Is a torn DV tape recoverable in any way? I am digitizing several DV tapes via a Sony handycam, a firewire cable, and a MacBook.
Unfortunately, the tape of one of the DV tapes is torn: it only attaches to one of the spools, the other end is unattached and hangs out of the top.

Is there anything I can do to repair this tape such that I can digitize it? The tape is a JVC miniDV 60 (60/90ME).

Mini DV tapes can be spliced, so it should be easy enough to reattach it to the reel in similar way. Be sure to use tape splicing tape and not any other kind of tape. Be sure to only put splicing tape on the substrate of the video tape. Don't let the tape fold over onto the oxide side. If you end up splicing in the middle of the tape, you will see the picture pixelate and freeze around the splice.

I would recommend running the repaired tape through your player last just in case something isn't quite right with your splice and you accidentally damage the head.


How do I author a playable DVD from an MKV file containing MPEG2 video, audio, subtitle and chapter streams? I'm using MakeMKV to back up my DVD library to MKV files without re-encoding the video or audio streams (since space is cheap, and quality is top priority.)

I'd like to know if there's a tool available (Linux or Windows), or a procedure using a collection of tools, that would allow me to rebuild the folder structure for, or even burn directly, a DVD player-playable DVD from these MKV files. I don't want to have to re-encode the video or audio streams.

Many thanks in advance!

DVD requires more than just the video and audio data streams.  It also needs all the menu and table of contents data to instruct the player on how to play the stream.  As long as the stream is in an appropriate format, there is no reason that a DVD authoring package should have to re-encode the video.  It just needs to take in the stream and rebuild the menu and table of contents information that is needed to tell the DVD player how to play it.


Why are there missing frames in the Vegas Pro editing timeline? I found the weirdest thing in Vegas Pro 13. I was trying to verify the exact frames of a generated file, so was looking for a zero number frame to drop it into the timeline. I was surprised to find that two frames in the Vegas Pro timeline are missing. The timeline goes from 00:13:59;29 to 00:14:00;02. There should be a ;00 and ;01 entry there as well, but it's not present. See in the image below, zoomed in so that each vertical line is a frame. The two frames missing are between the blue line.

My first thought was something to do with NTSC 29.97 framerate vs actual 30 framerate. I figured if that's the case, the issue should repeat at regular intervals. I checked between other values and determined that the issue repeats every minute, except at 10 minute marks (it may be more nuanced than that).

How can I make it not do this?

Why, you ask? I edit in Vegas Pro like any other vidiot, but then I use the events window to extract all the timeline data then render in ffmpeg. This means that If I try to target a specific frame, I may actually be off by several frames. This is an issue because some of my process is creating separate video and audio files, but they play simultaneously, so I can't tolerate more than 1 frame off for the lip sync.

My thought is that I need to record in true 30 fps, then everything will fall in line. Is that the only solution? How can I account for this in my ffmpeg scripts? For example, if I see 00:14:00;02 in Vegas Pro, do I need to tell ffmpeg that the actual frame to target is less than that? If I have a 10 hour clip, 2 frames difference every minute adds up to a lot of frames. Almost a minute! I haven't looked closely at any of my renders to see if I notice a subjective lip sync issue.

Vegas is not showing you the actual framerate based measurement. Instead, it is showing you 30 fps Drop Frame Timecode, which exists for compatibility reasons and does have to do with NTSC video.

For purposes of alignment with ffmpeg, switch your display to SS.mmm i.e. fractional seconds rather than SMPTE timecode. No need to change the project framerate.

Right click on one of the times at the top of the timeline and you will see that SMPTE Drop is selected. You can change that to "Time" or "Seconds" for a convention that FFmpeg will naturally understand.


Compressing video recording- file gets bigger! i have recorded a part of my screen (2624x1714, 8 hours, ca. 30 GB), then trim and cut in final cut pro. Now I want to compress it with Compressor. I set the output to HD 1080p but the file doesn't get smaller but bigger (36GB). Why? How should I proceed?

Thanks

L

I solved it by reducing the bitrate
thank you


How do I make a trimmed video show the missing frames from a Zoom recording using ffmpeg? I have a Zoom video that I "cut" into two videos:
ffmpeg -i 0131.mp4 -ss 55 -t 38:52 -codec copy 0131-1.mp4
ffmpeg -i 0131.mp4 -ss 40:00 -t 1:52 -codec copy 0131-2.mp4

I then merged into one using [concat demuxer][1] in ffmpeg.
The merged video plays, but the first 15 seconds of the merged video is blank (audio plays okay). What do I need to do so that first 15 seconds of the merged video also displays? Is this due to a "keyframe" not appearing for 15 seconds after my cut point?

Stream #0:0(und): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 32000 Hz, mono, fltp, 126 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
  creation_time   : 2021-01-31T21:53:20.000000Z
  handler_name    : AAC audio
Stream #0:1(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1280x720, 741 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 30k tbn, 60k tbc (default)
Metadata:
  creation_time   : 2021-01-31T21:53:20.000000Z
  handler_name    : H.264/AVC video
  encoder         : AVC Coding
Stream #0:2(und): Data: bin_data (text / 0x74786574), 0 kb/s
Metadata:
  creation_time   : 2021-01-31T21:53:20.000000Z
  handler_name    : Text

Every time I concat, I quickly run it thru this awesome little freeware from Mean beforehand, avidemux, (MP4 Muxer->Move index to the beginning of the file->Save) and it fixes the majority of any concat issues I've run into. Not sure if it will fix your issue, but it can't hurt and somewhere down the line avidemux will come in handy and fix a concat issue if you're having one. Shoutout to Mean for such a helpful piece of freeware!


Which techniques/filters do improve sensation of speed on a motorcycle? Introduction
I have already searched for this topic, but sadly most of the time I just find articles about frame rate and/or shutter speed which doesn't reflect what I am looking for, really. This question is somewhat long, but I hope this doesn't bother anyone.
I started using a GoPro to film POV motorcycle shots using a chest mount in 4K, 60FPS, 1/120 shutter speed, Flat color profile, using ND8 filter for overcast and ND16 filter for sunny conditions. ISO is set to 100-400
For post production I use Final Cut Pro X
The filter reel has the following items in the exact order: White balance, Color board, Neat Video Reduce Noise v4, Sharpen, LUT and Vignette
The result of this looks like that:

Thoughts:

It seems like Neat Video is killing some of the road details which improve the speed sensation thing, but without the plugin, the footage would contain allot more noise, which I try to avoid.

At the moment the GoPro Hypersmooth seems to be the only image stabilization option available at the chosen resolution and frame rate. Not sure if there is a not so smooth alternative (plugin or setting) out there.

This video (the intro) here is fantastic as to show what I would gladly try to achieve: Example video

QUESTION:
What can I do while filming or post production to get a better sensation of speed without using Retime Editor? Please point me to helpful tutorials and plugins or simply give hints. Thanks!

I agree with my fellow German dude. Lowering the framerate (until 24) can increase the feeling of uncontrolled speed and momentum. If you already did that and didn't get the effect you were looking for, here's how you can use some trickery to fake it:

Motion blur! It helps selling the effect big time. I recommend using a radial blur which is going outwards from a defined point. Put this point in the center of the screen and use a feathered mask to cut the effect from the center, so the blur only effects the edges of the screen. This way, it appears as if the road is flashing by way faster than it actually did.
Also, when it comes to filming vehicles, it's surprisingly easy to get away with simply speeding up the footage. Don't overdo it obviously, but 125%-135% should look just fine.

Combining all these effects, lowering the frame-rate to 24/25, adding a radial blur towards the edges of the screen and speeding up the footage slightly should give you a convincing effect.


How to make ffmpeg to generate NUMBER_OF_BYTES tag for every stream in file output? Can ffmpeg count size of stream in bytes? I want to write NUMBER_OF_BYTES tag for every stream in file output on the fly. Like MKVToolNix does.

Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'm:\S01E18.mkv':   Metadata:
    encoder         : libebml v1.3.6 + libmatroska v1.4.9
    creation_time   : 2019-01-02T12:02:39.000000Z   Duration: 00:21:28.83, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 2742 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 50 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      BPS-eng         : 2577777
      DURATION-eng    : 00:21:28.800000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 32220

      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 415279992 <--- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v29.0.0 ('Like It Or Not') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2019-01-02 12:02:39
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
    Stream #0:1(rus): Audio: aac (LC), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)
    Metadata:
      BPS-eng         : 162801
      DURATION-eng    : 00:21:28.832000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 60414

      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 26227949 <--- !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v29.0.0 ('Like It Or Not') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2019-01-02 12:02:39
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES

FFmpeg can't do this. These tags are not part of the Matroska specification; they are idiosyncratic to mkvtoolnix (7.0+).


Can I create a "hyperlapse" video without using After Effects? I am trying to learn hyperlapse and every tutorial I have found in youtube uses After Effects software to create it. Is there any other way to do so?

Not professional level at all, but the app "Hyperlapse" creates hyperlapeses. Instagram brain-child.


Video Booth / Video Guest Book for Events I am looking for a solution for windows/linux to create a video guest book for a wedding. The application would run on a netbook or a laptop with a front facing webcam. Basically, people should be able to come up to the screen, hit a record button, talk or whatever, then hit stop and it should save. Maybe have the option to delete if they get flustered, etc.

I would prefer if it was something that could run in a kiosk mode so people don't mess with it, if it has cute features which would make it easier for the guests that fine. Free, FOSS, or commerical options will all be considered. I have not yet bought the netbook or laptop for this yet, and I can reload it with whatever OS or dependencies are needed. I found a few for "photo booth" like applications, but I want to do video.

The "Photo Booth" application on OS X can record video, and is pretty simple to use

You could probably lock it down with the parental settings

An iPad 2 has the same thing, although it might be more easily misplacable


Question about encoding / rendering multiple times If I render a video over and over with the same codec with the same software, does the video loss quality?

I'm asking because to save space on my Harddrive when I have a clip I want to use I encode it with H.264. So my raw capture could be 100GB's but once I've edited it to the clips I want and then encode it can I re open that and edit it again and render it without it losing quality.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense D:

The question's not entirely clear, but, yes, each new generation of the rendered file will lose some quality if you use the previous generation as the source, but not if you use the initial H264.

