Nationalsolo

Hi Sounds like your PC is struggling to process the preview display. Normally VP would put up a message to say it was "Building Preview" when it stops for that reason but if the PC is just working hard it may stutter . You could try reducing the resolution of the display by clicking Options and under the Display window change the Preset to a lower value. Keep the aspect ratio the same (usually 16:9) so try the smallest first (512 x 288) and see if that makes any difference. Nat

Hi Another way uses only two clips. One is your lines of text. The other is a blank. In this example there are 4 lines of yellow text on a black background and a blank black frame. The example is set up to show the first line of text, then to fade in the next line and so on. The whole sequence is 8 seconds long with each line fading in over two seconds but remaining visible until the end of the sequence. The principle is pretty straightforward; a blank frame is set at different heights so as to reveal each line of text in turn and the Transparency effect is used to produce a fade in. Create your lines of text Place your lines of text on Video Track 1 Place the blank clip on Video Track 2 Drag the blank clip up to Video Track 5. Now you are ready to start the process. Add the Position effect to Video Track 5 and move the blank frame so only TEXT LINE 1 is visible when in Sequence preview. Move the clip along the timeline a bit and move the cursor line into the gap produced Drag and drop the blank clip from the clip bin on Video Track 4. Add the Position effect to Track 4 so TEXT LINE 1 and TEXT LINE 2 are now visible. Move the clip along the timeline a bit and repeat the procedure for the remaining two tracks NOTE: The purpose of moving the blank clips along the timeline is to be able to check the position of the blank against the text as any upper track will obscure a lower one. Now with all the overlay tracks correctly positioned, close all the gaps so all the clips are at the start. At the start only TEXT LINE 1 is visible Now add the Transparency effect to Video Track 5 Use key frames to make the Opacity 100% for 2 seconds then decreasing over the next 2 seconds to 0% opacity remaining at 0% to the end. Should look like this... Now do the same for Video Track 4. 100% Opacity now lasts for 4 seconds now..... Now do the same for Video track 3. 100% Opacity now lasts 6 seconds... Video track 2 does not require the transparency effect. When played the sequence starts with TEXT LINE 1 and every 2 seconds the next text line fades in. The main screen looks like this..... TEXT LINE 3 is just fading in..... This only used two clips as stated above. Obviously the timings of the "reveals" is up to you and if you use more lines of text than in my example you will need to use more blank overlay tracks. Hope this helps Nat

HI If for whatever reason you get VERY short clips left between longer clips they may not always be visible at the timeline zoom being used. Obviously this can muck up transitions as you have found. The easiest way to spot these is to go into Storyboard mode when every clip is shown as a single thumbnail with its duration underneath. Its a reasonably simple matter to check them out as the thumbnail content might be easily noted as not being correct along with the very short duration shown. The thumbnail is also amply large enough to select and delete. Here's an example..... On the left is the timeline mode showing what seems to be two clips of boats, but in between the two clips is another one..of a bike! It's very short (0.025 seconds) and is not visible at this zoom level. A transition can't be placed properly between these two apparently adjacent clips. On the right is the Storyboard mode of the same place in the timeline. The unwanted clip bit is now clearly visible and can easily be selected, removed and the subsequent gap closed. Nat.

HI One or both of your clips is too short to accommodate the duration of the half length of the transition you are trying to put there. (The transition is equally divided between the clips). In VP 5.32 (Latest) VP will calculate the longest transition possible and change the default value at the bottom of the transition selection screen automatically. If you try to enter something larger or use the up/down buttons it will stop at the biggest value it can use. If you choose to move the clip location (overlap the ends) then the longest possible duration gets even smaller. e.g. If you want a 1 second transition, then both clips must be longer than 1/2 second each. In VP 5.32 the up/down arrows won't go above this calculated limit. You don't get a message (You are using 5.31) A SIMPLE text clip, image or a truncated video clip (edited shorter by splitting or using the IN/OUT markers) can be extended by pulling out the clip ends along the timeline until your chosen length of transition can be used. A complete VIDEO clip can't be extended except by altering its speed. Nat

Hi The download is a .vpj file and two mpeg4 clips. Both clips play as expected. The first clip on the timeline is WonLife.mpeg4. This plays for 18.384 seconds overall. There IS a section about 1.6 seconds long at the start of this clip that has sound but does not have any movement, but this is identical to the start of the same clip previewed from the clip bin. There is no error here in so far as VP is playing what is in the clip..i.e. The clip plays correctly. The second clip is 2017-12-24_12-49-47.mpeg4 This is edited into two sections both of which appear to play correctly. How did you edit the first clip (WonLife) from the main video? This might give a clue why there is a static bit at the start. Did you use Split or edit the start point with the IN/OUT marker? Was there a transition prior to the split?........etc. With VP 5.32 (latest version) there is no evidence of any static video with normal sound with any of the above options. Nat

