Premiere Pro: How to sync speed ramped audio with video from linked After Effects comp? When linking an AE comp through PP, the audio won't sync. This has been an issue forever. I film skate/bmx videos and it's essential that the speed ramp syncs with the audio so you can hear the cool distortion of a slow mo grind. Sometimes I can get by just cutting and stretching audio in Premiere, but that is NOT a solution.
The ONLY thing that I found to work is to unlink the "composition" type from the attached MPEG clip. As soon as you click "replace with AE..." (in PP) and are automatically redirected, immediately delete anything in the timeline. Then, select the MPEG clip ONLY and drag it into the timeline again. There is no linked source info at this point, so your clip will play from the beginning as if you hadn't cut anything in PP. Because of this, in AE you'll need to go to Composition>Compositions Settings and find duration at the bottom. Whatever the AE comp length is will be what your original PP cut length was. Ex) If the original clip is 20s long, but you're cut is only 5s in PP, AE will only play the first 5s of your clip. So, change the duration to any length that you know will contain the part you'd like to edit. Usually, I just increase the time by 10s, and can always add length by going back to comp settings.
Edit your time remapping/speed ramp.
Once finished, go to Export>Add to Render Queue. In your timeline window, click on Render Queue and under "Output to:" change the name of your clip (if you'll have a lot of AE comps in PP). Click "Render" on the right of the window. Then in Premiere, import the clip from wherever you saved it and treat it like an entirely new clip.
There has to be a better way, but I haven't seen anyone come up with something easier so hopefully this helps someone.
Is there any way to keep AE comps linked to a PP project AND keep ramped audio synced?

Adobe Dynamic Link is a great tool, but unfortunately at the end of the day it can be problematic as it has its limitations. As After Effects is almost entirely focused on video, it doesn't surprise me that audio would be one of these limitations.
Before dynamic linking existed, we always had to do round-tripping (sending files to another program, working on it there, and then sending a new rendered copy back to replace in the original program's timeline). Visual effects work in the Adobe Suite that hits these limitations with linking, such as this sound-related one you've run into, just means that you have to resort to this old-fashioned method as you've found.
In fact because dynamic link can cause problems, if I'm doing anything other than basic text or whatnot I only use the "Replace with AE..." tool to send clips to AE. After it's sent over, I hit Ctrl+Z (undo) in Premiere to undo the timeline, breaking the link and getting back the original clip that I just sent in the proper place/time.
Therefore, I'm always exporting a fresh clip straight out of After Effects to drop into the Premiere timeline. There's a few reasons for this:

Dynamic linked clips in the Premiere timeline use a TON of processing power because it's doing the calculations for the dynamic linked clip on the fly, like when you play it back in After Effects without any ram preview cached. You've probably noticed that it can stutter and struggle to make it through a linked clip when you're playing through the timeline, and sometimes slow you down even when you're not looking at it because it's anticipating. For anything remotely intensive, I unlink after sending to AE to avoid this problem, and round trip it back.
Similarly, round-tripping also saves you tons of render time on the video when you're rendering out the Premiere file. Let's say you watch your final render and notice you misspelled something in the credits or a cut is off-time. Re-rendering means it's going to have to recalculate all of the dynamically linked clips again, whereas if you had your individually rendered VFX clips in the timeline, it can breeze through them as it's just a normal video file.
The dynamically linked clip is Premiere's interpretation of the After Effects file, and Tthis can cause some issues and visual glitches with dynamic link rendering just as can happen when dynamic rendering AE files in Media Encoder. These are usually really specific issues with transparency, color science, plugins, and even sometimes referring to the wrong composition or a seemingly old version.

I know it's quite annoying, but you've clearly gotten the basic concept of how to round-trip it without the link. Here's a few things that could help or improve your workflow:

Like you said, you can increase the AE comp time to give you more working room. However to avoid having to do it multiple times, I suggest you just add more time than you know you'll need, and use the "trim comp" tool at the end of your process. Drag the work area range to where your final length should be, right click it, and select trim comp to work area.
To expand on your point on organizing, my suggestion is to create a folder (in your OS explorer) parallel to your footage folder where you can save your new clips. Use a consistent naming convention so that you can always match it with the original clip. For instance, original file: A002_C003.mp4 should be saved as A002_C003-VFX001.mp4 or some other format which distinguishes it as the modified clip, and also allows for revision files to be created without having to go "-VFX-ACTUALfinalfinal2," hahah.

Additionally, I'm sure you'll be able to find some other ways to shave time out of your workflow. If you haven't already, try to learn the After Effects hotkeys as it will save you a lot of time with even these steps you're describing.
I hope I helped at least somewhat! Sorry there's not a more convenient way, but I also recommend reporting this as a bug to Adobe, as it really should be a true functionality.


GitLab like program for easier collaborative video production As a CIO in a small video production bussiness I'm making my team work more efficent using various tools.

Recently I noticed that the file versioning on a local NAS server is still confusing for some of CGI dept guys and there are situations when they asks me where should they put 'those' files.

I really don't want to keep answering such questions so I'm looking for a program like GitHub / GitLab which will force video editing workers to just pull all the project revelant data (like hunderds GiGs of video clips, images, sounds and so on) and when it's ready - push every new or changed file intro adequate folder in NAS server structure (typically just ten's of MB's like new Premiere Pro project files).

I've tested programs like FreeFileSync and DirSync Pro, they may do the work, but I don't want to make everyone learn using a new program, so a Windows context menu entry such as "Pull a new project..." or "Push changes of current project" is a must! And because we are keeping every raw footage files, the sync must be one-way only.

Do you know such simple programs which will do the job?

Marty

Try Resilio Sync it will push or pull or both files from a server, pc etc and keep them all updated.


What's the difference between Behringer XENYX 1202FX and the Behringer Eurorack UB1202FX? Behringer makes two mixers with preamps that look the same. One of them is Eurorack lineup.

XENYX 1202FX (sometimes marketed as premium)
EURORACK UB1202FX

Here are the pictures:

Could someone help me discern the difference between the two lineups. Feel free to remove the association with 1202 in the Question if the answer applies to the Eurorack and Xenyx lineups in general.

Even the discreptions are vague:

  Ultra-low noise design, highest possible headroom, ultra-transparent audio

vs:

  Premium ultra-low noise, high headroom analog mixer

Other oddities make it really hard to compare. With the 1202FX +48V phantom power is listed as a bullet. With the UB1202FX, it's only listed in the description.

The telling part is in the name. If you are not aware, Behringer has had a longstanding feud with Mackie (among other manufacturers as well) about copyright and trademark violations. Behringer has lost at least one of these lawsuits and were forced to change their cosmetic design on many of their mixers.

Their Xenyx series is a not so subtle copy of Mackie's Onyx series preamps. The Onyx series were a noticeable step up from the vLz and vLz Pro preamps. Behringer decided to create their own premium line and call them Xenix. The problem is, I have yet to read a review that states a discernible difference between the UB and Xenyx lines. My presumption is that at this basement price point, it hardly matters.

If you could audition both (many online retailers have a return policy), I wouldn't bother trying to find qualitative differences...I'd just listen for noise floor differences.


How to download and encode a video from a MPD manifest? I can watch videos on a website with MPEG-DASH technology.

I can obtain the video's manifest.mpd file from the website. (I am not sure whether the file contains any user credentials or not, so I am not going to post it)

The video contains 3 tracks (1 video track + 2 audio tracks), and I found 3 <AdaptationSet/> elements with attribute mimeType in manifest.mpd.

They both contain a <SegmentTemplate/> element which has an attribute media containing the segment filename template which is being used to download the segment files in the browser from time to time.

The values to be used to construct the segment file URL are inside SegmentTemplate.SegmentTimeline.S elements.

For example :

...
<AdaptationSet mimeType="video/mp4" ...other attributes>
  <SegmentTemplate
    presentationTimeOffset="0"
    timescale="90000"
    media="chunk_video_$RepresentationID$_cs$Time$_mpd.m4s"
    initialization="chunk_video_$RepresentationID$_cinit_mpd.m4s"
  >
    <SegmentTimeline>
      <S t="0" d="900000"/>
      <S d="900000" r="352"/>
      <S d="638370"/>
    </SegmentTimeline>
  </SegmentTemplate>
  <Representation id="SOME-ID" codecs="avc1.640029" sar="1:1" bandwidth="1268094"/>
<AdaptationSet/>
<AdaptationSet mimeType="audio/mp4" ...other attributes>
...

will produce requests to

https://some-website-domain/some-path/chunk_video_SOME-ID_cinit_mpd.m4s
https://some-website-domain/some-path/chunk_video_SOME-ID_cs0_mpd.m4s
https://some-website-domain/some-path/chunk_video_SOME-ID_cs900000_mpd.m4s
https://some-website-domain/some-path/chunk_video_SOME-ID_cs1800000_mpd.m4s
https://some-website-domain/some-path/chunk_video_SOME-ID_cs2700000_mpd.m4s
...

some-website-domain/some-path is not sure at this moment, but I could figure this out.

The real question is:

Is it possible to download and encode all the segment files into one single video file?

---- EDIT ----

After running the following command:

ffmpeg -v 48 -i manifest.mpd -c copy out.mp4

I got this output:

Splitting the commandline.
Reading option '-v' ... matched as option 'v' (set logging level) with argument '48'.
Reading option '-i' ... matched as input url with argument 'manifest.mpd'.
Reading option '-c' ... matched as option 'c' (codec name) with argument 'copy'.
Reading option 'out.mp4' ... matched as output url.
Finished splitting the commandline.
Parsing a group of options: global .
Applying option v (set logging level) with argument 48.
Successfully parsed a group of options.
Parsing a group of options: input url manifest.mpd.
Successfully parsed a group of options.
Opening an input file: manifest.mpd.
[NULL @ 0x7feff2000800] Opening 'manifest.mpd' for reading
[file @ 0x7feff1c0b100] Setting default whitelist 'file,crypto'
[AVIOContext @ 0x7feff1c0b2c0] Statistics: 28989 bytes read, 0 seeks
manifest.mpd: Invalid data found when processing input

Regarding your FFMPEG issue, you need to build/obtain FFmpeg with --enable-libxml2 configuration enabled to correctly parse a manifest.mpd file.

