a graphical representation of the composite presentation in terms of graphical representations of media clips that are part of the composite presentation, and (ii) receiving a selection of a subset of the clip representations; and 
 a tool for (i) enlarging a size of each clip representation in the subset of clip representations, (ii) collapsing any clip representation that is unselected, and (iii) concurrently displaying the enlarged and collapsed clip representations in the composite display area in order to focus on the selected subset of clip representations in the composite display area,
 wherein enlarging the size of the clip representation in the subset of clip representations comprises increasing a height of the clip representation while maintaining a width of the clip representation, wherein collapsing the clip representation that is unselected comprises decreasing the height of the unselected clip representation while maintaining the width of the unselected clip representation. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the tool is further for enlarging a size of a first part of a particular unselected clip representation and collapsing a second different part of the particular unselected clip representation in order to focus on the subset of graphical representations. 
     
     
       3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein a set of unselected clip representations comprises any unselected clip representation that is within a buffer threshold distance of any selected clip representation. 
     
     
       4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the clip representations that are not in the subset include any unselected clip representation that is outside a buffer threshold distance of any selected clip representation. 
     
     
       5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the subset of clip representations includes two non-adjacent clip representations, wherein at least one clip representation that is not in the subset is located between the two non-adjacent clip representations. 
     
     
       6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein enlarging the size of the clip representation comprises increasing the width of the clip representation while maintaining the height of the clip representation, wherein collapsing the unselected clip representation comprises decreasing the width of the unselected clip representation while maintaining the height of the unselected clip representation. 
     
     
       7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 6 , wherein the tool is further for reducing the size of the selected subset of clip representations and expanding any clip representation that is unselected in the composite display area. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the composite display area comprises a timeline, wherein the graphical representations span the timeline to define a sequence of media clips for the composite presentation. 
     
     
       9. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for creating media presentations, said computer program executable by at least one processor, said computer program comprising sets of instructions for:
 displaying a preview of a composite presentation in a preview display area, said composite presentation created by compositing a plurality of media clips; 
 displaying a graphical representation of the composite presentation in a composite display area, the graphical representation of the composite presentation comprising a set of graphical representations representing a set of media clips that are part of the composite presentation; and 
 emphasizing a first subset of clip representations in the composite display area by (i) enlarging a display size of each clip representation in the first subset of clip representations on a first track of the composite display area (ii) reducing a display size of each clip representation in a second subset of clip representations on a second track of the composite display area that is different from the first track, and (iii) concurrently displaying the enlarged and reduced clip representations in the composite display area,
 wherein enlarging the display size of the clip representation in the first subset of clip representations comprises increasing a height of the clip representation while maintaining a width of the clip representation, wherein reducing the display size of the clip representation in the second subset of clip representations comprises decreasing the height of the clip representation while maintaining the width of the clip representation. 
 
 
     
     
       10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the first subset of clip representations comprises at least one selected clip representation, wherein the second subset of clip representations comprises at least one unselected clip representation. 
     
     
       11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the set of instructions for emphasizing the first subset of clip representations comprises a set of instructions for reducing the width of the each clip representation in the second subset of clip representations. 
     
     
       12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the set of instructions for emphasizing the first subset of clip representations comprises a set of instructions for increasing the width of each clip representation in the first subset of clip representations. 
     
     
       13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the set of instructions for emphasizing the first subset of clip representations further comprises a set of instructions for reducing a display size of a third subset of clip representations on a third track of the composite display area, said third track different from the first and second tracks. 
     
     
       14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the set of instructions for emphasizing the first subset of clip representations further comprises a set of instructions for collapsing a third subset of clip representations on the second track of the composite display area. 
     
     
       15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program that when executed by at least one processing unit provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for editing media clips, the GUI comprising:
 a preview display for displaying a preview of a composite presentation that is created by compositing a plurality of media clips; 
 a timeline that represents a duration of the composite presentation; 
 a composite display area that spans the timeline in a horizontal direction to display a set of clip representations representing the plurality of media clips that are part of the composite presentation; 
 a focus tool for enlarging a size of each clip representation in a first emphasized subset of clip representations in the composite display area, reducing the size of each clip representation in a second de-emphasized subset of clip representations, and concurrently displaying the enlarged and reduced clip representations in the composite display area in order to place focus on the first emphasized subset of clip representations, 
 wherein enlarging the size of the clip representation in the first emphasized subset of clip representations comprises increasing a height of the clip representation while maintaining a width of the clip representation with respect to the timeline, 
 wherein reducing the size of the clip representation in the second de-emphasized subset of clip representations comprises decreasing the height of the clip representation while maintaining the width of the clip representation with respect to the timeline, wherein each clip representation of the first emphasized subset and the second de-emphasized subset is one of the displayed clip representations in the set of clip representations; and 
 at least one editing tool for performing an editing operation on at least one particular media clip that is represented by a particular clip representation that has been emphasized in the composite display area. 
 
     
     
       16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein performing the editing operation comprises performing a color correction operation. 
     
     
       17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein performing the editing operation comprises performing a special effects operation. 
     
     
       18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the focus tool is further for moving a first clip representation of the first emphasized subset from a first location to a second location in the composite display area. 
     
     
       19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein moving the first clip representation comprises moving the first clip representation across a collapsed area of the composite display area. 
     
     
       20. A method for providing media presentations, the method comprising:
 providing a display area for displaying a composite presentation that an application creates by compositing a plurality of media clips; 
 providing a composite display area for (i) displaying a set of graphical representations representing a set of media clips in a plurality of different tracks that are part of the composite presentation, and (ii) receiving a selection of a first subset of clip representations; and 
 providing a tool for (i) enlarging a display size of each clip representation in the first subset of clip representations of the composite display area, (ii) reducing the display size of each clip representation in a second subset of clip representations, and (iii) concurrently displaying the enlarged and reduced clip representations in the composite display area in order to focus on the selected first subset of clip representations, 
 wherein enlarging the display size of the clip representation in the first subset of clip representations comprises increasing a width of the clip representation while maintaining a height of the clip representation, 
 wherein reducing the display size of the clip representation in the second subset of clip representations comprises decreasing the width of the clip representation while maintaining the height of the clip representation. 
 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 20 , wherein the first subset of clip representations comprises (i) a selected clip representation and (ii) a first portion of an unselected clip representation. 
     
     
       22. The method of  claim 21 , wherein the first portion of the unselected clip representation is located within a threshold temporal distance of the selected clip representation along a timeline of the composite display area. 
     
     
       23. The method of  claim 21 , wherein the second subset of clip representations comprises a second portion of the unselected clip representation, said second portion located outside a threshold temporal distance of the selected clip representation along a timeline of the composite display area. 
     
     
       24. The method of  claim 20  further comprising collapsing the second subset of clip representations into a geometric shape, wherein the geometric shape is displayed in the composite display area as a vertical line that spans across the multiple tracks. 
     
     
       25. The method of  claim 20  further comprising collapsing the second subset of clip representations into a geometric shape, wherein the geometric shape is a selectable object in the composite display area, wherein the second subset of clip representations is unpacked in the composite display area upon selection of the geometric shape. 
     
     
       26. The method of  claim 25 , wherein when a position indicator is moved or a touch operation is detected over the geometric shape, a preview of each collapsed clip representation is displayed at least partially over the composite display area without enlarging any of the second subset of clip representations. 
     
     
       27. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for creating media presentation, the computer program executable by at least one processor, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:
 displaying a composite presentation in a display area, said composite presentation created by compositing a plurality of media clips; 
 displaying in a composite display area, a set of clip representations representing a set of media clips that are part of the composite presentation; 
 receiving a selection of first and second tracks in the composite display area; 
 identifying a first subset of clip representations that are displayed on the first and second tracks in the composite display area; and 
 enlarging a display size of each clip representation in the first subset of clip representations of the selected first and second tracks in the composite display area and reducing the display size of each clip representation in a second subset of clip representations that are concurrently displayed on an unselected third track in the composite display area in order to place focus on the first subset of clip representations in the composite display area, 
 wherein enlarging the display size of the clip representation in the first subset of clip representations comprises increasing a width of the clip representation while maintaining a height of the clip representation, 
 wherein reducing the display size of the clip representation in the second subset of clip representations comprises decreasing the width of the clip representation while maintaining the height of the clip representation. 
 
     
     
