How do I apply an effect to the entire result of multiple stacked clips in FCPX How can apply an effect to the RESULT of multiple composited clips in Final Cut Pro X? Googling all I see is how to apply the same effect to multiple clips but that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to apply a single effect to the result of compositing multiple clips.

For example, one way would be to render my video without effects. Then start a new project, load the rendered video, apply the effect. It seems like I shouldn't have to render the video and start an entire new project to achieve this.

To give a simple example. Start a new project. Make the project 1280x720p, drop in a iPhone portrait mode video (make sure the project stays 1280x720p), apply the colorize event. Since the colorize event only applies to the clip I get this

But I want it to apply to the entire video (the result of all the clips)

Note I am not try to achieve the effect shown above. I just needed to throw together an example showing the issue (effect applies to clip instead of to entire video).

Is there a way to do it short of rendering out the entire video, starting a new project and applying the effects to the rendered video?

I’m not entirely sure what you explain. However I try.
Did you look into the option of an adjustment layer?
http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/945-how-to-build-and-use-adjustment-layers-in-final-cut-pro-x


FFMPEG - Add intro and outro to a video Here is basically what I'm trying to do.

I have three files :
1. image.png
2. music.wav
3. video.mp4

I'm trying to create a new video file (mp4) with :

IMAGE.PNG for the first 5 seconds
VIDEO.MP4 for the duration of the file VIDEO.MP4 (example 60 seconds)
IMAGE.PNG + MUSIC.WAV for the duration of MUSIC.WAV (example 60 seconds)

is it possible in FFMPEG ?

and if yes, is it possible in one "go" meaning without creating several intermediate video files ?

thanks a lot !

It's possible. Use

ffmpeg -loop 1 -i image.png -f lavfi -t 5 -i anullsrc -i video.mp4 -i music.wav \
-filter_complex "[0]trim=duration=5,fps=N[pre];[3]showwaves=WxH:r=N[b]; \
                 [b][0]overlay=shortest=1[post]; \
                 [pre][1:a][2:v][2:a][post][3]concat=n=3:v=1:a=1[v][a]" \
-map [v] -map [a] out.mp4

The image and video have to be of the same dimensions. If not, you should scale one of them, likely the image.

The fps filter should be set to the framerate of the video.

The showwaves is a kludge. Since the looped image stream does not terminate, I generate a video stream using showwaves from the audio, which will be of the same length as the WAV. WxH should be the same as the video, and r the same as the video's framerate.

Then the image is overlaid on top the filter is set to terminate when the waves video ends.

Finally, the concat filter assembles the full video.


How do I use Resolve to permanently extract and save small clips from mov files/ I have hundreds of GBs of movs that I want to get rid of most of the video from each on and then do some editing.
What would be the workflow using Resolve?
Export as?  or Transcode as?
Thanks

You can do it right in QuickTime.

Open the videos in QuickTime
Edit > Trim
Save or Export those shorter clips
Import them into your preferred editor

If you do want to use Resolve:

Import your clips to your Media Pool
Click on the Edit tab, select all of your clips in the media pool, drag them to your timeline.  The order of them doesn't matter, if you just want individual clips, neither does having gaps in your timeline.
Once you have trimmed your clips as desired, go to the Deliver tab
Make sure to select Individual Clips at the top and adjust your settings as desired
Select your entire timeline and then add the job to your render queue
Render


Do they use books when studying Film at an university? A few friends of mine, told me, that they do not have school books at university and most of their work is "hands on".

I'd like to learn this stuff too. However, it's hard to learn the craft, if I don't have access to the learning ressources (classes). If I, for example want to learn about Medicine, I can look up the curriculum online and order the accoarding book from the internet.

Now here is my question:
Are books used to teach film at universities and if so, what books are most common used?

Is there a "bible", a book that has been read by most of the proffessionals, or one that they reference to? What is recommended for reading?

I know, this might differ, from Job to Job, but I'd like to get a broght understanding of all the different crafts involved as well as the pipeline.

This might sound oppinion based at first, but I'm asking about, what is actually used in colleges, universities and by proffessionls. However other book suggestions are welcome in the comments.

Yes, a good program should have books in at least some of the courses.  A lot of stuff is best learned hands on, but the history and why of things is very helpful to have good books as resources.

Unfortunately, the book choices tend to change over time because the pace of change is pretty high and while a lot of the why and older history stuff doesn't change, the practical side of it does, so books can change and be updated fairly frequently.  I was in college back in 2002-2006, so my books are all pretty old now and I don't remember what most of them were anyway.

At a practical level, you don't really reference back to any of the books from college much though.  It's more just background information and teaching you the way to communicate using the medium.  It all just becomes part of your toolkit and you don't really think about it too much after that unless you're dealing with someone without any of that background and having to explain it in your own terms.


Do a sort of HEAC - High Efficiency Audio Codec exists? As HEVC - High Efficiency Video Codec (h265) can be considered a a sort of upgrade of AVC - Advanced Video Codec (h264), is there a similar "upgraded" audio codec compared to AAC - Advanced Audio Codec? Specifically, I'm thinking of a codec that supports 3D audio and higher compression ratios.

Thanks for satisfying my curiosity!

I think HE-AAC fits that bill.

  High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) is an audio coding
  format for lossy data compression of digital audio defined as an
  MPEG-4 Audio profile in ISO/IEC 14496-3. It is an extension of Low
  Complexity AAC (AAC LC) optimized for low-bitrate applications such as
  streaming audio. HE-AAC version 1 profile (HE-AAC v1) uses spectral
  band replication (SBR) to enhance the compression efficiency in the
  frequency domain. HE-AAC version 2 profile (HE-AAC v2) couples SBR
  with Parametric Stereo (PS) to enhance the compression efficiency of
  stereo signals. It is a standardized and improved version of the
  AACplus codec.

As does Opus.

  Opus is a lossy audio coding format developed by the Xiph.Org
  Foundation and standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force,
  designed to efficiently code speech and general audio in a single
  format, while remaining low-latency enough for real-time interactive
  communication and low-complexity enough for low end ARM3
  processors.[3][4] Opus replaces both Vorbis and Speex for new
  applications, and several blind listening tests have ranked it higher
  quality than any other standard audio format at any given bitrate
  until transparency is reached, including MP3, AAC, and HE-AAC.


Blending Mode Options Missing After Effects I'm trying to change my blending mode on After Effects CC 2015, but I have no options on certain layers. Only 2 of my layers have options to change the blending mode. How do I change it so all of my layers have that option?

Thanks,

Natasha

Check your 3D Renderer. Blending and Compositing may not work if your Renderer is Cinema4D or Ray-Traced. Stick with Classic


After Effects - images get corrupted / ruined picture As shown in the picture, the image got corrupted: flipped vertically, and damaged...
Sometimes I get just a black picture, sometimes other image distortions.

I don't know why it happened, but I've found out what causes it -
it's the frame blending interpolation, which was set to pixel-motion.


Filter out calm parts of audio, let through really loud ones I have a project where I have one video and two audio tracks. The first audio is from the line-in microphone, the second one is from the room environment.

I only want the second audio to play when the db level is above -5db (meaning, only when the track gets loud). The point is for the second audio to just provide the laughter (loud part) and ignore its calm parts, which just adds unnecessarily noise.

Is there an effect or a filter for this? (it's like a cutoff limiter at X db, but the opposite, cutting off anything below a determined level of volume)

Thanks!

Found it! From the [Adobe Premiere effects help][1]:

  Dynamics effect The Dynamics effect provides a set of controls that
  can be combined or used independently to adjust audio. Use either the
  graphical controls in the Custom Setup view, or adjust values in the
  Individual Parameters view. This effect is available for 5.1, stereo,
  or mono clips.

  AutoGate

  Cuts off a signal when the level falls below the specified threshold.
  Use this control to remove unwanted background signals in recordings,
  such as a background signal in a voice-over. Set the gate to close
  whenever the speaker stops, thus removing all other sounds. The LED
  display colors indicate the gate’s mode: open (green), attack or
  release (yellow), and closed (red). Use the following controls for
  Gate: Threshold

  Specifies the level (between –60 and 0 dB) that the incoming signal
  must exceed to open the gate. If the signal level falls below this
  level, the gate closes, muting the incoming signal. Attack

  Specifies the time the gate takes to open after the signal level
  exceeds the threshold. Release

  Sets the time (between 50 and 500 milliseconds) the gate takes to
  close after the signal level has fallen below the threshold. Hold

  Specifies the time (between 0.1 and 1000 milliseconds) the gate stays
  open after the level has fallen below the threshold.

  [1]:
  https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/audio-effects-transitions.html


Looking for a name of a flickering problem i'm looking for a name of a certain video problem/artifact. it might be a child of the "rolling shutter" class, but something in my brain says there is a dedicated name for it.

how the create the effect: set up a strobe and film the area around it with a mobilephone. on the screen there will be now the area with rolling black stripes on it (movement of stripes is related to frequency of strobe). it looks the same if you try to film an old CRT with an inappropriate shutter setting.

my question is: how is this problem named?

It is specifically a rolling shutter artifact combined with a wagon wheel effect.  It is simply that the scene is only illuminated for a portion of the frame read.  You can actually observe the same thing in still photography when you take a flash photo above the sync speed of the camera (because the flash is not long enough to cover the full exposure and there is no time the shutter is fully open).

With a rolling shutter, the image is captured sequentially, line by line, rather than all at the same time.  If you had a global shutter, you would instead get a blinking due to some frames being completely unexposed and others being exposed.  With a rolling shutter, you get partially exposed frames instead.

Since this occurs at an offset from the frame rate and the rate of the strobe and the shutter are different, the position of the line will shift slightly over time.  This is known as the wagon wheel effect.  If the rate of the strobe is slightly faster, the lines will move opposite the direction of the sensor reading as the light will go on or off slightly before the camera gets to scanning the line from the previous time around.  If the frame rate is slightly faster, then it will move in the same direction as the scan as the lighting conditions will change on a slightly later read.  If you get them in sync (or sync with a multiple) then it will hold position.

