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Author Topic: Software to create animation (video clip)  (Read 7578 times)
jep
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« on: 2010.01.09, 10:55:58 »

Hi,

I'd like to create a movie clip from 120 images... any suggestions on software that may be useful?

//Jan-Erik
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osw
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« Reply #1 on: 2010.01.09, 12:31:10 »

Hi!
Here are some that come to mind - ffmpeg, mencoder, mainactor, projectx?
Can someone confirm them as usefull to do what's needed here?

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jep
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« Reply #2 on: 2010.01.09, 13:01:24 »

Hi!
Here are some that come to mind - ffmpeg, mencoder, mainactor, projectx?
Can someone confirm them as usefull to do what's needed here?

ffmpeg and mencoder - commandline and therefore not useful for visual usage.
Mainactor 2.06 - looked promising... should help me, but can't find it on my computers any longer  Shocked
ProjectX - not from images (bitmaps)? though i have it installed.

//Jan-Erik
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Mentore
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« Reply #3 on: 2010.01.09, 13:07:30 »

Hi!
Here are some that come to mind - ffmpeg, mencoder, mainactor, projectx?
Can someone confirm them as usefull to do what's needed here?

ffmpeg and mencoder - commandline and therefore not useful for visual usage.
Mainactor 2.06 - looked promising... should help me, but can't find it on my computers any longer  Shocked
ProjectX - not from images (bitmaps)? though i have it installed.

//Jan-Erik

I have MainActor 20.6 beta (and in the past I also tried to ask MainConcept to release it to the public, the answer was a polite "no").

There are also some interesting utilities you can use: makeavi (on Hobbes, IIRC) and ImageMagick (ported by Paul Smedely) with which it's possible to create animations.

I am thinking about creating some REXX GUI application as a framework for these simple applications (using also transcode and other things), but this is a huge beast and I must learn many things before even thinking about designing it.

Mentore
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Saijin_Naib
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« Reply #4 on: 2010.01.09, 13:28:20 »

I know it doesn't help, but VideoMach from Gromada is fantastic for this task.

I've used it to make videos of MANY games that had to have their demos recorded in-engine and then dumped to BMP frames and WAV audio.

It may work under Odin?
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jep
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« Reply #5 on: 2010.01.09, 14:01:52 »

I've now spotted it (MainActor 2.06) Beta on the net, downloaded it and gave it a try. A very net set of tools that work as a real sequencing tool with many features for transitions etc.
The drawback is that I can't figure out how to make it export anything else than AVI files... setting/selecting FLI/FLC, MPEG, QuickTime or anything else doesn't seem to matter. Buhuuu  Cry
Suggestions or help anyone?

I have MainActor 20.6 beta (and in the past I also tried to ask MainConcept to release it to the public, the answer was a polite "no").
Hmm, care to ask again?

There are also some interesting utilities you can use: makeavi (on Hobbes, IIRC) and ImageMagick (ported by Paul Smedely) with which it's possible to create animations.

Hmm, both commnd line, just as ppm2fli that I also found (and therefore only handle 256 coulors).

I am thinking about creating some REXX GUI application as a framework for these simple applications (using also transcode and other things), but this is a huge beast and I must learn many things before even thinking about designing it.

Mentore
Please do, I'll try to help if I can  Wink

Ohh, what kind of Rexx GUI development tool would you use?

//Jan-Erik
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osw
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« Reply #6 on: 2010.01.09, 17:43:05 »

Once produced with mainactor avi can become whatever you want through ffmpeg or mencoder.
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jep
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« Reply #7 on: 2010.01.09, 18:03:55 »


There are options in MainActor to save in several formats... so then they should be there. 24 bpp images that get reduced so that they look like 256 in the output file isn't quite what I seek.

I tried makeavi as well, it couldn't handle the ppm images and made a core dump.

I tried ffmpeg as suggested, the part of all images that is fixed look great throughout the sequence, while the rotating part get blurry and ehwww.... I don't want it to compress the images as it ruin the quality images I've already struggled with to look so great.  Wink

What else can I try? Some settings that can help me in MainActor, ffmpeg, mencoder?

//Jan-Erik
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cyber
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« Reply #8 on: 2010.01.09, 20:26:47 »


I tried ffmpeg as suggested, the part of all images that is fixed look great throughout the sequence, while the rotating part get blurry and ehwww.... I don't want it to compress the images as it ruin the quality images I've already struggled with to look so great.  Wink

What else can I try? Some settings that can help me in MainActor, ffmpeg, mencoder?

What options You used with FFmpeg ?  Is it maybe low bitrate made to much compress of images and this result in blurry ?
Did You set key frames ?
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Mentore
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« Reply #9 on: 2010.01.09, 20:41:18 »

I have MainActor 20.6 beta (and in the past I also tried to ask MainConcept to release it to the public, the answer was a polite "no").
Hmm, care to ask again?

It should be better to make some kind of petition. Maybe it could be possible to obtain at least the sequencing engine, which is the thing we need most... Not to be unkind, but it's a little limited (it's impossible to create titles, multiline text and so on)

Quote
There are also some interesting utilities you can use: makeavi (on Hobbes, IIRC) and ImageMagick (ported by Paul Smedely) with which it's possible to create animations.

Hmm, both commnd line, just as ppm2fli that I also found (and therefore only handle 256 coulors).

The GNU software ported to OS/2 might be enough to make some productions. The worst drawback is that we nearly don't have anything visual, which (as it comes to VIDEO production) is really really a PITA. Still, I'm gonna make some tries in this, because I have MANY little videos to work on.

Quote
I am thinking about creating some REXX GUI application as a framework for these simple applications (using also transcode and other things), but this is a huge beast and I must learn many things before even thinking about designing it.

