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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.

Welcome to the Video Production SE, @Bernard! You are encouraged to show your appreciation with votes, not just comments. If this answer adequately, well, answers, your question, you should mark it as accepted.


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Video sorting workflow
In windows 7, I used to use windows explorer to click on a video, press the play button, and decide if it was worth keeping. If it was worth keeping, I'd move it to a "use" folder.
However, Windows 10 explorer doesn't seem to support this play feature. Without this function in Windows 10 explorer, I have to open many videos in a media player to view them, find the filename of the one I'm viewing, then go back to explorer to move to the "use" folder.
1) I've looked for a way of re enabling this feature in explorer, but don't seem to be able to do this. Is it possible?
2) Is there other software that's a file manager and viewer combined? I can not seem to find one.

Interesting workflow +1 for showing me a really easy way to flick through videos.

what you are looking for is a DAM (Digital Asset Management) software. There are many many options available some free some paid.
Most NLE's have this built in, again there are free and paid versions

Thanks for your suggestion, however, I'm keen just to have a file manager type application with a built in play video option, so I don't have to open up a seperate video player to quickly sort the good and bad clips.

Directory Opus can preview videos inline, but it's paid.

Don't be fooled into thinking that one piece of DAM software will solve all of your Digital Asset Management problems.  That's equivalent to saying that one piece of IT software will answer all of your Information Technology problems.  DAM is a profession that's large enough to support an entire industry.  If you don't believe me, check out the size of their conferences.  https://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/22-conferences-for-dam-professionals-to-attend-in-2018/

You can keep the workflow you described in Windows 10.
Firstly, you will need to set Windows Media Player as the default video player for that file type:

To change the default, click "Choose another app" and then select "Always use..." at the bottom:

Next, enable the "Preview Pane" in windows explorer:

Now, when you click on a video file of the right file type, it will be playable in the preview pane:

Note: this feature only works for local files.  Cloud files such as those on onedrive / dropbox that aren't downloaded won't show up.
In regards to your second point, if you use any Adobe programs you may find Adobe Bridge bundled with them.  Bridge is an Adobe type file explorer that can natively open many files, and also open them directly in the relevant Adobe editing software.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


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Creating series of instagram videos with the same templates in premieme pro
I am a content provider and have an instagram account with 86K followers. I need to upload at least 4 videos everyday. Until now, I created about 300 videos. All of them have been edited in just one premiere project. My problem is that the more videos that I add to this project, the slower it gets, logarithmically.
One solution is to create each video in its own project. While this works from the point of performance, it poses a new problem in reusing common resources across projects.
So, my question is how do people manage large numbers of similar videos for social media?

I would recommend creating a master template project which is setup with all of your folder hierarchies and the common assets you need to access for the edits.
You could save this project as "Master Project Template", and save it within it's own folder with all of the assets, or if the common assets you access take up a lot of disk space, you may want to have two folders- 1.) Master Project File, 2.) Assets. You'll want a 3rd folder where you have all of your unique project specific assets; 3.)Instagram Videos, with subfolders for each day, using a simple naming convention YYMMDD.
Regardless of whether it's one or two folders; to make sure you don't have issues linking project assets down the road if you migrate to a new system or drive; I'd set them up on a drive so they are one level above the root directory for that drive:
D:\Instagram Videos\Master Project Template\Master Project Template.prproj
D:\Instagram Videos\Master Project Assets\ (Here you can host all of your common assets in one folder or organized into multiple folders. I personally recommend if using multiple folders, to name your Premiere Pro Bins identically to the naming convention and folder structure so what's on the drive in your assets folder, can be found in the exact corresponding system folder).
Now that you've set up a "Master Project Template", you'll want to make your first "Project".
Copy the Master Project Folder, and paste it into the same directory. When prompted by Windows, select create a 2nd copy. Now you'll have a 2nd Copy with "copy(1)" added to the end of the folder name.
Now right click the "copy" and rename the folder.
Just my recommendation, but create a folder naming scheme either using a simple three or four digit numeric prefix "0001 - Instagram Videos", or use YYMMDD (Not DDMMYY), so you can sort the list of project folders by date correctly: "181013 - Instagram Videos".
You now have a new project folder which regardless if your assets are located in the master project folder, or in a sidecar folder (same root directory), which you can open and create your videos from.
You can choose how many videos per "master folder" you want to create, perhaps 1 folder per week, or month.
Final thought, for your master project "project", set up all of your timelines, including nested timelines, with all of your audio filters already applied, your adjustment layers already in place, etc, so you just have to drop your video assets in.
I would also recommend creating a simple TXT file in the master project folder named "README.txt" which you can write notes/add info on updates to the master project folder, such as adding assets, etc.
You'll want a 3rd folder in the root directory that contains your assets that are not common; organized likely by folder using a simple YYMMDD naming scheme. It would look like this:
D:\Instagram Videos\Online Assets\181013
D:\Instagram Videos\Online Assets\181014
D:\Instagram Videos\Online Assets\181015
This will keep everything organized, it will keep your Premiere Pro project file lightweight so you don't have performance issues, it will allow you to easily update the "Master" project file at any time, which for each time you copy for a new batch of videos, would thus include the new version with new added common assets.
Hope this helps.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Make video from .png files in Hitfilm Express
I'm trying to make a video in Hitfilm Express.
I've imported a folder full of .png files which were rendered in Blender.
I then dragged them into the editor > Video 1 section.
Instead of playing 29.97fps, Hitfilm is playing one single .png image per ~5 seconds.
What am I doing wrong?

You can import the folder as an image sequence. To do so, click on the small arrow next to import and choose import as image sequence. Then choose the folder that contains your frames and click ok. You might have to adjust the framerate to match your project in the media settings.

By default, images put into hitfilm won't be single frames, a good way to counteract this is by setting your scrubber on the timeline to a frame after the first image, cutting it and dragging the next image to it.
In my experience, this is tedious and there are editors built more specifically for this task, such as ffmpeg.
There is also the option to export directly to the mp4 format. (here are some instructions): https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/34586/save-as-a-video-as-mp4


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How to flip a clip in iMove 10.1.9 for OSX
It seems I can find an answer to this question for every version of iMovie except 10.1.9. There is no Adjust menu in the upper menu bar. There is no Advanced Tools option in the preferences. The only menu that appears when I drop the clip over another is the green screen/cutaway menu. I'm assured that all the advanced tools you need will simply appear when you need them -- ain't happening.
I simply want to flip a clip shot upside down on a GoPro. Surely this is within the capabilities of iMovie?

To the right of the CROP menu, there are options to rotate left and rotate right.


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How can I delete ALL duplicated frames with ffmpeg and mpdecimate?
I have CCTV footage exported from a motion activated camera system. When the camera is not active the exported file keeps time by overlaying a black rectangle on the most recent captured image, and then repeating that single frame until there is action again. (Kinda dumb.)
I want to get rid of all of the no-action frames. I have successfully used mpdecimate in the past to remove duplicate frames, but that always keeps the first frame in the duplicate sequence. In my case I want the first frame gone too.
Is there a straightforward solution to this?

That first frame isn't a duplicate, since due to the black rect, it is different than the previous frame. Is the black rect always drawn in a fixed position and size each time?

It is. It's automatically inserted as a timekeeping placeholder over the static "frame where movement last ended." If it would be helpful to see, I can upload a portion of the clip for you to see. Thank you for your help.


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How to decrease resolution from 1920x1080 to 720?
I have After Effects CC running on Windows 10.
I have this template with resolution of 1920x1080. After rendering with this resolution my video player keeps on buffering, possibly because the resolution is really too high.
So when I try to render, where settings should I go to change resolution?

Your video player might keeps buffering for other reasons, try this before changing resolution:

Video player might be buffering due to a huge file size, especially if you render as AVI. Try H.264 and see how it goes.
Video player might be buffering due to the player itself, try other video players on your PC, you might also try "Media Player Classic" here its light weight and free. Most probably its your PC that can't handle the file.

To change resolution in After Effects do this:

In the composition you want to render, select all layers and Right Click > Pre-compose.
Click composition in the upper panel and chose Composition Settings > Change Width & Height and click ok.
Scale down your Pre-composed layer to composition size and render.

I would reccomend downscaling after, maybe using handbrake. Also, when you upload the video to YouTube, it may just be your pc that lags.

Not a bad recommendation, but if it will only ever be 1280 then why not save render time and disk space by just rending to 1280?

As mentioned by other users I don't think down-res'ing is the right option. But I thought I'd chime in to at least answer the question directly so you have that data too!
The easiest way to down-res the clip would be to take the composition you are rendering and place it into a precomposition by dragging it onto the comp icon at the bottom of the project panel. Then open the new composition and under the menu bar click Composition>Composition Settings and change the width and height to 1280 x 720 respectively. And lastly select the one layer in your new composition and right-click it, then choose Transform>Fit to Comp.