The wagon wheel effect is the exact same effect that can make plane and helicopter propellers appear to change speed and direction while they are spinning up.  It is also the same effect used with a strobe for setting a timing belt on a car properly (by making a line on it stop moving up or down.)


How to fix invisible image cropping in Vegas Pro Can anyone help me out, I don't even know how to search this on google, I just do small editing from time to time...

The red lines where put by me on the screenshot.

The image (is the text) is cropping when it reaches some "virtual line", both on top and bottom, how can I correct that to crop only on the black bars?

I'm using Sony Vegas Pro 15

Thank you all

The easiest way to fix this is to right-click on the pan/crop area and select Match Output Aspect.


Beginning video editing (colouring eyes on a moving face) If I have a video of a face moving around, and I want to change the colour of the eyes in the video for example, how do I do that? I don't need specifics, just point me in the right direction, like which software is designed to do things like this? What is this process called? Do I literally go through frame by frame and make the changes? Is this a task that is mainly done programmatically?

I just want to know where to start learning. I'm very technical but I don't have experience with video editing, and don't know where to start googling even. Thanks!

Technically, what you're looking to accomplish falls into the scope of visual effects (commonly abbreviated VFX), more than editing.  Editing is mostly making decisions about timing cuts between audio and video tracks.  I don't mean to be pedantic, but perhaps this distinction will help your google searches.

Basically, you want to perform two actions:

Track the eyes
Adjust the color of the eyes over time

For the first task, I would recommend researching "motion tracking"
For the second, I would recommend "color correction"

Adobe After Effects (with the bundled Mocha module) and Davinci Resolve are each capable of accomplishing both of these tasks.  I'm sure there's more, but these are the software packages I'm most familiar with.  Nuke, Houdini, Premiere, Shake, FCP7 (FCPX can't keyframe color adjustments), and Apple Motion are all other names that come to mind, but I'm less familiar with them.

edit Bukkojot correctly pointed out in the comments that I forgot to mention matting and masking, which is the process of isolating the effect on the eyes, and making sure that the effect doesn't show through occlusions, such as blinking or foreground objects passing between the camera and subject.


Looping Videos until manually advanced I have 90 individual video files.  I would like each individual file to loop itself, until I manually advance to the next file.

We are conducting an auction of 90 items.  We have a video of each item.  I want the item being sold to continue to be displayed until the auctioneer sells it and begins the next item.

Any suggestions?

This is very easy with most video player software included with your computer.

In Windows 10, your computer comes with "Movies and TV" app, which can easily do this for you. Follow these steps:

Copy all your video files to a single folder
Rename them so they alphabetically sort in the order you want them to play
Highlight all, right click on one of them, select open. From there, the first video will start playing. If a different player is your default player, it will open in that instead. Just change your default player before this step.
To set a video on repeat, click the menu button in the bottom right corner, then click Repeat.
You can advance to the next video when you are ready by clicking the advance arrow that overlays the right side of the video.
When you advance to the next video, you have to set the repeat again or it will auto-advance to the next video.

Other players like WMP, VLC, and iTunes will all do this about the same, but may have different ways that you would have to set it up. For example, WMP and iTunes will only play multiple files in succession if you add them to your Library first, then a playlist.

All three of those are free, so you can fiddle with them and see what you like best.

For a robust professional experience, you need a software that offers "instant replay". My first thought would be vMix, but it's pretty pricey and more geared toward capture, though it has a "replay" function. These kinds of software will show you all the videos you've imported for the instant replay and have all kinds of functions like repeat and advance. They are designed to do exactly what you are looking for, but none of them are free.


Cross dissolve error in Permiere Pro I have a multicam project of 4 cameras. I did the multi-camera record which resulted in a single track sequence with the switching between the cameras. Then I applied the default transition to all cuts, which is the Cross Dissolve.

Although the right transition effect appeared everywhere, and in most cases it shows correctly, in some cases the effect works as if it was a Dip to Black (no, it's not coming from the footage). If I delete the auto-added Cross Dissolve transition and add it again manually, it works as expected. Is this a bug in Premiere?

You didn't mention which version of PPro you are using; but in version CS6 and prior there IS a bug with cross dissolve which is a bit idiosyncratic.

The fix; move all of your video (select all) up one layer.

Then add black video; or a color matte (black) which is the length of your program to the bottom (first) video track.

This in essence resets all the preview files PPro has generated; (which I believe is where the problem is).

If this doesn't work; you could try changing the default transition from cross dissolve to film dissolve... the visual effect is not "identical" but I don't think it would be a deal breaker if my first suggestion doesn't work for you.

Last option; you can pull the clips in; and out; using Trim; and make sure you make sure the dissolve rests on a new different frame on the timeline. + or - 1 frame to the left or right.

But yes; I have seen this; and it's why all our editors now cut starting on layer 2; and the last step of the process; is we lay black under the entire program before output.


Benro and Manfrotto Monopods - QR System I was looking into some monopods to improve my on-the-run potential for some upcoming projects and I'd like to unify all my gear with one QR system so I can switch from a slider to tripod to monopod with relative ease (if needed). I'm interested in these monopods:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/945109-REG/manfrotto_mvm500a_pro_fluid_monopod_with.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=967703&gclid=CJ3B25_XzL8CFQYxaQodWxQA6Q&Q=&is=REG&A=details

Quality and opinions aside, I'm trying to find out the QR system used for both. What I've found is that Benro ONLY sells the QR plate and not the mounting portion, and Manfrotto has a variety of different QR systems. Can you only adapt Benro products by buying compatible Benro heads (S4 in this case), and which Manfrotto QR system is compatible with the monopod I listed?

Thanks!

Have you considered buying an entirely separate set of QR plates to unify your entire setup? For instance, in our setup, we use a tripod, a monopod, and a GlideCam with various attachments for each of these (rail systems, teleprompters, etc.). By adding this (relatively) cheap QR plate to the top of each stabilization method, we can switch our cameras around all systems with ease, and the QR plate can go on any standard 3/8" or 1/4" screw.


ffmpeg: overlay rotated video with transparency I'm new to ffmpeg (video encoding in general).

I have two videos one larger than the other. I want to rotate, resize and overlay the shorter video on the larger one at defined coordinates.

So far, I'm doing this:

Add alpha channel to both the videos: ffmpeg -i demo.mov -vcodec qtrle -pix_fmt argb demo.mov
Define fadein, fadeout, scale, overlay, perspective and rotation then output the video: ffmpeg -y -i demo.mov -i demo2.mov -filter_complex  "[1:v] fade=in:10:1:alpha=1, fade=out:500:1:alpha=1, scale=80:80, perspective=x0=0:y0=0:x1=W:y1=40, rotate=-0.1745:c=none [ov]; [0:v][ov] overlay=100:100 [v]" -map "[v]" out.mov

In this process, I'm facing a few problems:

Am I adding alpha channels the right way?
The final output has flickering background in the place where the rotated video has margins.
The overlay remains a square. I do not want it to be square, but of the dimension specified by perspective filter.

Some of the parameters in the above commands (such as perspective,fade) are arbitrary.

To give a better perspective of what I'm trying to do: trying to add a video as though it was being played on a phone that is moving.

I have asked about problems on IRC and got this far. I don't know how to proceed from here.

Here is the output: https://youtu.be/yd4UWq5NO5M

Any help would be great.

Breaking the process into two steps worked for me.

See my output using the commands below at http://sendvid.com/g56xjz04

The commands I used:

ffmpeg -y -i "video for overlay.mov" -vf "format=bgra, perspective=x0=0:y0=0:x1=W:y1=180, fade=in:10:1:alpha=1, fade=out:200:1:alpha=1, scale=-1:80, rotate=-0.1745:c=none:ow=rotw(-0.1745):oh=roth(-0.1745)" -c:v qtrle overlay.mov

ffmpeg -y -i "base.mov" -i "overlay.mov" -filter_complex "[0:v][1:v] overlay=100:100:eof_action=pass [v]" -map "[v]" final_out.mov

I suspect that in the single command complex filterchain, there is some bug or nuance regarding the alpha channel operations that is generating a garbled alpha channel.

If you need a single command, I think your best way forward is to submit a bug report to the ffmpeg team, including the commands and output of both the single command and two-step process.


wrong subtitle start time when trying to hardcode them into video using ffmpeg I am very new to FFmpeg.
I am trying to cut a portion of a video and hardcode the subtitle of that same portion in the output file.
My command is:

ffmped -ss 01:01:00.0 -i input.mp4 -vf subtitles=input.srt -t 00:02:00.0 output.mp4

I get the output of that portion with a hardcoded subtitile, however the subtitle is from the beginning of the file, not the subtitle starting from 01:01:00.0.

What am I doing wrong?

FFmpeg normalizes timestamps to start from 0 after seeking. So workaround is to copy timestamps and then set output ss to exclude unwanted portion of input.

ffmpeg -ss 01:01:00.0 -copyts -i input.mp4 -vf subtitles=input.srt -ss 01:01:00.0 -t 00:02:00.0 output.mp4


FFMPEG No such File or Directory Problem Help I always get this I dont know why]1

Instead of

-i "video.av"i

use

-i "video.avi"

or simply

-i video.avi


How to speed up playback speed like YouTube using Camtasia? I have video tutorials that I am producing using Camtasia using the following process:

Write Script.
Record a voice over.
Record screen while listening the voice over steps.
merge sound and screen recording.

My recordings are little a bit slow and boring and I would like to speed them up like YouTube speed 1.25X, but whenever I speed them up my voice tone changes badly (get more thinner) unlike YouTube Playback, the voice flows at higher rate and voice tone is normal.

How Can I speed them up without affecting my voice tone?

You don't do this in Camtasia as it doesn't appear that Camtasia supports pitch shifting at this point although there has definitely been some discussion of the topic for quite some time.

There are alternate solutions however, ffmpeg has this capability through the atempo and aserate audio filters, I understand that you can do this with audacity and sox as well. If you have any interest in any of these approaches and would like further detail drop me a comment and I'll do my best to accommodate you.

