text:
CPU vs. GPU in a MacPro
I'm thinking of purchasing a MacPro and I'm wondering what the performance differences would be (in a Pr/Ae workflow) between one with the 3.0GHz 8-Core processor and Dual D500 graphics cards vs. one with the 3.5 6-Core and Dual D700. I'm only editing HD footage from my DSLRs, so no RAW or 4K.
I'm wondering if one would be better for editing and the other for rendering, or one is better for both. I appreciate any advice!

Adobe's software still isn't optimized for the mac pro's dual gpus.  I've got a 12 core D700 at work.  I see major speed gains in FCPX, C4D, and Davinci Resolve, especially when rendering prores.  But at the moment, if all you're interested in is Premiere and AE, save your money.  Get an iMac, or a PC, or cross your fingers and hope that Adobe jumps onboard.  Just my opinion.

@JasonConrad that's probably what I'm going to do (keep my fingers crossed) I've also seen some rumors of a new MacPro later for this year. I don't get why Adobe is always saying on their forums that they're utilizing the MacPro basically to it's fullest potential, but almost every user say that isn't the case...

8 cores is nice but unnecessary. Adobe products rarely utilize all the cores unless you have multiprocessing enabling, which if you don't know: multiple frames are being rendered at the same time using different cores for each frame. But even at that I doubt you could get all 8 cores on board to do that because you need more ram dedicated to each cores processes.
An addition of .5Ghz for a sacrifice of 2 cores sounds like a deal to me! Plus if you choose to multiprocess you can utilize almost all of your cores, given you get the 16gb upgrade.
Now the video card is simply an upgrade according to benchmarks. With the +.5ghz on the CPU and an upgrade to the D700 it basically makes it render at an equivalent speed of a 8core 3.0ghz & D500
I know you didn't ask this but I think it changes everything: get an SSD (Solid State Drive). I have one in my PC and the boot up time is 5 seconds, I can only imagine the boot time with a light weight operating system like OSX. Applications open just as fast and finding files in your project/loading your project in a second. Not going to ramble on because I don't actually know too much about SSD's other than first hand experience. I do however recommend you go to this article, it has great visuals and explanations on SSD vs HDD!
In conclusion: I would get the 3.5ghz w/ Dual D700 and if possible, a solid state drive (ssd).

Thanks for the quick response! Sounds good, it's quite interesting that Adobe is constantly saying that their products are fully compatible with and are utilizing all the power of the new MacPro, but almost every user says that they don't see it. On the SSD, the reason I didn't mention that is because it is standard on the new MacPros, but thanks for throwing it in!

@CircleB You're very welcome :)


text:
Do I need an STM lens for face detection live video with Canon?
I bought a Canon EOS M to shoot video, mostly talking heads stuff so I simply set to the camera to AF Face tracking and had no problems.
I recently purchased the DSLR lens adapter and the cheap Canon f/1.8 50mm to use with the camera and the results are terrible. It just refuses to stay in focus for more than a second, even with someone sat still and not moving. It hunts none stop, creating a lot of off putting noise.
I understand that an STM lens will reduce the noise and the jerky movement, but do they affect AF as well? Is the lack of STM why I can't get solid AF?

The AF subsystem is part of the camera. It is not affected by the lens.
Face detection is also part of the camera.
STM only affects the speed of focus for a lens (assuming that the camera feeds it with correct information.)
So yes, STM lenses are better for video when coupled with a camera that has fast focus on its own.
For your problem there are two solutions
1)Deactivate automatic focus and select a big aperture (like 11) so that everything is in focus
2)Deactivate automatic focus and manually focus the lens on your own.
All hollywood movies, tv broadcasts, commercials etc use manual focus.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
What are the essentials for a livestream training room?
I work for a nonprofit (which rules out consultants or big packages) and I’ve been tasked with setting up the a/v for one of our large training rooms. I’ve got about a dozen events over the next year that will need to be live streamed.
I’m wondering if i could get a little guidance in what you think the essential elements of a livestream kit should be. I’m looking for something that is decent but also doesn’t require a seasoned producer to run. At least until I have staff dedicated to this, I’d be running it myself with minimal technical assistance.
Some of the decisions I’m wrestling with:
Standalone device like a tricaster vs. software (wirecast) vs. a digital A/V mixer (perhaps coupled with Wirecast)? If I go just with software, do I need two machines? What’s the benefit there?
The best way to handle 2 video feeds if I don’t go with a tricaster or a/v mixer (which have multiple video inputs). Blackmagic intensity shuttle vs Ultrastudio mini recorder vs something else?
PTZ setup (X2) or HD cameras on a soloshot or a camranger?
I’m having a tough time figuring out what kind of LED panel setup for ceiling mounting, and if that’s the way to go. I’ve got a relatively low ceiling, but I was wondering if I could have those in scoops or some sort of recessed fixtures in the drop ceiling in front of the presenter.
I’d love any thoughts you’d be willing to share. One added challenge is that each individual piece of hardware has to be under $5k. Total budget is ~$10-15k (recognizing that it is permanently installed so no need for portable gear).
Thanks in advance for any thoughts you have.

Use OBS for the streaming, it can handle multiple inputs and is better than most softwares I have used for live streaming. Might require some time on YouTube watching tutorials but once it is set up you will be good to go.
Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestion, I hadn't seen OBS before. This doesn't really resolve my hardware question though, which I still worry leaves me with the gamble of whether a single computer can handle all of the business of capture, production, and streaming without getting bogged down and losing stability. Any thoughts on that side of the question?

@Robert1er It depends on the computer for whether it is capable of handling that many processes, which isn't actually that many. So one computer is enough, I recommend custom building it. Whether the stream gets bogged down mainly depends on your internet speed and encoding preferences within OBS.

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


text:
Color Correcting & Color Grading
I'm curious if anyone knows of a good tutorial on color correcting and/or color grading in After Effects(original effects, magic bullet looks, or any other program). Preferably, but not limited to, on YouTube due to its seemingly long process.
I just want to learn more so anything you have to add on the topic is appreciated.

Some excellent books here: Color correction tutorials

I found the free (and paid) tutorials at Color Grading Central very helpful.  Using a dedicated color grading application is (in my opinion) usually the way to go.  The basic version of Davinci Resolve is free, incredibly powerful, and offers a lot more control than grading in After Effects with plugins, in my experience.
For more on the theory of color grading, the Tao of Color Grading is a useful video on vimeo, (although the lighting is terrible). (part two is here).

Focus on getting the idea of the general workflow, not the specific tools. If you get that, you'll be able to grade using Lumetri Color, Magic Bullet's Colorista, in Davinci Resolve or whatever set of tools your software will have.
The book that gave me that understanding was "The Color Correction Handbook" by Alexis Van Hurkman. Unfortunately, most tutorials I've seen on YouTube were either made by quite amateur creators (that believe that cinematic look is just about snapping a specific LUT on your footage), or were too focused on the tools (which are good to know, yet knowing just that and without knowing the general principles of color grading makes you a monkey that just randomly pulls all the sliders it sees (that I used to be myself before the book, heh)).
That what makes Alexis's book so great: he shows you that 85% of the look is crafted with the very basic tools like Curves or Offset/Gamma/Gain controls, and what matters most is knowing the basic principles.
Here are a few free sample pages: link

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


text:
Is it ok to edit a public domain speech?
Let me try to explain the project I'm working on. I'm a volunteer for a high school engineering competition, and the past couple of years I've produced a pro bono commemorative video to show at the competition.
This year I want to use the audio from JFK's "go to the moon" speech as a voiceover track, but it would be weird to include references to soviets and war interspersed in the parts of the speech I want to use.
So, my question is: is it "ok" to selectively edit out the parts that aren't relevant to today's society (as in, taking artistic license), or is this considered inappropriate?
The video won't be shown outside the event, but I don't want to do something considered "wrong."

Public domain material isn't subject to any restrictions -- legally you can do anything you like with it. It would be respectful (but not required) to honor the intent of the material and not distort its meaning, and to credit the source.

Something is only properly called "public domain" if the copyright has expired, and there aren't any patents or trademarks applicable either.  Many old books are now in the public domain, so it's legal to grab whole paragraphs from them without attribution.
It would still be plagiarism to claim that you wrote it yourself, though.  (Not that you're doing this, I'm making a related point for contrast.)  Shakespeare's descendants can't sue you if you copy whole monologues in your own play.  But you'd still be in deep trouble.  Plagiarism isn't a crime against the original author, it's a separate issue from copyright.  (It might not be against the law either, I'm not sure.  So the police won't come after you, but your reputation would be sunk.)
As I understand it, you can legally do literally anything with public domain content (unless the result is hate speech, libel, or slander, or probably some other things).

I'm not sure if JFK's speeches are literally in the public domain.  His estate and heirs may have some legal control over their use.
Morally and ethically, use your own judgement.  Making someone look bad by leaving out some important words or sentences might not be cool.  Associating a historical figure with something they probably wouldn't support if they were alive today would also not be cool.  People are going to recognize JFK from his voice and the words, so you don't really need to worry about making sure the full context is there for people to identify the exact source.
In the general case, even stuff that's legally public domain still morally has ties to the wishes of the creator's heirs.  Some artists care more than others about annoying people, or on purpose doing things that the heirs won't like.  (Your case sounds like something none of the Kennedy's would would have a problem with.)
In your specific case, I don't think there's anything stopping you from putting together any snippets you want from JFK's speeches, even to the point of making it sound like he said something he didn't (by cutting mid-sentence) unless you got your source material from a news organization that still has a copyright on the material.  JFK is so famous and well known that distortions of his speeches would be seen as parodies or something, because people aren't going to suddenly start believing bad things about him based on some high school kid's project that had his voice in it.  (I know that's not your intention, just making up examples to show that even this wouldn't be pushing the boundaries.)  Now, if making what you were claiming was a factual documentary, then it'd be a problem if you left out some key words.  Otherwise hey, if you want JFK's voice saying stuff for your project, you can probably get away with it if aren't ever implying that he ever said what you're having him say.  So again, the boundaries are WAY beyond what you're asking about.