Try reducing the file's data rate, not just it's resolution.  If your data rate's set too high (and a lot of programs' default settings are higher than they need to be), that'll cause your player to buffer more frequently without necessarily increasing image quality enough to justify the choppy playback.

Adobe Media Encoder, as a Standalone App, Can Re-Render Videos
When using Adobe CC for video (After Effects, Premiere Pro, etc.), as part of the rendering process, the base program passes the files through Adobe Media Encoder (AME). The AME app can also be used on its own to fix your videos after an initial rendering:

Open AME,
drop in the file,
adjust the video settings, especially the data-rate; and
export the file.


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ffmpeg overlay tranparency video loop
I'm trying to superimpose a transparent video on another video. If the original video has a longer duration than the transparent video, then the transparent video should be looped until the end of the original video.
I wrote the following operation, but the transparent video does not repeat.
How can I change this ffmpeg command to make the overlay video loop?
-i preresult.mp4 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -i Overlay.webm -filter_complex ""[1]loop=0,setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB[bg];[0][bg]overlay=shortest=1:x=(W-w)/2:y=(H-h)/2"" -preset ultrafast output.mp4

If you're using a recent git build, use stream_loop and drop the loop filter:
-stream_loop -1 -c:v libvpx-vp9 -i Overlay.webm -filter_complex "[0][1]overlay=...

For older builds, you'll have to supply the loop filter with full details,
[1]loop=-1:C:0,setpts=N/FRAME_RATE/TB[bg]

where C is a value greater than the frame count of the file.


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Decreasing levels of other channels when voice channel comes in
I'm recording commentary over a video, and when I'm talking in the commentary I'd like the other channel's audio to get quieter to compensate for my voice. If anyone is familiar with discord, I know that when talking to people in a group chat it makes other programs quieter, if that helps make sense of what I'm trying to do.
I'm really inexperienced with video editing, but I have access to audacity, Adobe audition, and premiere. I'm also open to other programs (free or cheap) if they can do this easier.

"Ducking" is the canonical term for what you want, usually done with a compressor in the main program chain with the sidechain taken from your mic channel.
Audition 2018 has a auto ducking feature that may be of use, but really anything that lets you drop an audio compressor across the program bus and sidechain it to the mic input will work.

You could also keyframe the volume in premiere so that in decreases/increases when you need it to.

Can you be more specific about what the OP should do?


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Example of film/tv scene where visual triggers audio only flashback?
I am planning a scene where the lead character sees a mother and child, it triggers a memory from his childhood. Instead of flashing back showing him as a child with his mum, we thought just have the audio over the top would work with an echo or other effect etc.  Does anyone know of any examples of this in other movies, as our DOP is
struggling to visualise how the final would work? I am sure I have seen it in other movies.

I can't think of specific examples, but what I can "see and hear in my mind" is:

a single shot of the character who's having the flashback
the actor's face is reacting to the audio in the flashback
the camera slowly zooms or trucks in on the actor's face
sounds in the present-time scene have become quieter and/or muffled
the audio flashback may have an echo or reverb added to it
there may be visual flashbacks subtly transposed over the present-time shot

I guess that this all depends on the nature of the flashback.
If it's something sort of happy or sinister that we're going to dwell on (as a viewer), then (as Brett said) slow is the way to go (really play on those reactions - dolly zoom if you want to play the Spielberg card).
If you're going for maximum impact and a shocking/scary reaction from the character, I'd play this out quicker - smash cut from the character's face to a CU/XCU of the parent & child then back again (throw some Dutch in there for memes), perhaps some flashes of light and the character visibly moves their head/flinches when they hear the sound, as though it's disorienting. Make the memory noises nice and loud or cutting - again, as Brett said, you'll need to keep them higher in the mix, probably by lowering other noises or having them combine.
I think Sherlock does stuff like this when he's in the throes of cogitation, perhaps some scenes from Hannibal... I'll try and think of some more examples.

@Jamie & @Brett have very insightful answers. From the perspective of script writing and production notes, I have nothing to add.
It seems to me that your question is more about "what it would look like to the audience" instead of on a script.

Have a look at this youtube video.
Interview: Catatonic Schizophrenic

this is a WA shot up to about 2:07. Notice how his body is very still, but his eyes move during the pauses.
After 2:07, it's a CU of his head. Notice his face & eyes during his pauses before answering a question.

What I see:
Your character, during the "auditory flash back" would be, effectively catatonic. As (s)he remembers the past experiences, this is the kind of behavior the body would naturally do. Eyes darting about & focused on infinity, slight head movements & facial expressions. It is even possible that (s)he would mimic the posture of the Mother and then mimic the child. Perhaps even mouthing the words.
As you can see, though, it could be a bit boring for the audience if the flashback lasted for more than several seconds, so something needs to happen visually.
$0.02


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

You need to re-encode all vids to crop the bottom 100 px - you have to decide which codecs you want to use.... and think about the filters - this depends on the sourcefile.... The ffmpeg code is:
ffmpeg -i INPUTFILE -ss 00:00:04 -map v -vf "crop=out_h=in_h-100:y=0" -c:v libx264 -c:a copy OUTPUTFILE

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

First of all, a big thank you for helping me! Now, as I said I'm totally new at this. To use this code, I have to put it in the Ffmpeg console? If I put it in parameter, I get an error. I suppose INPUTFILE refers to the name of the file. I see you mention iterate the inputiles by a fo-loop. How do I do this. Also, thank you for your patience with me :D

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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Save caption style / create preset
I'm doing a lot of small videos, often using the same open captions styles. But for every video, I have to re-enter every parameter (font, font size, color, etc.), repeating those steps for ever caption object. (I use different captions objects for different persons talking, simply changing the color.)
That means that I sometimes have to open the very same parameters 4 times, with the only difference being the color.
Is there a faster way to do that? I would have assumed you can save a "caption style preset" or something similar, but I could not find such a feature. Any idea?

That would depend on what software you're using - would you be able to clarify?
In Premiere Pro you can use Essential Graphics to drive your captions (there is a number of captions presets in the EG panel already, just go to Essential Graphics\Captions and Subtitles and select the one that best suits your video) - the editor has plenty of useful options and you can save your styles as 'Masters' and reuse that style for each subsequent video. Alternatively, you can create your own Essential Graphics template for captions via After Effects to have full control over them.
More info on Adobe's help site.

thanks for your answer ; sorry I did not mention I was using Premiere, because I added the Premiere tag and I thought it would be obvious, but it's actually not. So yes, I am indeed using Adobe Premiere Pro :) I'll check it out after work and come back to you ! Thanks a lot for your answer, it seems like it's what I need

Just a note, I'm not using Title objects to caption my video, I am using the Captions tool.

You did tag it, I'm sorry I missed that :D
If you're in a position to update your Premiere Pro, I'd urge you to do so because the Essential Graphics panel does give you some great options for titles of all kinds. If you're worried about overwriting your current version, you can install an additional, newer, version as opposed to updating directly (you may know this already but, just in case!).

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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Controlling animation presets programmatically
Is there a way to control whether or not an animation preset it applied to an item programmatically through After Effects?

Let's say, for example, I have some sample text, that just says "hello world".
I then go and drag & drop a "slide & swoop" onto the hello world text.
I then add another transition, say a 'slide straight' from the effects & presets
I then want to add a 'slider' control to the essential graphics panel, so if slider is set 0, none of the effects are applied. If it is to 1, it applies animation effect #1, and if it is set to to 2, it shows animation #2?

Yes, that's perfectly possible, though it might be more work than just doing the animation yourself.
You'll have to find all of the changes that the presets apply to the layer and adapt them with expressions that respond to the value of the slider. To find all of the changed properties of a layer use uu (double tap the u key). You'll have to apply preset 1, find all of the changes it makes, and write an expression that mimics them, then revert the layer and apply preset 2 and do the same thing. Then in your expression for each changed property you'd have:
var ctrl = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
if (ctrl === 0){
    value; //use the current value of the property
} else if( ctrl === 1){
    // the expression that mimics preset 1
} else {
    // the expression that mimics preset2
}

hmm, I 'think' I understand what you are saying (I do programming, but new to 'adobe' programming)... you mean - there isn't just an easy way to say to use the, let's say "stretch wipe" preset, and just say
if (ctrl == 1) {jump to preset 1}
if (ctrl == 2) ... etc
but rather, I'd have to figure out the coding/logic for each individual preset, and put that into my parantheses?

