Fast VP9 still image encoding I use this command to create "myFile.webm", a VP9 video with one still image :

$ ffmpeg -i myOriginialPureAudioFile.opus -loop 1 -i myAudioFile_640x360.png -shortest -threads 4 -speed max -c:a copy myFile.webm
Input #0, ogg, from 'myOriginialPureAudioFile.opus':
  Duration: 01:53:19.80, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 24 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Audio: opus, 48000 Hz, mono, fltp
    Metadata:
      LANGUAGE        : eng
      TITLE           : unnamed
      ENCODER         : Lavf57.83.100
Input #1, png_pipe, from 'myAudioFile_640x360.png':
  Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #1:0: Video: png, rgb24(pc), 640x360 [SAR 72:72 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn, 25 tbc
File 'myFile.webm' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
Stream mapping:
  Stream #1:0 -> #0:0 (png (native) -> vp9 (libvpx-vp9))
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[libvpx-vp9 @ 0x5655578268c0] v1.3.0
Output #0, webm, to 'myFile.webm':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf57.83.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: vp9 (libvpx-vp9), yuv420p, 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 200 kb/s, 25 fps, 1k tbn, 25 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.107.100 libvpx-vp9
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: opus, 48000 Hz, mono, fltp
    Metadata:
      LANGUAGE        : eng
      TITLE           : unnamed
      ENCODER         : Lavf57.83.100
frame= 4863 fps= 22 q=0.0 Lsize=     987kB time=00:03:14.48 bitrate=  41.6kbits/s speed=0.879x

The speed is about 0.88x, how can I make this encoding much faster ?

One solution (found here) is to use a very small -framerate value.


Kdenlive Render Effects I'm using Kdenlive on Linux Mint 16, and I was finding that my keyframed "Box Blur" effect was significantly slowing down playback, and so I thought there might be a way to render the effects on a clip, essentially making them "non-editable", to speed up playback.
Is there such a function?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, you can preview effects using timeline preview rendering since version 16.08 (video tutorial):

Set in and out points using I and O keys for the area in which your effect is active.
In the main menu in Timeline/Timeline Preview press Add preview zone.
In the same menu, press Start Preview Render and wait until the red bar turns green at the top of the timeline.

Any change to the area - including moving clips or adding effects to clips in it - will result in requiring to re-render to regain the playback speed enhancement.

In case 16.08 or later is not available on Linux Mint yet, you might be able to install it manually (video guide):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kdenlive


Final Cut: how to playback sequence while capturing video? When you open "log and capture" window, you can't use other FCP windows anymore. How can I listen to already captured video?

I want to record my solo on top of rhythm which was captured before. I don't want to synchronize videos.  If I just could listen to the first video then everything would be fine.

I would like to do the same thing as in Logic studio, listen to 3 tracks playing and record a 4th one in real time.

How can I achieve this in final cut?

As far as I recall, you can't.  I would tape your solo on your camera while playing your time line and then importing that video back into FCP once it's done.


Trading off resolution vs quality I have some 720p 30FPS H.264 video that I want to downsample for online backup. I want to get to somewhere around 10% to 20% of the existing size, which will evidently require a large sacrifice in quality. I will use H.265 as the destination format.

Now I have two main knobs I can turn to achieve this: I can lower the resolution, or I can lower the quality factor for the encoder. Of course, I can also combine both approaches.

How should I approach this to preserve as much quality as possible? It's pretty clear that turning the quality way down while keeping the resolution at 720 results in some pretty terrible video, but I'm not sure that I should draw the conclusion that I should mostly use resolution decreases to achieve the size reduction.

Decreasing the size a little won't help much, decreasing it a bit more induces a fair bit of aliasing (unless it smooths it also) butchering the quality without much gained.

Cutting the size 50% will reduce errors and double the jaggyness and be easily enough to save a lot of space, question is: Do you want 360P Video? You really wouldn't want any smaller.

So while that is one way to save space for Archiving I would recommend using 'Q' at 40 to test one file at 720P (output) and see if you can tolerate the quality.

H.265 has superior output quality as well as an approx. 50% reduction. Decreasing the resolution in half means an approx. 25% reduction alone, along with approx. 50% from H.265 your going to be under 15% WITH the same quality.

So decreasing the resolution from 720P will be either too drastic or induce greater errors in the output (it will begin to look like mush). Best to try using 'Q' alone as see where between 30 and 40 you can stand.

Here's an example from one particular Video YMMV.

Note that going from 24 to 40 gets you down to 10% (in that one example).


Hard drive configuration for editing I am setting up a machine for video editing using Premier Pro and After Effects
I have the following hardware:

i7 6700 skylane
32Gb DDR4
GTX 1060 with 6Gb RAM
500Gb SSD and access to 3 more drives (one 2Tb, and two 1Tb, all three
7200 RPM)

I have been reading on the various forums and I can't determine the best way to set them up. I found a guideline for various numbers of drives which specifies which drive should be setup for each task, but I can't figure out which task I should use which drive for.

I have found a few that mention putting the files, cache and previews on the fastest drive, which would be the SSD. So do I then setup the OS and program on one of the other drives, and use possibly a 3rd for storage?

I don't have access to hardware raid, only software based with this system board.

Any help would be appreciated.

Put everything you are working on/with on the SSD, if it's full put it on the fastest HDD you have avilable.

You have a real beast there in terms of computing power. Your processor is quite powerful, your graphics card and RAM even more so. The thing that is most likely to become your performance bottleneck is the disk speed. And even with the best of HDDs, this will slow you down considerably, as HDDs disk speed is just not fast enough to read dozens of large video files simultaneously (for the Icon View of the Project Panel, for example). With a 500GB SSD, you have plenty of space. Windows 10 install size is about 11 GB. Premiere Pro, After Effects take up under 10GB in disk space. So even assuming you need to install some other software as well, you won't need more than 50~100GB for all that, which leaves you with 400GB~450GB for the video files. As you mentioned, put the scratch disks on it so that the preview files et c. can be loaded quickly. Then just fill your SSD with the files of your current project.

If you really need more space, put some files on the HDD and see how much it affects the loading speed. If the performance takes a big hit, you can still use proxies. And frankly, if you do have the budget for the kind of equipment you mentioned in your question, I find it reasonably to assume that you could even afford another large SSD if you really needed it.

Two quick tips regarding this: Buy the cheap SSDs, not the expensive ones, there's no noticable difference between them. And never use SSDs for permanent storage, always keep backups on external harddrives.


How to tune ffmpeg libx265 parameters for encoding old sprite based game video? I'm using ffmpeg libx265 to encode some fun gameplay clips from old games.
Typically this means low resolution pixel art, with small sprites moving against a static or scrolling background.
The default settings for the x265 codec are poorly suited for this and give large areas of blocky noise artifacts around the moving sprites.
I can of course just increase bitrate, e.g. "crf=22" and allow more computation time "-preset slow" to reduce the problem, but I guess there are better ways to tune the codec parameters to better deal with these types of visuals.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: hmm, I need >10 rep to be allowed to post more than two links. So I'm deleting the old examples and posting updated better examples.

Adding better examples (now with source)
Very simple graphics. Both sprites moving against static background and scrolling background. The major distortions are found when sprites are moving on static background. The noise distortions can extend quite far around the sprites: e.g. @15s

Download the files and view in fullscreen. The gdrive viewer will reencode and destroy.

source (x264 ultrafast crf=0)
4.4MB https://goo.gl/VjRhvh

ffmpeg -i source.mkv -libx265 -preset medium -libx265-params "crf=28" out.mkv
152KB https://goo.gl/bQDmxe

ffmpeg -i source.mkv -libx265 -preset veryslow -libx265-params "crf=22" out.mkv
216KB https://goo.gl/rGtNAT

This one looks a bit better due to higher bitrate and more compute time. Noise artifacts are smaller, but still disturbing.

The CRF 22 sample looks fine to me at 1x size. The lower the resolution, the greater the impact a high quantization parameter will have. Suggest you stick to values < 24.

Since your video images are mostly static, slower presets won't be worth the extra time (unless you need to squeeze every bit of compression efficiency).


If I can buy SSD, how do I best use it to improve video editing? I am a small hobby editor. Just for fun, nothing serious. Hence: I don't know really much about the technical side at all, and most things I just don't understand. I'm really just a consumer.

I do have a good PC already: i7 4.00 Ghz, GTX 980.

I have 4 HDD's now, all 7200rpm: 1TB, 2TB, and 5TB(external). And one 500GB as primary containing my OS.

Now money restricts me a lot, so I can buy now ONE SSD and not even the greatest. I see an EVO of 500GB I can afford.

So how do I use that the best for video edit preformance?

I will have to keep all my source material on the HDD's. So I will import files from HDD into my Edit-program to edit.

I'm thinking to have my OS and all other programs on the SSD. But install only my Edit-program on the 2TB HDD and use that entire HDD ONLY for the Edit-program.

Or even the exact other way around: keep my OS and other on the HDD as it is, since I don't care much about fast boot or 'quickly open programs'. And install my Edit-program on the SSD and use the SSD only for that.

I searched google and internet for days trying to find a good answer for me, but I guess all other editors know too much to have such a low profile question lol.
I did find lots of editors claiming to have great benefit from SSD, but all of them had many SSD's so they could have their OS, Edit program AND their source material on SSD's. I can't possibly afford that now and I'm even wondering if one SSD will do me any good. If all the benefit I will get is that my Edit-software starts up really really fast, I wont bother...

Sorry for my rambling but I truly have no idea how I could make it work best. The ONLY reason I want to buy the SSD is to improve video editing, I have absolutely no other desire for it.

Any tips or advice I would highly appreciate!