Plagiarism is an academic infraction. It has nothing to do with the law. You are under no legal obligation to attribute public domain material.

@DigiVisionMedia: that's what I thought.  Like my answer says, I didn't think it was illegal in any jurisdiction, just that your reputation is normally (badly) damaged if anyone notices.

I think it would make perfect sense to take out the time relevant sentences that are about the soviets, war, etc. Just make sure you don't take things out of context and you quote the text you do use. Good luck!

I checked the 2-minute clip of JFK's speech on YouTube and see no problem in using it. There was no reference to cold war politics and the context is so well known that people will understand his reference to "within this decade" relates to when he spoke in 1962.


text:
Bad yet good framerate after exporting through Media Encoder
Lately, I've been getting a weird issue with my Media Encoder exports.
I usually import 2 files through After Affects CC: an "intro" one and the main movie, both at lossless quality, and export the result to an YouTube-compliant format.
Here are their format:
File 1:
Format                      : RGB
Codec ID                    : 0x00000000
Codec ID/Info               : Basic Windows bitmap format. 1, 4 and 8 bpp versions are palettised. 16, 24 and 32bpp contain raw RGB samples
Duration                    : 12s 12ms
Bit rate                    : 663 Mbps
Width                       : 1 280 pixels
Height                      : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate                  : 29.970 fps
Bit depth                   : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 24.000

File 2:
Format                      : Lagarith
Codec ID                    : LAGS
Duration                    : 9mn 20s
Bit rate                    : 106 Mbps
Width                       : 1 280 pixels
Height                      : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate                  : 29.970 fps
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0
Bit depth                   : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 3.847

Once the composition is finished, I export the result through Media Encoder using this preset: YouTube HD 720p 29,97. And it works. At least it used to.
Now, I can clearly see ME still processing something at the end of the first-pass, even though everything's been done.
And the result after the second-pass is a video with a proper framerate that looks like it was encoded with a wrong one as the video plays faster than it should (I can clearly tell as it is out-of-sync with the audio), despite me using settings that look like correct.
Something goes wrong during the encoding, but I don't know what. Haven't tweaked the preset and I'm doing the exact same process as before.


text:
FCPX Cross dissolve sometimes causes jump on stabilized video
I've seen this before, but I want to get to the bottom of it (I hope) so I can prevent it from happening again. I have a video with a few dozen stabilized clips. Looks good, though I want cross dissolves between each clip. That works fine, but sometimes going in or out of the transition causes a jump, as if the stabilization settings were different for the transition. For an example, take a look at this video... especially the start and end of the clip that runs from 00:31-00:43.
http://dangoodspeed.com/shared/12n-downtown-schenectady-fire

When you're doing the dx, have the stabilized clips been rendered? IOW, depending on the order of operations the dx may be happening before stabilization.

Yes they were rendered before I did the dx.  One thing I noticed today is that the error happens when different types (inertia vs smoothcam) are used on the clips surrounding the transition.

Instead of using a crossfade transition effect, use opacity keyframes in the video animation menu.
Select your clip and press "control + v".


text:
Frames with pict_type=I yet key_frame=0
I am trying to exrtact key frame information from a mp4 video using ffprobe with the command:
ffprobe -select_streams v -show_frames FILE_NAME  2>/dev/null

I am getting the list of all frames. From these, I searched for frames with pict_type=I to recognise I-frames. However, there were about 10 of the total 700 I frames which had
media_type=video
key_frame=0
pict_type=I

What are these frames? If these are I-frames what makes them not a key_frame?

What is the definition of a "key frame' in this context?

I am not actually sure. From what I knew, it is the I-frame, but from the ffprobe output, there are I-frames which are not key_frames. That is what my question is.

Without context, or a definition from the ffprobe docs, there's no way to know. But I have to ask -- if you don't know what they are, why are you looking for them?

This means although it is and I-frame, the decoder might still use/need previously sent frames for decoding. In contrast if key_frame=1 this would be an IDR-Frame (Instantaneous Decoder Refresh).
Citing from  Ian E. G. Richardson's H.264 and MPEG-4 Video Compression:

An encoder sends an IDR (Instantaneous Decoder Refresh) coded picture
(made up of I- or SI-slices) to clear the contents of the reference
picture buffer. On receiving an IDR coded picture, the decoder marks
all pictures in the reference buffer as ‘unused for reference’. All
subsequent transmitted slices can be decoded without reference to any
frame decoded prior to the IDR picture. The first picture in a coded
video sequence is always an IDR picture.

This may have impact on random access to a video. Simply said, IDR frames make random access more robust.


text:
Free software for creating fMRI film paradigm
I'm looking for an intuitive, user-friendly software that will allow me to cut sections from videos downloaded on Youtube, combine them into a single video, and insert still pictures between some of these videos that will be displayed for 1, 3, 5 or 25 seconds.  The end of the video will include 10 pictures, each displayed for about 3-5 seconds.
I have a Mac and have iMovie but haven't had much luck with it so far.  It doesn't even show the time for the clips when you put the cursor somewhere.
So I'm looking for a program that would allow any idiot to make they type of video I described above.  I'm a neuroscientist, not a video editor!! haha
Many thanks in advance

If you are looking for a software, this better fits on softwarerecs.


text:
What is the least noticable way to re-stream a video to Twitch?
I have a local video file from a past Twitch stream (which I failed to archive), broadcast and recorded through OBS. My goal is to re-stream it to Twitch so that it feels as close as reasonably possible to a normal archived stream, in terms of quality, aspect ratio, position, sound, etc. The OBS Video Source Plugin has been recommended for this task. The original recorded file was in .flv format. I have since converted to .mp4, and cut a bit from the beginning with VideoPad Video Editor (I still have the original .flv file).
1) Will the outcome look and sound just as authentic using the converted and cut video file, assuming said file plays just as well on my local machine, or is it better to re-stream the original and cut it again using the Twitch highlight function?
2) What Video Source Settings should I use when adding the video file as a source via the plugin? Should the height and width always match the recorded video settings (pre-downscale, according to my understanding)? Is it better to select to stretch the image, which presumably overrides the entered height and width? What about "Deinterlacing" and "Apply Video Filters"?
3) Finally, in the Video Source Settings, what is the default volume (which is the full 100), the volume at which OBS normally streams, or should this be adjusted?

You should try FFsplit, is easy to use and free. With proper settings you should loose few or no data at all.

Setup the encoder to match the quality (bitrate and aspect ratio) of the original file.
Add a new layer of window capturing, and adjust width, height and origin (x,y) to capture only the region of the video
Setup hotkeys on ffsplit so you can start the streaming when the video player is on focus

Start your stream first then play you video.
Find a quick-start guide here on twitch.tv help, althoug this an old document, the new version of ffplist has few, but nice changes


text:
Compositing a compound clip with transitions in FCP X
I have a compound clip with a flip transition in it, which I want to comp on the main timeline, while still showing the footage underneath.
(think flipping card composed on top of footage).
I've created a Compound Clip with the flip transition inside it, but the transition has a background colour set, so doesn't comp while transitioning (has a black background instead).
I've tried setting blend modes on the main timeline, but it just messes up the colour of the actual graphic.
Any ideas? Why can't the flip have a transparent background?


text:
FCPX - Large MXF being broken into smaller files
Hardware: MacPro (mid-2012)
Software: OS X 10.1 and FCPX 10.1.4.
Camera: XF100
When I import from CF card a single continuous 100min video interview (50mbps/1080/25p) into FCPX it imports as a single MXF file.
When I import the same file from the same CF card to an identical MacPro offsite the single MXF is broken into smaller files.
Can anyone explain this?
Looking to just import the 1 larger file.
Many thanks for any input.

are you sure both FCPX's are up to date?  I think MXF import was a recent feature.

yep - both running 10.1.4

How big are the smaller files on the second machine?

Turns out FCPX displays spanning files AS WELL as a single large file when importing MXF. See example image below.
The 1st file in the browser list is a single clip / full duration.
All subsequent files are chunks of the single larger file.


text:
How can I know if a video has been manipulated/staged/faked?
Recently, a video has been posted about a politician named Varoufakis sticking his middle finger to Germany.
Later, a German TV host admitted faking Varoufakis 'middle finger' video on YouTube, showing some smart germans editing it using a software.
As a skeptic person, I'm not sure which one is the real one (statements of authority, videos uploaded do not really make me believe anything).
I only believe in evidence.
How can I know or basically prove (or be 99.999%) sure that a video is faked or staged using a software? What would be the methods or procedures? I would appreciate if a video professional would help me.

Hello fellow German! :) According to the Spiegel, the video you're talking about was indeed genuine and Böhmermann claims to have faked it are a mere scam (a good one though, I'll give him that)(source). To your question: if it's done really good, you can't know for sure. You could look for inregularities, e.g. misplayed shadows and things like that, but those can be faked as well ...

Authenticity in video is dead.  It's been dead in photography for a long time.  It's just something we're all going to have to get used to.  Professional forensic analysis might sometimes disprove a video's authenticity, but it will never be able to conclusively prove it.

Unless you happen to have actually recorded it on tape that only works in a camcorder that doesn't have an input to record to tape from an external source, such as a TV or VCR.


text:
Syncing Shogun Footage with PluralEyes?
I can't get my video footage to sync with my audio in PluralEyes 3. Here's what I tried...
I shot some interviews today using a Sony a7s and Atomos Shogun. I recorded almost everything through the Shogun but then my battery died on me and I recorded the last few clips just through the Sony. For audio, I recorded from a Sennheiser boom through a Zoom H4n.
I imported everything into Premiere Pro and made 2 sequences: one for the Shogun footage and one for the clips just recorded on the Sony. I sent the Sony sequence to PluralEyes 3 and it synced fine. But when I sent the Shogun footage to PluralEyes 3, it wouldn't sync. I tried importing the footage straight to PluralEyes (instead of sending it from Premiere) and that also didn't work. It won't sync at all; all the clips are red.
I double-checked that the Shogun recorded audio and it did. It recorded 4 channels, but 2 of them are silent. The H4n recorded in stereo (just in the left channel though).
Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any suggestions on how to sync my footage?