       28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 27 , wherein the third track is displayed between the first track and the second track in the composite display area, wherein the first track, the second track, and the third track are separate tracks that each comprise clip representations of different media clips.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention is directed towards a media editing application with capability to focus on graphical composite elements in a media compositing area. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Media editing applications allow users to create composite multimedia presentations (e.g., movies) based on several multimedia clips, such as audio and video clips.  FIG. 1  illustrates an example of a graphical user interface (“GUI”)  100  of a video editing application used in creating a composite multimedia presentation based on several multimedia clips. As shown in this figure, the GUI  100  includes a composite display area  105  and a scroll tool  100 . On several tracks that span a timeline, the composite display area can display many rectangles that represent many multimedia clips that are used to create a composite multimedia presentation. 
     Often, the composite display area cannot display all the tracks and all the clips because typically a composite presentation is formed by numerous clips on numerous tracks. For instance, in the example illustrated in  FIG. 1 , one video clip and sixteen audio clips are used to create the composite multimedia presentation. Consequently, as shown in this figure, the composite display area  105  is able to concurrently display only a first subset of clip rectangles  115 , but not a second subset of clip rectangles  120 . To view the second subset, the scroll tool  110  of the GUI  100  has to be used. However, in such instances, the display of the second subset in the composite display area  105  causes some or all of the first subset of the clip rectangles to scroll out of the composite display area. 
     Accordingly, using the scroll tool  110  is not always useful. This is especially the case, when in creating a composite video presentation, the user of the video editing application wants to concurrently view one or more clips that are separated by a significant temporal duration and/or by several tracks. Consequently, there is a need for a media editing application that allows a user to focus on a subset of clips in a composite display area. Ideally, such a media editing application will allow a user to work on different multimedia clips that are not adjacent to each other without having to scroll back and forth in the composite display area of the media editing application. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Some embodiments provide a media editing application that allows a user to focus on a subset of media clips that the application combines to create a composite presentation. The media editing application of some embodiments includes a display area for displaying the composite presentation that the application creates by compositing several media clips (e.g., audio clip, video clip). The multimedia editing application of some embodiments also includes a composite display area (e.g., an area with multiple tracks that span a timeline) for displaying graphical clips representations of media clips that are part of the composite presentation. To focus on a subset of clip representations in the composite display area, the application of some embodiments also includes a tool for causing a first emphasized subset of clip representations (also referred to as “in-focus clips”) to appear larger in the composite display area than a second de-emphasized subset of clip representations (also referred to as “out-of-focus clips”) that are being concurrently represented in the composite display area. 
     To cause the first emphasized subset of clip representations to appear larger than the second de-emphasized subset of clip representations, some embodiments enlarge the size of the first emphasized subset in the composite display area while also reducing the size of the second de-emphasized subset in the composite display area. Alternatively, some embodiments cause the first emphasized subset of clip representations to appear larger than the second de-emphasized subset of clip representations by maintaining the size of the first subset in the composite display area while reducing the size of the second subset. 
     Different embodiments of the invention reduce the size of the second de-emphasized subset of clip representations differently. For instance, some embodiments uniformly shrink the size of the de-emphasized clip representations. Other embodiments non-uniformly shrink the size of the de-emphasized clip representations. For instance, some embodiments reduce the de-emphasized clip representations that are farther away from the emphasized clip representations more than the de-emphasized clip representations that are closer to the emphasized clip representations (e.g., that neighbor the emphasized clip representations). The media editing application of some embodiments does this by collapsing the farther de-emphasized clip representations into a single graphical representation (e.g., a line or bar), while only shrinking the size of the closer de-emphasized clip representations. For instance, in some embodiments, the media editing application shrinks all or part of unselected clip shapes that neighbor selected clip shapes, while collapsing into a single graphical representation (e.g., line) contiguous unselected clip shapes that do not neighbor any selected clip shapes. 
     Yet other embodiments collapse all or part of any unselected clip representation that is located away from any selected clip representation by at least a particular temporal distance, while increasing the size of all or part of any unselected clip representation that is within the particular temporal distance (e.g., 2 seconds) of the selected clip representation. For example, when a first portion of an unselected clip representation is located within a particular temporal distance of the selected clip representation, and a second portion of the unselected clip representation is positioned away from the selected clip representation by at least the particular temporal distance, some embodiments collapse the second portion while increasing the size of the first portion in the same manner as the selected clip representation (e.g., by the same ratio as the ratio use to increase the size of the selected clip representation). Still other embodiments uniformly collapse (i.e., pack) all de-emphasized clip representations that are adjacent to each other into a single graphical representation (e.g., into a single line or bar). 
     In some of the embodiments that collapse contiguous de-emphasized clip representations into a single graphical representation, the media editing application provides a zoom tool that allows a user to momentarily view an expanded view of the clip representations that are within a single collapsed graphical representation. For instance, a user may move a cursor over the single graphical representation to get the expanded view of the clip representations (e.g., collapsed clip representations) that are within the single graphical representation. The zoom tool is also used in some embodiments to enlarge clip representations that are shrunk individually (i.e., not collapsed/packed with other clip representations into a single representation). In these embodiments, the zoom tool is used to simply view an enlarged view of one or more shrunk smaller clips. 
     In conjunction with providing an expanded or enlarged view of the clip representations, some embodiments allow a user to unpack or enlarge the clip representations that have been collapsed or shrunk. For instance, when using a zoom tool to view an expanded view of collapsed clip representations, the user of the application of some embodiments can enable an unpack option of the zoom tool to unpack the packed clip representations that the user is viewing with the zoom tool. This option can be similarly used to enlarge a shrunk clip representation that the user views using the zoom tool. 
     Alternatively or conjunctively with the use of the unpack/enlarge option of the zoom tool, some embodiments allow a user to unpack or enlarge clip representations that have been collapsed without first providing an expanded view of the collapsed clip representations through the zoom tool. For instance, to unpack one or more collapsed clip representations, a user can select (e.g., perform a click operation or provide a “enlarge command” through a pull-down or pop-up menu or keystroke operation) in some embodiments a single graphical representation of several collapsed clips in order to unpack this single representation into its constituent clip representations. Similarly, some embodiments allow a user to select (e.g., perform a click operation or provide a “enlarge command” through a pull-down or pop-up menu or keystroke operation) a de-emphasized, shrunk clip representation in order to enlarge this de-emphasized clip back to its original size When one or more collapsed or shrunk clip representations are unpacked or enlarged, some embodiments also adjust the size of other clip representations in the composite display area. Such adjustments are needed to make room for the clip representations that have been unpacked or enlarged. 
     Different embodiments use different approaches for determining which clip representations to emphasize. In some embodiments, clip representations that are emphasized are clip representations which have been selected by a user. In other embodiments, clip representations that are emphasized are clip representations on tracks that have been selected by the user. In other words, the media editing application in some embodiments allows a user to select a particular track to emphasize in a composite display area in addition to or conjunction with allowing a user to emphasize clip representations. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The novel features of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. However, for purpose of explanation, several embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following figures. 
         FIG. 1  conceptually illustrates a GUI of a media editing application with numerous graphical representations of multimedia clips. 
         FIG. 2  conceptually illustrates a GUI at several stages that show the focusing of a subset of graphical representations in the vertical direction in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 3  conceptually illustrates a GUI at several stages that show the focusing of a subset of graphical representations in the horizontal direction in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a composite display area with several graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates a composite display area with several selected graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a composite display area after a focus feature has been applied on several graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 7  conceptually illustrates the relationship between graphical representations that are not selected and de-emphasized in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 8  illustrates a composite display area were graphical representations that are not selected are collapsed into a line in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 9  illustrates a composite display area with several graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 10  illustrates a composite display area with several selected graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 11  illustrates a composite display area after a focus feature has been applied on several graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 12  illustrates a process for focusing on a set of graphical representations in a composite display area in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 13  illustrates a process for collapsing clip shapes and enlarging selected clip shapes in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 14  illustrates a composite display area after a focus feature has been applied on several graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 15  illustrates a composite display area after a selection of a line associated with packed graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 16  illustrates a composite display area after a selection of graphical representation in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 17  illustrates a composite display area after a focus feature has been applied on several graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 18  illustrates a process for unpacking a set of graphical representations in a composite display area in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 19  illustrates a composite display area with a preview of collapsed graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 20  illustrates a composite display area with a selection of graphical representation in a preview area in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 21  illustrates a composite display area after a focus feature has been applied on several graphical representations in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 22  illustrates a process for providing a preview in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 23  illustrates a GUI that includes a composite display area in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 24  illustrates a composite display area with one track selected in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 25  illustrates a composite display area with other tracks selected in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 26  illustrates a composite display area after a focus feature has been applied on several graphical representations associated with selected tracks in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 27  illustrates a process for focusing based on a track selection in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 28  illustrates a composite display during playback in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 29  illustrates a composite display area during playback after a focus feature has been applied in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 30  illustrates a composite display area after moving an emphasized clip shape in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 31  illustrates a composite display area after moving an emphasized clip shape across a collapsed region in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 32  illustrates a process for focusing and editing in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 33  illustrates a software architecture of a media editing application that includes several modules in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 34  illustrates a process for defining a media editing application in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 35  illustrates a GUI of an editing application in some embodiments. 
         FIG. 36  conceptually illustrates a computer system with which some embodiments of the invention are implemented. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     In the following description, numerous details are set forth for purpose of explanation. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the invention may be practiced without the use of these specific details. 
     Some embodiments provide a media editing application for creating a multimedia presentation (e.g., movie) by compositing several multimedia clips (e.g., audio clip, video clip). The media editing application of some embodiments provides (1) a composite display area for displaying a set of clip shapes representing a set of multimedia clips that are part of the composite presentation, and (2) a focus option for emphasizing a first subset of clip shapes over a second subset of clip shapes in the composite display area. 
     For some embodiments of the invention,  FIG. 2  illustrates a graphical user interface (“GUI”)  200  of a media editing application with such a focus feature. Specifically, this figure illustrates the GUI  200  at three different stages, a first stage  205  that is before the selection of any clip shape, a second stage  210  that is after the selection of a set of clip shapes for focusing, and a third stage  215  that is after the application of the focus feature. 
     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the GUI  200  includes a display area  220 , a composite display area  225 , and a focus UI item  230 . The display area  220  displays a preview of a composite presentation that the application creates by compositing several media clips. The composite display area  225  provides a visual representation of the composite presentation being created by the user. Specifically, it displays one or more clip shapes representing one or more media clips that are part of the composite presentation. In the example illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the composite display area  225  is an area that includes multiple tracks  232  that span a timeline  234 . Each track can receive and hold one or more clip shapes. In the example of  FIG. 2 , the composite display area  225  is shown with three tracks that hold three clip shapes, namely a first clip shape  235 , a second clip shape  240 , and a third clip shape  245 . In the composite display area  225 , the original size of the clips and tracks along the y-direction is pre-defined or user-defined in some embodiments. Also, in some embodiments, the x-direction in the composite display area  225  represents time that is defined along the timeline. 
     The focus UI item  230  is a conceptual illustration of one or more UI item that allows the media editing application to implement its focus feature for emphasizing a first subset of clip shapes over a second subset of clip shapes in the composite display area  225 . Different embodiments of the invention implement this UI item differently. Some embodiments implement it as a focus UI button, others as a focus command that can be selected in a pull-down or drop-down menu, and still others as a focus command that can be invoked through one or more keystroke operations. Yet other embodiments allow the user to access the focus feature through two or more of such UI implementations or other UI implementations. 
     The operation of the GUI  200  will now be described by reference to the state of the GUI during the first, second and third stages  205 ,  210  and  215  that are illustrated in  FIG. 2 . In the first stage  205 , the composite display area  225  displays a composite presentation that displays several clip shapes along the timeline  234 . A user might have added these clip shapes to the composite presentation in a current editing session or by opening a composite project that was defined in a previous editing session. In the first stage  205 , none of the clip shapes have been selected by a user for focusing. 
     In the second stage  210 , the composite display area  225  displays the composite presentation with some of the clip shapes having been selected by a user. These selected clip shapes are shown as the clip shapes with shading. These selected clip shapes are the first clip shape  235  and the third clip shape  245 . The second clip shape  240  has not been selected in this example. 
