Nationalsolo

Hi Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E4500@ 2.2GHz, 2.0 GB RAM NVIDEA GeForce GT 730. Old PC,yes, but VP 8.94 Zoom works fine with all sizes of mp4. No greying out, no flicker. and exports normally. It's the same for Crop and Pan and Zoom (ken Burns) All normal. 16:9 AR set and Zoom into a part of the frame, pause, then zoom out to another part of the frame pause and then in again to another part of the frame and pause. This Zoom effect only using keyframes. Even with my old PC and 1920 x 1080 mp4 clips there are no problems. Are you doing this on HUGE files?? Nat

Hi Well, at least you got it back! Not sure though if it isn't a bug. One doesn't always examine the recycle bin contents when emptying it so this action in previous versions may have gone on unnoticed, particularly as when testing things I often delete vpj files manually that I create for testing and obviously THEY go to the recycle. But 39 does seem seem a lot! VP perhaps ought to Save Project to an Options designated folder that doesn't overwrite but just gives it an incremental number like Windows does with same named files. You would also know which was the latest. Nat

Hi Good advice there. It would be useful to see the file. MP4 is a container. The video and the sound being stored within it using a Canon Codec.. There may be a codec problem with files from the camera that make them unplayable in VP. Upload it and someone will take a look. Does it play with VLC? In the meantime you could try and convert the MP4 from the Canon to MP4 (yes another MP4) using NCH Prism Video Converter. This is free to try and can be downloaded by clicking the Suite Option on the top toolbar and selecting it and then following the links. It might be that Prism will re-code it in a compatible MP4 format. Worth a try. (Of course it will also convert it to MOV but no guarantees that that will work either. Nat

Hi Flyer A few questions... What version of VP are you running..It's in the bottom left hand corner of the main screen What sort of video file are you trying out? (avi mp4 MOV etc.) Is the image (thumbnail) that you see in the clip bin on the left an image from the clip? Can you drag and drop it to the time line and if so what can you see there? Nat

Hi After checking this out using 8.91... The reason you have vpj files in the recycle bin is that you originally just Saved your project giving it a specific name. (Not Saved Project File As) At some time later you again did a Save Project (not Saved Project File As). and possibly did this several times as you worked In using Save Project the old vpj is not just overwritten but actually deleted to the recycle bin as well. (I am not sure that it did that in earlier versions) consequently the bin accumulated each overwritten vpj file. In a lucky way as you hadn't emptied the recycle bin you could recover one of these discards and so restore your work. As they would all have the same name you would have to check each one to find the latest. Nat

Hi Checked this out repeatedly using 8.91 on a Vista PC. All exports and previews worked smoothly, both with multiple images, (30+) multiple clips (20+) and mixed. Set up both random and selected transitions but only on Track 1. The exports were all to mp4 1280 x 720p . and played OK in VCL Sorry, didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Sharing you project might give more insight. Nat

Hi "....Check it there is a backup file generated by v.p. (should be in the same folder and have _backup added to the name) ..." The autosave.vpj file is generated continuously by VP as you edit. This file is deleted when you close down VP in the normal way. If, however you experience a crash or your PC is unexpectedly switched off the autosave.vpj file does not get a chance to be deleted and will remain in the folder shown below. As you lost your project when the program (or your PC) crashed you may not have had a chance to Save or Save As, but all is not lost. Once you are up and running again, VP will know it crashed and will ask if you want to load your project from the autosaved vpj file. It may be, of course that you did Save or Save As your project before the crash, in which case you will have THAT vpj file as well as the backup file that you could load. The autosave.vpj file is normally saved here... HDD(C:)/(User name)/AppData/Roaming/NCH Software/VideoPad...... Remember it will only appear here during an editing session or after a crash. "....for some reason my version v8.91 seems to put copies in the recycle bin. I've never seen a program do that ........." That would imply is was deleted in some way..and I've never seen this either and I'm currently running VP 8.91 AFAIK it's not a normal feature of VP. There is a Discard option if you close VP without saving the project but that doesn't put anything into the Dustbin. Nat