According to @Mulvya you can also accomplish this with an ffmpeg build compiled to support librubberband You can compile it your self or there are Windows XP compatible builds available here which I've confirmed run under Wine

There's also a stand alone utility that I haven't used that you can obtain from the librubberband link above. It appears that that is limited to adjusting WAV files.

Some sources:

https://superuser.com/questions/292833/how-to-change-audio-frequency

https://superuser.com/questions/1118826/change-tone-pitch-for-file-audio

https://www.ffmpeg.org/documentation.html

https://feedback.techsmith.com/techsmith/topics/speeding_up_the_video_speed_without_effecting_audio_pitch


Flipping Video Animation, How? How can I flip a browser window in the same way as seen in the MS Access video, which should automatically start at the correct time where the flip begins and only lasts about 3 seconds.  From 4:52 - 4:55

I would like to create a video (that I record of my desktop) that can do this.  But what program does this?

You don't do the flip while recording your video, it is done later as a transition effect in the video-editing program. Microsoft Movie Maker has several transitions to choose from, just as almost any movie editor whatsoever.


How to recreate a low shutter speed effect on 1/10000 footage? My Sony CX405 is a small miracle of technology but the designers have put a lot of effort on making sure it has some strict limitations, so they do not interfere with the market demand for more expensive models. One of those limitations is the impossibility to adjust a filter. As a result of that, you cannot avoid an absurdly short exposure time (like 1/10000 s) when recording outdoors on a sunny day and the resulting footage of moving objects has that broken, stroboscopic look that ruins the smooth experience of 60i video.

Is there any software that can take that footage and emulate a low shutter speed by directionally blurring only the moving parts?

Even if the camera has no (suitable?) filter thread, you should be able to fix some Cokin filter holder to a flash bracket.  While I cannot vouch for ready made solutions here, I should be surprised if you cannot combine a few stock components.  The main problem of course when using such a contraption on an ND filter is to prevent side glare.  You might need to work with some light-proof drapings or stuff.  It may be feasible with a flash bracket or similar (macro bracket?) to move the filter right up to the camera, greatly reducing the problem.


Wind noise on recorded video I have a Panasonic HC-X920 video camera which overall I really like, however it seems very prone to wind noise on the audio when played back. The camera has a connection point for an external mike and I have recently purchased an adapter to take an external mike.  I now don't know which type of mike would be best, I would like a shotgun mike which attaches to the camera, has anyone any experience of this situation and can perhaps recommend an external mike for this purpose.

Id recommend going with a Rode Mic.

The Rode Shoe Mount Video Mic (around $250-$300) is more compact than even a short short shotgun. Secondly, there is a selector switch on the back that allows the user to select various pickup patterns, from cardiod, to stereo, directional, etc.

Theres a few models, but check BH and Amazon.

An entry level Shotgun would be a Sennheiser, but 1.) Its far less compact, and 2.) Price point for the capsule and power supply will run $500 and up. Lastly, youre going to be limited to XLR out without an adapter.

The Rode Mics to be honest, sound fantastic for their price point.

You can add an accessory Rycote Furry Windjammer to cut down the wind even further beyond the included Foam Windscreen. A Furry Windjammer will give you the best results (pricey but worth it), and last, you can add a lo-cut filter either on the Rode or in post to further reduce wind rumble.


How to keep EXIF data in a DSLR video after editing / compressing with Photoshop CC? So I have a bunch of home video files with my kids and family. I want to do some edits like text overlay, music backgrounds etc and also compress them using Photoshop CC. However, after compressing or exporting the video file, the original EXIF is lost. I don't have the capture date and time, the camera & lens used etc.

How can I make Photoshop keep this information? Or is there a way to copy the EXIF after the export?

I tried using ffmpeg, but it only copies the capture date and time.

Thanks.

I don't think any video release format allows per-frame metadata. The best you can do is per-file metadata, which won't preserve the info from individual scenes in an edited piece.

It's theoretically possible to construct a file in (say) AVI format which uses RIFF chunks. You could add text chunks at scene changes to tag the source. But AFAIK this is not something anyone has actually done -- you'd have to build it yourself.

What you might do is use an EDL to identify the shots by source and time, and use it to index a database that holds the extracted EXIF data from each source.


ffmpeg alternative to setpts for making a survey gif I have a 30fps video that is 234 minutes long and want to shrink it down to 2 minutes.  1-(234-2)/234) gives me 0.0085 which I use

ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -vf setpts=PTS*0.0085,palettegen palette.png

followed by

ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -i palette.png --filter_complex setpts=PTS*0.0085,paletteuse survey.gif

Actually making the gif is excruciatingly slow compared to extracting the desired frames into a massive directory of png's which I can then combine with convert into a gif.  Aside from my main question, it doesn't seem like ImageMagick's convert supports user supplied palette files.

I understand that PTS is just adjusting how long a single frame is shown in a video but setpts has felt like the only reliably precise way of cutting the source.mp4 down.

I looked at framestep and it is much better for speed but I couldn't figure out an ideal value for framestep that wouldn't make the resulting gif step from one frame to the next like what I would get from using convert and a delay of 0.5 between frames.

Aside from above, these survey are meant to quickly scan through hours of video for various points of concern in a gif format able to be uploaded privately to imgur or giphy so others on my team could review them remotely and without ftp/dropbox/etc.

Assuming you want a 30 fps 2.5m GIF, use

ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -vf "select='not(mod(n,trunc(234/2.5)))',palettegen" palette.png

and

ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -i palette.png -filter_complex "[0]select='not(mod(n,trunc(234/2.5)))',setpts=N/30/TB[v];[v][1]paletteuse" survey.gif


Hardware acceleration in Adobe Media Encoder vs ffmpeg On macOS, Adobe Media Encoder has options for hardware-accelerated rendering utilizing OpenCL, which seems to speed up encoding time.

On the other hand, according to the ffmpeg wiki, ffmpeg's hardware acceleration "typically generate output of significantly lower quality than good software encoders". Is this true of both Media Encoder and ffmpeg, or does Media Encoder somehow better utilize hardware for encoding?

Media Encoder and ffmpeg should generate the same quality if given the same encoding parameters.

GPU encoders are provided by GPU vendors. I haven't heard of any third-party implementations. The possible differences lie in the wrappers i.e. the code which initializes the encoder parameters, and written by the interfacing app. There, I would expect ffmpeg to offer more fine-grained choices although I haven't look at AME's offerings as of late.


FFMPEG - Youtube MP4 video stream loop? its my first post on this community.

Im from brazil, so im sorry for bad english.

I am using FFMPEG on Ubuntu VPS for streaming 24/7 mp4 video on youtube.

I am using this code:

VBR="2500k"
FPS="30"
QUAL="veryfast"
YOUTUBE_URL="rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2"

SOURCE="/stream/video.mp4"
KEY="my_Secret_key"

ffmpeg \
    -i "$SOURCE" -deinterlace \
    -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset $QUAL -r $FPS -g $(($FPS * 2)) -b:v $VBR \
    -acodec libmp3lame -ar 44100 -threads 6 -qscale 3 -b:a 712000 -bufsize 512k \
    -f flv "$YOUTUBE_URL/$KEY"

With this code, i have sucesfully put my stream online, but i need that the code loop and repeat the mp4 file, because i dont want to make a 24h mp4 file.

How can i make that this mp4 file (SOURCE="/stream/video.mp4") repeat itself infinitely?

I dont have imagens and notthing, i only put a mp4 file on stream!

Ideas?

You should be able to achieve this by prepending the source with stream_loop parameter and -1 value specifying indefinite looping.

Replace

-i "$SOURCE" -deinterlace \

with

-stream_loop -1 -i "$SOURCE" -deinterlace \

See https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html#Main-options


What do you call the video effect where water looks like it's standing still when filmed I found a few interesting effects, which was labelled under the rolling shutter effect, however I was told that this was NOT an example of rolling shutter effect, what would you call this effect?

The question is 3 fold: I heard they used this effect in movies, which ones, an example clip would be nice, what do they officially call it, and why does this happen?

These are the examples I am referring to:
REALLY interesting effects:
For example, the water looks like its static. [PetaPixel][1] explains it; "by pressing a water tube against a speaker, bibio was able to control the vibration frequency of the water flowing through the tube. He then adjusted the pulses of the water to match up with the frame rate of his Canon 5D Mark II."

Another example was the static helicopter:

This is called stroboscopic effect.  It refers to when the sample rate is synchronized or very slightly out of sync resulting in a much slower representation of the motion that results from taking a picture that is at the same point or slightly advanced point in a subsequent cycle of a higher frequency cyclic motion.

You can actually do the same exact thing in real life for your own eyes by using a strobe light, which is the more common demonstration, though frame rate can be used too if you can adjust it closely enough.


how to convert container format for a video file without re-encoding After some study and research, now I know that AVI and MP4 are video 'container' formats. They are also called 'video file formats'. The actual video data format for the video data in these formats can be encoded in any related format for example H.264 or MPEG-4.

I was trying to copy a AVI video file (H.264 encoded) from my computer to my tablet and the iTunes gave me error that this specific video cannot be played on this iPad. Then I tried copying another video file, this time a MP4 file, and it was copied correctly.

I searched on Apple website and came to know that IPad Air supports the below three videos and their formats.

  H.264 video up to 1080p, 60 frames per second, High Profile level 4.2    with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4,    and .mov file formats;
  MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480    pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to    160 Kbps per
  channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov    file formats;
  Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per    second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format;

Now I want to convert the existing video AVI file to MP4 format and try to copy again. I do not want to re-encode the video again in H.264 format to avoid quality loss. Is there any solution for my problem. I have access to both, Mac OS X and Windows machines so I am open to any solution. Please help.

I achieved this using ffpeg, a free and open source command line tool.


Very Shaky camera but a constant background I recorded a video of a speaker at a graduation ceremony using my tablet. The first half of the recording, I held the tablet in my hand so it's shaky and just terrible. I finally realized that I could capture the scene I wanted just fine by using the tablet's stand and placing it on the ground.

Throughout the entire video, the background never changes, the speaker is at a podium and it can act as a focal point...other than the speaker, there is no motion in the scene (other than audience heads in the foreground.

