Nationalsolo

Hi Nick

Thanks for the info. I've seen some YT videos re. this machine but got the impression it was being withdrawn to rectify some faults. (This is the reel to reel machine). I have to agree setting up the projector and camera in line etc and adjusting projector speed is a bit of a phaff and not having adjustable Gain on the camera means that areas in the copy are either too dark or overdone or sudden changes in film lighting cause the copy to momentarily over expose etc.  The results weren't too bad but I also have to re-run the film to copy off the sound stripe at the adjusted speed. So I may invest in one and use the projector to get the sound off. VP can take care of the timing.

Anyway...tagging people... Not sure about Adobe bridge but..

You can do this with VP but you write the tags yourself...

First way is to simply write a text image with the name; scale it down or use a smallish font then place  it with the Position effect...

If you want, you give the text a coloured background in the editor

You can also use the Speech Boxes or similar clips from the NCH

• Right click the clip bin and select Add Images from NCH Clipart Library
• Select Speech Bubbles
• Choose from the list...e.g. Rectangular Bubble left
• Click Download
• Drop the bubble onto the overlay track
• Position and Scale to the correct size.
• Add text as above and Position on the bubble.

The text goes on Video track 3 so it overlays the bubble.

There are other possible ways but they are all similar to this.

Nat

Hi

Alternative..

• Drop all the image clips to the timeline.
• Place the Audio on Audio track 1
• Select all the images on the time line (Ctrl +A)
• Right click and group them.
• Drag the right hand end of the the timeline along a bit at a time until when released the line of images matches the length of the Audio. You can easily pull it back if it goes too far.

Note:  It would be thought logical to drag the timeline out to match the Audio in one go but when released ALL the clips match the amount dragged and it will end up way beyond where you expect. So do it a bit at a time and you can adjust the line of clips to match and each will end up with the same duration.  (You can drag right or left repeatedly until correct.)

Nat

Hi

If you have not cleared the cache for some time it may be very full with previous work.

Check out Proxy editing...

http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/26563-proxy-editing/

The principle is simple. You copy your clips in a smaller format and edit these. Save your project and swap the proxy files for the original ones. (they should retain the same names and be in the same location) Then reload you project from the vpj file. The project will now be reconstructed with the larger original files and the project can then be exported. (It won't speed up exporting though.)

Nat

Hi

This is a fundamental fault with your video or camera. Had it been the whole of a clip  you may have been able to correct it to some extent when auto levels may be of some help. I think you may have to deal with each section one at a time by splitting and treating each bit but I don't think the result will be particularly good. Any chance of uploading a clip  with this problem (doesn't have to be your project....just a short clip with a few examples of the colour changes)  and someone can take a look and possibly suggest a workaround.

Nat

Hi

Do you find the Wolverine machine very good..and can you still get one? I generally copy by filming the projected image but the projector is getting pretty worn out now.

Nat

Hi

If you are using a version of VP prior to 8.35 then check you have not reversed a clip somewhere in the project. This has been found to stop the export at the point where the clip is encountered during export. (Check the time point on your timeline.)

This bug has been corrected in the latest version I believe.

Nat

Hi

Snapshot is not correct with any timer title or indeed any animated title. e.g.Wave..

Sequence window...

Snapshot of this.....

Nat

Hi

OK..I see where your problem is I think...From the editing actions you describe it seems you are cutting sections out of clips and closing the gaps. You are then applying a transition between the cut ends of the cut clip.

When this is done between ends of the same clip  the option window will NOT appear,  even if the Options setting is set to "Ask me" VP will overlap the cut ends.

You will be asked what type of transition you want only if you are transitioning between different clips.Even if the end of the FROM  clip or the start of the TO clip (or both) have been trimmed. 

In short.  

• No choice if the transition is between the ends of the same split clip  Default is an overlap of the moving video.You cannot have a frozen image crossfade..
• The choice is given if the ends are from different clips even if they have been trimmed. i.e. The default is what is set in Options.

Nat

Hi B

That is the case but I dragged the cursor bar well into the 2nd second of a 4 second Stopatch timer Title image (Clip length also 4 seconds)  i.e. 0.02.50

and the snapshot  of this Sequence Preview window showed......

So this is a bug I think.

Nat

Hi Borate

Whatever the intricacies of the increments of the stopwatch and I had already noted the differences  you mention. I would have thought that the snapshot would reflect the image shown in the preview window and not what might be held in the stopwatch itself.As the preview steps along at 30fps the readout on screen is correct but snapshot of it isn't . Why does 0:00:03  in the preview  become 0:01:00 in the snapshot   It suggests snapshot advances by rounded up seconds. This would be in effect three frames in preview.

