Nationalsolo

Hi JR and B Thanks for the explanation. Well I got some of that to work although it's not too intuitive and I can see how it can be used. I shall have to play with it a bit more. I was initially under the impression that a pre-saved vpj file could be merged per se with the timeline contents this way without the need to export it first as a clip or creating a sequence. Nat

Hi Your link is just to a screenshot of your project with a single clip on the timeline and is not playable. So what you need to do is get the project on the timeline. Check it's not doing what you expect..i.e. check that there is a fault you cant correct. In the VP File menu select the option to Save Portable Project As Give it a name and save it to a folder of your choice. That folder will comprise the constituent clips that make up your project as well as a .vpj file which will enable someone with VP to reassemble your work. Zip the files and upload to a suitable file sharing site like Dropbox.(Free) Make it public. Post the link you will be given to this forum here and someone (or more) will download the files and take a look. Nat

Hi Just tested this option and found a possible problem. Up until recently it was not possible to merge a saved .vpj project with the open project being edited. The Templates tab seems to offer a solution. However I don't think it is working correctly......The option does not merge. It certainly loads and adds the constituent files but instead of adding it to the current project it overwrites it! Let's say you have already saved a .vpj file (e.g. a few images) of a previous project ...TEST.vpj and now you have re-opened VP and started editing a New project. Let's say its a series of clips with some images and transitions and perhaps some text. i.e. It's an open project on the timeline that you may have spent some time on. You now decide you would like to merge this current work with the TEST.vpj file... So..... Click the Templates tab...This opens the VP Templates folder, none of which are what you want. So close that window and...... Click the Templates Tab down arrow. This now prompts Merge open Project with VideoPad project. Click this prompt (which opens the Templates folder containing .vpj files) so navigate to TEST.vpj to wherever you have saved it. Open TEST.vpj . TEST.vpj overwrites your open project so all your editing is lost! (The same happens if you "merge" any of the actual templates available.) I think what is meant to happen is that the merged .vpj file should have been created either at the start of the timeline---at the cursor position or at the end of the timeline following your current work. It shouldn't overwrite it. Nat

Hi For some reason there are a several variants on the green File tab, one of which is the nicknamed "Hamburger" tab with three bars on it and yet another is the "Hamburger tab with the label "Menu" to the right and a down arrow. I don't know which is the "official" tab but by reloading the vpsetup.exe file often changes one to the other. (Note that the font also changes...but it's the SAME vpsetup.exe file that is being used so it's a bit confusing... Any way, with regards to the ..... big button like wot woz in the tutorial .... the demo may have been done using an earlier version of VP In the current version, whichever Menu button version comes up , to the right of the cassette icon on the top toolbar are right and left pointing arrows, these are the Undo and Redo tabs. Unless you have a clip loaded to the clip bin, neither will be active. Undo (left) and Redo(right) turn blue when active. Nat

Hi Senior Not sure why you are getting what you are getting but the steps to follow are:.. Download the You Tube file Open VP and add the clip to the clip bin and wait until it has loaded fully Click the clip in the bin and switch to Clip Preview.The clip is 29:35.8 in length Set cursor to 23.36 (or enter 23:36 above the Start/Play control block) This will be 6 mins before the end of the clip Click the Red bracket Start button. The maker will move to this point and the last 6 mins of the clip will now be highlighted. Click the Add button (under clip preview window) The 6 min clip section should now be on the timeline as show below. Click the Export Video button on the toolbar and select Video File Enter a name for your clip end then the export folder name Leave Preset as default or select a specific format Select file format mp4 Click Default quality and select MPEG4 and choose High quality For resolution choose Auto Match content..(1920 x 1080) Click Create The video clip (6 min) should now export as an mp4 clip. This played fine in VLC. (Like Jazz 😎) Hope this helps Nat