You can check whether your FFmpeg supports libxml2 by simply running it without any arguments. Here is the output from FFmpeg 4.1 I built with --enable-libxml2 (see --enable-libxml2 in the start of the 4th line of the output):

%./ffmpeg

ffmpeg version n4.1-10-g59e30c05d7 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 5.4.0 (Ubuntu 5.4.0-6ubuntu1~16.04.6) 20160609
 configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-openssl
--enable-libxml2 --enable-libssh --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx
--enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264
--enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq
--enable-libzvbi --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-gmp --enable-libmodplug --enable-nonfree
          libavutil      56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100
          libavcodec     58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100
          libavformat    58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100
          libavdevice    58.  5.100 / 58.  5.100
          libavfilter     7. 40.101 /  7. 40.101
          libswscale      5.  3.100 /  5.  3.100
          libswresample   3.  3.100 /  3.  3.100
          libpostproc    55.  3.100 / 55.  3.100
        Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder

Regarding your question above, once you have a working FFmpeg with --enable-libxml2, you can transcode the .mpd to .mp4:

ffmpeg -i manifest.mpd -codec copy out.mp4

Note: I use -codec copy above to avoid transcoding of actual video and audio.


Thunderbolt 3 & eGPU viable for Video Processing? I am pondering about getting a (new) notebook at some point. Apparently TB3 (officially) supports external GPU's now. The problem is that the speed of TB3 is still much lower than Pci-x... So I was wondering - and maybe someone knowledgeable can give some insight - if a notebook with TB3 and an eGPU will be a viable solution for video processing with davinci resolve and other gpu accelerated software, or how important is the "low" IO speed of TB3 vs PCI in that context?

I've looked into this recently myself, given that the MBP line is not exactly a workhorse when it comes to GPU processing.

eGPUs are actually being done now over TB2, with great success. I have a friend who purchased a similar unit to the Akitio Thunder2 (the Bizon-Tech version), put a decent GPU in it (I think it was the GTX960 or similar), and experienced almost 50% faster render time in Premiere (the latest versions of CC support GPU acceleration for encode/decode with some codecs).

The math gets a little funky, but actually this Tested article comparing PCI Express to Thunderbolt indicates that the Thunderbolt2 spec, in practice, provides almost the equivalent of a PCIe3.0 interface. The bandwidth speed lost will be minimal. Further, the article indicates that performance of the graphics card that is lost by a slower transfer speed is, for all practical intents and purposes, negligible (as little as 5% in most cases).

I'm certain that the performance gained by an eGPU box, even over TB2 on current-gen hardware, would vastly outstrip the current performance you're getting on a CPU-accellerated-only laptop.

And, the best part is, you're out only around $1500 for a box and a good graphics card.

For the record:

I don't know what notebook you're using, but I'll assume a relatively recent MBP. I'm working here from a 2014 15" Retina which happens to have dual GPUs (integrated Intel Iris and discrete GeForce GT 750M), and based strictly on CUDA cores, you'll have to pick up something in the K1200+ range if you want to see a significant improvement (the GT750M has 384 cores). However, it's relatively weak at only 2GB GDDR5 (roughly comparable to a K620 in terms of cuda cores and memory).

Improving both specs is important, particularly for 4K or RAW video. I would recommend something like a K2200 or K5000, or if you've had a good year, any of the Maxwell-class cards would be a beautiful, beautiful thing.

TechInferno - 2015 MBP + GTX970 + Akitio Thunder2 via TB2

LinusTechTips - 2012 MBP + GTX760 + Akitio Thunder2 via TB1

Bizon-Tech - Akitio-based custom enclosure for high-wattage GPUs

A useful comparison of top-end Kepler vs Maxwell NVIDIA architecture

Anecdotally, in 2014 I saw a live demo in NVIDIA's booth at NAB of what the K6000 card is capable of - at the time, mindblowing performance. They put dual K6000's in a Z820 workstation and did realtime 4k debayering of RED Raw, with scale and blur effects, in Premiere. So yeah, duh - it's a powerful card, right? Point is, you don't have to look at the latest Maxwell cards to get performance improvements in an eGPU setup - even a single quality card will provide much more efficient and expedient results than CPU-only.


Remove flashing lines from video I have raw video with horizontal lines (bad settings at manual mode); here's a preview: http://sendvid.com/oh3uxjqi

Can I remove this using some software, or effect/plugin in Premiere Pro?

I think the other thing wrecking your video is that your source is interlaced but you are processing as if not interlaced.  Interlaced video is an anachronism from the days of analog.  Digital camcorders can still record 1080i, but that leads to very unhappy images when presented on non-CRT screens.  If you don't know what a CRT screen is, you should definitely change your settings to shoot progressive instead of analog.  (And if you do know, you can easily understand why you should shoot progressive anyway.)

Moreover, a progressive format like 720p24, 720p25, or 720p30 (or 1080p24, 1080p25 or 1080p30) will slow down your shutter speed, which will also reduce whatever flickering effect might exist as mentioned by others.

Premiere Pro does have a "de-interlace" filter, but it's difficult to repair the damage of interlacing.  Best to shoot progressive from the get-go.


Advice on shooting 1st Person POV restaurant scene I have an upcoming shoot where I will need to capture a restaurant scene in first person point-of-view.  It seems pretty straight-forward, but I want to make sure it truly looks like the subject's point-of-view.  At first, I thought a steadicam would do the trick, but wasn't sure if that would actually look like first person point-of-view.  Then I thought about mounting the camera to a helmet, similar to the one here...
https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/new-approaches-to-online-video-at-the-wall-street-journal-/s2/a553636/

Does anyone have experience with these kinds of shots?  How did you capture them?  What camera and lens did you use?  I'd like to be able to get as much as the scene in the shot as possible, so going wide would be ideal.  However, I don't want to go too wide if it doesn't look as if we are viewing the scene through the subject's eyes. Any advice?

A lot of it depends on your budget.  Are you a low budget film or do you have some money to work with.  Even renting can get expensive if it's a multi-day shoot.

A dolly shot or stedicam seems to be the most obvious because you don't want the up-and-down motion that comes with walking with a camera (unless you are going for the hand-held style).

A lot depends of the actor that you are trying to replicate.  Are they short, tall, hyper, depressed, drunk etc.?  Choose your lighting and lens to reflect the mood. There is no single answer for that.

As for getting the shot... if you don't have a budget then I can give you some suggestions for what has worked for us as far as getting great POV shots.

If filming the POV of a child, put your DP or cameraman into a wheelchair and have a PA push him.  If it's a medium size adult put an apple crate onto the wheelchair seat and have them sit on that.  Makes for a surprisingly smooth shot.

If you need more height, put your DP into a shopping cart.

We've even had the DP stand on a skateboard while he was carefully held and pushed when we needed a POV of a drug addict that was high.

Just keep in mind... Larger wheels like a wheelchair will give you a smoother shot than smaller wheels like a skateboard.


How to get camera settings from video file shot with Nikon D3300 DSLR? I have videos shot with Nikon D3300 like DSC_0027.MOV. I tried using ffprobe program but it does not give camera settings. I am looking for settings like focal length, fstops, what mode the camera was like Manual, S or Landscape etc. in which the video was shot. How can I get such info?

You can extract all the available metadata using a free Exif Tool which you can read about here. You need to bear in mind that you're less likely to extract as much Exif data from video as you are with photo.

This is due to things like ISO, shutter and aperture changing all the time during the recording of video, and therefore is not logged to a specific value/setting like it is with photo. However, you're likely to find just about all you're able to using this tool (and many of the others just like it).

A highly recommended tool known for extracting more data than others is Exif Tool by Phil Harvey


Is there an app that can automatically separate scenes/clips from a video file and export them? I am looking to parse a collection downloaded YouTube videos that are actually compilations containing clips from several different videos all over the web. I would like for this program to automatically separate the individual scenes/clips from a given video file and export them as each individual video files into a folder.

I have done hours upon hours of searching and tried different programs on my Linux system but to no avail any luck at all with anything that can do this fairly simple task.

It would be really nice to have some program that did this via the command line.

Thank you so very much for your time and expertise.

Most professional quality video editing software has this kind of functionality.  You can take a look at DaVinci Resolve, which is available for free on Linux.  This article has more details about how to do it, but "Scene Cut Detection" is the name of the feature you are looking for and it's available when right clicking on a video file.


Best camera for turnkey studio recordings I work for a university, and I will be working on setting up a small recording studio for our department. The purpose of the recording studio will be to record high-quality educational content. We will be purchasing a bunch of equipment for this: camera, computer, lights, microphone, sound dampeners, etc. However, this question pertains to the camera itself.

We want this studio to be as "turnkey" as possible. We will leave everything (lights, camera, mic) set up and we want an instructor to simply be able to walk in, start recording, finish up, and leave without much hassle. We'd like to minimize the number of batteries that need to be replaced/charged, and make starting-up and wrapping-up a recording as easy as possible. Thus, the requirements for the camera are:

Have a DC power input / adapter, so that we don't have to worry about battery swapping and charging
Have HDMI out, so that we can capture directly to a computer (via some software, maybe OBS)
Have audio in, because we will want an external mic
Ideally, be able to capture 4k
Overall, produce a good quality image (assuming that the scene and subject are well positioned, well lit, etc)

The budget for JUST the camera is in the neighborhood of 1k. The Panasonic Lumix GH 4/5 seems to be a popular choice, however my concern would be (A) is there a reliable way to give it continuous power, rather than via battery, and (B) will have issue with record-length limit? I could also go with something more along the lines of a Canon HFG21, but the downside is it doesn't record 4k, and supposedly the HDMI out connection is not the best. Is there something in my budget that checks these boxes?

I ended up posting basically the same question over on the dpreview forum, and got a number of replies. In case someone else stumbles across this post in hopes of getting an answer, the contributors seemed to recommend the following, as of Feb/Mar 2020:

Panasonic Lumix GH 4 or 5 (around $600 and $1300, respectively, body only)
Blackmagic pocket cinema 4k camera (around $1300, body only)
Panasonic AF 100 (used for $500-600)


How to make an image file flicker in a video? (stars twinkling) I have an image file (jpg, 4K resolution) which is a bunch of stars in the night sky.  The image looks good when composited into a video clip, but the stars don't move or twinkle at all.

