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How do I make long videos using After Effects?
My laptop is Lenovo y700 with 4 gb of Nvidia GTX 960m (not the best but it does the job) and 8 GB RAM. Anyways, I am working on a podcast that ranges from 20-30 mins in length. When we upload it to youtube, we need to add visual effects as well (else, obviously it will become dull). The effects are simple and it is mostly an audio spectrum that responds to the voice and perhaps a neon light flickering.
Anyways, as expected 30 mins is a lot for After Effects to render and it takes around 2 hours to render that. I also tried directly loading the after effects save file into premiere but in the end it took around the same amount of time to render. Is there an alternative to bypass such a long render time for such a minor effect?

There is no way to "bypass" long render times. After-Effects needs to calculate where every pixel has to be and then pack all this information into a container such as .mov or .mp4. However, you can speed up render time by enabling hardware-acceleration in the settings of After-Effects. You can also increase the amount of RAM allocated to After-Effects. Lastly, make sure you render the file in a reasonable resolution (1920x1080 is good enough for most cases) with a reasonable framerate (for a podcast you can probably get away with 24 frames per second, depending on how responsive the audio-spectrum is probably even 20.)
That said, on your hardware, 2 hours of rendering for an effect like that over 30 minutes is not unreasonable and perfectly normal. Try out the optimization I suggested above and see if you can speed up the process a bit.

First, it doesn't sound like what you're doing in AE is actually making your podcast more interesting. It sounds like it's trivial to implement, but having multiple cameras (phones, laptops) for multiple people -- you said "we" -- and editing stuff out to keep the pacing going would be more effective overall. Sounds like you're providing a distraction rather than making your material interesting.
Second, if you want to go the one-effect route, you could possibly bring just the audio into AE and render the audio spectrum in a small size. For example, if your video is 1920x1080 and you really only put the spectrum in a 600x400 box on the right side, you could just render the effect into a 600x400 composition, then bring that into Premiere and overlay it on the video at appropriate times. (Or if you put the effect in a strip along the bottom of the image, use a 1920x300 composition or something like that.)
You don't need to move all of the other pixels onscreen through After Effects. If you make your spectrum light colors on a black background, you can then use a composite mode to place it over your video. Or a lumakey to drop the black. Premiere should be able to do this. (Haven't used Premiere in a long time, either.)
But ultimately, it's better to make the video more interesting. If you have two people, have both onscreen sometimes, cut between them other times. Cut out stupid or boring parts -- double-win for your viewers. Even a few sound effects that are appropriate to what's going on can spice it up.

Good points indeed. A great source of inspiration could be the joe rogan podcast or Hot Ones by First we feast.


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Glitches in Premiere exports
When I'm using intensive plugins like Film Convert, and some Red Giant plugins that use the GPU, I get glitches appearing in my exported videos.
If I delete the render files and switch to software render only, there are fewer glitches, but still occasionally some.
Does anyone else experience this?
Why does it happen?
Has my laptop's GPU gone bad? (If so, how can I confirm this?)
It appears to have got worse recently, but it's hard to tell...

Very strange. I don't think it's a GPU problem, because it still occurs with software render. The rendering is done with multiple threads in both cases, i.e it is done in parallel. The GPU reaches way higher level of parallelism. So I think the problem is caused by a bug related to parallelism, which would fit the observation that the effect is stronger with GPU.

According to this post, it might be because I'm using iPhone video footage which for some reason is rated at 30.01fps.  They recommend converting it to 30fps first using Handbrake. I haven't tried this yet, so not sure whether it will fix it.

I had a similar problem with footage from iphone. A quick conversion to a framerate that makes more sense then 30.01 fps (what the hell?!) did the trick for me.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to edit laying snow into a video?
So I and a few friends decided to film a Christmas movie. This is gonna be really interesting as I haven't even made a short before. But anyway, most of this movie takes place at the North Pole in Santas village. What does the north pole have every single day of the year? SNOW!!! Any type of physical artificial snow is out of the question, and real snow obviously is too. It will be filmed in the middle of summer, and the snow needs to be edited in. To clarify, I'm talking about snow lying on the ground, on trees, on rooves, etc. Not falling snow. I know how to do falling snow. That's easy. I found lots of tutorials on how to do this on a still image in photoshop, and they look pretty good. Here is an example.

But why can't I find any tutorials on how to do this in Filmora9,(the video editor I use) or for that matter, ANY OTHER VIDEO EDITORS??? NOT EVEN PREMIER PRO!! It shouldn't be much harder than doing it on photoshop, right? How can I do this? If it isn't possible on Filmora9 but there is some other free software that I can do this, that's fine. I'll just add snow in that software and do the rest of editing in Filmora9.
Any help is appreciated.

What you're talking about isn't really video editing as much as it is VFX.  The software you should look into is more along the lines of Nuke, Houdini, Fusion, Blender, Cinema 4D, and After Effects.  Houdini's very good for procedural landscapse with snowfall.  Like the other guy says; this is VERY hard.  Yes, it's kind of like doing it in photoshop, but doing it twenty four times per second, and making it move realistically from second to second.

Here's a tutorial for realistic snowfall in Houdini.  There's a free personal learning edition available.  You should work through it, following the tut, and then try to figure out how you would incorporate live-action footage with it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtMZHfXS1s4

Jason Conrad Thanks! I will check it out.

EDIT: You need to be clear what your goal is. If this is a summer project and just something for some friends to work on together right now, I'd suggest getting Blender (https://www.blender.org/) and learning to use it together. Make some of your establishing shots, if you can.
Or start on a script. 99% of people with good ideas for a movie never make it because they never write and finish a script. Pick one scene and script it and shoot it. Do you need lighting? Props? Have you found a good location? Is it interesting.
Depending on your expectations, it will be very hard. But you can learn together and if things go well, you may have the foundation for actually making a movie.
Script-writing is hard. Movie shooting -- multiple angles, script, actors, props -- is hard. 3D (Blender) is hard. But if you're imagining that you can just run a camera and have people do what they want and in the end you make it look like it's winter -- that's VERY hard.
If it snows reliably in your area, you could easily take the next six months working on Blender, scripting, practicing some shots, scouting locations, etc in preparation for real snow. (Even if it doesn't snow, winter footage may be better than summer footage in terms of looking like winter.)
You can enjoy this process. But don't let your friends' expectations end up with lots of filming being done and then dumped on you to do the impossible. Make sure the process is iterative so your friends can see what's possible, rather than imagine a Hollywood budget.
PREVIOUS ANSWER:
You'll really need to set expectations for your friends. A huge portion of the filming (say 98% or something like that) should be indoors.
Like most shows/movies you'll have an establishing shot of a snow-covered building in a snow-covered valley for a few seconds, then you'll cut to indoors scenes which you physically set up to plausibly look like they are the inside of that building we just saw the outside of. This establishing shot might be real video of a real building that really has snow, or you might attempt to take a photo and touch it up per some of the Photoshop tutorials, then animate falling snow or use a 3D program like Blender and animate a truck or something, so the still could be a video.
Inside, you might want to see the outside occasionally. Have the camera on a tripod and unmoving, looking at the scene with a window in the shot. To make it easy, don't have any people walk in front of the window. Make sure bright light is coming through the window, as if there were lots of snow outside. You can then figure out what it looks like outside of the window and replace the window with that image/video.
If actors walk in front of the window, you'd need to rotoscope around them -- hard -- or the window would need to be a greenscreen or something like that -- also hard -- so you could have the actor appear in front of your replacement window view.
Better yet, fake it. The snow is so high or the wind is so strong that snow/ice cover the windows and you can't see out. Pile fake snow in a bag against the outside of the windows. Every aspect of the script will have to be driven by whether you can actually pull off the shot or not.
Do some experimentation first to see how realistic you get, before you write a script and get actors and crew and actually spend days taping. Your friends can fantasize about how it will look, but you'll be on the hook to fulfill their dreams and it's absolutely not easy.
Anyhow, if your video editing software has color grading/correction tools you can try to do what the Photoshop tutorial does: pick areas of your frame that are green or bright and tint them very white -- leaving some light/darkness variation so it looks a bit more 3D. I tried that really quickly on a scene and the best I could do is to have it look like a dusting of snow had fallen on some grass. And there was a lot of flicker in the color: it's easy to get a single still frame looking good, but video has noise and the light is changing from frame to frame, so it's easy to get flickering when you're doing as extreme of a color adjustment as making stuff look white.
But it's not going to look like the North Pole. There's another Photoshop Tutorial that I see recommended from the end of the one you linked. It uses an old wood cabin and the thumbnail shows a before/after split screen. Notice that they replace entire chunks of the image with white, then add shading and texture to give it depth. That's what a real movie would do in your case: most of the outdoor scenes -- basically anything that your actors don't touch -- would be masked out and replaced by 3D renderedings.
So it's in your best interest to have pretty much everything take place indoors (in a building, in a cave, etc), with some peeks at the outside.

Thanks, that helps me a lot! And if I do need more outside there is always green screening (that is if I can find a photo of the North Pole) LOL

@Randomaker Yes, greenscreen is also tricky to get right. There are tutorials on getting it to work and they big thing is the lighting and setup of the shot. If you do that right, it's straightforward in post -- though it can take a lot of work -- to do in post. (Oh, and please see my edit, above.)