Hi IMANWriter That's a problem! I tried using brackets in the translator text to indicate a place within Persian the text where it might be possible to add some English or numbers.. e.g. گربه () روی تشک نشست However, trying to enter text within the brackets after pasting it to the VP editor doesn't work as it splits everthing up and(?reverses the Persian). If you use the Google translator and add a new line where you wish to insert western letters is a possible work around??? It seems you can (or might be able to) add western characters to the left of the Persian text at the New Line position without altering the remaining line or text order. Does this look right?...... Not sure at the moment how to make this one line. Nat

Hi H Roe Track 1 is Background clip Track 2 is on top of Track 1 and will cover the background unless it is scaled down Track 3 Is on top of Track 1 and Track 2 and will cover them both unless it is scaled down Track 4 is on top of Track 1; Track 2 and Track 3 and will cover them unless it is scaled down ....ETC. Clips on upper Tracks cover clips on lower tracks. ######################################### Google Translate... Spur 1 ist ein Hintergrundclip Spur 2 befindet sich oben auf Spur 1 und deckt den Hintergrund ab, sofern er nicht verkleinert wird Spur 3 befindet sich oben auf Spur 1 und Spur 2 und deckt beide ab, sofern sie nicht verkleinert werden Spur 4 befindet sich oben auf Spur 1; Spur 2 und Spur 3 werden abgedeckt, sofern sie nicht verkleinert werden ....ETC. Clips auf den oberen Tracks decken Clips auf den unteren Tracks ab. Nat

Hi The left to right and right to left configuration of VP text is a problem and has cropped up before. The workaround is to use a translator program, such as Google Translate. Type in your English text (or other language) on the left and then Copy/Paste the translated text (on the right) directly into the VP editor. I don't speak Persian but this is the result of doing this with the phrase "The cat sat on the mat in front of the fire." Does this look correct and is it the right way around? It might be possible to edit this (format the line length etc.) but the text editor may not get it right. If you speak Persian you will be able to tell. Nat

Hi Can you create a folder on the SSD and save (separately) a file or image to it? If you can I would have thought VP would save to that folder on the SSD as well provided Options/Disk shows the correct pathway. here..Using a USB drive (which is perhaps not quite the same) I can create a folder on it ..(VP CACHE (TEMP) , re-direct the cache under Options/Disk to what is now that folder on my E drive. (the USB drive). After closing VP and physically emptying the the C drive cache, leaving it empty. I can re-open VP,create a short test project and check that the cache is now created in the folder on the USB E drive. It is... You need to close and reload VP to effect the change. Also make sure that the pathway shown in Options/Disk is correct along with the correct Drive letter...... ( In my case E:\ and not C:\ ) Nat

Hi "...Plus I can't find away to access the cache files. ..." If you can find the Options menu by clicking the chevrons as Borate describes above..... Select Option/Disc . The bottom box on this window should show the current location of the VP Cache folder. (Does in the Windows version) Using the Browse button you can relocate the cache to a more easily accessible place....possibly the desktop. If you don't see the chevrons then click the green Menu button at top left of the main screen and then slide down to Tools This should bring up a sub menu with the Options entry. Nat

Hi Normally any clip replaced in the project should still retain the editing you made on the original. This is a property of the vpj file. As far as I know VP recognizes the new file as the original one as the name and file type should be the same. If some don't come over as originally edited it may be a result of some difference in the two files apart from the name.. e.g. length??? Nat

Hi If it's a matter of a single track then Place the mouse on the first clip Click the first clip (As the mouse focus might still be elsewhere) Press Ctrl +A This should select all the clips on the track in question Keep Ctrl pressed and Right click the track again From the menu select Group Selected clips This will "stick" all the clips together as a single unit. Press Shift down; grab the block of clips and move them along the track to make the space . If it's a matter on Inserting new clips from the clip bin there shouldn't be any need to do this as you can simply place the cursor at the start of the timeline and use Place Clip on Sequence at Cursor. Nat