Hi Allison That's the way to go... Once the SCALE control window opens... In your case as you want to stretch the image horizontally, if you untick the Maintain AR box you can alter the Horizontal scale to stretch the image to fill the screen. (Move the respective slider or enter a value in the box) You can monitor the effect in the Clip Preview window. If you leave the box ticked the image will retain its shape (Aspect ratio) irrespective which control you alter. Offset will move the adjusted image Up/Down. The right hand side (the graph) enables you to set the effect you make at the red cursor line position and fix it with keyframes by clicking the small green + at the top. Moving the cursor along and resetting the values to something different and then making another keyframe etc. will animate the clip with your changes between the keyframes. Worth having a play with if you've never done it before. You can remove any effects made to the clip by clicking the small white x on the blue bar associated with the particular effect. And just to finish, you can add multiple effects to a clip. e.g. Click the big green + and select Blur. (Under the Effects Filters section) You will now see (in this case) both effects listed for the clip in question, the most recent at the top... Load a clip or an image and have a play. Hope this helps. Nat

Hi Miggy Your short clip downloaded and stabilised OK with no messages. Nat

Hi Loaded the 7 clips. Placed on timeline in my VP 7.00 ....... (Not GreenPatti's project.) Exported as.. Preset = Default .mp4 H264 Default Quality Lossless = Auto detect Resolution = Auto Match content (1280 x 720) Frame ratio = Variable Smart Max 60 fps Export Stopped at 3.5% ......... As mentioned above..Clicking Cancel removes the entry from the queue but leaves the export progress bar. This effectively prevents any more exports being made as the cancelled export remains Pending. Closing VP causes it to crash. So it seems there is a bug here somewhere..... However.... Reloaded the autosaved project (to save adding the 7 files again)and then re-exported as an .avi MPEG4 (native) 1280x720 file, the project exported COMPLETELY AND NORMALLY. and It played OK in VLC. With that apparently working I cleared the cache and reloaded GreenPatti's original downloaded project (Raw 11.vpj ) that failed to completely export with her settings and re-exported this as above and it Exported completely and played correctly. (minus the mpeg4 clip which wasn't on the timeline) Quite dizzy now from watching it! .....So use these alternative export settings (mpeg native .avi) and it should be OK The problem seems to lie, not with the file types (webm) but the export settings (mpeg4 H264) within VP. NCH might also take a look at the crash when a clogged export is cancelled. Nat

Hi 007 That sounds useful. Thanks. Never took much notice of that option in the right click menu. Nat

Hi The 7 clips loaded OK and the project reassembled correctly in VP. As noted by GreenPatti the export stopped at 3.5%. Oddly the Bin labels and the Track labels as well as the Sequence labels changed into German but no idea why. The toolbar also appeared as the export toolbar. Decided to export the files one at a time with the following results... Cleared cache - New project and loaded the 6 clips. Placed webm clip 1 on the timeline and exported it as mpg4 H264 Automatch..............Exported correctly Added webm clip 2 to the timeline and repeated the export............................................ Exported correctly Added webm clip 3 (No audio) to the timeline and repeated the export........................... Exported correctly Added webm clip 4 to the timeline and repeated the export........................................... STOPPED at 89.5% at 1min 35 secs in. This effectivey crashed VP as cancelling the export, although it cleared the export list, left the exporting blue bar in place. so preventing another export being started as the stopped one remained pending. Closing the program and then taking the "Cancel exports" option again crashed the program at this point I'll try this again this time with all 6 clips on the timeline and see if the export stops in a different place . Nat

Hi Miggy Scrubbed back and forth around the 5 second mark in the fade out between the title and the opening of the parade. It looked black here.... The end fade out only goes black for an instant right at the end. Generally I fade out to a blank black frame, which can then be adjusted to suit. Nat

Hi Well, I have to agree all the images appear a uniform black. This is a part of your image on a pure black background. It's indistinguishable..... left border trimmed off to compare. Nat

Hi Miggy The black between the clips looks black here...... Nat

Hi .....and if you don't want a coloured background just place your clip on track 1 and use the SCALE effect to stretch it horizontally to fill the frame from side to side and use the Blur effect to...well..BLUR it. Now place you r clip again on Track 2..... Nat