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


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Magic Lantern or native specs in 2020
I am photographer and videographer and my main subject is product photography (antiques,  watches, jewelry,...) and one of my biggest issue is poor sharpness and bad looking video from my Canon 77D. I do so many macro shots as well as chroma but the results are very poor, if sometimes not usable, and they require so many hour of noise cleaning that compromises the sharpness a lot.
I was planning to upgrade to the Fujifilm XT4 wich offers native 10-bit 4k at an impressive bitrate of 400mbs. That would solve my issues, however I am considering the  fact that I own may Canon's glass (like the 2nd version of the 24-70 2.8L), since I want to upgrade for getting  better video results, I am not sure if it worth considering the 5D mkIII with Magic Lantern, wich seems to allow 4k ROW at 14-bits. It is way cheaper for me and easier to get in short term.
I am truly confused guys with the "exact specs" ML allows in the 5D III, and if it worth considering it in 2020. So I highly appreciate your recommendations.
About the 5D mkIII specs I would appreciate if someone can tell me of there is a crop as you get in high resolution, if the footage is sharp, what is the maximum bitrate, what is the maximum frame rate, and what are the limitation of pushing the specs toward the limits.... what is the most best/usable/stable you can get form ML in the 5D mkIII?
Thank you in advance.

You'll see an improvement with the 5Diii over the 77D without installing Magic Lantern, because the former has a full frame sensor, and the latter only an aps-c sensor.  Then, you're free to experiment with ML, use it if you like it, return to the normal firmware if you don't.  The major limitation that ML overcomes (in my opinion) is the maximum video duration.  Yes, it adds other bells and whistles, but it won't alter the fundamental physics of the camera, which is what you're getting by upgrading to a larger sensor.

And do considering the XT-4, do you think is worth it?

I haven't used one, so I don't really know.  I looked up the sensor size, though, and it's also aps-c, so it's probably on par with the 77D.  Sensor size is a big deal, will get you better low light performance (good for macro), and better depth of field, simply because it can sample more photons.  Any software or processing tricks that make smaller sensors perform well can always be applied to larger sensors, too, which means they'll always have an edge when it comes to image quality.

Ok, thank you for your help. Quiet appreciated


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Is there an equivalent to Premiere's tilde key in DaVinci Resolve?
In Adobe Premiere, you can maximise the currently selected window or pane by pressing the tilde ~ key. Is there an equivalent in Davinci Resolve 16?
See Display any panel full screen in Premiere's help

You can't expand any panel to full screen in Resolve 16 like you can in Premiere Pro.  You can expand the viewer to full screen with cmd/ctrl-F, and on the color page you can also get different viewer expansions with alt/opt-F and shift-F.
Beyond that, if a panel can be hidden, it's listed under the Workspace menu->Panels in Workspace, or by simply dimming its tab across the top of the screen. Not all panels can be hidden in Resolve.  In general, Resolve's UI is less customizable than Premiere.
BlackMagic's approach to UI design is very structured, and while it takes a period of adjustment for new users to become comfortable, it mitigates the need to hunt for shifting UI elements. "Where did I put that panel" doesn't happen.  Neither does "Where did I get Dave's Fave Layout" when your name is not Dave, but Dave shared a project with you.

You can save layout presets, under the Workspace->Layout Presets menu, and you can re-map keybindings to most commands in Resolve.  This, coupled with the fact that the positions of UI elements are consistently and predictably located make it possible to automate repetitive tasks easily with third-party macro software (e.g. autohotkey for Windows; Keyboard Maestro for Mac) which use mouse clicks in addition to keystrokes.
But DaVinci Resolve's secret killer feature is actually not one you'll find in its (oversized) manual.  It's BlackMagic's stellar support staff and developers.  If you have a reasonable feature suggestion or bug report, post it to their user forums.  They will evaluate it, and if it's a good idea, they will implement it, quickly.  The last issue I brought up wasn't even really something I considered a big deal, and there was already a workaround, but they fixed it in less than a month.  And they've implemented my suggestions on multiple occasions.
Something like the tilde key for full-screen windows has probably been brought up before, but if they see more demand than pushback for it, and as long as the feature doesn't infringe on another company's intellectual property, they'll do it.


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FFmpeg pad filter calculating wrong width
I'm using
ffmpeg.exe -i in.jpg -filter_complex "[0:v]pad=iw:ih+10:0:0" out.jpg

to add a padding of 10px at the bottom of images and videos.
In most cases it works as expected but with some the width is off by 1px resulting in failure with error:
[Parsed_pad_0 @ 000002ba70617c40] Input area 0:0:623:640 not within the padded area 0:0:622:650 or zero-sized
[Parsed_pad_0 @ 000002ba70617c40] Failed to configure input pad on Parsed_pad_0
Error reinitializing filters!
Failed to inject frame into filter network: Invalid argument
Error while processing the decoded data for stream #0:0

you can see that the width of the input area is 623 and the padded area width is 622 but this should not be the case since we are using iw to set the width of the padding.
Here is a sample image that fails.

@PaulB.Mahol any workaround that you could suggest?

it turns out you can not pad subsampled pixel formats at odd boundries.
the workaroud is to make the boundary even by using
ffmpeg.exe -i in.jpg -filter_complex "[0:v]pad=ceil(iw/2)*2:ceil((ih+10)/2)*2:0:0" out.jpg


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Apply the parameters of automatic color balance to another clip
I took several shots with a camera without the ability to white balance the shot. In one take, Final Cut Pro's automatic color balance works very well. I would like to apply those same settings to the other takes from the same day. When I save the effect as a preset and apply it, Final Cut Pro applies automatic color balance to the new clip rather than a color balance with the same parameters from the first clip.
How can I use the parameters of the automatic color correction from one clip to apply to another clip?

Unfortunately the settings are not visible when you use automatic colour grading. AFAIK what the algorithm does can’t be replicated on another clip.
To be honest I would not use automatic for what I publish. It’s just too unpredictable and not repeatable. Sometimes you get different results with the same footage in your timeline.

Yes, I made the rookie mistake of giving up on white balance because the camera didn't have it. Next time I'll use a camera that has it or hold a piece of white paper to white balance the whole clip with the picker tool. I assume that the automatic color balance works like "simplest color balance" and I have had better results with it on some clips than using the picker or than skipping color balance entirely.

@miguelmorin My recommendation would be that you find couple YouTube videos on how to colour grade in FCPX. It isn’t and doesn’t have to be complicated. This would give you the advantages that you can copy this attributes to other clips.

It's important to know whether your camera's automatic white balance is continuous or not.  Most consumer cameras continuously guess at the ambient light temperature, which make it nearly impossible to correct in post (Resolve has a "color stabilizer" feature, which is like an inverse auto WB).  It's better to set your white balance to ANYTHING constant, and best to set WB to the actual constant ambient temp.  And always shoot a grey card, or make mental notes of objects in your scene which are actually white as you're shooting.  Setting the wrong constant WB risks clipping single channels.


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How to quick select PNG image for masking in After Effects?
Is that possible to generate mask from Layer Alpha Channel?
I want to quick select this image for masking.

Found a solution. Maybe someone will need it.
Layer -> Auto-Trace

Worth noting that you can also use a layer as a track matte for other layers. https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/alpha-channels-masks-mattes.html#track_mattes_and_traveling_mattes


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VHS Wobble After Effects
Does anyone know how to achieve the specific wobble of the VHS tape that can be seen here:

(it's throughout the video, but you can best see it if you look at the "Radio Shack" letters.)

Is it some sort of turbulent displace effect?
Note: I have Red Giant's VHS effect and have tried countless other plugins and presets and none of them have the option to produce realistic VHS wobble like this one.
Thanks in advance!

I'd expect it would be easier to play your video into a VCR then capture the result with a capture card

Replicating an accurate VHS-look is a complicated profession, but if you are not worried about the technical accuracy you could emulate it like this:

Create a solid called "Displace-Map"
Apply turbulent noise to it
set the scaling to something huge in the x-axis and something reasonable (100%) on the y-axis.
alt-click the stopwatch on "evolution" and enter "time*100", so that the noise changes with time.
Apply "Displacement-Map" to the layer you're trying to displace
Set your "Displace-Map"-layer as the displace-map in the effect
Dial up the displacement until it looks about right
Don't forget to hide the Displace-Map solid and select "Masks&Effects" under the settings in the Displacement-Map effect, so it also reads the turbulent noise.

You might want to adjust the speed of the turbulent noise. To do that, just up the number you multiply time with in the evolution-expression.
I hope this helped, cheers!

Thanks a lot! Works like a charm. By experimenting with this I also discovered that black VHS noise videos can be used as Displacement Maps, that can also produce a similar effect.

Brilliant idea aswell! :)


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Correct gamma for SMPTE ST-2084 EOTF
I recently purchased an Apple Pro XDR display that has an HDR reference mode specified as follows:

HDR Video (P3-ST 2084)
Use this mode for 4K or ultra high-definition
video production workflows up to 1000 nits (full-screen sustained)
using the wide color P3 primaries and the high-dynamic-range SMPTE
ST-2084 EOTF. This mode is designed for controlled viewing
environments set up per ITU-R BT.2100.

When exporting raw files using the Canon Cinema RAW Development tool to ProRes 4444 for post production in Premiere I can choose the colour space and gamma.
Am I correct to assume that DCI-P3 is the right color space to choose?
And what gamma should I select? The only choices I have with this color space are

Canon Log 2
Canon Log 3
DCI

Should I ideally be using a different gamma for the ST-2084 standard or does it not matter?