     In the third stage  215 , the composite display area  225  displays the composite presentation after the media editing application has implemented the focus feature. Specifically, the GUI  200  at the third stage  215  illustrates the selection of the focus UI item  230  by a user; this selection is illustrated through the darkening of the focus UI item. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the selection of the UI item  230  results in (1) the enlarging of the size of the first and third clip shapes  235  and  245 , and (2) the shrinking of the second clip shape  240  into the shrunk clip representation  240 . 
       FIG. 2  also illustrates two exploded views  250 - 255  of the second clip shape  240  in order to illustrate that the clip shape  240  can be shrunk differently in different embodiments. The first exploded view  250  shows that the clip shape  240  can be shrunk to a smaller clip shape with a height of H c . The second exploded view  255  illustrates that the clip shape  240  can alternatively be collapsed into a line or a bar in some embodiments. The difference between these two approaches becomes more pronounced and noticeable when some embodiments that use the line/bar implementation collapse several contiguous de-emphasized clips into a single line/bar. Several such examples will be described below. 
       FIG. 2  conceptually illustrates the shrinking of clip shapes along the y-direction (i.e., vertical direction). However, clip shapes can also be shrunk along the x-direction (i.e., horizontal direction) in some embodiments.  FIG. 3  illustrates one such example. Specifically, this figure illustrates the same GUI  200  of  FIG. 2 , but, in this example, the GUI  200  is illustrating a different composite project that is represented by a different set of clip shapes in the composite display area  225 .  FIG. 3  illustrates the GUI  200  at three different stages, a first stage  305  that is before the selection of any clip shape, a second stage  310  after the selection of a set of clip shapes for focusing, and a third stage  315  after the application of the focus feature. 
     In the first stage  305 , the composite display area  225  displays the composite project in terms of several clip shapes that span the timeline  234 . These clip shapes include a first clip shape  320 , a second clip shape  325  and a third clip shape  330 . None of the clip shapes  320 - 330  have been selected by a user for focusing in the first stage  305 . 
     In the second stage  310 , the composite display area  225  displays the composite presentation with some of the clip shapes having been selected by a user. These selected clip shapes are shown as the clip shapes having a darker color. These selected clip shapes are the first clip shape  320  and the second clip shape  325 . The clip shape  330  has not been selected in the composite display area  225 . 
     In the third stage  315 , the composite display area  225  displays the composite presentation after the media editing application has performed a focus operation. Specifically, the GUI  200  at the third stage  315  illustrates that after the focus item  230  has been selected by a user (which again is illustrated through the shading of the focus item  230 ), the clip shapes  320 - 325  are enlarged along the x-direction, while the clip shape  330  is shrunk in the x-direction. 
       FIG. 3  also illustrates two exploded views  350 - 355  of the unselected clip shape  330  in order to illustrate that the clip shape  330  can be shrunk differently in different embodiments. The first exploded view  350  illustrates that the clip shape  350  can be shrunk to a smaller clip shape with a width of w c . The second exploded view  355  shows that the clip shape  330  can alternatively be collapsed into a line in some embodiments. Again, the difference between these two approaches becomes more pronounced and noticeable when some embodiments that use the line/bar implementation collapse several contiguous de-emphasized clips into a single line/bar. Several such examples will be described below. 
     In the example illustrated in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the clip shapes are shrunk in either the x-direction or y-direction. However, in some embodiments, a focus operation can result in the shrinking or collapsing of clips in both x- and y-directions. This would happen in some embodiments when multiple emphasized clips are on the same track and on different tracks. Several such examples will be provided below in Section I. 
     The examples illustrated in Section I and several other sections, de-emphasize unselected clips according to the following approach. Specifically, these examples illustrate shrinking clips on track that has no selected clip. In other words, on a track that has no selected clip, some embodiments shrink the track and all the clips on it. Moreover, these examples illustrate that some embodiments collapse all or part of any unselected clip that is located away from any selected clip by at least a particular temporal distance, while increasing the size of all or part of any unselected clip that is within the particular temporal distance (e.g., 2 seconds) of the selected clip. For example, when a first portion of an unselected clip is located within a particular temporal distance of the selected clip, and a second portion of the unselected clip is positioned away from the selected clip by at least the particular temporal distance, some embodiments collapse the second portion while increasing the size of the first portion in the same manner as the selected clip (e.g., by the same ratio as the ratio use to increase the size of the selected clip). 
     However, one of ordinary skill in the art will realize that other embodiments can use different approaches. For example, some embodiments uniformly shrink the size of the de-emphasized clips. Other embodiments non-uniformly shrink the size of the de-emphasized clips. For instance, some embodiments reduce the de-emphasized clips that are farther away from the emphasized clips more than the de-emphasized clips that are closer to the emphasized clips (e.g., that neighbor the emphasized clips). The media editing application of some embodiments does this by collapsing the farther de-emphasized clips into a single graphical representation (e.g., a line or bar), while only shrinking the size of the closer de-emphasized clips. For instance, in some embodiments, the media editing application shrinks all or part of unselected clips that neighbor selected clips, while collapsing into a single graphical representation (e.g., line) contiguous unselected clips that do not neighbor any selected clips. Still other embodiments uniformly collapse (i.e., pack) all de-emphasized clips that are adjacent to each other into a single graphical representation (e.g., into a single line or bar). 
     After describing emphasized and de-emphasized clips in Section I, Section II then describes several examples for undoing the shrinking or packing of de-emphasized clips. Section III then describes a zoom tool of some embodiments that allows the user to get an expanded view of shrunk or collapsed de-emphasized clips. Section IV then describes alternative methods for selecting clips for emphasizing and de-emphasizing. Section V then describes the playback of emphasized and de-emphasized clips. Next, Section VI provides a description of different edit and usages that can be performed with the focus feature. Section VII then describes the software architecture of some embodiments of the invention. Next, Section VIII describes a process for designing a media editing application in some embodiments. Section IX provides a description of one computer system which can be used to implement some of the embodiments of the invention. 
     I. Emphasizing and Packing Clip Shapes 
     As mentioned above, some embodiments provide several different approaches for emphasizing a first set of clip shapes over a second set of clip shapes in a composite display area of a media editing application. Several more detailed examples of such approaches will now be described in Section A below by reference to  FIGS. 4-6 . Section B describes another example of a focus operation. Section C then describes a process for emphasizing clip shapes over other clip shapes in a composite display area. 
     A. Examples 
     For some embodiments of the invention,  FIGS. 4-6  illustrate a GUI  400 , at different stages, of a media editing application with a focus feature.  FIG. 4  illustrates the GUI  400  at a first stage  405  that is before a selection of any clip shape.  FIG. 5  illustrates the GUI  400  at a second stage  505  that is after the selection of several clip shapes.  FIG. 6  illustrates the GUI  400  at a third stage  605  that is after the application of the focus feature. 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the GUI  400  includes a display area  410 , a composite display area  415 , and a focus UI item  420 . The display area  410  displays a preview of a composite presentation that the application creates by compositing several media clips. The composite display area  415  provides a visual representation of the composite presentation being created by the user. Specifically, it displays one or more clip shapes representing one or more media clips that are part of the composite presentation. In the example illustrated in  FIG. 4 , the composite display area  415  is an area that includes multiple tracks  425  that span a timeline  430 . Each track can receive and hold one or more clip shapes. 
     The focus UI item  420  is a conceptual illustration of one or more UI item that allows the media editing application to implement its focus feature for emphasizing a first subset of clip shapes over a second subset of clip shapes in the composite display area  415 . Different embodiments of the invention implement this UI item differently. Some embodiments implement it as a focus UI button, others as a focus command that can be selected in a pull-down or drop-down menu, and still others as a focus command that can be invoked through one or more keystroke operations. Yet other embodiments allow the user to access the focus feature through two or more of such UI implementations or other UI implementations. 
     The operation of the GUI  400  will now be described by reference to the state of the GUI during the first, second and third stages  405 ,  505  and  605  that are illustrated in  FIGS. 4-6 .  FIG. 4  illustrates the GUI  400  in the first stage  405 . As shown in this figure, the composite display area  415  displays clip shapes on several tracks  425  defined along the timeline  430 . These clip shapes represent media clips that are being composited to form a composite presentation. A user might have added these clip shapes to the composite presentation in a current editing session or by opening a composite project that was defined in a previous editing session. As further shown in  FIG. 4 , none of the clip shapes have been selected by a user for focusing in the first stage  405 . 
       FIG. 5  illustrates the GUI  400  at the second stage  505  of the focus operation. Specifically, this figure illustrates the selection of several clip shapes in the composite display area  415  of the GUI  400 . These selected clip shapes are shown as the clip shapes having a darker color. These selected clip shapes include a first set of clip shapes  510 , a second set of clip shapes  515 , a third set of clip shapes  520 , a fourth set of clip shapes  525 , and a fifth set of clip shapes  530 . Clip shapes can be selected differently in different embodiments. In some embodiments, a user can select a particular clip shape by (1) performing a click operation (e.g., double click), (2) one or more keystroke operations or (3) a combination of a click operation and a keystroke operation (e.g., CTRL+click operation). The clip shapes that have not been selected are the clip shapes with the lighter color. These unselected clip shapes include the sets of clip shapes  540 - 570 . 
       FIG. 6  illustrates the GUI  400  in the third stage  605  after the application of the focus feature by the media editing application in some embodiments. Specifically, the GUI  400  in  FIG. 6  illustrates the selection of the focus UI item  420  by a user, which is illustrated through the shading of the focus UI item  420 . As shown in  FIG. 6 , the selection of the UI item  420  results in (1) the enlarging of the size of the sets of clip shapes  510 - 530 , (2) the enlarging of the size of part or all of some of the clip shapes in the sets of clip shapes  540 - 565 , and (3) the collapsing of part or all of other clip shapes in the sets of clip shapes  540 - 565  into lines  610 - 635 .  FIG. 6  also illustrates that the collapsing of graphical representations can be in the vertical and horizontal direction in some embodiments. For instance, the sets of graphical representations (e.g., lines)  610 - 635  represents clip shapes that have been collapsed in the horizontal direction, while the set of graphical representations  640  represents clip shapes that have collapsed in the vertical direction in some embodiments. In some embodiments, clip shapes in tracks that are minimized are subject to the same rules and constraints as clip shapes in tracks that are enlarged. 
       FIG. 7  provides a larger presentation of the composite display area  425  of the GUI  400  at the second stage  505  and the third stage  605 , in order to help highlight the correlation between (1) selected and unselected clip representations in the second stage  505 , and (2) emphasized and de-emphasized clip representations in the third stage  605 . For instance, this figure highlights how the sets of clip shapes  510 - 530  that are selected in the second stage  505  become enlarged sets of clip shapes  510 - 530  in the third stage  605 . 
       FIG. 7  similarly helps correlate clip shapes that were not selected in the second stage  505  with de-emphasized clip representations in the third stage  605 . This figure helps highlight this by using dashed arrows. In the example illustrated, the media editing application collapses all or part of some of the unselected clip shapes while enlarging all or part of some of the other unselected clip shapes. It does this by enlarging all or part of unselected clip shapes that neighbor selected clip shapes, while collapsing into a single graphical representation (e.g., line) contiguous all or part of unselected clip shapes that do not neighbor any selected clip shapes. In some embodiments, all or part of a particular unselected clip shape neighbors a selected clip shape when all or part of that particular unselected clip shape is within a temporal distance of the selected clip shape (e.g., within a buffer distance, which is further described below by reference to  FIGS. 9-11 ). 
     One example of this is illustrated by the set of clip shapes  545  in  FIG. 7 . This set of clip shapes  545  includes eleven clip shapes  701 - 711  that are unselected in the second stage  505 . As shown in  FIG. 15 , some of these unselected clip shapes (e.g., clip shapes  704 - 708 ) in the third stage  605  have been collapsed into a line  615 . For the other unselected clip shapes in the set of eleven clip shapes,  FIG. 15  also shows that all or part of clip shapes  701 - 703  and  709 - 711 , which neighbor selected clip shapes, have been enlarged and are shown, in the third stage  605 , as clip shapes  701 - 703  and  709 - 711  in the composite display area  415 .  FIG. 7  further shows several other sets of unselected sets of clip shapes  540  and  550 - 565  that include unselected clip shapes that are collapsed or enlarged in a similar way after the focus feature has been applied by the media editing application. How all or part of unselected clip shapes are collapsed or enlarged will be further described below in detail by reference to  FIGS. 9-11  and  13 . 
     As previously mentioned, other embodiments of the invention collapse or reduce the size of the de-emphasized clip shapes differently. For example, some embodiments uniformly collapse (i.e., pack) all de-emphasized clip shapes that are adjacent to each other into a single graphical representation (e.g., into a single line or bar).  FIG. 8  illustrates the GUI  400  after some embodiments uniformly collapse (i.e., pack) all de-emphasized clip shapes that are adjacent to each other into a single graphical representation (e.g., into a single line or bar). As shown in this figure, each set of clip shapes  540 - 565  (i.e., clip shapes that have not been selected) has been collapsed into single graphical representations (i.e., lines  805 - 830 ). In such instances, the only clip shapes that are shown (not including the lines  805 - 830 ) in the composite display area  415  are clip shapes  510 - 530 , which have been selected for focusing. 
     Having described a GUI at several stages of implementing a particular focus feature in some embodiments, other examples of performing a focus operation in a media editing application will now be described below in Section B. 
     B. Other Examples 
     As mentioned above,  FIGS. 4-6  illustrate the GUI  400 , at different stages, of a media editing application with a focus feature. These figures illustrate how some embodiments collapse or enlarge all or part of unselected clip shapes. 
       FIGS. 9-11  illustrates another example of how all or part of unselected clip shapes are collapsed or enlarged in some embodiments. Specifically,  FIGS. 9-11  illustrates the GUI  400 , at different stages, which shows how some embodiments apply a focus feature when an unselected clip shape on a track with a selected clip shape temporally overlaps with a selected clip shape on another track.  FIGS. 9-11  are similar to the GUI  400  of  FIGS. 4-6 , except that the GUI  400  includes different sets of tracks and clip shapes.  FIG. 9  illustrates the GUI  400  at a first stage  905  that is before the selection of several clip shapes.  FIG. 10  illustrates the GUI  400  at a second stage  1005  that is after the selection of several clip shapes.  FIG. 11  illustrates the GUI  400  at a third stage  1105  that is after the application of the focus feature. 
     The operation of the GUI  400  will now be described by reference to the state of the GUI  400  during the first, second and third stages  905 ,  1005  and  1105  that are illustrated in  FIGS. 9-11 . As mentioned above,  FIG. 9  illustrates the GUI  400  in the first stage  905 . As shown in this figure, the composite display area  415  displays clip shapes on several tracks  911 - 915  defined along the timeline  430 . These clip shapes represent media clips that are being composited to form a composite presentation. As further shown in  FIG. 9 , none of the clip shapes have been selected by a user for focusing in the first stage  905 . 
       FIG. 10  illustrates the GUI  400  at the second stage  1005  of the focus operation. Specifically, this figure illustrates the selection of several clip shapes in the composite display area  415  of the GUI  400 . These selected clip shapes are shown as the clip shapes having a darker color. These selected clip shapes include a first clip shape  1010 , a second clip shape  1015 , a third clip shape  1020 , a fourth clip shape  1025 , and a fifth clip shape  1030 . The clip shapes that have not been selected are the clip shapes with the lighter color. These unselected clip shapes include the clip shapes  1035 - 1070 . As further shown in this figure, the unselected clip shape  1055  overlaps in time with the selected clip shape  1010 .  FIG. 10  also illustrates two focus regions  1080 - 1085 . These focus regions are used for determining which clip shapes are enlarged and by how much they are enlarged. These focus regions are further described below by reference to  FIG. 13 , which describes a process for collapsing and enlarging clip shapes. 