How can I make the stars twinkle?  (I tried searching for a star-twinkling effect, and I would accept one if such a thing exists, but what I'm really interested in here is the compositing problem of taking a static image and then animating it a bit.)

Different parts of the image should flicker/twinkle at random (do not do the whole image all at once, because all the stars in the night sky don't shimmer in the same way at the same time)
I don't have time to keyframe every single star in the night sky.

I'm using DaVinci Resolve 12.5 on Windows, but I also have access to a Mac with Final Cut Pro X and Motion.

What I have tried

I tried increasing the noise in the video, then setting the blending mode for the stars image to screen.  This makes it look like there is some movement in the shot, but it doesn't add twinkling.

Also, Resolve has three effects: "Waviness," "Vortex," and "Ripples." I tried keyframing various parameters to introduce some movement/flickering into the shot.

"Waviness" moves the sky itself, and even with all the parameters set to the smallest values it moves too much.

"Vortex" adds some whirlpool-like movement.

"Ripples" adds a shooting-star effect, which is cool, but not exactly what I'm looking for.

Create 10 copies of your star field image. In an image-editing program (like Photoshop or GIMP), open the first image. Pick 10 stars at random, and make them darker/dimmer. Save that image. Open the next image.  Pick 10 different stars and make them dimmer.  Do that for all of your images.  In your video editor, cycle through the images, about 3/4 second each, dissolving from one to the next.


ffmpeg quadruple video and audio play speed I have a video file and I want to quadruple the video and audio play speed. I followed the instructions here

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/How%20to%20speed%20up%20/%20slow%20down%20a%20video

So I tried these commands:

ffmpeg -i 02.mp4 -strict -2 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=0.25*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=2.0[a];[0:a]atempo=2.0[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" -map "[a]" 02ff.mp4

This command quadrupled the video play speed but only doubled the audio play speed.

So then I tried this:

ffmpeg -i 02.mp4 -strict -2 -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=0.25*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=2.0[a];[0:a]atempo=2.0,atempo=2.0[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" -map "[a]" 02ff.mp4

But still the same issue.  I've tried a few other variations of this command but I just get errors.

What's the correct command to quadruple video play spdd and audio play speed?

The audio filters should be chained one after the another. Your syntax generates two audio tracks, each doubled in speed. Also, since you're dealing with one input and one output, you can just use simple filters.

ffmpeg -i 02.mp4 -vf "setpts=0.25*PTS" -af "atempo=2.0,atempo=2.0" 02ff.mp4


ffmpeg: can I crop using vf while also using filter_complex at the same time? I have an ffmpeg command using -vf to square crop a video:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf \
"crop='if(gte(iw,ih),ih,iw):if(gte(ih,iw),iw,ih)', scale=720x720" \
-an -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -level 4.1 \
-preset superfast -crf 20 output.mp4

I also have a separate ffmpeg command using -filter_complex to apply a slow motion "profile" (normal speed, then slow, then normal speed) to a video:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -filter_complex \
"[0:v]trim=0:4.95,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v1]; \
 [0:v]trim=4.95:6.75,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v2]; \
 [0:v]trim=6.75:8,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v3]; \
 [v2]setpts=PTS/0.1[vslow2]; \
 [v1][vslow2][v3]concat=n=3:v=1:a=0[out]" \
-map [out] -an -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -level 4.1 \
-preset superfast -crf 20 -r 30 output.mp4

If I try and put them together:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "crop='if(gte(iw,ih),ih,iw):if(gte(ih,iw),iw,ih)', scale=720x720" \
-filter_complex \
"[0:v]trim=0:4.95,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v1]; \
 [0:v]trim=4.95:6.75,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v2]; \
 [0:v]trim=6.75:8,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v3]; \
 [v2]setpts=PTS/0.1[vslow2]; \
 [v1][vslow2][v3]concat=n=3:v=1:a=0[out]" \
-map [out] -an -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -level 4.1 \
-preset superfast -crf 20 -r 30 output.mp4

I then get:

-vf/-af/-filter and -filter_complex cannot be used together for the same stream.

Is there a way of applying the crop filter to the entire stream, or will I have to apply it to each of the [v1], [v2], etc. streams?

Use this:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4  -filter_complex \
"[0:v]crop='if(gte(iw,ih),ih,iw):if(gte(ih,iw),iw,ih)',scale=720x720,split=3[1v][2v][3v]; \
 [1v]trim=0:4.95,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v1]; \
 [2v]trim=4.95:6.75,setpts=(PTS-STARTPTS)/0.1[v2]; \
 [3v]trim=6.75:8,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[v3]; \
 [v1][v2][v3]concat=n=3:v=1:a=0[out]" \
-map [out] -an -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -level 4.1 \
-preset superfast -crf 20 -r 30 output.mp4


Record and edit two videos at same time I have a need to record a lecture. I would like to capture video of the speaker and video of his slides.

Optimally, I would like to hook up two recording devices, hit record on one program, then the program will record a video stream for each device. When I am done recording I would like to hit stop once on the program and then I would have two videos that are the same length and are basically synchronized. Later I would like the same benefit in editing for simple functions like trimming.

Is there such a program available? Prefer windows but open to other options.

There are several ways of doing this... really depends on the cameras you are shooting on & budget.  On set we sometimes use a piece of software called Qtake, which can record two video feeds from an HDSDI source, and play them back immediately, but it's really pricey.  Other ways to do it would be to use a HDSDI trigger to set both devices in to record mode.  Another way is to just make sure your TimeCode is in sync. What cameras are you planning on using?  If you are using Canon 5DII/7D's etc you could use the magiclantern hack and get a trigger record going, see the link below, then the files would correspond and sync up pretty well by the looks.

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=1088.0


Illustrator "Release to Layers" but keep names? Does anyone know of an Illustrator script that does a "Release to Layers", but renames the layers based on their group names?

I'm sure I had one ages ago, but I can't find it now...

It's very useful when importing complex AI layers to After Effects

I use this script from Carlos Canto. After releasing layers it will name new top level layers based on sublayer name. The link to the adobe forum is broken now so I don't think this is accessible through there anymore.

It is a little difficult to figure out how to properly select the layers  to make it work. You must select all the objects and also have the top layer selected in the layers palette, like in this screenshot.

Thanks Carlos for making this way back in 2014!

// carlos canto // 09/26/14
// https://forums.adobe.com/thread/287812
var idoc = app.activeDocument;
var ilayer = idoc.activeLayer;
for (i=0; i<ilayer.layers.length; i++) {
   var sublayer = ilayer.layers[i];
   sublayer.name = sublayer.pageItems[0].name || sublayer.pageItems[0].contents;
}


Good learning resources for 'non-technical' aspects of filmmaking I am a relative newcomer to video production but have a background in still photography. This means that I have a good understanding of things like ISO/aperture/shutter speeds/resolution/etc. (and have already checked how these ideas transfer to moving images). I also have a lot of experience with Adobe CS and similar software, and some brief tinkering suggests that, at least for now, finding my way around Premiere/After Effects won't be too much of a problem. But when I look at books for amateur filmmakers, it seems that 90% of the book is usually taken up with stuff like "this is what a DSLR is" or "this is how you import a clip into Premiere". In other words, stuff a technically competent individual could figure out on their own.

I, on the other hand, am interested in learning about artistic/creative techniques that are harder to learn by osmosis. Some examples of the kinds of thing I have in mind:

how to plan and frame shots so that you end up with good variety of source material that can be edited into an interesting sequence;
how to imbue documentary style footage with a narative;
how to frame particular types of subject (e.g. how to position the camera for a talking head interview).
creative ways of making boring/static subjects more interesting;
how to manage on location when you have limited ability to control the light;
how to time the editing of shots/clips to achieve the right tempo;
how and when to transition between shots to get professional-looking results;
how to get source footage and music to work together harmoniously;
tips for colour grading from an artistic perspective (i.e. I know how to shift the colours, but I would like to learn more about when and in what ways this is typically done for various artistic ends).

This list is non-exhaustive, but hopefully gives an indication of the kind of thing I am looking for. Hence, my question is:

Can anybody recommend one or two good learning resources for this kind of artistic/'non-technical' aspect of filming and editing?

Do you realize people go through years of academical studies or expensive courses at private universities to learn all that? It's certainly not something you're going to master by watching a few Youtube videos ...

If you want to seriously get into film making, I would suggest you take a course. Not necessarily a full blown film studies degree, but you could look into some crash courses, an online course (not a playlist on Youtube but an actual, professional online course) or something like that. With some research, you might even find a free course (google for Open educational resources (OER), OpenCourseWare and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) or start here or here).

Apart from that, here are some tips and things that I would recommend you learn (from my humble not-a-professional-either point of view):

Watch movies: The best way to learn about great camera and composition techniques is to watch movies (by watch I mean actually concentrate on the movie, not have it run in the background while doing your taxes). There's a list of the 100 best movies of all time (actually, there are several lists; this one was assembled by the American Film Institute). Go ahead and watch some of the movies on this list. Also, see if you can find another 'Top X films of all time' list that wasn't put together by Americans for Americans.
Camera Angles: Different camera angles differ in what information and emotions they convey. Here's a list, here's another one and this is also a list.
Image Composition: There are several rules of thumb and guidelines to help you with the arrengements of the subjects of your video. This is the part where your photography experience will matter the most IMHO. Here's a short summary of that topic. Here's another one.
Video Montage: The montage is how you put all of your videos together, make them seem connected and fit together as a whole. This is very difficult. Apart from some general rules of thumb (e.g. there are some camera angles that just don't go with each other) and some specific montage techniques (e.g. jump cuts (historic example), match cuts (historic example), shot-reverse-shots and more), you will only learn that via practice (and, again, watch movies. Hollywood movies are fine in that regard by the way. Here's a great montage from James Bond: Quantum of solace).
Here's a video tutorial on creating a music montage. Here are some other tips.
Dramaturgy: How to tell a compelling story. Again, this isn't something you'll learn over night. There are some very basic story structures that are repeated over and over again, the most common of which is the Hero's Journey (Seriously, four out of five movies you have ever watched follow that schema).
Again, watch movies. People will disagree with me on that, but I think the best video to understand dramaturgy is the filmlet 'Schwarzfahrer' by Pepe Danquart. Watch it on youtube with english subtitles (it's only 12 minutes long).
Color: Color grading in movies is not only used to convey certain emotions, but also to tie sequences together. Take a look at this website. Read this on the meaning of different colors, then go read some more. Also, see my answer on color in movies here.