In fact I test this idea and stepped along until the preview screen read 0:00.23......The snapshot still came out as 0:01:00!

Phaffing around with this a bit I have now discovered that the Snapshot in this case just shows the Timer duration time setting when it should snapshot the time shown in the preview window.  This is a bug. But it may not explain A.Mahoney24's problem. Have posted S.

Nat

Hi

Also the option will not appear if you are transitioning between image clips. Still images have no other option but to use "frozen" frames so the option is not given.

Nat

Hi

Athough snapshot seems to be working here OK using VP 8.35, I think there is an anomaly here.  I suspect it is linked to the fps of either your clip or the "next frame" interval of the sequence /clip preview display. Certainly something odd.

Try this...

• Open VP and set Options to show dual previews
• Place cursor at start of the timeline
• Click Add Title
• Select Stopwatch  and set to display in red  so it is visible in both displays
•  
• 
• .
• Take snapshot of Sequence Preview.......Here is what you get...
•  
• 
• It's not 0:00:00  which is what one would expect
• The main display now shows this........
•  
• 
• .
• For some reason the Clip Preview is showing an incorrect image as the cursor was not moved and it's incorrect anyway, but its the same as the Sequence Preview snapshot.

Repeat the setup and then step forward by 1 frame Previews  show this.... The fps are 30fps = .033 so sequence display shows 0:00:03  I dont expect the clip preview to change so that is OK at 0:00:00

Now take a Snapshot of the Sequence Preview......... It should show 0:00:03    but........

So something wrong.

Is  Snapshot not actually snapshotting the Sequence Preview?

Nat

Hi

When you say say that you can't create a project, are you saying that you can't Add clips to the timeline and edit them? If you can do this then what you have is your project. It should also play in the sequence preview window and you should be able to save it as a .vpj file.

What settings are you trying when you attempt to export?  Are you getting any screen messages when you try to do this?

At the very least you should be able to export your work as an avi file.

Try the latest version......

https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/versions.html

and see if it is any different.

Nat

Hi

NOTE:

The Green Screen effect will render the background of a clip transparent but only for a single particular colour.  You will need to remember it will  render any similar shade in the subject transparent too! You have a certain degree of control with threshold settings but it will always be centred around the actual screen colour selected.

In general, for a movie where a background is to be removed and replaced with a different scene, the subject is filmed against a coloured screen.....usually green or blue.  These shades are not normally present as a skin tone and provided the subject is not wearing green or blue clothing etc.( In which case it would disappear,)  the Green screen effect will work well.

A still image background on the other hand however complex in colours, can be rendered transparent by masking out the subject but this technique cannot easily be applied to video where the subject might move or change in outline in a complex way.

Let us know how you get on.

Nat

Hi

The VP screen is AR 16:9  What is the resolution of your clip?  You will have bars at top and bottom if it is not 16:9 .

You can either Crop the image or Stretch the image using the Aspect ratio Transform effects.

Or  don't add an effect and Export using one the Widescreen fit settings

See how one of these options work for you.

Nat

Hi

Try navigating to.......

User name/AppData/Roaming/NCH Software/VideoPad/autosave.vpj

Double click the file and provided you have still got all your clips it should load the autosaved project.

Nat

Hi

Although either display will (should) produce a snapshot of what it contains, the prompt you quote comes up when you right click the Clip Preview window. (Take Snapshot of Clip.)  the image here is not necessarily the same as the one displayed in the Sequence Preview window which may be the one you want.  Right click the Sequence Preview and the snapshot should be the one you want.

Nat

Hi

Has the audio clip fully processed? What icon (thumbnail) does it have in the audio bin?

Nat

Hi

This is nominally and English language forum,,,However...

".....Problem: When I transition between two moving clips with sound, the sound in the second clip becomes out of sync with the image. Also, the transition does not run smoothly: the first part of the transition is fine, but at the end of the transition I see a bit of repetition of the second clip. Tried everything. But don't get out. Who can help me solve this problem?......"

What version of VP are you using? The latest is 8.35.   There was a similar problem in an earlier version that caused a rewind/playback after a transition which was corrected. Also before previewing ensure that your changes have been registered  in the cache and the green bar has correctly regenerated.

When you make a transition like a crossfade between clips select to Generate Freeze frames This should then keep the audio in synch.If you are not getting a choice when you select the transition you can set the choice up in the Options/Editing

Nat

Hi

What version are you using?     Using the latest version VP8.35 Pan and Zoom work correctly on an image  and also OK if preceeded by a cross fade or followed by a crossfade.  The export is also OK.