       FIG. 11  illustrates the GUI  400  in the third stage  1105  after the application of the focus feature by the media editing application in some embodiments. Specifically, the GUI  400  in  FIG. 11  illustrates the selection of the focus UI item  420  by a user, which is illustrated through the shading of the focus UI item  420 . As shown in  FIG. 11 , the selection of the UI item  420  results in (1) the enlarging of the size of the clip shapes  1010 - 1030 , (2) the enlarging of the clip shape  1055 , (3) the enlarging of the size of a first part of the clip shapes  1035 - 1040  and  1050 , (4) the collapsing of the clip shapes  1045  and  1070 , and (5) the collapsing of a second part of clip shapes  1035 - 1040  and  1050 . In particular, (1) the second part of clip shape  1035  is collapsed into line  1110 , and (2) the second part of clip shapes  1040  and  1050 , and the clip shapes  1045  and  1070  are collapsed into line  1115 . This figure illustrates that the unselected clip shape  1055  is enlarged in size along with the other selected clip shapes  1010 - 1030  because the unselected clip shape  1055  temporally overlaps with the selected clip shape  1010 . 
       FIG. 11  also illustrates how some embodiments apply the focus feature on clip shapes based on buffer zones. In particular, this figure illustrates how some embodiments enlarge all or part of any unselected clip shape that is in proximity to a selected clip shape (e.g., within a buffer zone). As shown in this figure, a part of the unselected clip shape  1040  is within a certain temporal distance (e.g., buffer distance) of the selected clip shape  1030 . Accordingly, the part of the unselected clip shape  1040  that is within the buffer distance is enlarged along with the selected clip shape  1030 . In some embodiments, this buffer distance is specified by a user. The buffer distance can be the same for all clip shapes in some embodiments. In other embodiments, different buffer distances can be used for different clip shapes. In some embodiments, buffer distances are used to identify a focus region, which is further described below by reference to  FIG. 13 . 
     In some embodiments, all or part of any clip shape that is outside the buffer distance is collapsed. As shown in  FIG. 11 , the part of the unselected clip shape  1040  that is outside the buffer distance is collapsed. Since the unselected clip shapes  1045  and  1070  of  FIG. 10  are also outside the buffer distance, these clip shapes  1045  and  1070  are also collapsed in  FIG. 11 . Similarly, since the first part of the unselected clip shape  1050  is within a buffer distance of the selected clip shape  1015  and the second part of the unselected clip shape  1050  is outside of the buffer distance of the selected clip shape  1015 , the second part of the unselected clip shape  1050  is collapsed, while the first part of the unselected clip shape  1050  is enlarged. 
     Having described a GUI at several stages of implementing a focus feature in some embodiments, a process for performing a focus operation in a media editing application will now be described below in Section C. 
     C. Process for Emphasizing Graphical Representations 
       FIG. 12  illustrates a process  1200  that some users perform to focus on a first set of graphical representations in a composite display area of a media editing application. In some embodiments, the process of  FIG. 12  starts when a user has enabled a focus feature by selecting a focus option. As shown in  FIG. 12 , the process  1200  initially selects (at  1205 ) a graphical representation. In some embodiments, the graphical representation that is selected (at  1205 ) is a clip shape in the composite display area of the media editing application. In some embodiments, the clip shape is selected though a click operation. The selected clip shape is a clip shape that a user wants to emphasize or focus in the composite display area in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the composite display area is the composite display area  415  as described with reference to  FIG. 4 . 
     Next, the process reviews (at  1210 ) the clip shapes in the composite display area. In some embodiments, this involves reviewing a marked graphical representation of the selected graphical representation in the composite display area. In some embodiments, the selected clip shape is marked to visually indicate which clip shapes in the composite display area has been selected (e.g., selection performed through a click operation). The selected shape is marked by a darker shading relative to other unselected clip shapes in some embodiments. After reviewing the marked graphical representation that has been selected (at  1210 ), the process determines (at  1215 ) whether to unselect a graphical representation. If so, the process proceeds to  1220  to unselect a graphical representation. In some embodiments, the graphical representation that is unselected is a graphical representation that was previously selected (e.g., selected at  1205 ). When a particular graphical representation is unselected, the particular graphical representation is no longer marked (e.g., does not have darker shading) in some embodiments. Once the graphical representation has been unselected (at  1220 ), the process proceeds back to  1210  to review the clip shapes in the composite display area. 
     After determining (at  1215 ) not to unselect a graphical representation, the process determines (at  1225 ) whether to select another graphical representation. If so, the process proceeds back to  1205  to select another graphical representation. 
     However, when the process determines (at  1225 ) not to select another graphical representation, the process then determines (at  1230 ) whether to select the focus command. In some embodiments, the focus command is selected when all desired clip shapes to focus have been selected. In other words, when a user has selected all clip shapes of interest in the composite display area, the focus command is selected. 
     After determining (at  1230 ) to select the focus command, the process selects (at  1235 ) the focus command. In some embodiments, selecting (at  1235 ) the focus command includes selecting the focus item  420  of  FIG. 4 . In some embodiments, selecting the focus command includes invoking the focus command through one or more keystroke operations. Once the focus command has been selected, the process reviews (at  1240 ) the implementation of the focus operation on clip shapes in the composite display and edits (at  1240 ) the clip shapes and ends. In some embodiments, the implementation of the focus operation produces a composite display area that includes enlarged selected clip shapes. In addition, the focus operation of some embodiments also collapses the unselected clip shapes. An example of a focus operation is further described below by reference to  FIG. 13 . The editing operation is further described below in Section VI. 
     Having described a process for performing a focus operation, a process for computing height and width of clip shapes for a focus operation will now be described.  FIG. 13  illustrates a process  1300  that some embodiments perform to compute the height and width of clip shapes in a composite display area. In some embodiments, the process  1300  is performed after a focus command is selected (at  1235 ) of process  1200 .  FIG. 13  will be described by reference to the examples that were described above with reference to  FIGS. 10-11 . 
     In some embodiments, the process of  FIG. 13  starts when clip shapes have been selected and a focus feature is invoked (e.g., selection of focus item  420 ). As shown in  FIG. 13 , the process  1300  receives (at  1305 ) the identification of the selected clip shapes. For example, the process receives (at  1305 ) an indication that the clip shapes  1010 - 1030  in  FIG. 10  are the selected clip shapes. 
     Next, the process identifies (at  1310 ) which track to compress based on the selected clip shapes. In some embodiments, any track that does not have a selected clip shape is identified as a track to compress. For example, in  FIG. 10 , tracks  913 - 914  do not have any clip shapes that are selected. Accordingly, in this instance, these two tracks  913 - 914  would be identified by the process  1300  as tracks to compress in some embodiments. 
     After identifying (at  1310 ) tracks to compress, the process identifies (at  1315 ) a total height of the compressed tracks. Different embodiments will identify different heights for compressed tracks. Some embodiments compress all contiguous tracks that do not include a selected clip shape into a single track, while other embodiments shrink the height of each track that does not include a selected clip shape.  FIG. 11  illustrates an example of the total height (ΔY) of the compressed tracks in some embodiments. 
     Next, the process defines (at  1320 ) a new height for each uncompressed track (e.g., track that includes at least one selected clip shape). In some embodiments, different uncompressed tracks can have different heights. In other embodiments, each uncompressed track will have the same height. In such instances, the process defines (at  1320 ) the new height by specifying and solving an equation. In some embodiments, this first entails identifying the height (H) of the composite display area, as illustrated in  FIG. 11 . The total height (ΔY) of the compressed tracks is then subtracted from the height (H) of the composite display area, which yields an available height (H A ). When the height of uncompressed tracks are all the same, then the height of each uncompressed track is defined as the available height divided by the number of uncompressed tracks. In  FIG. 11 , there are three uncompressed tracks. Accordingly, the height (H T ) of each track in  FIG. 11  can be expressed as H T =H A /3. In some embodiments, defining the height of an uncompressed track includes defining the height of clip shapes that are on the uncompressed track. 
     After defining (at  1320 ) the new height for the uncompressed tracks, the process identifies (at  1325 ) one or more focus regions based on the selected clip shapes. In some embodiments, this entails identifying start and end points for each selected clip shape in the timeline. Once these start and end points are identified, the identified focus region is the region along the timeline that is between the start and end points. For example, if the start point is at time 1:20:45 and the end point is at time 1:21:20, then the focus region would be the region in the composite display area that is between these two times along the timeline. 
     In some embodiments, the focus region is identified differently. For example, some embodiments use buffer points to identify the focus region. These buffer points are near each start point and end point. These buffer points can be identified based on a buffer distance that specifies a temporal distance (e.g., time) from a start point or an end point. In some embodiments, the buffer distance is a user specified distance. If the buffer distance is specified as two seconds, then in the above example, the buffer points would be 1:20:43 and 1:21:22. Accordingly, the identified focus region would be the region along the timeline that is between 1:20:43 and 1:21:22. 
       FIG. 10  illustrates two focus regions  1080 - 1085  that are identified by using a buffer distance. As shown in this figure, the first focus region  1080  is identified by the selected clip shape  1010 , the selected clip shape  1030  and a buffer distance that extends from the start side of the selected clip shape  1010  and the end side of the selected clip shape  1030 .  FIG. 10  also shows that the second focus region  1085  is identified by the selected clip shape  1015  and a buffer distance that extends from both sides of the selected clip shape  1015 . 
     Next, the process identifies (at  1330 ) the initial width of each focus region. The width of the focus region is the width of the selected clip shapes in some embodiments. In other embodiments, the width of the focus region is the collective width of two or more clip shapes that temporally overlap each other. In yet other embodiments, the width of the focus region is the width of the selected clip shape and the buffer distance.  FIG. 10  illustrates an example of focus region  1080  that has a width X 1 , which is the width of the selected clip shape  1010 , the selected clip shape  1030  and a buffer distance. 
     After identifying (at  1330 ) the width, the process identifies (at  1335 ) one or more regions in the composite display area to collapse.  FIG. 10  illustrates an example of regions to collapse in some embodiments. As shown in this figure, the regions to collapse are (1) a first unfocus region that is before the first focus region  1080  and (2) a second unfocus region that is between the first and second focus regions  1080 - 1085 . The first unfocus region includes a part of the unselected clip shape  1035  and a part of the unselected clip shape  1060 . The second unfocus region to collapse includes clip shapes  1045  and  1065 - 1070 . In addition, the second unfocus region to collapse also includes parts of clip shapes  1040  and  1050 . 
     Next, the process identifies (at  1340 ) the total width of all regions to collapse after the focus feature has been applied. In some embodiments, this entails collapsing all clip shapes and computing how much space in the horizontal direction will such collapsed clip shapes collectively occupy in the composite display area.  FIG. 11  illustrates two lines  1110  and  1115  that each represents a particular collapsed region and clip shapes in the particular region. As shown in this figure, the line  1110  has a width of ΔX 1  and the line  1115  has a width of ΔX 2 . 
     Once the total width of the collapsed region is identified (at  1340 ), the process computes (at  1345 ) the new width of each focus region based on the (1) initial width of the focus region, (2) the total width of the collapsed region and (3) the total width of the composite display area. As shown in  FIG. 11 , the total width of the composite display area is W. Some embodiments define (at  1345 ) the width of focus region(s) by subtracting the total width (e.g., ΔX 1 +ΔX 2 ) of the collapsed region from the total width (W) of the composite display area, which yield an available width (W A ). In some embodiments, the available width (W A ) is multiplied by the initial width (e.g., X 1 ) of the focus region. The product of the available width and initial width is then divided by the total width (e.g., X 1 +X 2 ) of the focus regions to yield the new width for the focus region. In some embodiments, computing the new width includes computing a scaling factor for the focus region. This scaling factor can be computed by taking the ratio of the available width over the total width of the focus regions (W A /(X 1 +X 2 )) in some embodiments. This scaling factor is then multiplied to the initial width of the focus region to define the new width for the focus region. 
     Once the process has defined (at  1345 ) the new width for each focus region, the process compress (at  1350 ) any unselected track and adjusts (at  1350 ) the clip shapes based on the defined new width and height and ends. In some embodiments, adjusting the new width of a particular focus region includes adjusting the new width of the clip shapes that are within the particular focus region. The change to the width of the clip shape in the focus region is also proportional to the change in the width of the focus region in some embodiments. For example, if the width of the focus region is increased by 100 percent then the width of any clip shape in the focus region will also increase by 100 percent in some embodiments. In addition to changing the size of clip shapes, the process also adjusts the location of these clip shapes in the composite display area in order to maintain the temporal relationship between the clip shapes that are adjusted. 
     Having described several processes for collapsing clip shapes, Section II will now describes the unpacking of collapsed clip shapes. 
     II. Unpacking Clip Shapes That Have Been Collapsed 
     After working on multimedia clips that have been emphasized or focused on, it may be desirable to work (e.g., edit) on graphical representations that were de-emphasized. Accordingly, some embodiments of the invention provide a feature that unpacks or enlarges some or all of the collapsed or shrunk set of clip shapes. The following Section A describes in detail examples of unpacking or enlarging clip shapes and the subsequent focusing of clip shapes in some embodiments. Section B then describes a process for unpacking clip shapes. 
     A. Examples 
     For some embodiments of the invention,  FIGS. 14-17  illustrate the GUI  400  at different stages during and after the unpacking or enlarging of several clip shapes in the composite display area  415 .  FIG. 14  illustrates the GUI  400  at a first stage  1405  before the unpacking or enlarging of several clip shapes. In some embodiments, the first stage  1405  of  FIG. 14  is a stage that is after the stage  605  that was described above by reference to  FIG. 6 . In stage  1405 , a user positions a cursor over the line  1410  in the set of graphical representations, in order to select this line to unpack the set of graphical representations that it represents. 
       FIG. 15  illustrates the GUI  400  at a second stage  1505  that is after the selection of a single graphical representation (e.g., line) to unpack or enlarge several clip shapes. The line  1410  of  FIG. 14  can be selected by a through a click operation or through a keyboard command in some embodiments. As shown in  FIG. 15 , the set of clip shapes  550  is unpacked in the composite display area  415  when a user selects the line  1410 . This figure further shows that the unpacked set of clip shapes  550  includes a first clip shape  1510 , a second clip shape  1515  and a third clip shape  1520 . In some instances, as shown in  FIG. 15 , unpacking collapsed clip shapes includes enlarging shrunk clip shapes. 
     As further shown in  FIG. 15 , some embodiments adjust the size of some or all emphasized sets of clip shapes in the composite display area  415  to accommodate the unpacking of the set of clip shapes  550 . For example, some embodiments, adjust the size (e.g., reducing the width) of selected clip shapes  1525 - 1530  and  1540 . In addition, some embodiments also adjust the size (e.g., reducing the width) of some or all de-emphasized clip shapes (e.g., clip shape  1535 ) to make room in the composite display area  415  for clip shapes that have been unpacked or enlarged. Different embodiments will adjust the size of clip shapes differently. 
       FIG. 16  illustrates the GUI  400  at a third stage  1605  that is after the selection of clip shape that has been unpacked or enlarged. Specifically, this figure illustrates that the second clip shape  1510  has been selected for focusing (i.e., emphasizing). The selection of the clip shape  1510  is indicated by the darker color of the clip shape  1510  relative to the other clip shapes  1515  and  1520 . 