Presents are a way of applying pre configured changes to properties, animation and effects, so they change different things. So yes, you'd have to reverse engineer the preset and use expressions for each parameter the preset affects


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After Effects - EG Template: Of 2 keyframes I only want to change the 2nd in EG, help!
I'm trying to create a new Essential Graphics template in After Effects.
I have an animation (at its most basic, it's a rectangle that expands from a set, small size to - hopefully! - a user defined size) that can be controlled by moving 4 sliders (it took some fiddling about but I've got a Top Left Null and Bottom Right Null and the 4 sliders control their positions (TL X & Y and BR X & Y), which - in turn - determine the positions for the four corners of the rectangle).
However, having begun setting up the template, I'm slightly worried that this is not going to work. Moving the slider control from within the template window just sets new keyframes (so the animation is all over the place) and, thinking about it now, even if using the template in PP doesn't create new keyframes, how will the EG panel know which keyframe (if any) to affect?
I guess what I'm really wondering is if we can, using an expression, cause the slider controls to affect only the LAST keyframe of an animation (I'm no expression whizz but I can't find anything like that out there following some extensive Googling and I cannot figure out a way to write this myself).
Also, if you think there might be an easier way to do any of this, please let me know!

To use the keyframed value of a property in an expression, there is a value attribute. And properties also have the key() method to access their keys, as well as the numKeys attribute to find out how many keys the property has. Lastly, there's the global time attribute.
So now we've assembled the list of ingredients, here's how you could put it all together. This expression will use the keyframed value up to the last keyframe, and then hand over the reins to the result of an expression, in this case the value of the slider:
// link to your slider, or any calculated value:
var sliderVal = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
var lastKey = key(numKeys);
if (time <= lastKey.time){ // before the last keyframe
  // use the keyframe value before the last keyframe
  value;
} else {  // after the last keyframe
  // control using the sliders, or any expression
  sliderVal;
}

Of course this will jump from the keyframed value to the expression value instantly at the last keyframe. You can interpolate between the values by using one of the interpolation functions. So to interpolate between the keyframed value and the expression value between the second last keyframe and the last keyframe, you might use:
var sliderVal = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
var k2 = key(numKeys); //last key
var k1 = key(numKeys - 1); //second last key
// linear can take 5 arguments:
// time, start time, end time, start val, end val
// and interpolates between start val and end val
linear(time, k1.time, k2.time, value, sliderVal)

You could also take advantage of the ease(), easeIn() or easeOut() interpolation functions, which you can just substitue for linear().

Wow - that's amazing, thank you so much! I'm not in a position to try this out at the moment but, when I do, I'll absolutely let you know how it goes. Thanks again!


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Adding graphics into video real time (lightweight)
In a nutshell I want to place a basic object, specifically a line, over a live feed of video from camera.
Use case scenario: Simple camera connected to Arduino is capturing scenery which is displayed on LCD screen with simple line placed in fixed "height" of the screen.
I have done practically no video production before.
I tried searching but everything I found was either big hardware solution or it would not be possible to run on Arduino.
I would be really grateful if someone can give me some clues.

I really doubt that an arduino is going to have enough grunt to do this. LCD screens also have a very low refresh rate which makes them unsuitable for video. This sounds more like a job for raspberry pi and something like opencv

I agree with @stib. Most of the hardware only solutions for video are done with FPGA, DSP, or ASIC for a reason.

Raspi with OBS could work

I doubt an Arduino or Raspberry Pi solution would be practical, or even possible, due to the limited processing power of those units and the processing power required to do what you want to do: Add an Overlay
Overlays are acheived using Alpha Channels. An Arduino, may be able to handle video, do certain encoding, input/output functions, but adding an overlay which requires the use of a larger bit-depth and different approach to color space due to the 4th Channel: The Alpha Channel, in addition to the Primary RGB Channels.
Your best bet is a simply HDMI capture card, or using a GPU that has HDMI capture, in conjunction with a software package like Livestream, which can handle overlays, logos, etc. They have different options, but their Producer / Studio Software, which goes from free to paid plans depending on usage and features, can do what you want.
There are others out there. You can also look at Bandicam. Bandicam is a great Screen Capture application, and it may have the abilty to apply its features, such as adding overlays to its recordings, to a camera input feed.
Its also very user friendly. Supports H264 and other codecs, and is very affordable (I think $30).
Worth looking at.


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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.

What is your budget? What type of material are you shooting? What are you then doing with that material?

Thanks for your reply. just ordinary family video quite a lot of which happens to be outside so is affected by wind noise on the built in mike. I have seen external mikes with a wind. sock just not sure of which to go for. I edit my video on a laptop then output to my TV. I don't want to spend silly money but would invest a reasonable amount to solve this problem

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.


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Problems editing smartphone clips. Audio seems robotic after saving in movie maker
thank you for clicking on my thread!
I've recorded a video with my phone (android), after trying an edit with movie maker (Weather I click "Save for youtube" or "Recommended for this project"), the audio seems choppy here and there. It's almost as if it's a robot speaking. If I say, "hello", it will be "H-e-e-e-ello". Also, it seems like it's echoing, a bit, tho that may be because of the source file.
When I try to save it in a different format, the problem strangely enough shifts. I mean, sometimes this part of the video is affected but another one isn't, whereas at other times, that part is affected but this one is not. It appears to be random. However, the image looks good and the audio is synched in.
What can I do to fix this issue? The original file does not have this problem.
I don't know what else I can say, except that I will add that it's frustrating that youtube removed it's free video editor, because for a beginner as myself, that thing was a godsend!

Would you consider using other free or paid software? Windows Movie Maker is quite old and has been discontinued for some time so it is likely that you will run into incompatibilities with newer phones.

Oh... hey, I didn't know that, thank you for informing me. Yes, that would make sense. I suppose that I will try next time.

Check your original & edited video file, right click on it, check for details.
The problem is maybe movie maker software already accidently reduced your audio kHz... Or your video original speed is 24 fps, you save it as 30 fps maybe (this wrong setting will appear double outlines). (These mistakes are very common happened around beginners.)
Try to use save as, select save movie/project as, .mp4 or h264, rename it, this setting will not reduce your video too much, you can publish it on youtube too, just a bit longer the time taken, some use save for High Definition for publish video on youtube.

Umm... I figured out now, issue is about Web reduced your Audio KHz, you need to correctly set Video & Audio Export setting for Web. .mp4 (H264) is the best format for web included Video and Audio. Set it to Published for Web or Youtube.
More technically, is Software "Recommended for This Project Editing Feature" auto-removed your Audio's noise, after noise removed, audio will become robotic. And, something is low spec.
Youtube Auto-edit is really awesome for People, but only who studied Video & Audio Editing know what the problem was and editing it, fix it. I really answered all issue why Audio like these, you won't understand it because it need to manual editing. I can't edit it for you here, I'm apologized. You can find Online Video Editing Service Designers edit for you. I just can answer why it happened.

Hey, thanks for your reply... no, the khz are the same, but where it says "audio transmission" it's different... the original file is 128 and this one is 179.
I mean the video looks good enough, it's the audio that's the problem really!
Thanks for the help man, a good day to you.


text:
Converting a PDF slide show to a video file
I have a LaTeX Beamer presentation that I output into a PDF slide show. I want to turn into a video file (with the ability to add sound later) so that I can generate animations from Beamer . How can one do this? I've tried importing the PDF to iMovie, but the quality of the frames drops dramatically.

What are the contents of the PDF? Do you have access to the original material used to create the PDF?

@MichaelLiebman The PDF file was made in the LaTeX document class Beamer. I have the .tex file from which the slides come from. My goal is to use Beamer for frame-by-frame animations.

Convert the presentation to a series of image files. The classic image format for that is a TARGA sequence. But you can use any format that your LaTeX tool chain can output and a video generator can import. For generating the image sequence, there are several vector and raster formats that LaTeX can export. You can then use ffmpeg to turn the image sequence into video.
As a reminder, be sure to set the aspect ratio of your presentation appropriately.

You could convert the PDF file to PNGs (use density 144 for double the size):
convert -density 72 in.pdf out-%04d.jpg

Then import the images in any decent video editor, add a sound track, fine tune the result and export/render the video.


text:
ffmpeg export video to 1 image
In the process of creating a preview of what ffmpeg, is streaming i came up with this command:
ffmpeg -i colony.mkv -c:v libx264 -f mpegts udp://127.0.0.1:1234 -vf fps=1 -s 320x240 d:\preview\out%d.jpg

This is great, but it is outputting to a series of image files that are difficult to track:out1.jpg, out2.jpg ... etc...
When i remove the %d parameters, it throws an error saying
[image2 @ 00000162c6a3d840] Could not get frame filename number 2 from pattern 'd:\preview\out.jpg' (either set update or use a pattern like %03d within the filename pattern)
av_interleaved_write_frame(): Invalid argument

Is there a way to do this please?