ADDED: Maybe also useful info? My Edit-program is Cyberlink Powerdirector 15. I's very affordable and can still do nice things for it's price.
I mostly edit 1080p using quite a lot of multiple track splitscreens, multiple effects and transisions.
(Wow, I got 6 reputation and Bronze medal already? That wasn't hard lol :-)

All computer performance optimization is based on understanding critical paths (bottlenecks), then removing or relaxing the bottleneck until there is nothing more you can afford to improve (possibly because there is simply no known widget, at any price, that will improve whatever else is on your critical path).

Some very common critical paths in video editing are

Reading video data from disk
Rendering video data (for display and/or for writing to disk)
Writing video data to disk

When you import video data into a project, rarely is it all loaded into RAM, though it could be.  If it is loaded into RAM, then buying an SSD is only going to speed up the initial loading of your RAM--a one-time benefit.

More often, video is buffered into RAM, but it fundamentally lives on disk, and thus disk speed becomes important as you play or scrub through your files.  If you have 1080p ACVHD stream, it uses approximately 28Mb/sec of bandwidth.  Modern HDDs can average 25MB/sec to 120MB/sec or more, depending on whether they are connected via USB2, USB3, USB3.1, SATA, eSATA, etc.  But if you need to load and display from 8 streams, it can try to read 28Mb/sec times 8 streams = 28MB/sec from the disk, but because the streams are likely scattered across the disk, it has to issue many seeks and buffer lots of data, leading to uneven performance.  An SSD is an advantage here because the seek time is virtually zero.  A single SATA SSD could easily handle 8 and perhaps 24 streams without choking.

However, the computer's CPU and GPU are typically designed to handle HD and perhaps quad HD video, meaning that they are going to begin to choke if they have to display 24 simultaneous streams.  But 4-8 should be OK.

To optimize your system, you should use a system profiling tool to see just how much disk bandwidth your system delivers under load vs. the calculated bandwidth of your video streams.  And you should measure how much video rendering performance your CPU/GPU can do vs. the estimated complexity of your streams (are they all just passed through a virtual switcher, or does every frame have scaling, translation, cropping, blur, sharpening, noise reduction, color correction, etc)?  You can then do some math: how much does it cost to close X% of the gap for each different gap you can measure.  Which dollars have the greatest impact on closing the gaps you can close?

You might find that indeed an SSD is just the ticket.  Or it might be that your GPU is really your rate-limiting step.  Most serious video editing workstations are a collection of many high-end components.  Having just one piece of the puzzle might only speed things up by 5%, whereas having all of the pieces, even if only half as good as the best, can speed things up by 50%.

It does take a little technical knowledge to profile and tune a system, but what it really takes is dedication to the process and good measurement tools.  Or enough money to keep buying bits until you can no longer see any improvements.


How do you remove transulscent watermarks from videos? I found a black and white video with a transluscent watermark that I want to remove. I have no experience with video editing and I prefer to use free and open-source software exclusively. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Note: The video is in the public domain in the US. The work was published between 1925 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. See this for more info.

Load the clip into After Effects and add a mask to the mark.
Add an underlying track with matching or near matching background content. The mask will hide the top layer to reveal the bottom layer.
Add blurs, softening etc to smooth the underlay.


What are the advantages camcorders have over zoom digital cameras? It seems that the latest models of compact digital cameras come with many features which used to be only in camcorders: image stabilization, low-light shooting mode and of course high-definition to name a few.
This article shows some candidates which IMO give pretty good competition to modern camcorders.
I already have a decent SLR camera for taking still pictures, and now i am interested in buying a camera for shooting home videos. I thought of buying a digital camera instead of a  camcorders - but only if I will not be missing out anything that only camcorders have to offer.

The video capabilities of even the best digital cameras are but a small fraction of these of video cameras. The gap is smaller now but only marginally so.

Where digital cameras compare very well is in terms of image quality, particularly when it comes to low light shooting. For almost everything else, video cameras trump digital cameras.

Camcorders have sophisticated and detailed control over audio recording. They can set levels and recording angle which almost no digital camera can do. You can plug an external audio source on some still cameras but that is about it.

The optical zoom of camcorders is specially designed for video. It moves silently and smoothly to give a natural look. Camcorder lenses are built with a continuous variable apertures so that the brightness of images can vary smoothly rather than in steps (only a handfull of SLD lenses can do that). The focus system works equally smoothly and quietly while most digital cameras record AF noise in the audio track.

Camcorders have tons of features which are meaningful to video. Fading, transitions and even video effects are the norm. They can also record for much longer both continuously and in sequence than still cameras. You can get up to a 128GB SDXC card for a still camera but it is costly while a camcorder can easily have a 200GB HDD built in.


Walking Forward in Google Tour Creator To start with, I am an amateur when it comes to computational photography. I am trying to use Google's Tour Creator to create a virtual tour of my store. It works perfectly when I am standing at a point and rotating 360 on it. But I want to create a tour where I am walking straight. Imagine a camera mounted on a cart moving through an aisle in a super-market.

Is there some way I can accomplish this? Some other website? Can I code something for this?

The simplest thing to do would be to simply shoot a video of it. Alternatively, you can use photography from inside the store to generate a photogrammetry model. Simply put, a program looks at a lot of images and stitches them together to a textured 3d-model. You could then walk through the 3d-space. Since you said that you are an amateur at this field, I would highly recommend just filming the motion, or hiring someone who does. All you'd need is a steadicam and a camera, obviously. From 2 or 3 images alone you cannot accomplish such a motion.


Add 3D visual effects to videos I'm trying to get some hands-on experience with 3D visual effects on videos. Similar to those AR apps, I want to add a 3D model with effects, say a dragon, to a video. Something like this famous demo:

But I don't really want to make it this fancy with camera tracking. Starting with simplest approach, probably just placing a dragon on the field (like its last scenes) with fixed camera.
What's the best way to do it? Do we have some tutorials, free or open source tools or SDK to do it for videos?

Yeah that was actually the best opening ceremony ever...
Doing something like this yourself is a hefty task, but first, here's what you would need:

A software for tracking
A software for modeling / animating
(optionally something for compositing / color grading)

Luckily, Blender (which is free) can do all those things, but has quite a steep learning-curve. Due to its popularity, you will find many tutorials and guides though. Here's step by step how I would go about something like your example:

Find footage to composite the elements on. It should be at least 1920x1080 and with as little compression as possible (it's best to record your own).
Load the footage in a tracking-program. You can use Blender, After-Effects, Nuke or PfTrack - all are viable.
After tracking, you can create a virtual camera that flies around in your scene according to the movement of the real camera. Export this or work with it from inside Blender if you're only using Blender.
Now model out and animate your 3D-Assets and place them in your scene. Since the tracked camera matches the movement of the real camera, your 3D-Assets should stay in place and look like they're pinned to the ground.
Apply your textures and shaders (and I can't stress how important this is) light your scene properly. Try to observe where the light is coming from in your original scene and place virtual lights accordingly.
Render your scene, preferably as a .png or .exr-sequence, with only your virtual Assets visible.
At last, composite the background and foreground together. You can do this in Blender as well, but programs such as After-Effects or Nuke give you more control over your look (they're not free programs though).

If your tracking looks off, make sure to delete any floating tracking-points that might have picked up false movements. Try matching the white-balance in compositing (the shift from teal to orange and purple to green). For added realism, you can create a "shadow-catcher" which will itself not be visible, but render out the shadows cast upon it. Those shadows should be included in a separate "pass", so you have your foreground, shadows and background. This gives you more control over the darkness and opacity of your shadows if you want to adjust them. And at last, if you want to go all in, you can capture an HDR environment from the place you were filming at - basically a 360° image of the surroundings. You can add this to the 3D-Software you're using to accurately display reflections on your foreground.
I hope this helped you out, have a great day!


Remove datestamp (watermark) from videos I accidentally enabled a datestamp "feature" on my camera and now all my videos have the date embedded.

What's the best way to remove those datestamps?

I'm editing a compilation of the videos with kdenlive, so I would only need to remove the datestamp from the parts of the videos I'm using or the final compilation, whatever gives best results.

Use ffmpeg (download a static build for your operating system) and its delogo filter, which will try to cover up a logo or watermark by interpolating neighboring pixels.

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "delogo=x=100:y=100:w=150:h=20" output.mp4

Here, x and y specify the top left coordinates of the “masking” rectangle, and w/h specify its size. You can add the show=1 option to help locate that rectangle.

If you want to play with the filter values, you can use ffplay to directly show the result:

ffplay -f lavfi -i "movie=input.mp4,delogo=x=100:y=100:w=150:h=20:show=1"


How to do a camera projection in maya? I have a video, which I have tracked and solved for camera movement, which I have imported into maya.

Now that I have this scene, I would like to do a camera projection on the objects, however, I can only get it to work with a single image.

How can I project a video on my geometry, instead of a photo?

To project a video instead of a photo:

convert your video to an image sequence (with Nuke, AfterFX, Premiere, whatever...)
load it into your file node, then click on 'Use Image Sequence'
scroll in the timeline, and Maya will load the according frame


Adobe Premiere won't update audios I'm having a problem where if I edit an audio clip that is used in my Premiere project with Audition, the change isn't heard in Premiere. Here are the steps that I'm going through:

I have an audio-track used in my project.
I change it in Adobe Audition.
I save it in the same directory with the same name.
I delete it from the project's timeline.
I delete it from the project's list of imported files.
I re-import the new file.
I put the file into my project's timeline again.

Needless to say, I re-save the project every two seconds just in case.
My problem: The audio stays the same as it were before the editing. Am I missing something obvious or is it a bug?

I would try deleting the cache around time in your sequence causing trouble. You can mark an In and Out point, then clear the cache between those to points using "Delete Render Files In to Out" in the Sequence menu.
You don't necessarily have to delete all of the cache (although try that if nothing else works).
These are the steps I would normally take to do what you're doing:

Import an audio file in Premiere and place it in a sequence.
Right click on the clip in the sequence and choose Edit Clip in Adobe Audition
Edit the audio file in adobe
Save in adobe
The updated audio should appear in Premiere after a few seconds

Premiere sometimes needs to convert your file before it sends it over to Audition, so you might be modifying the wrong file in Audition without realising it if you're doing it all manually instead of letting Premiere manage it.