       FIG. 17  illustrates the GUI  400  in a third stage  1705  after application of the focus feature by the media editing application in some embodiments. In particular, this figure shows the GUI  400  after an unpacked clip shape  1510  has been emphasized. In some embodiments, the unpacked clip shape  1510  is emphasized after a user has selected the focus button  420 . In other embodiments, the unpacked clip shape  1510  is emphasized after a focus command that is invoked through one or more keystroke operations is received. As illustrated in this figure, a first portion of the clip shapes  1515  and  1520  are shown after the focus feature is implemented. The first portion of clip shape  1515  is shown as clip shape  1515   a  and the first portion of clip shape  1520  is shown as clip shape  1520   a . The first portion of the clip shapes  1515   a  and  1520   a  are shown because they are within a buffer distance of the clip shape  1510  in some embodiments. This figure also illustrates that a second portion of the clip shapes  1515  and  1520  have been collapsed into a line  1710  after the focus operation. 
     Moreover,  FIG. 17  shows that a third portion of clip shapes  1515  and  1520  are shown after the focus operation. The third portion of clip shape  1515  is shown as clip shape  1515   b  and the third portion of clip shape  1520  is shown as clip shape  1520   b . The third portion of the clip shapes  1515   b  and  1520   b  are shown because they are within a buffer distance of clip shape  1720  in some embodiments. 
     As shown in  FIG. 17 , some of the other clip shapes in the composite display area  415  are adjusted after the selection of the clip shape  1510 . In some embodiments, this entails changing (e.g., increasing) the width of some or all of the other clip shapes (e.g., selected and unselected clip shapes) in the composite display area  415 . For example, as shown in  FIG. 17 , the widths of clip shapes  1525 - 1540  have been increased in size. Although, the widths of other clip shapes in the composite display area  415  can also be increased. In some embodiments, the widths of the clip shapes are increased differently for different clip shapes. Moreover, some embodiments proportionally increase the widths of the clip shapes. For example, in some embodiments, clip shapes that are between two lines (i.e., lines that represent collapsed clip shapes) are all adjusted proportionally. Thus, when one clip shape between two particular lines is adjusted (e.g., reduce or increase size of width), all other clip shapes between the two particular lines are also proportionally adjusted. In some embodiments, a combination of increasing the width of some of the clip shapes and reducing the width of other clip shapes is implemented. 
     In some cases, a focus operation that is performed after an unpacked clip shape is selected does not change the size of any of the clip shapes in the composite display area. Such a scenario can occur when, the unselected clip shapes are within a buffer distance of any newly selected clip shapes. For example,  FIG. 16  illustrates that clip shapes  1515  and  1520  are unselected clip shapes. Assuming that clip shapes  1515  and  1520  are within a buffer distance (e.g., 2 seconds) of selected clip shapes  1510  and  1720 , these clip shapes  1515 - 1520  would not be collapsed at all. Accordingly, after the focus operation, the GUI  400  during a fourth stage would look similar to the GUI in third stage as shown in  FIG. 16 . 
     Having described a GUI at several stages of implementing unpacking and focusing on clip shapes in some embodiments, a process for performing unpacking and focusing in a media editing application will now be described in Section B. 
     B. Process for Unpacking 
       FIG. 18  illustrates a process  1800  that some embodiments perform to focus and unpack a set of graphical representations in a composite display area of a media editing application. In some embodiments, the process of  FIG. 18  starts when a composite project is opened and clip shapes associated with the composite project are displayed in the composite display area. In some embodiments, the process  1800  starts after the focus feature has been enabled when a selection of a focus option is received from a user. 
     As shown in  FIG. 18 , the process  1800  receives (at  1805 ) a selection of at least one clip shape to focus. Different embodiments receive the selection of the clip shapes differently. In some embodiments, the selection is received when a user selects a particular clip shape through a click operation or a double click operation. The selection of several clip shapes is also received when a user selects various clip shapes by a combination of keystroke operation and click operation (e.g., CRTL+click operation). 
     Next, the process receives (at  1810 ) the selection of a focus command. In some embodiments, the process receives the focus command when a user selects the focus item  420  of  FIG. 4 . In addition, the focus command is received in some embodiments, when a set of keystroke operations is received. 
     After receiving (at  1810 ) the focus command, the process performs (at  1815 ) the focus operation. In some embodiments, the focus operation includes computing the new size of clip shapes in the composite display area and displaying these clip shapes with the new size. An example of a focus operation was previously described above with reference to  FIG. 13 . As shown in  FIG. 13 , the focus operation includes enlarging selected clip shapes and collapsing unselected clip shapes in some embodiments. Different embodiments collapse the clip shapes differently. For instance, some embodiments collapse all or part of any unselected clip shape that is located away from any selected clip shape by at least a particular temporal distance, while increasing the size of all or part of any unselected clip shape that is within the particular temporal distance (e.g., 2 seconds) of the selected clip shape. 
     Moreover, some embodiments uniformly shrink the size of the unselected clip shapes. Other embodiments non-uniformly shrink the size of the unselected clip shapes. In still other embodiments, all unselected clip shapes that are adjacent to each other are uniformly collapsed (e.g., packed) into a single graphical representation (e.g., into a single line or bar). 
     Once the process performs (at  1815 ) the focus operation, the process receives (at  1820 ) a selection of at least one area to unpack. In some embodiments, the selection of the area can be performed by selecting a single graphical representation (e.g., line) that is a representation of collapsed clip shapes.  FIG. 14  illustrates the selection of a line to unpack an area in the composite display area in some embodiments. In other embodiments, an unselected clip shape can also be selected to unpack an area in the composite display area. 
     Next, the process receives (at  1825 ) a command to unpack. Different embodiments receive the command differently. In some embodiments, the command to unpack is one or more keystroke operations. In addition, the command to unpack can be a separate UI item in some embodiments. Moreover, in some embodiments, the command to unpack is the selection of the area (e.g., selection of line that represents the collapsed clip shapes). In such instances, the selection of the area and the command are received (at  1820  and  1825 ) concurrently. In other words, the selection of a particular line is also the command to unpack in some embodiments. 
     After receiving (at  1825 ) the command to unpack, the process unpacks (at  1830 ) the selected area. In some embodiments, unpacking a particular area includes unpacking clip shapes that have been collapsed after a focus operation.  FIG. 15  illustrates the unpacking of clip shapes that were previously collapsed. As shown in this figure, when a particular line is selected, the clip shapes  1510 - 1520  are unpacked. These clip shapes  1510 - 1520  were previously collapsed clip shapes. 
     Different embodiments, unpack the clip shapes differently. In some embodiments, the process unpacks the area or clip shapes by recomputing the size of all the clip shapes based on the unpacked clip shapes. Some embodiments recompute the size of the clip shapes to make room for the unpacked clip shapes. Accordingly, some embodiments shrink the width of all or some of the clip shapes in the composite display area to make room for unpacked clip shapes. Once the clip shapes have been unpacked and the size of the clip shapes have been computed, some embodiments display in the composite display area, the unpacked clip shapes and the clip shapes with the new size.  FIG. 15  illustrates that the width of clip shapes  1525 - 1530  have been shrunk to accommodate the unpacking of the clip shapes  1510 - 1520 . Although the width of other clip shapes can also be shrunk in some embodiments. 
     Next, the process receives (at  1835 ) the selection of at least one clip shape to focus, from the unpacked clip shapes.  FIG. 16  illustrates an example of the selection of one of these unpacked clip shapes. As shown in this figure, clip shape  1510  has been selected for focusing. After receiving the selection of the clip shape to focus, the process receives (at  1840 ) the selection of the focus command. In some embodiments, this includes receiving the selection of the focus item  420 . 
     Once the process receives (at  1840 ) the focus command, the process performs (at  1845 ) the focus operation and ends. In some embodiments, performing the focus operation entails computing the size of the clip shapes based on the selected clip shapes and displaying the clip shapes with the new size.  FIG. 17  illustrates an example of a GUI after the focus operation has been implemented. As shown in this figure, the width of clip shapes  1525 - 1530  have been increased, since part of the unselected clip shapes  1515 - 1520  have been collapsed. However, different embodiments, will adjust the size of clip shapes (e.g., selected and unselected clip shapes) differently. 
     Having describes one approach for unpacking clip shapes after a focus operation, an approach for previewing clip shapes will now be described in Section III. 
     III. Hover Zoom—Providing a Preview of Collapsed Clip Shapes 
     As mentioned above, graphical representations that have been collapsed into a line in a composite display area can be unpacked by selecting (e.g., through click selection) the line associated with the graphical representations. In such instances, the size of other graphical representations (e.g., emphasized and de-emphasized graphical representations) in the composite display area is adjusted as well to make room for the unpacked graphical representations. 
     However, in some instances, it may be preferable to preview enlarged versions of collapsed or shrunk graphical representations (e.g., de-emphasized graphical representations) without affecting the size and/or shape of other graphical representations in the composite display area. Accordingly, some embodiments of the invention provide a feature that automatically presents a preview of a set of de-emphasized graphical representations without affecting the size and/or shape of other graphical representations in the composite display area. In other words, some embodiments provide a feature that allows for the previewing of enlarged versions of collapsed or shrunk graphical representations without actually unpacking the de-emphasized graphical representations in the composite display area. In some embodiments, after the previewing of the packed graphical representations, one or more previewed graphical representation can be unpacked. Thus, the preview feature can be used in addition, or in conjunction with the unpacking feature in some embodiments. The following Section A describes in detail examples of providing a preview of de-emphasized clip shapes in some embodiments. Section B then describes a process for providing a preview of de-emphasized clip shapes. 
     A. Examples 
     For some embodiments of the invention, FIGS.  14  and  19 - 21  illustrate the GUI  400  at different stages of previewing and unpacking several clip shapes. In some embodiments,  FIG. 14  illustrates the GUI  400  at a first stage  1405  before the previewing of several clip shapes. In some embodiments, the first stage  1405  of  FIG. 14  is a stage that is after stage  605  of  FIG. 6 . As shown in  FIG. 14 , a cursor is positioned over the set of graphical representations  620 . The set of graphical representation includes the line  1410 . In some embodiments, the user selects the line  1410  to preview the set of graphical representations  620 . The line  1410  can be selected by a click operation or through a keyboard command in some embodiments. In other embodiments, the line  1410  is automatically selected whenever the cursor is positioned over the line. In such instances, a preview is automatically provided when the cursor is moved over the line  1410 . 
       FIG. 19  illustrates the GUI  400  at a second stage  1905  that is after a display of a preview area of collapsed or shrunk clip shapes. As shown in  FIG. 19 , when a user moves a cursor over the line  1410 , a preview area  1910  that includes a set of clip shapes is provided. In some embodiments, the preview area  1910  is a representative view of the set of clip shapes  550 . As further shown in this figure, the set of clip shapes  550  includes a first clip shape  1915 , a second clip shape  1920  and a third clip shape  1925 . In some embodiments, the size of the set of clip shapes  550  in the preview area  1910  can be their size before the focus operation. Alternatively, the size of the set of clip shapes  550  in the preview area  1910  can be the size that the set of clip shapes  550  would have if the set of clip shapes  550  were selected for focusing in some embodiments. For example, the size of the set of clip shapes  550  would the size of the clip shapes  550  multiplied by the same factor used for enlarging clip shapes that were emphasized in the composite display area. In some embodiments, the representative view of the set of clip shapes  550  does not affect the size of other clip shapes in the composite display area  415 . 
       FIG. 20  illustrates the GUI  400  at a third stage  2005  that is after the selection of a clip shape in the preview area. Specifically, this figure illustrates that the second clip shape  1915  has been selected (e.g., through a click selection) for focusing (i.e., emphasizing). The selection of the clip shape  1915  is indicated by the shading of the clip shape  1915  relative to the other previewed clip shapes  1920  and  1925 . 
       FIG. 21  illustrates the GUI  400  in a fourth stage  2105  after the application of the focus feature by the media editing application in some embodiments. In particular, this figure shows the GUI  400  after a previewed clip shape  1915  has been emphasized. In some embodiments, the previewed clip shape  1915  is emphasized after a user has selected the focus button  420 . In other embodiments, the clip shape is emphasized after a focus command that is invoked through one or more keystroke operation is received. 
     As illustrated in this figure, a first portion of the clip shapes  1920  and  1925  are shown after the focus feature is implemented. The first portion of clip shape  1920  is shown as clip shape  1920   a  and the first portion of clip shape  1925  is shown as clip shape  1925   a . The first portion of the clip shapes  1920   a  and  1925   a  are shown because they are within a buffer distance of the clip shape  1915 . 
       FIG. 21  also illustrates that a second portion of the clip shapes  1920  and  1925  have been collapsed into a line  2110  after the focus operation. Moreover,  FIG. 21  shows that a third portion of clip shapes  1920  and  1925  are shown after the focus operation. The third portion of clip shape  1920  is shown as clip shape  1920   b  and the third portion of clip shape  1925  is shown as clip shape  1925   b . The third portion of the clip shapes  1920   b  and  1925   b  are shown because they are within a buffer distance of the clip shape  2140 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 21 , some of the other clip shapes in the composite display area  415  are adjusted in order to make room for the selected clip shape  1915  in the composite display area  415 . In some embodiments, this entails changing the width of some or all of the other clip shapes (e.g., selected and unselected clip shapes) in the composite display area  415 . For example, as shown in  FIG. 21 , the widths of (1) selected clip shapes  2115  and  2125 - 2135  and unselected clip shapes  2120  have been reduced in size. Although, the widths of other clip shapes in the composite display area  415  can also be reduced. In some embodiments, the widths of the clip shapes are reduced differently for different clip shapes. Moreover, some embodiments proportionally reduce the widths of the clip shapes. For example, in some embodiments, clip shapes that are between two lines (i.e., lines that represent collapsed clip shapes) are all adjusted proportionally. Thus, when one clip shape between two particular lines is adjusted (e.g., reduce or increase size of width), all other clip shapes between the two particular lines are also proportionally adjusted. 
     Having described a GUI at several stages of implementing previewing, unpacking and focusing on clip shapes in some embodiments, a process for previewing, unpacking and focusing in a media editing application will now be described in Section B. 
     B. Process for Providing a Preview 
       FIG. 22  illustrates a process  2200  that some embodiments perform to focus on clip shapes and provide a preview a de-emphasized first set of graphical representations in a composite display area of a media editing application. In some embodiments, the process of  FIG. 22  starts when a composite project is opened and clip shapes associated with the composite project are displayed in the composite display area. In some embodiments, the process  1800  starts after the focus feature has been enabled when a selection of a focus option is received from a user. In some embodiments,  FIG. 22  is similar to  FIG. 18 , except for  1820 - 1835 . As shown in  FIG. 22 , the process  2200  receives (at  2205 ) a selection of at least one clip shape to focus. Different embodiments receive the selection of the clip shapes differently. In some embodiments, the selection is received when a user selects a particular clip shape through a click operation or a double click operation. The selection of several clip shapes is also received when a user selects various clip shape by a combination of keystroke operation and click operation (e.g., CRTL+click operation). 
     Next, the process receives (at  2210 ) the selection of a focus command. In some embodiments, the process receives the focus command when a user selects the focus item  420  of  FIG. 4 . In addition, the focus command is received in some embodiments, when a set of keystroke operations is received. 
     After receiving (at  2210 ) the focus command, the process performs (at  2215 ) the focus operation. In some embodiments, the focus operation includes computing the new size of clip shapes in the composite display area and displaying these clip shapes with the new size. An example of a focus operation was previously described above with reference to  FIG. 13 . As shown in  FIG. 13 , the focus operation includes enlarging selected clip shapes and collapsing unselected clip shapes in some embodiments. 