To elaborate, let's call your raw capture as Generation 1 or Gen1. Then your H.264 transcode is Gen2. Now, after editing with Gen2, your export is Gen3. Now, if you open Gen3 and edit that, then the new export will be Gen4 and will have lost some quality (certainly mathematically, maybe not subjectively). But if you reopen Gen2 and edit it in a different way and export it (with the same settings) then the new file will also be Gen3 quality.


Audiovisualiser not visible The code below runs a perfect red audiovisualizer when run on a “black” colored background. But when used with any other colored jpg image the visualizer just doesn't show up. What's missing?

ffmpeg -y -i music.mp3 -loop 1 -i black.jpg -filter_complex \
   "[0:a]showwaves=s=1280x175:colors=Red:mode=p2p,format=yuv420p[v];[1:v][v]overlay=0:200[outv]" \
   -map "[outv]" -pix_fmt yuv420p -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -c:a copy -shortest output_bg.mp4

ffmpeg -i music.mp3 -loop 1 -i image.jpg -filter_complex "[0:a]showwaves=s=1280x175:colors=Red:mode=p2p[v];[1:v][v]overlay=(W-w)/2:(H-h)/2:format=auto,format=yuv420p[outv]" -map "[outv]" -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -c:a copy -shortest -movflags +faststart output.mp4

Remove the format filter after showwaves.
Use format=auto in the overlay filter.
Do all of the filtering within the filtergraph, so remove -pix_fmt and replace it with the format filter.

If you want image.jpg to fit within a specific size such as 1280x720:

ffmpeg -i music.mp3 -loop 1 -i image.jpg -filter_complex "[0:a]showwaves=s=1280x175:colors=Red:mode=p2p[fg];[1:v]scale=1280:720:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=1280:720,setsar=1[bg];[bg][fg]overlay=(W-w)/2:(H-h)/2:format=auto,format=yuv420p[outv]" -map "[outv]" -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -c:a copy -shortest -movflags +faststart output.mp4


AE : Using a drawn brush as a mask Is there a way to mask brush strokes like you can with a pen?

At present, Im using a pen to create a mask then generate a stroke (Effects>Generate>Stroke).

I then use reveal putting a keyframe on the end of the effect to reveal the comp following the pen's stroke if that makes sense.

I want to use the same type of effect by revealing a larger background image, but the stroke's maximum width using the above technique is 50 which is not big enough.

From what i understand, brush strokes are vectors in AE so is the same type of thing possible using a brush to create a mask?

thanks

If you use the brush on a layer, it actually applies the "paint" effect to the layer. If you paint on a layer with the brush and expand the properties for effects>paint>brush 1> you'll see that there is a start and end setting that can be animated, allowing you to animate the stroke.


How can i achieve the effect of this video, focused in the foreground with a blurred background? What type of camera or software, do I need to achieve that?

You need a camera with a relatively large sensor and a fast lens.  What you are seeing is actually a property of optics called Depth of Field.  Only a certain distance from the camera can be in focus at any given point for a given aperture and focal length.  The degree of how out of focus it appears is also relative to the size of the image being projected (thus the distance from the point where the image inverts) and thus, larger sensors show more blur.

Cheap cameras often use very small sensors and thus have a hard time getting a shallow depth of field, however any DSLR will achieve it quite easily, as will any more professional video camera with a larger sensor.  Shoot with the aperture as wide open as possible and try to have the camera relatively close to the subject with the background as far away as possible.

Technically, increasing focal length will also decrease the depth of field, but then you have to move back from the subject which will increase it again.  You want a small depth of field close to the camera so that the background can be significantly out of focus.  If it is too out of focus, you can adjust the aperture or the ratio between the camera, the subject and the background to make it less blurry (by expanding the depth of field).

You can also use many online Depth of Field calculators to figure out a shooting situation with a particular camera prior to trying it in real life.  They won't visualize it for you, but they will give you an idea of what distances will be in focus and which will be out.  There are also lots of great articles on depth of field over on our Photography sister site, though they don't deal with video specifically, but the principal is the same.

In a pinch, you can fake it as well using masks and blurs, but that's really not an ideal way to do it.  In camera always looks better.


Optimizing short Videos (~10 sec.) in Size for embedding in website & app I need to embed short (~10 sec.) videos on my website. I currently use .mp4 files, each one is around 10 MB  large.

Is there a way I can reduce the size of these videos? Whats the best format to use? Might gifs be a better option? What resolutions do you recommend for desktop and mobile devices? Does the video editor I use make a difference in file size after rendering?

The best thing for such a use case is creating diffrent files which get loaded in different scenarios.

Current recommendation is to use webm for web content, this container is not supported with all Browsers tho, so also include a .mp4 to switch too.

GIFs can be compressed quite nicely, but you need to keep in mind that GIFs are quite strict about colors.

You can go quite far by compressing with FFMPEG


Creating effects/transitions in AviSynth or Lightworks I'm very much an amateur video maker, but I am trying to broaden my skill set a bit and start creating my own effects and short video clips to supplement the recordings I make in a more substantial way.  As an example, one of the first things I'd like to do is to make a small clip that functions a little bit like Megaman boss select screen of yore; moving a selector around some pictures and scrolling in a text label to briefly explain it.

I can handle the resources that go into it to a large extent; the portraits, the actual selector graphic, the text, all no problem.  However, I have no idea how to properly overlay and tie all this stuff together!  I'm most familiar with AviSynth and Lightworks, and I've pored over the documentation for both the best I know how.  It seems like I'm just missing out on a structure for the basic work flow.  Can anyone help me out with an approach to making basic animations and movies when you have a large amount of static content to go into it?

You will need so-called video composition software such as Adobe After Affects or even Blender.

A few years ago Combustion was available which was very good for things like this, but Autodesk came along and purchased it, sucked it dry of blood, and put it in a drawer never to be seen again.

AE comes with a price tag, while Blender is free (site http://www.blender.org appear to be down when I tested it now - see Wiki link above for information on it). Both have a pretty steep learning curve though if you never used composition software before. But there exist a lot of free learning material on the web to help you up and going.

Update: Adding some links to resources that hopefully can be of use:

After effects, layers, compositions - This will show how you can first create elements, then how to place them with different position and angle onto another video. The more relevant part starts from about 8:30 or so:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/Jumbotron/video-tutorial

After Effects introduction:

This site gives you bucket loads of video tutorials on AE and composition effects, layers and so forth:
http://library.creativecow.net/

Video editing with Blender (part 1):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sODml0PBlo

Special video effects with Blender:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ytZrGJ1ZQ

Hope these will be of help!


Microphone for indoor interview I'm using a Rode ntg2 and I feel like the sound is less than ideal in a lot of situations. I record mostly indoor interviews (sometimes echoey enviroments) and I am looking for a good mic for that purpose. I realize that it is recommended to go with a hypercardioid or a supercardioid pick-up pattern. Which microphones would you suggest that can deal well with echoey environments, yet still provide a directional pick up? Budget up to 900.

If you have an echoey room, the only solution is to get the microphone closer to the subject.  Period.  Directionality won't solve your problem.  In high-budget productions you see people wearing lav mics for a reason.

Here's a link that tells you all you need to know about sound for video production.


Masking out the video background in Sony Vegas I have a video and I need to mask out the background for it.

A screenshot from the original video, credits to The Muppets Studio

The video has been shot with a still camera on a steady background.
My goal is to mask out the background (e.g., everything not related to moving objects).
I don't have the original sources, of course.
It is also hard to recreate the background (I mean, to precisely match colors).

My approach, in theory, is the following:

Collect a series of screenshots where different parts of background are visible (when objects move away);
Glue those parts into a background image (see image below for a partial result);
Place the background into a layer and compute the color difference between the original video and the background;
Build a set of pixels for which:

the difference is nearly zero (within a certain color threshold occurring due to rounding/compression problems);
and within a certain minimal area (so that individual pixels did not occasionally appear);

Wrap those pixels into a key mask.

Still, I'm stuck with building a proper structure of layers within Sony Vegas to accomplish my goal.

How this can be done?

My backround attempt

My environment is:

Sony Vegas 12.0/x64, I'm not considering another software;
Basic set of plugins/filters, but I will also appreciate references to 3rd-party plugins, even the commercial ones;
Still, I would prefer a "clean" approach based on masking.

Thanks a lot!

chroma key choose a colour*drag) then take eye dropper and select background in the preview window


How to cut large video without video editing software (Windows) I have a large video that I need only a small portion of online, and then I want to edit and cut out some parts inside that portion of video online. How do I accomplish that without any special software except perhaps VLC or the likes?

I wary of downloading AVIdemux and other "free" stuff from the web.

I've had bad experience with Softonic, CNet and the likes and even SourceForge who used to be great but then started installing stuff that you can't get rid of, and that affect your system like changing your search page etc. (For some reason many times they are not defined as malware, but in some cases are, and then its even worse because online instructions tell you to download "removal" software which usually like a Trojan just wreaks havoc).

Maybe there's something on GitHub?

If you need to make multiple cuts and then join them or edit those cuts, you'll need a video editor to do it efficiently. Try Shotcut.


Track and replace a t-shirt design on a moving, distorted garment I'm wondering what would be some viable techniques to replace a t-shirt design some person is wearing in a footage with another design. Here's a simple example:
https://placeit.net/c/mockups/stages/hipster-man-wearing-a-round-neck-tee-video-outside-a-store-at-night-a13565

This is online tool that allows anyone to upload an image and then puts in on a video footage. I'm interested how it might be reproduced in a program like After Effects or Premier.

It's important that image should follow any distortions/creases of the garment.

I've used Mocha planar tracking in After Effects, but I don't think that's sufficient because it only tracks one or few planes and it would be really hard to replicate distortions/movements of the garment. Is there some easier way?

I'm able to print any tracking markers, lines or anything else on the shirt that would help.

Nuke's Smart Vector toolset is built for this exact problem. I see you tagged After Effects, but you did not specify that After Effects is needed. I've done this a few times before and Mocha is your best bet for AE, but as you already know it has it's limitations. Nuke can actually track the creases and folds (though of course it isn't perfect). The biggest factor I've seen in my tests is shot duration - the longer the shot the more the vectors get all messed up. That said it can sometimes do magical things! I believe you can rent Nuke for a decent price if you just need to do one shot.

