In and Out points Lock for Clips

[caddaraman]

I have 17 subdirectories that contain a series of image sequences, ie: path_0001....path_0002 ...03 and so on. I am using tga (24bit) images rendered out of LW. Each subdirectory represents a clip in speededit and I have a single still image after each clip for a pause between the clips. The problem I am having is that the in and out points for the clips seem to get out of place and this causes black flashes and jerkyness to my otherwise fluid animation. I have timeline ripple turned on and my frames are correctly numbered and in order.I also disabled the 1 sec offset in preferences. It seems like to me, by having everything set up the way I do with the image sequences, I have absolutely no need for adjustment of my IN AND OUT points. I dont care how long this animation winds up being so total time is not important. I wish that there was a setting for clips to just play entire clip with no regard to in and out points. I have in my opinion allready determined my in and out points by doing this the way I desrcibed earlier, frame filename_0003 to filemane_ 5750. And a still image with duration of 10 seconds for a pause between moving clips. I have set this all up with 30fps as my frame rate. Maybe this is my problem, Should I have my image sequences length in frame numbers be some even multiple of 30? My project is set up 720x480 aspect 3x2 and 30fps hold on.........I will look at one of my subdirectories and see what the frame numbers are. Ok roll_1 is (0000 to 440).....roll_2 is (441 to 750)....roll_3 is (751 to 875) sorry for the long post but I need some advise on what I am doing wrong. It all seems simple enough that I should not be wasting my time on this as I have plenty more to do on this project. I have also assumed that with timeline ripple on that I can add some duration to my still image pauses and everything will just ripple on forward in time, I am also assuming that I can add some clips later and all will be well with timeline ripple turned on. I would love to here from someone out there on how they would resolve this. I have tried everything I know to try including carefully adding each clip and still image in exact order on the timeline, I place one on row 1 then row 2 then row1 then row 2.....if I place anything right up next to on same row I get some DVE that I never asked for. Can someone tell me how they would do this?

[DonAVP]

I am no expert in using this program but my guess would be to delete or move that single still image at the end of the clip. Is it numbered like all of the other sequence images? If you want to hold a frame or image for longer the a 30th of a second just zoom in and drag the image out as long as you want the image to show. Hope this helped?

Don

[caddaraman]

I simply want to render this compostion just like I added it from the add media form. I want my image sequences to play from begining to end, The frames are numbered as this is how an image sequence is achieved in speededit. After the image sequence I have added a still image with a 10 second duration, This image is not numbered as it is not part of the image sequence, it is merely a jpg of the last frame of the previous image sequence and it is the next item on the storyboard. This will create the illusion that the motion has stopped on the last frame of the previous image sequence. I just simply want speededit to play and render this with no adjustments to my in and out points. I have no need to adjust any in and out points, I have compiled all of this exactly the way I would like speededit to digest it. Any suggestions are wellcome. Thanks in advance.

[SBowie]

You know, Richard is a wonderful resource and obviously more patient than I - I have tried several times and cannot force myself to read the compacted paragraph at the top of the page .. use some white space, please!

That out of the way, I really do want to help, and if what little I gleaned of your goal is correct, you just want to drop a bunch of targa sequences (in their entirety) sequentially on the timline then add spacers between them - right?

If so, there are many approaches that should work. Here's just one, assuming consecutively named files (such as myfile_00030.tga, myfile_0031.tga, etc.) in each folder:

Set the Default Still Length in Prefs to 1 frame
Drag each folder in the desired order from the Filebin onto the Timeline or Storyboard (either one.) You can multi-select them to make this easy
In the storboard, drop an appropriate length spacer* beteen the folders (which will have been loaded as Subprojects)


* for a spacer, you could select something from the Effects Tab, Solid Colors.

I hope I've not misunderstood - if I did, sorry. That post is seriously hard to look at ...

[SBowie]

Oops, I just realized that the brightly colored avatar isn't Richard's - apologies, long day, and at a glance ... well, the rest it error.

[caddaraman]

Thanks Steve, I think you are right on target with what I am trying to do. I am trying this now, When I dropped the first directory of tga files onto the timeline speededit crashes. This was approx. 441 tga files that are only 942k in size.

I thought you could just add the first tga file in the sequence as file00001 and the entire directory would be looked at as a video clip. I have 5750 frames segregated into 18 different directories. When I read your response to my post, I thought that was the solution but when I drop or "ADD" as I have tried both, it crashes speededit.

Now can you suggest another of the many approaches please?