     Different embodiments collapse the clip shapes differently. For instance, some embodiments collapse all or part of any unselected clip shape that is located away from any selected clip shape by at least a particular temporal distance, while increasing the size of all or part of any unselected clip shape that is within the particular temporal distance (e.g., 2 seconds) of the selected clip shape. 
     Moreover, some embodiments uniformly shrink the size of the unselected clip shapes. Other embodiments non-uniformly shrink the size of the unselected clip shapes. In still other embodiments, all unselected clip shapes that are adjacent to each other are uniformly collapsed (e.g., packed) into a single graphical representation (e.g., into a single line or bar). 
     Once the process performs (at  2215 ) the focus operation, the process receives (at  2220 ) a selection of at least one area to preview. In some embodiments, the selection of the area can be performed by selecting a single graphical representation (e.g., line) that is a representation of collapsed clip shapes. In some embodiments, the selection is received (at  2215 ) when a cursor is positioned over the area or line and a set of keystroke operation is received. 
     Next, the process receives (at  2225 ) a command to preview a collapsed area. Different embodiments receive the command differently. In some embodiments, the command to preview is one or more keystroke operations. In addition, the command to preview can be a received through a separate UI item in some embodiments. Moreover, in some embodiments, the command to preview is the selection of the area (e.g., selection of line that represents the collapsed clip shapes). In such instances, the selection of the area and the command are received (at  2220  and  2225 ) concurrently. In other words, when a particular line is selected, the selection of the particular line is also the command to preview in some embodiments. For example the selection and command are concurrently received when a cursor is positioned over the line or area that is collapsed in some embodiments. 
     After receiving (at  2225 ) the command to preview, the process provides (at  2230 ) a preview area that includes unpacked clip shapes. In some embodiments, the preview area is similar to the preview area  1920  as described in  FIG. 19 . The preview area allows a user to view a collapsed area without having to unpack the collapsed clip shapes. Accordingly, the size of the other clip shapes in the composite display area does not need to be adjusted. 
     Next, the process receives (at  2235 ) the selection of at least one clip shape to focus, from the clip shapes in the preview area.  FIG. 20  illustrates an example of the selection of one of these clip shapes in a preview area. As shown in this figure, the clip shape  1915  has been selected for focusing. After receiving the selection of the clip shape to focus, the process receives (at  2240 ) the selection of the focus command. In some embodiments, this includes receiving the selection of the focus item  420 . 
     Once the process receives (at  2240 ) the focus command, the process performs (at  2245 ) the focus operation and ends. In some embodiments, performing the focus operation entails computing the size of the clip shapes based on the selected clip shapes and displaying the clip shapes with the new size.  FIG. 21  illustrates an example of a GUI after the focus operation has been implemented. As shown in this figure, the width of clip shapes  2115 - 2135  have been decreased, since clip shape  1915  has been expanded. However, different embodiments, will adjust the size of clip shapes (e.g., selected and unselected clip shapes) differently. In some embodiments, none of the sizes of the clip shapes are adjusted after a focus operation. 
     IV. Focusing Based on Track Selection 
     In the previous sections, the graphical representations in the composite display area are selected by directly selecting the graphical representation (i.e., directly selecting the clip shapes in the composite display area). However, in some instances, it may be more practical for a user to select tracks than graphical representations. Alternatively, some users may prefer to focus on a particular track than on one particular graphical representation. Accordingly, some embodiments of the invention allow user to indirectly select one or more graphical representations by selecting a track. Such examples of track selection will now be described in Section A. Section B then describes a process for emphasizing clip shapes by selecting a track. 
     A. Examples 
     For some embodiments of the invention,  FIGS. 23-26  illustrate a GUI  2300  of a media editing application with such a focus feature at four different stages.  FIG. 23  illustrates the GUI  2300  at a first stage  2305  that is before a selection of a track.  FIG. 24  illustrates the GUI  2300  at a second stage  2405  that is after a selection of a first track.  FIG. 25  illustrates the GUI  2300  at a third stage  2505  that is after the selection of several other tracks.  FIG. 26  illustrates the GUI  2300  at a fourth stage  2605  that is after an application of a focus feature by the media editing application. 
     As shown in  FIG. 23 , the GUI  2300  includes a display area  2310 , a composite display area  2315  and a focus UI item  2316 . The display area  2310  displays a preview of a composite presentation that the application creates by compositing several media clips. The composite display area  2315  provides a visual representation of the composite presentation being created by the user. Specifically, it displays one or more clip shapes representing one or more media clips that are part of the composite presentation. In the example illustrated in  FIG. 23 , the composite display area  2315  is an area that includes multiple tracks  2341 - 2349  that span a timeline  2322 . Each track can hold one or more clip shapes. For example, the track  2349  holds a clip shape  2327 . Each track also has a track header that identifies the track. For example, the track header would be the region that indicates the name (e.g., AMB FX1, SPOT FX1) of the track in some embodiments. 
     The focus UI item  2316  is a conceptual illustration of one or more UI item that allows the media editing application to implement its focus feature for emphasizing a first subset of clip shapes over a second subset of clip shapes in the composite display area  2315 . Different embodiments of the invention implement this UI item differently. Some embodiments implement it as a focus UI button, others as a focus command that can be selected in a pull-down or drop-down menu, and still others as a focus command that can be invoked through one or more keystroke operations. Yet other embodiments allow the user to access the focus feature through two or more of such UI implementations or other UI implementations. 
     The operation of the GUI  2300  will now be described by reference to the state of the GUI during the first, second third and fourth stages  2305 ,  2405 ,  2505  and  2605  that are illustrated in  FIGS. 23-26 .  FIG. 23  illustrates the GUI  2300  in the first stage  2305 . As shown in this figure, the composite display area  2315  displays clip shapes on several tracks  2341 - 2349  defined along the timeline  2322 . These clip shapes represent media clips that are being composited to form a composite presentation. 
       FIG. 24  illustrates the GUI  2300  in the second stage after the selection of the first track  2349 . As shown in this figure, the selection of the first track  2349  is illustrated by the shading of the background area of the first track  2349 . In some embodiments, the selection of the first track  2349  is done by selecting (e.g., through a cursor) the track head of the first track  2349  (i.e., by selecting track head “SPOT FX4”). As previously mentioned, the first track  2349  includes a clip shape  2327 . Accordingly, the clip shape  2327  is indirectly selected when the first track  2349  is selected in some embodiments. 
       FIG. 25  illustrates the GUI  2300  in the third stage  2505  after the selection of other tracks. Specifically this figure the selection of tracks  2510 - 2515  through their respective track heads (i.e., through cursor selection of “DIAL 1” and “DIAL 2”). Both tracks  2510 - 2515  have been selected, as indicated by the shading of these tracks  2510 - 2515 . The track  2510  has a clip shape  2520  and the track  2515  has a clip shape  2525 . When the tracks  2510 - 2515  are selected, the clip shapes  2520 - 2525  are indirectly selected. 
       FIG. 26  illustrates the GUI  2300  in the fourth stage  2605  after the application of the focus feature by the media editing application in some embodiments. Specifically, the GUI  2300  in  FIG. 26  illustrates the composite display area  2315  after the selection of the focus UI item  2316  by a user. The selection of the focus UI item  2316  is illustrated through the shading of the focus UI item  2316  in some embodiments. As shown in  FIG. 26 , the selection of the UI item  2316  results in the enlarging of clip shapes  2327  and  2520 - 2525 . 
     In addition to showing the enlarging of clip shapes through the selection of a track,  FIG. 26  further shows the collapsing of several tracks into a single track  2620 . In some embodiments, the collapsed track  2620  represents all tracks between the track  2349  and the track  2515 . As shown in this figure, the track  2620  includes several clip shapes. These clip shapes represent collapsed clip shapes on tracks that have not been selected for emphasizing in some embodiments. 
     In some embodiments, tracks can also be selected by using a window, such as a drop down or pop-up menu window, that provides a list of tracks. In some embodiments, a user can select tracks on this list. One advantage of using a window is that it allows a user to select tracks that are not displayed in the composite display area  2315 . Without the menu, if a user wanted to select a particular track that is not displayed in the composite display area  2315 , the user would have to scroll up or down the composite display area  2315  until the desired track is displayed. Thus, with the window, a user can efficiently select tracks to focus on without having to scroll back and forth in the composite display area  2315 . 
     Having described a GUI at several stages of implementing a focus feature of some embodiments, a process for performing a focus operation by selecting a track will now be described in Section B. 
     B. Process for Selecting Track 
       FIG. 27  illustrates a process  2700  that some embodiments perform to focus on a first set of graphical representations in a composite display area of a media editing application. In some embodiments, the process of  FIG. 27  starts when a user enables the focus feature in the media editing application (e.g., by selecting a focus option). As shown in  FIG. 27 , the process  2700  receives (at  2705 ) the selection of one or more tracks on a composite display area (e.g., timeline).  FIG. 24  illustrates the selection of track  2349  (as indicated by the darker shade of track  2349 ) in some embodiments. As shown in this figure the selection of the track is performed by selecting the track head of the track  2349 . In this example, the track head is the area of the track that is shown with the text “SPOT FX4”. However, other embodiments can select the track by selecting other parts of the tracks. In addition, a track can be selected by selecting a clip shape that is on the track in some embodiments.  FIG. 25  illustrates another example of selecting tracks in some embodiments. As shown in this example, tracks  2510 - 2515  have been selected (as indicated by the darker shade of the tracks relative to other tracks in the composite display area).  FIG. 25  does not illustrate the selected track  2349  because a scroll tool was used to scroll up the composite display area. 
     After receiving (at  2705 ) the selection of the tracks, the process marks (at  2710 ) the track as a selected track. In some embodiments, marking (at  2710 ) the track includes providing a visual indication that the track has been selected. For example, some embodiments highlight the particular selected track with a different color (e.g., shading), such as shown and previously described by reference to  FIG. 24 . 
     Next, the process identifies (at  2715 ) clip shapes to focus based on the selected tracks. In some embodiments, the clip shapes that are identified for focusing are the clip shapes that are on the tracks that are selected.  FIGS. 23 and 25  illustrate examples of clip shapes that are identified for focusing. 
     Next, the process receives (at  2720 ) a focus command. In some embodiments, the focus command is received by the process when a user selects the focus item  420 . In some embodiments, the focus command is received when one or more keystroke operations are performed by the user. 
     After receiving (at  2720 ) the focus command, the process performs (at  2725 ) the focus operation on the identified clip shapes and ends. Different embodiments perform the focus operation differently. Some embodiments enlarge the identified clip shapes while collapsing any unselected track. In some embodiments, performing the focus operation includes displaying the enlarged clip shapes and collapsed unselected tracks.  FIG. 26  illustrates an example of a GUI after the focus operation in some embodiments. As shown in this figure, the clip shapes  2327  and  2520 - 2525  are enlarged, while all unselected tracks have been collapsed. 
     The process  2700  describes indirectly selecting a clip shape for focusing through the selection of a track. The previously described processes  1200 ,  1800  and  2200  of  FIGS. 12 ,  18  and  22  describes selecting clip shapes directly in order to perform a focus operation. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will realize that some embodiments will allow a user to select clip shapes for performing a focus operation through both a direct selection method (e.g., as illustrated by process  1200  and examples in  FIGS. 4-6 ) and an indirect selection method that is illustrated by process  2700  and examples in  FIGS. 24-26 . Once the focus operation has been performed a user can work on creating the composite multimedia presentation, such as editing the multimedia clips by modifying the graphical representations. However, before describing the editing of the multimedia clips, Section V will describe a playback feature of a media editing application in some embodiments. 
     V. Playback After Focus Operation 
     In some instances, a user may want to preview how clip shapes will look and sound. A playback feature of a media editing application allows a user to preview clip shapes in the display area  410 . In some embodiments, the playback feature can implemented while the focus feature is still in effect. In other words, even when clip shapes are collapsed or enlarged, some embodiments allow a user to playback clips that are on the composite display area  415 . 
       FIGS. 28-29  illustrate how the playback feature is performed in the media editing application. Specifically,  FIGS. 28-29  illustrate the GUI  400  at two different stages when the playback of the media clips is performed.  FIGS. 28-29  are similar to the GUI  400  of  FIGS. 9 and 11 , except that the GUI  400  includes a playhead  2810 .  FIG. 28  illustrates the GUI  400  at a first stage  2805  during playback before a focus feature has been implemented by the media editing application.  FIG. 29  illustrates the GUI  400  at a second stage  2905  during playback after the focus feature has been implemented by the media editing application. 
     As shown in  FIG. 28 , during playback, the media editing application displays in the display area  410  the media clips that correspond to several clip shapes. Specifically, this figure shows that as the playhead  2810  moves from point A to point B, the display area  410  display several media clips, which are associated with the clip shapes  1035 ,  1010 ,  1040 ,  1045 ,  1050  and  1015 . As shown in  FIG. 28 , the display area  410  sequentially displays (1) a media clip that has a car scene, (2) a media clip that has road scene, (3) a media clip that has train station scene, (4) a media clip that has a train scene, (5) a media clip that has a airport scene, and (6) a media clip that has an airplane scene. 
       FIG. 29  illustrates the playback after a focus feature has been implemented by a media editing application. This figure shows that after the focus operation, (1) selected clip shapes  1010 - 1030 , (2) clip shape  1055  and (3) portions of clip shapes  104  and  1050  have been enlarged. As shown in this figure, the playback after a focus feature has been implemented is similar to the playback shown in  FIG. 28 , except that some of the media clips are not shown in the display area  410 . In this particular example, as the playhead  2810  moves from point A to B, the display area  410  displays media clips which are associated with the emphasized clip shapes  1035 ,  1010 ,  1040 ,  1050  and  1015 . Thus, in this particular example, the media clip associated with the clip shape  1045  is not shown in the display area  410  (i.e., the train scene of clip shape  1045  is not shown). 
     In addition, as the playhead  2810  moves along the timeline, in some embodiments, only a portion of the media clips associated with clip shapes  1035 - 1040  and  1050  are shown. This notion is conceptually illustrated in  FIG. 29  by the truncated clip shapes  1035 - 1040  and  1050  in the projection area of the display area. In this particular example, the display area  410  would only display a portion of the car scene (e.g., last second of clip shape  1035 ), a portion of the train station scene (e.g., the first 2 seconds of clip shape  1040 ) and a portion of the airport scene (e.g., the last 1 second of clip shape  1050 ). In addition, some embodiments may display media clips associated with clip shapes  1035 - 1040  and  1050  at a faster rate. 
     The playback feature can also be similarly applied to audio clips. Accordingly, in some embodiments, when audio clips are played back after implementing a focus feature, the media editing application may (1) skip one or more of the audio clips, (2) play a portion of the audio clip, and/or (3) play the audio clip(s) at a faster rate. Having described several focusing features of a media editing application, the following Section VI will now describe the editing and usage of clip shapes in some embodiments. 
     VI. Edit and Usage 
     The use of the focus feature provides several benefits and advantages to a user of a media editing application. For example, the focus features reduces “clutter” in the composite display area by allowing a user to emphasize clip shapes of interest or clip shapes that the user is currently working on from clip shapes that the user is not currently interested in. In addition, the focus feature allows the user to view several clip shapes that would otherwise not be displayed together in the composite display area. In particular, the focus feature allows non-adjacent clip shapes to be focused on (e.g., enlarged) without focusing on (e.g., without enlarging) any clip shape that might be between the two non-adjacent clip shapes in the composite display area. In other words, two non-continuous areas of the composite display area can be emphasized (e.g., enlarged) without also emphasizing an area between the two non-continuous areas. 