These are only the most essential parts of media aesthetics concerning film and film making; you will need to do your own research on top of that. Some other things to learn include construction of time (google won't help you here, this is about the relation between narrated and narrative time), genres, some more aspects of camera angles and perspective, camera movement, writing story-boards and screenplays and more. Again, look into what (online or offline) courses you can resonably take. Also, apart from internet summaries, read books on the topics. I can't really recommend a specific book right now ... Just look for a general introduction on film / media aesthetics.

Also, it is really important you get some practice. No matter what role you're planning on playing in a real-world film production (the smaller a production, the more responsibilities lie with every member), no amount of theory will prepare you for everything there is to know about filming and cutting (and possibly acting). So make sure to get some hands-on practice!


Best HD camcorder for recording sports I’m looking to start recording sporting events, specifically professional wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA) events. Initially these will be recorded for DVD, but one of the events will be self-produced and I’d like it to be of good quality that I could potentially sell it to a local TV station.

What should I look for in a HD camcorder for recording such fast-paced events?

Nothing really. All recent camcorders are more than enough for what you want.

Two things to look:

That shutter speed can change so that you can define how smooth motion you want
That they offer fast zoom/focus capabilities for sports.

Any recent cam-corder from major companies already covers this.

If you want quality sound you should also look for a camcorder that has an external mic jack so that you can connect your own microphone. This raises the budget a lot.

Unless you are a professional I would stay away from using a DSLR for sports filming.

I personally own a panasonic-v250. I also bought it for sports filming.


Advice on Weatherproof HD Camera for Streaming Video / Audio I am looking to invest in a weatherproof outdoor camera with audio, if possible, to LIVE (or at least within the past hour) stream some wildlife. I am looking for advice on what type of camera would be a good buy for rugged use. Night vision would be a great addition.

Edit: more info...

This will be a permanent install, or at least 6 to 8 months out of the year. 100 degrees F to -20 degrees F temp swings throughout the year. Will be exposed to wind and snow, but not too much rain. Power will come from hardwire or solar. The camera will be wired to the power and computer about 100' away. I'd also like a 120 degree view or so... something that could show a lot within 5 to 8 feet of something.

EDIT::: I got a $30 cam off Amazon and am running it though a 100' cable with power. It runs into my computer with a KWorld usb connector. It is ok... I haven't found a great source for the streaming yet... iSpy was ok, but wasn't always working. I have it up on UStream now, but quality is not up to the 720 setting. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chicken-run-cam

I'll keep at it.

I've been looking for something similar but haven't found the perfect solution yet.  If you can live without it streaming in real time, I've heard good things about the Bushnell Trophy Cam series.

http://bushnell.com/all-products/trail-cameras/trophy-cam


Free video editing software that supports panning with Bezier curves I'm trying to make a video by panning through cells in a webcomic. First I tried Kdenlive, but that seems to only support linear panning, so you can't do it smoothly. I found someone complaining about it that said Cinlerra can do it, but I downloaded and tried that out and the camera seems to stop at every waypoint. Is there software that lets me continuously and smoothly move the camera? Or if Cinlerra does it, can someone link me to something that says how?

Blackmagic Design Fusion 8 is up for the challange.
It is a very high-end compositing application.
Available on Mac and Windows, and as of now completely free.

You might need to find some tutorials to show you how to use it.


Encoding: Insert keyframes at certain positions I am trying to improve the perceived quality of certain predefined frames (like the frames 45, 99, 154, ...). Reason is, that the video is interactive and pauses at these keyframes until the user clicks next. So the quality should be higher just for these frames.

Using ffmpeg, I am currently splitting the video in segments so that each segment starts with one of those important frames as a key frame and then merge it again as a single video. This is suboptimal as lookahead and various other encoder/decoder tweaks can not benefit from this segmented video encoding

Is there a simpler option using -force_key_frames? Unfortunately, this option only seems to allow inserting key_frames using an interval, but the keyframes i require do not follow a rhythm.

P.S. the video is running at a constant 30fps and is merely 32 seconds long. Encoded as x264, vp9 and vp8 for web, so it won't feature a high bitrate.

Is there a simpler option using -force_key_frames? Unfortunately, this option only seems to allow inserting key_frames using an interval

Not so. To force keyframes for frames 45, 99 and 154 where first frame has index 0, use

-force_key_frames expr:eq(n,45)+eq(n,99)+eq(n,154)

You may need to escape the commas, depending on your shell.


What is this 5 second interval cut technique called? This editing techniques seem very prevalent on YouTube (usually in the type of videos where the person is just talking to the screen/audience).

Basically they just make a small 1 second cut every 5 seconds or so.  Makes the video seem to go at a faster pace.  I remember seeing it from Philip DeFranco (

            ) years ago but now it looks like everyone is doing it.

Is there a name for this technique?

It's referred to as a jump cut.  I would guess that perhaps the Apple ads that used it might have made it popular again, but that's just a guess.  The idea behind it is to visually show a change in direction of thought since typically it matches up with the start of another phrase.  It jumps the viewer forward in time and makes them aware of a subtle change in action.

A similar technique is often used in interviews where clips are cross dissolved to produce a smooth flow where silence is eliminated.  The approach of replacing these dissolves with jumps gives more of a feel of rapid movement through time and has made appearances in recent culture as more "edgy."


After Effects CS6 : Template Compositions I'm trying to put together a library of 'clips' and/or 'effects' to use in some upcoming training videos I am developing. Is there a 'best practices' that includes making each effect into a composition? Or are 'best practices' usually individually developed and there really isn't any such thing for After Effects.

My effects are things like:

templated layouts

Specific lower thirds fonts and colors
outlines that draw themselves
text blocks that swoop in and settle that can have their text updated per video

color palettes or swatches
intro videos
etc.

I am trying to reduce repetition. I could create these effects each video, but I would like to create an effect ( i.e., text block swooping in at angle x and changing color at arrival ) and then replace JUST the text each video so that the effect becomes something the viewer recognizes as part of my training series.

There are a few different ways you can do this depending on your scenario.  Normally, for things like lower thirds, I make one composition in which I enter just the lower third text and plate.  I then use that composition as an asset in another composition to do the actual animations.  I can then simply turn on or off any particular text I need to in the static composition and render the final composition to get the needed output.

Similarly, for a video at the beginning of a clip, you can have a wrapper composition that has the lead-in and then you can replace the contents of the composition that is shown after the lead-in plays.

Alternately, you could probably do a fair bit of it using expressions too, but I've yet to have any tasks that were complex enough to have bothering to setup something with expressions.


How to compile FFmpeg with libfdkaac into a single static binary? My target is to build a single static FFmpeg binary with libfdkaac and x264 support for OSX and Linux. First, I tried to build one on OSX, I follow the instruction on FFmpeg web:
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/MacOSX

Here is the configuration settings I applied to build a static binary:

./configure pkg_config='pkg-config --static' --prefix=/usr/local --extra-version=ntd_20150126 --disable-shared --enable-static --enable-gpl --enable-pthreads --enable-nonfree --enable-fontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libass --enable-libfdk-aac  --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-filters --enable-runtime-cpudetect

After build process, FFmpeg is around 14Mb, which means that it doesn't include the third party libraries. In fact, it requires to link to dynamic libraries located at /usr/local/lib. If I removed those dynamic libs, the FFmpeg will show an error like:

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/lib/libSDL-1.2.0.dylib
Referenced from: /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg
Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

Is it the right way to make all external libraries into single static binary?

I would be really appreciate for your help!

Thanks for stib's suggestion. I leave my answer here.

FFmepg build process take higher priority to use dynamic library even if static libraries are ready. Therefore, I first removed some external libraries support from build configuration and make sure all external libraries are only static (remove *.dylib from prefix /usr/local/lib). Then rebuild it with the following command:

./configure --pkg-config-flags="--static" --libdir=/usr/local/lib --extra-version=ntd_20150128 --disable-shared --enable-static --enable-gpl --enable-pthreads --enable-nonfree  --enable-libass --enable-libfdk-aac  --enable-libmp3lame  --enable-libx264 --enable-filters --enable-runtime-cpudetect

Remember to define --pkg-config-flags="--static", asking build process to use static library. Then, we will get a single executable FFmpeg binary!

P.S.: I removed the libass support from the configuration, because libass depends on Fontconfig lib which I only have dynamic library available. I'll put the libass support back once I figured out how to make a static library of fontconfig.

Thanks.


Reasons for using DNxHD instead of ProRes? I often use ProRes or DNxHD codec without any thoughts, because the quality is very similar, even though the code and the compression algorithm certainly is very different.

I would like to know in which real world scenarios it makes more sense to use ProRes or DNxHD technically to achieve the best quality?

I have used both on my Ninja Blade with my C100, no real difference in quality across drastically different circumstances (night vs day). Pro Res works better on Mac, DNXHD works better on Windows. It all comes down to your OS, and whether you have to share the files with broadcasters (in which case I would use DNX as a lot of editors use Avid).

Other then that, I haven't heard, or seen first hand any differences between the two and I can honestly say that any differences pointed out online are mostly conjecture.


iPhone 6 Video Pulse Does anyone know what this strange effect is in my video?  It's almost as if something is causing the video to "pulse" and reset somehow.  At first, I thought perhaps my own heartbeat was causing a slight vibration resulting in this but the first video was taken with the phone on a stand:

You may have to watch kind of closely to see it but I think it's pretty pronounced in the grass, trees, and cherry blossoms at HD and full screen.

It seems like the video is alternating between sharp and soft so I guess it's just an artifact of the compression but I haven't noticed the effect being so bad in other videos.

Is there anything I can do to fix this?