[SBowie]

Nothing wrong with either approach, really, though dropping them individually on the timeline like you initially tried takes a few extra steps (there are a half dozen ways to handle the auto-i/o offsets, but I won't go into that just now.)

It sounds, however, like you have some other stability issue going on (the approach I described works; I tested it before posting to make sure I didn't overlook anything important), perhaps something like a graphics card driver issue. Resolve that and life will be blissful.

What gfx card are you running? Has SE been ok otherwise until now, or is this a new installation?

[caddaraman]

Hold on, I forgot to do the sub project. I will report back as soon as I figure out this sub project thing, I am reading the manual on sub projects.

[caddaraman]

I am using ATI 9800 XT 256 mb ram, it works wonderfully with lightwave. The performance in speededit is very good however there is times when the user interface seems to be slow like selecting a directory and it seems like it should just snap like windows explorer, you know what I mean. Instead sometimes it is a little slugish.

[SBowie]

You can read that over, but you don't need to do so now ... as soon as you drag a folder full of targas onto the timeline it will become a SubP. Note I am saying, drag the folder itself - don't open it and drag the contents.

[caddaraman]

The first time that I tried to drag the folder it said invalid file name but now it seems to allow this.

[caddaraman]

Spoke to soon, speededit just crashed. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. I have been stumped with this for a day and a half. This needs to be finished in a few days, and I really can't thank you enough.

[caddaraman]

This is 2nd installation, I do not remember why I installed it again but I am pretty sure that was because it was crashing. I also made the mistake of installing it the second time without uninstalling the first install. That was a bad experience because all of the DVE's and such are evidently marked read only. And that caused the second install to hang.

So maybe this is the 2nd and a half ***** install as I had to go into the program directory and manually delete the DVE's and such.

[caddaraman]

ATI Radeon 9800 XT

Driver version 8.203.0.0 12/11/2005

I am going to do a fresh install, but first I will uninstall speededit. Is any need to reinstall the content disk 2 ?

[caddaraman]

I will first download and install the latest drivers from ATI or is it ATI/AMD now, Please do not leave town or go very far away. I will report results in about 30 minutes depending on how long it takes me to install the new catalyst driver and re-install speededit. Stay Tuned:thumbsup:

[SBowie]

Sorry, mate - it's pushing 11:00 PM here - c'ya tomorrow. Word of advice, lose the ATI card, buy something like an nVidia 9750 first thing tomorrow .. a lesser one if that's all you can find. Your issue could be due to a corrupted install, but it could as easily be the card, too.

[SBowie]

Is any need to reinstall the content disk 2 ?I haven't actually got my boxed copy yet, but if that's the content and DVE's, then no.

[caddaraman]

Thanks a million Steve, I will post something tomorrow, I have updated the drivers for the 9800 XT and have uninstalled speededit including the manual removal of the DVE stuff, I am currently defragmenting my hard drives and look forward to installing speededit early in the morning. I'll turn the lights off.

[caddaraman]

Something else that may be causing me problem, My naming convention for the frame sequence ie: path_3_0000.tga (first) path_3_0440.tga (last)

After folder was dropped into storyboard speededit randomly would give an error message "invalid file specified" and other times it would let me drag the folder in, when it appeared to be successful (allowed me to add folder) when I played this one frame of the storyboard, it would play the entire 441 frame sequence 441 times all within the one folder.

I have updated my video drivers, defragmented HD and re-installed speededit and I am still having this agonizing hitch. I wish I had named my frames differently when I rendered them out of lightwave, something like name_001 without the 3 and the underscore ie: path_3_001 I think the numrical prefix 3 may be the problem, I hope so anyway.

I know it may be the ATI 9800 XT card, however I have used speededit with this card and even rendered out many drafts of this project to many different formats. Frankly I think my naming convention is the culprit.

My problem has been with the in and out points of my clips. I know I can Add the first image path_3_0000 to my story and the entire clip plays just fine, it's when I start seeing these black flashes and surges between my moving clips and my still image pause frame that I know the in and out points have wiggled around and about.

What do you think about the way I have named my frames out of lightwave path_3_0000 and path_3_0440 Could this be the problem?

[SBowie]

Well, I haven't performed any extensive testing, but just created one folder with files named as myfile_1_000.tga, etc., and it loaded onto the timeline without incident.

[caddaraman]

Good morning Steve, glad to hear from you. I just added roll2 folder to timeline and it took about 30 - 45 seconds maybe a little more to load, and it played the sequence fine but the same number of times that there are frames in that folder.