The short answer is:  You don't pick a color space for your RAW material based on what kind of monitor you're using.
A color pipeline is a very complicated series of mathematical conversions, which is heavily dependent upon:

The operating system's color management settings, such as .icc device profiles from manufacturers, and/or calibration software.
The file recorded by your camera; what settings were used to write the file, the lighting conditions on set, the monitoring conditions on set, whether any in-camera "looks" were used when the file was created, whether those looks should be present in the final image, etc.
Your NLE's color management and monitoring settings
Your viewing environment.  The light levels and color temperature of a color grading suite are standardized by SMTPE, as well as the color of surrounding walls and furniture.
The destination format, monitoring conditions, and viewing environment.  Where do you plan to show your work?  YouTube?  Then rec.709 is probably a safe choice for destination format, but you could still use a larger working color space.  But if you're delivering a feature film to DCI-P3, upstream rec.709 would be a bottleneck.  The same goes for HDR, which is an entirely different beast.

So, without more information about these factors, and what you're trying to accomplish, there's no right or wrong answer at this stage. The choice you're presented with is essentially:  Which working color space do you want to use for the interpretation of your camera RAW file?  As long as this space is larger than what you intend to deliver, then you could use any of them.  If you're delivering to the internet, using the most common space, then they're all large enough.  OTOH, if you will be the only person watching the output and you want it to look the best it can look on your new monitor, then use a space that's as large as your monitor is capable of reproducing, or larger.
Gamma is a different, but similar question.  You don't use a gamma "large enough" to contain a certain set of values like you do with color space.  But the "correct" gamma to chose is dependent upon the gamma your monitor is currently displaying, and the gamma of your destination material.  Ideally, you'd set your monitor to be the same gamma and color space as your intended target.  Here, let me stress, I'm talking about your MONITORING gamma matching your destination format.  But your working gamma (the menu item you're asking about) could still be any gamma, or it could be log encoded, or even linear (especially for VFX compositing).

This is very helpful, thank you. My target would be HDR for Vimeo and viewing on my screen using the reference mode mentioned above. With HDR I understand that the editing software uses PQ, so I could select any gamma based on subjective preference for editing in FCPX or Premiere?

It's honestly been a while since I messed with HDR, & none of the major NLE's had gotten it right, yet.  I had to use FFMPEG/handbrake to get the metadata tagged correctly.  I think FCPX and Premiere work now, but I switched to Resolve almost entirely about two years ago.  I know it works.  I don't know how much Premiere has changed since then.  My target was originally YouTube on an Android Samsung TV, but the YouTube app also didn't read the HDR metadata tags correctly, so I think I eventually switched to YT w/ Chromecast.  So player host version matters, too, but probably less nowadays..

As for the gamma, I'd look into what those menu items in the Canon utility really mean.  "Wide DR" isn't a standard name for anything, but it might be Canon's nickname for some actual standard, who knows.  I'm guessing BT.709 is either a 2.2 or 2.4 gamma, which is sort of strange because the rec.709 standard doesn't actually specify a gamma... but so... yeah.  I'd look through Canon's literature on those.


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How to reveal 3 masks with Stroke in After Effects
How to reveal this image with Stroke Effect in a single image layer?

I created 3 masks using Pen Tool
For each mask , I added a Stroke effect and animated everything.
In Stroke effect the settings, I switched Paint Style to Reveal original image

The problem is that I can reveal only one mask, and for two or more, nothing happens. How to animate each mask individually on one single layer using Stroke Effect?
Thank you.

If I understand this correctly, your goal is to be able to adjust the stroke effect in one shape and have it applied to every other shape, right?
If so, here's how I'd approach this:

create your shape layer and add the stroke effect to reveal the image
Pre-compose the shape layer
Duplicate the precomp three two times and scale them, so you have three different sizes
To remain the same thickness of your shapes, you could apply the "min-max" effect and widen the alpha- and colorchannels to make the shape appear thicker.

If you now adjust the stroke-effect of the shape in any of your three precomps, it is applied to every precomp, effectively changing the animation for all the three shapes.

On second though - the "min-max" might round the corners in an ugly way. Maybe you could rather use the pick-whip to link all the Stroke-Effects to one stroke-effect, so that they all follow one.


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What causes a loud tone/noise in Blackmagic ATEM talkback?
Setup
I have a Blackmagic ATEM 4 M/E and one of their studio cameras. I have a headphone on the camera and an active speaker on the ATEM so I can hear talkback.
Problem
There is a super loud whine/tone/whistle/noise. It is similar to a 1kHz square tone. Even if I set volume to minimum it is hearable.
What I tried
I tried to disconnect the cable going into "SDI in" from the camera. The tone is still there but only in the ATEM so the source has to be the mixer. I added a mic to the talkback XLR input but it can't be heard. I also tried to add a sound mixer to this same XLR input and even if I set volume to the max it can be barely heard but the tone is still super loud compared to it. What is the problem?

tl;dr
Make sure none of the SDI outputs of the ATEM are routed back to its inputs.
Talkback feedback loop
The ATEM uses SDI channel 15 and 16 for talkback. If you route one of your SDI outputs to the SDI inputs (either directly via a simple SDI cable or trough a system of devices like record/playback devices) you will get a feedback loop that causes this high tone.
Possible solutions
The simplest solution is to break the loop by removing the cable/devices causing it. Obviously this way you will loose the functionality you tried to add trough it, like having M/E 1 PGM as one of your inputs so you can use it as an input on M/E 2, 3 or 4, so if you would like to keep the loop without the noise you have to deembed or redirect the audio from channel 15 and 16. You can use something like the Decimator MD-HX Cross Converter that can reroute SDI audio channels.


text:
Video editor for cutting a video into multiple short clips and store them quickly

Note: Alternatively the question is: "How to cut a video in multiple slices and store each clip as a separate video quickly (!) with Kdenlive?", but I don't think Kdenlive supports an easy way to export single clips.

I am looking for a tool that allows me to slice a video (in a quick way).
At first I tried Kdenlive but it's not really a good tool if you just want to cut a video into multiple short clips and export them (rather fast). In Kdenlive I can only export a selected part of the video or the entire project. But what I want is basically "Cut at frame t and t + n and then just "right click" that slice and save it away as mp4 (or any other common format - it does not really matter).
Kdenlive would be fine if I'd had to do this just to one video but I need to do this to multiple videos as I am trying to create a dataset for a machine learning project of mine.
I know there are a bunch of free tools out there but does anybody know which (if any) of those might be suitable for this (rather boring but necessary) manual task?

shotcut
I would suggest shotcut. It's really fast and allows you to select where to cut at the right place (to the frame). It's also visual making it really easy.
Basic Setup

Start shotcut
Give your project a name
Drag & Drop an MP4 in the screen video area
Click on the video now playing, move it to the timeline

Cut + Export

Click on the timeline time (top of the timeline) to select a location.
Click on the ][ icon to do a cut.
Right click on the left side and do "Remove".
Click on the right side and do a "Remove" as well.
Then Export (File → Export Video ... | Ctrl-E).

Next Cut
Once the export is done:

Hit Ctrl-Z to restore the clip on the right side.
Then cut/remove again...
Repeat until done.

Under Ubuntu, I can install shotcut with:
snap install shotcut

ffmpeg
If you know the start point and duration, then you can use ffmpeg like so:
ffmpeg -ss 0:0 -t 5:0 -i in.mp4 out.mp4

The -ss defines the start point and -t defines the duration. You can use those two and create the cuts in the command line. You can always use shotcut or some other tool to determine the start/duration parameters.

Thank you! shotcut seems like a good option :)


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Video not playing properly after ffmpeg vintage effect applied
I am using ffmpeg 3.3.4 for android. I am executing below simple command:
 ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf curves=vintage -c:a aac ouput.mp4

and
 ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf curves=vintage -c:a copy ouput.mp4

The resultant video is not playing in android default player and Exoplayer. I tried on windows using windows media player, it only plays sound but no video. Although VLC media player is playing it properly on android and windows. Any idea whats missing in the above command?
Output video metadata:
https://www.metadata2go.com/result/e9f9b7db-0a91-4148-9073-1a1162f0c7f0

The curves filter converts the input to RGB coding but most video players require a specific YUV scheme.
So use,
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf curves=vintage,format=yuv420p -c:a copy ouput.mp4

Its working. Now android default player can play the video after adding output format parameter. Btw what other formats are available and what impact they can have on outout?

There are dozens of other formats but yuv420p is the only widely supported format.


text:
Valid Slideshow-Video created by ffmpeg is not accepted by Twitter
I create a video from a slideshow using ffmpeg. I have a valid video at the end. VLC plays that video, YouTube also. I want to display the final product directly on twitter.
I checked the recommened specs according to resolution, framerate, aspect ration and size required for Twitter to accept this video.  But still when trying to add this video direcectly into Twitter I receive an error that "no video with supported format or MIME-Type found".
Ffmpeg does not display any error or warning.
Arguments:
ffmpeg -f image2pipe -framerate 1 -i pipe:.png -c:v libx264 -crf 21  -r 30 -y "Blathering.noaudio.mp4"