It looks like its the iPhone auto focus, try finding an app that doesn't use the auto focus


Crazy blue video issues/artifacts on export I am a super Premiere rookie, but I have never seen anything like this.

Here are my export settings.

The source footage looks nothing like this. I don't even know where to start looking at what could be causing this.

Make sure your export settings are really what your camera films. Are you filming interlaced? Your settings suggest so, since it's rendering the upper field first, however, it could be that your camera films progressive. You can check whether your system records 25i or 25p for example. Also, is the pixel aspect ratio (par) really anamorphic (1,33)? Meaning, did you use a very stretching lense which costs about 10k dollars? If not, set the pixel aspect ratio to square (1).


Correct gamma for SMPTE ST-2084 EOTF I recently purchased an Apple Pro XDR display that has an HDR reference mode specified as follows:

HDR Video (P3-ST 2084)
Use this mode for 4K or ultra high-definition
video production workflows up to 1000 nits (full-screen sustained)
using the wide color P3 primaries and the high-dynamic-range SMPTE
ST-2084 EOTF. This mode is designed for controlled viewing
environments set up per ITU-R BT.2100.

When exporting raw files using the Canon Cinema RAW Development tool to ProRes 4444 for post production in Premiere I can choose the colour space and gamma.
Am I correct to assume that DCI-P3 is the right color space to choose?
And what gamma should I select? The only choices I have with this color space are

Canon Log 2
Canon Log 3
DCI

Should I ideally be using a different gamma for the ST-2084 standard or does it not matter?

The short answer is:  You don't pick a color space for your RAW material based on what kind of monitor you're using.
A color pipeline is a very complicated series of mathematical conversions, which is heavily dependent upon:

The operating system's color management settings, such as .icc device profiles from manufacturers, and/or calibration software.
The file recorded by your camera; what settings were used to write the file, the lighting conditions on set, the monitoring conditions on set, whether any in-camera "looks" were used when the file was created, whether those looks should be present in the final image, etc.
Your NLE's color management and monitoring settings
Your viewing environment.  The light levels and color temperature of a color grading suite are standardized by SMTPE, as well as the color of surrounding walls and furniture.
The destination format, monitoring conditions, and viewing environment.  Where do you plan to show your work?  YouTube?  Then rec.709 is probably a safe choice for destination format, but you could still use a larger working color space.  But if you're delivering a feature film to DCI-P3, upstream rec.709 would be a bottleneck.  The same goes for HDR, which is an entirely different beast.

So, without more information about these factors, and what you're trying to accomplish, there's no right or wrong answer at this stage. The choice you're presented with is essentially:  Which working color space do you want to use for the interpretation of your camera RAW file?  As long as this space is larger than what you intend to deliver, then you could use any of them.  If you're delivering to the internet, using the most common space, then they're all large enough.  OTOH, if you will be the only person watching the output and you want it to look the best it can look on your new monitor, then use a space that's as large as your monitor is capable of reproducing, or larger.
Gamma is a different, but similar question.  You don't use a gamma "large enough" to contain a certain set of values like you do with color space.  But the "correct" gamma to chose is dependent upon the gamma your monitor is currently displaying, and the gamma of your destination material.  Ideally, you'd set your monitor to be the same gamma and color space as your intended target.  Here, let me stress, I'm talking about your MONITORING gamma matching your destination format.  But your working gamma (the menu item you're asking about) could still be any gamma, or it could be log encoded, or even linear (especially for VFX compositing).


Should I export all edited clips before final composition? If I have, for example, a 1080p project in wich I have to add some 4K videos which needs to be stabilized and noise reduced.

Which is the way to go?

add the clip in 4k into premiere and replace it with a AE comp where I fix it?
correct the clip in AE, export it into a single video file already scaled to 1080p, and then add that into premiere sequence?

Would the second method be faster while working inside premiere? I think so since it is already in 1080p and the software is not rendering a preview of noise reduction + stabilization, etc.

Would the second method be faster while working inside premiere? I think so since it is already in 1080p and the software is not rendering a preview of noise reduction + stabilization, etc.

Yes… and no. While the 1080p footage may play better in Premiere, doing the post work on all your rushes will chew up your time trying to correct clips that you may not end up using. If you do the noise reduction in After Effects first you will either have to render the clips, or if you use dynamic linking Premiere will be doing the render on the fly, which definitely will slow it down.

My usual workflow is to do the cut in Premiere. The footage will be ungraded, with no post effects or noise reduction etc.. Once the cut is locked off (ish) then I will select any clips that need post-work in my PP timeline and choose Replace with After Effects Composition. This will create an AE comp with the selected clips already cut to length and in order, ready to be worked on in AE. Once I've done the AE work the comp is already dynamically linked to Premiere, so changes I make in AE show up in the Premiere timeline.

This means I only have to export the final timeline from Premiere, thus saving an intermediate render. Obviously if there's a heap of After Effects stuff happening on it it will slow down your Premiere previews, that's why you do it after all the editing is done and dusted.


Adobe Clip's features in Adobe Premiere Adobe has made mobile application called Adobe Clip. It can automatically cut videos, zoom stills and sync them with background music.

Can I do something similar in full-fledged Premiere? I want something that can automatically trim and sync with music for me.

I know, that clip from mobile app can be later imported to full-fledged Premiere, but to do that I need to transfer my videos to Android device, edit in the app, and later transfer it back to PC. I'd prefer to do all of this quickly and on just one machine.

To my knowledge, there's not a comparable feature in Premiere Pro. That sort of "automatic" feature is one more often found in basic/entry-level editors, like the mobile Clip or iMovie. My guess is that this type of feature isn't included in more advanced editors for a couple reasons:

Typically, if you're working in something as advanced as Premiere, you'll want full control over your synchronization with background music. You'd rather do it yourself than have the machine do it for you.
Editors using NLEs like Premiere would rather have more advanced customization and other features than have the software developers spend time adding automation to things (like creating slideshows) that they, as editors, feel they could do better on their own anyway.

Just my take on it. From my experience, if I was making a slideshow requiring zooming/panning of stills, I'd much rather do it manually than let a machine do it. I feel like I can too easily spot an automatically generated slideshow (heads cut off on pans/zooms, etc.).


What equipment do I needed for filming dance instruction? I'm gathering equipment for a "mobile recording studio" focusing on dance instruction. I'm pretty much a novice at this and my budget, while not shoestring, is pretty small. I'm not aiming for very high production quality, but something like youtube tutorial quality is fine for me at this point.

These are the things that I know I'll need:

Video Camera (just one to start)
Mics for instructors (wireless)
Mics for ambient sound

These are things that I may need (or think I will) depending on what type of setup I choose:

Audio mixer
Handheld audio recorder
lighting

My question is about the best way to set this up. And the following info briefly describes the situations I'm likely to record in: I'll be indoors, near power sources. The dance instructors will be no more than 20 feet from the camera.

So my questions are:

1) Should I get a digital SLR video camera, or a camcorder, or something else? Camcorders seem to have more ports for connecting things, and seem to have more options for audio. I'm not really sure the pros / cons here, except camcorders seem more expensive, DSLRs also take photos, and share lenses with photography work.

2) Should I try or try not to couple my audio and video? That is should I use a handheld recorder (I won't be moving or outside) and record multiple tracks to that (this will complicate post production but allow more freedom to alter track characteristics independently) or should I use a mixer that feeds into my camera and record the audio with the video (I like the simplicity of this and can tolerate the loss of freedom). I'm not sure.

3) Do I really need lighting equipment? I see people producing tolerable youtube vlogs with what seems to be minimal equipment. I plan to be on the road filming, and I'd rather not have to bring lighting with me, or bother renting. Are there certain cameras that are betting with not great internal lighting than others?

4) What is the best way to record the music that the instructors will be demoing to? I guess my major options are adding the music in post, a digital feed into the audio mix, or actually miking the audio source itself (speakers).

5) What am I overlooking? This world is new to me, but I'm excited about entering it. I realize my questions here are attempts to understand what I need, and may not even be able to recognize questions I should be asking because of my lack of experience/knowledge.

If I were to buy this setup today (I'm going to wait a bit) I would probably get:

Mid-range Canon DSLR (D70?)
2 mid-quality lav mics that allow the receiver to use AC power
1 average cardioid condenser mic for ambient sound / music
a 4 channel mixer that will feed into the camera audio in
headphones to listen to the mix while I record

I realize there's a lot of questions here but I'm out of my depth. Perhaps there are kind souls out there who would like to help steer me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance.

To answer your questions:

1) A DSLR is fine for a first try out. As an acquisition format (not delivery), HD is on its way out very fast though. The rage these days in 2K or actually 4K. So, later or now, look into, getting a camera that does that. For a DSLR price-range and for a person who is not used to shooting video, I'd recommend the GH5 that just came out.

2) If you use a DSLR-like camera, use an external recorder, and sync the audio and the video later, in your editing program. This will give you more flexibility and better quality, for sure.

3) Look for cameras that work well in low-light conditions. DSLRs work rather well generally. And yes, if you are moving a lot, stay away from cumbersome equipment: you'll be exhausted before you've shot one image. Have with you a case of 650W lights perhaps, with their stand and a couple of sand bags and extension cables. These are versatile and can enhance your image nicely.

4) As regards the music, best would be to digital-feed it into a recorder and record on-set ambiance as well, on top of miking your talent. So yes, that's a lot. Short of that, I'd mike the talent and record on-set audio. You can add the music later in post and mix the on-set ambiance with it.

5)

Aim to get good footage and very good audio. So, when you visit a
location, look and listen: if it looks good, it might not sound good,
and vice versa.
If, while you're shooting, you start to hear sounds coming from outside the venue, stop the shoot and try to stop the sounds from
happening. Why? 'Cause you want your footage and production audio to
be as good as possible the first time around. It can be very hard to
save bad footage or bad audio later on, in post. So get it right the
first time, while keeping an eye on the clock, the budget, etc.
In post, use filters to clean up your audio tracks, like the iZotope RX programs.
Test your gear before you show up on set. Make sure you know what you're doing with it, so as not to waste your time and your talents'.
Have at least one assistant with you on each shoot, either hired on the spot, or someone who travels with you. You don't want to overextend yourself too much, particularly since you're starting out. You don't want to do everything poorly and later become disillusioned with the process. It's not easy ... but it can be rewarding.