Fill a shape layer with a pattern (repeating image) in After Effects In a Shape Layer I have managed to build myself the following shape, which is basically a circle and a rectangle:

I wish to fill that shape with folk-attern.png (repeating) so that it covers the whole thing. Is that doable?

I can't see an option that would allow me to fill the shape with an image!

Shape layers don't have the ability to use a bitmapped fill. What you need to do is use the shape layer as a matte for the fill pattern.

To make a repeating pattern from your image, bring it into the comp as an image layer. Now apply the CC RepeTile effect (it's an included effect with AE in the Stylize folder).

Increase the numbers in the expand right, expand lef, expand up, and expand down sliders until the pattern fills the space you want it to occupy. You don't have to worry if the original layer is too small, this effect will increase the bounds of the layer beyond its original size.

Make sure the image layer is below your shape layer and set its matte to alpha matte "Shape Layer 1" (or whatever your shape layer is called). If you can't see the matte column hit f4.

If you want the pattern to transform with the shape layer, set it as the parent of the fill layer (or vice versa), so that when you move, scale, or rotate one, the other will follow.


Software choosing advice for a beginner I have a pre-made slides of mostly text and math formulae, and I want to make a kind of video presentation from it. I need a software that can do the following things:

Smooth difference transition. What I mean by that: if I have two images with only a slight difference in them (say, one added word) I want to apply a transition where this difference fades in or somewhat dynamically pops in without disturbing the rest of the image;
Sliding up/down/left/right with controlled speed and acceleration. To create an effect of a camera sliding over a big sheet of paper.
Shaky camera effect, basically make an image "wiggle" (not very important).

That's pretty much it. So far I've tried only OpenShot and it doesn't seem like a good choice for that, although if you have a tutorial in mind that shows how to do such things please let me know.

Something like this would be done in After-Effects. There is a free trial of the software - I would highly recommend trying this.


How can I crop a section of the video screen in Premiere Pro? Hi I've taken a 1080p screen recording on my desktop but only want a specific crop of the actual recorded screen in the final video. How can I do this in Premiere Pro CS4?

You want to use an effect that's called a 4 point garbage matte.  It allows you to set 4 points which create a box and everything outside it is removed.
Here is a link to a tutorial on how to use the effect 4 point garbage matte.


Managing big Canon 7D files in Premiere CS5.5 with an average computer I'm new to editing and I'm trying to cope with a 7D project - very heavy files. Usually I don't have any problems with premiere and don't even have to render, but with these files, it's really difficult to get to the point when I CAN render, since I can't figure out which files should be on the timeline (playback is hardly working.)

Is there a way to render all of the footage? (not that many) Or maybe a better solution?

PC specs:

intel i7 2Ghz

4GB DDR3 memory

Nvidia GeForce GT 540M

Win 7

Do a complete offline edit, it you want the quickest editing, use something like DV NTSC Quicktimes and edit on the fly, it will be SD but you never see the difference, then online to the original by replaceing footage back to your H.264...btw play around with your settings in Premiere and do some tutorials, there shouldnt be a reason an H264 file does not play on that system with those specs.  Transcoded is needed to play 5D or 7D footage within FCP but not within Premiere


Calibrate Graphic EQ without SPL Meter I have a graphic EQ connected to my amp which I want to calibrate for a flat response. I've read somewhere that you can't calibrate a EQ by ear using test tones (different frequencies at same volume) but I'm wondering if I can connect my laptop to a mic and run a dB meter program on it in order to accurately depict the sound of the test tones. Using the dB meter, I can then set my EQ properly so that all the tones sound the same.

Will this technique work? I dont need perfect calibration, I just want it to be reasonable calibrated.

If you know the curve for the mic you're using, then you should at least be able to determine what response you have now, which would tell you if you need to make EQ changes. Doing it band by band might be a bit tedious, but you won't do it often, so...

The gold standard is something like an Ivie sound analyzer, which uses "pink noise" as the sound source, and one or more calibrated microphones as pickups. You can monitor the acoustic properties of the room, from different positions, and see changes in EQ reflected in real time across the entire spectrum.

They're too expensive for casual use, but you may be able to rent one, or hire someone who owns one for a nominal fee.


CHDK on Canon Powershot S100: Is there a Video Bitrate sweet spot? I'm using a Powershot S100 with CHDK.
The default video bitrate of the S100 is around 4 MByte/sec at the highest quality.
Using CHDK and the options "Mode=Quality" and "Quality=99", you can get 14MByte/sec video.

I just did a quick test with a low-light scene.
The noise leads to blocking in the 4MByte/sec version. In the 14MByte/sec version, the noise is much crisper, and the blocking is gone.

I wonder is there a sweet spot here? 14MByte/sec is clearly too much to store, but looks better than 4MByte. Is there a particular quality level I should choose?

No, there is no sweet spot for compression, whether it is on a camera or in encoding after the fact.  The needed data rate depends heavily on the content being recorded and is a complex field, though the best bet to handle it simply is to try adjusting it and decide when it works for your needs.  You can eventually get an idea of the quality from each bitrate for your camera, but we can't really give you guidelines as both noise level and the particular encoder used by your camera will also impact the way things turn out.

One important caveat to keep in mind when dealing with compression on a camera is that if you are going to edit the footage, you want to make sure you use a high enough quality that re-compressing after editing does not result in quality loss either.  With lossy compression, each additional compression results in further quality loss and a video that looks fine initially may fall apart when compressed for final output.  The larger your source videos are, the smaller you are likely to be able to compress your final video to.  You may also want to shoot All-I if it is an option because this format is far more efficient in editing software than compressions that are group of picture based (IPB), though they also take far more space to get good quality.

Also, you say that 14MBps is obviously too high, but I would challenge you that it is not obviously too high.  Uncompressed, 1080p video at 24fps would still take 150MBps or 1194mbps.  You are still compressing over 90% at 14MBps.  Bluray will often use in the neighborhood of 35 to 50mbps which is still up to almost half of the 112mbps data rate you quoted as the max.  Particularly if that is All-I, 112mbps is not an unexpectedly high value at all.


FFMPEG 4.0 skipping frames I have noticed today that when I use ffmpeg 4.0 stable to decode some TS files into y4m or ffv1 it occasionally skips some frames. My input file has all the frames burned into the picture and I am extracting some frames at regular intervals. Sometimes it works just fine without any skipped frames but sometimes it skips one or two frames. I am using the following command to decode my input:

ffmpeg -i input.ts -vsync 0 output.y4m

and I am extracting the frames using:

ffmpeg -ss xxx -i output.y4m -vframes 1 xxx.png

I am substituting xxx with 0, 100, 200, etc and sometimes I see 1-2-3 frame dropped which is very annoying since I am trying to evaluate the PSNR afterwards and this is messing up the whole PSNR/SSIM evaluation.

[EDIT] I have executed the command which @Gyan suggested:

ffmpeg -v 99 -loglevel 99 -i test.ts \
-c:v rawvideo -vsync 0 \
-enc_time_base 1/1000 output.nut &> test.log

And here is the log file test.log

Y4M has no timestamps, only framerate in its header. So, if your source has any variability in its framerate, you'll see a shift in apparent timestamp in the Y4M.

e.g.

n     src     y4m
0       0       0
1    0.04    0.04
2    0.07    0.08
3    0.12    0.12
4    0.21    0.16
5    0.24    0.20
6    0.27    0.24
...

Over a long period, these perturbations can add up. Here frame #6 in src is at TS of src #5 in Y4M.

Edit: the sample TS file has VFR timestamps.

Use -c:v rawvideo -vsync 0 -vf setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB -an and save to .nut.


Is it possible to use 2-pass encoding to create vp9 / webm videos from an image sequence? I'm currently creating webm videos using ffmpeg to encode an image sequence. My command is:
ffmpeg -framerate 30 -f image2 -i frames/%04d.png -i my_audio.flac -c:v libvpx-vp9 -pix_fmt yuva420p -b:v 0 -tile-columns 2 -crf 18 -c:a libopus -b:a 128k -r 30 -g 300 -y my_video.webm

The webm VP9 encoding guide only seems to list examples of 2-pass encoding with ffmpeg. And for image sequences, their example doesn't even seem to use ffmpeg.

So I wonder, is it possible to do 2-pass encoding of image sequences using ffmpeg and libvp9? If so, what would be the equivalent to my single-pass command? Is there any advantage in using the 2-pass approach instead of a single pass in this scenario?

References:

webm wiki > FFmpeg > VP9 Encoding Guide: http://wiki.webmproject.org/ffmpeg/vp9-encoding-guide
webm wiki > HOWTOs > Convert PNG frames to WebM video: http://wiki.webmproject.org/howtos/convert-png-frames-to-webm-video

You would use

ffmpeg -framerate 30 -f image2 -i frames/%04d.png -pass 1 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -pix_fmt yuva420p -b:v 0 -tile-columns 2 -crf 18 -r 30 -g 300 -y -f null -

and then

ffmpeg -framerate 30 -f image2 -i frames/%04d.png -i my_audio.flac -pass 2 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -pix_fmt yuva420p -b:v 0 -tile-columns 2 -crf 18 -c:a libopus -b:a 128k -r 30 -g 300 -y my_video.webm

In FFmpeg the container format or encoding of the input is, in itself, irrelevant in terms of using encoder features like two-pass.


Convert jpg to video I have a camera which when motion is detected uploads JPG files at roughly one a second — so I want to take them and convert them back to video.