As you can see I create one image per frame (-framerate 1) but create a 30fps output file (-r 30)
The output from ffmpeg looks like this:
ffmpeg version git-2020-06-17-0b3bd00 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 9.3.1 (GCC) 20200523
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-sdl2 --enable-fontconfig --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libdav1d --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libsrt --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libzimg --enable-lzma --enable-zlib --enable-gmp --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvmaf --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libmysofa --enable-libspeex --enable-libxvid --enable-libaom --disable-w32threads --enable-libmfx --enable-ffnvcodec --enable-cuda-llvm --enable-cuvid --enable-d3d11va --enable-nvenc --enable-nvdec --enable-dxva2 --enable-avisynth --enable-libopenmpt --enable-amf
  libavutil      56. 55.100 / 56. 55.100
  libavcodec     58. 92.100 / 58. 92.100
  libavformat    58. 46.101 / 58. 46.101
  libavdevice    58. 11.100 / 58. 11.100
  libavfilter     7. 86.100 /  7. 86.100
  libswscale      5.  8.100 /  5.  8.100
  libswresample   3.  8.100 /  3.  8.100
  libpostproc    55.  8.100 / 55.  8.100
Input #0, image2pipe, from 'pipe:.png':
  Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0:0: Video: png, rgba(pc), 680x420 [SAR 3779:3779 DAR 34:21], 1 fps, 1 tbr, 1 tbn, 1 tbc
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (png (native) -> h264 (libx264))
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 AVX FMA3 BMI2 AVX2
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] profile High 4:4:4 Predictive, level 3.0, 4:4:4, 8-bit
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] 264 - core 160 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2020 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=4 threads=12 lookahead_threads=2 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=21.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to 'Blathering.noaudio.mp4':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf58.46.101
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv444p, 680x420 [SAR 1:1 DAR 34:21], q=-1--1, 30 fps, 15360 tbn, 30 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc58.92.100 libx264
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: N/A
frame=  150 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 Lsize=      17kB time=00:00:04.90 bitrate=  29.2kbits/s dup=145 drop=0 speed=  29x
video:15kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 17.439800%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] frame I:1     Avg QP:12.52  size:  9283
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] frame P:38    Avg QP:10.45  size:    53
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] frame B:111   Avg QP:11.67  size:    29
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] consecutive B-frames:  1.3%  0.0%  0.0% 98.7%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] mb I  I16..4: 66.0% 25.8%  8.3%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] mb P  I16..4:  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%  P16..4:  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%    skip:99.9%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] mb B  I16..4:  0.0%  0.0%  0.0%  B16..8:  0.5%  0.0%  0.0%  direct: 0.0%  skip:99.5%  L0:64.2% L1:35.8% BI: 0.0%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] 8x8 transform intra:25.9% inter:0.0%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] coded y,u,v intra: 5.2% 3.2% 3.1% inter: 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] i16 v,h,dc,p: 89% 11%  0%  0%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 60%  4% 36%  0%  0%  0%  0%  0%  0%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 27% 36% 19%  2%  3%  3%  5%  2%  4%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] Weighted P-Frames: Y:0.0% UV:0.0%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] ref P L0: 86.2%  3.4% 10.3%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] ref B L0: 51.9% 48.1%
[libx264 @ 00000217ad682780] kb/s:23.31

The Codec information are the following:

This is pure Images, no audio at this point in the video. Is there a parameter I am missing? IMHO this looks like a very common video file I create there.

PNG contain RGB data and video contains YUV pixels. FFmpeg will select yuv444p to preserve chroma sampling resolution but that pixel format is not widely compatible. Force yuv420p output.
Use
ffmpeg -f image2pipe -framerate 1 -i pipe:.png -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 21 -r 30 -y "Blathering.noaudio.mp4"


text:
How to track and zoom in AE

I want to learn how to make the effect that is presented in the video from 0:29 to 0:31, that is, cursor tracking and zoom.

Here is how I would do it:

Track the cursor in After-Effects (using the tracking-panel)
Apply the movement to a Null-Object
Create a camera
Parent the camera to the Null
Change the focal length in the camera to achieve the zoom

Now your camera should follow the cursor.


text:
Is it possible to automate a workflow in Premiere Pro
I need to edit a large set of videos through a very specific process. My workflow is pretty simple. Add a Watermark, a specific intro video and apply invert effect on the video.
I'm quite new to Premiere Pro, So I apologize if this is a common thing

If you want to completely automate it for a large number of files, you should perhaps take a look at ffmpeg.

I agree with @Florian Claaßen; Premiere Pro is not meant for batch processing, it's the wrong tool for the job.

Premiere allegedly supports scripting with ExtendScript, an offshoot of Javascript, but IDK anybody who uses it, and the help forums appear fraught with pain.

As mentioned in the comments, I realized that Premiere Pro was the wrong tool for the job. Thanks to Florian I got started with ffmpeg.
For the sake of any future users who might want something like this, I thought I'd share my solution.
The following Command helps me convert my wmv source file to mp4 with a png watermark in the bottom right corner and the source video negated (colour inverted).
ffmpeg -i source.wmv -i logo.png -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a aac -strict -2 -q:a 100 -max_muxing_queue_size 9999 -filter_complex "[1]format=yuva444p,colorchannelmixer=aa=0.8[logo];[0]fps=fps=30, negate=1[flip];[flip][logo]overlay=x=(main_w-overlay_w):y=(main_h-overlay_h)" output_file.mp4
I also made a gist with the broken down commands for each of my requirements. ffmpeg is blazing fast too!
https://gist.github.com/gigincg/338ec705632ee69cfe72eae73c2bb95f


text:
Change to black and white (without greys) in AE
I am trying to convert an After Effect layer of regular color video to a completely Black & White layer, that is, Black remains black, but anything not black will turn into snow white. Is there an simple way to accomplish this in After Effects or Premiere? I have struggled to find an easy way and applied different Effects (Channel Combiner, Hue/Sat), with some success, but it doesn't seem to fully convert the layer to a complete black and white image. Any ideas?

The effect that does what you specifically want is called threshold.

That has done it, thanks! It was difficult to Google the answer across tutorials as when I type bw effects it always refers to greyscale.


text:
Davinci Resolve 16 wont playback a clip in the timeline preview
I have a brand new project, with some media imported to the pool. I marked in and out on a clip on the left hand preview, dragged it to the timeline, and tried to play the result in the timeline preview on the right.
The timeline preview on the right will not play the clip, it flashes the mark in/out symbols on the edge of the screen. I can't click on the clip timeline to jog to a point in the clip. If i click on the project timeline down the bottom it will move, but anytime i click play in the preview window it snaps back to the beginning and does not play.
Whats going on?

hi - what format is the source clip, and what format is your project and timeline (codecs, resolutions, frame rates etc)

is there an easy way to export this information?

Your clip is only one frame long, according to the number "00:00:00:01"  Perhaps you accidentally imported a single image from an image sequence.  To switch back and forth between how DaVinci treats image sequences, check or un-check the "Show Individual Frames" item in the option (three dots) menu of the media storage panel on the media storage page.

This menu item is fairly hidden, and poorly named; you might interpret it to mean the same thing as the similarly-named, "Show all Video Frames" menu item under the options menu of the edit page viewers, but it is different.
The Media page command, when checked, does two things.  It shows every .jpg, .tiff, .png, etc as distinct items in the media browser. But more importantly, it affects how these items are imported to DaVinci through media pool drag-and-drop, system import dialogue, or any other import method.
When it's disabled, such as in the image above, and you import any member frame of an image sequence, Resolve treats the incoming clip as video.  When it's enabled, Resolve treats the incoming clip as a still frame.  If your setting: Preferences->User tab->Editing->Standard still duration is set to 1 frame, you will experience the behavior you describe.
Another possibility is that your clip imported into the project correctly, but you've accidentally only sent a single frame to the timeline (it's hard to tell from your picture).  This happens by mistake sometimes, if you hit the "i" and "o" keys with the source viewer in focus, but without moving the playhead.  Then, editing the clip to the timeline will result in the behavior you've described. [*]
The other case in which you'd experience the described behavior is that your camera, either by mistake or malfunction, only recorded a single frame in the first place.
[*] With the exception of a "Fit to Fill" edit.


text:
Adobe Premiere is placing a faint 'X' on video transition
I am transitioning 1 video to a still PSD in Adobe Premiere Pro.
No matter the transition, it overlays a faint red x (It remains there, even on export). I have tried everything to be best of my ability to fix it, though I can't seem to find a solution.

Seeking advice on how to resolve this trouble.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

The kind of X you are seeing usually appears when applying a demo-version of a transition of an effect. Are you sure you are not using some third-party transition pack that you simply haven't bought yet? Try using the standard cross-dissolve and report back if the X remains with native transitions. Cheers!

Really appreciate the help! I have a subscription to extensions but it seems not to be activated. Super super grateful – I thought I was going crazy!


text:
What does a flashing button mean on the Blackmagic ATEM 4 M/E front panel?
What I know
The front panel of the Blackmagic Design ATEM 4 M/E is used for routing the AUXes of the mixer similarly to a Smart Videohub.
Problem
I realized that sometimes the buttons of some AUXes flash. For example I have AUX 2 where ME 3 PGM is routed but on the front panel ME 1 PGM is flashing.

What does this flashing means? Why does it flashes at a different button?

tl;dr
It indicates that ME 3 PGM is selected since there is no buttons for M/E 3 and 4.
Blackmagic ATEM Front Panel Tutorial
The switcher's front panel doesn't have a button for all routable inputs/outputs. If you click an AUX in the menu of the ATEM Software Control, you can see that you have 60 items in the dropdown, while there are only 36 buttons on the front panel.
Media Players and M/Es
You have 4 media players and 4 M/Es but there are only buttons for the first 2. For selecting the other half you have to use the same buttons by double pressing them. So to select Media Player 3 you have to double press MP 1. Buttons that work this way:

MP 1 -> Media Player 3
MP 1 KEY -> Media Player 3 Key
MP 2 -> Media Player 4
MP 2 KEY -> Media Player 4 Key
ME 1 PVW -> ME 3 PVW
ME 1 PGM -> ME 3 PGM
ME 2 PVW -> ME 4 PVW
ME 2 PGM -> ME 4 PGM

The mixer is really nitpicky when it comes to registering double presses. If you press the button to slow or too fast it won't recognize it. You have to press them in a specific rhythm with around 350 ms delay between the two presses. This might sound weird but it is true. I had to measure this since it seemed so unreliable. 180 ms doesn't work, 520 ms doesn't work. Between 250-450 ms you are good. Thanks to this neediness I would not recommend the front panel for AUX routing for these inputs when the timing is critical.
Key Masks
Every key's mask can be routed to an AUX. We have 4 upstream keys for the 4 M/Es and the 2 downstream keys on M/E 1. This means (4*4)+2=18 masks. All of these can be selected via the KEY MASK button. This button always flashes if any of the aforementioned key masks are routed to that AUX. On each KEY MASK button press it will cycle through the key masks, selecting the next key according to the order in the menu dropdown:

If the previously routed signal on that AUX was a key mask, the button press will go to the next one (below it). If it reached the end or the previous signal was not a key mask it will start from the top.