Merge two transparent webm videos with FFmpeg I'm trying to merge two transparent webm videos together while keeping their transparency using ffmpeg.

Main video:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/medlike/logo.webm

Overlay video:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/medlike/cortina.webm

Reading trough ffmpeg wiki and some stackexchange answers I made this:

ffmpeg -i logo.webm -i cortina.webm -filter_complex 'overlay=format=rgb' -vcodec libvpx output.webm

The result:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/medlike/output.webm

The desired output should look like this: https://s3.amazonaws.com/medlike/vinheta-completa.webm

ffmpeg output:

ffmpeg version 2.5.2 Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Feb 15 2015 22:16:36 with Apple LLVM version 6.0 (clang-600.0.56) (based on LLVM 3.5svn)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/2.5.2 --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-hardcoded-tables --enable-avresample --cc=clang --host-cflags= --host-ldflags= --enable-libx264 --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libxvid --enable-libfreetype --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libass --enable-ffplay --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libopus --enable-libquvi --enable-libx265 --enable-nonfree --enable-vda
  libavutil      54. 15.100 / 54. 15.100
  libavcodec     56. 13.100 / 56. 13.100
  libavformat    56. 15.102 / 56. 15.102
  libavdevice    56.  3.100 / 56.  3.100
  libavfilter     5.  2.103 /  5.  2.103
  libavresample   2.  1.  0 /  2.  1.  0
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  1.100 /  1.  1.100
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'logo.webm':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf56.19.101
  Duration: 00:00:09.80, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 712 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: vp8, yuv420p, 960x540, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      alpha_mode      : 1
Input #1, matroska,webm, from 'cortina.webm':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf56.19.101
  Duration: 00:00:09.80, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 436 kb/s
    Stream #1:0: Video: vp8, yuv420p, 960x540, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      alpha_mode      : 1
[swscaler @ 0x7f9512006800] No accelerated colorspace conversion found from yuv420p to argb.
[libvpx @ 0x7f9511827000] v1.3.0
Output #0, webm, to 'output.webm':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf56.15.102
    Stream #0:0: Video: vp8 (libvpx), yuv420p, 960x540 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 200 kb/s, 25 fps, 1k tbn, 25 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc56.13.100 libvpx
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 (vp8) -> overlay:main
  Stream #1:0 (vp8) -> overlay:overlay
  overlay -> Stream #0:0 (libvpx)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=  245 fps=6.3 q=0.0 Lsize=     114kB time=00:00:09.80 bitrate=  95.6kbits/s
video:112kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 1.853043%

Thanks

Since 2016-07-20, it's possible to decode properly a webm with alpha channel (VP8a or VP9a) but you need the -vcodec libvpx option. You must download an FFmpeg compiled after that date (or compile yourself with up-to-date commits) and use the following command:

ffmpeg -i logo.webm -vcodec libvpx -i cortina.webm -filter_complex overlay -vcodec libvpx output.webm

Note that -vcodec libvpx is before the input that needs to be read using the alpha planes (in this case, is cortina.webm the overlaid video, thus we put the option just before it).

(As Mulvya states, the format conversion should be avoided in this case.)


What's the difference between TV and cinema motion? In reading to understand shutter speed better, I found a consistent claim that setting shutter speed to 1/(2×fps) makes "cinematic" motion and 1/fps makes "TV" motion. Example

That's great and all, if I knew what it's supposed to mean. I understand that a slower shutter will make more blur on individual frames, so a more natural motion. Is that all this cinema vs TV motion example meant to say?

I don't know where they have "TV motion" from as at least in my area we use 1/(2×fps) for TV too. Or higher for sports.

1/(2×fps) simply has a "natural" motion blur to it which is often used in cinema as it is often the best choise.

A shutter slower than that has much more shutter, I describe it as dream like.
A shutter faster than that often looks like a robot, with each image being sharp and jumpy.

The first can be used in slow scenes as it won't be really notable.
The seconde one can be used in for example sports TV so you can really see each detail and it isn't blured out


Archival storage for RAW video I am filming with my BMPCC4k and figured out to be my workflow as follows:

Import Clips to harddrive.
Create Proxy's using Adobe Media Encoder.
Edit in Premiere Pro.
Then Color Grade in Davinci.
Then replace Proxys with Color Graded video.
Export.

I am now thinking about how to archive those videos. The budget of my projects don't allow storage space of multiple TB each.
So I was thinking about storing rendered videos, so that we can at least make slight changes afterwards in editing or export diffrent formats.

What would be the best codec to use to export the video? With a good compromise of quality vs space. I would say no more than 50mb/s.

I am using Windows.

If your system has external SAS, you can either buy an older LTO Tape Drive System, such as an LTO-5, or rent one. Or go for an LTO-6 or 7 drive.

Linear tape really is the best choice for a number of production environments which is why so many post houses have adopted it for footage back up.

The tapes have large capacity, are enterprise secure, have built in fault tolerance, are fairly easy to use, and it's the CHEAPEST way to archive.

An LTO-6 Tape will hold 2.5TB uncompressed content (raw video), will write at speeds of roughly 140mb/s and the tape will cost you about $20.

A 2TB HDD Bare Spinning Drive is far most costly than that and will not run/be locked/greased up if you try to use it 50 years from now.

They are archival for 30-50 years.

It's what the National Archives uses.


How to show multiple camera angles together in a Multicam clip in FCPX? So I've been able to combine two different clips shot by two different cameras at different angles at the same time by creating Multicam clip and choose to sync by sound.

However, when I try to edit this multicam clip, it seems that I could only choose to show one camera clip at a time. I want my two clips to show side by side, like

I know to do that in a normally created project, we can just put two clips together in the timeline and edit transformations for both clips from "Transform" in here

But how can I do the similar thing to a multicam clip?

Maybe from here? (Seems that in here I can only choose to switch between angles at different timeline but not show both angels at the same time)

Thanks guys!

What you need to do is mark the edit points for the clip where you want the effect to appear. Then highlight the edited clip so that it is highlighted in yellow.
Now copy that clip by pressing Command+C.

Now menu over the clip and select “Lift from storyline”.

You will now have an empty grey clip on the Storyline.

Click on that Grey clip and paste the copy of the original clip on to it.
Go back to the start of the clip and then change the angle of the clip on the storyline.

Finally, change the size of the two clips to give the side by side effect.
Dependent on you snap options you may need to drag the clips back together to the right places, when you paste the duplicated clip onto the stroryline.


How can I convert a large file from MP4 to MOV? I recorded a 5 minute video with my phone, it is a 565M MP4 file. I need to submit it as MOV, specifically. All online converters reject the file as 'too large' and all downloadable programs cost at least $20, which I don't want to spend on a single file. Is there a (legal) way to do it? I'm using Windows 10 and have no access to a Mac.

If you prefer a graphical user interface you can use the free MediaCoder for Windows.

In the Video Tab choose Format H.264.

Audio Tab > Format LC-AAC.

Container Tab > Container MOV.


Things to do during shoot to prevent loss of quality during extreme colour grading in post? I am doing a shoot where I will need to increase the saturation quite a bit in post. You can only really push it so far before you get artifacts etc. so I'm just wondering if there is anything I should be doing with my lighting/camera beforehand to ensure that I have the most data possible to work with. The cam itself shoots in HDV to a firestore (well, the sony equivalent of one) - it's an HVR-S270U (hard drive is an HVR-DR60)

I haven't used the X.Y Color feature of the camera. I'll do some test shots and see what works best, has anyone had any experience with that?

The biggest factor in planning for aggressive grading is your wardrobe and set design.

Eric Escobar gave an excellent speech about this in 2009 at the SF Supermeet, which the MacVideo guys made available online: "Plug-ins Won't Save You".

I know this isn't the technical solution you were looking for, but the nature of contrast and saturation is that they're more dependent on context than on absolute color values.

http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadptb.htm
http://www.colorcube.com/illusions/chrmadpt.htm

As you figured, underexposure will quickly destroy your ability to push your colors around.  Digital cameras love to underexpose the blue channel, so it really helps to have on-set monitoring like with OnLocation, or with a monitor with scopes, to help nail your exposure.

It appears that x.v.YCC (x.v. Color) information will only play through the camera's outputs, and it'll be down-sampled back to where you started if recording to HDV.  This is because the HDV standard is an 8-bit color depth, which can't represent the 16 bits of x.v.YCC.  If you did capture the x.v.YCC stream, you won't get higher contrast and saturation though, since contrast and saturation are more about the distribution of your colors, rather than their detail and accuracy.  It might occaisonaly make your colors a little less brittle, but I doubt you'd ever notice.

I'd shy away from color features in-camera, especially when going out to HDV.  Shoot as flat a profile as you can (grey and washed-out), and you'll have the most latitude in post.


Read error while copying VOB files from DVD drive to hard disk I have old DVDs containing personal (family) recordings.

I want to copy the DVD files to PC, add menu and titles to these files using standard Video editor and share/stream video files.

The windows copy function or video programs hang after copying about 20% of files on DVD. Apparently, there are scratches on DVD that causes an error and the program keeps re-trying for a long time.

Are there any commands / Windows utilities / programs that will ignore errors and continue to copy/display as much as possible?

Thanks and regards.

I could tell you in Linux (ddrescue), but for Windows, I'd start out looking at apps that get data from broken disk drives. Something that will skip over sectors it can't read.


In search of a Helmet-based steadicam solution for GoPro Hero 3 I recently tested my GoPro Hero 3 for the first time during a run in the park using a helmet mounting. It's not bad footage but it's very 'bouncy'. I've been looking at a few options to stabilize the camera. There are some interesting steadicam options out there and some very fine DIY videos on YouTube. However most helmet-based steadicam solutions involve mounting the camera on a long pole which includes a counter weight.

I'm going to be running the Tough Mudder (http://www.toughmudder.com) soon and I don't think sticking the rig of a long pole will be particularly convienent, least of all for the other runners whom I might injure.

Is there an alternative steadicam-style helmet mounting that I could buy or make?

Thank you.