Here's a tutorial showing how to replace part of a shirt. It is a bit older, but because it addresses exactly what you are trying to do I thought I'd link it:

If you absolutely need to use AE I would combine a mocha track with a puppet warp which is hand-animated. Using Mocha you can stabilize the footage, overlay your logo and keyframe the puppet warp, and the re-track it back into the original footage.


How to change AviSynth plugins directory? I installed anew version of AviSynth+ and besides solving some problems with its DirectShowSource.dll I discover (from the Setup Log file) that it consider C:\ as its autoload directory.

It helped me - I copied DLLs there. But it is neither elegant nor useful solution (as I have installed both 32- and 64-bit versions).

How to change configuration to return to default plugins+ and plugins64+ directories?

As the docs indicate, you have to create registry keys to tell Avisynth+ where to look. They are

PluginDir+ in Software/Avisynth in HKEY_CURRENT_USER
PluginDir+ in Software/Avisynth in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
PluginDir2_5 in Software/Avisynth in HKEY_CURRENT_USER
PluginDir2_5 in Software/Avisynth in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

There is no separate key for 32 or 64-bit. Since 32-bit AVS will not load 64-bit plugins, I suggest setting the first key in the above list to the 64-bit plugins folder, and the 2nd to the 32-bit. The 64-bit AVS DLL when loaded will use plugins from the first folder. The 32-bit DLL will skip them and load from the 2nd folder.


Is there a way to improve quality for videos with snow/confetti/LCD in background? The effect I'm referring to:

Essentially, the snow/confetti in the shot means lots of motion, hence a lot of the available bitrate is taken up by it, thereby reducing the quality of the other elements in the shot.

In particular, I see this problem with videos that have animated LCD displays in the background:

Those videos are uploaded by the original TV broadcaster (with access to the highest quality original video), and more or less top out looking like 480p, even when viewing at 720p or 1080p. The same quality issues appear in videos on the broadcaster's own site, so it's not just YouTube's compression going overboard:

http://www.mbcplus.com/Player/MusicBox/RetrieveClipInfo.aspx?clipId=736

If a human were deciding what elements in the shot to dedicate the bitrate to, they would obviously allocate it to the foreground objects (the people) at the expense of lowering the quality of the background (the LCD).

Is there any technique (encoding/compression/etc.) that can improve the quality of the foreground elements when such a background is present in the shot?

And I'm sure some people would also be interesting in any techniques that can be done at the time of filming that would produce better results, when they cannot change the content of the shot and have to deal with snow/confetti/animated LCD in the background.

Yes this feature exists, but it is not widely used yet.

Texas Instrument developped such solution, called SmartCodec, which looks to be implemented in a Samsung video surveillance system: Megapixel Camera This is a HW based solution, that is for market of video surveillance.

I think it would be implemented in future video codecs HEVC, adopted by many boradcaster, and it's called Region-of-Interest Based Rate Control Scheme
HEVC is already released, and in used today, but this feature really looks new. And it will take months~years for it to be implemented in the encoder on the production house, I guess. Apparently, it is something really new, since a paper about that has been accepted for presentation at the ICIP 2016, which took place in september.


Using the Rotobrush Tool with a Graphics Tablet in After Effects I'm having a lot of trouble making this work. I select rotobrush tool, I put my pen down on the graphics tablet and suddenly I'm painting instead of rotobrushing. Why is this happening? Also it happens again even when I try to use the mouse instead. The rotobrush tool is selected, yet the effect is paint.

The roto-brush tool is a painting process - you paint green in the areas you want to rotobrush, red in the areas you don't, then tidy up edges with the feathering tool. See example here:


What output video format for Kazam requires less cpu power? Please tell me what is the appropriate StackExchange site to post this question if it doesn't fit here.

I use Kazam to capture my videoconferences. It gets too CPU-demanding but the program is awesome so it doesn't crash but drop frames instead, so that the final video may have 1 frame per second in the most difficult moments but with an uninterrupted sound and full correct images.

Which one of these output formats for the video will be less demanding for the program, so that the frame rate does not drop to such low values? I don't mind a big file size, I can compress the video later. Here are the options:

VP8 in webm container,

H.264 in MP4,

RAW video in AVI,

HUFFYUV (no darn idea what this is) in AVI,

Lossless JPEG in AVI.

VP8 and H.264 should essentially be the same demand due to them being similar.

RAW is well, RAW, each specific pixel data, with no methods of reducing file space, this can cause very large file sizes, but is in theory the least intensive as long as your hard drive can record fast enough.

HUFFYUV is basically the same as RAW, however it uses some methods to reduce file size. Depending on the footage it can be about half the size, or even up to 1/10th the size of RAW.

Lossless JPEG, I believe is similar to HUFFYUV, however I don't personally use either of these lossless codecs.

I don't know if Kazam allows you to use custom codecs, but if it does, I highly recommend using the Lagarith Lossless Codec. It's what I personally use, and it has some basic GPU support, very nice file sizes without any loss in quality, and doesn't require any tinkering which some lossless codecs do.


ffmpeg convert non transparent pixel to white I'm trying to convert all non-transparent pixels of an image to white using the geq filter in ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -y -i in.png -vf "format=rgba,geq='r=if(lt(alpha(X,Y),10),255):g=if(lt(alpha(X,Y),10),255):b=if(lt(alpha(X,Y),10),255):a=alpha(X,Y)'" x.png

But ffmpeg is giving me black pixels instead of white. Any ideas what is going on?

in.png:

out.png:

The two operand if expression returns 0 if the condition isn't met. You need the three operand version.

if(lt(alpha(X,Y),10),255,p(X,Y))


What are use cases for Timeline button in Preview panel? I'm going through AE interface basics and trying to understand what is the Timeline button for

From my observations, it just shifts focus from Preview to Timeline panel, but isn't it easier to click anywhere on timeline panel to switch focus than trying to hit small button?
Any use cases I'm missing about this feature?

If you have all your timelines closed, pressing this button will open up the composition that is visible on screen and go into the timeline of said comp.
This could be useful if you're working with dozens of precomps, lock the master-comp and go diving in the precomps. Then, when you want to return to your master-comp, simply press that button.


Imported video getting out-of-sync audio in Adobe Premiere I have an MKV video with a few out-of-sync points caused, probably, by a 3rd-party program, used to remove some commercials from it directly from the MKV.

So watched the video several times in VLC manually adjusting the delay while taking notes of the different amounts needed.

Then I started the slicing proccess, but first, because Premiere is "cocky" and don't handle MKV files directly, I converted it to an MP4 with FFmpeg:

ffmpeg -i /path/to/video.mkv -c:v copy -c:a copy /path/to/save/video.mp4

After slicing all pieces needed and creating Subclips from them, I exported them all, manually instead of using Adobe Media Encore, with the exact same settings.

However, analyzing them with MediaInfo, although most of the files where in CBR, a few were in VBR.

I ignored this and applied the delays, individually, with FFMPEG again:

ffmpeg.exe -i "/path/to/slice.mp4" -itsoffset 0.05 -i "/path/to/slice.mp4" \
           -map 0:v -map 1:a -c:v copy -c:a copy "/path/to/sliced.mp4"

(Being 0.05 an advancing of +50ms)

Since I already used FFmpeg to join files in past, for commodity, I used it again to concatenate the modified files:

ffmpeg -f concat -i list.txt -c:v copy -c:a copy "video.mp4"

(Being list.txt a list of each adjusted file, one per line)

Some of the cuts occurred during action scenes and when joined with concat it's pretty noticeable a "click" where two of the clips were concatenated. Other than that the result was perfectly synced.

But those "clicks" were annoying me so much that I imported this file into Premiere again and added a centered Constant Power Audio Effect at the junction of the two clips to get rid of them.

At first, I didn't notice and rendered this faded audio file. But when watching it on VLC, going straight to the first junction, it was completely out-of-sync-again.

Then I watched it on Premiere and found the problem in there.

I've searched for a solution and one of them suggested me to use Handbrake to convert it from VBR to CBR, but didn't show how <_<

The other suggested to rename the file changing the .MP4 extension to .MOV to counteract an apparent bug in Premiere Importer. This didn't work for me, perhaps because I'm using the CC version and the "tutorial" was with the Pro version (if there was indeed a bug, it might've be fixed between versions).

And now I don't know what to do because the meticulously adjusted clip segments can't be fine tuned in Premiere because it is undoing all this hard work.

It sounds like your source media went through quite a lot of different operations, which makes it difficult to say what exactly has upset the audio/video sync.

I would start by trying to isolate the problem: repeat the process on a smaller scale (just one cut/edit, instead of the whole thing) and verify the output at each stage. That will help you understand where exactly things have gone wrong. Then, you could edit your question and present us with an isolated example of an operation that affects the sync. That should make it easy to resolve the problem.


Sony Vegas Media Generators not appearing So, I made a small movie. I added track with text, and then I added another track with text. Then the second track never showed up. I see it in the timeline, but I do not see it in the preview.

There is an unkown light blue arrow pointing to a place on the timeline.

What is this, and how do I resolve this?

Another Screenshot

The track containing the "hidden" text appears to be muted in the screenshot. Unmute it. It's the icon in the track controls of a round circle with the diagonal.

Background

There are two ways for a track to be muted. First is by enabling the mute switch of that track. This can be undone by clicking the mute switch again. Other is by soloing another track. To solo a track is to show only that track and mute all others. In such a case, the mute switches on the mute tracks won't be enabled but the solo switch on the soloed track will be. All of the other tracks' visibility state "pre-soloing" can be restored by clicking on the activated Solo switch. An additional tip here is that a track muted via solo can be unmuted by clicking its solo switch. This is useful if one wishes to temporarily unmute another track.


How to re-edit and/or duplicate an in-progress edit with YouTube Video Editor After uploading a bunch of clips to YouTube, I go into their editor and begin making cuts, combining clips together, etc. The problem is, after I published it, there is no way (that I can see) to go back and open up that project in the Video Editor again to make changes to the edit.

This wouldn't be so bad if I also couldn't figure out how to duplicate an edit project. So for example, if Im in the middle of editing a bunch of clips together, named "Project 1", how could I think "Save as..." or duplicate that project to "Project 1b."

Any ideas? The google help center on this is pretty sparse.

The YouTube video editor is just not designed for this sort of thing - it has very basic functionality, just enough to allow you to tweak a couple of things. Once the edit is complete it has no ongoing concept of a 'project' - you just have a new video.