You have to use the update option.
-vf fps=1 -s 320x240 -update 1 d:\preview\out.jpg

This will rewrite onto the same file.
To avoid a possible read op in the middle of the updating, you can add -atomic_writing 1

Sorry to bother you again .. But with this command when i put a logo (an overlay) it stops generating the preview image any specific reason ?? i am using a filter_complex to overlay the logo as i am using a subtitle also and a banner .. but with everything the preview works except when i use the logo overlay .. it stops generating the preview or the second output

Open a new Q with the new command

i did .. just did


text:
I can't use more than one color in the same material in C4D
I am new to the 3d world and Cinema 4d software.
When I try to use gradient color and apply the material to a sphere, for example, it just uses the first color in the gradient and ignores any other colors. What am I doing wrong?

Moved from C4D a while back but It could be something to do with UV projection being set to a surface that isn't there.  Another reason for this could be flipped normals (in this case you would have to flip them back.  Have a look in the UV settings and change the projection type.  I'm not sure this is a lighting issue, you could always add a light to the scene but I'm under the impression there is ambient lighting by default.... Hope this helps.

This answer is correct.  If you change the black end of the gradient to another color, you'll see it's not the lights.

Cinema4D is not one of the 3d animation packages I know how to use, however it looks like you don't have any lighting in the scene.  Without lighting, there is nothing to illuminate your geometry and it will still show up as black unless your particular software has a default ambient light (some do, some do not).  I'd try adding some lighting to the scene and see if that makes it work.
My guess is that it isn't showing up on the material editor as it probably isn't doing texture mapping in that editor.  I doubt the sphere you see in the editor is actually your geometry.  Most 3d software just displays the material information on a sphere to let you see the behavior of the material and texture mapping doesn't make a ton of sense there since texture mapping will depend greatly on position of the texture on the actual geometry.


text:
How does speeding up / slowing down audio with FFMpeg work technically?
I've been looking into FFmpeg's tools for speeding up and slowing down portions of video using their built in filters (such as here). For video speed filtering it discusses a little bit about you can change the PTS of each video frame to affect its playback rate, but how is this similarly done for audio?


text:
After Effects P/B-frames aka motion vectors for Datamosh replication
I am trying to replicate Datamoshing with After Effects. I'm close but I need to link the displacement map to motion vectors rather than just colors and brightness values. I know AE recognizes motion vectors as it uses them for motion blur. If there is a way to extract and move P/B-frames and apply them to other I frames that would be perfect but I haven't found that yet.
I figure if i could translate motion vectors into shades of black and white i could apply the displacement map to that layer using luminosity. Is there any way to do that? Perhaps extracting motion blur as a separate layer with an alpha channel?

The easiest way to get this kind of effect is to use Glitch - a plugin from aescripts.  It's not going to let you properly combine two sources, but it will go a long way towards giving you "broken" looking digital video...


text:
What's the difference between open Subtitles and open captions in Premiere Pro CC 2018?
The only difference I've spotted is that you can edit the font in open captions but not in open subtitles. But i'm sure there's another point to it.

ok, I found out that the difference is in the export options of this type of caption, aside from in editing the subtitles. You can export open subtitles as a sidecar file with the same formats you get in teletext, while you can only burn open captions into video.

Untrue. You can export open captions: Go to Export > Caption. You can choose between STL and XML.

This bothered me too. From what I see, "Open subtitling" is a special EBU standard, and is subject to the restrictions of captioning spec (probably Teletext, but I'm no PAL expert). Therefore there's no raster resolution, no fonts, colors etc., just a "grid size" for the number of (unformatted) characters.
Open captions are intended to be burned into the video, but offer the handy benefit of import and export.
Looks like both types can export to STL and XML. But "Open subtitling" can also export to EBU N19 format.


text:
Automating audio processing in Adobe Audition
I need to run a predefined set of filters on WAV files using Audition. The commands themselves need to be executed on the command line; I don't have the option of using Audition's Batch processing because this is part of a production pipeline I'm building. How can I automate the process of Audition starting up, opening a file, running a set of filters, saving file and closing?

You might want to investigate Adobe's automation platform, Adobe CEP Extensions: https://elbo.in/1Cb Alternatively, you could consider something like Sox, a command line audio editing tool: http://sox.sourceforge.net/

@Dmitri Nesteruk - How did you progress with this idea?


text:
After Effects Reusable Models and Rigs
I just started learning AE and video editing in general. My purpose is to animate 2d characters. I have not found an explanation online possibly because I'm not using the right terms.
It seems very time consuming to have to rig every character for the same type of motions, say walking.

Is there a way to "rig a template" then add a character model on top
to inherit the animation?
Can "templates" be created so that I can just add hair, for example,
and make a new character without having to re-position
everything manually. Basically just clicking a new layer for hair and AE "knows" where hair goes.

I hope I'm making some sense with my fresh knowledge on animation.

I don't know for AE (I was an A|W Maya guy) but while 1 is doable in Maya, 2 is not... I'd guess similar for AE

You might want to look at Duik. Automatic IK rigging and more. And it's free! https://rainboxprod.coop/en/tools/duik/

Have a look at the Adobe Character Animator.  Also a second vote here for Duik.  It's brilliant but mind bendingly complicated. Character Animator is simpler.

You can create templates using dropzones. Basically a composition that is nested later (example Hair) onto the character.
You would have to create a series of nested comps to do so. But to start, Id make for each character type (size shape height width):
Bone Compostion - Using NULL objects to specify tracking points, joints, where later nested comps are placed.
Then you can use nested comps where you can drop hair, clothes etc.
The same can be done for motion, animation.
You might want to save each character build as an independent AE project. And import them in when you need to use them. Having a large heirarchy of nested comps would, to me, be easier to work with if each character was in its own imported project folder.

Thank you @MartinAndrews, you have given me some good keywords to research. Are there any such tutorial to achieve this out there?

To elaborate a little bit on why Character Animator is simpler:
It's an offshoot of After Effects made specifically to increase the workflow for 2D character animations.
With Character Animator, you build your puppet rigs in Photoshop or Illustrator (your choice) and import them live into the Character Animator environment. It certainly takes a little bit of time understanding the layer and grouping hierarchy required for certain behaviors to operate as intended - but there's a wealth of information out there on the subject. I'd recommend starting with the video below - but it's a complete walkthrough from initial concept to completion in Illustrator, Photoshop, Character Animator and After Effects with links to in-depth tutorials on specific details of Character Animator.
Complete Animation Workflow (Adobe Character Animator Tutorial)
I had worked with Character Animator and viewed other tutorials on this channel before seeing this one, but this tutorial is the whole package and I was able to put together some pretty impressive content after fully digesting this video. There certainly are limitations to this software - if you want to depict dynamic full-body motion, you might  use DUIK or RubberHose in After Effects for those portions and use Character Animator for character close-ups and composite your clips together later on.
Rigging walk cycles can be tedious - and  DUIK and Character Animator are working on tools to automate that process.


text:
How to remove a small 2 second portion of audio from an mpeg video file in Mac?
I currently have a 1 minute long video where in the beginning of the video someone says something inappropriate. I was wondering what the easiest way to silence that part of the video would be. I am wondering if Quicktime or iMovie can do the job in Mac.

Use ffmpeg (terminal tool).
https://github.com/fluent-ffmpeg/node-fluent-ffmpeg/wiki/Installing-ffmpeg-on-Mac-OS-X
Copy the audio into a separate file.
Then use ffmpeg again to silence desired part (https://stackoverflow.com/q/38180809/2792138 or https://stackoverflow.com/q/29215197/2792138).
Then merge new audio file with the initial video file, replacing old audio track.

You'll probably need a Non Linear editing tool such as the one you mentioned (iMovie) to achieve this, as you'd need the ability to separate your audio from video.
See How to separate audio from a video track in iMovie to guide you using iMovie.


text:
Can I add markers in After Effects without stopping the playback?
Is there a way to add a marker without stopping the playback? I need to mark some specific times while the sequence is playing.

Doesn't look like you can add markers on the fly. Might be a job for scripting

Use the keyboard shortcut to add a marker

Windows: * (multiply) on numeric keypad
  Mac OS: * (multiply) on numeric keypad or Control+8 on main keyboard

This works during preview and audio-only preview


text:
how to add audio to exist video using FFMPEG at specific time?
I have video file (.avi) that 10 minutes long. I also have audio file (.wav) that is one minute long. I need to add the audio to the video, but the audio needs to start at one minute in to the video. How can I do this with ffmpeg?
I've already tried this command ( with a 30 second offset instead of one minute):
-i video.avi -i audio.wav -filter_complex \"[1]adelay=30000|30000[aud];[0][aud]amix\" - c:v copy out.avi"
and this one also:
-i video.avi -i audio.wav -filter_complex [1]adelay=30000|30000[aud];[0][aud]amix - c:v copy out.avi
But neither of them worked.