Is there a difference between Sony's and Atomos respective recording settings (codec and/or wrapper) ?

The Sony footage says it is "H.264, Linear PCM" and the Shogun footage says it is "Linear PCM, Apple ProRes 422 (LT), Timecode". Should that matter though? I'm just trying to sync the Shogun footage with the audio I recorded from my H4n...

That might matter as it seems that PluralEyes is not able to extract audio from your Shogun files. Isn't there an error message associated with your source as it seems you are suffering from an import error as mentioned here : http://www.redgiant.com/docs/doc-on/pluraleyes/import_error.php (red border on clip).

I am on Premiere CC 2015, which has its own PluralEyes equivalent for synchronizing audio under the "Merge" function. (I think it was also on CC 2014 but I am not sure what version originated audio sync functionality.)
Select your two clips in your bin and merge them (it's under "Clip"). In the menu, under "Synchronize Point" choose "Audio" and make sure the "Track Channel" dropdown is set to a track that has audio on it. The Shogun material I was using had audio on track 3.


text:
Merging 2 video input source into 1 output
Is there a way to do this? For example i want to have a single projector displaying a live feed from a camera and a video playing from a laptop.
Its sort of like any overlay of 2 videos playing at the same time.
So far all searches have either return a splitter or a switch. Neither which is what i want

You need to edit it using an editing software like Premimere, Sony Vegas or any other.
I don't know how you do it in Sony Vegas but in Premiere you just place both videos in the sequence and resize them.
That's pretty basic editing, try to search for the best editing software that works best for you and search for tutorial about that software.
If you need it for live broadcasting then you need a professional live video broadcasting software or use what you got in the platform you're broadcasting in.


text:
Using PTZ Optics 20x-IP with BlackMagic ATEM Studio 4k
Does anyone have experience using PTZ Optics (20x-IP) cameras with the Black Magic ATEM (Studio 4k)? I can get video on a television and over IP, but for some reason I can't get it to show at all on the Black Magic ATEM switcher.
I'm running video through SDI onto Cat6 cable. Is there any chance that something about the signal would work on a TV but not on the video switcher?

After lots of problem-solving and testing of different combinations (including two versions of black magic video switchers, the studio 4K, and the television studio), I got rid of the black magic. it was the best decision I made in a month. It turns out that this is a very common problem with the black magic, along with constant software crashing.
Now I'm using black magic ultra studio video encoders and they work like a charm.

Robert,
I too am thinking about buying this camera to use with my ATEM switcher. The ATEM can be quite finicky regarding compatibility. Have you tried it with straight SDI into the ATEM? If this does not work try adding a cheap sdi splitter from Kanex etc to the line.
The camera needs to be set to the exact right settings to work, for example 1080i. The PTX Optics manual says that "After changing the switch, you need to restart the camera to take effect"
You can check the compatibility of your Cat 6 conversion equipment at atemuser forum
and share your results.

I've also heard that the ATEM can only work with one kind of signal at a time, so if you have more than one camera plugged into it, they all need to be sending the same type of signal (eg, 1080i).  I don't have one, so I can't personally verify.

The ATEM works with 29.98 fps. The PTX Optics camera is 30fps. You need one of this in between to fix the fps issue. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1091826&gclid=COm6mIXnicgCFdgLgQodNIACbQ&is=REG&m=Y&Q=&A=details


text:
Software that exports into multiple formats and sizes?
Sorry if this is a bit of a vague question. But does anyone know a piece of software that will take one or preferably multiple videos and turn them into multiple formats and quality?
So video.mp4 would result in:
video.mp4 compressed 1080p
video.mp4 compressed 720p
video.wmv compressed 1080p
video.wmv compressed 720p
video.avi compressed 1080p
video.avi compressed 720p
etc

If you are looking something that can do that at the same time and is reasonably well developed, then you are probably looking at avconv. It has the same base as ffmpeg, which has already been mentioned, but currently doesn't have a GUI (to the best of my knowledge, i've not gone looking, since i have no need for it).
Let's look at an example of how you would go to create a file format that you have described there.
avconv -i video.mp4 \
 -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 3 -c:v libxvid -s hd720 -q:v 7 video720.avi \
 -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 3 -c:v libxvid -s hd1080 -q:v 7 video1080.avi \
 ...

You can just go on and on adding bits, and it will do encoding in parallel (which is much more efficient approach than sequential encoding on the modern multicore systems).
I didn't give you an example of encoding into WMV, simply because i've never done that, and i have actually recompiled my avconv to disable this, but it is possible if you feel that it is important for your system.
Depending on your operating system the installation process will be different. On Debian and Ubuntu GNU/Linux you do that by just typing:
sudo apt-get install libav-tools

But it may be necessary for you to build your own binaries. To do so you need to get the original source code from libav.org and then run:
./configure --prefix=/home/USERNAME/.local --bindir=/home/USERNAME/bin \
  --enable-gpl --enable-version3 \
  --enable-encoder=ENCODER

USERNAME is your username, and you can change bindir if you don't have bin in your execution path. You can also enable any encoder that you will need by checking which ones are available and adding them via --enable-encoder. To check available ones, just run:
./configure --list-encoders

But in all likelihood you will have no need to recompile unless you are doing something strange.

Ffmpeg does that. Depending on what you're trying to do there are several other programs that come with an easy-to-use GUI (XMedia Recode, for instance).

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Ill check out the GUI based XMedia Recode. Do you have any idea where tutorials might be to do the above task? Or just point me in the right direction? Thanks.

Hm i hardly use ffmpeg, but the documentation in the website would be a good point to start. Ffmpeg will require a bit reading in order to use it efficiently. Xmedia recode is designed to be easily accessible, but the amount of automatism you can achieve with it is nothing compared to ffmpeg. Xmedia recode is designed to be easily accessible, but the amount of automatism you can achieve with it is very limited compared to ffmpeg.

Sorry for the doubled sentence in the last comment, my phone did that ... XMedia Recode is pretty straight forward. You open a file, choose a format you want it to be converted to, adjust the settings if needed and click "add to queue". You can do this several times to add different output formats to the queue. When you're done, click "Encode" to have your queue processed. You can also define presets, if you'll need to encode to the same formats repeatedly in the future ...

All of that makes sense but it seems to be showing me profiles that all end up being MP4. I cant find how to queue it up as avi or wmv

You're talking about XMedia Recode right now, right? Take a look at the highlighted area in this screenshot. Set the profile to "custom", then you can pick the desired output format under "format", including avi and wmv. The settings that are available depend on what profile you've set right there, so make sure to always select the profile you want first. I should also mention that the program's definition of a "profile" is pretty inacurate and indecisive, since they include both codecs, file and container formats in there ...


text:
2 videos out of sync
I recorded myself using my camera (canon ixus 117hs, 23.98fps) and also recorded my LG G3 using AZrecorder (records the screen at 55.58fps). I tried to sync both videos (using premiere pro cc) and at some point they go out of sync, maybe because of the difference in the fps? and if so, what can I do with it? Thank you.

If they drift gradually out of sync after you sync the beginning, probably your camera and computer have a different idea of how long a second is.  You need to stretch one or the other of the videos.  (stretching the one without audio is going to be simpler.)  Why 55.58fps, though?  Your monitor refresh isn't really that far off 60Hz, is it?  Mine are both about 59.9Hz.

I had this problem recently with premiere and spent an entire day trying to sync my videos. Were your videos variable frame rate? Adobe Premiere doesn't support variable frame rate videos. When you try to use them, they eventually go out of sync.

55.58 is not a standard frame rate so it's the one that should be changed. Using the 23.98 video as a reference, pick a point late into the video where you can determine how many frames (at 23.98 fps) it's out of sync with the 56 fps video. Compute the ratio of the length in frames up to that point, to the number of frames out of sync. Then time stretch the entire 56 fps video --  either shorter of longer as needed -- using that ratio.

I didn't understand what to do, by the way, I tried to change the speed of the video and it fit well but after a while it goes out of sync again

Do you mean that the total lengths match, but it goes in and out of sync, or what exactly? If the 56 fps isn't a constant rate, then you might end up applying a different speed change for each section that's out of sync.

I don't know because the video from the smartphone is really long and the video from the camera is divided to 10 minute parts


text:
gopro hd/tv out cable
I was recently given a hero hd 960 gopro camera with only usb cable.which cable do I need for these two ports I wish to setup but without a live feed mounting this is next to impossible.
Which cable do I need for the hd/tv ports as seen on top right photo.

can whoever downvoted this question perhaps give a reason why?

I believe the cable you are looking for is this one on Amazon.
It is a 2.5mm TRRS jack to 3x RCA component cable.
However, this is a very old model of GoPro, and could be hard to find manufacturer's original cables.


text:
Capturing VHS tapes
I bought a Video-2-PC DIY Video Capture Kit which includes a copy of ArcSoft Showbiz 3.5, which I found to be too restrictive and low quality, and VirtualDub 1.9.11.0, which I eventually got to grips with and started using after many viewings of the included tutorial.
However, the longer the capture the more the video and audio are out of sync and I have not been able to resolve this.
Can anyone recommend some software that can capture, deinterlace, and compress video from an input source (a VHS player, in my case) while accounting for and correcting blemishes (audio sync problems, in my case)?

See also https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/32492/what-causes-audio-sync-drift-when-digitizing-vhs/32499#32499 for some further discussion of VHS tapes and audio sync issues.

This is because the frame rate of the pictures are not exact.
The solution is to note how long the video is after capturing it.
Then save the audio only, and stretch it to that length.
Then put the audio and the video back together, for instance with mkvmerge.