I would always recommend editing locally in a proper video editor and then uploading.


Spec for GPAC's DashCast configuration? According to DashCast, we should provide a configuration file of several entries. The document demos some options:

[v1]
type=video
width=1280
height=720
bitrate=800000
[v2]
type=video
width=640
height=360
bitrate=400000
[a1]
type=audio
bitrate=128000
[a2]
type=audio
bitrate=256000

For my first run of DashCash, the configuration file would be automatically generated if it is not existing. Here is the autogenerated one:

[v1]
type=video
bitrate=2000000
framerate=24
width=1920
height=1080
crop_x=0
crop_y=0
codec=libx264

[a1]
type=audio
bitrate=192000
samplerate=44100
channels=2
codec=aac

I'm wondering where I can get a spec of options for this configuration file?

This is available on the page you linked to directly.  Look under the Configuration Files section.

Relevant details from the page:

A file "-conf" file.

[ID]        # The ID of the representation
type=T      # T can be "audio" or "video"
width=W     # if type is "video",
            # W is the width of the representation
height=H    # if type is "video",
            # H is the height of the representation
bitrate=B   # B is the bitrate (bps) of "video" or "audio"

And a "-switch-source" file.

[ID]         # The ID of the source identification.
type=T       # T can be "video"
start=ST     # ST is the start time YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss
end=ET       # ET is the end time YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss
source=S     # S is the address of the source

Additionally, from looking in the source itself, the configuration file is read in the cmd_data.c file starting on line 160 or so (depending on rev) in the dc_read_configuration method.

For the conf file, video type can have codec, framerate, crop_x, crop_y and custom.  Audio types can have codec, samplerate, channels and custom.

Custom appears to push the value assigned directly in to the libav codec.

For the Switch source file, the type appears to actually be able to be video or audio.  Both only have the listed 4 options.


Adobe After Effects: Scaling circle changes its movement? Hi I have a circle that moves from A to B. During this path I want to change its size. However, when I do this, the ball suddenly goes up and is not following the path anymore. Heres a gif:

How can I scale the ball so that it stays on the path?

The issue you're experiencing is that the transformation of the circle does not originate where you expect it to be.

This is because the anchor point of the layer is very far from the center of the visual contents.

You can re-position the anchor point of the layer using the "Pan Behind" tool (also known as "Anchor Point" tool.)

There are scripts that will do this while preserving the visual position of the layer on the canvas; one of my favorites is Motion 2 by Mt. Mograph and a very simple, low-cost script is RepositionAnchorPoint by Charles Bordenave

My suggestion would be to first experiment on a copy of your composition to see how manually adjusting the anchor point with the "Pan Behind" tool affects your animation, and once you have a strong grasp on how After Effects implements the changes you make, trying out one of the scripts linked above.

Once you've mastered understanding of the Anchor Point, you'll be able to use Null objects and Parenting to great effect.


After Effects Alternative for Windows I use Sony Vegas for video production but would like to be able to create more visual effects.

Are there any cheaper alternatives for Adobe's After Effects? Or is there an extension for Vegas?

Blender does have compositing capability, and can be used to do some of the stuff that AE does. It's free, but you have to learn how to use it, so how highly you value your time counts in the final equation.

If you want to see Blender in action as a compositor you can see the "Tears of Steel" short film made with Blender last year.


Using technically impossible shutter speed when shooting video I have a question about the video mode of my DSLR.

When i record i can set the frame rage (e.g. 25 fps). In that setting my DSLR should take 25 images within 1 second.

In manual (or "s" mode) mode i can set the shutter speed of the taken video.
Technically the  maximum should be 1/25 because of the frame rate. But i can also choose values above.

Question: How is it technically possible to record a video with 25 fps having set the shutter speed more than 1/25s. ( e.g. 1/4s)

Whether this happens inside your specific camera is not clear. However, it is possible to have a shutter speed slower than the FPS would naively allow. In practice, it's very unlikely that a camera would do this if uses a mechanical shutter for video, but it can be practical in electronic shutter cameras.

Imagine a shutter speed of 0.5 seconds, and a framerate of 4fps. Each 'exposure' lasts 0.5 seconds, but each frame's exposure overlaps with neighbouring frames - the frames are not the same, but they overlap.

Imagine:

A is the light value that arrives between 0 and 0.25 s
B is the light value that arrives between 0.25s and 0.5s
C is the light value that arrives between 0.5s and 0.75s
D is the light value that arrives between 0.75s and 1s
etc...

Then:

Frame 1 contains the light A+B
Frame 2 contains the light B+C
Frame 3 contains the light C+D
etc....


How to bring a SketchUp Animation into After Effects I made a simple animation in SketchUp and am trying to bring it into After Effects. When I do the AVI is all black in Footage and Composition.

Reading around it sounds like the most common issue is Codec but beyond that I'm a bit clueless here. When I open it in Adobe Media Encoder it shows H.264 Match Source - High bitrate which from what little I understand the H.264 should be acceptable?

Is there something else I should be looking for? How can I get the animation from SketchUp into After Effects?

EDIT WITH CLIP PROPERTIES:

In Adobe Premier Pro the clip's properties show:

Type: AVI Movie
File Size: 508.9 MB
Image Size: 1280 x 720
Frame Rate: 24.00
Total Duration: 00:00:08:01
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0

AVI File details:
Contains 1 video track(s) and 0 audio track(s).

Video track 1:

Size is 508.88M bytes (average frame = 2.63M bytes)
There are 193 keyframes.
Frame rate is 24.000 fps
Frame size is 1280 x 4294966576
Depth is 24 bits. Compressor: none.

Additional information:
Lavf54.34.100

Not sure on the AVI but kept searching and found http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=18827

  What OS are you using?

  Vista 64 bit has codec issues, so if it is indeed a Vista 64 bit you need to export as a series of images (which is best anyway) and compile it in after effects.

I'm on Windows 7 so don't know why it was an issue to begin with but did the Export as Images instead. Then did a simple Import (Ctrl+I) which detected the jpeg sequence and that worked perfectly. Smaller file size then the AVI SketchUp exported too.


3d max change the opacity of an object's edges rendered in After Effects. I want to change the opacity of the edge of an object so that when I render it and import to After Effects, it would match with the background video and feather at the edge of objects.

Cant place images yet.

When you render in 3D Max make sure pre-multiplying is turned off.

Given the situation you want to render an object to be used for post-production within Photoshop, then…

Be sure you set the background to complete black: Rendering > Environment > Background > Colour (click on the colour field and set
red, green and blue to 0)
Set the antialising in your render settings to Blackman - this type of antialising is quite sharp and doesn’t blur the edges. In
V-Ray this is located in Renderer > Image sampler > Antialiasing
Filter.
Set the file type in the common rendering dialog to tga, 32-bit, premultiplied and alpha split off, compress on.
In Photoshop, load the TGA image, double click the layer to convert it from a background layer into a normal layer.
Go to channels, CTRL-select the alpha channel, invert the selection, go back to layers and hit the delete button.

[...]

If you already have rendered your image and your alpha is accidentally
pre-multiplied, you can add a 6th step to the 5 I mentioned above. In
Photoshop go to Layer > Matting > Remove Black Matte. Voilà, you got
rid of the black ‘halo’ again.

Full article:
http://www.onoff.ch/2007/01/04/premultiplied-alpha-problems/


Swapping videos on YouTube I have some videos on YouTube with a series of views that I do not want to miss but that are not in the quality I want. I am improving some videos with the intention of changing some already existing in the site.

The question is: Can I change these videos without losing my views?

No, you can't. You can use the built-in features of the platform such as adding cards or applying 'Enhancements' (Youtube's terminology, not mine), but there's no way to replace the video itself. From the official documentation:

  You can’t replace a video because any new video you upload to YouTube
  will get a new URL. Instead, you can make changes to an existing
  video:

  Enhance your video: You can make some editorial changes to the video using YouTube Video Enhancements. You can trim parts of your
  video, auto-fix lighting and color, blur parts of the video, apply a
  filter, and more.
  Add cards to your video: You can use cards to change elements of your videos. You can point viewers to a specific URL (from a list of
  eligible sites) and show customized images, titles, and calls to
  action, depending on the card type.
  Change your video's title and description: You can organize and make changes to your video's title, category, description, and privacy
  settings.

If video replacement is a feature you deem necessary for whatever content you are producing, you might consider switching to a hosting platform that allows you to do this. For example, replacing the original video file while keeping views, comments et c. intact is possible on Vimeo (documentation, as of August 2017).


Transfer project from one application to another As a beginner, I would like to know how important it is which software I decide to start out with. (Currently eyeing Adobe Premiere Elements and Sony Movie Studio 13).

I realize that whichever one I'll use, if I decide to switch application, I'll need to learn the other's interface and terminology. However, I was wondering about something else - Can I transfer a project from one to the other. Say I want to make a change to a video I created in one application, and obviously I don't want to input the created video (both because I lose resolution, and because I want each sound track separate etc.) - is it possible to transfer the video to other video editors, or will this project be "stuck" to this editor?

There are ways to transfer projects between different video editing programs, but they are very limited. Take a look at my answer here; this question is about transfering projects between different versions of Premiere Pro, but the answer is basically the same. You can export a project as an Edit Decision List (EDL), however this will only contain the arrangement of the clips in the timeline (namely your edit decisions, hence the name), any effects, e.g. color-grading, will be lost. Another format that does basically the same is AAF. I'm not sure about the differences between both formats, but either way, most of your post-production efforts will be lost when transfering the project to a different program.

Also, this applies to prosumer-/production-level software. I'm not sure whether "low-end" software supports importing and exporting EDL-files. If I remember correctly, it's not possible with Premiere Elements; don't know about the Sony programs (you should be able to find that out over the developer's websites and/or Google).


How do I export video to crop size in Final Cut Pro X? I started a project with 4K format and resolution 3840x2160. Later, I cropped the clips to a smaller size. Aspect ratio is still 16:9, just the resolution is smaller than the original clip.
Now when I send it to the compressor for export, it shows the original 4K size. How do I export it to the actual crop size?
Sorry if it is a silly question, but I started using FCPX this morning.

It is best if your timeline uses the resolution you want your export in.
Select the Project in your Library and click on "Modify" in the Inspector. Now you can change the resolution for the entire Project.
This will not change the crop of your clips though.


