Hugh-AR

Hi! I have done a step by step explanation of using VideoPad for creating a backdrop to a piece of music a friend of mine has played on his keyboard. The topic is called VideoPad Project with Ken Hall. You can go to my Forum directly and read what I have said by clicking this LINK: http://www.tierce-de-picardie.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=472&t=11367 The final video I have created I have uploaded to YouTube so if you want to see the final result of my efforts, click this YouTube LINK: https://youtu.be/bFLHqo2hYoQ I have also put up a 'general' explanation of using VideoPad. I did this as a 'hands on' thing just after I had bought VideoPad and was experimenting with it. Again, what I do is to create a backdrop to music played on keyboards by friends of mine in my Forum. This Topic is called Video Pad from NCH Software. This is the LINK to read about this: http://www.tierce-de-picardie.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=472&t=9342 Several Members of my Forum have got 'hooked' on putting videos to their music, using either VideoPad or PhotoStage Slide Show (both NCH Software products). To have a browse through their efforts, click the LINK below. The topic is called Music with Movies. http://www.tierce-de-picardie.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=474 Hugh-AR (Hugh Wallington)

When using PhotoStage Slideshow it was the clip of the 'green world' that always 'jumped' after a Transition, so I thought I would do a DEMO showing this. First appearance of the green world; NO TRANSITION, so runs smoothly. Second and third time it appears, I had a Circle Transition going into it. In my PREVIEW within the program it 'jumped'. In the final clip of the green world, I split the clip into two: 0.1 seconds on the left and 9.9 seconds on the right. Then put the Circle Transition on the left of the 0.1 seconds clip, and NO TRANSITION between the two clips. In my PREVIEW within the program, this has made it hesitate slightly before moving forwards. But at least no 'jumping'! So quite acceptable. Now ... Having Exported it as MP4 there is NO JUMPING anywhere. So this DEMO below does not show what was going on in the PREVIEW. The Program has removed all the 'glitches' when converting to MP4. Click the LINK below to watch what has ended up as perfect Transitions into that green world .. no 'jumping'! https://youtu.be/oJMzDBhQXwI Hugh

Dann, Thinking about it, the NAME of this program is PhotoShop Slideshow. Maybe therein lies the clue. Video clips are not SLIDES. So if I am doing a video with my photographs (ie Slides) then I can happily use PhotoShop Slideshow. If I am putting in VIDEOS then the program to use is VideoPad (which I have anyway). I think maybe I am trying to do things with PhotoShop Slideshow that it is not programmed to do. Hugh

Dann, Thank you so much for replying to my post. I could probably have a go at doing what you suggest, but will downloading the same program again make any difference? Another thing I was concerned about was .. if I delete all traces of Photo Stage from my computer will I end up with an Unlicensed Version and have to pay for it again? Or will my Registration Code work? Will this count as one of my 'uses' of the Registration Code meaning I am heading towards having to buy it again? What I have done is to download the program again from the NCH PhotoStage website without deleting the previous one, run it, and I see now that I still have a Licensed version without me having to do anything. My previous version was v8.56 and what is showing now is v8.61. Unfortunately, this hasn't made any difference to the problem of the video clips 'skipping' backwards. But I have done a bit of research into the problem of 'jumping' video clips and have come to the conclusion that it only 'jumps' when the start of the clip is 'moving' (obviously, as if it's static it skips from one static part to another so there is nothing to see). What I have done is to put a 'moving' clip onto the Story Board, then very slowly move the red cursor line to the right until the 'scissors' appeared. I then cut the video at that point, which gave me two separate clips, the one on the left being 0.1 seconds and the one on the right being the remainder of seconds. Then on the left of the 0.1 second clip I put a Circle Transition. The Transition between the two split clips I put as No Transition (if the program has put one in you can do that by clicking on Remove on the Transition page). I then ran the Preview, and instead of 'skipping' backwards the clip just hesitated slightly before moving forwards. So in the video I put up in my original post, I have been through all the video clips that were causing me a problem with 'skipping' and have split them all into two by cutting with the scissors at the very start of the clip, putting a Transition to the left, and No Transition between the two separated clips. Exporting as an MP4 I have put it up on YouTube so you can see how this has ended up as compared with the original. Not as 'smooth' as the VideoPad one, but certainly very acceptable as there is now no 'jumping backwards'. In fact, in the Milky Way clip near the beginning the transition is perfect ... no hesitancy or jumping at all! https://youtu.be/BOFG-M9209w Hugh