It sounds like you are having problems with drop-frame frame rates. When color was added to broadcast TV, the frame rate was reduced from 30 frames per second to 29.976 to squeeze in that extra color data.
To fix this, you may be able to correct the capture settings in your current software to ensure it is using 29.976 instead of 30 fps. If not, there is some software, such as Quicktime Pro (on a mac) that allows you to edit the metadata of the saved video file to correct the playback speed.
If those do not work for you, I would try using VLC to capture from that hardware. Here is one guide you can follow to record from a capture device. There is a de-interlace filter you can use in VLC; just keep in mind that de-interlaced footage can look worse than using the interlaced footage as-is.

I would suggest using dedicated hardware for this, that ensures synchronization. For example the Canopus ADVC110.


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

Welcome undergroundsurface :) For only viewing it or for animation purposes?

Actually, for both purposes. But, I don't need to create something complex with 3D effects and animation. I'm looking for a simple 2D waveform on a black background.

For After effects this: http://www.redgiant.com/products/trapcode-sound-keys/  is a solid solution.

It looks fine, but is quite expensive. Is there a free alternative to it? Maybe not for After Effects.

Afaik there is no alternative solution for AE. To get an solid answer please add more context to the question to find a solution.

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

I don't want to create a new thread, but I want to ask this: is it possible to generate a 2D audio waveform with the Blender. As I know, Blender is a free program, but it is most suited for the creation of 3D.

@undergroundsurface For blender checkout: blender.stackexchange.com. Related questions: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/6079/sound-block-buttons/6091#6091, http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/24460/rescaling-a-baked-f-curve-to-values-between-0-and-1 or this blendernation post: http://www.blendernation.com/2015/03/19/how-to-create-a-particle-based-audio-visualizer/

Thanks anyway. It's quite difficult to work with 3D effects so I'll need to learn the basics. As I understood, the Blender doesn't support 2D plugins, effects for compositing video. Blender is useful only for 3D.

@undergroundsurface Blender is also useful for 2d processing, because you can do editing and image compositing. To drive an animation by sound this could be also useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtD5UQE5Xj0


text:
Nested Sequence that plays fine alone shows up as entirely black in Master Sequence
I'm running Adobe Premiere Pro on a Mac, and after benching a project for a while and now coming back to it, some of the nested sequences will play just fine in their timeline, but show up as audio with video blacked out in the master sequence timeline.
Here is what the nested sequence looks like playing from its own timeline:

Now here is what it looks like when used in the master sequence:

Notice how it appears as all black both in the source monitor and in the program monitor.
What is this and how do I fix it?

Have you tried clearing all rendered caches? That would be my first guess.

This would actually make a lot of sense, as Premiere Pro separately renders the audio and video, and part of the nested sequence which wasn't used contained offline video before I removed it

I deleted the entire preview files directory, and re-rendering the project doesn't change the black.


text:
What lighting setup is recommended to achieve a purple atmosphere in an indoor hall
The video is taking place in a night.
I want the beginning of the hall to be purple lighted and a fade to black, at the end of the hall.

The Left photo, is the location when regular lights are on, and the Right one, is the what I want to achieve.
Is it enough to use a 800w - or 1000w - light on the ceiling with color filters to achieve this atmosphere?

Your solution sounds like it would work great. If it's possible, do a camera test beforehand, and if there will be people in your scene include some people in the test. You might also do some post-production tweaking to get the intensity or look you want.

The biggest issue with having only one powerful light source for the whole hall might be the foreground being too bright and the fall-off to dark being to fast. You may compensate for this by placing the light way behind the camera, if this doesn't cast any camera/crew shadows inside the frame. This setup will give you a much smoother fall-off, but will also make the scene darker.
The scientific reason is the 'inverse square law' described here: http://www.usefulphototips.com/2012/04/10/controlling-light-falloff/
But I have another suggestion: Why don't you keep the lighting as shown on the left, and just turn some lights off at the far end of the hall. For achieving the pink effect you then use a color gel in front of the lens. And for having some more colors than just pink in the frame, you can add one or two red light sources distributed in the hall.


text:
Any free or cheap soft for video composing
anyone knows if there is any video composing software cheap or free like, final cut pro, avid; to work in pair with after effect ?

Welcome Makamik :) If the link above doesn't solve your issue, please specify what do you want to achieve. Start with the tour: http://video.stackexchange.com/tour to get familiar with this site. Anyway, enjoy video.se!

Tks, very kind im learning this site slowly ;)

Note: The only NLE that's working well with after effects is premiere of course. But every good NLE supports edit decision lists, which is a solid option. Maybe scripting is requiered building some kind of real bridge (pipeline) between the tools, but that's another question :)

authors: Михаил Зайцев


text:
Is it possible to speed up footage by more than 4x in Sony Vegas Movie Studio?
I have set the clip playback speed to 4.000 (to run at 4x the orginial speed) as show below.

This is as high as the software allows. I would like to go further, perhaps as much as 12x as fast.
I am aware that the Pro version of this software includes the ability to use 'velocity envelopes' to increase the speed.

The only workaround I know of is to:

Speed up the footage by the desired amount (in this case 4X)
Render the clip.
Import the clip
Repeat steps 1-3 until satisfied.

This isn't ideal as repetitively rendering the clip repeatedly is fairly time consuming.

you just right clic the clip, select insert / remove embelop ,  velocity ,  then rise up that green line that appears on your clip.

That won't work, since Vegas Movie Studio doesn't have envelopes like Vegas Pro.

authors: Ариша Казакова


text:
HTML5 background video encoding settings
I'm doing a full page background video and I'm trying to convert the original mp4 to an webm. The background will not have any audio.
I'm currently using ffmpeg.
ffmpeg -i INPUT.mp4 -b 614400 -s 960x540 -aspect 16:9 OUTPUT.webm

My question is what are the optimal settings to convert an mp4 to an webm file that will be used as a background video on a website?

related: http://video.stackexchange.com/questions/14728/encode-settings-for-html5-background-video/14730#14730

If you have the original source the mp4 was made from, then use that as the source for the webm.  Feeding it the artifacts in the mp4 will hurt compression, and the extra generation of lossy compression will hurt, too.  (I'm assuming the mp4 is what you produced for HTML5 video for browsers that support that format, and now you're making a fallback with VP8 or VP9).

There shouldn't be anything special about making a video for HTML5 video, so just look for any video encoding guide to learn about choosing how to trade off CPU time vs. bitrate vs. quality.
Hint: encode once, display many is a use case where it makes sense to spend as much CPU time as possible on the encode, to get the quality you want in as small a download as possible.


text:
Bulk adding text to videos
I have around 300 music videos and i need to add the usual text (animation or whatever) to all of them. (Just like MTV for example, each video has this text on them lasting for first few seconds of the video so ppl can read what they are listening too).
Song title:
Release year:
Album title:
etc...
Is there any way to batch process this amount of videos with any kind of software ? Basicly, only the text changes on each video, position and everything else would remain exacly the same.

With Adobe After Effects and a script such as PT_TextEdit, you'd be able to do something like this.  You create the text styles you want to use, add all the text to a spreadsheet or google sheet, then run it through PT-TextEdit, which will generate a load of different comps for you with the different names.  You can then batch export all the comps.
http://aescripts.com/pt_textedit/

Unfortunately i did not mange to do it with any options written here. Would be great if someone could write a tutorial. If nothing else works, i will do it manually for each video, but some advice on which software to use to make it fast as possible would be great.

You can do it in Sony Vegas Pro using this plugin (Text Wizard)
In a nutshell:

Prepare your text and copy it to the clipboard (see below)
Add your clips to the timeline
Run Text Wizard and choose Create text at events
Import text from the clipboard

Your text should be in the following format:
Song title:
Release year:
Album title:
(empty line)
Song title:
Release year:
Album title:
(empty line)
etc.

Could you please add slighty more information? In case the link goes down there's no easy way to find out what tool you're talking about and what it does. Some quotes from the website + the tool title would help a lot. Thanks in advance!

I am not so good with Sony Vegas but i will try this. After i do this is it possible to export each clip separately like i imported them ?

@bigbrother2010: yes, other tools in Vegasaur Toolkit allow you to create regions on top of your clips, and render those regions as separate files.


text:
CUDA video card
I am new to After Effects. Just did my first real project - lots of fun. I am not that happy with my encoding output quality. Is it true that having a CUDA video card - i.e. rendering in hardware - improves QUALITY of output as well as speed? How much of a difference does it make?

It can give a significant speed boost, but I don't believe you'd see better quality -- rather a little bit the opposite in my experience, for a given bit rate.

I read somewhere on line that the video card makes a difference in quality of encoding output. But it makes absolutely no sense to me and I am very skeptical.

Because it can increase speed, you can get better quality given the same encoding time. You can trade quality for encoding time whether or not you're using a CUDA card, and since CUDA is faster the tradeoff would be less costly. Maybe that's what what you read was referring to.


text:
iPhone 5s and Premiere Pro Cs6
Using an iPhone 5s to film short talks, I run the video files thru Handbrake to settle sync issues that arise when I upload videos into Premiere Pro Cs6. Unfortunately, this does not fix the problem, it simply minimizes it. Suggestions?

Welcome Laurel :) Please start with the tour: http://video.stackexchange.com/tour to get familiar with video.se. For a solid answer please specify your question a bit and try to explain what are your sync issues. Anyway, enjoy the site!


text:
Record a live lecture from one room and stream it live to two other televisions
I'm working on a church project and I'm not too familiar with video equipment all too much.
We need to stream a lecture to other sides of a building (at least two tv's).
I was playing around with some ideas with IP cameras and connecting it via an Apple TV / Roku device but I can't find any combinations or guides on that working.
So I'm just gathering some information and advice into this

Get a camera with HDMI output and plug it in to a Blackmagic Intensity PCIe card or USB/Thunderbolt unit. Then use Adobe Flash Media Encoder to take that input and encode it into an RTMP/RTSP stream that a computer can easily play on the other via the network, plugged in to a projector or TV.


text:
How to delete folders from Library > Gradients in Motion 5
I just installed Motion 5 but I've already run into a weird frustration. In the Library inspector I found a list of gradients. I clicked the + button at the bottom of the panel and discovered it creates folders. Ok. But now I have ended up with two folders I don't want and I can't find any way to delete them.