Resize, crop, and trim videos How do I crop and resize about 6000 mp4-movies? They are all 1280 x 800. I need to crop the bottom 100 px and remove the first 4 seconds of each movie. Can this be done with ffmpeg?

You need to re-encode all vids to crop the bottom 100 px - you have to decide which codecs you want to use.... and think about the filters - this depends on the sourcefile.... The ffmpeg code is:

ffmpeg -i INPUTFILE -ss 00:00:04 -map v -vf "crop=out_h=in_h-100:y=0" -c:v libx264 -c:a copy OUTPUTFILE

The best would be to iterate the INPUTFILEs by a for-loop. put the new files in a new directory and you won't have any problems with the names.


What kind of laptop should I be using: Alienware or Macbook Pro? I'm planning to buy a new laptop since my current PC(Lenovo U430) is kind of slow when it comes to gaming and video editing. My current budget is $1,000 to $1,500, after researching, I chose these brands: Alienware 13 inch(latest model) and Macbook Pro 13 inch(with retina display) only.Question: Which brand or model should I be buying that is compatible and worth it for a little gaming and video editing(no lagging while editing or checking the video preview in After Effects or Premiere Pro) with my current budget?

Here's the link to Alienware 13 inch list of models:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/alienware-13-laptop?~ck=mn

Here's the link to Macbook Pro 13 inch list of models:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=macbook+pro+retina+display+13&_dyncharset=UTF-8&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=&sp=&qp=&list=n&af=true&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&keys=keys

Comment your answer with the link or the brand and specs of the model.

Thank you very much !

If you plan on using Premiere, Adobe recommends 16GB of RAM and a minimum of 8GB. They minimum RAM for After Effects is less, but there are some other equally important things to consider. I'd also recommend spending as much as you can on as much SSD storage as you can afford.

Check the specs of the software you want to use for editing - particularly the minimum RAM and the kind of Graphics processor (GPU). If you want to use DaVinci Resolve for editing (it is FREE) and color correcting - you'll want all the RAM you can get.

If you are comfortable with the hardware, I'd recommend a Dell or HP laptop as you will likely find more affordable options for RAM, GPU and SSD than what Apple offers. I don't know much about gaming, but I understand Windows solutions are what the kids dig. FWIW I am plugging along on an 11" mid-2012 i7 AirBook and it does alright with an external monitor out the Thunderport. I edit with Resolve, iMovie, & LightWorks and move pixels about with ffmpeg. Nothing fancy or long-form, but I'd much prefer a 15" screen.


Russel Peters Intro video I am sorry if this is not the correct place to ask the question.

I am very much interested in making a video similar to youtube link below

Its of Russel Peters intro video, I wanted to know what are such videos called and are there any softwares that can used to make such video.
I am planning to use it in a video to introduce characters in a movie(home video).
The basic idea is to film the characters separately each with different custom and edit it then merge all the characters to look something similar to the video, can any tell me how to go ahead with such a video?
What are such videos called and if there are any softwares to do it.

There is no specific title for this kind of video.

You can achieve what you want with any video editor that supports layers and masks. Adobe After Effects would be on solution.


How to center a clip on Premiere How can I center my clip on a sequence of Premiere?
Please see the attached screenshot, there's no buttons on "essentials graphics" panel.

To centre the video clip:
Select the clip in your timeline
Click on the Effect Controls tab in the left panel
Open the Motion section by clicking on the triangle, and adjust the position of the clip.
To make it central relative to your sequence, it will need to be half the values of the sequence.
So if your sequence settings are 1920x1080, you would need to choose a position of 960x540
To align the image on top, you can use the same method.


How to do a "deep" / full copy of a nested sequence in Premiere Pro CS6? (i.e. constituent components are all copied) I created a title sequence: title, with glow/fade in then fade out and made this into a nested sequence. I wanted to reuse this nested sequence in other parts of my project, but use different text content for the title in each of the other instances.

So, I copied the nested sequence several times. But when I changed the title to different text, this affected all of the nested sequence copies. So it seems that the copy creates a new 'container' but references the same components (e.g. title) as the original.

So I'm looking for a way to entirely copy a nested sequence and make duplicates of all the consituent components. Is there a way?

By the way, there seem to be three different ways to make a copy: from the contextual pop-up menu for a sequence there is 'Copy', 'Duplicate' and another method (name escapes me at the moment). I've tried all three and none of them solve my problem. I'm hoping that there is a check box somewhere that I can tick/enable to say 'copy all components'.

I also have an idea, if your sequence and titles are too complicated you can save a copy of your project and then import a sequence from it to the main project.

It's best possible solution to copy title I've found with motion titles templates.


PC instead of external recorder I have a camera which outputs uncompressed HDMI. I understand that I can buy an external recorder (e.g., Atomos) to record the video, but is it possible to use an ordinary laptop (or desktop) computer instead?

Blackmagic Design's Decklink cards are a starting place for desktop computers: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklink

For laptops there's both Intensity: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensity

And UltraStudio: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudiousb3

Other companies also make such products (and even Blackmagic Design offer yet more options), but the above provides a range of answers to your question.


Blacking out specific pixels in MP4 without re-encoding Basically is it possible to set the value of specific areas of pixels to black without re-encoding an MP4 video completely in an editor or application (Premiere, Ffmpeg, etc).

I'm wondering if such a capability exist to work directly on the compressed data as opposed to having to decode and re-encode.

No, it is not possible.  Mpeg-4 compression is based around storing information about patterns found within the video.  It doesn't deal with particular pixels.  Blacking out certain pixels alters the pattern and thus alters the way the video would compressed, potentially significantly.


What is Frame Doubling in Action Cameras? Many action cameras claim to record 4K UHD but only meet the spatial characteristics, i.e., 3840 x 2160, but not the temporal characteristics, i.e., minimum 23.976fps.  Instead they record at 12fps (or 15fps) and playback at 1x speed but 24fps (or 30fps).  My understanding is that this is accomplished by playing each frame twice and these added frames are not interpolated but rather are exact copies.  In action cam forums this is called frame doubling.  I have two questions.
1. Is it in fact correct that the added frames are duplicates, not interpolated?
2. If yes, is frame doubling the correct technical term?

EDIT:  I should clarify that when I view these videos frame-by-frame it appears the frames are duplicates.  However, I'm viewing 4K video on a 1080p monitor so I'm not sure if I'm missing something.

The term "frame doubling" is occasionally used to describe the result of animators who "shoot on twos".  Namely, when an animator draws only every other image for a given frame rate, the image is displayed twice before the next image is displayed.  That "frame doubling" is an observable property of the animation, but it is not the key idea.

The key idea is that frame rates can be subdivided (shot on ones, twos, threes, or even fours) and the look and effect of each can be appropriate for a given instant.  Generally, lead animators generate key frames and junior animators (or computers) generate the in-between frames.  Shooting on ones requires generating twice as many in-between images as shooting on twos.  But it also creates a smoothness that may or may not better serve the aesthetic of the animation.  Nick Park's classic Wallace and Grommit animations look "right" because of frame doubling.  Pixar's Toy Story films look "right" because they shoot on the ones (and integrate motion blur on every frame to look as if shot on a cinema camera).

I would argue that a camera that shoots at 1/15th of a second and then doubles those frames for a 30fps playback will create a highly stylized look that combines (in a "wrong" way) the motion blur one would expect from shooting on the ones with the pacing of shooting on the twos.  As Blues music teaches, the wrong note at the right time could be the right note.  But generally, animation shot on twos rarely integrates motion blur as such would be "too obvious".  So if going for a frame doubling effect, one should use a small shutter angle, like 30 or 45 degrees, not 180 or 360, when shooting 15 fps.


Unable to make HD videos in Premiere Pro I'm not sure where else to go. I'm completely clueless about technology and video editing, so bear with me.

I've been making videos of games I play using avi clips recorded by Fraps. I was using WMM, exporting to HD 1440x1080. Quality obviously wasn't great, it sapped the color and sharpness.

I got a trial version of Premiere Pro to make actual HD videos. The online tutorials were a bit complicated so I followed instructions from someone who makes HD videos using Fraps avi clips from the same game with no quality loss. Despite this, my exported videos ended up the same quality I got from WMM.

I'm clearly doing something wrong but I have no idea what it is. The person I spoke to wasn't adept at video editing either but they got it to work in a few steps. I let the program pick the best sequence for the file and tried multiple settings when exporting based off tutorials. The best quality I got came from exporting it as an MP4.

This is a comparison of the original AVI file to exported MP4. You can see the exported one is flatter and duller:

A few things to check -

Is your export file set to Maximum Render Quality (enable before you export)? This may help if the MP4 compression is to blame for reducing the contrast of your video. Are you recording uncompressed AVI with fraps?

When you export, do you have any Effects turned on in the export settings - particularly the Limiter? This should be off.

Lastly, your installation of Premiere should include the GoPro Cineform codecs. These are as close to visually lossless as you will get with a compressive codec, and while they are NOT the best route for an eventual YouTube upload (and YouTube will remind you of that if you try it), it would be a good baseline to determine what the issue actually is.


Why does digital cinema focus on prime lenses? Why do digital cinema cameras, e.g., BlackMagic, Canon C series, etc. focus on using prime lenses over zoom lenses? Bear in mind that by "zoom lenses" I am referring to lenses with variable focal lengths, not telephoto lenses.

A range of prime lenses that cover the most common range of focal lengths would cost you tens of thousands of dollars at least (for good ones anyway), meanwhile, a single zoom lens that covers the same range of focal lengths would cost under $1,000.

So, why are prime lenses so prevalent in digital cinema?

You seem to have a serious misunderstanding of cinema lenses.  Primes are almost always cheaper to cover the same range than zoom lenses.  Comparing prime lenses that cost thousands of dollars a piece to a $1000 zoom lens is not a valid comparison.

I have a $2400 Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II.  It is the single best zoom lens Canon has ever made for under $50,000, yet it is only comparable in sharpness to the $300 - $400 f/1.4 lenses and barely exceeds the sharpness of the $100 f/1.8 primes.

Additionally, sharpness is only one factor to consider, you also have speed.  Long exposures aren't an option with video, so if you want good low light performance, you need a fast lens.  Prime lenses are much, much faster than zooms and thus provide much better low light performance while keeping shutter speeds quick enough to avoid too much motion blur.