I tried to use After Effects Motion Warp but it looks horrid but it would work perfectly if I could select a "static background" from one frame and apply that throughout the rest of the video.

Is something like this possible?

While it's fairly easy for it to figure out the camera position from the shot, it is not nearly as easy for it to identify subjects cleanly.  In order to do what you are talking about, the subject would have to be identified and extracted from the background without any extra bits coming along.

Computer vision algorithms simply aren't that advanced yet and such work is always either done by rotoscoping (manually outlining the subject on each frame) or using a chroma or luma key backdrop that can be removed.  Stabilization works by identifying straight lines and tracking them generally.  The border fill in motion warp then works by attempting something similar to what you are talking about by looking at what appeared to be there in previous frames, but it doesn't really work all that well yet either as it is a new technology.

The same problems that prevent them figuring out accurately what was there in previous frames are what prevent separating the subject from the background (the ability to identify, with precise accuracy, the same object in one image to another.  You would end up with a subject that hovered oddly on the background and had a ring of background around them and/or left bits of them behind if you tried it with current level of technology.

Using motion warp and applying a crop or bypassing the auto-crop and manually cropping and moving around the frame is probably your best bet.  This is how I usually handle stabilization issues.


How do I remove the grey bars that appear after a layer in the timeline? I see some grey bars in my timeline after a clip that I can also move forwards and backwards. What's their purpose and how do I remove them so I can just have blank space in their place?

They show you where the rest the unused part of your clip is relative to your timeline.
So if you used the first 5 seconds of a 10 second clip in a 10 second comp, you would see a greyed-out bar form 5-10 seconds in your comp.
You can drag the edges of your clip out to extend it in your timeline.
To remove them you would need to change the duration of the clips you've created.
A useful function in a pre-comp is "Trim Comp to Work Area" which trims your comp to where your Beginning and End markers are.


GoPro Hero 3+ Microphone Mounting I own a GoPro Hero 3+ video camera which requires the following adapter to use an external microphone:

http://shop.gopro.com/accessories/3.5mm-mic-adapter/AMCCC-301.html

This makes mounting the microphone onto the GoPro difficult.

Does anyone know of any secure mounts for this? - I can't find any.

What do professional filmmakers use?

Professional film makers generally use audio recorded separately from the video on dedicated recorders using professional mics (using XLR cables and the like).  3.5 mm audio connectors in particular are almost exclusively a consumer level connector.  So for a professional level, the answer is use something like a Zoom h4n, h5 or h6 and microphones of your choice (either headset, lapel or most likely for action footage, shotgun mics with boom operators).

If you want to be able to do it in camera, then you will need to look in to rigging.  Many consumer/prosumerish mics that work via 3.5mm jacks are designed to mount on DSLR hot/cold shoes.  You can use video rigging to connect your GoPro on one mount point and a cold shoe mounted external mic on a cold shoe mount point on the same rig.  This will keep them together in an easily handleable form factor while keeping the mic securely attached to the same rig as the GoPro.  Note that building such rigs isn't particular cheap unless you build it yourself though.  This link goes to B&H's selection of DSLR rigs to get you started.


Is This Pin-Out for S-Video or Composite Video? I have never seen a pin out utilizing video- and video+ before. My first assumption would be that it's for analog video transmission, probably composite video.

Pin Function

Video-
Video+
74 VDC
AUX+
Ground
AUX-
RS-485 -/A
RS-485 +/B

I don't recognize this connector, but I can say that your assumption is incorrect. Video+/- isn't "two cables", it's just a way of notating the two wires (like say, signal and ground) needed for a complete circuit. The same is true for the AUX and RS485 circuits.


Modify video file for viewing in generic media player I have a file called ~/somePath/foo.264, containing video from a surveillance camera's DVR. I am unable to view this video on several media players including the default media player on an Apple tablet and the Ubuntu Videos application. I am able to view it using MPlayer on Linux. How can I transform the video in this file to something that is more universally useable? I tried the following command at Linux terminal:

avconv -i ~/somePath/foo.264 -vcodec libx264 -f mp4 ~/somePath/foo.mp4

but the output mp4 file was basically empty, with a total size of 285 bytes. The source file, foo.264, is 80 MB.
Maybe I need to re-encode the video; maybe I need to place the video into a container of another format; or maybe the solution is something else. I am a novice at audio-video editing, but I am slightly more experience at Linux operating system.
PS. When I do the command

mediainfo ~/somePath/foo.264

from linux terminal I receive the following output:

General
Complete name: ~/somePath/foo.264
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
File size                                : 79.1 MiB
Video
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Baseline@L2
Format settings, CABAC                   : No
Format settings, ReFrames                : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=30
Width                                    : 352 pixels
Height                                   : 240 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 3:2
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive

PPS. I have already posed a related question, https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/283548/convert-264-to-mp4-using-avconv , on the Unix & Linux Stackexchange.

You need to convert the codec used to encode the video to something that the players you are trying to use support. MPlayer supports a wider range of codecs than many players.

To allow you to view the video in other players you need to transcode the video using an application like ffmpeg. The command below will provide the conversion you need:

ffmpeg -i foo.264 -c:a aac -c:v libx264 -preset medium foo.mp4

i - input file
c:a - set audio codec to transcode to. Here I chose AAC
c:v - set video codec to transcode to. libx264 is used to transcode to H.264, one of the most common and widely used video codecs. Most players should be able to play files encoded with H.264.
preset - used to quickly define the H.264 encoding parameters. Choose from ultrafast,superfast, veryfast, faster, fast, medium, slow, slower, veryslow, placebo. There is obviously a trade-off between quality and transcode speed here.

After running this command I could play the video you uploaded in QuickTime on OS X.

If you use -copy or don't specify a codec, then ffmpeg will use the same codec as the source. So the command

ffmpeg -f h264 -i foo.264 -c copy foo.mp4

Will change the container around the video to mp4, but not the video encoding itself. You can read more about the difference between containers and codecs here.


Razor all clips in timeline underneath in/out points I've just synched a lot of clips using PluralEyes, and imported this in PPCC. Since I'm relatively new to this program (using Vegas earlier), I wanted to check if there is a way to automatically razor all clips in the timeline underneath my I/O selection?

Now I have to set the I/O points (or just go straigth to the razor tool), select the razor tool, hold shift and use the IO points as reference to cut all the clips underneath my mouse cursor.

I want to find a way to quickly make rough selection and cut out all the surrounding stuff. It was quite easy in Vegas by just making lots of regions, and using a Vegas script to cut out all the surrounding stuff ... is there a workflow like that in PP?

Don't even try to do it this way.  For what you are trying to do, take a look at the multi-camera editing mode.  It is designed for doing precisely the kind of thing you are trying to do in a much simpler way.  You can find more detail about the multi-cam features in Adobe's own documentation here.


Blackmagic setup: How do I record all cameras in a multicam broadcast? I've been tasked with acquiring equipment to broadcast a festival through online stream, and have decided that blackmagic may be a good direction to go, so I'm going to strictly reference their products.

Currently I'm planning on purchasing:

1 x Blackmagic ATEM Production Studio 4K
4 x Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K
1 x Blackmagic UltraStudio Mini Recorder (thunderbolt)
Some very long SDI cable runs

Problem:
The cameras do not have internal storage, which means I can only record what's going to the stream through the UltraStudio mini recorder. Is there some kind of device I can set up between the cameras and the ATEM production studio to record my video feeds?

I don't think the ATEM has enough video outs to send to each feed to a capture card like the DeckLink SDI 4K. If I went this route, would I need something like the Smart Videohub?

Lastly, the cameras claim to have built in talkback and tally. Can I use this feature with my current equipment list? Or do I need the ATEM Talkback Converter?

Update:
I've decided that 3 blackmagic pocket cinema cameras (BPCCs) and a GoPro may actually be a better option for this. The BPCCs have a built in display (useful for my camera operators) and have internal storage via SD card. They also seem to perform well in low lighting. The downside is the cameras only have HDMI out, so I would require HDMI to SDI converters to run long lengths of cable (probably around 150-200ft per cable).

Am I going to have issues trying to use BPCCs with converters for live streaming? Are there other solutions for long cable runs that I may have missed?

You can use an SDI Distribution Amplifier ("DA") (one SDI input, and two or more SDI outputs) for each camera so you can "duplicate" the camera video to send to both the production switcher and to your camera iso recorders. I use DAs I buy on Ebay.  My current favorite is "AVUE 3G-SDI/HD-SDI/SDI 1 to 2 Repeater & distribution extender with re-clocking" at around $100

Or you could use something like the Blackmagic Smart VideoHub 12x12 if you have the budget for it.  Of course, you will need a separate recorder for each video stream. It seems unlikely that you can successfully use more than one UltraStudio Mini Recorder per computer.

The camera has a built-in tally light and the switcher sends the tally signals back to the cameras (assuming you use TWO SDI cables per camera!)  The tally light appears to be quite small and hidden just above the lens mount, so it seems of limited visibility unless you have a very small lens and are very close to the camera. There does not appear to be any kind of output for an external tally that can be seen at a distance one would expect in the Real World, or any tally provision for a camera operator. Are you planning on using these as human-operated cameras?  Or remote-controlled?  Or fixed POV cameras?

The Micro Studio Camera 4K has intercom built-in, with a 3.5mm TRRS socket for a headset as one would use with an iPhone, etc.  However you will need an ATEM Talkback Converter to access the intercom/talkback back at the switcher end.

Remember also that those cameras do not come with lenses, and they use a rather premium lens mount, so you may end up spending 2x or 3x for each camera by the time you hang some glass on the front of them.  The Blackmagic stuff seems like great performance for the money, but not necessarily when you add up all the required "accessories".  Especially if you want to equip the camera(s) with operator-controlled lenses. You could end up with 4x-5x the base price for each camera.

Remember also that SDI is quite high frequency and doesn't tolerate "very long SDI cable runs".  My working rule is that even with large RG-6 cable, 300ft/100m is the practical length limit. If you want to go longer than that, those fiber optic boxes from Blackmagic are one solution if you have the budget for that.