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

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

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

You know, in twenty years of using after effects, I have never yet pressed that button. Thanks for the AE Tip of the Day.

I too only found out because of this question :D


text:
Is there a player that allows copying currently shown susbtitles to the clipboard?
I'm on Windows 7 and have video files with external or built-in (not hard-coded) subtitles. When watching the videos, I'd like to be able to somehow copy the currently shown text to the clipboard.
Do you know any video player that can do this?

You can select and copy subtitles on youtube. If you have your subs in a common format, you can upload them to youtube with the video and your subtitles will be applied according to the internal timecode in the subtitles-file. Then, when playing back the video, you can select and copy the subs.


text:
Which scene transitions are commonly used?
Video editing software offers many scene transition effects, but which ones are commonly used in movies and tv shows?

The commonly used transitions are cuts and dissolves. Cuts can be edited in a variety of ways, depending on the storytelling situation, but the straight cut is the most often used transition. Any other transitions have unique purposes, but should always be motivated by the story and used sparingly. The exception to the frequency rule is when a piece adopts a transition as a stylistic device. But you need to approach that with caution, as it can scream amateur.

Probably fade and cut. But, I must say every transition effect have a a point in terms of story telling. 'Cut' transition tells us the next scene might be in another place and time and so on.


text:
How to make scenes look continuous?
So I shoot scenes with my cellphone (whether FHD or UHD). But other scenes I take them from clips I find online in a subscription service. If I try to make the video of contiguous scenes combining from phone and the other clips it is easily observed they are different, there is no continuity on light/color. Which filters or steps do I need to make so it appears to have continuity?

For future videos, you better have a defined reference in all videos. For example a clapperboard or a standardized grey card. Then you can match all videos during colour grading both regarding the white balance and exposure. Usually editors let you set the black and white point or midtone with a colour picking tool that you use on the clapperboard or greycard. Or you mask out a grey area and using diagrams to adjust colours until the red/green/blue values are equal.
For existing videos without such reference and especially for videos from external sources you need more guess work but you should get there close enough.
Anyway, you need a video editor that helps with colour grading. The steps depend on your editor. Some of them offer graphs or diagrams which help for comparison between clips. Usually there's also a copy&paste function, so that you can use the same colour settings for multiple clips. Some even have automatic functions, that may or may not be useful. For example Adobe's Premiere Pro (and here is mini-tutorial on the topic). Adobe offers a free trial, so you can check if this works for you or not. DaVinci Resolve is a great alternative, it's famous for it's excellent colour grading abilities, but since I don't really use it, I don't know much about it.
Once all clips are matched, you can of course choose to artistically change colours for all or some scenes. Like in the The Matrix where they have used a green tint for all scenes that play in the Matrix.


text:
Best and easiest way to remove tracking markers from green screen video
I have this video :

From which I want to remove all tracking markers (black and blue tracking markers). I tried to use After Effects through Mocha and Content-aware-fill using these youtube tutorials :

But it doesn't work properly.
Please can you recommend some good tutorials or techniques to flawlessly and easily remove all those tracking markers from my video ?
Many thanks in advance

You can do this quite easily without content-aware fill or anything like it. I'd tackle this by doing the following:

create a rough shape for each tracking-point (the color doesn't matter)
track each point using the native after-effects tracker and apply the track to the corresponding shape.
All the shapes should now stick to their tracked point. Precompose all the shapes.
Under "track-mattes" you can now select your shape-precomp as "invered alpha-matte". This cuts out the opaque areas of the shapes, effectively removing the tracking-points.
Key your footage.

I hope this helped you, have a nice day!

I see. The rectangles you created are masks, and will not work this way, unfortunately. You need to de-select every layer and create a shape with the pen-tool, and you'll see that a new shape-layer will be created automatically. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the 2d-point-tracker I recommend you check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqWWhChc8RA

You need to deselect all the layers by clicking somewhere below, where no layer is. If you use the pen-tool then, a new shape layer will be created.


text:
How to record screen with zoom in high quality?
Is there some way to record Windows screen with zoom in high quality? Like in this video:

You have 3 options:

find a software that supports recording with a zoom-in
on Windows there is the screen magifier (I hope there is something similar on Mac?) which can be used to magnify the relevant screen part
you record the video normally and then edit in post

If you go for the first option, it's easy to find several screen recording applications with Google, I tried the terms "screen recorder" "zoom-in" (just usign "zoom" spoils the search results with many hits for the Zoom meeting app. So use "zoom-in" with quotes). I can't recommend any software in particular.
My preferred method would be to do it in post, but that's a personal preference and of course your video editor has to support it. The feature, which you need, may be called a "crop" effect, whereas the zoom effect will animate the process of zooming in or out. Anyway, when you want to do it in post, make sure you can record a higher resolution than the output resolution, e.g. record in 4k and output to HD. However editing 4k video requires either fast hardware or a good video editor that can work with proxy files or similar resource saving alternatives.
That said, the edit-in-post option takes some effort. Option 1 or 2 may be the more economic way for you.


text:
drawtext ffmpeg 'Unable to parse graph description substring'
hi im trying to add text to live video stream but i keep getting error with my command, i already tried -filter_complex but no success
ffmpeg -loop 1 -i img1.jpg -vf 'pad=ceil(iw/2)*2:ceil(ih/2)*2:[0:v]drawtext='text=hello:fontsize=90:x=20:y=20:fontcolor=white@0.2'' -vcodec libx264 -vprofile baseline -x264opts keyint=40 -acodec aac -strict -2 -f flv rtmp://localhost/hls/test -y -stats -report
the error i get is
Unable to parse graph description substring: "drawtext=text=freedome:fontsize=90:x=20:y=20:fontcolor=white@0.2"

For simple filterchains, where one filter operates upon the output of an earlier filter, no input pads (like [0:v]) should be used. Also, there is an errant colon at the end of the pad filter. It should be a comma instead, so
-vf 'pad=ceil(iw/2)*2:ceil(ih/2)*2,drawtext=text="hello":fontsize=90:x=20:y=20:fontcolor=white@0.2'

In drawtext, you may need to specify a font if fontconfig is not available on your system.

thanks it worked great


text:
Insert clip - but only the part with a given marker?
I'm trying to make a video in Adobe Premiere 2020, and one of the clips I intend to use is a good two and a half hours long.  Thus, I put a bunch of chapter markers in to mark which parts of the clip would be useful for different parts of the eventual video.  Is there any good way to insert just the part of the clip that a given marker covers (for example, a marker covering from 0:00:43:00 to 0:02:27:00 for near the beginning of the video) or do I just have to type the timecodes in manually?

You can use subclips:

jump to first marker
set in point
jump to next marker
set out point
in the menu "Clip" -> "Make Subclip" (or use shortcut)
give it a useful name

Repeat.

So I should have used subclips instead of markers?

Yes, the markers are superfluous for this task.


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

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


text:
Which tool or method should be used to make text on a whiteboard look natural / right?
I am not a professional video editor, but I am involved in the production of a small-scale educational video series. A main part of this video contains a teacher sitting at a table with a whiteboard next to him. There is a requirement for the whiteboard to contain text which changes as he speaks.
I would like to ask which tools / method should be used to accomplish this. I have made 2 attempts (below) but neither of them seem exactly right
ATTEMPT 1 - This seemed 'wrong' to me as the text wasn't lining up with the whiteboard. Changing the text to dashes seems to confirm this.

ATTEMPT 2 - I used the Yaw and Pitch controls in Davinci Resolve to try to make the lines line up with the whiteboard. My teammates agree that the dashes look better than the first attempt, but that the text in Attempt 1 looks more natural than the text in Attempt 2.

My question is simply which tools or method are generally considered best to deal with this type of thing and achieve a result that will not stick out as seeming 'wrong' to viewers?

Your use of pitch and yaw is correct, but it looks like you have just overcompensated a little. Your vanishing point for the lines is too near - that bottom line shows this by angling up too much.
If you correct them by assuming the vanishing point from the top and bottom of whiteboard, you will get a more natural look, and then your text will look more natural.

Thank you @Dr Mayhem this is very good to know. But just to clarify, is the "rotation" the same as the "roll" as I do not have a specific tool for roll in the app I am using but I do have rotation. With Yaw, Pitch and Rotation should it be possible for me to get the right perspective? It seems very difficult to do, but if you tell me that it's just a matter of tweaking these 3 controls then I will persist!