Finally, even high end photography lenses are not parafocal, meaning that as you change the focal length, the focus shifts as well, making them undesirable for any kind of push or pull shot (though you can work around it by following focus carefully.)

The cinema lenses help with this problem (though they don't solve it entirely), however, the Canon prime lenses are $20,000 a piece while the zoom lenses are $55,000 a piece the last time I looked at their pricing.

So in short, primes are the cheaper and higher quality option on a budget.  You only really want zoom lenses when you need the flexibility on the fly or need to execute a pull or push shot.  Given the difficultly of pulling off a good pull or push with photography lenses, it isn't that common to bother with them unless the camera is also used for photography.


Crop the center region I want to crop the center region of a video while exporting it for YouTube upload. It is 360 x 360 pixels. I don't know what is the best format for this task and when I try MPEG2 and set the frame width and height to 360 the output is blurry. What should I do instead? I'm using Adobe Premiere 4.2.1.

Crop the video in a new sequence in Premiere and then export it using Youtube's standard encoding settings.


Ghost position keyframes in After Effects I have an animation in After Effects where I am animating a slider to move up and down at certain points. The slider should be mainly stationary, but moves occasionally in line with other actions on the project.

What I am finding though, is the slider is moving a small amount even when the keyframes are set such that it should be static. E.g. the following two keyframes are the same (Y position = 524.6) but if I move the marker in between, you'll see the value deviates from this. (As a result the slider moves.)

1st Keyframe (Y Position = 524.6):

2nd Keyframe (Y Position = 524.6):

In between (Y position varies, up to 525.4):

This is driving me nuts! As far as I can see the anchor point does not move, so I don't understand why this should happen.

It's because of spatial interpolation.  Here's a previous answer:

Object moving to a position I didn't specify


Square edges after rotating video in DaVinci Resolve? I rotated one of my clips in Resolve to square up some of the lines (compositionally), then zoomed in so that the top and bottom edges were cropped to straight by the dimensions of the timeline viewer.

However, when I try to crop left and right to square up the sides, the rotated/slanted edge is preserved by the crop. How can I crop the edges square?

The intended picture ratio of the film is 1.33, which is why I'm not zooming to the full frame of the timeline. I suppose if there was a way to adjust the dimensions of the timeline to a 1.33 ratio, that would also be a solution.

You can crop the timeline, click on it in the media bin and choose Zi eline settings or something in tht way.


Plugin for generating the entire audio waveform seekbar? Is there any plugin or extension for After Effects for generating the entire audio waveform seekbar? I've heard about the audio spectrum visualizer plugins for After Effects, but I haven't heard anything about the waveform seekbar generators. Perhaps this feature is already in After Effects, since I'm not very experienced in working with it. I'm interested in waveform seekbar similar to the soundcloud player or nulloy music player. Otherwise, this may be a simple waveform seekbar: black and white, solid. Plugins can be paid or free, although free is of course better.

I think if I was going to do this quickly as a one-off, I'd cheat.  I'd open the audio file in an audio editor, like Audition or Audacity, grab a screenshot, then modify that screenshot in Photoshop & AE until I got the look I wanted in After Effects.  If you need a scrolling line through it as it plays, just position a line at the beginning of the waveform, then add some linear position keyframes to move it through the waveform at the right rate.
It's an ugly hack but for a one-off, it's probably the quickest solution.


Using cell phone camera to record and play back in theaters? I know this might sound absurd but can i use use a cell phone camera NEXUS 4 & iphone 4s to be specific, to record 1080p HD videos and will those videos be good enough to play in a theater environment. This is what i have for shooting, is it possible. If yes do i need to make any tweaks with apps, processing, editing. Need your guidance.

Thanks a ton, i am completely new to this but want to do this all by my self.

Appreciate your answers and help !!!

1080p is sufficient in terms of resolution, though 2k or better yet 4k is prefered these days, though resolution isn't the only measure of quality. The quality of the color and dynamic range of the camera and the use of a global shutter (or lack there of) can make a big difference on how good the footage looks in a theater environment, depending on what the footage is like. Footage from a cellphone is not going to have the quality of color or the shutter to hold up well in a theater. You'd really want to spend a minimum of probably $1500 or so and preferably at least $4,000 or so on a minimal setup for high quality video.

As far as editing software, After Effects is not an editing package. You would want to use a NLE (non-linear editor) like Premiere to edit the footage. After Effects is useful for things like titling, color grading, stabilization and effects work. Sufficient quality H.264 is ideal. Probably a high data rate All I frame would be ideal, though the exact best option would depend on the playback gear available at the theater.

As far as how to play it at the theater. The majority of theaters are rapidly going digital. It is easier to manage digital cinema since there are only large files to deal with that can be delivered electronically and don't wear out. Also, the editing is generally done digitally anyway, so there isn't quality loss that would be necessary to move back to film.

320kbps is low for editing sound, but fine in terms of final output. Ideally you would want to record 96khz, 24bit PCM audio for each channel and then do your edits on that and only compress it for the final output.

The bigger deal is that technique and skill make a far bigger difference when blowing it up a lot. A little bit of vibration that isn't that bad on a TV screen quickly becomes physically nauseating when blown up to an entire wall. You need to use good tripods and dollies and such when shooting for the theater. It would likely be possible for a really skilled individual to make something passable with a cellphone camera if the rough quality made sense for the piece, but without proper shooting technique and stabilization (physical, not added in post production) the footage would make people ill to watch in a theater.


Reducing the frame rate : the smooth video Issue This is my smooth video.

Video details:

Frame rate=60 FPS
Video codec: h264
Not have any audio stream

I want to convert it to a PAL video, But I can't get smooth video.

How to convert a high frame rate video to PAL format(or reducing the frame rate) Without impact on the smoothness of video?

In order of preference,

Generate animation at 25 FPS and capture it at 25 FPS.
Generate animation at 50 FPS and capture it at 50 FPS. Then, use FFmpeg to generate a 25 frames & 50 fields per sec stream. Stream should be flagged as interlaced. x264 doesn't do interlaced well, so I suggest video codec ought to be MPEG-2 or DV.
Generate animation at 50 FPS and capture it at 25 FPS.


Slow Video Render? incl. New & Old PC Specs So I've been recording gameplay & posting it on YouTube for a few years now. Primarily using Sony Vegas as it always seemed to be the community standard. Never really had an issue.

Since I built my new PC about a year ago, which on all accounts is superior to my previous PC my video render time seems to have slowed down quite substantially. Granted, I am now rendering in 1080p. BUT - Would that actually make much of a difference, opposed to 720p? I can't confirm or deny whether I've tried rendering in 720p with the new machine as I honestly can't remember. However, I did render a 1080p video on my old PC and it didn't take anywhere near an hour! I've only rendered about 10/15 videos on my new PC over the past year, trying to get back into it.

For example:
- a 20 minute video used to take about 15-20 minutes to render on my old PC in 720p.
- A 20 minute video will take almost an hour to render on my new(ish) PC in 1080p

Could this be due to new hardware not being.... As good? In certain areas? Or should I be experiencing a faster video render?

OLD PC:

Windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit
Asus P6TSE
Intel i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
6GB Corsair Dominator @ 1600MHz
Nvidia GTX 260 896Mb
1250w Cooler Master Real Power Pro
Western Digital 1TB HDD

NEW PC:

Windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit
Asus Rampage IV Extreme Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard
Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor
Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Quad Channel Kit (PVI332G186C0QK)
Asus GeForce GTX 770 DirectCU OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Corsair Professional Series AX1200 High Performance 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-1200AXUK)
Kingston 240GB SSDNow V+200 Drive SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SVP200S37A/240G)
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) HDD

Any help is very much appreciated!!

Thanks!!

Rendering in 1080p takes up more resources than 720p, so it is normal that your render is slower than usual, even though your new hardware is superior. 1280x720 = 921600 pixels per frame, 1920x1080 = 2073600 pixels per frame. The software has to render 2.25x the amount of pixels per frame, so you can expect it to take about twice as long.

the 770 GTX has 1536 CUDA Cores, the 260 GTX has 192, so your new graphics card is far superior for video rendering. In theory it should be a lot faster for video rendering.

Depending on your version of Sony Vegas, you can enable CUDA for your Nvidia graphics card, this should increase the speed. Go to Options >> Preferences... and go to the video tab. In version 12.0 there's a dropdown menu labeled "GPU acceleration of video processing". Set the value of the dropdown value from "Off" to your Graphics Card ("NVIDIA Corporation (GeForce GTX 770)")

If you're not using 12.0, it comes down to selecting the right render settings in the Render As... menu. Since you're uploading to YouTube, I recommend rendering as Sony AVC (.m2ts) and selecting the template 'Internet 1920x1080-30p'. The ratio rendering time to video length should be about 1:1. Still, Sony Vegas 12 had a lot of updates regarding GPU acceleration and rendering in general, so consider upgrading.


capture RTSP stream from IP camera ffmpeg I used the following command to get the frames from RTSP h264 codec. I could not able to get the frames from the ip camera.

$ ffmpeg -i rtsp://xxxx:yyy@192.168.1.yy:xx/tcp/av0_0 -f image2 -vf fps=fps=1/120 img%03d.jpg

My output

ffmpeg version 3.1.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers built with gcc 4.8 (Ubuntu 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1)

  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab --disable-yasm

  libavutil      55. 28.100 / 55. 28.100

  libavcodec     57. 48.101 / 57. 48.101

  libavformat    57. 41.100 / 57. 41.100

  libavdevice    57.  0.101 / 57.  0.101

  libavfilter     6. 47.100 /  6. 47.100

  libswscale      4.  1.100 /  4.  1.100

  libswresample   2.  1.100 /  2.  1.100

  libpostproc    54.  0.100 / 54.  0.100

[rtsp @ 0x2dba3a0] CSeq 6 expected, 0 received.
    Last message repeated 5 times

[rtsp @ 0x2dba3a0] Could not find codec parameters for stream 0 (Video: h264, none): unspecified size

Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options

Guessed Channel Layout for Input Stream #0.1 : mono
Input #0, rtsp, from
'rtsp://xx:yy@192.168.1.xx:yy/tcp/av0_0':

  Metadata:

    title           : streamed by the RTSP server

  Duration: N/A, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 64 kb/s

    Stream #0:0: Video: h264, none, 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc

    Stream #0:1: Audio: pcm_alaw, 8000 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 64 kb/s

Output #0, image2, to 'img%03d.jpg':

Output file #0 does not contain any stream

Exiting normally, received signal 2.