I have tried:

right-clicking (no menu)
selecting with mouse then delete or backspace keys
looked through all the menus
right-clicked on an actual gradient from the 'All' folder and revealed in finder... the folders do not show up in finder though

Select the Folder
In the Motion Menu (at the top) go under "Edit" then select delete.


text:
How to match output parameters with input ones in Adobe Premiere?
I have some clip from which I want to cut out tiny fragment. It is in WMV format. Unfortunately, AP apparently plans to totally reconstruct the video.
How to force it not to do this thing?
I checked "Match Seuqence Settings" and got pure correspondence:

As you see, output parameters are totally different from input: frame size is different, frame rate is different, compression is different and so on.

The option you are talking about matches the export settings to the sequence settings, not to the source material. So my guess is that your sequence does not match your material. You can create a sequence that conforms your source clip by right-clicking on the clip in the project panel and selecting "New Sequence From Clip". Then the export should work as intended.
However, keep in mind that this will reencode your entire video, which will always result in quality loss. If you want to cut out a piece of your video while leaving the rest untouched, you could probably do that with ffmpeg.


text:
How to do picture in picture with Premier Pro Multicamera
I LOVE the multicamera magic in Premier Pro CC but I can't quite figure out how to do a picture in picture shot like at the start of this video:

The multi camera sequence allows switching between different cameras but I can't figure out how to have more than one camera visible at a time? Is this possible? So far I have just dragged 2 of the multi-camera sequences onto the stage but then I need to synchronize those. That seems silly when they are already synchronized.
Thanks

You can't select, say, two video tracks from your Multi-cam sequence and show them at the same time. You're going to have to go at it separately. A Multi-Cam sequence is really for going back and forth between angles, not to show two or more angles at the same time.
A solution:
- On Video track 1, put your base image or shot.
- One Video track 2, put the image or film you'd like to have appear over the base image. Sync the two video tracks together, by hand. That is, don't create a Multi-Cam sequence: merely put them one on top of the other so that they start at the same time of the take.
- Then, use the "Crop" effect and the "Scale" tool to reduce the size of your Track2 image and move it in the appropriate corner of your base image.
Voila! You have two angles of the same event playing at the same time in the same overall image.


text:
Automated/Scripted Video Editing
I am looking for a scripting language that can handle cutting together 50+ mp4 files.  In addition to this I'd also like it if I can provide a text file with the date of each video and make some sort of slightly opaque box containing the date that I can burn over the video.  Is there a good tool out there for this?  Most of the stuff I've found only works on avi files.

Welcome derek :) you can use ffmpeg and call it as subprocess via python. For the ffmpeg part, you will find all necessary informations on this site. I would write an answer, but your question is a bit too broad. Maybe let us know what files you have and what exactly you want to do with it. Anyway, enjoy the site!

Consider the following technologies:

ffmpeg + command line
Adobe After Effects + ExtendScript language (based on JavaScript)
Sony Vegas Pro + C# language (or any other Microsoft .NET language)


text:
How can we monitor audio of subject using headphone while recording video using iphone or samsung galaxy s4?
How can we monitor audio of subject using headphone while recording video using iphone or samsung galaxy s4?
I want to monitor audio while recording video using smartphone

You could use an adapter to split the cell phone jack into XLR & 3.5mm.  Then just plug in your XLR mic and headphones.
Or you could record double-system audio.  Get a second, purpose-built audio recording device like a Zoom, and monitor that while you shoot with your cell phone.  It's super easy to match up the audio again in most editing software nowadays.


text:
Can I use Garageband on Mac to add harmony audio to a video?
I'm thinking...
Import my video of me playing guitar and singing, into Garageband.
And then add new Garageband audio track with my backing vocal harmony.
Will this work?

If you're singing on the new track(s) you've added, definitely!  I've done it myself. You can even pan the new track(s) left or right to give your song more "space".
If you were thinking you'd duplicate your audio track in Garageband, and change the pitch of the new track, it's harder. Your harmonies probably won't stay the same number of half steps away from the main melody, so you'll have to adjust the pitch change on most notes. (As far as I know.)

You can easily add Garageband audio into iMovie. The newer versions have a button that will import songs directly into iMovie.


text:
What is the function of buffer size and what value should it have?
I've just started to do some video editing with Blender (Linux) and I can't tell what function it has and how it affect the final quality.
I've searched about it but I didn't find any explanation behind the value it should take. So:
1) What is the function of buffer size?
2) What value should it have?

According to the blender documentation found here

Rate
The bitrate control also includes a Minimum and a Maximum.
Buffer
The decoder bitstream buffer size.

the buffer size is related to streaming video. The link in the manual takes you to this article which describes what the buffer is. It sounds like you are editing for web streaming in which case your buffer size should be based on your target internet connection and the quality of the video you are delivering.
If you are referring to a different buffer setting in blender please elaborate.

To add an answer to part1 of the question, the reason for telling the video encoder how much data the player will buffer is so it can constrain its VBR rate-control to not underflow the player's buffer (video pauses and user sees "buffering") in complex portions of the video where it wants to spend a lot of bits.
Within the limits of the VBV buffer size, the encoder can use a really high bitrate for a few seconds, as long as the bitrate before and after is low enough for the player to catch up.
Without VBV-aware rate control, the encoder could hit the target file size, but have a bitrate higher than the target streaming bandwidth for an extended period of time.


text:
camera flashing in film
I film a lot with the Canon C100, I've noticed that when a lot of flashes are going off I get a lot of image issues (which I think is due to how CMOS exposes line by line) (see picture), the effects are more pronounced in slow motion (the c100 only shoots interlaced).
I have a few questions:
whats the technical name of this 'effect'/issue
why is it more pronounced in slow motion (does interlacing effect this?)
and is there anything I can do with regards to shutter/speeds or utilizing 'clear scan' in the c100 to reduce this?

is it the horizontal lines you're talking about? That looks like the exposure changed during the scan. changing shutter speed might help.

I think you're talking about the "rolling shutter" issue, where each frame isn't a snapshot of a single point in time.  Rather, each line is from a different moment, or something like that.  A flash going off will then lead to tearing, like you'd get in a game with vsync off.

also: They make cameras that only shoot interlaced?  Yuck.  I'd take lower rez progressive at double frame rate any day.  (e.g. 720p60).

@PeterCordes yea the c100 mk i shoots interlaced 60/50i, everything else is progressive. its a pain in the ass, but not worth upgrading to the mk ii for. but yea rolling shutter is indeed it, I kept searching after I posted this. It seems like theres not much one can do

If you really want to shoot content with strobe/flash lighting happening, there might still be cameras made that don't use a rolling shutter.  IDK, and that doesn't help fix the video already recorded.

AFAIK the blackmagic Ursa shoots global shutter.

whats the technical name of this 'effect'/issue?

The horizontal lines are likely caused by an effect called Rolling Shutter

why is it more pronounced in slow motion (does interlacing effect this)?
  I would have expected interlacing to reduce the visibility of the effect iff it was done on a line of pixels at a time.  However, if bands of pixels are read during the interlacing, that might make the effect worse.  That would provide a stripe of pixels at a similar exposure level and a step change when the next stripe was read.
is there anything I can do with regards to shutter/speeds or utilizing 'clear scan' in the c100 to reduce this?

I don't believe so.  It is usually related to lower light levels so anything you can do to get more light into the camera would help.  You might find that reducing the exposure time (faster shutter speed) might help as it would force the camera to complete all the scan in less time.
(Seems a bit unsporting to use some of the question comments as an answer but they matched and expanded on what I knew.)


text:
Newbie Question - speed of footage lags in Premier
I'm using Adobe Premiere to add some graphics that go along with a video we made. The original video was made by someone else, is 2 min long and very HQ and plays well. But once I imported it and worked on it for two days, I didn't realize how slow the frames play in the updated video. It's like the speed of the actors mouths don't move as fast as the audio you hear.
Is there anyway to get the speed back and not drop frames? It does this on my boss's Mac and my laptop.
My graphics aren't very heavy or anything. Just some transparent png images with a few effects.

(This isn't a solution to your problem, so I'll just post the information as a comment.) In my experience with Premiere, when you import footage it has to "process" it briefly. There is often a blue progress bar at the bottom right of the window that says something about processing or normalizing the footage. Wait until that is done before you do any editing! I used to start editing before that was done, and my audio wouldn't match my video.

It's more like the original video footage was degraded while importing. the audio is good but the lips don't match.
It's like hearing "foot" but it looking like "oot"

My audio issue was different. I've never had degraded audio.

Problem solved. The video was edited originally in Movie Maker and for some reason destroyed the quality. After I re-did everything all over again and only using Premiere, it cleared it all up.


text:
how can video clips be merged in Corel Video Studio Pro x7?
Can video clips be combined or merged in Corel Video studio pro 7? Can anyone describe how it could be done.  I am using Windows 7 home edition.  I have already examined the that may have already have your answer>

Welcome to Video Production. The question as it is is probably too broad to get a good answer: please specify what you mean by "merged".

When I say merged I mean combine one or more video clips into ONE video clip. This can easily be done in Sony's "CLICK-TO-DVD"

"Combine" is as broad as "merge". Do you mean make the clips play one after the other, or some sort of compositing where you see both at the same time - e.g. picture in picture, or a transparent overlay?

By merge, I mean COMBINE, for instance, ten video clips into ONE video clip!  A one hour DV video tape may have 300 to 400 hundred clips, which is difficult to work with, and more difficult to view on a timeline!

So you mean play one after the other.