Hi Copy your S8 reels (which would normally be 18fps) to 30fps. I used to do this by making a direct re-film of the projected S8 on a screen using a 30fps VHS camera. (I didn't have a digital video then) Being shot at 18fps the projector had to be slowed down slightly to around 15 fps in order to prevent strobing of the image in the camera. The VHS copy was then digitised with an AD converter. Note: Projectors never keep a constant speed and one had to carefully monitor the strobing effect and adjust the projector speed to keep the dark band stationary at the top or botton of the frame. At 30fps the VHS copy had 2 frames for each S8 frame. i.e. It had copied each film frame twice. At a projected rate of 15fps instead of 18,fps the change in speed of the action was only around 0.83 of the correct speed, usually not enough to make a noticeable difference. The stripe soundtrack (mostly commentary or music) was recorded separately at the correct speed and matched up during editing. One loaded to VP and edited the export fps will make no difference to the speed of the resulting video as it will still play at normal speed and have the original duration. To clarify.... if you export at 2fps (Yes you can do this), the video still plays at the correct speed but each frame exported is 1/2 a second apart along the timeline from the previous frame. (Try it...you will see what I mean) Obviously jerky! Set at 5fps for example every 6th of a second frame would be exported, and so on. (Less jerky!) As your project has actual images that are different roughly 30th of a second along the sequence it means you can virtually choose any fps. above 15 fps to export your project and it will always export all the frames. (Not jerky!) To keep it even just click the Constant framerate box. If you wanted to reproduce exactly 18 fps you would need to speed up your project by 18/15 = 1.2% meaning you would set the speed change to 120 then export it with fps set above 18. Nat

Hi Do you have Lossless Export set as "Use Lossless Export"? If so try exporting with this option off. Just tried a short test with around 4-5 mpg4 clips, a Space title and a crossfade between two of the clips. Exported MPEG4 had a repeatable black dropout (in the same place as it happens) when this was set but exported OK when not. (played with VLC.) Repeated this several times. In all tests "Constant frame rate" was unticked. Worth a try. Nat

Hi Example Set default image duration to 4 seconds Placed a black blank on the timeline as a background and drag it out to 8 seconds Create a typewriter clip of "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS" This will go on the overlay track (Track 2) with an automatic duration of 4 seconds. Select the clip and use Edit clip duration button under the clip preview window and change it to 8 seconds. The text duration will now be 8 seconds long on the timeline but the animation will still finish at 4 seconds . Click the FX button and use Position effect to place the text at the required upper line position. Create a second Typewriter text of "OVER THE LAZY DOG" (Typewriter(1)) Drag Typewriter (1) clip from the clip bin (It will have a duration of 4 seconds) and place it on the timeline to start at 4 seconds Use the Position FX again to move the text below the first text line. Display and sequence preview should then look a bit like this (with cursor at the end of the sequence)..... When the timeline is played the first line of text will animate, finish and stay visible whilst second line of text beneath will appear and animate. As c-major says it is a workaround for double lines of animated text although it is a bit involved and not so intuitive. The first thing is to notice there some controls!! Nat

Hi Borate Ah. Right! Thanks. I hadn't really noticed them Doh! Nat

Hi C-Major Where are "Animation Duration" setting and the "Clip Duration" settings? To make the animation play faster or slower It's logical to use the "Change Clip Speed" setting but this doesn't work correctly with these animated texts e.g. Create animated typewriter with text "1234567890" Default image duration set at 5 seconds. Text lasts 5 seconds Change clip speed to 200%. Text sequence shortens to 2.5 seconds. The animation now does NOT change speed to twice as fast, it now only counts up to 5. Is this a bug? Nat

Hi (Also copied to another forum thread) Ok. I have a condition where this bug happens...e.g.... Put two or three clips on the timeline (At which point the animated title entry (like The wave) works OK.....i.e. Space gives a space in the text.) Place cursor line at start of sequence. Add a Crossfade transition of 4 seconds between clip 1 and clip 2 with Move Clip Location selected Click Text Effects tab and select The Wave Type some text followed by a space. The space does not enter but the cursor moves along the text clip. Repeated attempts to type a space simply moves the cursor line along the text clip. Further text can be entered but not spaces. The text cannot be edited after clicking it the clip bin so as to enter any spaces Removing the transition and restoring the clip position still does allow spaces to be entered in the text edit. Adding a new animated text also will not work correctly even though transition was removed ?Was flag set for THAT session of VP since.... Saving the project, closing VP and reloading the project allowed the animated text clip to be edited normally. Can somebody check please? Nat