For the uploaded files

It sometimes skips a few uploads (up to about 3 second gaps)
They continue for around 20 seconds after motion has ceased
The files are 640×480 color 24-bit Depth and each is around 40K
The pictures vary in lighting between stills
There are no files once the motion detection has stopped — so a gap in files can be used to determine the end of video

So I want to use a script to make these into a video - I'd like to

Extend each JPG to the correct length of time
“watermark” the timestamp onto the video
Compress the video

For compression, I feel that the common background and large sections of unchanging video should be highly compressible

I'll be able to write the scripts which would include
 - the selection of the right set of files to include in each video
- production of an intermediate parameter file
- calculation of time span of each still image
- determination of end of movie — including still currently recording

I'm running on a Window's laptop — but would consider a Raspberry Pi or Ubuntu system.

I've looked at FFmpeg but got a little lost of where to start — I did find possible-to-stream-append-images-into-an-existing-mp4.  Which is close and I can start with this. However, one answer seemed to be saying that this may cause loss of fidelity with a comment saying no it won't. Also, I am unsure about how to make the JPGs extend to different lengths and how to watermark a time stamp onto each image

So my questions are
   What tool and encoding format is a good match with what I want ?

Should I make the script wait until the files are fully produced or is it possible to append one JPG file to the movie stream at a time with parameters without excessive loss of fidelity?

Is timestamping best done with a watermark on the video - or with some metadata tagging and require the renderer to display timestamps?

I have included one image from the camera

I would use shell scripting thus:

find the creation date of the first jpeg and the creation date of the subsequent jpeg.
if the time difference is <= 1 second then we have the start of a sequence. If the files are named sequentially then maybe move them to a subfolder. If not then move (or copy) the files to create a sequence.
while the time difference is <= 1 second keep updating the last frame of the sequence
once we have a non-sequential file create a video using ffmpeg
set the new first frame to the non-sequential file
repeat for all the jpegs.
concatenate all the videos

ffmpeg can create a video from an image sequence where the files are named frame_000.jpg, frame_001.jpeg, frame_002.jpg… thus:

ffmpeg -i frame_%03d.jpg -r 1 output.mp4

the -r 1 option sets the frame rate to 1 per second. If the sequence doesn't start with 000 then you can use -start_number 123 to specify the first frame. more details here


Comparing audio waveform in a visual and / or numeric way Aside taking screenshots of my favourite DAW software in waveform or frequency view and comparing them, what solution can I use for compare 2 audio waveforms ?

For example if i have 2 video with visual differences I tend to put both on a timeline with "difference" blending mode and check if the video resulting is full black or there's some kind of minor visible differences.

I'm conforming to EBU R 128 one waveform, I want to check if the outputted audio file is identical to the original, or if there was some changes in terms of waveform and decibel correction.

There are plugins, software ways (I'm using Adobe Audition) or ffmpeg commands to show changes in a visual and / or a numeric way (such the pnsr or ssim used for video) ?

The best for me would be a software solution able to show both the waveform with 2 colors and overlayed one over the other for visual comparison + some kind of numeric comparison.

Basically I'm looking for a "Compare / Diff" of notepad++ but for Audio Waveforms.

You could try a SoX and imagemagick solution, which could visually diff spectrograms, for example:

# generate spectrograms with SoX
$ sox 0000001353.noframedrop_Lg.small_1_edit.ogg -n spectrogram -arl -o spectrogram_1.png
$ sox 0000001353.noframedrop_Lg.small_2_edit.ogg -n spectrogram -arl -o spectrogram_2.png

# imagemagick
$ composite spectrogram_1.png spectrogram_2.png -compose difference spectrograms_difference.png

This could give you a quick heads up if there is a difference, similar to how you do for video streams, however is not suited to precisely locating TC positions. Below is an example with one of two source SoX spectrograms generated above (10min speech), and its imagemagick comparison with the other (nonblack indicates a difference):


After Effects - Can Expressions read from Extend Script? Backstory

I'm trying to learn about After Effects' different abilities.

Question

If I make a function using extend script like so

function alertStuff() {
    alert("stuff")
}

Can I call this using a layer expression?

alertStuff();

Short answer: no.

Long answer: There may be an unknown, undocumented hack that enables this, like modifying some of the core classes, or a workaround, like writing to a file and reading the results, but I've never heard of such a thing.

You probably know this, but it might be worth spelling out the differences between the two.

Expressions are evaluated every time a frame is rendered, either during preview or final render (this can be multiple times per frame when motion blur is turned on). They can access the properties of layers and compositions and other project items, as well as making some system calls and reading external files and a few other undocumented JS functions like time and date. They can not change any part of the project, they are limited to returning one value—the value applied to the property they belong to.

This is different to the way scripts work, which is to basically replicate anything the user could do, but programatically. They are not called at render time. Since scripts can change the content of compositions, there would be problems with calling them at render time: just using your example, the alert might be displayed 64 times per frame if motion blur was set really high—that would get old pretty quickly. But even for a non-trivial example: suppose you had a script that added a layer to the current comp. If it was called from an expression it would run every time the frame was rendered, whether it was at final render time, or during previewing, or when the user parked the playhead on the frame. With MB on that could mean 64 new layers could be added per frame—while the comp was being rendered. The results would get pretty messy.


Stabilize a really big drone ascent I have a 300' ascent with a drone looking at 2 actors lying on the ground. The drone does a bit of drifting and rotating on the way up. I want to stabilize the whole shot to be rock solid. If I use point trackers in AE starting from the first frame, then by the time it gets to the top, the points are very close together, resulting in inaccurate tracking. Can I add points on the way up? Or expand the distance between the points on the way up? Is there a better way? Or am I asking too much? Cheers


Annapurna Logo Effects Recreation I'm looking to see how to recreate the effects used on the Annapurna Logo. I think it's awesome. Here's a reference:

In this they have scan lines and a glowing vertical reveal. The VHS tracking is interesting as well, but I'm really interested in understanding how to create the effects of the former to something like that.

Is this possible in after affects and what effects should I be looking into to achieve this? (Hope this is the right forum for this.)

This is absolutely possible to create in After Effects. Without you asking a specific question it's difficult to give a specific answer here, but broadly speaking:

Scan Lines in principal are very easy, they're just alternating black and white lines, set to a blending mode like Overlay and their opacity reduced
A Vertical Reveal is most simply achieved using the Linear Wipe effect
There are a lot of blurs and overexposures in this, which tells me you'd want to change your project settings to 32 Bit Color Space
Chromatic Abberation is a key part of this look -- essentially you precompose your composition, duplicate it three times (red, green, and blue), and apply color channel effects and offset the position of each one.
The VHS footage is almost certainly a recording of real static from a VHS tape, composited in using a blending  mode like Add or Screen

This is a pretty popular look these days and as such there are all sorts of tutorials if you search for "Retro 80's VHS". Here's a good example.

If you have a more specific question please let me know.


Camera directing for lenghty single character scene talking I am an absolute amateur regarding directing, but have been reading up on the subject and been paying close attention to filmworks, both real and animated.

The thing is, I have about one and a half minute of a single character speaking to the viewer(introduction and world story building). But I haven't encountered such scenes during other films so i'm not really sure how to pull it off.

I have tried looking for the fundamentals of lengthy and rather static scenes but have come up quite empty.

The scene in question looks a bit like :

And the scene itself:

I figure there should be plenty of room for different shots, but i'm unsure how to fill them.

Just to clarify, I guess I'm looking for perhaps a scene of a real film that has similar conditions to this or a technique explained which helps in directing a rather static scene.

There are two main things you want to do here.  First, use a lower camera angle for your main camera.  You are shooting from substantially above your speaker which makes them seem diminished and small, but you want them to be the focus of attention.  Shoot from eye level or slightly below eye level to give them a feeling of more importance in the scene.

Second, use multiple camera angles.  You can easily break up a long scene with one speaker by cutting between multiple angles of the same individual.  Be aware of the axis of action however.  You don't want to have your left and right sides get suddenly reversed, but cutting between a close up of them talking vs a wide shot or a mid shot from a different angle can help the video feel less static.

As far as an example of this in action, look at any kind of news or public speaking footage (such as political debates or church sermons).  You will see a variety of different camera angles to try and methods and timing of cuts to help make the footage feel less static from these kinds of sources.


Does animation make use of any Artificial Intelligence? I have always wondered if the animation technology used in film-making uses AI to any extent.

Yes, quite frequently, particularly in crowd simulation.  Actors within the crowd are programmed with particular behavior types and will interact with each other to form a more lifelike crowd.  The interactions are usually fairly simple, but it is a form of AI.  I'm not sure if it is still around, but one of the early programs used for this was actually called "Behavior".

Some procedural animation could also be described as a form of AI as well.  For example, when a character needs to walk across uneven terrain, it can be possible to setup a physics simulation and have the character alter their movements to maintain balance.  This is really also a form of AI combined with physics simulation.

There are probably others as well, but those are the first two that come to mind as relatively common uses.


Use ffmpeg to create a split screen video out of 5 videos- 4 videos in landscape one in portrait I'm trying to create a series of split screen videos for students to work on remotely using ffmpeg. I need to create an ffmpeg split screen "template" for 5 videos, 1 in portrait and the other 4 in landscape.
All the videos have the same resolution: 1280x720. One is 720x1280 (portrait) and the other 4 are 1280 x 720 (landscape)
I want to create a split screen of dimensions 1680x720 out of the 5 videos so the portrait video is 400x720 and the 4 landscape videos as 640x360.
How do I modify this 2x2 grid ffmpeg code to allow this?:

ffmpeg -i input0.mp4 -i input1.mp4 -i input2.mp4 -i input3.mp4 -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v][2:v][3:v]xstack=inputs=4:layout=0_0|w0_0|0_h0|w0_h0[v]" -map "[v]" output.mp4

Assuming you want a layout of:

0 1 2
0 3 4

Command is:

ffmpeg -i input0.mp4 -i input1.mp4 -i input2.mp4 -i input3.mp4 -i input4.mp4 -filter_complex "[0]scale=-1:720[v0];[1]scale=-1:360[v1];[2]scale=-1:360[v2];[3]scale=-1:360[v3];[4]scale=-1:360[v4];[v0][v1][v2][v3][v4]xstack=inputs=5:layout=0_0|w0_0|w0+w1_0|w0_h1|w0+w1_h1[v]" -map "[v]" output.mp4


Are there only a maximum of 1 re-encodes per stream in an ffmpeg command? Does ffmpeg only re-encode a maximum of 1 times per stream, when you execute any command no matter the number/kinds of operations/flags?