What didn't work? The audio didn't start when you wanted to? The audio didn't come through at all? Please share the full output of the commands.

I get an error from the ffmpeg process.
the query does not work

What is the error? Please share the full command output.

Answered at Stack Overflow crosspost. Please avoid asking the same question at multiple Stack Exchange sites.


text:
Extending the size of the video shot on iPhone
I took a video in an upright (portrait) position on my iPhone. When I watch it on a computer, the edges look black. How can I remove this blackness and display it on the wide frame? I just can not do it in iMovie. I'm not talking about rotating the video.

Unfortunately, the screen is showing the whole frame. That is all that your camera recorded. It did not record anything to the left or right of what you see.
On YouTube, where many people shoot their videos in a vertical format as you did, it is common to enlarge the video to the full frame width - which will cut off the top and bottom of the video - and use that as a background image. Then place your regular-size vertical video over the top of it. I used iMovie in the past and I think its picture-in-picture feature could accomplish this, but I'm not sure.

This has already been mentioned above however scaling the video in the background roughly (300%) and adding a gaussian blur (soft) is common practice to achieve said effect.

Excellent specifics!  Upvote.


text:
Are there any PaaS where I can run AE?
I have an app where we allow users to create videos by choosing an After Effects template and modifying the text, images, etc.
We run AE on a windows server which renders the final video.
For other scenarios where we do not use AE, we use AWS Lambda of which we can spin off 100 instances simultaneously and they all use their own resources. Whereas for AE we use a Windows server and all parallel rendering use the same resources and hence are very slow.
Are there any PaaS where I can run AE and spin up multiple instances?

I don't understand, what's stopping you running multiple instances of aerender.exe on windows?

There are no true PaaS providers for After Effects. However, there are several online render farms (SaaS).
Note that you cannot run After Effects on a public cloud in your own render farm.


text:
Lighting for video in room with no windows, choose led or cfl
I want to produce some cooking videos with recipe preparation demonstrations. The shooting area is about 1 square meter. The room doesn't have any windows, so there is no natural/daylight. It is an inexpensive production using a Pentax K-S2 and GoPro Hero4. Currently, I use 2 soft boxes with 135W compact florescent (CFL), which leads to noisy video in the low light.
I want to buy more lights and add like 4-8 more bulbs.
From what I have seen on the net, a 15W LED that costs $2.50 outputs 1500 lumens, while a 200W CFL bulb costs $22 and outputs 3200 lumens.
So is it more economical to buy LEDs instead of CFLs? Or am I missing something, like inaccurate light output labels?

if you can, buy them with a return policy and test them with your camera and through your post-production workflow. If they don't look good enough, return them.

It's not just about lumens. Generally you get what you pay for when you're buying lights, and the difference between an expensive LED and a cheap one is not usually the power output, it's the colour fidelity.
White lights look white because they produce a range of colours which our eyes mix together and perceive as white. The better the light the smoother the graph of the intensity across the spectrum is - so there'll be a smooth line going from red up to violet.
Cheaper lights produce a more jagged spectrum. So even though they may look white overall, there will be certain colours that are less intense or missing, and other colours that are brighter.
Fluorescent lights, including CFLs are notorious for having a spiky spectrum:

The spike right in the green area of the spectrum can give the footage a greenish, slightly morbid look. This is quite popular in the shaky-cam horror genre, but it may not suit your film:

Cheap LED lights are less spiky, but the spectrum is still missing some areas. Even though this light might balance out as a warm white, it is not providing light across the whole spectrum. Anything cyanish will look darker and less saturated under this LED:

What this means for video is that some cheap lights are very difficult to grade. Skin tones will go from looking sunburnt to jaundiced with no happy medium. Some things will pop, while others will be undersaturated. The price of cheaper lights will be the cost of extra time spent making it look good.
Tungsten (hot filament / incandescent) lights however, even cheap ones have a very smooth spectrum. This is a standard household incandescent bulb. Although this light is very orange, it is probably possible to get an acceptable grade by adjusting the colour temperature in-camera:

Halogen lights have an even better spectrum, with more light in the blue end.
You can get halogen work lights that would do quite well as film lights with a bit of diffusion. They do however run hot as a lot of the energy they use is turned into heat. They have a smaller up-front cost, but cost more in terms of power usage and replacement bulbs, and because they use ten times the power you can't run them off batteries, like you can with LEDs.
Of course, for the average youTube face-to-camera type video the colour fidelity of the lights may not be such a problem, especially if you're reusing the same setup again and again - you can get the colour grade right using your tool of choice (most NLEs have pretty good colour grading tools built-in these days) and then keep the settings from one video to the next.
Read the article that goes with those graphs here, though it's talking about lighting for household illumination, not for video.

Perhaps also mention that LEDs are low heat. He did mention that the setting is a closed room with no windows.

I think the answer to your question just comes down to math; the LED lights are cheaper per lumen.
But I want to share my inexpensive lighting setup, in case it may inspire you. I use long fluorescent tubes, mounted in cheap metal light "hoods". My setup has 4 tubes in 2 hoods (2 tubes per hood), positioned in parallel a few inches apart. Each tube outputs 2900 lumens.  Since the light tubes are long, and there are 4 in parallel, they give a nice soft light. You don't need a softbox. I use daylight colored bulbs (5000-5500k) because video cameras love that color.

I have seen on net some cfl 200w with 3200 lumens and some other 200w with 12000lumens both costs 22 dollars. But what is true? 12000lumens for 22dollars is nice and prefer that than manymany led lights. I saw a calc that said cfl and led on avg have 60lumens per watt.  Thanks brett for ur setup. So 2900*8 is good amount of lumens for dslr video ?(you have totally dark room)

I actually only have 4 tubes total! I edited my answer to show that there are 2 tubes in each hood, and there are 2 hoods. This is plenty of light for shooting at night. If you want to see what that looks like, here is a video. For your cooking videos, you could also position one hood to the left of the camera, and one hood to the right. That would make very soft lighting!

@JohnPapadopoulos MY MISTAKE: I actually have 4 hoods, with 2 tubes each for 8 fluorescent tubes total. However, They are positioned 9-10 feet from my face and provide plenty of light. If you position your lights closer to your subject, I'm sure you can use fewer lights. (I would!)


text:
Annoying drop shadow effect in iMovie
I've just started using iMovie 10.1.4 and I've been trying to get rid of this annoying drop shadow effect. I created a new title, chose 'centred', typed the text I want, and set it to a light grey colour. But whenever I go into video preview, or watch the final movie, it comes up with this drop shadow shown below.

Is there any way to remove this? Any help would be appreciated!

First, this is the right place to ask this question.
Second, looking at iMovie, I think that the drop shadow is built into that particular title. Have you tried just using the "Standard" title and setting the font & color to the right one? It seems like that would fix the problem.


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

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

I have been reading on the various forums and I can't determine the best way to set them up. I found a guideline for various numbers of drives which specifies which drive should be setup for each task, but I can't figure out which task I should use which drive for.
I have found a few that mention putting the files, cache and previews on the fastest drive, which would be the SSD. So do I then setup the OS and program on one of the other drives, and use possibly a 3rd for storage?
I don't have access to hardware raid, only software based with this system board.
Any help would be appreciated.

Put everything you are working on/with on the SSD, if it's full put it on the fastest HDD you have avilable.
You have a real beast there in terms of computing power. Your processor is quite powerful, your graphics card and RAM even more so. The thing that is most likely to become your performance bottleneck is the disk speed. And even with the best of HDDs, this will slow you down considerably, as HDDs disk speed is just not fast enough to read dozens of large video files simultaneously (for the Icon View of the Project Panel, for example). With a 500GB SSD, you have plenty of space. Windows 10 install size is about 11 GB. Premiere Pro, After Effects take up under 10GB in disk space. So even assuming you need to install some other software as well, you won't need more than 50~100GB for all that, which leaves you with 400GB~450GB for the video files. As you mentioned, put the scratch disks on it so that the preview files et c. can be loaded quickly. Then just fill your SSD with the files of your current project.
If you really need more space, put some files on the HDD and see how much it affects the loading speed. If the performance takes a big hit, you can still use proxies. And frankly, if you do have the budget for the kind of equipment you mentioned in your question, I find it reasonably to assume that you could even afford another large SSD if you really needed it.
Two quick tips regarding this: Buy the cheap SSDs, not the expensive ones, there's no noticable difference between them. And never use SSDs for permanent storage, always keep backups on external harddrives.

Thank you for the info MoritzLost (and for the edit Michael). This machine is being built for our "video guy" at work. This is my first experience with this type of software, and he is not a technical person, so it has become my job to build it. The machine is already built, and he's testing it now. I left the OS/Apps on the SSD, and setup the 2Tb drive for storage, 1Tb for media cache.  If I need to, we're still at a point where I can change things around.