Hi The CPU usage going up to 100% is something you may have to put up with. My old dual core Vista system does the same. Sometimes with nothing running at all it hovers around 2-3% but if you open anything it jumps to 50% and stays there, even if you close everything down again. After this any manipulation in VP makes it rise and fall around 90 -100%. The processes running include a load of Synchost entries which can't be closed. Nat

Hi Glad to hear that......It's an NCH program as well! Nat

Hi I'm not sure if you can use Arabic characters directly from the VP text editor. I have an Arabic font on my PC but the actual characters lie beyond the western letters in the file and as far as I know cannot be accessed by direct typing. You would need to enter the print codes for each character which would be very time consuming. One way to get around this (at least this seems to work here) is to open the Windows font table and look at your list of fonts. You may have one called Arabic Typesetting Open this in a separate window To use this, click each character followed by Select. The text builds up in the box.(The characters in the above image are just random.) Now click the Copy button. Return to the VP text editor and Paste in the copied text..... . I don't speak Arabic but I think this should say something like The cat sat on the mat. Another way is to use Google translator and copy/paste text from there to the Text Editor window where it should now be seen in the preview..... Unfortunately like Hebrew, Arabic text is read from right to left and this may possibly cause certain problems with editing or formatting of the pasted text. Hope this helps a little Nat

Hi Miggy VP version 7.0 Although a time consuming process I have tried this. There seems to be a problem however..... Loaded a 10 second clip with moving object. (Dinghy sailing across the FOV) Created a mask around dinghy every 30 seconds from the start and created a keyframe at each point. To do this I created a mask around the dinghy on the first clip frame. Made a keyframe. Moved preview cursor line along 30 seconds - dragged the mask along to new dinghy position in the frame - readjusted the mask points to match the new dinghy outline - created new keyframe and so on. Unticked Mask inside box Added Transparent background with Opacity set to 0% Exported the result There were no crashes on a old slow Vista system at any point BUT.... Although Mask moved smoothly across screen in the export it moved faster than the dinghy image. it reached the final position before the dinghy caught up. I am pretty sure there is a problem here. In view of this result I didn't do an export of the result placed on a different background as you were intended to do From the crashes point of view; do you wait after each point adjustment for VP to update the mask before creating new points or a new keyframe. You might be piling up a queue of jobs for the program to cope with. One thing I did do was to use the OUT marker to stop the clip at the last keyframe. I am now wondering if the keyframe animation speed has been linked to the length of the cut clip (making it run faster) instead of keeping it at the same speed as the whole clip which of course does not change speed. LATER: I can confirm that if the clip is shortened then the speed of the mask keyframe animation is proportionately increased and will get out of step with the clip . I moved the the OUT marker to the end of the preview timeline so all the clip played and found the animation of the keyframes was corrected. This may be a bug as one would expect the keyframes would match the clip however short it may have been clipped. Nat

Hi The error message in question appears if you have entered or try to enter a preset name that matches one of the listed NCH presets. For example it should come up if you enter Select Preset or Notch . You may be right in suggesting that this verification step is faulty and adding a jump to the code bypasses it but at the same time it presumably allows you to now enter a listed name without a warning message. Which could cause problems. Have you checked on this? The main question is why does your version have this bug when 7.0 works correctly here and 7.01 works correctly for others? Nat

Hi Equalizer Presets save OK in VP 7.0 with french version of Windows. Split removes the effect on second audio clip created . (Video track splits retain the video effect) Nat

Hi D Confirmed. Same behavior in VP7.0. The timeline is not pushed along if the duration of image 1 is increased. (Try 5 seconds > 10 seconds...Image 2 disappears) I have reported this as a possible bug. The durations can be also altered in Storyboard mode and are seen correctly here following one another with the entered values, but switching back to timeline mode the second image is still covered up! Nat