Adobe After Effects labels: Project vs Layer/Timeline How do I label my Composition clips in the Layer/Timeline panel, based on how they are categorized/binned in the Project panel?

I have a composition created by Adobe Premiere of about 100 items
I've set the label for each clip/asset in the Project pane

I have bins for each label
I did this because the different clips were shot with different light, and I want to correct for this

I see my clips in the Layer/Timeline panel
...with labels...
yet the labels are NOT the same as how they appear for the same assets above, in the Project panel!

Q: why are these labels inconsistent?

Q: I want to apply a effect preset I have to a subset of the clips, which is already labelled and binned in the Project pane.  How?

Try clicking on the "Layer Name"/"Source Name" column title in the timeline.  It should toggle between the name in your Project bin, and the name you've given the layer in the comp.


How to convert part of mkv file to mp4 for premiere pro? I tried changing the extension name of a mkv file to avi before importing but it doesn't work. I can use VLC to convert the entire video to mp4 but it would take 3-4 hours (it's 7GB). Is it possible to convert only part of the mkv to mp4 so it could process faster? (say 00:03:00.000 to 00:04:00.000). I am on macOS. What apps may I use?

I would opt by installing a set of codecs to your OS that support mkv files. After that you can try to rename the video files and import them to premiere.

Search for K-Lite Codec for mac and try that.


Is there an easy way to import textured 3D geometry from Maya into Nuke? I have a room with a number of objects inside it, many of which are duplicated, and I've managed to transfer the room as a single object into Nuke, and then attach its texture as a separate read node attached to the readGeo node, but any time I try to export more than one object, even if it's just another instance of the same object, the import fails to show all objects.

Do I need to import every single object separately (around 30 objects total) or is there an easier way to do this that I'm overlooking?

This still isn't as easy as it should be, but the way forward is to export your geometry as Alembic.  It supports many textured objects, and even animated sequences.  Depending on your version of Maya, you may need to install a plugin, but it is much better than dealing with OBJ and FBX as the interchange format in most cases.


Easiest way to turn something a powerpoint into a video file I am looking to turn my stories into YouTube videos. We have images set for the backgrounds. They currently aren't as PowerPoint files. They were going to be HTML pages however it would be easier for us to host these on YouTube as we have some issues loading sounds and the javascript scrolling at the same time.

Already Tried : using the YouTube video editor however I cannot fill the screen enough.

Requirement : Cheaply create video files using background images, simple transitions and adding sound.

My Experience level : Not expert, not done since a long time.

What is the easiest/most cost effective way of doing this?

Not sure, which version you're using and I didn't use PowerPoint recently, but as far as I can remember, there is a video export function built in. Might be worth a try.

Also there's a list with free video software on Wikipedia, which you can take a look at. Many of them should work for your purpose.


Loop images until the audio ends I have an audio file 2 hours long and 30 still images related to the audio. I would like to display each image consecutively for about 45 seconds while the audio is playing in a repeating fashion. When the last image has been displayed, I want to just start over from the top and keep repeating the images in a circle until the audio ends.
For testing the technique purposes I am using this command with shorter audio, only 2 images, and shorter durations. The music plays, the images display and transition as desired but how do I get them to repeat? It just displays the two images and stops. How do I get the images to loop continuously until the audio ends?
I'm using ffmpeg on Linux Mint 20.
ffmpeg -version
ffmpeg version 4.2.4-1ubuntu0.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers

ffmpeg -i "/home/ron/fftest/Overture.mp3" \
           -loop 1 -i "/home/ron/fftest/Picture1.jpg" \
           -loop 1 -i "/home/ron/fftest/Picture2.jpg" \
           -filter_complex \
             "[1:v]trim=duration=6,fade=t=in:st=0:d=1,fade=t=out:st=5:d=1[v1]; \
              [2:v]trim=duration=6,fade=t=in:st=0:d=1,fade=t=out:st=5:d=1[v2]; \
              [v1][v2]concat=n=2:v=1:a=0[v]" \
           -shortest -movflags +faststart -map 0:a -map [v] -c:a copy \
           /home/ron/fftest/Overture.mp4

Assume you have an audio file, which is named as "audio.mp3";
you have images file pattern as "Picture01.jpg", "Picture02.jpg", ... "Picture30.jpg"; and you want 4.5s image duration. Then the command is
ffmpeg -y -loop 1 -framerate 1/4.5 -i Picture%2d.jpg -i audio.mp3 -shortest -acodec copy -vcodec mjpeg result.mp4

Good luck!


How can I ensure the white balance is correct? I've read in several places that when shooting a video, white balance should be set manually (just like nearly every other parameter) on a DSLR which doesn't record videos in a raw format.

While an histogram allows to determine with ease that exposure is set correctly, what about white balance? How can I be sure that it's correct?

Having a reference photo stored on a DSLR for comparison seems too overwhelming.
Relying on my eyes (and a very reliable screen of my Nikon D7000) doesn't seem the ideal way to do it.

So how should it be done correctly?

It depends on your camera.  Some cameras, like the Blackmagic cameras only let you guestimate.  In this case, you'll just have to know that the color temperature of an outdoor scene is closer to 5600K, warm tungsten light is closer to 3200K, etc.  Then, you'd adjust the image in post to make it more accurate.  Using an x-rite color chart with software like Davinci Resolve (free lite version) can speed, simplify, and improve your results.

Other Cameras, like the Canon 5D Mk II and III will let you place a white or grey card in front of the camera, snap a photo, and internally analyze the color.  I recommend consulting your camera's manual to see if it supports this functionality.

But if none of the above work for you, and you're looking for something like a histogram to analyze the color, you could look into vectorscopes and waveform monitors.  Hardware versions can be pricey, but cheap software versions are available.  Scopebox is a good one for mac.  Maybe someone can comment on a good PC one.  With this solution, you will need a hardware device to convert your video signal to something your computer can read (HDMI to Firewire, SDI to Thunderbolt, Composite to PCIe, for example).  To be clear, this is just a monitoring solution.  In other words, a vecrorscope/ waveform monitor won't change the color of the signal, but it will let you adjust it accurately at the camera, much like you would use your camera's histogram to set exposure.


AviSynth vs AviSynth+ vs VapourSynth: which one should I choose? AviSynth is an old-but-still-useful tool for processing video via script, but I’ve noticed that there is a fork called AviSynth+ that appears to have some improvements. And then there’s VapourSynth rewritten to use Python.

What are the pros and cons of these versions?

For use-cases such as QTGMC deinterlacing and high-quality resizing, is one clearly better than the other?

As a summary of the differences:
AviSynth

Outdated and no longer recommended for use
Only available in 32bit – not able to use 64bit plugins/filters
No multi-threading (unless you install AviSynth-MT, another fork, which is prone to errors and issues and no updates over last 4+ years)
Older and only supports 8bit video
Lacks support for some color spaces (YV16, YV24 etc.)
Latest release over 4 years ago (May 2016)

AviSynth+

Has both a 32bit and 64bit version, although the 32bit version apparently has some issues
Supports multi-threading which can significantly improve rendering performance for some functions (similar to AviSynth-MT, another fork, but AviSynth+’s appears more stable)
Be aware that using the 64bit version will require all plugins and filters to also be 64bit – and not all of them have 64bit versions. There are some filters that are 64bit only, however, which means you’re able to use those.
QTGMC runs faster in multi-threaded mode, and also apparently in 64bit mode
AviSynth+ specific documentation is limited, but most of the great AviSynth wiki also applies to AviSynth+ and many pages now have notes mentioning any specific instructions for working with AviSynth+.
Also runs on Linux, which is useful when you need to run it on a server
Regularly updated, with latest release Jun 2020

Note: be sure to get a recent version of AviSynth+ from https://github.com/AviSynth/AviSynthPlus/releases. There was a pinterf fork and it has been merged back to upstream.
Or you can use the Universal AviSynth Installer which allows you to easily switch between the different versions of AviSynth, AviSynth-MT, and AviSynth+ (32bit and 64bit).
VapourSynth

Rewritten to use Python, a much more powerful and flexible scripting language
Multi-threaded
Supports generalized colorspaces whereby new or custom colorspaces can be specified at runtime
Also runs on Linux, which is useful when you need to run it on a server
Documentation isn't as detailed as AviSynth (it's not a community wiki)
Regularly updated, with latest release Aug 2020


How do you automatically add text from a file? I recently created a video which has associated data. Like position, altitude, direction in another file. I know the time offsets for each event and would like to put this data into the video as text. Is there a way without changing the video text areas manually?

Thanks in advance,

Gregg

Dashware is an (free) app which does just this.

Telemetry Data Overlay on your Videos
Easily display GPS, vehicle, physiology, and environment data from
smartphones and dedicated loggers.

Besides CSV text files, it imports data from many formats. You don't have to render the final composited video from Dashware. You can export a synchronised chroma-key ready video of the overlay for import into your video editor.


Animate a Slider With Json File Import? So let me explain, I have a json file with numbers and the duration of how long each number should be displayed which is 4 seconds.
I want the slider to show the first number (which is 1,000) and then four seconds later display 2,000 (which is second number) . But have it showing all the numbers in between 1,000-2,000.

My array looks like this:

[
{
    "ID": 1,
    "slider": 1000,
    "duration": .4
},
{
    "ID": 2,
    "slider": 2000,
    "duration": .4
},
{
    "ID": 3,
    "slider": 3828.52,
    "duration": .4
}
]

And I have found a code that works, it starts at 0 seconds and animates 1,000 counting up to 2,000. The only problem with this code is that it has a delay, So when the animation starts it stays at 1,000 for about one whole second and then starts to animate counting up to 2,000 at the four second mark. Then same thing at the four second mark, it stays at 2,000 for a second and then animates. How do i prevent this delay? I would like it to be constant. Here is the code which works but causes the numbers to delay:

data = footage("example.json").sourceData;
rampTime = 3;
done = false;
i = t = tPrev = 0;
while (t <= time){
  tPrev = t;
  t += rampTime + parseFloat(data[i].duration)/ .4;
  i++;
  if (i >= data.length){
    done = true;
    break;
  }
}
if (done){
  parseFloat(data[data.length-1].slider);
}else{
  if ((time - tPrev) < parseFloat(data[i-1].duration)/ .4){
    parseFloat(data[i-1].slider);
  }else{
    v1 = parseFloat(data[i-1].slider);
    v2 = parseFloat(data[i].slider);
    t1 = parseFloat(data[i-1].duration)/ .4;
    t2 = t1 + rampTime;
    linear(time-tPrev,t1,t2,v1,v2);
  }
}

If you can help find the solution please explain to me i am very new to coding and this is pretty complicated to me.Thank you!