For example very simply I tried:

ffmpeg -i input -r 33 -r 54 output

To see if there was any indication that it did re-encode twice, and the streams seemed to show the same changes as if there was only a single -r flag there.

Given my limited understanding of the information on the official site (I looked through this stuff again: https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html#toc-Detailed-description) documentation I'm leaning towards the notion that there's only 0-1 re-encodes happening per stream based solely on whether I specify copy or not (outside of errors). Is this the correct understanding of things?

Yes, each output stream undergoes, at most, one encoding. If you map an input stream to multiple output files or multiples times in one output file, those count as distinct output streams.

copy must be set as the codec value for an output stream in order to avoid re-encoding it.


Extend duration of imported static layers in After Effects I have imported a layered Photoshop file into After Effects as a layered comp with several .psd "footage" layers.

I've created and edited the comps within the 20s main comp with animations and effects. Now I need to extend the static layers(all 7s) to the length of the main comp(20s).

I've tried dragging to extend their regions and right-clicking > Time > Enable Time Remapping(this allows me to extend the region with keyframes, but the content still ends short of the comp length).

When I right-click the static layer and click "Open Layer Source", the preview shows the layer region extending to the same time as in the timeline...

but the green render bar only goes to 5s...

I can see this when I drag the playhead in the main comp timeline—the layers with this problem disappear at 5s even though their regions extend to 7s.

1. I need to get these layer regions to extend the length of my 20s comp.

2. It seems like the layer source only goes to 5s when I "Open Layer Source", so even if the region goes to 20s, the 'content' only goes to 5s.

How to I get extend everything to 20s without reimporting everything and doing all of my keyframes/animations/effects over again?

Or is there a way to reimport those layers, but keep all of my keyframes/animations/effects.

Using the latest Photoshop CC 2015.5 & After Effects CC v2015.3.

Open the imported comps. Not in the layer source window, just as comps (i.e. double click from the project panel).

Go to the composition settings menu and change the duration to whatever you want.

Drag the out-points of all the layers to the end of the comp (hint, press the end key on your keyboard and then with all the layers selected hit alt+]).

In your main composition you will now be able to drag the end of the photoshop comps to their new length.


Link audio to opacity effect of an image in After Effects I have 3 audio files from a podcast. 1 file from Steve, one from john, and the other is from me.

I have a composition with the three audio files and also 3 png images of our faces, one for each of our faces. Each image has an opacity keyframe set to 50% by default. Now i want to connect each audio track to the right image and animate as follows:

  ✖ When audio intensity of a track is more than x decibels then gradually animate the image that's linked to that track from 50% opacity to 100% opacity. To give the
  visual effect of who is currently talking.

  ✖ When the sound intensity drops below the x decibels i have set before, then gradually animate the opacity back to 50%

How can i achieve that?

The easiest way to do this is to use an expression. First you convert audio to keyframes. Then set an expression on your opacity channel. If you drag the pick-whip for the expression to the audio keyframe property you'll get an opacity that bounces all over the place like crazy, so we're going to have to do a bit more to it.

First, in the opacity channel for your layer, set up a variable like so:

var audioAmp = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider");

(the expression on the right of the = is just what you get if you drag the pickwhip to the 'Both Channels' property).

We want to sample that property over time, to allow for slow fadeouts.

First, to make it easier to tweak we can set some properties that we can edit until we get the best results.

var numSamples = 200;
var sampleSpacing = thisComp.frameDuration;
var threshold = 5.0 //<--you set this

numSamples is the number of times we sample the amplitude to get a smooth average. The higher it is, the smoother the result, but also the slower the script is. If you set it really high you may want to convert the expression to keyframes once you've got it working right. The values I put in here are just pulled out of my hat, you'll have to tweak them until they work for you. This is the main setting that you can tweak. Have a go at setting it really high, like 2000 or low like 10, and see how it works.
sampleSpacing is the time between samples. Setting it to thisComp.frameDuration means one sample per frame. You could do a smaller sample, but given that the audio amplitude property only has one keyframe per frame it might not really help.
Threshold is the audio threshold above which no fading happens. Again you will have to tweak this depending on the audio level of your material.

Ok, here comes the hoo-hah.

var sum = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < numSamples; i++){
  sum += audioAmp.valueAtTime(time - i * sampleSpacing);
}
avAudio = sum / numSamples; //the average audio for all the samples
//now decide if the audio is low enough to start fading
if (avAudio < threshold) {
  //normalises it to 0-100% where 100% = the threshold
  100 * avAudio / threshold;
} else { //audio is above threshold
  100;
}

Basically it just averages the audio out for the last numSamples samples. When you have a sound followed by silence the average will go from the volume of the sound to zero in numSamples * sampleSpacing seconds, or in this case 200 frames.


How can I sync two videos together in Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 I have two videos of a dance at a dance competition taken by two different people. The videos are of the same dance but are from different angles.

I want to create a single video that contains both videos side by side and synchronised to the same point. The videos start and finish a few seconds apart from each other and thus are slightly different length.

My video application is Corel VideoStudio Pro X3. How can I do this? I imagine that somehow using the audio this could be done. The music should act as a good guide for syncing them together.

There is no way to do this automatically. It has to be done manually by matching the frames together from the two videos. This can be done by placing the videos in separate overlay tracks and works for two or more videos.


Mix Voice to Video without losing video quality I have recorded video from Canon HFR 36 camera and recorded voice separately to computer using a clip on mic. (The video camera does not have mic input) Now I want a simple software to remove original audio from the video and add the recorded voice. When I make the edited file, the video quality should not be decreased dramatically.

I am using windows 8 Operating system. My video files are in MTS format (AVCHD). I recorded audio using windows voice recorder so that voice files are in wma format.

You can use tsMuxer to simply switch out the audio in the MTS without re-encoding the video or audio. MTS is just a container format, it's the "housing" for the video and audio streams. Though your audio has to have the exact same length to be in sync with the video and the audio format has to be supported by the M(2)TS file format.


How to set up a 3-screen video installation to sync correctly? I need to set up a three-screen HD video installation with sound for a friend's art exhibition. The videos will likely be provided as separate video files, each with a different video but exactly the same length and intended to be played synchronously. I'm looking for advice on how to set up the installation so that the three screens will be synchronised correctly and played on an endless loop. What's the best way to achieve this with consumer-grade equipment?

I can hopefully borrow three HD (720p) projectors - not sure yet which model, I'll hopefully find that out soon - or can possibly purchase three cheaper projectors specifically for this. I've been told it's important to have the same model (& year?) to ensure the color will be effectively matched.

I can borrow a laptop or mac mini to drive the video or could purchase one or more cheap devices if needed. I can also borrow blu-ray players if that's any use. Again, I need advice about what device to borrow/buy.

Sound is two-track stereo, so can be played from just one of the videos. That should be the easy bit.

The Matrox graphics card is probably the easiest and most versatile approach. I use the TripleHead2Go, which as you'd assume sends a signal(s) to up to three monitors/projectors.

Multiple computers will never stay in sync. I found this out the hard way the night of an event.

In terms of software, if you're on OS X check out VDMX. There's a fully functional demo that you can grab. Setting it up for your needs would be fairly trivial after a quick search for the right approach.

PS. I would have just commented on the other answers, but I'm new here and don't have the credentials.


Quality of time lapse from images I'm planning on creating a time lapse from a series of still images. I plan to shoot the images in raw (Nikon NEF, Adobe RGB), then edit with Photoshop and export as jpegs (highest quality). I am planning on then putting them into an NLE (either FCPX, Resolve, or Premiere Pro) to turn them into a time lapse video.

I am trying to preserve the highest quality for the final video, so my questions are:

Is this the best way to preserve quality? If not, what is?
Also, what will the final quality be? (In terms of retained data?) ie: is there enough data retained, such that if I export it as ProRes4444 there will be more information than ProRes4:2:2? Or is there already such reduced quality that it won't matter?

I understand that this question may be poorly worded, but I believe it is on-topic and relevant, so please edit it or comment for clarification.

You are approaching the problem at hand very well, you have however not used the most quality-preserving solution available.
I recommend that you take your raw image files and import them into Adobe After Effects as a camera raw sequence. This will let you work with the files directly in their raw format and therefore retaining the most quality. From there, you can choose to export in a lossless format if you so desire.
Using this method, you should see a better quality from ProRes 4444 than ProRes 422.

Best of luck


How do I create footage that has nearly the same quality as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNJdPyoqt8U but is taken by an action cam? How do I create video that is similar in quality to

             with an actioncam? Currently I'm using a Rollei 5S WIFI, and more often than not, I can without significant loss of image quality downscale to 360p. Yes, that is a pointer to how good and how sharp the image quality at 1080p is. See

             . But even the GoPro Hero 4 is not much better

Is that a lens issue, is that a CCD issue? I noticed, that most 4K videos do not show quick movement. It seems that they put their camera on a tripod and start recording very slow scenes, which is why there's hardly any blur. That seems to be one option to improve image quality.

My question is, how do I create footage that has nearly the same quality as

             but is taken by an action cam?

Also including post-production.

The Simple answer is going to be "No" That may sound harsh but you cannot as there are so many factors that were involved with this video unless you want to buy similar kit to the guys who made the video. The main thing being the camera and lenses they used
Tech spec:
Red Epic (M642) w/ Ti Canon Mount
Canon 24-70mm F2.8
Canon 16-35mm f/2.8
Canon 100mm f/2.8
Canon 70-200 f/2.8
Adobe Premiere CC and DaVinci Resolve
Freefly System MOVI M10

Your action camera, while it can record 4k video cannot compete with RED RAW files nor can the lens compete with the dedicated lenses listed above.

