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Ramen development closed, needs your help

21

The developer of the open source node based compositor Ramen has quit the project for personal reasons. The community is trying to pick up the pieces and to continue the project.

Eibriel writes:

Ramen is the only (dedicated) open source node compositor software, and recently it developer has stopped to work on it. We think we need a big community of users to then find new developers. Ramen is in a stable release, but on it 0.6 version (linux, windows, osx).

I want to invite you to see the power of this software, some of its features are:

  • HDR color precision
  • HD,4k ready
  • Experimental OFX support ( Genarts Sapphire v5, Genarts Tinder, The Foundry Keylight 2.1, Re:Vision Denoise, Re:Vision Motion Blur, Re:Vision Twixtor, Frischluft Flair, Frischluft Lenscare )
  • Filters
  • Color correction
  • Animated parameters
  • Rotoscoping

Thanks!!

Links

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

21 Comments

  1. It would be nice that this project survives, there aren't many easy to work with video editors, that are both open source and multiplatform.

  2. This projects needs to be saved. Blenders compositor is good but Ramon takes it to the next level. Being able to use 3rd party plugins etc. I cant write a line of code to save my life. But would be a very keen beta test. Save this project now. I doubt we will see another opensource compositor anytime soon.

  3. Ironic, or not so... free software floats on money...
    From the donate-widget installed -> Ramen sunk... Hunger IS very personal...

    .,
    Required

  4. I think we need at least one good open source software, not many.. with limited possibilities.
    If Ramen would make this for blender.. or with thought of integrating it in Blender.. it would be no problem to earn some money too, because people around the world already see the potential of it.
    Ramen should remake the web too and place donation banner on the first page. Now nobody see it.

  5. Integrate Ramen with Blender is not a bad Idea, but there is some things to take account.
    - Ramen is witted in C++, and Blender in C.
    - Ramen have a CDDL license, and (if I don't misunderstand) the Ramen code can not be used on other projects.

    Things CAN be done:
    - A Blender node plugin to send the image to Ramen for processing (using Ramen like an unique big library). So OFX plugins can be used. But that have no too much sense, cause all the parameters can no be set from Blender.
    - Ramen is, after all a group of libraries, so, the thing to do with Blender is apply these libraries to it. And Ramen code is not necessary to do that.

    The other and simplest way is take the Blender render into Ramen and there composite it. Then both all Blender and Ramen amazing features can be used.
    The shot can be pre composited on Blender and finished on Ramen.

    I think, and is my wish, Ramen and Blender can join forces to finally find a place on the VFX market.

    Regards!!

  6. There are many difficulties in integrating Ramen with Blender.
    As Eibriel mentions, Blender is C and Ramen C++. The widget
    libraries are different also. And most important, the way both
    compositors work is completely different.

    I'm afraid I'm not going to relicense the code. I'm not a fan
    of viral licenses in general and I need to link with some closed
    source libraries and use commercial plugins.

    I think that the best way for them to work together is extending
    Blender's frameserver and adding a "frameserver client" node to
    Ramen. Something similar to rmanConnect.

  7. Nabil Stendardo on

    @Est

    Disclamer: I am not a lawyer, but I know enough about licenses to reasonably ascertain what I am going to say.

    I may understand you would not want to GPL your code. But still consider other licenses, which CAN be linked either with closed source/proprietary code or with GPL code (as long as no proprietary modules are also included). Modified BSD comes to mind. You have a choice of GPL-compatible licenses in the first part of .

    Another possibility is dual-licensing it as CDDL + GPL (if all proprietary modules are removed). Firefox itself is licensed under such a clause.

    But anyway, not maintaining a software and keeping copyright and licensing restrictions is an unfortunate situation. The best solution is to transfer the copyright to a motivated individual or organisation (it could be the blender foundation, or any other pro-FOSS organisation).

  8. @Nabil,

    What licence you recommend for the Modifications (taking the term of CDDL license) made by the community?
    Must be GPL compatible... so can be used in others open source software.
    Can be GPL ?

    Regards!

  9. Nabil Stendardo on

    @Elbriel

    If I had to choose a license, I would choose either modified BSD (the 3-clause or 2-clause version) which is extremely permissive or dual-licensing it CDDL (or any other GPL-Incompatible FOSS License) + GPL (and possibly + LGPL) (similarly to Firefox). That way, it also allows GPL-only modules to be used with the GPL-licensed code (for instance you can link with, fftw, which is portable and also the best - based on benchmarks - Fast Discrete Fourier Transform Library). You could have three distributions, one for the base code (which should be either permissive - as in Modified BSD - or Multi-licensed), one for the GPL-only modules, and one for the GPL-incompatible modules you do not have the possibility to relicense. But for that, the author(s) of the code must relicense it under such terms (the CDDL being incompatible with the GPL).

    The list of licenses, which didn't appear in my last post, was http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html. Here you cannot say you do not have a choice.

    As for the version of GPL, I would advise a dual license (GPL3 or, at your option, GPL2). Ideally, GPL3 is your best bet (it's a better drafted license), but since quite a lot of code is still GPL2 only, GPL2 compatibility is quite important.

    But again, the original author(s) should transfer the copyright (while of course retaining moral rights of paternity) to someone (individual or organisation) who is motivated in keeping the project going. That way, the people actually interested can have a freedom to license their code under their own terms (and if a better license comes out, you can actually add a licensing option under those terms).

  10. Nabil says :
    "Not maintaining a software and keeping copyright and licensing restrictions is an unfortunate situation".
    You are right. It's the best way to kill this project. You may consider to study the suggestion of Nabil

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