Good question Xavier! I had a similar job recently, here's how I did it.

First I would suggest re-working your json file to be a little easier to parse. For example (hopefully I got your intention correctly):

{
    "slider1": {
        "start": 1000,
        "end": 2000,
        "duration": 4,
        "ID": 1
    }
}

Then add two sliders to your layer, one called Anim Duration (seconds) with a default value of 4. If you want to read this value from the json file add the following expression instead:

var data = footage("example.json").sourceData;

data.slider1.duration

Okay now to the second slider (which is the one that actually animates) add the following expression:

var data = footage("example.json").sourceData;

start_value = data.slider1.start;
end_value = data.slider1.end;

step = (end_value - start_value) / effect("Anim Duration (seconds)")("Slider").value; // alternately you can just plug data.slider1.duration here instead of using a second slider...
count = Math.floor(step * (time - thisLayer.inPoint)); // you don't need to use the in-point here, but it is conventient if you know that's where you want to start your animation

if (count < e_value) {
    count;
} else {
    end_value;
}

(if you have any trouble with this let me know, I don't have AE handy for testing so this was mainly done from memory and a snipped I have on me...)


Strike through text After Effects CS6 In most Adobe CS6 apps, the character palette has a strikethrough button. In After Effects CS6, this seems to be  missing.

Is there a way to do strikethrough in After Effects CS6. Most the tutorials I have searched for show how to do animated strikethroughs. I just want a simple text strikethrough (without animation) like this.

Text control is very limited in after effects. There is no functionality in the Character Panel to achieve a strikethrough at the moment.

Using Illustrator

For better text control I'd suggest create your text in illustrator instead:

and import the illustrator file into after effects afterwards:

Note: Editing the text in illustrator is still possible.

Using a shape layer

In order to create a simple stroke above your Text Layer:

Enable the Pen Tool (G)
With no layer selected, click into the Viewer (this will create the 'first point' of the stroke)
Hold down Shift to make sure that the line, which you are going to create is 'straight'
Click into the viewer again to set the 'end point'

This will create a new Shape Layer. If the layer is selected you can adjust the 'stoke color' and the 'thickness' in the Tool Bar:

Another way is to roll out the Properties of the layer by clicking on the tiny triangle > left beside the layers name, go to Contents > Shape(Number) > Stroke(Number) to adjust the 'color' and the 'width'.

However a shape layer provides much more control in terms of animation:

Add a Trim Paths property
Create a first keyframe by clicking on the stopwatch of the End value and set it to 0
Move a few frames forward
Create a second keyframe and set End value to 100

Related: https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/49643/how-to-use-after-effects-trim-path-with-an-illustrator-path/49975#49975

Result


How do I create a rotating zooming animation in premiere that I can loop seamlessly upon exporting? I want to create an animation of my painting in which it rotates and zooms into the center at the end. I want to position a tiny version of the painting at the center that, at the end of the video, has rotated and increased in size with the other copy such that it takes its place. I want to achieve this kind of effect, but in the span of 30 seconds. However, it is quite difficult to position the tiny version of the image at the center, and even harder to align its keyframes with the larger image's movements. How should I go about this? Here is a link to what the picture looks like zoomed out

I'll answer the question for After Effects, because to do it in Premiere would be a nightmare. Probably possible, but the survivors would envy the dead.

The tool you need is parenting. Parenting enables you to group layers together, so that what you do to a parent layer you also do to its children. It only works one way though, so the children can have their own lives, moving them wont affect the parent.

Ok so you'll need to put the two layers in a composition. The easiest way to do that is to stack them above each other in a timeline in Premiere, right-click and choose replace with After Effects composition. This will open up AE with a new comp (AE version of sequence) with your layers in it. Layers in AE work the same as in PP and Potatoshop, you view them from the top down. Put the inner layer (the one you want to see at the end) on top. Go to the end of the composition (hit end) and adjust it so that it fills the screen how you want it. You can just click on it in the comp window to manipulate it, but if you want to access the numbers, hit p (no command or control key, just the letter — that's how AE rolls) for position, s for scale, r for rotation or t for opacity. Shift will show multiple properties at once, or if you want to be a noob for your whole life you can just twirl down the arrows until you find the property you want. But you don't want to be a noob for the rest of your life, do you? I can't hear you. DO YOU?

 Don't you dare.

Ok so for your purposes you'll need all of the properties above. Hold Shiftand press prst as needed. Adjust them until your layer is in its final possie.

If you want to manipulate a layer in the comp window use v for the general select / move / drag-corners-to-scale tool, or to rotate it mash w, which will select the wotate tool. Or you could click on the tool panel and choose your tool, but you're not going to do that are you? ARE YOU? I'M WATCHING YOU. You can also scrub the numbers in the properties panel by click-and-dragging, or click and type if you know what you want. This works for any blue numbers in AE.

Now we need to make these puppies move, that's what animation is all about. To do that we need keyframes. Like PP AE uses keyframes to allow properties to be changed over time. To create a keyframe, if you're a noob, you click on the little stopwatch next to the property name.

When the stopwatch is active it means that any changes you make to that property will create a new keyframe. There's a standard noob mistake which is to think that the next time you want to set a keyframe you have to click the stopwatch again. Don't do that, it will turn OFF animation for that property. Also, don't be clicking. [Smacks mouse hand] Stop crying and start learning the keyboard shortcuts like a pro. Seriously, your carpal tunnel will thank me in a few years, and you'll be waaay faster.

To set a keyframe on a property you press its keyboard shortcut but with shiftalt, or for those still using macs shift⌥/opt held down. You'll want to set a keyframe for all your properties, so don't just stand there, get keystrokin': shiftalt / ⌥p then  shiftalt / ⌥r, shiftalt / ⌥s, and  shiftalt / ⌥t. Practice it now and it will go into muscle memory. I do it hundreds of times a day, to the point where I actually have to open up AE and set a keyframe to remember what keys I use, because it's not a conscious thing any more. That's where you want to be.

Pro tip: at this point your layer has some animated properties. To show / hide all the animated properties for a layer, select it and press u. Boom. Bonus pro-tip: What I didn't know for the first few years of using AE (this is the 90s, so things were a bit hazy) was that double tapping it: uu will bring up all modified properties for that layer.

Ok, now hide the top layer. See that eye icon on the left of the top layer? Click that sucker. Annoyingly there is no kb shortcut for this by default.

Now go back to the start of your comp. Pop quiz: if end was the keyboard shortcut for going to the start, you win $1,000,000 cash money if you can guess the shortcut for going home to the beginning*.

With your bottom layer selected, adjust its scale rotation etc. so that it's to your liking, and set keyframes for the properties as necessary. Jump back to the end. You can use a new kb shortcut for this, one you should know: k. It jumps to the next keyframe, and j jumps to the previous keyframe.

At the end of your comp, adjust the bottom layer so that it's how you want it. Because you have the stopwatches active for your transform properties any changes you make will now create a new keyframe. Look at me mum, I'm animating! If you scrub the timeline you'll see the magic happening, or if you want to watch it play in real-time (or whatever your machine can manage), hit 0 on your numeric keyboard, or ctrl0 on a laptop (from memory, might not be right). It will slowly play back as it renders the frames, then playback at something like real time once they're all cached (the green bar on the top of the timeline).

OK now for the parenting. On the right of the properties part of the timeline you'll see the parent column. And a curly icon called the pick-whip, or as someone once mondegreen-ed, the "pig-whip", which instantly became my preferred term for it. This will choose a parent for the layer.

Note that there are (in recent versions of AE) pig-whips for all of the properties. This is for expressions (which is for another day, but they're awesome). Use the pig-whip on the top of the layer, not these ones or you'll get too confused. Also don't call it pig-whip if there's a client listening, you'll sound like an idiot.

We want to make the top layer the child of the bottom layer. At the end of your comp (this is important), use the pig-whip or the drop-down panel to set the parent for the top layer to the bottom layer.

What you'll see now if you go backwards down the time line is that the top layer will shrink in time with the bottom layer. Go back to the start and adjust any additional motion you want it to have. You may also want to set its opacity to 0 at the start, so that it fades in over the zoom.

Nearly done. There's One Weird Trick That Animators Don't Want You To Know that will sell this even better. Use Motion Blur. In the properties panel you'll see four columns of icons. If you can't see them hit f4. Click the one that looks like a stack of chips at a casino. Click it for both layers.

… Nothing changes … Ok, the reason that you don't see anything is that motion blur basically renders each frame a bunch of times at in-between positions and displays them all together. It's super computationally expensive, that's why it looks like casino chips**. So each frame might be rendered dozens, even hundreds of times depending on your settings. Hello slowness.

To display motion blur you have to enable it for the layer, then enable it for previews. See the casino chips icon above the top right of the properties panel? Click that boi, and it should turn blue. Now you should see motion blur on any layer that has it turned on.

OK, save your project, jump back to premiere, and you should see the animation right there in your timeline, like it was all a crazy nightmare … or was it?

*cash money offer not valid in real life, terms and conditions apply, offer not applicable to residents outside Saint Kitts and Nevis.

**this is flat-out not true, but it helps me remember.


extracting keyframes from damaged video file if I have a video file that is in .mov format, but the header has been overwritten, is there a way to scan the file to find the keyframes and somehow extract  them?

Try running the file through recover_mp4_to_h264, assuming video codec is H.264. You will need to supply a good reference file i.e. with valid header, of the same type as the damaged one.