Hi Your file downloaded OK but I have to agree with Borate's assessment. It would be very difficult to get this much better with the tools available in most film editors. Having extracted some stills from the footage to experiment with I think it can be marginally improved using, as 007 suggests, the Colour Adjustements Effect, although my settings are slightly different... Brightness = -35 Contrast = 20 Gamma = 1 The colour temperature (which is very blue/cyan) could also be improved by setting this value to 40. On the whole there is such a wide difference between scenes with the brightness/exposure and the colour that an overall adjustment to these values for the whole clip would not actually be successful. It might better to split the video into scene sections and try treating each one with the above effects set at values around those suggested so as to get the best effect. A very low sharpen value (2-3) might help in some scenes. L-R Original.........Colour Adjustments + Temperature...........CA + T + Sharpen This should give you some idea what you might get. But the original, as a whole is quite poor. Nat

Hi David Unlike some rival programs VP is very intuitive and should be capable of doing all that you ask.. If you downloaded and ran the vpsetup.exe program from the NCH site, it should remain behind after you uninstall VP from the PC Control panel. It can then be re-clicked to reload the main VP. program. The free version has limited output options and may be time limited. As you seem unsure regarding how this runs, the BASIC idea is as follows.... (Please excuse me if this something you already know.) You add your video clips to the program using the Add Files option where they will appear in the left upper area of the GUI called the Clip Bin.There are different bins for each type of clip you add.(Video/Sound/Image etc.) From here you can drag and drop them in the required order onto the Video Track or Timeline where you can preview them in the screen area on the right, either as individual clips...Clip Preview or the whole timeline..Sequence preview. (The clips in the bin are best left alone until you become more familiar with the program.) The addition of Effects , Transitions and Edits etc. are made to the clips you have added to the timeline. The original clips in the bins will not be affected with your changes when done this way. Note: VP is very polyvalent and will allow manipulation of your clips in different ways including directly from the bins.) The brief outline above is the most intuitive and simplest way of working. Once you have finished your editing, the completed timeline can be Exported to your PC or saved to disc as a complete video file. (As mentioned above VP, although allowing many output formats the list may be radically reduced in the free version.) The original clips remain unaltered on your PC. At any point you can save your Project as a special file which will load your work back at any later date. Details of editing can be complex but come back to the forum if there is any particular difficulty, however simple it may seem and there will normally be someone who will help out. It can take quite sometime to discover the ins and outs of the program but I hope the above helps a bit. Nat

Hi Jimmy Your post to me above is correct. What has come out of looking at this thread is that the Green File button has some problems relating to export. The Top file button however seems to work without greying out options. (even with Redo etc. as I outlined) In fact it seems to correct the menu produced by the Green button. However neither pathway produces an active Export Video window.(At least not with VP 7.0 and earlier versions here) This not a problem in general ( for me) as I export from the timeline using the Toolbar Export Video tab. I can't reproduce a shortcut bell here. But a repeat double click on the vppsetup.exe file for the version in use usually changes the hamburger button back to the normal File button. Nat

Hi Jimmy Looked at the steps I mentioned again and have noticed.....Apart from the inactive Export window. (which you suggest is a bug), there is definitely something odd when the the Undo and Redo arrows are used. I repeated the steps above from opening VP and New Project... Added two clips Dropped clip 1 to timeline and used + to create a sequence Repeated with clip 2...Now there are two sequences in bin and a blank timeline. Export All sequences from the File button gives the inactive export window. (??bug..although this works for Borate) Close Export window and Undo multiple times back to empty clip box (i.e start) Using Redo multiple times correctly steps back to the inactive export window OK But.. and this is where I think there is a bug..... If you Undo back to the point where the sequences have been removed and you are left with just the two unticked clips in the bin ,... (effectively the start) and you then repeat the above moves above from step 2. ( i.e. create two sequences, NOT using the Redo arrow) The Export All Sequences prompt remains inactive now even though by step 2 you have two sequences in the bin to export. Does that help? Nat