I mean COMBINE, for instance, ten video clips into ONE video clip to be played one after the other. Therefore, if have 300 clips, I might want to combine the so that I have only 50 clips to work with on the timeline!

You don't seem to understand. When the clips are COMBINED or merged do you want the original videos playing all at once or one after the other? Don't just say COMBINED again or I will break something, I swear.

If you are familiar with Sony's CLICK-TO-DVD , on the storybook view, clips can be combined, original clips maintained. COMBINED clips can be played in viewer and as a last step, cut to a DVD. Thus, if you have some hundreds of clips in an hour DV tape, they can be combined for viewing into any number of combined clips for viewing! I am simply asking if this can be done in COREL , which it looks like it CANNOT!

There are two problems here, one is that the terms "combine" and "merge" are not technical terms and do not have a clear meaning in a video editing context.  Continuing to use the same terms does not make things any clearer.  That said, I think I understood the meaning that you want to have subclips that are the result of editing multiple clips together.  The concept is nested timelines in something like Premiere.  Nested clips might be a more clear term to use in that case.

The second problem is that this is a more pro focused site and thus very few of our main users have ever used something like Corel Video Studio which I'd never even heard of prior to this question.  That limits the ability to answer the question pretty severely beyond simply checking documentation.

Here is how its done.
Create a new folder.Select the film clips you want to merge together all at once and import them into the folder you created. Drag the clips into the storyboard view and its done.
Check this out :

I have never used Corel Video Studio Pro and, for that matter, I hadn't even heard of it prior to this question despite being familiar with Corel products in general, however a quick look at the table of contents of the documentation does not seem to indicate that there is a way to nest projects.  This is typically how subclips are created.
If I had to guess, the reason for the feature to be missing in a presumably "higher end" mid-range editing system than a basic DVD creation tool is because of the added complexity of what you can do with a clip.  Nesting of unrendered timelines presents a number of challenges due to figuring out processing order and how to most efficiently deal with the assets, especially when nesting may become multiple levels deep.  The feature is typically found on higher end editing systems like Premiere, Final Cut and Avid, but seems to be more rarely found in mid-range solutions or may have limited support.

Just to clarify, Vegas can nest timelines.

@Mulvya - how is it done?  I could not find anything in the documentation about it nor was I able to figure it out after trying for around an hour.  I'd be happy to be wrong about that, but I was not able to find a way to do so.  Perhaps they added it in a newest version?

It's an old feature. File -> Import -> Media -> Savedproject.veg. It'll show up in Project Media.

@mulvya very good to know. I've edited my answer accordingly. Thanks for pointing it out.


text:
Is Blender smarter than final cut pro?
I currently running one photo studio in my hometown. I want to introduced new future in my business. So, i would like to start video editing on my biz. i ask to my friends circle "Which application is smart for video editing?". They suggest final cut pro, primer and scene cut pro like this. The Linux users suggest to blender is nice one. am also Linux user and know little bit about blender. My question is, blender is professionally good for video editing field? what is the different between blender and final cut pro? of course i know well blender is open source others are premium. I want know more other information about quality, support, run time and etc... Please clear my doubts. I was confused to choose my application.
-Thanks

at a glance, FCP/X is a NLE platform and is designed for editing, Blender is a animation tool for producing 3D/2D elements etc, it can do some editing but I wouldnt even think about it to be honest (in my opinion). if you want free Blackmagic do a nice NLE now or Adobe Premier part of Adobe CC

Oh... thank you so much @adam. now i understand about blender...

Do you know about [http://cinelerra.org/2015/] cinelerra

@AdamMannPro Fortunately, this website is not opinion based :)

@Dhivahar Please add a bit more context to the question to get a solid answer, what do you expect to edit, what cameras do you want to use to specify your requirements.

iKlsR at blender.stackexchange.com mentioned that following question could be interesting too: http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/175/video-editor-for-windows-that-can-insert-images-or-audio-at-arbitrary-points

@poor Fair dues, about my opinion

@poor it means you are right to point out this is not opinion based

@poor I did try to change my post but I was to late after I re-read it, it does sound bad. Yes lets see if there is some more info from the OP

@Dhivahar can you give us a bit more info on what type of video work you shall be doing, music videos, corporate, short films, adverts, documentaries, TV work, etc will you be needing 3D elements, or just straight forward cut/slice etc, each NLE has pros and cons depending on the task at hand


text:
Animating stills in After Effects
I did a short corporate composition that used alot of stills. I animated alot of the stills by zooming in and out and panning across. Pretty basic. I have trouble with unexpected movements when I animate both scale and position of the image. These are little sudden changes of position of that happen at the end of the movement. How can I control these animations better? I will try to post a sample of what I mean if this question is not clear.

Good idea! If it's possible, you should add an image(s) to your question.

From my experience all unexpected movements when keyframing are fixed by editing bezier curves of those keyframes, make them linear or something.

Try selecting your keyframes, right-clicking them, and clicking "edit interpolation", then changing it from "Bezier" to "linear", and all the variations therein.
Also try making doubly sure that your keyframes are aligned properly on the timeline.


text:
ffmpeg mute specific time
Looking to edit a blip out of the beginning of a video/audio file...
Anyone know why this doesn't work as expected?
ffmpeg -i ~/Downloads/in.mov -vcodec copy -af volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0 ~/Downloads/out2.mov
[Parsed_volume_0 @ 0x7fa8a8d01680] [Eval @ 0x7fff5544ebe0] Missing ')' or too many args in 'between(t'
[Parsed_volume_0 @ 0x7fa8a8d01680] Error when evaluating the volume expression 'between(t'
[AVFilterGraph @ 0x7fa8a8d01440] Error initializing filter 'volume' with args 'between(t'
Error opening filters!


text:
Live Video on Website from Analog cameras
I currently have 16 Analog cameras hooked up to a Vonnic DVR-K4016SE 16CH H.264 DVR System. I would like to make live streams available on my website of some of these cameras. Using the DVR is optional.
Is this possible to do while keeping my costs under $500? I imagine there are a lot of ways to do this. I am open to doing the technical work myself but would have to have detailed or easy to implement procedures.
Currently customers use the MicroCam app to see the cameras.
Thanks!


text:
Premier Pro producing a 4 hour video that's corrupted
I have a project in Premier Pro that is basically just stitching together a series of videos from a helmet camera into one video that is 4 hours 30 long. In Premier pro all looks good and I can watch the video in the preview window no problem at all.
The exported video is different though. It is fine up to about 3:26 but then it doesn't play. In windows media player I get an error if I try to move the play head past this point. The video was uploaded to youTube here:

and you can see that it just removed the end of the video.
Is there some sort of limit on H.264 video length? I highly doubt that!
What can I do to start debugging what is going on here?
Thanks

The first place I would look would be in the encoder log files. If you used Adobe Media Encoder you will find the log files here:
Windows 7 & 8:
C:\Users\[user]\Documents\Adobe\Adobe Media Encoder\8.0\AMEEncodingLog.txt

Mac OS:
/Users/[user]/Documents/Adobe/Adobe Media Encoder/8.0/AMEEncodingLog.txt

To view the log file, choose File > Show Log or press CTRL + L.
There are two log files:

AMEEncodingLog.txt - for successfully encoded jobs
AMEEncodingErrorLog.txt - for jobs that failed, or were stopped by the user

See the help: https://helpx.adobe.com/media-encoder/using/log-files.html
Check the last entry in each log file and see if your video was encoded correctly.

If the log file points to an encoding error, investigate that
If the log file indicates no error then attempt to play the video in a different media player and see if the problem still persists

I use VLC media player because I've found it to be most reliable.  There is also a debugging console in VLC that can be useful.


text:
MP4s skip when put into lightworks
Below I've included a link to a video demonstrating my problem. The audio sounds fine until I put it into lightworks with another audio track and begin editing. The first clip is both audio tracks together, the second is the top audio track, the third is the bottom audio track, and the last is what it's supposed to sound like.

Don't do sync work with the MP4s/H264 codec. Use proper codecs (ProRes or DNxHD).
Work with .wav or .aif audio files.
Keep an eye on your audio file sample rates.

Lightworks is much less forgiving to small errors than other programs are. Be super precise.


text:
How can I preview with audio in After Effects and be able to pause / resume the preview?
I am working on a series of animations which have elements that are timed to the beat of the background track in AE. It's crucial that they are lined up perfectly to the audio (they are DJ training videos).
I'm used to Premiere, but am pretty new to After Effects. In Premiere you can preview the audio by pressing space, and then press space again to stop the preview. In After Effects, when you do this there is no audio.
The only way I've been able to get a preview with audio is to use the RAM preview, but when I press space to stop it, it goes back to the beginning of the timeline / render area.
I need to be able to listen to the audio, and then stop it on a beat so the timeline marker is in the right place for an effect / keyframe. Is there any way I can do this?

To enable the audio playback, only way is to use the RAM-Preview. Press Numpad 0 or the associated |||> in the Preview Panel to start the preview rendering process:

Press Numpad 0 again to stop it
Press Numpad 0 twice to stop and playback the previously rendered (green) frames

In terms of correct audio playback:

Set the Frame Rate to the composition settings
Enable From Current Time option
Enable Sound Preview (6th button in the first row)

In order to facilitate the work:

Set the rendering resolution of the view to a lower value for e.g. to half or quarter
Limit the work area in your timeline, press B to set the start render point (Begin), press N to set the end point (End)
Enable Loop preview (7th button) to repeat the preview of the current work area

Note: As @Emir Dupovac mentioned, also check your waveform:

See this related answer: AE - Composition video file/layer missing audio

Is there any way to pause the RAM preview? I want to be able to listen for a beat, and pause so the timeline marker is on the beat. Best workaround I've seen so far is to add a keyframe on the fly with *, but it's not ideal.

@Ben To loop something you can set your work area, with B and N for Begin and End. You can also use flags and drag it into the timeline to mark a specific time.