Keeping text centered during a transition Beginner to After Effects here. I'm trying to do a basic transition: text starts out at 50% of its size, centered to the composition. After a few seconds I want the text to increase to 150% while staying in the center. But anytime I do this the text shifts. Can anyone help?

Although you can reposition the anchor point with the Pan Behind tool (Y),

an easier way to center it is in the menu.

Layer->Transform->Center Anchor Point in Layer Content.

I agree with the other posts here: It's important to set the correct alignment and placing of a layer before you keyframe anything.


Curriculum for Cinematography I realise that a lot of things can be learned on your own without attending a course. I went to university and the majority of the things taught can be self-learnt - even engineering. The only issue is that you have no idea where to start and where to get the best resources.

Are there any textbooks or online video sets that teaches cinematography well? By cinematography I mean less about scripts/acting, and more about the visual and the auditory feel.

The videos on YouTube are not very consistent (even large channels) - most are either too amateurish, factually wrong or trying to push you a certain product. The difference is stark when you compare YouTube 'cinematic videos' with filmmakers (even indie ones). I'm pretty sure that there are hidden gems on YouTube but it's not easy to find. My point is that I want to learn from the professionals instead of amateurs.

Read American Cinematographer.
Check out this famous series of “master classes” KODAK Cinematography
Master Class. In this previously linked excerpt, it's John Seale who takes a bunch of students
through a scene from the film “Dead Poet Society”. And here you have
other bits from the same series.

What you get is professional
film cinematographers working on set or in a studio with
students to solve lighting issues. It may be too advanced for you (I
don't know what you know), but this is the sort of work that happens
all the time on sets ... although only in the head of the DPs (or in
pre-production meetings when the script, the characters
and their motivation are discussed).

And, I just found out, after a quick search, that the series is still ongoing!. Do yourself a huge favor and start watching it -- the old and the recent stuff.
Kodak, the old film stock company, still has some good stuff for students and budding cinematographers available on their website. Check this page out: it's a bunch of informative PDF etc. on cinematography, like how to read a slate, workflow, filters, etc. There's a lot it seems.
Work on film sets, and see how they light things. Ask questions. Take
notes. And then shoot your own stuff (short documentaries, short films), with/about your friends, family,
whatever. Take photos, digital and traditional, always on manual (learn to use light-meters).
Shoot black and white and then color, which is harder.
Also, it's not (ever) about the gear you use, but about your eye,
your taste, understanding color and light and framing in relations to scripts
(and experience on sets).
Watch the best lit films ever made, the small ones and the big ones
(mainly the small ones 'cause they have no budget to light things).
Look at classical paintings and ask yourself: where's the light
coming from? Why is it lighting this part of the frame and not this?
What is it saying? What's the story?
Finally, keep at it. Make connections. Show up early and leave late.
Make connections. Smile and work hard. Keep at it. Becoming part of a community of filmmakers is absolutely vital. If one doesn't exist where you live, create it.

And I say all this with an MFA degree from one of the best film schools in the US.


Is there an online video server that can show paneable extremely large videos? I want to turn a set of high-resolution satellite images of the Earth (10,000x10,000 pixels) into a time-lapse video. But instead of downsizing the images, I would like that people could zoom into specific areas of the video in real-time, and pan through it.

Is that possible?

Is there any web player with such feature?

I've seen videos of cameras that film in all directions and as the video plays you can choose in which direction to look. How is that technique called? Something similar would be extraordinary.

With current technology no, you "can not"; and with more powerful technology it is a waste of resources.

You do not need to stream a gigapixel video, you need to stream a video, receive the new "interest" zone, process the coordinates and display a new version of the video. Even arrange different chunks of different videos.

This is what google maps, bing maps or other applications do. They do not send you all the photos of the planet, just the ones you need.


Format to view on iOS and PS3? I have Apple Compressor and have been trying to determine the correct format for my videos to allow them to play on both the iPad and my PlayStation 3 via a Media Server. Can anyone help me to determine a format that both can play? I'd hate to have to keep two copies of the same video on my Media Server. Thanks!

MP4 with AAC audio and h.264 video is definitely playable on the PS3, and since it's an extension of Apple's .mov files, it should work on all the iDevices too.

For maximum compatibility, use the h.264 'baseline' profile, and avoid AAC-HE.

Older devices (like some DVD players) may require XVID video and AC3 audio in an AVI container, but that won't apply to either the PS3 or iPad.


Premiere’s new layered drawings are not in the Project panel Premiere’s new (2017.1) layered drawing tools are easy enough to use, as they work similarly to other Adobe CC tools and the current UI concepts.

But, the multi-layer item I created does not appear in the Project panel!  The retronymed Legacy Titles appear in the project list as single items.  The new stuff shows individual entries for file-based assets used, but nothing for the multi-layer title composition as a unit or the layers of text and geometric drawing that are part of it.

This seems very strange.  Why would they want it to not show up in the Project panel?

What I want to do is copy elements from one timeline into another (many Acts in a single performance).  Normally I can just copy/paste or equivalent mouse gestures from an expanded tree view of the Project panel in list mode.

I haven't really tested the new Type and Essential Graphics functions yet, but I've played around with them a bit and I think I have grasped the essential functionality.

The text I create using the new Type Tool or graphic tools doesn't show up in the Project Panel for me either, as you described, so it stands to reason that this is the expected behaviour. I can't tell you why Adobe decided to build it that way. I can only assume it is to avoid visual clutter. The old functionality where you had to create one Title item/asset for every text insert in your video was indeed a bit clunky, so I would assume the new graphic items don't show up in the project panel to avoid cluttering and streamline the process. Also, having each graphic/text item appear in the project panel would create new design problems; for example, where would they go? If you prefer to have all your graphic/text items in one bin, do you have to sort the newly created items into that bin manually every time? Also, what part of the formatting/positioning is retained on the asset and clip basis respectively? How are point and area type handled respectively? And what about one graphic using multiple paths, how would the program discern between individual items and stuff that belongs together?

Again, I can only speculate as to what lead Adobe to make that design decision. If you don't like it, you can always contact them and ask for an explanation or for a change. Personally, I think I prefer a clean project panel over having it cluttered with myriads of individual path/shape layers, but that's very subjective I guess.

  What I want to do is copy elements from one timeline into another (many Acts in a single performance). Normally I can just copy/paste or equivalent mouse gestures from an expanded tree view of the Project panel in list mode.

I found two workarounds:

You can just select one or multiple clips from the timeline and copy them by pressing CTRL + C. Then move your playhead to where you want to paste them (in whatever sequence you want to paste them into) and press CTRL + V to paste them. Note that you can control what tracks your pasted items will appear in using the Track Targeting toggles.
You can select one or multiple items in the timeline and nest them into a sub-sequence using Right-Click → Nest…. The nested sequence will show up in the Project Panel and can be reused from there. Changes to the nested sequence will be applied to whereever you use that sequence as well.


Why do DVDs use TS files? Apologies if this isn't the right community for this question, but I'm wondering why TS files are used for DVDs and not a more widely used format like MP4s or something

DVD makes use of the Program Stream(PS) container whereas Terrestrial Stream(TS) uses for unpredictable transmission.
PS mostly uses MPEG-2 codec whereas the MP4 uses better video encoding scheme likes 264, 265 or MPEG-4.


Premiere Pro is not allowing any objects to be dragged to timeline Premiere Pro is not allowing any objects (I have tried titles, video and audio) to the timeline. When I drag it over, it comes up with a closed hand with a crossed circle. I already have media, but now I can't add any more. No layers are locked. I haven't changed any options. Help? Me and my teacher could not figure it out.

Where premiere allows you to drop or insert clip depends on on Source patching and Track targeting. Basically, you can only drop clips into a track that has Source patching turned on in the track header.

You also cannot drop clips onto tracks that are Locked

This video explains these features in more detail:


Adding a pause to audio track in Adobe Premier I'm working on my first video, which is about seven minutes long. One thing I need to fix is several breaks between paragraphs in the audio file which are too short.

For example, imagine a paragraph or sequence ending with the words, "we'll take a closer look at the polar bear."

There's a natural pause of two seconds before the next paragraph begins...

"This is the world of the polar bear."

How can I increase that two second pause to five seconds?

You can split audio tracks (and video tracks) by selecting them and pressing Ctrl + K. If your audio and video tracks are linked, holding "Alt" and selecting just the audio track will select only the audio track (and not the linked video track). After you have split the audio track between paragraphs, you can move the latter audio track out 3 seconds (or however long you want the pause) by dragging it along the timeline.

If you had any sort of "natural sound" in the audio track (static, hum from an air conditioner, etc.) it will be obvious that there is a 3-second break in-between the two audio segments. To fix this, use that "natural pause" of 2 seconds you mentioned, cut it to make it its own segment, and copy/paste it several times to fill the audio void, shrinking the last segment as necessary to make it fit perfectly.

Hope this helps!


H.264 encoding in PowerDirector 10 I want to make videos for youtube, and I want to encode my videos in MPEG-4, but the PowerDirector 10 says that I need to activate the video codification by hardware and I activated it in the preferences, but I can't activate it in the produce tab. I searched how to solve this and I didn't find anything useful. I downloaded K-lite mega codec pack and I downloaded the VLC H264 encoder, but i can't install the VLC H264 because I dont know how and I didn't find any tutorials about this.
So if someone could help me, I would appreciate.

NOTE: I don't know much about these codecs and stuff, but im not a noob at PC.

I think MeGUI is supposed to be a good front-end for x264 encoding.  (x264 is the same h.264 encoder that VLC uses.)

I don't know anything about powerdirector, so all I can say is that x264 is the best h.264 encoder (best quality vs. bitrate vs. cpu time tradeoff), and it's free.  It's what you should use to make files for upload to youtube.  (Use lots of bitrate, because youtube will decode and re-encode your video regardless of what you do.)


How to Create a High Quality, Small File Size .mp4 from .mov Recently, I helped a friend produce a short zombie comedy.

He has now asked me to add it to the film's website as a digital download. I'm not having issues with the digital download. My issue is how to create a high-quality file (preferably .mp4) with a small file size.

