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| author | Laura Lazzati <laura.lazzati.15@gmail.com> | 2019-03-15 11:03:59 +0100 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> | 2019-03-15 11:04:29 +0100 |
| commit | 0624d89117b352a71f4ed5fc0dfd465caa3b641a (patch) | |
| tree | 8c6ebadd909b810806e4e15d8b923f1bb1a91ec7 /website | |
| parent | website: Replace SLiM screenshot with a GDM screenshot. (diff) | |
| download | guix-artwork-0624d89117b352a71f4ed5fc0dfd465caa3b641a.tar.gz | |
website: Add post about Laura's internship.
* website/posts/documentation-video-creation-2019.md: New file.
Diffstat (limited to 'website')
| -rw-r--r-- | website/posts/documentation-video-creation-2019.md | 88 |
1 files changed, 88 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/website/posts/documentation-video-creation-2019.md b/website/posts/documentation-video-creation-2019.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4495e8b --- /dev/null +++ b/website/posts/documentation-video-creation-2019.md @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +title: Documentation video creation +date: 2019-02-11 15:40 +author: Laura Lazzati +tags: Guix Days, Outreachy +--- +My goal in this round as an [Outreachy](https://www.outreachy.org/) +intern for the December/18 to March/19 period consists of creating introductory documentation videos +about different topics for people who would like to use GNU Guix, +admins and/or those who would like to join Guix community and don’t +know where to start. Even interested or having a clear documentation, they +might feel overwhelmed by it. I experienced this issue in the past with people in another context. + +My main tasks consist of creating a workflow for +automating as much as possible the process of creating the videos, as well as, +of course, creating the videos themselves. Creating the videos is not that easy +as it might seem, I have to design them (I cannot automate that part), let +the audio match the video, and matching the exact timing is quite difficult. +Something very important that I should mention is that the workflow currently +allows translations to other languages. + +It is a work in progress for too many reasons, specially because it keeps +being improved all the time. + +Also, I had to study tools deeply both for the creation of the workflow and the videos +because I did not know them beforehand or I knew just the basics. + +After trying several approaches for the workflow, the current one consists of +creating "pieces of videos" and gluing them together in the end. + +These "pieces of videos" may consist of: +- Slide videos: they contain only a sequence of one or more slides. +- Command line session videos: they contain only Guix or shell commands and +their output, without showing any slide at all. + +##### Workflow for creating each slide video. + + + +The inputs are .svg files and audio files. +First, .svgs are converted to .pngs ("the slides"). +Then, a text file having the order in which each slide will +appear and the duration of the audio that matches it is created. +An audio text file containing all the audio files sorted to +have a complete audio file is created too. +Lastly, with the slides' text file that has the reference to the slide files +and the glued audio file the final slide video is made. + +##### Workflow for creating each command line session video. + + + +The input is a session text file that has commands or meta-commands that +are used to simulate, for example, the typing of a command, or the printing of +it’s output. +This file is passed to a Guile script that is in charge of executing the +commands defined in the input text file and take text snapshots at a fixed time + interval. Then, all these files are converted to postscript format. After +that, they are transformed to .svg format. Finally, the process is repeated and +the audio and the slides are glued to have final command line session video. + +##### Workflow for creating the final video. + + + +Slide videos and command line videos are a "bunch of videos" +that need to be glued into the final one. They are sorted, and using the +same tool for video creation our final introductory video is created. + +#### About GNU Guix + +[GNU Guix](https://www.gnu.org/software/guix) is a transactional package +manager for the GNU system. The Guix System Distribution or GuixSD is +an advanced distribution of the GNU system that relies on GNU Guix and +[respects the user's +freedom](https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html). + +In addition to standard package management features, Guix supports +transactional upgrades and roll-backs, unprivileged package management, +per-user profiles, and garbage collection. Guix uses low-level +mechanisms from the Nix package manager, except that packages are +defined as native [Guile](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile) modules, +using extensions to the [Scheme](http://schemers.org) language. GuixSD +offers a declarative approach to operating system configuration +management, and is highly customizable and hackable. + +GuixSD can be used on an i686 or x86_64 machine. It is also possible to +use Guix on top of an already installed GNU/Linux system, including on +mips64el, armv7, and aarch64. |