It seems to be treating each frame as a whole sequence kind of like the way it is suppose to treat a single name0001 insert from the folder, you know when you only add the first file in the folder.

[caddaraman]

You need to change myfile_1_000.tga to myfile_3_0000.tga you see the numrical prefix 3 is what I think is the hitch.

[Pete Draves]

sequences work funny. I have seen the sequence play if frame 15 is put on a timeline then the sequence starts on frame 15.
The best way to load a sequence is to put only the first frame on the timeline and let the machine do its' thang.
Hope this helps
Pete

[SBowie]

How very odd - well, at least it didn't crash - but this sort of behavior leads one to muse that perhaps it is this tendency to 'overload' that was causing the crashes in the first place.

That is certainly not what should happen. The new subproject, if it contains, for example, 400 files, should be 400 frames long - period.

This does not seem like an issue that would be related to a gfx card problem, and yet as it does not occur here, it is hard to account for the strange behavior. I'd suggest a configuration cleaning, but as you've just reinstalled, that doesn't seem worthwhile. The only thing that comes to mind is that there may be some difference between our two version - I am still running the download - and you may have hit upon some previously undetected bug that infects the current release. I do hope this is not correct.

Could you, perhaps, post a single folder (zipped) somewhere that we could download and test it?

[SBowie]

You need to change myfile_1_000.tga to myfile_3_0000.tga you see the numrical prefix 3 is what I think is the hitch.Perhaps, but isolated within a subproject as they are, and having a different path to the files, I don't see why this should cause any particular confusion, unless SE is simply stumbling over that particular naming convention (which it does not seem to do for me.)

[SBowie]

Oh wait - you're right. I created a new sequence with the "3" as you suggested, and got the same odd behavior. Well, this should be easy then - there are any number of free renaming tools you can download and use to resolve this.

That said, proceed with caution when renaming - some of these will get you in a world of trouble if not used judiciously. I saw a reference somewhere in the last few weeks to one that seemed very good, and permitted a dummy 'test run' that showed the output of a renaming operation beforehand. This would allow you to avoid any possibility of accidentally overwriting files. I don't know if I saw that in this forum or another, sorry - maybe someone will chime in with a recommendation.

[caddaraman]

Steve I will try to zip some of these, I dont know where I could post it though and really I think if you have duplicated my scenario with the same naming convention path_3_0000 to path_3_whatever we are on to something. What did you get ? Did the sequence repeat itself the same number of times that there are frames?

Mine is not crashing now, I can load the folder but it plays the sequence multiple times. the same number as there are frames in folder.

[SBowie]

Did the sequence repeat itself the same number of times that there are frames?Exactly - this is clearly your last remaining obstacle, andperhaps can even be thought of as a bug (or restriction, at the least.) Find a good renamer, and you're home free I believe.

[caddaraman]

Steve I tried to do a batch rename (select all files in explorer) and they are now toast, However, I have them backed up on another computer thank goodness. It has been a pleasure conversing with you and I really appreciate your tenacity and concern in this matter. No Nada Never use a numerical prefix in file sequence again. Tough Lesson learned here for me.

[caddaraman]

Now I may still need to lock my in and out points after this is resolved and I do believe we have resolved this. How is the best way for me to lay this onto the timeline or storyboard and still be able to come back and adjust duration on still image?

I want all of this butted up tight, begin frame to end frame then my pause still image with variable duration. I may want to add a sequence clip later or adjust duration of my pause frame (still) I know there is a foolproof way to do this, do I turn on timeline ripple or not ?

If I add a sequence, I will add it before page and would like remaining story to shift or slide forward without messing up the in and out points. If I adjust duration, I want everything to slide forward to.

[SBowie]

The loss of those files is exactly what I was trying to warn you about - glad you had them backed up.

The easiest way by far to manage this is the Storyboard - just do the steps exactly as I described earlier, and your result will look like this image below - I simply multi-selected the folders, dropped them on the storyboard, and dropped in my spacers. To add another folder earlier on, or shuffle the order, I need only drag. It could not be simpler, no need to lock anything.

[caddaraman]

OK Steve, and again thanks for all your help.

[SBowie]

A few parting remarks, then, that may help in future:

First, note that you can use the Toolshed's Video>Maximize Lengths function to extend a bunch of clips to their full natural lengths. As well, you can do the same thing to individual clips simply by highlighting it in the timeline, and pressing "g" on the keyboard. Take care!