I currently have a copy of the film in .mov (created in Final Cut). The .mov file is 3.2GB. The film is 29:52 in running time.

From other experiences, I know a 30 minute high quality .mp4 can be 185mb - 250mb. The problem, I can't seem to find any legit tutorials to create a high quality .mp4 file with this type of compression. The closest I have been able to get is 385mb (I believe that was with VLC, but I last converted the file a few months ago, so I'm not positive)

I am on a Windows 7 machine.

I have a wide variety of software at my disposal and would likely be able to purchase software, if needed.

A really good program you can use is Handbrake. It's a very popular program among so called "pirates" because it's really good at getting a high quality even at tiny file sizes. And this is with good reason, because the main purpose of Handbrake is, indeed, to make the movies small with high quality. Personally I use it when I distribute my short movies on the internet, and it works like a charm. But enough talking, let's get to the settings!

Let's start with the beginning and go through the important settings.
On the right you have a presets panel. Choose Regular -> Normal or Regular -> High Profile.

Now, we start with the Picture settings.
The anamorphic setting is about the aspect ratio. So you've probably heard about the fact that in video, pixels aren't always square. So if you have widescreen footage, if you compress that to be much thinner, like an OLD SD TV, you could tell the video player to make each pixel wider than it actually is. So, you started have a 500 wide picture, you compressed it to 300, then you tell the player to make those 300 as wide as 500 again.

This is just a basic idea about what it is. You can just leave it at Loose with Modulus at 16. But if you want to learn more and squeeze the absolute maximum out of the file, read about it here.

Leave the cropping at Automatic, unless you want to crop.

Then we go over to the Video Filters. You can turn all of these off. They are made to correct bad footage, which you've probably already done in your video composing software..

Now, Video. These are the crucial settings. Use H.264. This is the format that gives you the highest quality compared to file size today. Quality. This is THE setting if you only want to set ONE. Set it to Avg Bitrate. This is the best one because if you have a lot of blacks in the picture (at night), you can optimize for that and get even smaller file sizes, but at other points in the movie you'll need more space, and so average is the best here. Notice that the size is in kbps which means kilo-bits-per-second. One kilo is 1000 (not 1024, that's kibibit.). One bit is 1/8 of a byte. So if you want a 10 second movie that's 1 MB, you want to enter 1 MB = (1024 * 1kB * 8bits) / 10s = 820 kbps.

Remember that the audio will also add up in addition to this. You just have to test some values until you get an acceptable quality that's small enough for you. If you enable 2-pass encoding, it will evaluate the movie twice, which means smaller file sizes compared to the quality, but it also means that you need more CPU (computer power) to watch it. So turn it on if you want to watch it on computers, leave it off if you want to watch it on mobile phones/tablets.

As for the audio, you just set it to what the output of your original file is. The sample rate of most movies is 48 kHz, but if you recorded in 44.1 kHz, set it to 44.1 kHz... As for the bit rate, 160 is acceptable, but if you have high quality mics and music, set it to 192. You can go higher than this, but as you want small file sizes, there is no need. You could also go lower depending on what size you want to end up with. But do a Preview and listen to the result until you are happy with it.

Then, the last thing you need to do is to tick off "Large file size". You need to have this on if the file is going to be larger than 4GB, but it will break compability with a lot of devices if you leave it on. Then you turn on "Web Optimized". It will make your movie better suited for progressive download so you can shuffle in the movie without downloading it all. But if you are planning for your users to download the whole movie as .mp4 and watch it on the computer, leave it off.

Now, set a file name and click Start. You can also Preview a small clip when you're testing the bitrate setting. Make sure that the extension is .mp4 and not .m4v. This isn't important, but you asked for .mp4, not .m4v. It's just the extension that is the difference anyway..

Hope you get your video squeezed down in size and yet keep the quality as high as possible! Good luck :)


Output file longer than source with ffmpeg I'm producing several versions of a clip (320x180 24 fps and aprox 2Mbps) compressed with h.264 with ffmpeg using Avanti. Each version has different framerate.
The video output has a slightly different duration than source:

source - 24 fps - 01:52
10 fps - 01:53
5 fps - 01:53
1 fps - 01:56
0.5 fps - 02:04

Results are the same if use Handbrake.
Why is this happening? I'm aware that there are several kind of frames in h.264, what is then ffmpeg doing when I set framerate? Is it setting keyframe interval?

My best guess is that this is due to the length of a group of pictures.  h.264 streams are composed of 3 different types of frames.  I frames, which contain the full frame, P frames which contain the information that has changed since the previous frame and B frames which are bi-directional and contain information about the changes between previous and future frames.

These frames are used in a fixed order that is repeated.  That repeated set is known as a group of pictures.  Typical GOP lengths are generally somewhere around 15 frames.  At 15 or more FPS, you'll always finish your GOP within one second.  At half a frame per second though, it can take up to 7 seconds after your last normal frame for the GOP to finish.

That still doesn't seem to fully explain your 12 extra seconds, but it is possible you are using a longer GOP.  I can't think of any other potential causes.

It is also worth noting that under the hood, Handbrake is just a UI for other encoding libraries, one of which is FFMPEG, so that may also help explain the consistent behavior as well.


Record and stream what's on my screen I'm trying to make a videogame review video, with the help of a friend. I'd rather have each of us in different places, so that I can record our audio independently. But then I have a bigger problem : I need to record my screen AND stream it live to my friend at the same time ! Is it feasible ?

I record using Fraps and I'm happy with it, and the stream doesn't have to be HD, just nice enough to see what is going on.

It is unlikely that you will be able to do that.  To stream a high quality video over a home Internet connection is going to take a LOT of complex compression.  Compression is both memory, CPU and possibly GPU intensive and running a game is also CPU, memory and GPU intensive.  This is why the files that FRAPS produces are so massive.  They apply minimal compression to make sure that it doesn't have more of an impact on the game than necessary.

What you could do is play the game, record the video portion, compress it (possibly to a really low quality version so that you can stream it quickly), stream it and record both of your dialog, then mix the dialog back with the higher quality version of the video.


Attach anchor point to other object I have a text and an arrow, and I want them to follow a simple path. I have animated the arrow with a few keyframes and I'm happy with it.

Now I would like my text to follow the exact same motion, so my idea would be to just somehow "attach" its anchor point to the arrow object, and turn on the animation button, and "voila".

Is that possible in any way? How do I achieve this without copy pasting the animation from the previous object ? What is the efficient and smart way to do so?

select both layers
press "p"
in the text layer, drag the whip (the little curly thing)
drop it on the position, or the anchor of the arrow, depending on which one has keyframes.
voila.

You can also adjust the anchor of the text to shift it and still make it follow the arrow.


CMOS readout time, frame rate, and delay between frames? I know that in CMOS sensor, the exposure is perform in line by line. I can assume that the delay between the exposure of two consecutive lines is equal the readout time for one line. So the readout time for the entire frame is

  Frame_readout = line_readout * number_of_line

I read in many articles in the Internet that the interval between frames is qual the frame readout time. So the frame rate is calculated as

  Frame_rate = 1/frame_readout

Therefore I assume that the delay between exposure of the last line of the 1st frame and the first line of the 2nd frame is equal the readout time for one line. It means that exposure in the sensor occurs from the first line to the last line and then come back to the first line (for next frame) and so on. And the delay between the exposures of two consecutive lines are always the same, whether these two exposures belong to the same frame or not.

Is my assumption correct? If not, what does contribute more delay for the exposure of the first line of the next frame? And what is the frame rate in that case?

Between frame is frame gap. In there, camera don't expose and coresponse it can not receive data at frame gap.
And i think, frame_readout include frame gap (time between frame adjacent)


Dot matrix with depth cloud transition effect Could someone point me in the right direction to reproducing this effect which takes an illustration, breaks it into circles of color similar to what an inkjet printer would do, and randomizes depth of each circle so you can watch the illustration dissolve as you zoom into it.

I'm using Premiere CC and have experience with Maya and 3DSMax.

poor's solution makes sense to me. Use Blender or equivalent to create a basic particle system with a distribution based on the illustration. Give the particles some jitter within z-space, match your shot between edited sequence and Blender and just move the camera along the z-axis into the particle field in Blender.

I was hoping for something built into After Effects, but while I think there would be some tinkering to get the initial settings looking good, this effect could be reproducible relatively easily across illustrations.


Best format (compression-wise) for Khan Academy Style video I wanted to do very crisp (maximum resolutions/MB) videos that uses a style similar to Khan Academy (blackboard style with several stroke colors throughout the video, maybe a few still pictures here and there) but needs to be lightweight in size. What's the best format to save these videos and how should they be compressed?

Format doesn't really matter, I usually use something fairly common like .mov or .mp4.  The more important thing is the codec.  Usually when exporting for online upload, H.264 is the most common codec because of its balance of size and quality.  For resolution, either 1080p or 720p.  Most people can't tell the difference between the two, but 1080p is the standard so I generally stick with that.

Another thing to keep in consideration is color bit-depth.  I'm not sure if the H.264 codec or different programs allow you to export with different bit-depths, someone else can comment on that (or downvote, whatever).  Assuming you can control bit-depth, I would go with 10.  Most consumer grade cameras only shoot with 8 bit-depth, but you can get higher with the animation depending on what you generate it in and how you render.  The extra bit-depth will improve the overall crispness.

One last thing to keep in mind is how you render the animations.  I know you probably intend to create 2D, but I'll describe my process with Maya which is 3D, and hope all the information pretty much transfers over.  First, export at slightly higher than 1080p.  I'd go with something like 2K.  The downscaling will improve your quality and it's just nice in general knowing you have that extra space to work with.  Don't enable motion blur, or at least keep it to a minimum.  Other than that, just experiment with the render settings to get the effect you want.


What video switching application is used for Apple's Keynotes? I know apple uses keynote for the presentation software for its keynotes, but I can't figure out what they use for their video switching for picture-in-picture display.

They are probably using some kind of a live switcher for that rather than software, but there is no real way to tell what they would be using.  To keep quality in live environments still generally requires using specialized hardware though.