I have used the same clips to do my Never Ending Story video, but this time using VideoPad. No 'jumps' in this one! https://youtu.be/7HTOWO38iec But I do find PhotoStage Slideshow easier to use as a program, which is why I bought it. So how do I stop it 'jumping'? Hugh

When making up my video I found some 'jumping' taking place in some clips after TRANSITIONS. I have tried changing the time of the Transition (2 secs is what I had) and tried different Transitions .. but the video clip still 'jumps' directly after the Transition. I am aware that watching the completed video directly from the program is not always 100% .. but this usually resolves itself when exporting the video as MP4. For this one it hasn't, and I have uploaded the video I have done to YouTube so you can see what these 'skips' actually look like. https://youtu.be/tRAl6ys_RNE The skips are at the start of the Milky Way clip; and the one just after it of the green world with the moon and the asteroid. In fact, this second one actually does a 'backwards' skip before moving forwards again! I got both these clips from Pixabay, and before you say the original clips must be flawed .. no, they are not. They play perfectly individually; and I am also making the same video using VideoPad (which I have also bought) and am not having this problem when doing the video with this program. I'll post a Reply with the VideoPad video in it so you can see what the video should look like. Looks to me like there is a flaw in the PhotoStage Professional program, which is upsetting as I have paid for it. Hugh

When I make a video I always SAVE it as I go along. When all the files I want for my Project are in the Media Bin I SAVE the it and give it a name. Then I put all the pictures into the Timeline in the order I want them. Then Save with the Save As... and add a 2 to the file name. Then put in all the Transitions I want and Save As... with a 3 added to the file name. Do the Pan & Zoom, do the Save As... and give it a 4. Add the music, and that's a 5. Then if things go wrong you can always go back to a previous SAVE and do it again from there. I play a keyboard and do the same when setting up REGISTRATIONS for a song. Habit, really.

I run a keyboard Forum and the 'in' thing to be doing at the moment is to put together a video to go with music you have played on your keyboard. I have already bought and used VideoPad, but one of our Members has found and bought PhotoStage Slideshow. I have been so impressed by how straightforward it is to create a video using this program that I too have bought it (the Pro Version). As I was doing the video I have put up step by step instructions with screenshots and DEMOs showing how I put the video together. I use royalty free photos & video clips from Pixabay to make my videos, but also have photos of my own which I use. For anyone who is interested, below is a LINK to the Topic I have done. If you are not sure how the program works, then this will give you an insight into what is involved. I have only used basic features .. nothing too complicated! http://www.tierce-de-picardie.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=472&t=10004 And below is the final video I have put up on YouTube so you can see how it has panned out (pardon the pun, but Pan & Zoom is the essence of it!). https://youtu.be/LUn_z8deL90 Hugh

Thanks borate. I haven't experimented with any of the export choices (apart from choosing Widescreen TV instead of Custom. I found that by saving my MP4 this way I could put it on a Memory Stick and play it from the USB Port on my TV). Hugh

PS. It took me ages to work out that if I wanted a Pan with no Zoom (ie. just having the picture moving across the screen) that I had to make two rectangles the same size (Start Frame and End Frame) and position them at the same height .. one on the left and the other on the right (or the other way round if I wanted the picture to move the other way). I also wasn't very keen on the 'scrolling' for a Title, so instead have written the Title words with a small size font and put space lines so the title was in the middle of the screen; had my Start Frame as the whole picture, then had my End Frame boxed tightly round the Title words. Then the Title zooms from in the distance to filling the screen. This is what I did for the Isles of Scilly Title. I have also realised that I can do a 'Fade Out' on the Title words so they don't disappear so rapidly. Hugh