Forgot to mention, I may be able to talk the money people into more ssd drives if they will make a significant difference, to replace the larger spinning disks.

@JeffR I think putting the media cache on the SSD should yield a slight performance increase, but you'll have to experiment with it ... the 'optimal' setup also depends on how many projects you will work on simultaneously, how much video material you will have on average, the workflow of your video guy and so on. The largest projects (in terms of amount of video material) I ever worked on were 100~200GB in size, and the loading speed was reasonably fast both when I worked with a SATA-connected HDD and a USB3-connected external HDD.

I would just let him work with your current setup for a while to see if it is sufficient, and if it isn't you can still go back and install an additional SSD

Awesome, Thank you again for taking the time to help me.


text:
How to achieve this "trail effect" - After Effects
I'm trying to achieve the following effect:

Here is the problem: I can't achieve the effect using particles. Some of them spread and linger around. Is there a way to achieve a similar effect without using particles or is there a way to solve the extra particle issue? Thanks in advance.
I uploaded the animated version in youtube, so you all can see how the effect looks in motion.

A quick and dirty solution would be to try applying a fast blur effect over the particle layer to the point they look like smoke.

The particles are a good start, as Edgar suggested a blur - probably vertical only would help. If this is too obvious, you could use temporal blur or in other words, echo. The echo effect would smear them all together. Setting the number of echoes to something like 16 or so and winding down the echo time to say a 10th of your frame duration would probably work (though you will find that echo slows things down dramatically. I usually turn it off after I've got it set up and only re-enable it at render time). To give the trails a more swirling look I'd apply a little bit of turbulent displace. This will give some atmospheric er, turbulence to them.

You might check out the fantastic 'Saber' plugin from Video Co-Pilot. I've used it for similar "smoky trails" effects before, and it works like a champ. There's also a video tutorial on the same page to show all the various parameters to get the look you want.
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2016/03/new-plug-in-saber-now-available-100-free/


text:
Remove static text from video?
I have a video with text on the side of it and I want to remove it. The good thing is that the video has no changes in that area of the screen for the rest of the video. Meaning that the movement in the video is on the right side of the video while the left side, which has the text has no animation what so ever. Is it possible to remove that text.
Here is a link to the video also, the text is the "press any button" thing.

Thank you!

What you're asking for is called Inpainting and is difficult enough for still images. The result is passable to distracting depending on the size and transparency of the text, the surrounding image, and compression. I found only one mention of inpainting at video stack exchange here. You can see a demonstration of the algorithm here.
Using ffmpeg and mathematica, the following procedure is a quick and dirty solution. The result can be better than blurring, again depending on the characteristics of the video.
Export frames:
ffmpeg -i vid.mp4 D:\data\vid\frames-%06d.png

Create a text mask using the average of every 100 frames or so.
fnames = FileNames["D:/data/vid/frames-*.jpg"];
mfnames = fnames[[1 ;; All ;; Floor[0.005*Length[fnames]]]];
imgs = Import /@ mfnames;
mimg = Mean[imgs]
mask = Dilation[Binarize[mimg, {0.37, 1}], 1]

Note: the parameters in Binarize will need to be tweaked for every video.
If the video contains a fixed camera or other parts similar in color to the text throughout its entire length, you must exclude those parts by multiplying by a 2nd mask (the numbers are positions of the lower left and upper right corners of a rectangle that surround the text to be removed):
Image[Graphics[{
{Black, Rectangle[{0, 0}, ImageDimensions[mask]]},
{White, Rectangle @@ {{377.84411276948595`,
    161.72470978441106`}, {163.44941956882255`,
    127.76119402985057`}}},
}, PlotRangePadding -> None],
ImageSize -> ImageDimensions[mask]];
mask = mask*%

Apply inpaint algorithm:
Inpaint[Import[fnames[[1]]], mask]

This line processes all frames and saves them to a new directory:
Export[FileNameJoin[MapAt[# <> ".output" &, FileNameSplit[#], -2]],
    Inpaint[Import[#], mask]] & /@ fnames

Or if you want it done 1000 times faster use this C++ code:
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <thread>
#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem.hpp>

// args: D:\data\text_remove\frames_full  D:\data\text_remove\frames_full\mask.png

using namespace std;
namespace fs = boost::filesystem;

void process_files(const vector<string>& infile, const vector<string>& outfile, const cv::Mat& mask, int i0, int i1)
{
    for (int i = i0; i < i1; ++i)
    {
        cv::Mat img = cv::imread(infile[i]);

        if (img.empty())
        {
            cout << "process_files(): imread(): " << "[" << i0 << "," << i1 << ")  : " << i1 - i0 << endl;
            break;
        }

        cv::Mat out;
        cv::inpaint(img, mask, out, 3, cv::INPAINT_NS);

        cv::imwrite(outfile[i], out);
    }
}

void threaded_process_files(const vector<string>& in, const vector<string>& out, const cv::Mat& mask, int threads)
{
    int step = in.size() / threads;
    int rem = in.size() % threads;

    vector<thread> pool;

    for (int i = 0; i < (threads - 1); ++i)
    {
        int i0 = i * step;
        int i1 = (i + 1) * step;
        pool.push_back(thread(process_files, in, out, mask, i0, i1));
    }

    int i0 = (threads - 1) * step;
    int i1 = in.size();
    pool.push_back(thread(process_files, in, out, mask, i0, i1));

    for (auto& th : pool)
        th.join();
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    if (argc < 2)
    {
        cout << "argv < 2: Missing input directory" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    if (argc < 3)
    {
        cout << "argv < 3: Missing mask image" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    cv::Mat mask(cv::imread(argv[2], cv::IMREAD_GRAYSCALE));

    if (mask.empty())
    {
        cout << "imread(): failed to read mask" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    cout << "mask image: " << mask.size() << endl;

    fs::path infile(argv[1]);
    fs::path ifstem = infile.stem();
    fs::path ifleaf = infile.leaf();
    fs::path ifparent = infile.parent_path();

    if (!fs::is_directory(infile))
    {
        cout << infile << " is not a directory" << endl;
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    string fstr = ifleaf.string() + ".output";
    fs::path outdir = ifparent / fstr;

    if (!fs::exists(outdir))
    {
        if (!fs::create_directory(outdir))
        {
            cout << "create_directory() failed on: " << outdir << endl;
            return EXIT_FAILURE;
        }
    }

    vector<string> fnames;
    vector<string> fnames_out;

    clock_t t0 = clock();

    cout << "Scanning directory images" << endl;

    int i = 0;
    for (fs::directory_iterator di(infile); di != fs::directory_iterator(); ++di)
    {
        fs::path fpath = di->path();
        fs::path leaf = fpath.leaf();
        fs::path fpath_new = outdir / leaf;

        fnames.push_back(fpath.string());
    }

    cout << (double)(clock() - t0) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC << endl;
    cout << "Processing images" << endl;
    t0 = clock();

    threaded_process_files(fnames, fnames_out, mask, 16);

    clock_t t1 = clock();
    double dt = (double)(t1 - t0) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC;
    cout << dt << endl;
    cout << dt / fnames.size() << endl;

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Remove? No.
Best thing to do would be to remove the text from the original video project and re-render.
Barring that, you could cover it.
What I would do (and have done before) is pull the video into After Effects and cover it with a small area of blur.  Once the blur is applied, pull the brightness down enough so that it blends with the surrounding area.
Alternative (and possibly better since the video would probably allow it) is to do essentially the same thing as above only to cover the small area with a dark rectangle shape in After Effects.

Or copy the video layer, mask a small section near to the text and then move it down to cover the text. That way you'd get the texture and match the grain in the original source. You could also use the clone brush, just as you would in photoshop.


text:
Misplaced FFmpeg watermarks
I'm trying to add a watermark of an icon (an arrow pointing to the right） to the top right corner of two different videos using FFmpeg. Both videos have the same resolution (1280x720) and I use the same command to add the icon. In one video, the icon appears in the correct place. However, in the other video, the icon appears in the bottom right corner.
Has anyone encountered the same problem?

The picture on the left is a portrait video stored as landscape but with a rotation tag. So, the overlay image co-ordinates take effect with reference to the stored representation. For such cases, you should rotate the video beforehand by 1) adding the transpose filter before the overlay 2) disabling autorotate on the input video* and 3) manually resetting the rotation tag in the output, e.g.
ffmpeg -noautorotate -i input.mp4 -i arrow.png -filter_complex "[0]transpose=1[bg];[bg][1]overlay=X:Y" -metadata:s:v rotate=0 out.mp4

*not needed if your ffmpeg is from April 2015 or earlier.