Hi Not going to comment about the CPU usage. But you complain that VP notes your missing files every time you open your project. This is normal..... It will do this every time you delete, rename or move files and then try to open the same vpj file. If you delete files or move or rename files on your PC and don't Save Project (or Save Project As) the vpj file still has a reference to the moved/deleted/renamed clips and accordingly will prompt for you to resolve these. Nat

Hi Let's say that the default image duration is set in Options/Media is 10 seconds. And let's say you want to add a Space Title which scrolls up into the distance and becomes small. When you go into the Title edit screen you will see at the bottom that the default values for Animation duration and Clip duration have the Options default value of 10 seconds.. At this point when the sequence is played, the duration of the moving text lasts as long as the clip duration. (10 seconds) if you now change the Animation duration to 5 seconds, the text will scroll into the distance in 5 seconds whilst the actual image clip (the text clip) will remain on the timeline for 10 seconds even though the animation has finished. The text will have scrolled at twice the original speed. (You could, of course have got the same result if you had changed BOTH durations to 5 seconds which, in some ways makes the use of different times somewhat redundant. However there may be some editing occasions when this might be useful. One should bear in mind that the animation is a separate function to the text. Think of it as an image (the static text) to which you are adding an effect except being a "special" case NCH have combined them. Obviously if you make the Animation duration longer than the Clip duration then it truncates the animation when the clip finishes. Nat

Hi Dallan OK. It downloads and will play from the download folder. (At least here it does.) As this was just a test it needs a little more "tweaking" e.g. The green screen threshold needs adjusting to remove the white outline but I hope it gives you some ideas. It uses the same starfield as before but this fades through white for a second to come back in on one of my own Moon photos. This has suitable zoom and motion added to make it appear that the craft has materialized and is flying over the lunar surface. The Whoosh sound is followed at the white fadeout by one of the NCH explosion sound effects. Nat

Hi Dallan Here's an example but not sure it will play. (It won't on my old Vista system) Some sound effects and motion to background clips added. I would be interested to know if this is playable from the forum. Nat Hyperspace to Moon2.mp4

Hi If you saved a project file (vpj file of your project and this loads into VP OK then you should be able to do this fairly easily. Look up the folder that contains your original 480p clip Note the exact name of the clip Load the 720p clip to a suitable empty holding folder and change the name of it to exactly that of the 480p clip Remove the 480p clip and replace it with the renamed 720p clip Reload your project from the vpj file and check the substitution has worked. If it works then repeat the procedure for the other 720 clips. If VP prompts for the "missing" clip then resolve the issue by selecting it from the folder. Once all the clips are changed Save project As to create a new vpj file. Nat

Hi Dallan "1. For step 1, you added keyframes to animate the zooming into the centre? ..." Yes. keeping the AR at 16:9 (If that's what you have, just set the first keyframe at minimum zoom.(All the frame) Slide the effect red cursor to end of the image clip (right hand end) and close zoom down to as small as possible. You can either monitor this in an enlarged clip preview or pull the ends of all four graph lines down (the orange keyframe markers) so that they are all together at the right on the centre line. The preview should show a zoom in to the very centre of the frame. "2. Near the end when you say "once through the timewarp (zoom)...: do you mean once the zoom effect has stopped zooming in further and so we would be looking at a more or less still image? .." Yes...As it was just a test here I used the same starfield image but better still use a different one..After all it's presumably meant to be a different place in space. You could even add a planet, or use a planet surface...The first image zooms in and becomes the second image. I suggested a colour change to show it was "somewhere else" As it's a sudden change try putting it on a higher track (shift the cockpit up to the top of course) and then use transparency or a short fade-in to make it appear more gradually as the zoom on the lower track ends. Playing around with these things is an excellent way of learning the program. "2. Where did you get that star field image? It looks awesome. .." There are many thousands of such images on the web.. Try here....These are in the public domain... https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b&q=starfield+images&tbm=isch&chips=q:starfield+images,g_1:public+domain&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2qfX2o7vsAhVK8uAKHQSrDm4QgIoDKAF6BAgJEAk&biw=1024&bih=645 "3. Are there copyright issues if using the NCH audio clips? .." No. They are available for you to use. For fun you could even record your own by saying "Schwooooooooooo" for the right length of time. Have fun Nat