Hi Ok. I have a condition where this bug happens...e.g.... Put two or three clips on the timeline (At point animated title entry works OK.....i.e. Space gives a space in the text.) Place cursor line at start of sequence. Add a Crossfade transition of 4 seconds between clip 1 and clip 2 with Move Clip Location selected Click Text Effects tab and select The Wave Type some text followed by a space. The space does not enter but the cursor moves along the text clip. Repeated attempts to type a space simply moves the cursor line along the text clip. Further text can be entered but not spaces. The text cannot be edited after clicking it the clip bin so as to enter any spaces Removing the transition and restoring the clip position still does allow spaces to be entered in the text edit. Adding a new animated text also will not work correctly even though transition was removed ?Was flag set for THAT session of VP since.... Saving the project, closing VP and reloading the project allowed the animated text clip to be edited normally. Can somebody check please? Nat

Hi Eventually got a condition where the bug consistantly appears.... Put two or three clips on the timeline (At point animated title entry works OK.....i.e. Space gives a space in the text.) Place cursor line at start of sequence. Add a Crossfade transition of 4 seconds between clip 1 and clip 2 with Move Clip Location selected Click Text Effects tab and select The Wave Type some text followed by a space. The space does not enter but the cursor moves along the text clip. Repeated attempts to type a space simply moves the cursor line along the text clip. Further text can be entered but not spaces. The text cannot be edited after clicking it the clip bin so as to enter any spaces Removing the transition and restoring the clip position still does allow spaces to be entered in the text edit. I have reported this to NCH. Nat

Hi Tested this process with animated texts and it happened again just once. Pressing Space just played the text clip with entry window remaining in place but text not receiving the space. Couldn't remember all the steps made so restarted VP and tried different combinations of entering animated title text (The different tabs/deleting the default/typing over the default/cursor line in different places etc.) but couldn't get this effect to re-occur. Odd. Nat

Hi You can't since I think its meant to be used like a "ticker tape" and there is only a single line. You can make it as long as you wish but only the last screen width will appear. It would be better if it scrolled left when the screen was filled (and had sound) BTW the Space entry problem is odd as I am trying to find the conditions when it happens. So far it has behaved correctly. But it definitively occurred. Nat

Hi OK, you have found the same thing as myself. In my case I saved the project and reloaded the .vpj file. The space then worked OK. For that reason I suspected it was my PC and scrapped my forum entry. This must be a bug and I found it only affected the small text entry window associated with the animated text entry. Pretty sure NCH will check this out. Nat

I couldn't enter a space in animated text on small entry screen as it played the text clip instead.....but it seems to have corrected itself. EDIT. Problem confirmed by a later post but it seems to be intermittent as saving the project closing VP and then reloading it corrected it. Error occurred when entering animated text (from all the various links) and only when in the small text window. Normal text entry (simple text, scrolling or otherwise) was unaffected. Nat

Hi A project (.vpj file) created with an earlier version of VP should load OK to 5.32 As the new version has had the error corrected you should assume it will now play OK. The error presumably was in the VP program and not the .vpj file created with it. Nat

Hi Try download from here...... http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/ Check you still have your original vppsetup.exe file so you can reload the version you are currently using. (Move it to a safe place). Uninstall VP using the control panel and load the latest version. Nat

Hi Same result here...The actual file downloaded wasn't a.zip file but I removed the hyphen before the zip and replaced it with a dot and removed the other dot. STRSexplaindio.zip then unpacked to 11 files but no .vpj file. Need the .vpj to reconstruct the video. Your exporting parameters might also be useful. The last file in the unzipped list - STRS.explaindio is not a .vpj file but when opened looks similar. How did you get this? Nat