Hi Nat, Thanks for your reply. I agree that you wouldn't want to apply Pan & Zoom to all the photos as each one is specific to the photo you are viewing. But your information as to how to get the Effect to apply to all the clips is very helpful. The latest video I have done (for a friend) has all his photos in 4:3 and I wanted to do them all in 16:9. So as they are 'views', I have gone down the road of Change Clip Aspect Ratio, Stretch, then 16:9 and done that to each photo individually. With views it doesn't matter if you stretch. When there are photos with people in them I use Effects..., Zoom, then choose Aspect Ratio 16:9 which gives me the rectangle to move 'up' or 'down' the original photo to position the 'crop' where I want it on the photo. I can then do a Pan & Zoom as well .. and below is the video I have done for my friend. The Zoom crop to 16:9, followed by the Pan & Zoom is in the clip where the men are carrying the platform in the Religious Procession (in Spain). And I have done it this way too for the black swan. and the horse & rider. https://youtu.be/BDFoU6uOq5s Next time all the photos are in 4:3 I will highlight in the "Bin" all that are 'views', do a right-click and stretch them all to 16:9. The ones that have 'people' I can do in the 'Bin' by doing a right-click on each one individually, choosing Effects..., doing a Zoom to 16:9, and then positioning the rectangle where I want it for that individual clip. Then highlight all the photos in the 'Bin' and drop them into the project. And yes, I do a Save As.. periodically with a different number so I can always go back to a previous Save if things go wrong. Hugh

borate. Just wanted you to know that I have done another YouTube video and had no problems with doing the Effects (Pan & Zoom). As I said, I think the problem was that I was in a hurry and did all the Transitions as I wanted them first, then viewed the visual track in Sequence Preview mode from beginning to end to check the Transitions were as I wanted them. Then in Storyboard mode just clicked on each FX one after the other .. and my Effects were also applied to the previous clips I had been doing. So this time I double-clicked on the picture I wanted to apply the Effects to, which then set the clip up into Clip Preview. The Effect I set up then only applied to that one clip I was dealing with. Nationalsolo. Thanks for your input too. This is what I had been doing previously when I got multiple Effects on a clip. I realised that the 'additional effects' that I didn't want were at the top, so clicked on the white 'x' by the words Pan & Zoom, then the next one down and so on until I was just left with the one Pan & Zoom that was coming up from the bottom. Which of course is why I joined your Forum and asked the question. I presumed that I must have been doing something wrong to get multiple effects on a clip, and was sure that deleting all those Pans & Zooms afterwards was not what the program was all about. I am really pleased with how VideoPad has worked for me, and as I said earlier it's the 'custom' Pan & Zoom that one is able to do in VideoPad that does it for me. I can be really creative using that. I am just going to put two more LINKS showing (a) a piece I have played on my keyboard with photographs I took when on holiday in the Isles of Scilly, and (b) another piece where I have used Royalty free video clips from Pixabay to provide a background to the music. For a keyboard player, it's the Audio that is the most important part of the video! Both have been done with VideoPad. To get 'still' pictures to appear to move as in (a) is just amazing. The ones in (b) of course are moving pictures to start with, so I have just put Transitions in this video. (a) https://youtu.be/oLYWPpwkXGI (b) https://youtu.be/vukR6ZxkUxk Hugh

Thanks Nat. Hugh

Thanks borate for your help. I had previously been using Movie Maker (no longer available from Microsoft) to do my videos for YouTube, but what really sold me about VideoPad is the ability to do 'custom' Pans & Zooms ie. choosing a START and an END frame. I have put up into YouTube a few seconds showing how effective this can be. The photos are my granddaughters boating on a lake. I could only have achieved this using VideoPad. DEMO of Pan & Zoom using Video Pad from NCH Software https://youtu.be/JC1U6IBP9Ns I had said to you that I am using VideoPad to put photographs to music played on a keyboard. Here is one I did for a friend of mine with photos he took of Weston-super-Mare, our home town. What I find amazing is that all the pictures in this video are stills .. and it's VideoPad that has enabled me to create the apparent movement. A fun thing to have been doing during lockdown! https://youtu.be/FUrK7EzXvvE Hugh

Hi borate, You've nailed it. That's why the other photos had the latest 'effect' added to them as well. The effect was always added to the photos i had dealt with previously. I have now taken care to make sure I don't try and do things in too much of a hurry and make sure I have properly selected one photograph before adding an Effect to it. Hugh