Now to answer the question: to achieve this type of video quality would be to invest in a better camera that can use different lenses and has good quality video capabilities, now having a RED EPIC is great but also having a HUGE budget is great but there are small decent cameras that can record 4k like the BMCC or Panasonic GH4 or Canon C500 etc but besides having the best kit in the world you would need to know how to use it all and probably have a team to help.

With the post-production any decent NLE can achieve this but it is knowing how to edit that is the skill.

Hope that helps and doesnt sound to bitchy


Limit the scale of a pick whipped object I want to make a speaker graphic 'wobble' to different frequencies..
Here's what I've done so far
I made a speaker graphic in a comp
And I parented the scale to a null in the main comp

And I isolated the kick drum with a combo of a band pass filter and a bass-treble.
Then I converted that audio into keyframes and pick whipped that null with that speaker's scale parented to it.

So here's where I'm stuck at:
I want to limit the speaker's scale within some values. Like the speaker should not exceed 75.8% and 76% of scale.
So what I tried so far is something like this ↓
temp = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider");
[temp, temp]  +[Math.min(73.8-2), Math.min(73.8-2)] [Math.max(23), Math.max(23)]

You need to do a linear map as an Expression.
So the example below would take any value between 0-100 and map it between -100 to 100.
input = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
inputLow = 0;
inputHigh = 100;
outputLow = -100;
outputHigh = 100;

linear(input,inputLow,inputHigh,outputLow,outputHigh)


Any tutorials on how to animate a vector hand seem too be able to find every other body part except a hand animation tutorial

im looking to create a vector animation of a hand performing a pinch and zoom action

I needed a similar animation recently and I gave up on creating the entire animation from scratch. This is what I did instead -

I used a green screen and captured my hand doing the animation on video. For this purpose, it doesn't need to be a production quality green screen setup, I just used a green cloth on a table, a camera on a tripod from above and few lighting sources I had at home. The whole setup took me about half an hour.

The reason this doesn't need to be super quality is because you won't be actually showing this footage, just using it as the base for the masks.

Now, key the green background out as much as possible. If you're lucky and your green screen footage is relatively good, it will be easier and give you better lines to work with. Use various effects like blur, find edges, cartoon, extract and others to give you the lines you need. At worst case, you will be able to get only the contour of the hand, without the inner lines.

Use auto-trace on this to create your animated masks. These masks will be far from usable but it will give you a good base to work with. You now need to go through your composition, fixing the masks and adding the missing lines.

It is still a tedious work but for someone like me who has absolutely no background in animation, it gave pretty good results.


Final Cut - unable to set clip duration to a fraction of a second When I select a clip in Final Cut Pro, and press ctrld to edit the duration, I can enter 100 then enter and it will make the clip 1:00 second long. However if I try to do 30, it still rounds it up to 1:00 second long. Why won't it let me make a clip appear for a fraction of a second?

:30 is 1s at 30fps, so FCPX rounds it to 1s. For half a second on a 30fps project, enter :15.


mistake importing footage I am kind of new to video (1 year). When I import video footage into Premiere, I sometimes get duplicate clips. Only the long ones. I think I am not importing my footage correctly. Does it have to do with the clip, if it is long, is really spanning 2 clips? The video is HD, mostly those Canon MTS files. What is the correct way to import into Premiere, just started working with CC (2014) version?

It is possible that Premiere is detecting a spanned file and automatically connecting them.  If a file goes beyond 4GB, it may have to be split in to two files due to limitations of the file system used on some memory cards.  It is possible that when you load the file in to Premiere, it recognizes the file was split and puts them back together for both parts that you import.


Voice over video with current sound I want to record a video and want to play some recorded voice over the video, but I still want the sounds of the original video to remain. Is this possible, and when the answer is yes, can you recommend the software you are doing this with?

It is possible in almost any video=editing software.

If you are using Windows and you do not have much experience in video editing, than you can make it Windows Movie Maker. It is free and simple for beginners.


Edit small portion of a compressed video without losing quality I have a one hour h264-encoded video. The unedited footage can't be found.
My goal is to edit a small portion of it.

The scenario looks like this. I have to blur out some persons appearing let's say:  00:20:00 - 00:22:00.
The Video's between 00:00:00 - 00:20:00 and 00:22:01 - 01:00:00 are untouched.

Is there a method achieving this without losing quality on unedited footage?

I'm using Adobe Products.

For tasks like this I like the TMPGEnc tools, try Smart Renderer https://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tmsr5.html.

With these tools you can cut & join files, only re-encoding where the cuts / joins are. I would split the file in 3, preferably on key frames, re-render the edited section as needed, then re-join the files. There are trial versions of the products, just download it and see if it does what you need.

I don't know of a way to do this in the Adobe products - if anyone else does, let us know! Or possibly there are other free tools to perform this task, I've just always used the TMPGEnc tools for this type of work.


Troubleshooting XDCAM import into Premirere Pro CC 2014 I am in the middle of editing a TV spot we create bi-weekly and therefore on a tight timeline. I am using Premiere Pro CC (2014) just upadted last week on Win8.1, 4790k, 16GB, OS SSD 256GB, Project Drive 1TB SSD, Export and Preview Drive 3TB Seagate 7200. They shot this particular spot in a studio with different cameras.  So I recieved files in: XDCAM HD 1080 422 i60 50mb CBR 1920x1080 - 1888x1062

My understanding is that XDCAM is supported natively in PPro, however, when I try to import into Premiere or add to Media Encoder I recieve error: "Codec missing or unavailable".

I asked a friend to re-encode it as ProRes rather than spend time figuring out -what I assumed was a codec issue. But the ProRes 422 LT that he exported
I get error: "The importer reported a generic error". I'll say that I've been using prores on this same system a bunch of times, however it was a different possibly less savey person who did this transcode and so it is possibly still suspect.

These files were live edited on some box so the file is over an hour long.. could it be a RAM issue? I've jogged my page file up to a static 120GB..

I am able to play the prores files on a second laptop that has no adobe suite installed.. but still cannot export them from quicktime as something else. I get an error.

Since Adobe CS5 XDCAM files are supported natively, make sure the folder structure is the same like on your SXS Card, open up the Sony Clip Browser and try to load up the files - this should work immediately. If you can't see the files, there must be an encoding error or the files are corrupt.


Microphone problem for camera hp , lc100W I have bought a camera hp , lc100W

I want to use it for lecture record, microphone has not good record, What I must do for the sound? which type of microphone I must buy for it?

The rule of thumb for recording sound is that the closer to the source you get the better the sound. The reason is that the further you are from the source the more you have to increase the recording level, which means you also turn up all the background noise and room ambiance (echo and reverb). Since sound levels diminish proportionally to the square of the distance having the mic twice as far away means one quarter the sound level, or four times more background noise.

Now it doesn't look like there's a microphone input on that camera. If that's the case the only way you can record sound using an external mic is with a separate recorder. You could use a phone if you have one, you can get external mics for phones. Put the mic and recorder close to the source - on the lectern or even on a mic stand. Then you can synch the sound in your editing app. Premiere for example will synch clips automatically from their audio.


Audio without video is OK, but WITH video it is delayed I have this audio filterchain (for repetitive short part of the original audio):

[1:a] atrim=start=2.52:end=1:38.0, aloop=100:7700 [audio]

When I used it without video, i. e. in the ffmpeg command I mapped only audio:

-map "[audio]"

then it fulfilled my intent - it started playing immediately (from 0:00)

But when I mapped video, too

-map 0:v -map "[audio]"

then the audio started at 2.52 - the same value as in my atrim filter.

(I tried changing this value and the starting time changed appropriately, too.)

What is the reason for it and how I can fix it?

You've to reset the timestamps:

[1:a]atrim=start=2.52:end=1:38.0,aloop=100:7700,asetpts=N/SR/TB[audio]


Adobe Premiere Pro - How do I select a Region in the Timeline using Mouse In Magix/Sony Vegas Pro I could just drag click it. I don't want to use the "in and out points" or how you call them, I want to select a region by drag-selecting with my mouse and then adjusting it if needed. I remember I did this somehow in Premiere Pro 2019 but I am not sure about this version.

Not sure it can do exactly what you're asking for.
Nearest I can think of is selecting the razor blade tool (or press  C).
Making a cut using the mouse on your region, then switching back to the selection tool (or press V).
Then selecting your region, and adjusting the ends if necessary by floating over them, then dragging.
(In and Out points are massively useful when you get into more complex edits.  There's a reason most editing software uses them - they're worth learning to use).


Call FFmpeg filter from source code (C API) I'm trying to find out how to call a FFmpeg filter (freezedetect) from within FFmpeg's source code. I see the filter's file is under libavfilter/vf_freezedetect.c, but I don't know how to use that filter inside the source code. How can I do that? And what I need to pass to the function?

My FFmpeg command's high-level API is this:

ffmpeg -i freeze.mp4 -vf "freezedetect=n=-60dB:d=2" -map 0:v:0 -f null -

And what I would need to get the resulting outputs directly after calling a function given its input arguments:

lavfi.freezedetect.freeze_start: 5.005
lavfi.freezedetect.freeze_duration: 2.03537
lavfi.freezedetect.freeze_end: 7.04037
lavfi.freezedetect.freeze_start: 13.0464
lavfi.freezedetect.freeze_duration: 3.03637
lavfi.freezedetect.freeze_end: 16.0827

You can't just call a filter, You must instantiate a filter graph.