I got it working with the following command, finally. I missed out using rtsp_transport.

ffmpeg -rtsp_transport tcp -i rtsp://xx:yy@192.168.1.ee:fd/tcp/av0_0 -f image2 -vf fps=fps=1 hello/img%03d.png


ffmpeg Auto Level, Auto Color etc similar to YouTubes Auto-Fix I used to use YouTube Auto-Fix which presumably auto fixed levels, color, contrast and added a bit of vibrance (it was almost always a bit high saturated which i kinda liked).

I am looking for an alternate in ffmpeg. I tried using -vf pp=al but it only lightens the video.

Any ideas?

P.S. I can do this in Premiere/AfterEffects but am looking for a ffmpeg solution.

According to this page is not that simple...
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/colorspace


What are some versatile, standalone lenses under $600? I'm beginning to put together a personal gear kit. I know enough to make decisions about most of my gear, but my knowledge of lenses is pretty lacking. I'm looking to spend under $600 total (including any adapters). The camera I'm purchasing uses the Micro 4/3 standard.

Originally I was looking at the Tamron 14-150mm f/3.5-5.8 Di III Lens because it seems to be a quality lens that can be used in a wide variety of situations, but I'm starting to reconsider because I've been seeing people say that getting an adapter to Canon EF is a better decision because a full frame lens will give you more light and narrower depth of field.

I'll be using this lens for a lot of cinematography, but I'll also be doing quite a bit of real estate and wedding videos. I intend to purchase more lenses eventually, but for now I need a single, versatile lens, preferably small and lightweight, even if it isn't perfect. Optical image stabilization and autofocus would be nice. I'm not looking for specific lens recommendations necessarily, just general information that can help me make a decision.

If you are starting from scratch with a m43 camera, then buying EF lenses kinda defeats the whole purpose of that format.

First things first: the m43 is approximately 1/2 the image diagonal of a full-frame 35mm camera, which means lenses need to cover only 1/4 the area, and that means you can use 1/8th the glass to get the same job done.  That translates to much smaller, lighter, and less expensive lenses, which is the main idea of the format.

When it comes to depth of field, the variables that go into that equation are focal length, focal distance, aperture, and circle of confusion (which is related to image size and magnification).  Boiling it all down, a "standard" 50mm EF lens shooting a subject 10 feet away at f2.8 on a 35mm camera is going to give similar field of view and depth of field as a 25mm m43 lens shooting the same subject 10 feet away at f1.4 on an m43 camera.

If you then place the 50mm EF lens on your m43 camera, it behaves like a telephoto lens.  It doesn't give you a shallower depth of field than a 50mm m43 lens on an m43 camera--that stays 100% the same.  The reason you get shallower depth of field on a 35mm camera is not due to the lens alone, but the variety of parameters (lens, distance, aperture, circle of confusion).  Putting an EF lens on your m43 camera will make it heavier, unbalanced, more expensive, and will do nothing at all to change the depth of field compared to the same focal length m43 lens.

As for your desire to "do it all" for $600, architecture really requires wide-angle lenses.  Really wide.  Wider than you can afford for $600.  But you can do something with a 12mm lens--much more than with a 14mm (or longer).  For weddings, you'll want medium wide to medium telephoto.  If you are trying to stand really far away and pick up candids with a long telephoto, you are doing it wrong.

A great lens that does both 12mm and the wedding range is the Olympus 12-40 f2.8: https://www.42ndphoto.com/Product/olympus-12-40mm-f2-8-m-zuiko-ed-pro-lens-62mm-/110022

It's a little more than $600, but an incredible bargain for what it does.

As for the range beyond 40mm (which is the equivalent of approx 85mm in 35mm full frame territory), a great shallow depth of field telephoto option (which again is more than $600) is the 75mm f1.8 lens: https://www.42ndphoto.com/Product/olympus-75mm-m-zuiko-f1-8-lens/110025

An f4.0 zoom lens on a m43 camera has the depth of field of an f8 lens on 35mm cameras--pretty deep.  An f2.8 lens, especially toward the longer end (40mm) will give you some separation between subject and background if you are careful.

Me?  I have the f2.0 zooms (14-35 and 35-100), which cost $2,000 +/-:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/546539-REG/Olympus_261011_14_35mm_f_2_0_ED_SWD.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/404517-REG/Olympus_261012_35_100mm_f_2_0_ED_Zuiko.html

That's the cost of shallow DOF and really high performance on m43.  There are f2.0 zoom lenses that almost cover the 35mm format, but they weigh about 15 lbs and they cost almost $100,000:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/840523-REG/Fujinon_hk4_7x18_f_18_85mm_T2_0_Premier_PL.html

Which is why you see very few f2.0 zooms for 35mm.  Any why an f2.0 zoom on m43 is hand-holdable and much more affordable.

Bottom line: if you are going for m43 for cost and weight, don't blow it by buying EF lenses.  If you already have $20,000 worth of EF glass, then maybe it makes sense to spend $600 on a speed booster so that you can repurpose some of that glass for your new camera.  But it's no reason to go out and get some new.


FCPX Caption Editor shows black text on black background I successfully imported an iTT caption file, and the captions show up fine as white on a black background. The problem is that when I try to edit it in the caption editor, the text is black-on-black, i.e. not visible.

When I drag to select text, the selected text is white-on-purple, so the text is definitely there, just black-on-black.

Obviously this makes it difficult-to-impossible to edit my captions, which need editing. The same problem happens in the Inspector.
All the images I see on line, like this one from Larry Jordan, show white text on a black background.

(source: larryjordan.com)
Any help appreciated!
EDIT: resetting the preferences didn't solve the problem.

This seems to have been caused by a problem in the incoming iTT file. I was able to solve it by creating a new SRT caption role, selecting all the captions, moving them to the SRT role,  and then moving them back. Alternately, it looks like you can change the caption color  to something other than white, and then change it back to white. More at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250624181?answerId=251201017022&page=1.


Premiere Pro: Simple fade for text? In most video editing softwares I have used, you can

- Click Text Object
- Click Button: Fade In/Fade Out
- Done.

But in Premiere pro, I have to

- Click Text Object
- Open Effects Tab
- Keyframe Transparency 0%
- Keyframe it again 100%
- Keyframe it again 100%
- Keyframe it one last time 0%
- Right Click Keyframe and Set Ease In/Out
- Right Click Keyframe and Set Ease In/Out
- Right Click Keyframe and Set Ease In/Out
- Right Click Keyframe and Set Ease In/Out
- Make sure I dont change duration of the text, or else I can repeat
  whole process again.

Is there no easy way to do this in premiere pro CC?

I know its supposed to be very flexible and fit everyones needs, but I really just want a simple fade effect for the text.

Yes you can set a default transition that uses the ctrl-d key combo. I believe it's set by default to crossfade, which I use. You click your clip, control-d and it'll put the fade in and out on the item.

You can change the default transition in the preferences.

It really is simple.

For bonus points, Control-shift-d works for audio.


How to avoid audio border magnetics on Final Cut Pro X? This might be an easy question, but I'm not able to find the answer.
Sometimes the audio clip is slightly small than the video clip. I need to move the audio just a little bit (like less than 1 second), however final cut moves it to the opposite border straight away.

It looks like Snapping is turn on. Toggle it with N or use the snapping icon (next to clip view options and transitions etc).


What deinterlacing filter should I use to encode/compress a PAL MPEG-2 576i 25fps raw file? I have a PAL MPEG-2 576i 25fps raw capture (presumably either straight from satellite or a DVD recorder) that I would like to encode to AVC.  I'd like to deinterlace the file during compression with either ffmpeg or some other tool (maybe a frontend like Handbrake?).

What deinterlacing filter should I use with PAL 576i raw footage?

I don't agree that the other answer is a good idea in general, because "-vf yadif" will drop half the frames, thus resulting in a poor substitute of the original footage. Here is the thing: 576i25 means that you have 50 interlaced fields per second, rendering motion of objects fluid and natural to the human eye. You can get a high speed video at 50 frames per second easily by means of this:

ffmpeg -i in.mpg -vf yadif=1 out.mp4

Please note the difference, i.e. yadif=1 is specified. If you don't give a value, the yadif filter defaults to yadif=0 which cuts the frame rate of TV footage in 2.

Some people think that, because 25 fps is close to the theatrical movie speed (24p), the resulting video should look better, right?. Big mistake. The director of any project for TV had in mind that the target medium was TV and acted accordingly, using different techniques and taking a different artistic approach, allowing for instance a lot of fast movement, pan and zoom, or a hand-held camera to give a more subjective point of view. Also, a higher shutter speed is usual in TV without producing the nasty stroboscopic look because the frame rate is high. But later, when that footage gets converted to half frame rate the result is not "cinema look" but simply bad TV footage with stroboscopic movement.


Interactive YouTube video navigation I want to create a youtube video based on the technique used in this video: Interactive Trailer. How can I make annotation(spotlight) on youtube that will link to a video and start at various times.  (Like the buttons on the bottom of the video.)

Example:

If I click the spotlight 5 sec, then step the slider to 15 sec.

If I click the spotlight 6 sec, then step the slider to 16 sec.

You'll need to make a separate spotlight for each different link.  So one spotlight goes from 5 seconds to 6 seconds, and another spotlight goes from 6 seconds to 7 seconds.  Each of them starts your linked video at a different point (15 seconds, 16 seconds, or whatever).

It's easy to set the starting time within an annotation link.  When you create the annotation, and add the link URL, it will ask you about the starting point.  (The default is 0.00, the beginning of the video.) You just set it there before you publish your annotations.

Note that annotations don't yet work on mobile devices (as far as I know).

Here's a useful page that instructs you how to create and use annotations, in case you need some more info.


What is the difference between mkv and mp4 files? I don't know if this is the correct exchange site to ask this question. I would like to know what is the difference between mkv and mp4 files?

Both MKV and MP4 are container file formats. Container formats define how actual audio, video, subtitle and other data are structured. MKV is an open standard format, while MP4 comes from the ISO and is based on the QuickTime file format.