To check the rotation tag for a video, you can run
ffprobe input.mp4 -show_entries stream_tags=rotate -v 0 -of compact=p=0:nk=1

You'll get an angle value. If it's 90, use transpose=1. If it's 270, use transpose=2

I don't have enough rep to write a comment directly,Thank you all the same.However,when I run "ffprobe -input.mp4 -show_entries stream_tags=rotate -v 0 -of compact=p=0:nk=1",my log prints that "Command validation failed.No slashes in output path looks like the : compact=p=0:nk=1 is not valid."I don't know what is the problem,can you please point it out to me?

Sounds like you're on android and using a wrapper. You should ask on Stack Overflow on how to execute the command on Android.


text:
After effects imports different pictures to same output
I've imported 3 different pics that all are different when I look at them in Windows Explorer.

However, when I put them in an After Effects composition, they all appear as the same picture.

I've tried importing them 1 by 1 and multiple file import. All three of these images came from an Illustrator file that I exported at the same time.
What did I do wrong?

Try this: turn off visibility of layer 5.  What changes?

If you double click the files in your project window do they look different in the footage window?

Instead of importing as jpgs, try importing as pngs. After effects
seems to bug out on jpgs.

I believe the issue arises because of the naming of your files. When images have a number attached at the end of their names, after-effects assumes that you're importing an image sequence. Thus, it imports each "image" as a sequence, consisting of all 3 images. When you import your files, try unchecking the box that says "import as image-sequence".

I had the same problem. My solution was as follows: I dragged and dropped the file in the project window. Then, right click the file which was "duplicated" and click on "Replace material". Apparently something went wrong when importing the file.

same to me. to fix that issue, try to edit one by one picture in the folder using Paint Software, than save it. If nothing happen in after effect try to "right click then Reload the Image". It works to me. but it also wasting time if you have a lot of picture.


text:
Software to create videos from multiple songs
I have a lot of songs that I want to upload to YouTube.
I already uploaded close to 1000 videos. Those videos were created using Windows Movie Maker (for each song) + a macro to automate everything. (I used macros when I need to upload an album, but instead of a video with the whole album, I uploaded each song then created a playlist of the album in YouTube.)
Most of the songs are from albums, so it's a lot of work and time to do it manually. Plus Movie Maker is giving me nightmares... Errors coming up, freezes, etc.
So I would like to know if there is a software out there that could do this easily:

Select one image for the video track.
Select, let's say, 10 songs.
Create 10 videos with that image, and those songs. Each song to each video.

Or create just one video with the whole album, and then split the file into multiple videos with each song.
Thank you guys.

Putting together an image and an audio file and exporting the result to a youtube friendly format shouldn't take more than 10 minutes per song in Adobe Premiere Pro...

For an album with 20 tracks for example, that would be like 3 hours to create the videos plus the time to upload it. I am looking for something more automated. It's a simple task so there must be something out there.

That said, I'm testing "Youtube Movie Maker". You can create a template and then create multiple videos in batch from that template. No watermark and no limits it seems...
Currently testing it, but it looks pretty good.
Only cons I found were the UI. It's ugly and a bit confusing. (I had to watch a youtube video to find how how to create the multiple videos)

If you're fine with batch files, then ffmpeg is the de facto tool for this.

@Mulvya how do I do it with ffmpeg?

With ffmpeg, on Windows, create a batch file AudiotoVid.cmd
for %%A in (*.mp3 *.m4a *.wav *.flac *.ape) do ffmpeg -i "%%A" -i "c:\path\to\image.png" -map 1:v -map 0:a -pix_fmt yuv420p -shortest -f mp4 "%~nA.mp4"

Run it in each folder that you wish to convert.
For each audio file of the given extensions. it will create a MP4 in the same folder as the audio file. This batch file does not recurse through subdirectories. If you want to do that, use the command below.
for /r %%A in (*.mp3 *.m4a *.wav *.flac *.ape) do ffmpeg -i "%%A" -i "c:\path\to\image.png" -map 1:v -map 0:a -pix_fmt yuv420p -shortest -f mp4 "%~dpnA.mp4"

Copy a few of your files to a new folder and test this there first. I don't batch often.
Get FFmpeg for Windows from https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/


text:
Video effect - slowmotion to fastmotion?
How do you edit a video using Premiere Pro CC 2017 so that it goes from slow motion to normal speed or fast motion, like in this video. Some parts are in slow motion and then it suddenly speeds up?

The term your looking for is called a speed ramp. There are lots of tutorials if you search for that.
Here are basic instructions for one way of doing that.

Right click on the clip in your timeline
Click 'Show Clip Keyframes' then 'Time Remapping' then 'Speed'
You can then add Keyframes and drag the line on your clip to alter the speed


text:
Compressing my collection of anime
I have a lot of anime videos which are all encoded, I think, with H.264.
My question is rather simple: How can I make my 1tb collection smaller?
I know about FFMPEG. However, I do not know how to use it most efficiently. I am looking to reduce the size of the files while not causing losses in quality.
I have an i7-2700k at 4.4ghz and a GTX 770. Can I leverage my GPU's power to make this process faster and more efficient? What would be the most efficient way of doing this and what would it look like in command line form?

Re-encoding will introduce generation loss and encoder specific artefacts. Of course you are not going to encode a file 100 times and you are trying to preserve as much quality as possible, but with such vage ctriteria as encoding 1 TB of unkown quality, noise, bitrate, picture size, framerate and so forth there is much that can go wrong. Best advice: don't re-encode at all, particularly if you are not encoding from sources e.g. disks but web formats or already re-encoded content. Save the money spent on energy to buy more hard drives and learn to manage them (hint: ZFS). If you cant wait for encoder improvements and the next generation of super high efficient video encoders, then H.265 one of the better solutions currently available, but you'd have to take a close look at each file and how it was encoded, if you find that a video was already encoded on an i7 equal or better than yours with H.264 and that already took a day or more than you know you are going to spen 2 to 4 times as much. And you'd still have a bit of generation loss even if you got everything right. Also don't expect that software always returns perfect results, you should check every re-encoded file to be sure. And you shouldn't overclock your hardware or swap version numbers of software components used.
Buy a bigger drive if you don't want to go down this route, you save valuable lifetime and electricity.


text:
Why does a video file that appears to be an MP4 not play in Windows Media Player?
I have extracted the files from an iOS app for a video streaming site that allows you to download videos (only on the mobile app, so I had to jailbreak to get the files out), but the file extension on the video file is something completely arbitrary specific to the app. If I just open it with MPC-HC or VLC it plays just fine and according to MediaInfo both the video and audio are in mp4 format (AVC/AAC respectively). However, if I just rename the file to .mp4, Windows Media Player refuses to play it so I'm guessing that means that wasn't the original file format? Based on the service that uses the file, I'm assuming that it must have been either MP4 or FLV or something along those lines.
Of course, I can just open the video in avidemux and just re-encode it to an mp4 if I really want to but I'd like to avoid losses in quality if possible.

Why use windows medua player at all?

Probably a fragmented MP4.  Remux it using ffmpeg.
ffmpeg -i filename -c copy out.mp4


text:
Recording 4K H.264 from HDMI to External Media
I've been searching for an answer to this but haven't been able to find anything definitive.
I use an Orah 4i 360 livestream video camera. It sends the camera video to a stitching box. The stitching box sends out 4K (4096x2160) H.264 prestitched 360 video over RTMP. It also can record to internal SD card. But it can't record internally at the same time it is outputting over RTMP.
In order to record the livestream, you have to use the HDMI 2.0 output, which also sends the the same H.264 mp4 video, but without the RTMP 360 control data.
I need to record the 4K mp4 video from HDMI to an external HD or SD card.
Since it is already encoded mp4, even though 4K, it doesn't really need the data record rate that something like an Atomos Ninja Inferno or Black Magic options. They record RAW uncompressed video, and you pay for that. I only need to record mp4, even though 4K from HDMI.
So, does anyone know of a cheaper solution than Atomos has to record 4K HDMI mp4 to an external HD or SD card?

If it is outputting over HDMI, then it is not compressed H.264. HDMI 2.1 only uses DSC for resolutions over 8K.

You're kind of doing things backwards. Send feed to recorder, then loop and send feed to stream. I would do this with a computer and capture card (can take hdmi in), then something like vmix or wirecast to send to Web.

Would you consider using a computer equipped with a 4K HDMI capture card like BlackMagic Intensity Pro 4K, to write to that SD card?
This will be cheaper than buying a recorder and you will have full control over how you capture this 4K stream over HDMI.