First you need to create a buffer and buffersink via:

AVFilterContext* source = 0;
AVFilterContext* sink = 0;
AVFilterGraph *graph = avfilter_graph_alloc()
avfilter_graph_create_filter(&source, avfilter_get_by_name("buffer"), nullptr, args, nullptr, graph);

AVBufferSinkParams* buffersink_params = av_buffersink_params_alloc();
buffersink_params->pixel_fmts = /*Your pixel format HERE*/;

avfilter_graph_create_filter(&sink, avfilter_get_by_name("buffersink"), nullptr, nullptr, buffersink_params, graph);

You can then create your filter via something like this

snprintf(args, sizeof(args), "n=-60dB:d=2");
avfilter_graph_create_filter(&freezedetect, avfilter_get_by_name("freezedetect"), nullptr, args, nullptr, graph);

Then link it all together:

avfilter_link(source, 0, freezedetect, 0);
avfilter_link(freezedetect, 0, sink, 0);
avfilter_graph_config(graph, 0);

Finally you can send frames to the filter via

av_buffersrc_write_frame(source, frame);

And get the result with

 av_buffersink_get_frame(sink, frame);

Don't forget to free it all at the end


Adjusting the vertical alignment line position in Premiere's Captions I am creating burnt-in (open captions) using Premiere CC 2019.
When I generate captions, they look like this:

I would like the line alignment to be vertically centred within the black block.  Is this possible?

I have adjusted various settings in the Captions Import dialogue, but can't seem to make this work.

I've found a workaround in Premiere, outlined below:

Make a copy of your .srt file, as you will need to import two separate files for this to work.

For example sub1.srt and sub2.srt

Import both .srt files into Premiere.

Place them one above the other on your timeline.

Make sure they start at the same timecode.

Set the text size and alignment as usual. Make sure you do this to all the captions by right-click on on a caption and clicking “Select all”.

Now modify the lower track, so that it shows a black background with black text only:

Double click the subtitle track to select the correct captions in the Captions Tab (they all look the same, so this is easy to mess up).

Right click one of your captions and choose “Select all”.

Make all the backgrounds and all the text black

Now modify the upper subtitle track so it shows the text only with no background:

Double click the subtitle track to select the correct captions in the Captions Tab (they all look the same, so this is easy to mess up).

Right click one of your captions and choose “Select all”.

Make all the backgrounds have an Opacity of 0%.

Now select your lower track again, and reposition it in the Effects tab until the alignment looks correct.


How to show a character in black and white mode with colorful background? I want to show a character in black and white but the background/environment he reside remains colorful.

I heard that through rotoscoping it will be possible.

Is it correct? Could anyone please suggest techniques to achieve this.

Have you already filmed your scene? If not, then the easiest way is to film your character against a blue or green screen, key out the background, apply a monochrome filter to the character, and insert your other background.

If you have already filmed it, you can try using a color correction filter on the character, but it's very unlikely you'll be able to easily isolate the character properly with just a filter, unless the background is a solid color which doesn't appear anywhere on the character.

So your other option is rotoscoping which is very difficult and often tedious work to look good.

What software are you using, by the way?


What is this effect's name? And how would I be able to do it in Sony Vegas? I would name this effect a sort of lens flare, but the lens flare tutorials I have seen on YouTube are not what I am looking for... Such as this tutorial

Anyway, this is the effect I am trying to replicate, as displayed in the Galantis - No Money Music Video

             at the following times: 0:17-0:21, 0:27-0:31, 0:35-0:40 and many other places through out the video...

Thank you for any responses I may get :)

Kind Regards

Joshua Lochner

Search Google for "light leaks". Here's free collection: http://vegasaur.com/free-light-leaks

How to use: Place the desired light leak clip on the track above your video and set track's compositing mode to Screen or Add. Adjust the amount of light by lowering the clip or track opacity. You can also add change luminance or color by adding Levels, Color Balance or Hue/Saturation filters.


How to find dimensions of a shape layer I was curious how I can find the dimensions of a shape layer. The reason I need to know is because I need to scale a shape layer, but I want it to scale from the left, not from the middle. I know how to do that part, all I have to do is divide the length of the shape layer in half, and add that keyframe the position. However, the problem is that I can't actually find out how to get the dimensions. If someone could help, that would be great. Thank you :)

EDIT: I found this solution that supposedly works here. But I don't actually know how to insert that expression, If someone could either find a different solution or tell me how to insert that one, it would be so helpful.

Assuming an irregular shape, here's a manual method to do it.

Create a solid layer of any color, stacked above the shape layer. Change its opacity to around 30%, enough to see the shape layer underneath. Unlink the scale controllers (X and Y) so that they can be scaled independently. Move and rescale the solid so that it can serve as a bounding box for the shape layer. Your original solid size should have been the same as your comp size, so the dimensions of your shape layer are

Shape width = Composition width * 'X' scale % of solid layer
Shape height = Composition height * 'Y' scale % of solid layer

Of course, this is a crude method for one-time polling. There's probably an expression for dynamically updated values if the shape is animated.


How to copy timecode value from a video to clipboard on a mac Is there any app that can copy timecode values to clipboard?

I'm playing a video.  I want to stop the video, press a keyboard shortcut, then go to a google doc and paste the timecode value (not a video frame).

I'm using a Mac.  Tried googling for solutions in Quicktime Player, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut, but can't find anything.  Any ideas?

This can be done in Apple's Motion (but not FCPX for some reason). To do so, create a new project and import your footage. You'll want the project's frame rate and starting timecode to match the footage's. Next, set the timeline to display timecode by clicking on the downward facing arrow next to the timecode:

Select the Timecode option:

Then double-click to select the timecode:

Now you can copy/paste it or type in a new value to jump there.


Banding in waveform monitor What does it mean if my Lumetri Scopes in Premiere Pro look like this?

There is some kind of "banding" in it. Does it happen when you color grade 8-bit footage?

The "banding" you are seeing is the levels of the three channels that make up a video signal. It isn't an 8-bit artifact. In the upper left and bottom scopes, the white/grey trace is the luminance channel and the others are the color difference channels. In the histogram in the upper right, you are seeing the white and RGB values.

You can switch between different scope configurations.


Vector graphics from Photoshop to After Effects I want to animate an old WW1 military map in After Effects. I drew this map in vector using the Illustrator and now I need to give it a vintage look by overlaying various textures and overprints. For this kind of work, Photoshop is the ideal solution.
I'm wondering if I export my project from Illustrator to Photoshop as smart object, make all the necessary changes, and then export from Photoshop to After Effects, will I be able to work with vector graphics there?
Or is it better to export from the Illustrator directly to After Effects and try to stylize the image already there?
Thanks for the advice.

If the effects and textures you add in Photoshop are raster (pixel) based, then you'll lose the advantages of vectors in the process. I'd probably do the stylisation in AE, but if you're more familiar with PS do it there, just use a high enough resolution that you won't be giving yourself headaches in AE.


What are the pros and cons of the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 for video editing? I'm in the market for a new computer. I really, really want mobility. I have been considering the newest Microsoft Surface Pro 4. I would get the model with the highest ram and processing specs. From reading the specs, it seems to me that it would be plenty powerful enough to do standard video editing (1080p or less), and with the dock, probably recording over USB3 just fine as well. Combined with external monitors, it seems I would have the best of both worlds (mobile and powerful).

But I might be wrong. What are the pros and cons that I may not be seeing?

As you mentioned, mobility would be your biggest pro by far. With the Surface Pro with highest specs (as you mentioned), you'll get a very competitive machine. The biggest thing you'll be missing (from my perspective) is a dedicated graphics card. You can probably still pull off multiple monitors, but it's not going to be pushing it for sure. The Surface Book actually does have a dedicated GPU, and could combine that mobility with a powerful graphics card (it does come at quite a bit extra cost, though).

The best thing I've found with my Surface (a Surface Pro 3, admittedly, but still in the same family) is that I can connect a mouse and external keyboard via Bluetooth (was never a fan of the Type Cover) and still have my USB port free.


Exporting XML EDL from Premiere to Davinci Resolve What is the best way to successfully export an EDL from Premiere to Davinci Resolve?
Currently I export a Final Cut Pro XML, but whenever I import into Davinci, there are often errors with scale and speed, if any changes have been made to the size of the source footage.. What's the right way to do this?

Fcp .xml  is limited in features. Although more powerful than other EDL types, most of Premiere's transformation and animation properties are not supported. You can read more about its capabilities here. However it appears Premiere CC neither exports the xml file as recommended by Apple nor in its latest version.

I'd suggest collapse your timeline and make sure there are no nested clips. Then save your timeline as .xml (at least for reference) and replace all faulty shots in Resolve, if required. Alternatively you can export the whole clip from Premiere via any production codec or ideally as image sequence (.exr, .dpx, whatever you like depending on your color management workflow) and use Resolve`s Scene Cut Detection function to chop the imported clip into multiple shots automatically.


Does a real "megapixel lens" exist? Many of new model of lenses are defined as megapixel (i.e 1MP, 2MP, 5MP...).

My problem is that I did not find any difference between a standard lens and a "megapixel" one, in the focus quality.
I suppose that a difference should be remarked in the focus quality during the calibration step.

I'm working with several megapixel sensors, and I'm still looking for a megapixel lens that could fit with my sensors.
For example with a 2MP sensor, with a pixel size equal to 4um, the MTF should be at least 0.5 at 125 lp/mm.
My working distance is about 15m and the illumination wavelength is 850nm.

This is a misnomer, if not pure marketing corruption of terms. The lens doesn't do anything to the "megapixel count", that's determined solely by the sensor.
At most the lens might have the capability to resolve details to a level where a sensor of at least a certain element density is required to record them, but then you'd still not have a number of pixels as the size of the sensor as well as its element density determines that.


Overloading in a Mackie profx8 On one channel of my Mackie mixer, the OL light is on whatever I do. The channel sounds like it's working but the OL light is lit. What is the reason?


How does media manage to co-host a show from two continents without latency? Bloomberg TV features programming daily where the anchors co-host the show from both London and New York at the same time. Interaction between the co-hosts at the different locations are instantaneous and there is no noticable latency   whatsoever, despite the distance.

However, when they have an interviewee on-air that is not in any one of the main studios, via what seems to be internet video or satellite, there is a noticeable latency.