Apply scale and fade effect to Images together I am using below commands to overlay two images with scaling in video :

String command="ffmpeg -i /sdcard/videokit/input.mp4 -loop 1 -i /sdcard/videokit/first.png -loop 1 -i /sdcard/videokit/second.png -filter_complex [1:v]scale='if(gt(a,4/3),320,-1)':'if(gt(a,4/3),-1,240)'[img1];[2:v]scale='if(gt(a,4/3),320,-1)':'if(gt(a,4/3),-1,240)'[img2];[0:v][img1]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2[bkg];[bkg][img2]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2 -c:a copy -preset ultrafast /sdcard/videokit/output.mp4";

String command2="ffmpeg -i /sdcard/videokit/input.mp4 -loop 1 -t 2 -i /sdcard/videokit/first.png -loop 1 -t 2 -i /sdcard/videokit/second.png -filter_complex [1:v]trim=duration=2,fade=in:st=0:d=0.5,fade=out:st=1.5:d=0.5[img1];[2:v]trim=duration=2,fade=in:st=10:d=0.5,fade=out:st=11.5:d=0.5[img2];[0:v][img1]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2[bkg];[bkg][img2]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2 -preset ultrafast -c:a copy -preset ultrafast /sdcard/videokit/output.mp4";

First command works perfectly but I want to apply fade in fade out effect to both images for certain time.

I have tried with command2 after referring other answers but it doesn't seem to be working, any help would be appreciated!!!

Aim to achieve : Basically I have video of 12 seconds, first image has to be appear for first 2 seconds and last image for last 2 seconds with effect.

Try

String command2="ffmpeg -i /sdcard/videokit/input.mp4 -loop 1 -t 2 -i /sdcard/videokit/first.png -loop 1 -t 2 -i /sdcard/videokit/second.png -filter_complex "[0]boxblur=enable='lt(t,2)+gt(t,10)'[vid];[1:v]format=rgba,fade=in:st=0:d=0.5:alpha=1,fade=out:st=1.5:d=0.5:alpha=1[img1];[2:v]format=rgba,fade=in:st=0:d=0.5:alpha=1,fade=out:st=1.5:d=0.5:alpha=1,setpts=PTS+10/TB[img2];[vid][img1]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2[bkg];[bkg][img2]overlay=(main_w-overlay_w)/2:(main_h-overlay_h)/2" -preset ultrafast -c:a copy /sdcard/videokit/output.mp4";


How are/were low-light scenes such as concerts shot on film? I recently watched a video of Led Zeppelin in 1973 and it dawned on me that these were shot on film, and as a film photography hobbyist it dawned on me that the picture quality for handheld film at a low-light concert is pretty good, or at least significantly better than what I could accomplish with my 35mm SLR. How was it done? Was it shot at some insane aperture like f/1.0, did they use special film, or was the stage brighter than what I'm expecting?
Video in question:

Multiple possibilities, many of them you have mentioned. I believe the most likely is that the person who filmed this used a "fast lens", meaning a lens that lets in lots of light. If you want to know more about the process of filming in low-light conditions on film, you can check out documentaries on Barry Lyndon by Kubrick.


How to manage exports when editing lots of videos? I'm editing many videos, >100 with each ~45min. The editing itself is specific to each video and can not be automated. Currently I'm using freeware to do this.

What I'm missing is a way to delegate the export tasks to a batch job running at night or maybe even another machine.

Is there a program or general setup supporting batch rendering/export of multiple projects?

I would suggest you take a look at DaVinci Resolve 14 and see if it can cover what you need.  It depends on what editing you need to do as there aren't much in the way of filters available in the free version of Resolve, but it has a reasonable basic NLE and supports a batch renderer.

Virtually any decent professional software offers batch render support, but many of them have costs associated with them.  Resolve is the best free option I have personally used (though I have the paid studio version.)


Capturing audio from a different source in Premiere? I have my 4 Shure mics connected to my Clarett which is registering as an audio device on my mac.

My video source will be my video camera connected to my computer.

I don't want to take audio from the video camera, as it won't sound professional for my podcast. I want to capture video from my Cannon Video camera, and capture audio from my Clarett.

Also, is iit possible to extract high quality audio from the project? Because I want to upload mp3 files to itunes and spotify for the audio-only version of the podcast. That's a side note that I can figure out.

I just could never figure out how to capture audio, i keep getting the error "lost connection to device."

I would recommend Audacity or OBS to record the sound from the microphone, then put it in the Premiere and synchronize it. OBS is not only for streaming, but you can use it to record a separate soundtrack from a microphone while having a camera connected.  Then in Premiere Pro you mute the soundtrack from the camera and leave the soundtrack from the microphone.


Weird zooming in Premiere Pro preview-window After a hard time getting my Premiere Pro CC to work correctly,
I stumbled upon a new problem.
In the image below, you can see how the frame is about 200% zoomed in the preview window, and normal in the "source"-window. I've checked the magnification level, but it's ok. Resolution is set to "Full".
The preview was a square and zoomed at first, so I created a new sequence, but now it's widescreen and zoomed.
How do I make the preview normal again?

Make sure the resolution in the sequence is the same as the resolution of your clip. Otherwise you'll need to scale the video to fit correctly.


How to mute monitors automatically When on the radio I want the studio monitors to mute automatically when I open the mic (normal radio station stuff) so there is no feedback. I have read that some boards do and some don't but I can never find this info when reading descriptions. How can I achieve this?

You should be able to find monitor muting as a default or configurable setup on most radio consoles. Make sure you looking at sound boards that are specifically marketed as radio consoles. Something like this Wheatstone Audioarts analog console or this Lawo digital console. If not specifically called out in the features, you can also look for consoles that can trigger on air lights, as those contact closures can also be used to mute the monitors with some simple, inexpensive outboard gear. A Mackie or other inexpensive all purpose audio board isn't likely to have either feature.


YT stream key - best practice? Like so many American workplaces, my campus moved this year to a lot of virtual interactions and events. I work in live events management, so I mostly dealt with a lot of Zooms and Blue Jeans, but one department wanted to put some graphics on top of their faces and livestream and OBS feed up to YouTube. For the most part it worked very well but we had one hiccup that I'm wondering whether I addressed it incorrectly.
They sent me a stream key three weeks in advance and began publicizing the URL of their November 11 event, which would happen at 7pm. That day, I plugged the key into OBS and at 6:30, I began sending the feed. An employee in their department misunderstood her instructions and pressed Go live in her YouTube interface at, say, 6:40 (for a 7pm go). At 6:44 she realized her error and pressed End stream.
From YouTube's perspective, we had streamed our four-minute event , and it was over. I couldn't find any way (in the ten minutes I had between 6:50 and 7pm, once I got logged in with their YT credentials) to tell YT I pressed stop accidentally, please let me send content to that URL again
Now, this didn't matter very much in the big scheme, because, as you may have noticed, this was at 7pm EST on November 11. Our link hiccup was overshadowed by YT's massive failure at exactly that moment.
I'm wondering, though, as a relative novice - what's a best practices for live streaming content in this way? Is there a way I could have pushed my content through to the original URL (barring the big collapse)? The system I was part of (here's a stream key, you only have one shot at it) seemed sort of fragile and I wondered whether I'm misunderstanding my role in it.
(And yes, of course, we're doing some of these again this spring, so I'm trying to lay groundwork.)
Thanks in advance for insights / opinions / name-calling.

Is there a way I could have pushed my content through to the original URL (barring the big collapse)?

That's not possible unfortunately, once you stop the live event the content that was ingested is made available for on demand streaming and no more live content can be streamed to YouTube.
If you think about it, it would be difficult to do otherwise, because multiple sequences of the stream would need to be stitched together and that could be confusing for users who watch the recording.
The thing that YouTube tolerates by default is the fact that you might stop and resume ingesting content after you press the Go Live button but before stopping the event. I say "by default" because on Facebook, for example, the default behaviour is actually the opposite: if you accidentally stop streaming in OBS or have a network issue, the stream is stopped automatically and you cannot resume it. (I've seen this happen a number of times, it's a quite common problem.)

The system I was part of (here's a stream key, you only have one shot at it) seemed sort of fragile and I wondered whether I'm misunderstanding my role in it.

The stream key is simply a string that you use to authenticate with YouTube, and YouTube actually allows you to reuse the same key between live streams!
What you should do in your case is simply make sure that the Go Live button is pressed at the right time :)
If it's pressed too early, there's no point in stopping the stream! Going live 20 minutes before the event is perfectly fine and it's actually a very common and recommended practice. While users wait, you can show a placeholder message like "We'll be live at 7 PM". This allows you to check that everything is fine in practice with actual YouTube apps (cough November 11 cough), and also gives users a sense that everything's fine and the event is going to start.


Is in-canera noise reduction useful for video? I've read different opinions online, but they always seem to talk about stills. So, is NR useful for shooting videos? Or does it mess up with the image too much?

I'm shooting on a Panasonic Lumix G7, by the way.

My general rule is to do as little in the camera as possible (exposure, shutter). Leave everything else for post. It's not expected that the camera will have the best available NR or compression etc, and if you do it while recording you can't undo it later.

Of course if you'll never do any post, do what gives you the best result.


Are there any (visible) differences between R1 and R2 DVDs (or blu-rays, thereof)? I was wondering whether there is any visible difference between Region 1 and Region 2 movies. Region 1 is encoded in 23.976 fps standard, right? And Region 2 is 25 fps.

But as I assume the movies are shot in 23.976 only, the R2 releases are just some convert/recode to be compatible with the region.

  Which ultimately leads me to a question: If presented with a movie
  playing from R1 and R2 discs simultaneously, can a trained eye see any
  difference?

I know for a fact an eye can see the difference between 23.976 fps and 25 fps. A lot of low-budget movies/web series are being released lately since the Canon dSLRs can record video and there definitely is a visible difference between the standard 24 film fps and the "fluid, unnatural" 25 fps.

There is no visible difference, unless the DVD/BR publisher labels their discs as such.  Any region code (or even region-free data) can be burned or pressed on to any media.

Furthermore, region encoding (at least on DVDs, and I assume on BRs) has nothing (technically) to do with the video format.  Now, you're likely to find Region-1 DVDs in NTSC format, Region 1 is the U.S. and Canada, and the U.S. and Canada use NTSC, but there's no technical barrier to creating a R1 DVD in PAL format.

See the Wikipedia article on DVD Region codes, and specifically the section on NTSC vs. PAL.