Yep. This is what I do. Capture first, then stream


text:
Switching channels without cutting video into clips in kdenlive
I'm using KDEnlive to edit multiple videotracks. I have the tracks synched, but they are different lengths. In a preview of the video I can sort-of live edit by switching off different video-channels. The topmost active video will show.
What I would like to do is do this for my final edit. I don't want to cut the video's into pieces, because I might change my mind about where I want to transition over to another channel.
What I'd like to do is mark a spot on a channel where it changes to anouther channel (perhaps with a transition) and play around with these until I have the edit I want.
I imagine it's possible to transition from one channel to the other without actually deleting parts of the video and cutting channels up into clips?


text:
License for using background music in my video?
I want to use the song Spirit of Life by Blackmill as background music video but I wasn't able to find any information about license to use this song. I tried to contact Blackmill as well but no response. I'm trying not to use a different song because it works so well with my video currently. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Having licensed music for videos I've produced; from having custom tracks re-recorded by one of Audio Jungles top artists (1 Million in Sales); to one hit wonders who had radio airplay; to even Katy Perry...
You need to find out what Label the album is under; meaning, who owns the rights.
Blackmill will have no say, unless they own the masters which I doubt.
The label information should be easilly found on the CD/Album info.
Contact the label; and they will either have a licensing department or they will refer you to their agency.
It is a time consuming process; there is a lot of back and forth, and it could be expensive. Very. If they are under a large label; and they don't have an agreement with a "licencing agency" like ExtremeMusic; which basically mass sells known artists and because they do so on a large scale basis they have a basic rate sheet; 1 song for x use for x type of duplication used in x such a way = this price;  if they don't have that track on a easy to buy list; it's going to involve a custom negotiation where money talks and if you don't have the money...  don't expect a return call.
Contacting Blackmill or even their manager/management is likely going to prove a waste of time.

Thanks @Martin, it seems to me that he self-released his album though: https://www.discogs.com/label/259268-Not-On-Label-Blackmill-Self-released

If self released and they aren't under contract with a label; then your approach of contacting the band; or their booking manager; whoever handles their gigs; etc; would be your best bet. Just be persistent. But not pushy. Complement their work as well; their sound; as well of their work... that helps.


text:
Use of diopters
Many famous directors like Tarantino and De Palma use diopters to have something close and far away in focus. This often produces a line down the center where the focal split occurs. My question is: Why don't they just use a large DOF like F8-12 or similar?

Even small apertures won't always give you enough DOF if you're on say a long lens. For example, with a full frame 35mm sensor on a 50mm lens at ƒ22 if my front subject is 1.13m away, my DOF only extends to 2.23m. If your sensor is larger it's even worse.
Shutting down the aperture means you need more light on the scene. This can be impossible or undesirable.
For film this was particularly true - depending on what stock you're shooting (which is a creative choice) your effective ISO could be quite low, like 100 or even 50. So you might not even have the luxury of shutting down that much without having to punch a truckload of light into the scene.


text:
Adobe Premiere CC 2017 - decelerate video and audio (without excess of bass sound)?
I am a beginner at using Adobe Premier CC 2017. I have several videos that i want to slow down, especially the audio, to make the video easier to understand. I used the Speed/Duration effect and changed 100% to 75%, but that changed the pitch of the audio. It made it much lower with a lot more bass. So, I have tried applying an equalizer to correct the audio but I couldn't get it to sound normal.
I think you can change the speed of audio without changing the pitch in Adobe Audition, but I don't know how to use Audition, especially with needing to sync the audio with the video. Is there a way to do this just using Premiere?

In the SPEED / DURATION menu that you can find in the context menu (RIGHTCLICK on a clip), check the MAINTAIN AUDIO PITCH checkbox. This will counteract the usual pitch shift resulting from the audio stretching.

Well done. Now can you show him how to TURN THE VOLUME DOWN?!

@stib what to you mean?

@stib edited. ;)

@MichaelLiebman CANT STOP WONT STOP, DONT BUST MY CHOPS

To turn down the audio when, selected on the audio track hit g and set the gain to your choice. Or right click on the fx button and select audio gain and use the line on the audio clip


text:
File format for storing raw video parameters?
If I export raw video data with ffmpeg, it will have just the image data, the pixels, without any structural metadata. It won't have things like the frame size, frame rate, and pixel format. But if I need to encode the video or apply a filter, I need that metadata. So I put the metadata in a plain text file so that I don't lose this information. I then manually put it in ffmpeg commands.
For ffmpeg, I could improvise something with a custom console script to reduce manual manipulations, but that would not work for other applications, like if I want to import the a raw file into Sony Vegas.
My question is, what is the standard file format to store key video parameters? Namely at least resolution, pixel format,
fps, number of frames.
I'm looking for a format that is human readable, easy parseable, and works across all video editing software. Is there such thing at all? If not, I would be slightly shocked.
If there is no such standard, what would be the closest alternative?
I use utvideo codec with avi container, it works fine with ffmpeg and Vegas and can store rgba data. So it is for footage which must not contain any artifacts and should work fast (least decoding/encoding possible).

Unfortunately, I don't know of any human readable formats. Most containers store the structural metadata in various binary forms. The closest thing that I can think of to what you are trying to do is to use a Quicktime or MXF reference file. However, I don't know if either of those support the UT video codec.

I use .nut when working with ffmpeg, otherwise V210 is well-supported and documented.


text:
Hissing Sound with Rode NTG2 Phantom
I have a loud hissing problem using my Rode NTG 2 when it was hooked up to my Tascam D40. When I record from the internal Tascam mics, there isn't a hiss. So I think it's my Rode mic that is causing the hiss. Has anyone dealt with this before? I've tried different input levels and always have the problem with mic. Should I get it replaced with my warranty or is this something I can fix?

Have you tried different cables?

Are you using a snake?

It's the Phantom power.  I've done a lot of testing and the Phantom power adds a lot of noise to the NTG 2. I don't know why, but if you don't run it on phantom power and use it only with batteries, the noise goes away.

As mentioned in the comments, trying a different XLR cable can make a difference here.
I also make sure that if I've got phantom power turned on (via the TASCAM), that there's no AA battery sitting inside the Rode NTG2. Sticking to just one power source has fixed similar issues for me before.

Some hand held recorders (including some Tascams) only supply limited current when supplying phantom power and if this isn't enough for the mic you will get noise, and sometimes it won't even work at all.
I have the DR-100 mk3 which can supply 24 & 48 volt phantom power to a maximum of 3mA per channel. If I plug in a mic that needs more than 3mA (even if the voltage is correct) the mic will not perform well.
I don't know what current (mA) the NTG2 needs but some of those Rode mics seem pretty "current hungry" to me (eg the NTG4+ needs 4.5 amps!) so that may be the problem. It would also explain why the mic is ok on its own power.

Have you applied a low pass and/or high pass filter on the audio?  Mid grade mics often have built in high/low pass filtering but higher end pro mics will leave the audio feed untouched and expect you to fix it in post.


text:
Can I reduce the delay between video frames?
I have a variable frame rate video file. There is a delay of over 30 seconds between some frames. Can I transcode the video and reduce all delays between frames over a certain value, say 1 second, to that value? This would mean the maximum gap or delay between any 2 consecutive frames would be 1 second.

It can be done with ffmpeg. I ended up using following:
ffmpeg -i input-file -vf "setpts=ifnot(isnan(PREV_OUTPTS)\,PREV_OUTPTS) + min(1000\,PTS - PREV_INPTS)" -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 0 output.mkv

You can print expressions like this, which is useful for testing:
ffmpeg -i input-file -vf "setpts=print(PREV_INPTS)\;print(PTS - PREV_INPTS)\;print(ifnot(isnan(PREV_OUTPTS)\,PREV_OUTPTS) + min(1000\,PTS - PREV_INPTS))" -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -crf 0 output.mkv

Following documentation may be helpful:
https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html#Expression-Evaluation
https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html#setpts


text:
How to do a better and easier roll transition in Kdenlive
I've been using Kdenlive for a month or so. One of my favorite transitions is a roll transition, where the old clip slides out (e.g. from the center to the left) while at the same time the new clip slides in (e.g. from the right to the center) creating the effect of the old clip being pushed out by the new clip. To do this in Kdenlive, I slightly overlap the two clips in different tracks then apply two Slide transform, one to the old clip (a slide out) and one to the new clip (a slide in).
However:

this is time consuming;
the movement is linear, there isn't a way to a dynamism or speed changes in the movement.

Any ideas on how to do a better and easier roll transition in Kdenlive?

I think you should try the other transitions again
Please do not be absolutist
I also enjoy the transition roll
But
Do a quick Google search for smooth transitions. Maybe it's right for you
Good luck


text:
How to link multiple keys to different sliders in After Effects
I'm a newbie with After Effects expressions, I need help with link few keyframes to different sliders on Null.
I found this expression and its work with 2 keypoints.
if (numKeys > 1){
  t1 = key(1).time;
  t2 = key(2).time;
  v1 = 0;
  v2 = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
  linear(time,t1,t2,v1,v2);
}else value

But how to link keyframe to slide if there a more then 2 keyframes.
thank you