How does Bloomberg TV and other major media manage to do co-hosting, in regards to latency?

Is London–New York latency not a big issue in live television? Or do they rent bandwidth on some sort of super-speed internet connection over the Atlantic?

There are two key ways to deal with the inevitable latency of live video from the other side of the world:

Ignore the video, at least for talent or guest queuing purposes. The person is fed mix-minus audio through their IFB. Since it is just audio, and historically was sent over a POTS telephone line, it can have virtually unnoticeable latency to the viewer.
Practice, practice, practice. For geographically separated anchors, they will rehearse until they can get the timing of things right. They'll know they need to start talking just that little bit early for it to be seamless to the viewer.

Other technical things that can be done are to rely on terrestrial (fiber optic) transmission of the remote location (significantly lower latency than satellite, but physics still prevents zero latency) and avoiding compression or using codecs designed for low latency and high quality.


Picture in picture for my face while recording video games What (or how) can I insert a box with a visual of my face while I am recording the game I'm playing? I currently use Hypercam but there is no option for this game/reality split screen.

Xsplit is a popular software choice for people recording and/or streaming video games. It allows multiple inputs and can overlay video on top of video, as you'd need for the PiP effect. There is a small fee to purchase this, but would highly recommend it if you are serious about it.

Another popular solution is Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) which is similar to Xsplit, but is completely free. Here is a guide to using OBS. When you setup a "Streaming Profile," you can just set it to locally record.

With both services, you have the option to record footage locally (such as to edit/produce and then upload to YouTube) and/or stream directly to an online streaming service (such as Twitch or Ustream).


I just want my camera to focus on EVERYTHING when recording.. please help. I am learning how to shoot DSLR video and am struggling to get my 5D Mark III to focus on EVERYTHING.. It always wants to focus on only one specific area creating Depth of field on everything else and I would just like it to focus on everything.. How can I achieve this?

Like when someone is walking towards the camera I'd like it to stay focused on that along with the background.

There are three answers to this question.

Number 1: use a much, much smaller sensor size.  Every factor of two smaller means you can use half the focal length and enjoy an effective 2 f-stops of depth of field at the same aperture value.  Thus 35mm to m43 means you can use a 25mm f2 lens and get the same depth of field as a 50mm f4 lens.  A 2/3" video camera (broadcast standard) means you can use a 12mm f2 lens and get the same depth of field as a 50mm f8 lens.  A 1/3" video camera (old prosumer standard) means you can use a 6mm f2 lens and get the same depth of field as a 50mm f16 lens.  And you still have the light-gathering benefit of an f2 lens.

Number 2: use a tilt-shift lens to move the plane of focus.  It could be that the "everything" you want can be achieved that way.  See this link for examples of photos and setups.

Number 3: be careful when composing images so that you never have objects closer to the lens than the closest in-focus point, and neither do you have objects further than the farthest in-focus point.  This requires you to actually have control over your scene.

But really, a FF35 camera is usually chosen precisely because it offers very shallow DOF.  You are fighting against nature to try to get a deep depth of field.


DaVinci Resolve: hide timeline viewer I was playing around with Resolve, and managed to show a second window thingy (the black one in the screenshot) via View > Source/Timeline Viewer. Now I can't seem to make it disappear. I have tried Workspace > Layout > Reset UI Layout, but it doesn't remove the second window. How can I remove it?

The current way to accomplish this is to either:

1) Toggle the menu [Workspace] > [Single Viewer Mode]

- or -

2) Toggle the [ ] / [][] button (top right of the viewer)

NOTE: Resolve will only enable the options and allow the use of two viewers if it has enough screen space (screen real estate) to do so. And that is probably the reason why opening/closing the Inspector affected the dual view.

(Resolve 15)


What are some good accessories for a DSLR video recording setup? I have a DSLR that I've started using for video recording and I'd like to buy some accessories for shooting video. I know this could be subjective, but it doesn't have to be. I am looking for accessories for a DSLR that help with video recording, such as a follow focus, or shotgun mic. What are some important accessories for recording with a DSLR?

I'm biased, but before anything else, invest in AUDIO GEAR. Far too often, filmmakers forget to keep audio on an equal par with picture. Invest in some good, quality mics. Shotgun? Meh...a good, all purpose cardioid like the reasonably-priced ElectroVoice RE-10 can hold you over for a while until you get some audio recording practice under your belt.

Essential to MY toolkit is an H4N...an excellent digital audio recorder. It's small enough to hide on set, and I'll be honest...I've used it hidden behind a centerpiece to record a conversation at a table with no problems. They're stupid cheap, too...like...um...$299? I forget offhand.

The microphones in DSLRs are pretty much all crap from my experience; I use them more as a reference track than anything else.

Good audio will make your images sparkle even more!


After Effects Multiple instances hangs when rendering using PHP and Command Line I am trying to render video from Adobe After Effects using PHP through command line. When i try to render video from After effects render Queue, i can see in Task Manager that all CPU cores are using. i have following PHP script which takes AE template file and render video.

<?php
  exec('aerender.exe -project myproject.aepx -comp "Final" -mp  -output video.mov')

 // -mp - Additional processes may be created to render multiple frames simultaneously
?>

When i execute this PHP file from command line like

php /path/to/above_script_file.php

its working fine too. All CPU cores are using and video is rendering.

BUT when i execute same script from browser using WAMP server, rendering starts, all instances get starts but suddenly close and 1 or sometimes 2 After effects instances are running but in hanged position. No memory or CPU is changing.

These are my After Effects preferences

UPDATE:
When i am trying to render using below command
    aerender -project /path/ -comp Final -mp -output out.mov

its working and using multiprocessing. but when trying to render from web app it show below error message in log file

There is an error in background rendering so switching to foreground rendering after 0 frames completed out of total 601 frames.

Message interpretation:enter link description here

The multiprocessing feature was unable to use all instances beyond a     certain point in the rendering process. This is an error that only shows     in the render log file.

You may want to try to write the output of your task to a file and tell your system to start it as a background task by adding the &:

exec('aerender.exe -project myproject.aepx -comp "Final" -mp  -output video.mov >/dev/null &')

It might also be something in your server setup, the max. memory maybe?


FFmpeg: chromakey without green edges I have a video of a person on green background and I'm trying to turn background transparent:
ffmpeg -i bg.mp4 -i man.mp4 -filter_complex '[1:v]colorkey=0x00ff00:0.3:0.3[ckout];[0:v][ckout]overlay[out]' -map '[out]' result.mp4

Colorkey gives this quite noticeable green edge around the person's figure.
Any attempts to increase opacity or blend parameters result in disappearing facial features.

Is there any smart way to change pure green 0x00ff00 pixels with transparent ones?

To me it is just the matter of the edge color
The colorkey has a similarity parameter; should you try not using 1
Since i don't have any asset to try on this parameter, good luck.


Codec information application I need to get video/codec information from several files (avi, matroska etc).
Is there any alternative to GSpot?
GSpot is outdated with lack of support for mkv, ogm, 264 ...

I already know MediaInfo (really good - doesnt go as deep as GSpot) and AviCodec.

Thanks in advance for your help.


scaling a stroke mask in after effects? I have an imported illustrator image that I'm trying to create a stroke mask over so I can animate it's reveal (like someone writing it). Unfortunately, when I try to use the pen tool on the layer it keeps changing the cursor to the "add point" which then makes the next click a brand new path. It's basically impossible to make any kind of path this way.

So, I made an adjustment layer and drew the mask on top of that. But when I copy and paste the mask onto the illustrator layer it's scaled waaaay up. I can't find a way to scale the mask down. When I click on the mask it doesn't give me the box around it, only the actual stroke points (which just move that one point).

Is there not a way to scale a path?

To scale a mask as if you were using the group select tool in Illustrator either alt-click the mask, or hit cmd/ctrlT.  It's truly perplexing how all the Adobe apps have different tools and shortcuts for the same tasks.


What exactly am I hearing from my 5DMkII audio out jack? I was playing with my shotgun mic on my new 5D Mark II (upgraded from my T2i), and had it plugged into the camera. I plugged some headphones into the audio out of the Mark II and was hearing what I thought was live audio in my left ear (nothing in the right though).

Everything I've read says that the Mark II cannot monitor sound. So what exactly am I hearing?

You may be getting just a little bit of drive from the A/V Output connection.  The 5D Mark ii has no headphone connector.  All it has is a TRRS (tip, ring, ring, sleeve) connector that happens to be the same size as a headphone plug.  It is designed to feed an analog video feed out of the camera and in to a TV.

While there would be a drastic impedance difference, the part of the headphones that happened to connect to one of the audio channels may have been sufficient to minimally drive your headphones.  The other ear piece likely got connected to the video feed which wouldn't do much except perhaps produce noise, quite probably in-audibly.

I would avoid trying it as sending the wrong kind of signal through your headphones may potentially cause damage, though you could use the A/V cable to output the audio and then wire it up to a small headphone amplifier to monitor the audio output from the A/V cable safely.

More information about the 5D Mark ii's A/V output connector can be found on page 139 of the manual.


how to trim and render multiple sequences in premiere I have 30 sequences which are syncronized to start at same time (different cameras of one sport event). Those sequences are couple of hours length.

I need to render some segments of all sequences, lets say  0:10:00 to 0:30:00 and 1:10:00 to 1:30:00. How to do it efficently?

I tried to set time range in media encoder, range settings apply only to one encoding task, not to all selected ones.

The only way known for me is to create 60 more sequences and trim them to length, then export to media encoder and render, but there must be easier way!

I would honestly probably just punch in the range settings for each of the renders separately in Adobe Media Encoder.  It's likely the easiest way to go about it.  It's not that long or hard of a process to punch in start and end times for 30 clips.

The only other remote possibility (I don't think it will work though) would be to see if you can make a preset for the times to be rendered.  You could then apply that preset, but I don't think that information can be stored in a preset. (I don't have Adobe Media Encoder in front of me at the moment.)