Unfortunately, the physics of a Steadycam require a counterweight (sometimes provided by springs) and distance to minimize the impact of movement by using the inertia of the system.  The best you might be able to do in a small size would be a shock mount.  If you had a power source, you could presumably put a small gyroscope in to try and further stabilize the rotation, but that would become pretty (very) expensive really fast.

A shock mount is probably your best option within a semi-affordable range and will deal with the actual movements forward and backward, up and down, etc, but not rotation.  It does appear that people have made multi-axis gyro mounts that would work, but they've all been custom builds and the power and weight is still probably prohibitive to wearing it in a run.  It would also still have to be shock mounted to account for lateral movements as the gyro would only deal with rotation.


Is there any relation between a Exposure & Flicker I am trying to understand if there is any relation between Exposure(Manual/Auto) function of a Camera and Flicker effect that might be visible in a video shot by that camera?

If one has to do flicker removal, does it have any commonality with the Auto exposure parameters like Exposure time, exposure gain? Can those parameters in anyway tuned/changed to remvoe flicker effect?

Video is refreshed at a certain rate, depending on the display device, between 24 to 60 FPS. Any time you shoot video a a faster shutter-speed you risk the camera taking shots will the between refreshes.

If you take a photo with a slower shutter-speed, say 1/20s, then the camera will capture an entire refresh cycle and the flicker will go away. Use shutter-priority (S or T mode, depending on your camera), Manual (M) or time-aperture (TAv) mode to control shutter-speed yourself.

PS: I realize your question is slightly ambiguous. I am assuming you are taking a photo of something that is playing a video. If you are shooting a video of a video, then your question is off-topic here.


How can I make "videosongs"? Not purely audio, but definitely related!

Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn have "pioneered" the 'videosong' format.

Rule 1 — What you see is what you hear. (No lip-syncing for instruments or voice)
Rule 2 — If you hear it, at some point you see it. (No hidden sounds)

Example — SEPTEMBER!!! by Earth Wind and Fire,

Can anyone suggest how these are made? Preferably with freeware for Windows...

Their main software tools are Pro Tools for audio and Final Cut Pro for video editing, on MacBook Pro.  Here's Jack's list of gear:  http://jackconte.tumblr.com/Gear

Jack and Nataly gave a tutorial on making videosongs at CELLspace in San Francisco for the Disposable Film Festival a few months ago.  Unfortunately only the song performances afterward have been posted to Youtube so far.  Perhaps if you contact DFF you can track down someone with video of the tutorial and Q&A session.

Perhaps another tool will be able to meet your requirements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_editing_software


How to autofocus a Canon T3i Rebel with AmazonBasics remote control? Canon T3i Rebel does not autofocus in video-recording mode so right before starting to record a video, I would like to position myself in front of the camera and autofocus using the AmazonBasics Wireless Remote Control. How can I achieve this?

I could be wrong, but my understanding of the AmazonBasics Wireless Remote Control is that it is only for remotely controlling the shutter (i.e., it only works for pictures). In photo mode, it will autofocus after you press the button. One thing to test would be to try enabling autofocus on your camera/lens, starting recording, and stand in front of the camera. Use the shutter to remotely take a picture (the T3i can take pictures while recording). After that, your autofocus should be set.

Once again, not 100% sure that this would work, but that is what I would try first.


Special effect in videos and gifs I'm looking for a program but since I don't really know how these kind of effects are called, it is hard to search for it, so I hope someone here can give me some pointers.

I want to create animated gifs like this one: http://9gag.com/gag/aozMMGg
The remarkable thing here is, that some parts of the gif enjoy a "wind effect". The tie and the picture in the background are blown away.

Personally, I think the creator did this in a SFX video program and converted the video to a gif. If so, does somebody know which program can do this?

For that specific example, any editing package would do - either an image stitching program or as Weylin said, more likely a video editing tool.

All that they have done there is have a background layer which is fixed throughout, then 5 layers containing the sign, his chin, his mouth, his tie and the ticker.

Each of these layers is manually edited to move the item, then the frames are stitched together to form a gif.

There are ways to automate all the movements along animation tracks, but for a simple gif like this that would probably be overkill.


Need advice about VCR to PC connection I need advice for something I want to do with VCR to PC image transfering. I have bought a video capture usb (RCA to usb) but there is a problem with the image... It's shaking right and left.
Like this

Firstly, let me tell you that when I connect the VCR to the TV the image is fine. Also when I connect a DVD player (a device way newer than the VCR) to the PC through the same usb, the image is also fine. So, something must be wrong when the analog-to-digital signal converting is happening. It's like the TV sees this problematic image and has a way to fix it somehow. On the other hand, the usb doesn't have a way to fix it, so I have this shaking image.

So, my question is:

What are the possible explanations/causes for this? Usb device quality? VCR quality? What system has a TV to fix a VCR shaking image?? Is there a software or some settings for PC that do the same fix a TV does?

The problem is almost definitely with the tape or the VCR. Most likely the sync or black level is off or the control track is fluttering, which is throwing off the ADC in the capture dongle. You will need a time base corrector (TBC) or frame synchronizer to correct the problem.

Ideally, you should also have a way to view and adjust the video levels. Usually you can adjust levels with a good quality TBC or FS. You can use software to view a waveform and vectorscope after digitization.


Video Encoding - Wasting Space I am facing a common issue that I cannot find a term to describe: I have a few low quality VHS rips that were encoded with a certain Apple ProRes codec (irrelevant in the context of this particular question) and take up several GB of space. I know for sure that the video content is of such low quality that it shouldn't take up more space than say, an XDCAM EX 1080 HD file of longer length and higher visual quality.

Similarly, how is it possible that one video file can become ten times larger without any gains in fidelity when encoded with a lossless codec or with a higher bitrate? I would guess that somehow the encoder is adding "extra" information as it re-encodes... but obviously it is impossible for a low fidelity file to gain quality when it is merely re-encoded with higher quality settings... so what is going on here?

Is there a word to describe this phenomenon? Also, how can I make sure my transcoding doesn't INCREASE the file size? I've been looking for tools that can measure the appropriate bitrate for files (like the low-fi VHS rips that somehow can take up to 10GB... which shoudln't happen) but I can't find any tools like this... What I want to do in this situation is to re-encode these massive files to an appropriate format with a reasonable file size without losing any visible quality...

To understand this you need to understand how codecs actually work.
A plain uncompressed video frame e.g. a single picture is pretty large. I'm talking about a bitmap, not a lossless encoded video, no encoding at all, just plain pixel information.

Here simple example of a Full HD frame for some perspective:
We have a resolution of 1920x1080 that equals to 2073600 pixels. Now each pixels has three color values. That is usually an 8bit value per color (though it could also be 10/12/16 or 32bit). So we have 2073600*3*8 which equals to 49766400 bits. To get bytes we have to divide by 8 and we get 6220800 Byte or 5.93MB.
So that's nearly 6MB per frame, for a 30FPS video that's 178MB per second!
A 10 minute video would be an insane 104GB.

Now luckily some really smart people developed all kinds of algorithms to define a frame in a smarter/shorter way while still containing the full information of the original bitmap. That's what we would call a lossless codec, just a different way to save the same information.

So when you record your VHS you capture device is getting every frame as a bitmap that it will encode the way you tell it to. So even while VHS uses analog compression and has a overall bad quality you still end up with the same chunk of information as with a Blu-ray encoded to the same resolution and bit-depth that your capture device is recording your VHS. "Good quality" is only determined by your perception of the picture.

Just keep in mind that when you decode a video file or capture something to play it back in your video player or to encode it with another codec (transcode) you always have this huge raw bitmap as the intermediate step, the "raw" information that you can use to describe it in a new way or simply display it on your monitor.

Now there is a limit to how well you can describe an image in a shorter/smaller way without discarding some information.

Those are the so called lossy codecs like h264. These are even smarter and complex algorithm where a frame isn't just a frame anymore, the encoder looks at several frames and trys to estimate how frames in between of so called "keyframes" will look like based of the information in those keyframes.
They also divide the image into several blocks of information and try to "guess" how they should look. Because we know how we guess information we just need a "clue" so when we decode our frame we can guess pretty accurately how this chunk of information would have looked like but its not a 100% accurate representation of the source information.

Thats why it can be so much smaller than our accurate representation with a lossless codec.

It's also the reason why we had this blocking in heavily compressed MPEG2 encoded videos back in the earlier days of the internet, h.264 handles that in a lot smarter way, hence we don't really have this type of artifacts anymore but we get these weird distortion sometimes when the image smears in this "blocky way", that happens when there is a decoding error and we missed a keyframe to decode the frames between the next keyframe.

To answer your last bit. MP4 with h264 encoded video is generally good idea. Use a tool like Handbrake, it makes the task very easy and you still have a lot of control of the outcome. Either choose a preset or set the "RF" setting to 18 to get a visually lossless video. Meaning you wont see a visual quality difference.


ffmpeg batch overlay Error: "Cannot find a matching stream for unlabeled input pad 1 on filter Parsed_overlay_0" I am trying to create a batch file to run this script to add a watermark on each file in a folder

ffmpeg -i input.mov -i watermark.png -filter_complex "overlay=10:10" output.mov

The script above works fine but when I try to run the batch I get Error: "Cannot find a matching stream for unlabeled input pad 1 on filter Parsed_overlay_0"

@echo off
REM Add watermark to video batch
for %%a in (*.mov) do ( ffmpeg "%%a" -i watermark.png -filter_complex "overlay=10:10" "output\%%~na.mov"
)
pause

What am I missing?

Looks like you forgot -i. Try:

@echo off
REM Add watermark to video batch
for %%a in (*.mov) do ( ffmpeg -i "%%a" -i watermark.png -filter_complex "overlay=10:10" "output\%%~na.mov"
)
pause


How to light a scene with a window and monitor in the background? I have a scene where I want to sit on a chair with a big 43 inch monitor and a big window behind me. I am having headaches. I already put a shader in front of the window that reduces its brightness. I also lowered the brightness of my monitor as far as possible and it is getting better.

Now I need some advice on how to execute 3-point lightning to achieve a nice and bright scene like in an interview.

Is it possible to use the window and monitor to my advantage as a backlight? How would you set up the scene? I would be happy if you can post a sketch and some explanation.

