Cropping for Video-Rendering

[LutzFassl]

Dear Formerlurker!

I just want to raise an idea concerning rendering of the video:
Sometimes when I print small parts, the part itself covers only a smaller area of the whole video, let's say 1/4. The zoom of my webcam (standard Logitech 1080p model), is also very limited but of course set to max in my case.

Would it be possible to implement a feature that allows the user to select a cropping area prior to video rendering?

The story behind: At the end, usually the rendered videos are downloaded and send to friends by whatsapp messages etc. That means people look at it on small ~5 inch screens and also whatsapp or other apps will further reduce video quality drastically. The result is that the interesting details of the part, e.g. infill will be quite pixelated / low quality / small, even on FullHD cameras. Both of those things would be mitigated if the video can be cropped to the area of the part before rendering.

E.g. I wouldn't mind if octolapse keeps the screenshot for e.g. 30days (maybe a good feature request in itself). So it could start a second rendering job of a cropped version of the video.
I'd really favor such a feature, but don't know how tricky and popular the feature request is. Therefore I'd like to hand it in for discussion.

My alternate solution would be to use a tripod and try bringing the camera closer. However this can hold a risk of collision between camera & big printed parts. Also my suggestion is more flexible as it can be done afterwards (no risk of being too close with the camera, ..).

Since I just created two discussion ideas / feature request, I'd also like to offer to contribute on the project. I'm firm with Python.
BR, Lutz