If you can set up a short project with 3-4  images that demonstrates the problem and  then SAVE  PORTABLE PROJECT AS

This creates a dated folder with all the necessary files in for us to reconstruct your project and see what might be going wrong. Upload the folder (or all the contents) to Dropbox (or a similar hosting site.)  Make it public and post the link here to the forum and we can download it and take a look. Instructions.......

http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/23659-tips-for-getting-help-on-this-forum/

Nat

Hi

Perhaps the audio is corrupted as you report some odd breaks etc.

Try this..

• Place your copied video on the timeline
• Click the + that follows  Sequence 1 X. This creates a sequence and clears the timeline.
• Open the sequence bin and right click Sequence 1.
• Select Save Sequence Audio as a New File This should ensure you have a complete audio copy without any odd breaks etc. A copy is saved to the default folder on the PC that you set up under Options/Disc
• Close VP, Reopen VP and load your copied video
• Unlink the audio and delete Audio track 1. This will leave just the video without sound.
• Load your copied sequence audio to VP and drop it on Audio Track 1.
• Line it up at the start.
• Make a clean starting edge by Splitting all tracks and removing the bits( if any.)
• Close the gaps (if any)
• You are back to square one but with a "clean" audio track which start in synch.
• Check the end of the timeline
• Is the sound track too short? If so alter the speed of the audio gradually until the end matches the video

Does this get the synch back?

Nat

Hi

Further to those instructions; If you have a lot of images on the timeline and want a transition between them all..

• Place the cursor on one of the clips on the timeline and press Ctrl and A  This will select all the clips.
• Click the X to get the transition list.
• Select a transition
• At the bottom of the list window is an option box where you can choose to add your chosen transition to all the selected clips
• All the Xs will change to blue to indicate there is now a transition between adjacent images/clips

Nat

Hi

What version of VP are you using and is it licensed? Not sure what happens with the unlicensed version regarding the stock sounds but just right click the clip area and you should see this menu...

Select Add Audio from NCH Sound Effecr Library This connects to the server and open a window of sound...

Simply browse the lists and select something and then Download it.

It downloads from the server and arrives in the Audio Clip bin.

That's what should happen!   You could try a reinstall or try the latest version Save your project first. Put your original vpsetup.exe file and your registration  code somewhere safe first. Upgrades are free for 6 months.

https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/versions.html

Nat

Hi

Here is a refinement on Borate's method which may be a bit quicker.....

Having created your single image animated ball as I described above,  Export it to a folder on your PC as an Image Sequence....Don't forget to set the export format to PNG with Transparency.    This will give you a file of quickly made png images each showing the successive positions of the ball, that you can use as Borate describes.

The number of images you end up with depends on the duration of the animation image.  Which can be set in Options.

• Reopen VP and set the Still Image Duration to 0.5 seconds. (its up to you)
• Load all the png ball position images to the clip bin. They will be nicely numbered.
• Drop them one at a time onto successive tracks lining the start each one up with then end of the previous one. If you ended up with a lot then use every other one...or every 5th one  etc. A one second animated clip duration will give about 15 images. (and use around 17 tracks)
• To finish, drag the ends out to make all the tracks the same length

The sequence should then play and the ball will appear every 0.5 seconds and remain in place until the clip ends.

Nat

Hi

Yes. Check out the link but in brief.

• Decide how you want to set out your parts. Let's say one part in each corner. That means a grid of 2 x 2.
• Place each clip on a separate track, one above the other and line them up so they singing in synch.
• Click the FX for Track 1 and add a Split screen effect.
• Choose a grid of 2x2 and select the box where Singer 1 is to go. (Your going to have a singer in each corner)
• Adjust the bias values and scale so the subject is positioned in the box.
• Repeat these steps for Track 2; Track 3 and Track 4 selecting a different corner for each subject.
• Split all tracks near the start and delete all the bits to the left.
• Close the gaps. This will give "straight" starting point for all the clips

When you play the sequence all the singers will sing together in their respective corners.

That's the basics to get you started.

If you want to get players to appear and "join in" you can split any track in two places and delete the video section between them and mute the audio section.( It's a good idea to group the audio tracks). They, and their voice will disappear from the playback. All effects can be applied to the tracks so each can be faded in/out etc. You will have to experiment and use your imagination (and frequently Save Project As) Try different grids, animations and effects.  You're not forced to use the grids, you could scale each clip and Position them anywhere on the screen. Try some tracks without any grid , scale it down and make it rotate into view over the other singers.You can mix different grids between tracks. etc .etc........

Nat