     Accordingly, the focus feature is helpful in making it easier and faster for users to edit media clips that are used to create the composite multimedia presentation. For example, the focus feature allows a user to easily perform consistent editing operations on several media clips that are separated by a sufficiently large duration of time and/or one more sufficiently large sequence of tracks. In some cases, consistent editing operations on such media clips can include the same editing operations, similar editing operations, and/or different editing operations that are needed to produce a desired composite presentation. A particular editing operation can be a color correction operation, a special effects operation, a scaling operation, an opacity operation, a rotation operation. In some embodiments, these editing operations can be performed after receiving a selection of one or more emphasized clip shapes. The selection of these emphasized clip shapes to perform editing operations are similar to the selection of clip shapes prior to a focus operation. 
       FIG. 30  illustrates how the focus feature allows a user to accurately align media clips that are on different tracks. In some embodiments,  FIG. 30  illustrates the GUI  400  at a fourth stage  3005  that is after the third stage  1105  in  FIG. 11 . As shown in this figure, the clip shape  1020  and clip shape  1030  are on different tracks. The start time of clip shape  1030  along the timeline should be the same as the start time of the clip shape  1020 . However, as shown in this figure, the start of the clip shape  1030  is after the start of the clip shape  1020 . Before the focus operation, it is difficult to accurately align these two clip shapes  1020  and  1030  because several tracks separated the two clip shapes  1020  and  1030  (See  FIG. 10 ). However, as a result of the focus operation, these two clip shapes  1020  and  1030  are vertically closer to each other because any track that was between the two clip shapes  1020  and  1030  have been collapsed. Accordingly, it is much easier for a user to accurately align these two clip shapes  1020  and  1030 . As shown in this figure, the alignment is performed through a click and drag operation of the clip shape  1030  in some embodiments. 
     In some embodiments, the editing of clip shapes after a focus operation is not limited to aligning clip shapes to other clip shapes. For example, some embodiments allow clip shapes to be moved across one or more collapsed regions. Such an example is illustrated in  FIG. 31 . Specifically, this figure illustrates an emphasized clip shape that is moved from a first location to a second location across a collapsed region in the composite display area. This figure illustrates the GUI  400  at a fourth stage  3105 . In some embodiments, the fourth stage  3105  is after the third stage  1105  in  FIG. 11 . As shown in  FIG. 31 , an emphasized clip shape  1025  has been moved from its first location to a second location that is across a collapsed region (e.g., line  3110 ) in the composite display area  415 . In some embodiments, an emphasized clip shape can be moved across a collapsed region as long as the entire emphasized clip shape “crosses” the collapsed region. In other words, if any move causes any part of the emphasized clip shape to lie within the collapsed region of the composite display area, then such a move will not be allowed in some embodiments. 
     By allowing a clip shape to be moved across a collapsed region, the focus feature makes it easier for a user to move a clip shape from one end of the timeline to another end of the timeline (e.g., from the end of the timeline to the beginning of the timeline). In addition to moving clip shapes across one or more collapsed regions, clip shapes can also be moved from one track to another in some embodiments. Having described the advantages of the focus feature when performing editing operation, a process that performs the focus feature and editing will now be described by reference to  FIG. 32 . 
       FIG. 32  illustrates a process  3200  that some embodiments perform to edit graphical representations in a composite display area of a media editing application. In some embodiments, the process of  FIG. 32  starts after a focus command has been received from a user (e.g., when a user selects the focus item  420 ). As shown in  FIG. 32 , the process  3200  initially performs (at  3205 ) a focus operation. In some embodiments, the focus operation includes process  1300  of  FIG. 13 . Thus, some embodiments enlarge selected graphical representations and collapse unselected graphical representations when performing the focus operation. In addition, performing (at  3205 ) the focus operation also includes displaying graphical representations that have been adjusted (e.g., enlarged, collapsed) in some embodiments. 
     Next, the process determines (at  3210 ) whether a request to modify the focus operation has been received. For example, the process  3200  determines (at  3210 ) whether a selection of a line that represents a collapsed area or collapsed graphical representations has been received. If a request is received (at  3210 ), the process proceeds to  3215  to modify the focus operation. In some embodiments, modifying the focus operation includes unpacking one or more of the collapsed areas or collapsed graphical representations in the composite display area, as shown in  FIGS. 15-17 . In some embodiments, modifying the focus operation includes modifying the size of some or all of the graphical representations in a composite display area. This entails recomputing the size of the graphical representations (e.g., selected clip shapes and unselected clip shapes) in some embodiments. In addition to modifying the size of some or all of the graphical representations, modifying (at  3215 ) includes displaying the modified graphical representations. 
     After modifying (at  3215 ) the focus operation, the process proceeds back to  3210  to determine whether a request to modify the focus operation has been received. For example, the process determines (at  3210 ) whether a selection of another line that represents another collapsed area or collapsed clip shapes has been received. 
     When the process does not receive (at  3210 ) a request, the process determines (at  3220 ) whether an edit command has been received. This edit command can be any command that modifies one or more of the media clips represented by graphical representations. For example, the edit command can be a command to (1) move a clip shape (e.g., from one track to another track) and/or (2) change a duration of a clip shape. When an edit command is received, the process performs (at  3225 ) an edit operation based on the edit command. Moreover, in some embodiments, performing the edit operation includes displaying in the composite display area, the clip shapes after edit operation. 
     After performing ( 3225 ) the edit operation, the process determines (at  3220 ) whether another edit command has been received. If so, the process performs (at  3225 ) another edit operation. However, when the process determines (at  3220 ) that an edit command has not been received, the process determines (at  3230 ) whether to terminate the focus feature. In some embodiments, the process determines (at  3230 ) to terminate the focus feature when an unfocus command is received. For example, the process determines to terminate the focus feature when a user selects the focus item  420 . If an unfocus command is not received, the process proceeds back to  3210  to determine whether a request to modify the focus operation has been received. However, when the process determines (at  3230 ) to terminate the focus feature (e.g., because a user has selected the focus item  420 , which disables the focus feature in some embodiments or because a time out has occurred (no action received from user for a threshold period of time)), the process undoes (at  3235 ) the focus operation performed (at  3205  or  3215 ) and ends. 
     Accordingly, when undoing (at  3235 ) the focus operation, some embodiments change the size of clip shapes back to their previous size prior to the focus operation. However, when one or more edit operations have been performed (at  3225 ) on clip shapes, some embodiments do not undo changes made to the clip shapes when undoing the focus operation. Thus, in some embodiments, the location and/or size of some of the clip shapes can be different than the location and/or size of these clip shapes prior to the focus operation. In some embodiments, undoing the focus operation (at  3235 ) also includes displaying the clip shapes without the focus operation being implemented. 
     Having described editing and usage in a media editing application, the following Section VII will now describe in detail the software architecture of a media editing application in some embodiments. 
     VII. Editing Software Architecture 
     In some embodiments, the processes described above are implemented as software running on a particular machine, such as a computer or a handheld device, or stored in a computer readable medium.  FIG. 33  conceptually illustrates the software architecture of a media-editing application  3300  of some embodiments. In some embodiments, the media-editing application is a stand-alone application or is integrated into another application, while in other embodiments the application might be implemented within an operating system. 
     The media editing application  3300  includes a user interface interaction module  3315  for sending data to and receiving data from a user, a focus module  3317  for processing selected and unselected clip shapes in a composite display area, an editing module  3320  for receiving and processing edits to a composite project, a preview generator  3325  for creating a composite presentation based on stored project data, a rendering engine  3330  used to generate image data for storage or display, and a set of storages  3335  for storing data used by the application  3300 . The set of storages  3335  includes storages for project data  3340 , content data  3345 , as well as other data  3350  (e.g., data about media objects in a video scene). The sub-components of the preview generator  3325  of some embodiments are shown in breakout section  3355 . As shown, the preview generator includes a preview processor  3360 , a section identifier  3365 , and a fetcher  3370 . 
     The operating system  3310  of some embodiments includes a cursor controller driver  3375  that allows the application  3300  to receive data from a cursor control device, a keyboard driver  3380  for that allows the application  3300  to receive data from a keyboard, an audio module  3385  for processing audio data that will be supplied to an audio device (e.g., a soundcard and speakers), and a display module  3390  for processing video data that will be supplied to a display device (e.g., a monitor). 
     A user interacts with items in the user interface of the media editing application  3300  via input devices (not shown) such as a cursor controller (e.g., a mouse, touchpad, trackpad, etc.) and/or keyboard. The input from these devices is processed by the cursor controller driver  3375  and/or the keyboard driver  3380 , and passed to the user interface interaction module  3315 . 
     The user interface interaction module  3315  translates the data from the drivers  3375  and  3380  into the user&#39;s desired effect on the media editing application  3300 . For example, when the user edits content in a display area of the media editing application, the user interface interaction module  3315  may translate these edits into instructions that are processed by the editing module  3320  in some embodiments. In other embodiments, the edits may be applied directly to project data  3340 , or other data stored by the application  3300  in the set of storages  3335 . The user interface interaction module  3315  also receives input data that is translated as instructions to preview visual content in a preview display area (for example, if a user clicks a play control while editing a media project). This information is passed to preview generator  3325  through the editing module  3320  in some embodiments. 
     The focus module  3317  processes instructions received from the user interface module  3315  and data retrieved from the set of data storages  3335 . In some embodiments, the focus module  3317  also sends instructions and/or data to the preview generator  3325 . For example, during playback of one or more clips, the focus module  3317  may send instructions to the preview generator  3325  about which clip on a timeline to play or display. In some embodiments, the focus module  3317  can perform some or all of the operations of processes  1200 ,  1300 ,  2200 ,  1800  and  2700 . 
     The editing module  3320  of some embodiments processes edit instructions received from the user interface interaction module  3315  and data retrieved from the set of data storages  3335 . The editing module  3320  may also create and/or update data stored within the set of data storages  3335  based on received instructions that affect the project data  3340 , content  3345 , or other stored data  3350 . In addition, the editing module  3320  may send instructions and/or data to the preview generator  3325  of some embodiments. Furthermore, the editing module  3320  may also send data and/or instructions to the rendering engine  3330  of some embodiments. 
     The preview generator  3325  of some embodiments generates a preview based on instructions received from the editing module  3320 , the focus module  3317  and/or the user interface interaction module  3315  and project data stored in storage  3340 , content stored in storage  3345 , and/or other data stored in storage  3350 . In some embodiments, preview generator  3325  also generates a preview window (through the user interface interaction module  3315 ) after generating the preview, and manages the movement of the preview window. In some of these embodiments, the preview generator  3325  may also provide content to the user interface interaction module  3315  for display. 
     The operation of the preview generator  3325  will be further described in reference to breakout section  3355 . As shown, the preview generator of some embodiments includes a preview processor  3360  that may be used to communicate with the editing module  3320 , send and receive data to and from the user interface interaction module  3315  and/or the set of data storages  3335 . In addition, the preview processor  3360  may be used to send and receive data to and from the section identifier  3365  and/or the fetcher  3370 . In some embodiments, the preview processor  3360  sends timeline data to the section identifier  3365 , which generates a table or other appropriate set of data. In some embodiments, the section identifier  3365  identifies which frames in unselected media clips are going to be played during playback. For example, the section identifier  3365  may identify the frames associated with the first two seconds (e.g., frames  1 - 60 ) of a particular unselected media clips as clip to play during playback. 
     In some embodiments, the preview processor  3360  may supply the set of data (e.g., a segment table or frame set) generated by the section identifier  3365  to the fetcher  3370 . In some embodiments, audio data may be passed directly to the user interface interaction module, while video data is processed through the fetcher  3370 . In other embodiments, the preview processor  3360  may supply both audio and video data to the user interface interaction module  3315 . If project data, content, and/or other data are edited, that modified data is passed to the preview generator  3325  so that a new preview can be generated. 
     The fetcher  3370  of some embodiments retrieves frames of video data from the set of data storages  3335  based on data provided by the preview processor  3360 . In some embodiments, the fetcher  3370  may also receive data from the editing module  3320  or focus module  3317  (either directly, or through the preview processor  3360 ). The data received by the fetcher  3370  may take the form of a table or list of frames. In addition to processing video frames through the fetcher  3370 , some embodiments may use the fetcher to retrieve and send audio data. 
     The rendering engine  3330  enables the storage or output of audio and video from the media editing application  3300 . For example, rendering engine  3330  uses data about media objects in a video scene to render the video scene from the particular location, direction, etc. defined by a camera object. As such, the rendering engine receives, in some embodiments, data from the editing module  3320  so that a preview can be displayed. In other embodiments (not shown), the rendering engine  3330  may receive data from the preview generator  3325  in order to generate a preview display. The data from the rendering engine  3330  (e.g., audio and video data of a video scene, preview data, etc.) is passed to the display module  3390  and/or the audio module  3385 . The audio module enables audio from the media editing application  3300  on an audio device (e.g., a set of speakers or headphones). The display module  3390  enables the display of the media editing application  3300  on a display device (e.g., a CRT monitor, LCD screen, etc.). Alternatively, data may be passed from the rendering engine  3330  to the set of storages  3335  for later playback. 
     While many of the features have been described as being performed by one module (e.g., the UI interaction module  3315  or preview generator  3325 ), one of ordinary skill would recognize that a particular operation might be split up into multiple modules, and the performance of one feature might even require multiple modules in some embodiments. In addition, the application  3300  may include a separate audio module that performs functions analogous to the fetcher  3370 . 
     Furthermore, in some embodiments, the application is provided as part of a server-based (e.g., web-based) solution. In some such embodiments, the application is provided via a thin client. That is, the application runs on a server while a user interacts with the application via a separate client machine remote from the server (e.g., via a browser on the client machine). In other such embodiments, the application is provided via a thick client. That is, the application is distributed from the server to the client machine and runs on the client machine. 
     The present application describes a graphical user interface that provides users with numerous ways to perform different sets of operations and functionalities. In some embodiments, these operations and functionalities are performed based on different commands that are received from users through different input devices (e.g., keyboard, trackpad, touchpad, mouse, etc). For example, the present application describes the use of a cursor in the graphical user interface to control (e.g., select, move) objects in the graphical user interface. 