You can hold CTRL and drag timeline marker which will play audio, its not perfect, but maybe it will help. And also you can select audio and double tap key L which will open waveform so you can see the beats.


text:
How do i do this shot?
BSD
Platform: Adobe Creative Cloud CC (premiere, ae, etc.)
Basically I have a shot that I would want to do practically. The shot should look like one shot, static, and we see a  guy (profile-medium) talking then stops...and smoke gently comes out of his mouth. Now the source of the smoke is not a cigarette in the shot but I could use a cigarette to get the smoke look. My reason for going practical is because I cant find a realistic AE effect and this is a realistic video. So the way I originally wanted to go about it was like this:

Have him stand in the profile and talk until the point that I would cut (between him talking and the smoke), have him stand in the exact same position then have him drag a cig, keep his face in that position and then let the smoke come out.

Are there any special Adobe techniques to make this as fluid and unnoticeable (the cut) as possible.?
thanks and sorry for the verbosity.

Please add some reference images to the question. What kind of smoke do you want to achieve?

Adobe just teased "morph cut" functionality in Premiere.  There will probably be an official announcement, and possibly release at NAB, which is going on right now (week of apr 13, 2015).

I like your idea. You might be able to make a convincing smoke element to superimpose on your shot like this:

get a black sheet or piece of posterboard
cut a small, mouth-sized hole in the posterboard
paint the actor's lips black
have the actor stand behind the black posterboard, and blow smoke through the hole

The lighting would be pretty tricky. The best bet would be to have a light directly overhead, not on the black posterboard at all. The light would (hopefully) catch the smoke but keep the posterboard exceptionally dark.  It could be darkened more in After Effects when you're superimposing it (probably as a chromakey where the key color is black). In addition, you could create a traveling mask over the shape of the smoke.

would that traveling mask be difficult because of the flowing tenuous nature of smoke?

I draw my masks a frame at a time in After Effects. I also include as many points on the mask as I think I need, and I adjust the feathering of the mask edge to make it blend in. To be fair, my masks are usually for quick motion that is not the central focus of the shot, so it doesn't have to look 100% perfect since the audience won't have all of their attention on it.

It might be possible to create a small, breakable container of powdered sugar that the actor would keep in his mouth while talking. At the key moment, the actor could subtly inhale, break the container, and blow the powdered sugar out. It should look a lot like smoke (though the smoke would have to be blown rather than drifting out of the actor's mouth).
If you test this, be careful since inhaled powdered sugar can make you choke & cough.

Rather than cut you could consider compositing the shot, with the face coming from the first (talking shot) and the smoke coming from the second. Or as @BrettFromLA suggested, shoot the smoke against black, matching the angle.
Either way, do some tests before you shoot.

authors: Артём Соловьёв


text:
ffmpeg: mute first 2 seconds in all audio streams
Looking to edit a blip out of the beginning of a video/audio file:

How can I use ffmpeg to only edit the first two seconds of the clip so that there's no longer that blip in the audio?
How do I ensure that all 7 audio tracks are affected by the audio filter?
How do I ensure that all 7 are also present in my output file in the same input specs?

Complete output:
ffmpeg -i ~/Downloads/in.mov  -vcodec copy -acodec pcm_s24le -q:a 0 -af "volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0"  ~/Downloads/out2.mov
ffmpeg version 2.6.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple LLVM version 6.0 (clang-600.0.57) (based on LLVM 3.5svn)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/ffmpeg/2.6.1 --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-hardcoded-tables --enable-avresample --cc=clang --host-cflags= --host-ldflags= --enable-libx264 --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libxvid --enable-vda
  libavutil      54. 20.100 / 54. 20.100
  libavcodec     56. 26.100 / 56. 26.100
  libavformat    56. 25.101 / 56. 25.101
  libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
  libavfilter     5. 11.102 /  5. 11.102
  libavresample   2.  1.  0 /  2.  1.  0
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  1.100 /  1.  1.100
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.1 : mono
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.2 : mono
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.3 : mono
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.4 : mono
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.5 : mono
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.6 : mono
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.7 : stereo
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '~/Downloads/in.mov':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt
    creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
  Duration: 00:00:06.44, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 119128 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: prores (apch / 0x68637061), yuv422p10le(bt709), 1920x1080, 109843 kb/s, SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 2997 tbn, 2997 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
      encoder         : Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
      timecode        : 01:00:00;00
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, 1 channels, s32 (24 bit), 1152 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
    Stream #0:2(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, 1 channels, s32 (24 bit), 1152 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
    Stream #0:3(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, 1 channels, s32 (24 bit), 1152 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
    Stream #0:4(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, 1 channels, s32 (24 bit), 1152 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
    Stream #0:5(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, 1 channels, s32 (24 bit), 1152 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
    Stream #0:6(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, 1 channels, s32 (24 bit), 1152 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
    Stream #0:7(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s32 (24 bit), 2304 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
    Stream #0:8(eng): Data: none (tmcd / 0x64636D74), 0 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:28
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
      timecode        : 01:00:00;00
File '~/Downloads/out2.mov' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
Output #0, mov, to '~/Downloads/out2.mov':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : qt
    minor_version   : 537199360
    compatible_brands: qt
    encoder         : Lavf56.25.101
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: prores (apch / 0x68637061), yuv422p10le, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 109843 kb/s, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 11988 tbn, 2997 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
      encoder         : Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
      timecode        : 01:00:00;00
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: pcm_s24le (in24 / 0x34326E69), 48000 Hz, stereo, s32 (24 bit), 2304 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2014-01-16 18:02:27
      handler_name    : Apple Alias Data Handler
      encoder         : Lavc56.26.100 pcm_s24le
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #0:7 -> #0:1 (pcm_s24le (native) -> pcm_s24le (native))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=  193 fps=109 q=-1.0 Lsize=   88166kB time=00:00:06.43 bitrate=112155.7kbits/s
video:86349kB audio:1811kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.006946%

You can mute audio sections like this  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29215197/mute-specified-sections-of-an-audio-file-using-ffmpeg/29222419#29222419. You cannot use -acodec copy at the same time.

Ah looks like putting quotes around the entire filter results in ffmpeg not throwing the error but I also get no other audio which is not intended.
ffmpeg -i ~/Downloads/in.mov -vcodec copy -af "volume=volume='between(t,0,3)':volume=0" ~/Downloads/out2.mov

You should always include the complete console output along with your command when asking for help with ffmpeg.

You have 7 audio streams. Default stream selection will automatically select the stream with the most channels (0:7). Do you want to include the rest? They are just being ignored. The output is being encoded as AAC. Do you want that, or do you want it to be the same as the input? Also, your filtering command should probably look like: volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0.

@LordNeckbeard updated question a bit and posted most recent result.

Looks like ffmpeg needs to see the quotes around the parens, so you need to protect them from the shell with another layer of quotes.
ffmpeg -i ~/Downloads/in.mov -vcodec copy -af "volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0" ~/Downloads/out2.mov
Also, don't forget to specify something about the audio codec.  ffmpeg's default AAC encoder is bad compared to libfdkaac.  And you're not specifying an audio bitrate or quality.

Is there a better way of formating console code here, maybe with a linebreak to better distinguish it from the answer?

oops, I left out a trailing backquote so my ffmpeg command got mis-formatted.  The only difference is that i added double quotes around the entire argument to -af.  There are many other ways to protect the single quotes from the shell, or to quote the parens for ffmpeg's parser with backslashes.

If you want to mute the first 3 seconds of each audio stream then you have to filter each one:
ffmpeg -i input.mov -filter_complex \
"[0:a:0]volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0[a0]; \
 [0:a:0]volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0[a1]; \
 [0:a:0]volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0[a2]; \
 [0:a:0]volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0[a3]; \
 [0:a:0]volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0[a4]; \
 [0:a:0]volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0[a5]; \
 [0:a:0]volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0[a6]" \
-map 0:v -map "[a0]" -map "[a1]" -map "[a2]" -map "[a3]" \
-map "[a4]" -map "[a5]" -map "[a6]" -map 0:d -c copy -c:a pcm_s24le output.mov

If you prefer to merge all of the channels into a single, multichannel stream, then use amerge first:
ffmpeg -i input.mov -filter_complex \
"[0:a:0][0:a:1][0:a:2][0:a:3][0:a:4][0:a:5][0:a:6]amerge=inputs=6,volume=enable='between(t,0,3)':volume=0[a]; \
-map 0:v -map "[a]" -map 0:d -c copy -c:a pcm_s24le output.mov

I didn't test these examples since I do not have a similar input file and I was too lazy to make one.

filtering each audio stream doesn't seem to work or I'm missing the syntax somewhere as it just results in the prompt >

@Tony There were extra " in my example. Copy paste typo. I removed them. Try again. Or provide a short input sample and I can perform an actual test on it.

hmm ok revised version works but the audio is now slightly out of sync from where it was before.

@Tony You should update your question with your command and the console output.


text:
Video with breakpoints for Keynote presentation
I'm trying to show a demo walkthrough of our iPhone app in a Keynote presentation. Ideally, the video would play for a while and then stop at preset break points. Button press resumes the video until the next breaking point.
What's the best way to do this? Do you recommend going about this differently altogether?


text:
recording multiple video feed with timecode/genlock in sync with motion capture system
So, I am looking into recording 2 HD video streams, as reference for our mocap studio. The thing is that I don't know much about video gear, and it must be fairly cheap. I have asked Vicon (mocap vendor) and others for a solution, but they end up costing 10k $ or more.
I need to have everything triggered when I launch the mocap recording, so genlock and time code.
1) Am I right that only pro cameras have genlock? No comsumer cameras or similar priced?
3) is there other ways of syncing (LANC?) that is compatible with genlock if needed?
3) What kind of video card would I need?
4) I would need some kind of genlock sync generator or master clock to send the signal to all devices. I am not sure how the vicon ultranet switch (mocap system) handles genlock, other than you can buy a Vicon MX Control switch which sends a signal to all devices connected to it(Ultranet and video cams). Does anyone know another way?
Can anyone help me with this? and am I missing something?`
Thanks in advance,
Seb


text:
What are some ways to simulate an explosion?
I'm beginning production on a film in the next few weeks, and I need an explosion in one of the scenes. It's not super complicated, just one shot a few seconds long with an explosion coming off the top of a building. The shot is from below on the ground, so no building damage will be visible.
I've looked into a lot of ways to do this, but I can't find one that fits my needs. I want to simulate the explosion, not use stock footage so I can adjust it to get the look I want.
When it comes to software, it doesn't really matter. I have access to Maya, Nuke, After Effects, Fusion, Blender, and I'm familiar with all of them. I'm just looking for a fairly easy way to simulate a mid-scale building explosion.