Hi "....Hello. Why is there no apparent way to zoom in on the storyboard and see the different clips? If there is, what is it? ..." That's the way it seems to be. you will have to ask the developers but it's probably a programming difficulty. The Thumbnail clips are all the same size (like slides ) irrespective of their duration and there is no zoom as in Timeline mode. Other points.... In VP version 8.91 Switching into Storyboard mode initially shows just blank black thumbnails but clicking the first thumbnail area and selecting Show Original Clip will bring up all the thumbnails correctly, but sometimes only the screenwidth of thumbnails. Further along they will remain black and the procedure has to be repeated. Once made visible in this way however, they seem to remain visible. This is a bug IMHO. as earlier version worked normally in this respect. Only the clips/images/Text on Video Track 1 are shown the Storyboard mode, upper tracks and text on those tracks are not shown. Although the duration of images can be changed in Storyboard mode by right clicking and selecting Change Duration, the duration of Text images cannot be altered as there is no option to do this with a right click. Use the Mouse scroll wheel (if you have one) to move along the Storyboard track or use the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen Dragging the horizontal white bar above the track down will increase the number of slides slightly but increasing screen resolution will allow you to see more slides but overall everything becomes smaller. The navigation buttons under the Sequence preview screen can also be used to move along the Storyboard track Nat

Hi Been playing with this a bit more and something possibly usable (and much simpler) might be done like this.... Download any image of a star field.. Add a Zoom effect right into the centre Add a Motion blur effect set at maximum duration. Put this on Track 1 Place your spacecraft (or Double Decker Bus) cockpit view on Track2 and make the windows transparent with Green screen. (Here I am using a Star Wars Millennium Falcon cockpit view) Position the stars so the vanishing point (centre) looks to be in the window centre. Once through the timewarp (the zoom) add the star clip/image again with a slight colour change to give the impression that the region of space has changed. With suitable engine noise and whoosh sound effect this works reasonably well. ( But not QUITE like the film though. ) There are lots of whooshes in the NCH Audio library. (Right Click the clip box and select Add Audio from the NCH Sound Library) Have fun! Nat

Hi Works from the centre of the frame remember...so think of it as % of image lost in the direction of movement. Nat

Hi The position values refer to % of the screen with 0 and 0 indication that the image is central. If you set Horizontal to 50 then the image moves to the right so it is halved (i.e you see just the left hand half) If you set it to -50 it moves left so it is 1/2 way off the screen and only the right hand half is visible. It's the same with vertical positioning. 100 or -100 will place the image just out of the frame and it won't be seen. Nat

Hi You may probably be able to download an effect clip with a bit of diligent searching, or if you want to TRY something with VP, perhaps along the lines suggested by Borate or you could experiment a bit around this idea.... You will need an image generated in a graphics package similar to this... or you can copy StarTrek hyperspace drive images from the web and use those in a similar way as described below... The image above is a 16:9 jpg of a simple long-pointed star with a black disc placed in the centre to cover up the convergence point. It was created in a graphics program Place this on Track 1 and add a zoom effect so as to end up inside the central black circle. Check it zooms in at a suitable speed by lengthening or shortening the duration of the clip. Lets say around 4 seconds. Copy the clip from the Video Track 1 and Paste (overlay) it onto Video Track 2. Position it so it starts around 1 second after Track 1. Add a Green Screen effect to Track 2 setting black to be transparent Add a Rotation effect of a few degrees. Copy the clip on Video Track 2 and Paste (Overlay) onto Video Track 3 Position it so it starts about 1 second after the clip on Video Track 2 Add a Rotation effect of a few degrees to the clip on Video Track 3 Continue until you have Video Track 4 complete when the sequence should have zoomed into the black centre of the frame. Obviously you will need to experiment to get just the effect you require. If you have a background clip of a cockpit with transparent windows simple place this above all the tracks so the effect is seen through the windows. Hope this gives some ideas. There are a limited number of NCH clip art images you could try if you right click the clip bin and select Add Images from NCH Clipart Library. Nat