     However, in some embodiments, objects in the graphical user interface can also be controlled or manipulated through other controls, such as touch control. In some embodiments, touch control is implemented through an input device that can detect the presence and location of touch on a display of the device. An example of such a device is a touch screen device. In some embodiments, with touch control, a user can directly manipulate objects by interacting with the graphical user interface that is displayed on the display of the touch screen device. For instance, a user can select a particular object in the graphical user interface by simply touching that particular object on the display of the touch screen device. As such, when touch control is utilized, a cursor may not even be provided for enabling selection of an object of a graphical user interface in some embodiments. However, when a cursor is provided in a graphical user interface, touch control can be used to control the cursor in some embodiments. 
     Having described a software architecture of a media editing application, the following Section VIII will now describe a process for designing a media editing application in some embodiments. 
     VIII. Process for Designing a Media Editing Application 
     The above software architecture of the media editing application can be manufactured by defining one or more modules that can perform the operations and functionalities described above. An example of manufacturing a computer readable storage medium that stores a computer program for performing the above features is described below with reference to  FIG. 34 . In some embodiments, the computer readable storage medium is a disk (e.g., CD, DVD, hard disk, etc.) or a solid-state storage device (e.g., flash memory). In some embodiments, the computer readable storage medium is only a CD. 
       FIG. 34  conceptually illustrates a process  3400  of some embodiments for defining a media-editing application of some embodiments, such as application  3300 . Specifically, process  3400  illustrates the operations used to define several of the objects and tool shown in the GUI  400 . As shown in  FIG. 34 , the process  3400  begins by defining (at  3405 ) a composite display area for displaying graphical representations of a set of media clips. The composite display area  415  in  FIG. 4  is one example of such a display area. 
     The process then defines (at  3410 ) a display area for displaying a composite presentation that is created by compositing the set of media clips. For instance, the preview display area  410  is such a display area. Next, the process defines (at  3415 ) a focus user interface tool for invoking the focus feature. The focus item  420  is an example of such a user interface tool. In other embodiments, defining the focus tool comprises defining one or more keyboard command for invoking the focus feature. In some embodiments, defining the focus tool can also include defining a track menu for selecting tracks to focus. 
     After defining (at  3415 ) the focus user interface tool for invoking the focus feature, the process defines (at  3420 ) rules and processes for enlarging, collapsing and shrinking clip shapes. In some embodiments, this includes defining (1) how to compress a track that does not include any selected clip shape, (2) how to identify focus regions, (3) how to specify buffer zones. An example of a process that performs the focus operation based on these defined rules is shown in  FIG. 13 . 
     The process then defines (at  3425 ) rules and processes for unpacking collapsed clip shapes. An example of unpacking is described in process  1800 .  FIGS. 14-17  also illustrates a GUI during an unpacking process. 
     After defining (at  3425 ) rules and processes for unpacking, the process  3400  defines (at  3430 ) a hover tool for previewing the unpacking of collapsed clip shapes.  FIGS. 19-21  illustrate several examples of such previewing of unpacked collapsed clip shapes. In addition, a process for using the hover tool is show in  FIG. 22 . 
     Next, the process defines (at  3435 ) rules and processes for generating playback of one or more clips. Several examples of these rules and processes were described above in reference to  FIGS. 28-29 . 
     After defining the process for defining (at  3435 ) rules and processes for generating playback, the process defines (at  3440 ) rules and processes for editing clip shapes after a focus operation. In some embodiments, editing includes (1) moving clip shapes from one location to another, and/or (2) performing color correction on media clips. Several examples of these rules and processes were described above in reference to  FIGS. 30-31 . 
     The process then defines (at  3445 ) other media editing tools and functionalities. Examples of such editing tools may include zoom, color enhancement, blemish removal, audio mixing, etc. In addition, various other media editing functionalities may be defined. Such functionalities may include library functions, format conversion functions, etc. The process defines these additional tools in order to create a media editing application that has many additional features to the features described above. 
     A more detailed view of a media editing application with these additional features is illustrated in  FIG. 35 . Specifically, this figure shows a media editing application with a list of video clips  3505 , video editing tools  3510 , and video displays  3515 . The list of video clips  3505  includes video clips along with metadata (e.g., timecode information) about the video clips. In some embodiments, the list of video clips is the list of video clips in a particular sequence of video clips, and the metadata specifies in and out points, durations, etc. for the video clips. 
     The video editing tools  3510  include tools that allow a user to graphically set in and out points for video clips (in other words, where in the final product a specific clip or part of a clip will be shown). For instance, the video editing tools  3510  include a number of timelines that can be used to modify the temporal sequence of the video frame and to synchronize audio tracks with video tracks (e.g., in order to add music over a video clip). In some embodiments, video editing tools  3510  also give users the ability to edit in effects or perform other video editing functions. 
     Video displays  3515  allow a user to watch multiple video clips at once, thereby enabling easier selection of in and out points for the video clips. The screen shot  3500  illustrates a few of many different editing tools that a video editing application of some embodiments may have to edit digital video. 
     In some cases, some or all of the video clips that are displayed in the list of video clips  3505 , played in displays  3515 , and edited by a user with video editing tools  3510 , are video clips of real-world objects (e.g., people, landscapes, etc.) filmed by a camera and include real-world audio (e.g., conversations, real-world noises, etc.) recorded by a camera, microphone, etc. In some cases, some or all of the video clips are computer-generated animations or include computer generated animations (e.g., animated objects, computer-generated effects, etc.). 
     The process  3400  then stores (at  3450 ) the defined media editing application on a computer readable storage medium and ends. The computer readable storage medium may be a disk (e.g., CD, DVD, hard disk, etc.) or a solid-state storage device (e.g., flash memory) in some embodiments. 
     One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the various elements defined by process  3400  are not exhaustive of the modules, rules, processes, and UI items that could be defined and stored on a computer readable storage medium for a media editing application incorporating some embodiments of the invention. In addition, the process  3400  is a conceptual process, and the actual implementations may vary. For example, different embodiments may define the various elements in a different order, may define several elements in one operation, may decompose the definition of a single element into multiple operations, etc. In addition, the process  3400  may be implemented as several sub-processes or combined with other operations within a macro-process. Section IX will now describe a computer system for implementing and executing the computer program that is stored on the computer readable storage medium. 
     IX. Computer System 
     Many of the above-described processes are implemented as software processes that are specified as a set of instructions recorded on a computer readable storage medium (also referred to as computer readable medium). When these instructions are executed by one or more computational element(s) (such as processors or other computational elements like ASICs and FPGAs), they cause the computational element(s) to perform the actions indicated in the instructions. Computer is meant in its broadest sense, and can include any electronic device with a processor. Examples of computer readable media include, but are not limited to, CD-ROMs, flash drives, RAM chips, hard drives, EPROMs, etc. The computer readable media does not include carrier waves and electronic signals passing wirelessly or over wired connections. 
     In this specification, the term “software” is meant to include firmware residing in read-only memory or applications stored in magnetic storage which can be read into memory for processing by a processor. Also, in some embodiments, multiple software inventions can be implemented as sub-parts of a larger program while remaining distinct software inventions. In some embodiments, multiple software inventions can also be implemented as separate programs. Finally, any combination of separate programs that together implement a software invention described here is within the scope of the invention. In some embodiments, the software programs when installed to operate on one or more computer systems define one or more specific machine implementations that execute and perform the operations of the software programs. 
       FIG. 36  illustrates a computer system with which some embodiments of the invention are implemented. Such a computer system includes various types of computer readable media and interfaces for various other types of computer readable media. Computer system  3600  includes a bus  3605 , a processor  3610 , a graphics processing unit (GPU)  3620 , a system memory  3625 , a read-only memory  3630 , a permanent storage device  3635 , input devices  3640 , and output devices  3645 . 
     The bus  3605  collectively represents all system, peripheral, and chipset buses that communicatively connect the numerous internal devices of the computer system  3600 . For instance, the bus  3605  communicatively connects the processor  3610  with the read-only memory  3630 , the GPU  3620 , the system memory  3625 , and the permanent storage device  3635 . 
     From these various memory units, the processor  3610  retrieves instructions to execute and data to process in order to execute the processes of the invention. In some embodiments the processor comprises a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an ASIC, or various other electronic components for executing instructions. Some instructions are passed to and executed by the GPU  3620 . The GPU  3620  can offload various computations or complement the image processing provided by the processor  3610 . 
     The read-only-memory (ROM)  3630  stores static data and instructions that are needed by the processor  3610  and other modules of the computer system. The permanent storage device  3635 , on the other hand, is a read-and-write memory device. This device is a non-volatile memory unit that stores instructions and data even when the computer system  3600  is off. Some embodiments of the invention use a mass-storage device (such as a magnetic or optical disk and its corresponding disk drive) as the permanent storage device  3635 . 
     Other embodiments use a removable storage device (such as a floppy disk, flash drive, or ZIP® disk, and its corresponding disk drive) as the permanent storage device. Like the permanent storage device  3635 , the system memory  3625  is a read-and-write memory device. However, unlike storage device  3635 , the system memory is a volatile read-and-write memory, such a random access memory. The system memory stores some of the instructions and data that the processor needs at runtime. 
     In some embodiments, the instructions and/or data needed to perform the processes are stored in the system memory  3625 , the permanent storage device  3635 , and/or the read-only memory  3630 , or any combination of the three. For example, the various memory units include instructions for processing multimedia items in accordance with some embodiments. From these various memory units, the processor  4710  retrieves instructions to execute and data to process in order to execute the processes of some embodiments. 
     The bus  3605  also connects to the input and output devices  3640  and  3645 . The input devices enable the user to communicate information and select commands to the computer system. The input devices  3640  include alphanumeric keyboards and pointing devices (also called “cursor control devices”). The output devices  3645  display images generated by the computer system. For instance, these devices display a GUI. The output devices include printers and display devices, such as cathode ray tubes (CRT) or liquid crystal displays (LCD). 
     Finally, as shown in  FIG. 36 , bus  3605  also couples computer  3600  to a network  3665  through a network adapter (not shown). In this manner, the computer can be a part of a network of computers (such as a local area network (“LAN”), a wide area network (“WAN”), or an Intranet, or a network of networks, such as the internet. For example, the computer  3600  may be coupled to a web server (network  3665 ) so that a web browser executing on the computer  3600  can interact with the web server as a user interacts with a GUI that operates in the web browser. 
     Any or all components of computer system  3600  may be used in conjunction with the invention. For instance, in some embodiments the execution of the frames of the rendering is performed by the GPU  3620  instead of the CPU  3610 . Similarly, other image editing functions can be offloaded to the GPU  3620  where they are executed before the results are passed back into memory or the processor  3610 . However, a common limitation of the GPU  3620  is the number of instructions that the GPU  3620  is able to store and process at any given time. Therefore, some embodiments adapt instructions for implementing processes so that these processes fit onto the instruction buffer of the GPU  3620  for execution locally on the GPU  3620 . Additionally, some GPUs  3620  do not contain sufficient processing resources to execute the processes of some embodiments and therefore the CPU  3610  executes the instructions. One of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that any other system configuration may also be used in conjunction with the present invention. 
     Some embodiments of the computer system include electronic components, such as microprocessors, storage and memory that store computer program instructions in a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (alternatively referred to as computer-readable storage media, machine-readable media, or machine-readable storage media). Some examples of such computer-readable media include RAM, ROM, read-only compact discs (CD-ROM), recordable compact discs (CD-R), rewritable compact discs (CD-RW), read-only digital versatile discs (e.g., DVD-ROM, dual-layer DVD-ROM), a variety of recordable/rewritable DVDs (e.g., DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, etc.), flash memory (e.g., SD cards, mini-SD cards, micro-SD cards, etc.), magnetic and/or solid state hard drives, read-only and recordable blu-ray discs, ultra density optical discs, any other optical or magnetic media, and floppy disks. The computer-readable media may store a computer program that is executable by at least one processor and includes sets of instructions for performing various operations. Examples of hardware devices configured to store and execute sets of instructions include, but are not limited to application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), programmable logic devices (PLDs), ROM, and RAM devices. Examples of computer programs or computer code include machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files including higher-level code that are executed by a computer, an electronic component, or a microprocessor using an interpreter. 
     As used in this specification and any claims of this application, the terms “computer”, “server”, “processor”, and “memory” all refer to electronic or other technological devices. These terms exclude people or groups of people. For the purposes of the specification, the terms display or displaying means displaying on an electronic device. As used in this specification and any claims of this application, the terms “computer readable medium” and “computer readable media” are entirely restricted to tangible, physical objects that store information in a form that is readable by a computer. These terms exclude any wireless signals, wired download signals, and any other ephemeral signals. 
     While the invention has been described with reference to numerous specific details, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the invention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit of the invention. Furthermore, many of the features have been described as being performed by one particular module (e.g., the editing module  3315  of  FIG. 33 ). However, one of ordinary skill would recognize that the functions attributed to these modules might be split up into multiple modules, and the performance of one feature might even require multiple modules. Similarly, multiple features that are described as being performed by multiple modules might in fact be performed by a single module. A module is a set of processes in some embodiments. In addition, the invention was described with the use of a particular color scheme to distinguish between selected and unselected graphical representations. However, different color schemes can be used to pictorially indicate graphical representations that are selected or not selected. Throughout the disclosure of the invention, selected graphical representations in a composite display area are described as being enlarged in size. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that in some embodiments, the size of selected graphical representations can remain the same while the size of graphical representations are reduced or that graphical representations are hidden in the composite display area. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that the invention is not to be limited by the foregoing illustrative details, but rather is to be defined by the appended claims.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20090501
Publication Date: 20141007
Grant Date: 20141007
Priority Date: 20090501
Inventors: PENDERGAST COLLEEN
MEANEY BRIAN
MARR JASON
YERBURY ELEANOR
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "G11B27/034", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G11B27/34", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G11B27/34", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G11B27/034", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 43031333