Hi Joseph - yes, those controls will do it. I haven't got a box with DaVinci on it here, unfortunately or I'd work out how much, but just tweak them a little - you aren't far off.


text:
Video artifact removal and restoration - How can it be done? (Really?)
I have been researching this for the past couple of days, and all I could find on the subject were a bunch of research papers, a demonstration video of a model that isn't publicly available, and a software that you have to pay hundreds for to make it useful, on a poorly designed and shady looking website.  Everything else is for JPEG artifacts, de-noising (a completely separate issue), and video up-scaling.  Either that, or it's just questions/answers on how to solve the issue from the source (camera, recording software, or editing software) rather than how to fix existing footage.
I am looking for a software, preferably AI based, that can remove and repair highly compressed videos their compression artifacts. (Discoloration, macro-blocking, banding, loss of detail, etc...) without a serious loss of existing detail or flickering between frames (Caused by frame-by-frame editing).
Does this actually exist?  It really seems like it doesn't, and relevant information is hard to find.

Pherhaps this could help? I Haven't tested it by myselfe. https://cinematography.com/index.php?/topic/73521-video-artifact-editor-to-remove-compression-artifacts-and-noise/

topaz labs has AI upscaling that is very good at removing artifacts and sharpening and restoring detail

If I understand you correctly, then most of the restoration goals will be impossible to be reached. While my knowledge of existing videos tools is not extensive, I am still pretty sure such a software does not exist. As a software developer I have a good grasp of what is impossible and what is possible and what effort you need to do that.
When details are lost, they are lost. How should an AI restore these? Well, any AI has to be trained first and this needs to be done with pairs of a master video in highest quality and its heavily-compressed export in the target codec. The problem is that the export video has less information than the master and there is no way to define a sensible bidirectionaly mapping. Imagine the master contains a scene with a machine with little screws. Another scene shows a machine with rivets. But after a heavily compression you cannot see a difference between screws and rivets in the export video. Due to loss of detail, both screws and rivets now look like grey smudges. How should you decide what is correct if you only have the compressed video? You can only make a guess. And that's what the AI would do. This means you get a restored video that often shows quite different details than the original video, however now and then the AI will make correct guesses too. This is of course theoretical, I highly doubt there is an AI based software for this job as it would be extremely expensive in development and with only a few potentional customers the price tag would be enormous.
Discolouration is also hard to solve because often there's no easy way to differentiate between intended de-saturated areas and compression artifacts.
Macro-blocking can be fixed in theory by applying a blur effect. But you have to sacrifice sharpness. Fine artifical noise can be added to gain a bit of sharpness again. Anyway, this can be done and such a function is probably available in some tools.
Colour bending can be solved in theory without too much effort but I don't know if anybody does offer such a thing.
Update: As has been pointed out in the comments, DaVinci Resolve can do de-bending. Both Premiere and Resolve use some AI based tools to restore a video to fix dust, scratches, de-interlace. But if I infer correctly this does not help much with your problem of restoring a heavily compressed video.
All in all, you cannot undo the artifacts of heavy compression.

That's why the ai/machine-learning tech is what I'm looking for.  As I understand it, they can be trained by providing a highly compressed video, and the original HD version, which means the results would be much more accurate than a simple algorithm, depending on how many examples its been trained with.
This kind of thing exists for JPEG artifacts on images, and it works pretty well.  Of course you can't expect it to be 100% accurate (what it would have looked like naturally) but something like that would be quite helpful when complete accuracy isn't necessary.  Thanks for the info, though

This answer is simply incorrect.  DaVinci Resolve and Premiere both already use machine learning approaches for image restoration.  They both use it for object removal.  Resolve uses it to fix dust and scratches.  Resolve has a de-banding and de-flickering algorithm, although I don't think that one uses machine learning, in particular.  Resolve also uses ML to de-interlace.  The tools are out there, and they'll only get better with time, they're just not as automatic as some would expect, and still require guidance from the user.

@Jason Conrad You have a point and I'll update my answer a bit. But I'm not entirely convinced. Restoring a heavy compressed video such that it looks almost the same as the master is an incredible complex task. If it can be done, please write an answer where you explain how you do it. However, if it's impossible now but might be in the far future, this does not help the OP much. From what I know, people working on AI keep promising too much (and have done so for decades) and generally fall far behind their promises. So I'm not as optimistic as you.

https://idle.slashdot.org/story/21/02/07/0626249/can-artificial-intelligence-restore-85-year-old-popeye-cartoons

Thanks for the link. Looking of one of the restored cartoon I clearly see the improvement and even have an idea how they have done it in general. However, the difficult challenge wasn't tackled: there is still a lot of dirt/dust visible. The images are shaky, but I guess this can be mitigated with already existing stabilizing effects. Still wondering why they haven't done it. Nevertheless, it's a progress. But I'm sceptical if this works on non-cartoon video with digital artefacts resulting from high compression.

Something many don't realize is all the state of the art machine learning models related to this are released for free. You just have to be pretty tech savvy to use them. AI can do all of those things and it's not expensive at all to train a model that does this. The only point I agree with is if .your compression is so high that even your imagination can't undo it, then an AI model won't correctly do it either. Just depends on how bad it is


text:
Change video start playing time inside a composition - After Effects
Here is screenshot of my projects.

Pre-comp 1 is made with inerted shapes
phoneFooting_New.mp4 is a 8 seconds video
Red Solid 1 Comp1 is a composition made with :

A 36 seconds video called iphoneNavigation.mov and
Red Solid 1

iphoneNavigation.mov starts playing at 0s. I want it, to start playing at 24s instead. Please how can I perfom that ?

Does this answer your question? How can you automatically trim a new layer in After Effects?

You can drag the footage to the left, until the point you want is aligned with the start, or you can type in an exact number in the In column in the timeline window. By default this column is not shown, to show it right-click in the column headings, where it says Source name … Parent & Link and select In from the list.

You can click the number and enter -24. in the text field. **Pro tip:**you don't have to type the zeroes, AE will add them for you if you type ., this works for hours and minutes too, so if you wanted 1:02:00 you could just type 1.2..

This brings me to the third way to do it. In the current time box, type -24. to set the current time to -24, then hit [ to set the layer's in point to the current time (the comp window will be grey because you're outside the composition). Hit home to go back to the start of the comp.


text:
Decrease video size post-editing
I am using a video editing software to edit my videos for YouTube. The scenario is as below:

Input file size: 80mb.
Input type: webm.

My expectation after editing :

Video size: around 100mb.
(Any format can do)

I have a wide range of options to select for the video output (Such as video output type, codec, quality, etc). Currently I am outputting in mp4 format with some other options selected. However, I am getting a very bulky file of 600mb in the output.
I want to know what output options (format, codec, quality etc.) can I select so that the output I get is   smaller in size. (I can compromise with the video quality to some extent).
I can give more info if asked.
Thanks in advance.

You might want to mention what software you're using.

@stib I am using OpenShot Video Editor

Webm and mp4 are container formats. Those itself don't have any relevant influence on the file size.
The codec with a set bitrate determines the filesize. For YouTube uploads, follow the current recommendations and you'll see, you should use h264 as video codec.
First, make sure the export has the same resolution and frame rate as the input, unless you intend to change it anyway. If that's fine, my guess is that the bitrate was set too high. The above mentioned recommendations for YouTube show you how high the bitrate needs to be to get excellent quality. However, if your source material is far below that, you should use a bitrate that's closer to its quality.
To calculate a suitable bitrate in advance is difficult, when the codec of the source is different from the codec of the export. It's good to have a higher bitrate than strictly necessary because YouTube will re-encode the video anyway. Chained re-encodings with lossy codecs will reduce quality further and should be generally avoided, but in this case you cannot do anything against that.
WebM uses VP8 or VP9, both need slightly higher bitrates to achieve the same quality as h264. This means as a rough estimate, set your maximum target bitrate to something like 90% of the bitrate of the source material. Make sure it's a variable bitrate, not a constant bitrate, because the variable bitrate is almost always the better choice for quality. Then you should get a file size roughly the same as the source video.
And then there's audio. It makes up a smaller percentage of the filesize. However you should check that your editor is not accidentally using much higher bitrates for audio as the source.


text:
ffmpeg command execution never stops
I am trying to concatenate 3 videos of different resolutions and overlaying 2 videos as transition effects(though the chroma key color removal is not yet implemented) between videos using below command:
ffmpeg
-i input1.mp4
-i input2.mp4
-i input3.mp4
-i transition1.mp4
-i transition2.mp4
-filter_complex
"[0:v]pad=width=1080:height=1920:x=(1080-iw)*0.5:y=(1920-ih)*0.5:color=black[video0];
[1:v]pad=width=1080:height=1920:x=(1080-iw)*0.5:y=(1920-ih)*0.5:color=black[video1];
[2:v]pad=width=1080:height=1920:x=(1080-iw)*0.5:y=(1920-ih)*0.5:color=black[video2];
[video0][video1][video2]concat=n=3:v=1:a=0[outv];
[3:v]scale=w=1080:h=1920[t0];
[4:v]scale=w=1080:h=1920[t1];
[outv][t0]overlay=enable='between(t,6.6045,9.6335)'[out0];
[out0][t1]overlay=enable='between(t,12.5655,15.6165)'[out1];
[0:a][1:a][2:a]concat=n=3:v=0:a=1[audio]"
-c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -map [out1] -map [audio] -preset ultrafast output.mp4