Your foreground lighting must exceed your background lighting, or else you'll have to manually increase your iris/gain a lot, which is not ideal because it will washout the window and monitor.

I would recommend minimizing the amount of window in the shot. Daylight is both extremely bright and inconsistent, even minute by minute. I'd settle with your second still shot and blocking the window completely with a shade. Daylight interviews are atypical mostly because of inconsistency, but also, the closed and controlled nature of a slightly darkened room gives the intimate feel most interviewers are going for.

By "3-point lighting" I assume you mean to say that you have three light sources to illuminate the foreground. This is plenty to work with, but using the monitor and window to your advantage is not worthwhile.

With three light sources you'll want to put one low and center and the others slightly high and on each side. (By low and high, I mean relative to the subject's face). The low center fills the deep parts of the face, like the eyes, under the nose, and neck. The high sides fill everything else. Generally, low center will not need to be as bright af the high sides.

I expect the room has a ceiling light, so you can use that to your advantage. It's likely the shot will look better with it on. If not, I recommend changing the bulb, because ceiling light off will leave a lot of your background dark.

I'd try the follow and adjust as necessary. The green arrow is the cam and the purple arcs are the lights. The gray circle is a mystery of mobile image editing ;)


Premiere sometimes not rendering 4k MXF files from Sony FS5 I'm working in 4k for the first time.  I've got footage from a variety of sources, and I'm working on a 4k timeline (see sequence settings below).

When I try to render between In and Out points, I get the following error when Premiere gets to certain MXF files.  All the MXF files came from a Sony FS5 camera, shooting in one of the flatter "log" picture modes (can't remember exact setting).

It renders some of them fine, but some I had to reconvert into ProRes.

I'd like to work directly from the MXF files if possible.

I'm using a 2015 MacBook Pro 16GB RAM, OS X 10.11.6 with Adobe Creative Cloud 2015, Premiere version 2015.4 release, v.10.4.0(30) build.

Error message when I try to render in Premiere:

Error message from Media Encoder:

Sequence settings:

Problematic clip properties below:

Clip0019.MXF
Type: MXF
File Size: 2.76 GB
Image Size: 3840 x 2160
Frame Rate: 25.00
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 24 bit - 4 channels
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - 4 channels
Total Duration: 00:03:58:14
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0

MXF File details:
Wrapper type: MXF OP1a (type: SingleItem SinglePackage MultiTrack Stream Internal)
File generated by: Sony, Mem  (2.00)
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Long GOP High Profile 4:2:0 Unconstrained Coding

Premiere supports MXF container file formats with the following formats
P2 Movie: Panasonic Op-Atom variant of MXF video in DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, AVC-Intra
Sony XDCAM HD 18/25/35 (4:2:0)
Sony XDCAM HD 50 (4:2:2)
AVC-LongGOP
XAVC Intra
XAVC LongGOP
JPEG2000
IMX 30/40/50
XDCAM EX


Cluster laser stage lighting I'm not entirely sure if this is on-topic here, since it's about stage lighting rather than audio or video directly, but I'll give it a shot.

I've been looking at various types of laser stage lighting, and I'm trying to work out how they work internally. I figure the scanning lasers (single fast-moving beam) work by firing a single laser onto a rotating mirror, or a mirror controlled by servos for more precise movements.

However, I can't figure out how the cluster lasers work. I'd guess there's some kind of prism in there, or some trickery with a set of mirrors and lenses that somehow "split" the beam, but I can't quite figure it out. My first thought was a fixed prism, but that wouldn't explain how these devices can spread, focus and rotate the beams.

How do these laser effects usually work?

The way most stage laser effects work is by using a holographic plate or diffraction grating which splits the single beam up into multiple beams.

[image removed due to a DMCA request from copyright holder]

These then pass to further holographic elements to provide shapes and lines, and these can then be manipulated further with lenses or mirrors.


Encode a 10bit raw video file I have a raw file that's in gray10le format. Each gray value is 2 bytes but only the first 10 bits are used. I can't seem to get x264-10b to accept it as an input.

x264-10b.exe --profile high10 --input-csp gray10le --input-depth 16 --fps 30 -o out.264 0_400x400_gray10le.yuv
raw [error]: unsupported colorspace `gray10le'
x264 [error]: could not open input file `0_400x400_gray10le.yuv'

I'm using the latest 10bit build at http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/x264/binaries/win64/

AFAICT, it should be --input-csp i400 --input-depth 10


adobe premiere cc / picture in picture / editing video shape by its corners removed? I remember old times when I could just put a video on a layer and drag each corner individually to shape it as I want but it seems in premiere cc this easy to use feature is removed or replaced with some effects for achieve the same effect by entering many many values.
or there is some option in some menu that I can't find to re enable it. (please tell me this is the case)
can a pro enlighten me in this matter please?

Double click the layer in the program monitor (the sequence viewer) or click on the little icon in the source view next to the Motion effect to bring up the drag handles.


Warning icon next to video file name in Adobe Creative Cloud folder? Does anyone know what this little warning icon means? It's showing up in the Creative Cloud folder, and whenever I import the video into Premiere, pressing the play button does nothing. Thanks for the help.

Ok minutes after posting this question, Adobe prompts me with the following error:

It's unfortunate they have such a limitation.


Waving flag in After Effects from vector Could anyone provide some insight on how to go about animating a vector flag (such as the one pictured below) to wave in the wind. Simultaneously, how could also animate what's "printed" on the flag to match? (Another example below). Thanks for any help.

The simplest way would be:

Create your flag in Illustrator
Think about or simply test how many frames/steps are key for animation
Draw your frames/steps on seperate Illustrator layers in to get the same position for all of it
Paste your frame/path with CTRL+V on 1 solid layer every 4-20 frames by switching between After Effects and Illustrator back and forth - time depends on your animation

Explanation: Through pasting the masks at a different time, After Effects automatically creates keyframes of the mask shape property. All copied shapes become interpolated keyframes like a roto shape animation to get soft transitions.

Note: The only limitation is that the number of anchor points per vector image should remains the same to get soft interpolation between the shape keys.


SDI - serial digital interface I have heard of a video-grip for the Panasonic GH5 Panasonic GH4 that supports SDI-output. Off the top of my head a few questions pop up

What is the advantage of using a SDI-output ?
Does this generally allow for higher performance than what the camera alone would achieve ?

I must admit, I have only completely read the Wikipedia entry for SDI in my mother tongue; which is not as detailed as the english entry.

additional notes:
This was split off from another question about slow-motion recording. Ideally the camera would be used for photography and video recording of all sorts.

General SDI vs. HDMI Information

SDI is easier to connect to other professional equipment than HDMI. It is an all purpose signal, as opposed to HDMI that was originally intended only to connect to consumer display devices. There may be a slight advantage in quality where HDMI can be limited to 4:2:0 subsampling at certain resolutions, where SDI will usually be 4:2:2 or 4:4:4.

There isn't necessarily a performance advantage to SDI over HDMI. Sometimes HDMI outputs don't produce a clean HD signal and you need to put extra equipment in line to clean up the signal.

The disadvantage of SDI is cost. Most all SDI equipment is more expensive than HDMI equivalents. But you usually get higher quality equipment for that price.

In general, you need to weigh the exact specs of the equipment you are looking at for the application you want to use it for. If, in your case, the HDMI output has a 120fps maximum, but the SDI output has a 60fps maximum, you would want to choose the HDMI output.

One other often overlooked advantage of SDI, is that it uses locking BNC connectors (or sometimes other smaller form factor positive locking connectors) as opposed to non-locking connectors of HDMI. If you are going to be in an active environment, it offers a lot of piece of mind to know that your connector won't slip loose.

Why do you need an external output?

External outputs like HDMI or SDI are used for connecting a camera to peripheral devices. Some people use it to connect to an external monitor. External monitors can be bigger, allowing you to see more detail, or allow someone other than the camera operator to see the picture simultaneously.

Some people use it to connect to an external video recorder. External recorders can have larger storage capacity, have higher sustained I/O throughput, or capture a more advantageous format (less compressed, a different codec, etc.) than the internal SD card. For your application, it is the higher sustained throughput that might make a difference. The internal SD card, no matter which card class you get, probably will have a hard time recording high frame rate video flawlessly for extended periods of time. It might drop frames or just stop recording after buffers fill.

Decisions

You need to decide for what you are trying to do and what price/performance trade-offs you want to make. If you are doing work professionally, then I would strongly recommend going the SDI route. If you are just having fun with some short slow motion shots, then you probably only need the internal recorder. If you want to take a step up from there, still in the hobbyist realm, you could consider adding HDMI-based accessories in the future.

Lumix GH5 and the Panasonic YAGH Grip

According to this article, the YAGH Grip is not compatible with the GH5 and there is no planned SDI output.


Insert clip - but only the part with a given marker? I'm trying to make a video in Adobe Premiere 2020, and one of the clips I intend to use is a good two and a half hours long.  Thus, I put a bunch of chapter markers in to mark which parts of the clip would be useful for different parts of the eventual video.  Is there any good way to insert just the part of the clip that a given marker covers (for example, a marker covering from 0:00:43:00 to 0:02:27:00 for near the beginning of the video) or do I just have to type the timecodes in manually?

You can use subclips:

jump to first marker
set in point
jump to next marker
set out point
in the menu "Clip" -> "Make Subclip" (or use shortcut)
give it a useful name

Repeat.


After Effects: Audio react to beat then become fuzzy/blury? I have been searching all over the internet but still do not know how to do this with After Effects! When a loud beat goes on, the spectrum goes bigger so i did this:

value + (comp("Music").layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider"))/ 1

but what i want to do is make it fuzzier or blurry when the beat become loud! How do i do this? Thanks!

Add a blur effect to the layer, and then use a similar expression to drive the amount of bluriness.

comp("Music").layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider")*1234

Replace the 1234 constant with whatever value makes sense for the effect–it may have to be a small number like 0.1234 if the effect is too much. One trick I often use is to use the original value as the constant, which means you can adjust the strength of the effect by using the controls for that effect, while still driving it with the expression:

comp("Music").layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider")*value