Mentore
Please do, I'll try to help if I can  Wink

Ohh, what kind of Rexx GUI development tool would you use?

//Jan-Erik

I'd like to join together ffmpeg, mencoder, makeavi, ImageMagick, ffplay or MPlayer to create some kind of Video editor for OS/2 and eCS. The biggest part of the job is, of course, creating something which has direct output to video. And I'm afraid it could be a nightmare for me Smiley

I have (FWR REXX) a GPF REXX license, never used it but still want to learn something. Even Dr Dialog could be useful for simple tasks, imho.

Mentore
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jep
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« Reply #10 on: 2010.01.09, 20:58:27 »

And the winner is... PPM2FLI that produced a flicker free animation without artifacts, and after I reduced all 120 images to 256 colors with PMView and converted them to PPM-images I got the best result (better than if PPM2FLI did it itself). Even the transition/stop as the animation loop now look sharp, yet run smoothly. It first improved when I set ppm2fli to scan and use colors from each individual image, but the final conversion to 256 colors with PMView made the biggest difference.

PPM2FLI\ppm2fli -I -Qn 2048 -g 638x689 -s 10 f_name.list eCS.fli


Regarding ffmpeg.
I tried variations to the command line:
ffmpeg -r 10 -b 1800 -i %03d.jpg test1800.mp4
with bitmaps, jpegs and different values for -r and different values for -b, ...
ffmpeg could really use a front end with all those options available.
PITA is really a understatement for such powerful and useful tools that can do magic.

//Jan-Erik
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jep
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« Reply #11 on: 2010.01.09, 21:12:40 »

It should be better to make some kind of petition. Maybe it could be possible to obtain at least the sequencing engine, which is the thing we need most... Not to be unkind, but it's a little limited (it's impossible to create titles, multiline text and so on)

It still has great potential and nice features, but to put it in another way, one always want for more Wink

The GNU software ported to OS/2 might be enough to make some productions. The worst drawback is that we nearly don't have anything visual, which (as it comes to VIDEO production) is really really a PITA. Still, I'm gonna make some tries in this, because I have MANY little videos to work on.

Unix => hundreds of command line parameters and options

I'd like to join together ffmpeg, mencoder, makeavi, ImageMagick, ffplay or MPlayer to create some kind of Video editor for OS/2 and eCS. The biggest part of the job is, of course, creating something which has direct output to video. And I'm afraid it could be a nightmare for me Smiley

I have (FWR REXX) a GPF REXX license, never used it but still want to learn something. Even Dr Dialog could be useful for simple tasks, imho.

Mentore


Yes GpFRexx (as well as VX-Rexx) should be useful for that.

Hmm, would be really nice if one could convince developers to just create dll's one could use instead so that the tools would integrate well with the system, wps, rexx and push development of GUI applications ( and rexx vio scripts for those that want command line only).

//Jan-Erik


Just fixed quote tags -Rob
« Last Edit: 2010.01.10, 01:57:24 by RobertM » Logged
CDRWSel
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« Reply #12 on: 2010.01.10, 12:50:27 »

Hi,

What do you think contacting:
http://dmorrill.com/david/projects/index.php

Cheers/2
RD
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warpcafe
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« Reply #13 on: 2010.01.10, 14:41:48 »

Hi,

What do you think contacting:
http://dmorrill.com/david/projects/index.php

I tried on various occasions to get in contact with him.
Initially, when I was writing on the DrDialog review series for the VOICE newsletter, he actually did exchange some smalltalk with me, telling that he has lost the source code for it on a machine which doesn't boot any more (although source code is still on harddrive). Somemonths ago I got curious on "GLUE" and tried to again get in contact with him but didn't receive any response.
Perhaps, if more people try to get him into the subject (carefully, without stalking with emails) that might change.

But to be honest - while I did quite some programming with DrDialog, I now have discovered what Vx-REXX is able to do, and there is more power to unleash there than with DrDialog. On a side-note, we even have "transparent background text controls" in Vx-REXX via an extension... for those who know what I mean. And Herwig fiddled a code that makes it use notebboks that look like Warp4 style.

Unfortunately, yes, Vx-REXX is not free while DrDialog is and DrDialog has the benefit of being able to use a neat set of extension by Chris Wohlgemuth (tooltips, progress-bars...). So it depends on what you want to do and if support or further development exists.

Cheers,
Thomas
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CDRWSel
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« Reply #14 on: 2010.04.19, 16:28:01 »


I tried ffmpeg as suggested, the part of all images that is fixed look great throughout the sequence, while the rotating part get blurry and ehwww.... I don't want it to compress the images as it ruin the quality images I've already struggled with to look so great.  Wink

What else can I try? Some settings that can help me in MainActor, ffmpeg, mencoder?

What options You used with FFmpeg ?  Is it maybe low bitrate made to much compress of images and this result in blurry ?
Did You set key frames ?


The latest cdrwsel (I'm currently working on a simplified GUI and easier to use) has a lot of implemented ffmpeg function (extract thumbnail, create video from images, convert video files, crop size...). I use it to automatically burn DVD out of any king of video file (+dvdauthor) in background process but It can be used as video converter only without burning any DVD or CD. SEt needed option under customize and use RMB from internal filemanager and select the desired video process from the popup menu.   
 
Final conversion result after I tried many kind of parameters look pretty good (most conversions uses 2 pass)

I worked on CE2MP3 and I told creating a GUI for it. It is under progress and I think adding a second option to it using my ffmpeg experiences. Now, which video format could be used as a good default format ?
AVI ? FLV ? MPEG ?...       
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