I get success only with few videos. Most of the times the command execution never stops. It keeps on appending something to the output video file even for hours. Here is the output from console:
ffmpeg version v4.4-dev-416
     Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
      built with Android (6454773 based on r365631c2) clang version 9.0.8 (https://android.googlesource.com/toolchain/llvm-project 98c855489587874b2a325e7a516b99d838599c6f) (based on LLVM 9.0.8svn)
      configuration: --cross-prefix=aarch64-linux-android- --sysroot=/files/android-sdk/ndk/21.3.6528147/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/sysroot --prefix=/home/taner/Projects/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm64/ffmpeg --pkg-config=/usr/bin/pkg-config --enable-version3 --arch=aarch64 --cpu=armv8-a --cc=aarch64-linux-android24-clang --cxx=aarch64-linux-android24-clang++ --extra-libs='-L/home/taner/Projects/mobile-ffmpeg/prebuilt/android-arm64/cpu-features/lib -lndk_compat' --target-os=android --enable-neon --enable-asm --enable-inline-asm --enable-cross-compile --enable-pic --enable-jni --enable-optimizations --enable-swscale --enable-shared --enable-v4l2-m2m --disable-outdev=fbdev --disable-indev=fbdev --enable-small --disable-openssl --disable-xmm-clobber-test --disable-debug --enable-lto --disable-neon-clobber-test --disable-programs --disable-postproc --disable-doc --disable-htmlpages --disable-manpages --disable-podpages --disable-txtpages --disable-static --disable-sndio --disable-schannel --disable-securetransport --disable-xlib --disable-cuda --disable-cuvid --disable-nvenc --disable-vaapi --disable-vdpau --disable-videotoolbox --disable-audiotoolbox --disable-appkit --disable-alsa --disable-cuda --disable-cuvid --disable-nvenc --disable-vaapi --disable-vdpau --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-gmp --enable-gnutls --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libass --enable-iconv --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libxml2 --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libshine --enable-libspeex --enable-libwavpack --enable-libkvazaar --enable-libx264 --enable-gpl --enable-libxvid --enable-gpl --enable-libx265 --enable-gpl --enable-libvidstab --enable-gpl --enable-libilbc --enable-libopus --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libaom --enable-libtwolame --disable-sdl2 --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-zlib --enable-mediacodec
      libavutil      56. 55.100 / 56. 55.100
      libavcodec     58. 96.100 / 58. 96.100
      libavformat    58. 48.100 / 58. 48.100
      libavdevice    58. 11.101 / 58. 11.101
      libavfilter     7. 87.100 /  7. 87.100
      libswscale      5.  8.100 /  5.  8.100
      libswresample   3.  8.100 /  3.  8.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'input1.mp4':
      Metadata:
        major_brand     :
    mp42
        minor_version   :
    0
        compatible_brands:
isommp42
        creation_time   :
    2020-08-12T17:21:49.000000Z
        com.android.version:
    9
      Duration:
    00:00:08.12
    , start:
    0.000000
    , bitrate:
    17298 kb/s
        Stream #0:0
    (eng)
    : Video: h264 (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, bt709), 1920x1080, 16309 kb/s
    , SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9
    ,
    28.70 fps,
    29.50 tbr,
    90k tbn,
    60 tbc
     (default)
        Metadata:
          rotate          :
    90
          creation_time   :

          handler_name    :
    VideoHandle
        Side data:

    displaymatrix: rotation of -90.00 degrees
        Stream #0:1
    (eng)
    : Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s
     (default)
        Metadata:
          creation_time   :
    2020-08-12T17:21:49.000000Z
          handler_name    :
    SoundHandle
Input #1, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'input2.mp4':
      Metadata:
        major_brand     :
    isom
        minor_version   :
    512
        compatible_brands:
    isomiso2avc1mp41
   encoder         :
    Lavf57.25.100
      Duration:
    00:00:05.97
    , start:
    0.000000
    , bitrate:
    770 kb/s
        Stream #1:0
    (und)
    : Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 22050 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s
     (default)
        Metadata:
          handler_name    :
    SoundHandler
        Stream #1:1
    (und)
    : Video: h264 (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 368x480, 608 kb/s
    ,
    27.29 fps,
120 tbr,
    12k tbn,
    60 tbc
     (default)
        Metadata:
          handler_name    :
    VideoHandler
Input #2, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'input3.mp4':
      Metadata:
        major_brand     :
    isom
        minor_version   :
    512
    compatible_brands:
    isomiso2avc1mp41
        encoder         :
    Lavf55.19.104
      Duration:
    00:00:13.05
    , start:
    0.000000
    , bitrate:
    2453 kb/s
        Chapter #2:0:
    start 0.000000,
    end 13.033000
        Metadata:
          title           :
        Stream #2:0
    (und)
    : Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s
     (default)
        Metadata:
          handler_name    :
    SoundHandler
        Stream #2:1
    (und)
: Video: h264 (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x480, 2320 kb/s
    ,
    25 fps,
    25 tbr,
    1200k tbn,
    50 tbc
     (default)
        Metadata:
          handler_name    :
    VideoHandler
        Stream #2:2
    (eng)
    : Data: bin_data (text / 0x74786574), 0 kb/s
        Metadata:
          handler_name    :
    SubtitleHandler
Input #3, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'transition1.mp4':
      Metadata:
        major_brand     :
    mp42
        minor_version   :
    0
        compatible_brands:
    mp41isom
    creation_time   :
    2020-08-17T09:31:23.000000Z
      Duration:
    00:00:03.03
    , start:
    0.000000
    , bitrate:
    6263 kb/s
        Stream #3:0
    (und)
    : Video: h264 (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 6307 kb/s
    ,
    30 fps,
    30 tbr,
    30k tbn,
    60 tbc
     (default)
        Metadata:
          creation_time   :

          handler_name    :
    VideoHandler
          encoder         :
    AVC Coding
        Stream #3:1
    (und)
    : Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 79 kb/s
     (default)
        Metadata:
          creation_time   :
    2020-08-17T09:31:23.000000Z
          handler_name    :
SoundHandler
Input #4, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'transition2.mp4':
      Metadata:
        major_brand     :
    mp42
        minor_version   : 0
        compatible_brands:
    mp41isom
        creation_time   :
    2020-08-17T09:30:33.000000Z
      Duration:
    00:00:03.05
    , start:
    0.000000
    , bitrate:
    7828 kb/s
        Stream #4:0
    (und)
    : Video: h264 (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 7873 kb/s
    ,
    30 fps,
30 tbr,
    30k tbn,
    60 tbc
     (default)
        Metadata:
          creation_time   :
    2020-08-17T09:30:33.000000Z
          handler_name    :
    VideoHandler
          encoder         :
    AVC Coding
        Stream #4:1
    (und)
    : Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 79 kb/s
     (default)
        Metadata:
          creation_time   :
    2020-08-17T09:30:33.000000Z
          handler_name    :
    SoundHandler
Stream mapping:
      Stream #0:0 (h264) -> pad
      Stream #0:1 (aac) -> concat:in0:a0
Stream #1:0 (aac) -> concat:in1:a0
      Stream #1:1 (h264) -> pad
      Stream #2:0 (aac) -> concat:in2:a0
      Stream #2:1 (h264) -> pad
      Stream #3:0 (h264) -> scale
      Stream #4:0 (h264) -> scale
      overlay
     -> Stream #0:0 (libx264)
      concat
     -> Stream #0:1 (aac)
    Press [q] to stop, [?] for help

[graph 0 input from stream 0:0 @ 0x733a19a900] sws_param option is deprecated and ignored
    [graph 0 input from stream 1:1 @ 0x733a19aa80] sws_param option is deprecated and ignored
    [graph 0 input from stream 2:1 @ 0x733a19ab40] sws_param option is deprecated and ignored
    [graph 0 input from stream 3:0 @ 0x733a19ac00] sws_param option is deprecated and ignored
    [graph 0 input from stream 4:0 @ 0x733a19acc0] sws_param option is deprecated and ignored

[mp4 @ 0x733a679400] Frame rate very high for a muxer not efficiently supporting it.
    Please consider specifying a lower framerate, a different muxer or -vsync 2
[libx264 @ 0x733a1b0600] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 0x733a1b0600] MB rate (8160000000) > level limit (16711680)
[libx264 @ 0x733a1b0600] using cpu capabilities: ARMv8 NEON
[libx264 @ 0x733a1b0600] profile Constrained Baseline, level 6.2, 4:2:0, 8-bit
    [libx264 @ 0x733a1b0600] 264 - core 160 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2020 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=0 ref=1 deblock=0:0:0 analyse=0:0 me=dia subme=0 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=0 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=0 8x8dct=0 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=0 threads=12 lookahead_threads=2 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=0 weightp=0 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=0 intra_refresh=0 rc=crf mbtree=0 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=0
Output #0, mp4, to 'output.mp4':
      Metadata:
        major_brand     :
    mp42
minor_version   :
    0
        compatible_brands:
    isommp42
        com.android.version:
    9
        encoder         :
    Lavf58.48.100
        Chapter #0:0:
    start 0.000000,
    end 13.033000
        Metadata:
          title           :
        Stream #0:0
    : Video: h264 (libx264) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(progressive), 1080x1920 [SAR 1:1 DAR 9:16], q=-1--1
    ,
    1000k tbn,
    1000k tbc
(default)
        Metadata:
          encoder         :
    Lavc58.96.100 libx264
        Side data:

    cpb:
    bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0
    vbv_delay: N/A
        Stream #0:1
    : Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s
     (default)
        Metadata:
          encoder         :
    Lavc58.96.100 aac
E/Progress: Progress: 3.6918316
D/mobile-ffmpeg: Progress: frame: 1, time: 1002, Pct: 0.036918
frame=    1 fps=0.0 q=0.0 size=       0kB time=00:00:01.00 bitrate=   0.5kbits/s speed=1.79x
More than 1000 frames duplicated

I even tried command without overlay and audio parts but result was same. I am working on Android app and using below ffmpeg wrapper library:
https://github.com/tanersener/mobile-ffmpeg

I have answered my own question.