A reference image would be nice, also a better shot description (static, dolly, pan...) is key to write an solid answer - there is a lot to cover, especially for the 3d part of it.

I don't have a reference image as I haven't shot the film yet. The shot will be a static shot. I know how to do compositing though, so that doesn't need to be covered in the answer. I'm just looking for a way to simulate the explosion.

Ok, more specific. What kind of building? There is only one building in the center of the shot or is it surrounded by others? How the environent looks like?

It's a school building. There's just one building, but not all of it is visible. The building fills the whole frame horizontally and the sky is visible at the top, where the explosion will happen. I plan to shoot in the early evening. The sun will be behind the building.

If you're looking for a fireball explosion, you could download a visual effect of an explosion that's already green screened for you, and just composite that on top of your footage. (That could also be "borrowed" from an existing film and each frame masked by hand. But you didn't hear it from me.)
The building and anything nearby will need to be lit up temporarily by the brightness of the explosion, especially since the front of the building will be in shadow (with the sun behind the building, as you described in the comments to your answer).  I would recommend doing that as a practical effect with actual lights covered by actual orange gels at the actual location.
To help sell the effect, there should also be a blast wave (wind) that blows trees, bushes, people's clothing & hair, nearby litter, etc.  You might show that with insert shots. The camera could also shake for an instant (even in post production) to show that the impact of the explosion even affected the camera.
I'd also include some bits of debris landing near the camera or in the scene to underscore that the explosion is happening in the same environment as the camera (and possibly characters).
For the explosion noise, lots of sound libraries have explosions and destruction sounds you can layer together. I like using a clean, fiery "boom" along with breaking glass and splintering wood, followed by staccato showering debris.

authors: บุญจันทร์ สว่างบ้าน


text:
Convert Analogue signal to digital
I am not sure if this is the place to post this type of question. If it is not I will delete.
At present I have 4 analogue cameras 'talking' to my DVR.
I want to unplug 1 of these cameras from the DVR and connect it directly to my PC.
Is there a typical analogue to digital converter I can use?
The analogue cables endpoint is a balun.
If this is not the correct forum then I would be grateful to be told what is the correct forum?
Thanks

There's not enough information here. What sort of PC? Is it running Windows, OS X, Linux, or something else? Is the camera standard def or high def (or something else)?

@user1118321 Hi thanks for showing an interest.  The PC is windows 7 64bit.  The camera is analogue CIF

Unfortunately, I know nothing about CIF, so I'm not sure where to point you, but hopefully the additional information will improve your chances of getting an answer!

@user1118321 indeed. thanks :)

You need a video capture device or a capture card. It will encode the analog video and audio into digital codecs (like H264 for video and AAC for audio, or other codecs depending on your needs and price range).

Hi, thanks for your answer. I knew I needed a video capture device but after searching myself through Google (before you posted your links) I could not find 1 for this specific case where the cable endpoint is a balun


text:
'Seamless' loop hangs/pauses at beginning of clip
I've got a short video that I'd like to export as an mp4 and use in a seamless loop.
The content of the video is very abstract so it doesn't really matter where the loop occurs/what parts of the clip are butting against each other. In practice with the same file, within editors and elsewhere, edits are always seamless.
While working within both Premiere CS6 and After Effects CS6 the clip loops seamlessly. It's when I export and view the media that the short pause/stutter is visible.
I've tried to output the video in many file formats (H.264, Quicktime, MPEG4, etc.) using various export settings. The resulting file always has a short pause at the beginning of the loop when viewed on OS X Quicktime and VLC, as well as when embedded as HTML5 video (but don't get distracted by the web component.)
An example mp4 file is embedded here: http://mechaneyes.com/vid/ . It's slight, but the video is 2 seconds long, so you'll repeatedly see the hiccup. If needed you can right click on the video and save it to view elsewhere.
Thanks in advance for any assist you can give!

Within an editor each frame is complete in itself, but in the output formats you mention, the video is almost always compressed in such a way that only certain frames (called I-frames) are complete and independent. The rest are 'difference' frames that rely on information from surrounding frames.
At a loop point there's often a need for the player to start over, to refill its buffers and prime the engine. You can often help out by ending your segment with a I-frame. But the only sure way to replicate what you see in the editor is to output only I-frames. MJPEG is an example of a codec that always does this, but there are other codecs that can be instructed to. The downside is that the video will be considerably larger.
Try MJPEG and see if it does what you need.

Thanks, @jim-mack, and thanks for the thoroughness of your answer. Without knowing what was happening behind the scenes I've been using MJPEG files when playing out with VDMX. It's the only format that performs/functions.
Unfortunately in this case I need to keep the file sizes as small as possible as they'll live out their lives embedded on the web. Need all the bandwidth I can get.
Thanks again.

Another workaround is to have a few of the loops in the video, so that if there is any stuttering it will happen less frequently. Of course, this will increase your file size too. I do this for video that gets used in a large public venue. A lot of times the video is played back using devices like Roku boxes that can stutter on each loop. I edit the loops into as long a video as I can fit on the card, so there'll only be a stutter once every hour or so.

It could be fiddly, but another way to workaround the problem would be to remove a few frames from the beginning or end of the loop. This would only work for certain content, but it might may the transition less noticeable.

If you are in Linux, install totem.
sudo apt-get install totem

I found that vlc player pauses, but totem ("videos") loops seamlessly.


text:
32-bit Vegas Pro 10 on 64-bit Windows 8 - Any issues with this?
Yes, I know I should update my copy of Vegas, but it's not in the budget right now.
I have a copy of Vegas Pro 10 that I've been running on WinXP without problems.  Now I just got a new PC and it has Win8 on it.  Since VP10 is a 32-bit program, and Win8 is a 64-bit OS, I'm just curious if anyone has experienced any issues with running it on Win8?  Just things I should look out for, tips/workarounds I might need?  Or does it run as expected without any tweaking necessary?


text:
FFMPEG 2 audio track input
Here is what I have so far . I just dont know how to add plughw:1,0 into the command .
I have tested that recording does work on plughw:1,0 .
function stream {

ffmpeg -r 10  -threads 2 \
 -f x11grab -video_size 1600x900 -framerate 10 -i :0.0 \
tasta-f v4l2 -video_size 320x240 -framerate 10 -i /dev/video0 \
 -f alsa -ac 2 -i pulse                          \
 -filter_complex " \
[1:v]scale=170:-1,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[fg]; \
[0:v]scale=1000:-1,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[bg];  \
[bg][fg]overlay=W-w-10:10,format=yuv420p[out]; \
[out]crop=in_w:in_h-20:0:20[out]"\
 -map "[out]" \
 -map "2:a"  \
 -vcodec libx264 -preset veryfast -pix_fmt yuv420p -g 2 \
 -b:v 1500k -minrate 1500k -maxrate 1500k -bufsize 3200k \
 -acodec libmp3lame -ar 44100 -b:a 256 \
 -ac 2 -f flv out.flv

  #-f alsa -i plughw:1,0

  #'rtmp://live-jfk.twitch.tv/app/'"$key"

}

I can`t image why some one would down vote this

Possibly because it doesn't seem to ask a question. Try to reformulate your post so that it better conforms to SE guidelines.

if it needs a ? mark that bad get to editing . It's to easy to hit a single button to compensate for personal ocd.

Personal OCD? There are clear guidelines for how the SE sites are intended to be used. If you don't feel like conforming to them, at least accept the consequences. I wasn't the original downvoter, but based on your attitude I'm now the second one.

That's fair enough

The trick was to use amix=inputs=2
My error was thinking that I wanted to add another output stream to the track and the solution was to mix down the two tracks into one
function stream {

ffmpeg -r 10  -threads 2 \
 -f x11grab -video_size 1600x900 -framerate 10 -i :0.0 \
 -f v4l2 -video_size 320x240 -framerate 10 -i /dev/video0 \
 -f alsa -ac 2 -i pulse                          \
 -f alsa -i plughw:1,0 \
 -filter_complex " \
amix=inputs=2;
[1:v]scale=170:-1,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[fg]; \
[0:v]scale=1000:-1,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[bg];  \
[bg][fg]overlay=W-w-10:10,format=yuv420p[out]; \
[out]crop=in_w:in_h-20:0:20[out]"\
 -map "[out]" \
 -map "2:a"  \
 -vcodec libx264 -preset veryfast -pix_fmt yuv420p -g 2 \
 -b:v 1500k -minrate 1500k -maxrate 1500k -bufsize 3200k \
 -acodec libmp3lame -ar 44100 -b:a 256 \
 -ac 2 -f flv out.flv

  #-f alsa -i plughw:1,0
  #'rtmp://live-jfk.twitch.tv/app/'"$key"

}


text:
Different outputs from one comp
Coming from a node based editor, I am trying to find the best way to export multiple outputs from a single AE comp.
For example, in my comp, I have 3-4 different masks that's applied to overall comp. I want to export seperate sequences , each with the unique mask applied to the image.
What's the fastest way to accomplish this in AE ?
thanks!

If I understand correctly, you want to re-use the comp several times, but apply different masks to it? For each individual mask just drag the comp into a new comp, and apply the mask.