Hi Once you have your audio track in place, use the overlay track/s (Video Track 2, 3 etc.to position your video clips. If you use the empty VideoTrack 1 your clip will insert its audio into Audio Track 1 on which you already have your main sound clip. There are several ways to achieve what I think you want. This is probably the most intuitive.... Place your main sound clip on Audio track 1 Select your Video clip from the Video clip bin and then use the IN/OUT markers in Clip Preview pane to isolate the video section you require. Click the down arrow next to the Place button and select Overlay on Sequence at the cursor. Clip section will be placed on Video Track 2 and its audio on Audio Track 2. Mute Audio Track 2 by clicking the loudspeaker icon at the left end and then drag the clip to the position required. To use the same video clip again, select the clip once more from the clip bin and reset the IN/OUT pointers. (If you try to move the pointers without doing this the clip on the timeline is affected.) Click the Place button as before and use the overlay track option. The second clip selection will now go on Video Track 3 and the sound on Audio Track 3 Mute Audio track 3. and move the clip to the position required. and so on.. Admittedly this is a bit "messy" a possible alternative might be..... Place the Video clip onto the timeline. Right click it and Unlink from the audio Delete the audio track. Audio track 1 is now empty. Select your main audio track in the clip bin and then use the place button from the bin to put it at the Start of the sequence. It will go on Audio Track 1 under the video clip. Right Click the label "Audio Track 1" at then left end and select "Lock Track" to prevent it moving. You can now select the video clip on the timeline and make your selection with the IN/OUT markers. It should not affect the audio track. To use the same video clip again, select the clip once more from the clip bin and reset the IN/OUT pointers. (If you try to move the pointers without doing this the clip on the timeline is affected.) Click the Place button under the preview window and use the overlay track option. The second clip selection will now go on Video Track 2 and the sound on Audio Track 2 where you can eithere mute it or unlink and delete it. You will have to experiment a bit to get the effect you want. Hope this helps. Nat

Hi There are lots of references in previous posts referring to the Tools/Options.........etc. In the latest version of VP (5.31) and if one is using the new "darker" colour scheme the Tools choices are no longer visible on the top toolbar. It's not been left off though. Options is now accessed by clicking the double chevrons at the right hand end of the toolbar next to NCH Suite. However you can build your own toolbar to include all the choices (including Options) by clicking Custom tab and then the Customize.button Later: Actually, just found that changing the screen resolution to 1280 x 960 revealed more items on the Home toolbar as well as options. My default was set as 1024 x 768. Which is what I shall return it too as the higher res makes everything a bit too small. (Didn't think this action would change the actual contents of the toolbar) Nat

Hi After repeating what I found ...and it did repeat, I noticed I was using MPEG2 clips converted from MPEG4s. . I don't know if that had any bearing on the coloured frames appearing (even with a single clip) but repeatedly testing showed that freezes and coloured frames etc. seemed very hit and miss. Sometimes both clips played without problems. I just tested MPEG4 clips with different variations of effect/speed/transition etc. and at first couldn't find any problem. The clips played fine...no freeze or coloured frames. On deleteing the clips on the timeline and redoing the different steps the result sometimes froze; sometimes played through OK and sometimes in the middle of Clip 1 (speeded up and BW) the cursor would play jerkily half way through and then jump back to the start. So not sure what to think. PS Rather like the new colour scheme and the rendering bar, even though narrow is more visible. (Not so sure about the rather vivid sound track though.) Nat

Hi The process you describe seems to work OK here with VP 5.31 but whilst looking at it I noticed the following which I think may be a small bug....... Place a clip on the timeline and convert it to B&W .....If you then increase the clip speed to e.g. 200% (double) and for any reason have the "Insert transition frames" box ticked then the speed of the now black and white clip is correctly increased but a section of frames before the end of the clip remain coloured. as shown here.... Note that the cursor line is over the B&W clip about 1/3 sec before the clip end but the preview is showing the clip in colour. This does not happen if the Insert transition frames box is not ticked. Logically I would have thought that extra frames shouldn't be needed (or the choice available) if the clip speed is increased. Can anybody check this? I know it's only minor......... Nat

Hi Put Video 1 on Track 1 Click the FX box at the left end of the track. Click the Green Cross and select the Split Screen effect. In the drop down box select Horizontal 2. Select side A or B Put Video 2 on Track 2 (Overlay track) Click the FX box at the left end of the track Click the Green Cross and select the Split Screen effect. In the drop down box select Horizontal 2 Select Side A or B (Opposite to the selection made for Track 1) The two videos should now play side by side with no gap. However..........Each video will be cut in two. If you want both videos to play side by side without being cropped then... Place Video 1 on Video Track 1 Click the FX box at the left end of the track. Click the Green cross and select the Scale effect. Tick the "Maintain AR" box and set the scale value to 0.5 Click the green cross once more and select the Position effect. Set the Horizontal position to -25 and vertical position to 0 Place Video 2 on Track 2 (Overlay track) Repeat the steps as for Video 1 but set the Horizontal position at 25 and vertical position to 0. The videos will now play side by side with no cropping or any gap between them. Played side by side like this however, both videos have necessarily to be made smaller so there will be a black bar at the top and bottom of the screen as the combined AR will not be 16:9. By experimenting a bit with position and crop and scale you may possibly get the required effect without black bars but a lot depends on the actual position of the action in each clip. The above methods are the simplest. Nat