I have got the solution here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63488697/ffmpeg-command-execution-never-stops/63490769?noredirect=1#comment112272999_63490769
I had to add -vsync 0 to prevent frame duplication.


text:
Greenscreen recommendations
I'm suffering with Greenscreen already several months. So I would appreciate any recommendations.
As you can see on the right side there is a spill on the head and arm.
My setup:

2 daylight bulbs (45 W CFL-Daylight) with umbrellas for subject 45 degree left and right.
I also tried with and without 2 softboxes (45w CLF-Daylight) to light greenscreen. From what I see the greenscreen is not perfectly lit.
Greenscreen is 2 meters behind the subject
I key it in Final cut pro
My camera is Sony 5100 f1.4, iso 100, 25 fps, shutter 1/50, 1080p

The main problem is that I don't know what I need to adjust. Is it the greenscreen than should be lit better or something else? Do I need more light or should it be dimmable?
Video with background:

Raw video with greenscreen:

Greenscreen image:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KZdV6WTNAfeuzzjkMhnL9iOdWnfFtKDw/view?usp=sharing
Greenscreen Problems image:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x0IBozaoU2gDFQAEjZrIu8tVWpi03fBz/view?usp=sharing
Greenscreen Problems image 2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nh647wrV_kERR3y4bW6GSNcog8mG5yiA/view?usp=sharing
Keyed out image:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jSKZrsVYpdE3i1dxLuJRz81eD2_G_N3F/view?usp=sharing
Keyed out with sample color removal:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mTYnjIKM1dLBTb5gmfaI42EG-lcF5Fx0/view?usp=sharing
White/black image:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ptEZh4vhIYX9SRQgbEROqfkybv4TD7GD/view?usp=sharing
While/black with sample color removal:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dk9yFot721I2bY8lz90wJmZcp0evjLF5/view?usp=sharing
Also I tried adding 2 softboxes on the bottom. It helped with colors on the bottom of the screen but not with spill.

Image of my lamps setup:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wbaEKtbYzrkyiCIDsgt7fbNSsOBMZKGY/view?usp=sharing
I'm open for any suggestions. Thanks for your time.

Nice explanation of your problem.
I would simply move the two softboxes higher.

To minimize the falloff put the lights about the center of the framing of the camera. If your camera is targeting the green fabric at 1mt (I see the camera is pointing down a bit) put the lights at 1m.
Probably the softboxes have less power than the umbrellas. Try to add a stronger light on them. Just watch they do not overheat. Safety first.

I do not know if this would help, but If you do not use the window I would put the green screen there because it seems the room is longer in that direction, which will help you have a less green spill on you, and use a longer focal length.

Thanks you for advice. Actually it's working for me right now but the idea with moving greenscreen to the window is awesome!

Bit overwhelmed with all the links, but from an initial look my first reaction is that you need more light on the screen, and while you're at it, a backlight on your subject would help things along too.
From the fringing it looks like you need to turn up the gain of your key. If your key effect doesn't have a screen gain control, you can achieve the same result by increasing the saturation of the screen colour with another effect applied before the key effect. To remove the fringe in the existing footage you could apply a matte choker effect, and to remove the green-ness a de-spill effect. I'm not sure what these are called in FCP.

I tried to be as informative as possible :) Thanks I will try your suggestions.


text:
Scrolling text on video
I want to take an mp3 podcast and its transcript and create a video of the text scrolling vertically on the screen with the audio.
I need to scroll 10~20 lines of text so that I don't have to sync each line.
I used MS MovieMaker for this job but now I want to automate the process.
What tool do you recommend, ffmpeg, AviSynth? Also startup tips and examples would be very helpful as I don't have any experience in video processing.

I found how to do it with ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -y -f lavfi -i color=c=black:s=640x400 -i "input.mp3" ^
-vf [in]drawtext=fontfile=%fontFile%:fontcolor=white:x=0:y=h-t*(th/%T%)-h/2:textfile='input.txt',^
drawtext=fontfile=c\\:/windows/fonts/arial.ttf:fontsize=19:fontcolor=red:x=0:y=h-lh:text=%%{pts^\:hms} ^
-c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset veryfast -t 21 -r 30 -hide_banner -codec:a copy output.mp4 && start output.mp4

Note that "^" symbol is for breaking a long line in batch file.
This takes input.mp3 audio and raw text from input.txt and generates a video file with titles scrolling from bottom up.
Unfortunately, I can't provide any explanation for the ffmpeg switches as I simply Googled for it a long time ago.

I hope after 3 years you managed to solve it. But here is an option anyway.
Use any decent video editor.
Some editors have "text" effects, like an "end credits scene". On Davinci Resolve (which is free) you simply add this effect and control the speed, font, color.
Some other programs simply allow you to import an image file with a transparent background and move it around the frame.
You can prepare this PNG file in Gimp, add the text there and import and move it on the editing program.
Some programs that allow you to move elements (Keyframing) are Hit film express and OpenShot, besides Davinci Resolve.

Thanks for the ideas but I was looking for solution to automate this process because I have quite a lot of file to process.

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


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Is there a way to stretch only a portion of the video?
I want to stretch the right hand 50% of the video only.  So that the left 50% of the video looks normal and the right 50% looks bizzarrely stretched.   Think of someones face smiling and laughing, where the

Yes, you need to work with two video tracks, use the crop and scale effect.

Create a sequence from your clip.
Apply the crop effect and set it to left: 50%
Locate the scale settings under the always present motion effect
Disable uniform scaling and set scale width to whatever you like
Add the clip again as a new track on top
Apply the crop effect on this track too and set it to right: 50%

And that's it.

Completely and utterly WORKED.  Thanks much


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Batch converting files to monochrome
I am looking for a free software that lets me convert a batch of video files to monochrome.
The closest I've found so far is Any Video Converter free but this does neither allow for easy application of a setting to all files within the queue, nor does it allow to keep the original file format (e.g you can't convert from webm to webm and just apply a filter).
I do, however, want to keep all properties except for color.

I know you already posted the answer you've found.  I added an alternative for anyone curious.

There's more than one way to skin a cat, so they say.  And there's more than one way to get monochrome from a color image.  Since YUV is a common encoding method, the easy thing to do is to throw away the U and V, and just keep the luminance, effectively doing the same thing old black and white televisions did.
But in this modern, digital era, it's possible to control the balance of each color channel's contribution to final black and white image, and to do it with free software.
In the free version of DaVinci Resolve, you can do this in the RGB mixer panel of the Color page, by checking the "Monochrome" box, and the "Preserve Luminance" box, and then moving the R, G, and B sliders to taste.  You'll notice that certain combinations give better contrast to skin tones, among other things, and that small changes can dramatically influence the resulting image.  It's also a great exercise in learning how to expose a camera well, and learning how camera exposure and color are related.

Great answer. I accepted it since a GUI is what I was originally looking for.

Okay I just did with a ffmpeg batch
In PowerShell:
ls | Where { $_.Extension -eq ".webm" } | ForEach { ffmpeg -i "$i" -vf "hue=s=0" -crf 20 -codec:a libvorbis -c:v libvpx -b:v 500k "${name}.webm" }


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Had to move a clip partially out of frame, how to deal with the new empty space?

I hope this makes sense...

What you see in the clip is a womans arm, and then her grey patterned shirt.
The video clip is constantly panning up towards the woman's head

I had to move the clip to the left side a little to create room for text that will go on top of her grey shirt, which left a blank area to the right side.   I just filled in the blank area with solid blue so you could see the area I'm talking about
But this looks hideous, can anyone think of a good solution to this?
At first I thought I would stretch the shirt to fill the area by cropping it down to just the shirt and then stretching the cropped portion to cover the blue area.  But this looks equally as bad because the pattern of that shirt looks very stretched and unnatural.  It looks much worse in motion, which I'll show you below

Coming from my photoshop background, what I would do on a still image is I would simply clone stamp some of the shirt to cover the blue area with portions of this shirt, but I dont know if thats possible with all the video motion, or is it possible?
I'm desperate and open to any ideas any genius out there has!
Thanks!

It is possible to take a similar approach like you would in photoshop. I recommend using After-Effects, as premiere doesn't really have the abilities to do so effectively. In After-Effects, you can try out the "content aware fill" that was introduced in 2020, I believe.
However, content awareness only works in some cases, and when trying to seamlessly continue the motion and behaviour of cloth, this could get tricky. So let me propose two more options, one simple and one that requires some more work.
First off, you could just use a gradient from blue to alpha, and let the solid blue fade out over the shirt, with the solid's area of 100% opacity just touching the right side of your clip, in order to conceal the edge.
The other method is tricky, and I frankly never tried this myself. You could actually go out of your way and try to simulate cloth using a projected texture from your footage in a 3D-software such as Houdini, Cinema4D, Modo, Blender or something similar with the ability to simulate cloth. In order to match the motion, you could try a cloud-tracker, such as Mocha or the integrated tracker from Resolve and try to apply the vertices of the left side of your simulation to the most right vertices of your cloud-tracking-points. This could work, but I am not 100% confident that it will.
Anyways, I hope this helped you out a bit, have a good one :)

You could try using the Repetile effect in After Effects.
This extends and repeats a layer based on certain rules - in this case I'd try unfolding or flipping it, so you see a mirror of what was on the other side.  Maybe do a gradual blur around the whole frame too, so it is less noticeable.
Florian's answers are likely to give better results but take more time I think.

Damn I totally forgot about this. Your method is definitely worth checking out first

Zoom in.
Hm, thirty more characters to go.