dick balaska <dic### [at] buckosoftcom> wrote:
> On 04/05/2018 04:15 AM, Rushen wrote:
>
> >
> > I think FFMPEG and VDub does the same thing,mainly, and that is going from still
> > to moving images. (or switching formats) And so far the avi-files produced
> > during that step show very little distortion.
>
> # create your scenes
> $ ffmpeg -i scene1-%3d.png scene1.mp4
> $ ffmpeg -i scene2-%3d.png scene2.mp4
> $ ffmpeg -i scene3-%3d.png scene3.mp4
>
> # create a file with the list of scene mp4s
> $ cat filelist.txt
> scene1.mp4
> scene2.mp4
> scene3.mp4
>
> # concatenate the scenes together, without transcoding.
> $ ffmpeg -f concat -i filelist.txt -c copy finalmovie.mp4
>
> --
> dik
> Rendered 328976 of 330000 (99%)

Nice idea, yes the problem is the number of different named files from each
scene.

I'm always a bit intimidated by words like "script" or "bash", but that actually
seems managable even for me.

However, what I also want to do is put in a few still images between the scenes.
But I guess I can just let POV-Ray render them too..

I also wanted to add some text overlay to the final movie. Of course this can be
done in POV-Ray as well but the plan was to add that post rendering, as well as
sound.

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On 05/04/2018 09:44, dick balaska wrote:
> On 04/05/2018 04:15 AM, Rushen wrote:
> 
>>
>> I think FFMPEG and VDub does the same thing,mainly, and that is going 
>> from still
>> to moving images. (or switching formats) And so far the avi-files 
>> produced
>> during that step show very little distortion.
> 
If you are happy using command line programs. Ignore the suggestion.


> # create your scenes
> $ ffmpeg -i scene1-%3d.png scene1.mp4
> $ ffmpeg -i scene2-%3d.png scene2.mp4
> $ ffmpeg -i scene3-%3d.png scene3.mp4
> 
> # create a file with the list of scene mp4s
> $ cat filelist.txt
> scene1.mp4
> scene2.mp4
> scene3.mp4
> 
> # concatenate the scenes together, without transcoding.
> $ ffmpeg -f concat -i filelist.txt -c copy finalmovie.mp4
> 


I agree with you about using mp4

I use a GUI and generally use 2 passes and fiddle with the framerate. 
You're not doing that? I know you want continuity in your scenes but are 
the defaults giving the best results?

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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I've used VideoMach for most of my past stuff, and it lets you select frames
with different names, and apply a text overlay.

I usually use Format factory to convert to some other video format afterwards.

No guarantees, but they're what I use, free, and you give them a shot and see.

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Stephen <mca### [at] aolcom> wrote:

> You could try VirtualDub. It is old but free. ;-)
>
Yep, I still use that on occasion. I especially like it for spitting out all the
individual frames from a real-life video, to use as image_maps in a POV-Ray
animation, for whatever purpose.

For video editing and assembly, I've had very good results with AVIDEMUX (for
Windows). It's relatively easy to use, too. But like most free video
editors/assemblers out there, it has its own strange little quirks. I've managed
to work around most of them. When I can't, I load the video in VirtualDub first,
then re-save it with NO compression as a giant-sized .avi file, then import it
into Avidemux for final work (and transcoding to an .mp4 file.) Doing the final
editing this way is a breeze, because VirtualDub outputs its video as all
keyframes (by default, it seems.) So frame-by-frame edits are painless.

Avidemux is great for putting together POV-Ray animations too.

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On 04/05/2018 09:05 AM, Kenneth wrote:

>>
> Yep, I still use that on occasion. I especially like it for spitting out all the
> individual frames from a real-life video, to use as image_maps in a POV-Ray
> animation, for whatever purpose.

I use ffmpeg for extraction too. :)

"from 1999-12-08.mp2, starting at the 4.5 second mark, extract 3.75 
seconds of video as vidE*.png. 0 pad the frame number to 5 places"

ffmpeg -ss 00:04.5 -t 00:03.75 -i /MyVideo/Balaska199/1999-12-08.mp2 
vidE-%05d.png		# DA dancing 9shls famroom


-- 
dik
Rendered 328976 of 330000 (99%)

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Thanks for all your suggestions and ideas, I really appreciate it!

I found a program called OpenShot (Open Source) which can import the pngs
directly into a timeline editor and export to mp4.

And, as suspected, result was MUCH better:

https://vimeo.com/263565181

(Now I just gotta figure out how to avoid the "snap" that occurs between each
scene)

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"Bald Eagle" <cre### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> I've used VideoMach for most of my past stuff, and it lets you select frames
> with different names, and apply a text overlay.
>
> I usually use Format factory to convert to some other video format afterwards.
>
> No guarantees, but they're what I use, free, and you give them a shot and see.

Ok, I have to admit VideoMach was an even better suggestion than OpenShot.

Really easy to adjust each frame's delay.

Thanks!

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Getting there... scenes are roughly where I want them now. Got some jagged lines
appearing in this version, but I will try to tweak it a bit.

Also... I need to do something about that water mark saying "unregistered
version"...

https://vimeo.com/263579484

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> However, what I also want to do is put in a few still images between the scenes.
> But I guess I can just let POV-Ray render them too..
>
I think you are talking about a filler between the animation scene files. One
way to do this is to use ffmpeg to loop a still image for a certain number of
frames (e.g. 1 sec = 25).
e.g. for a couple of 3 second fillers, using the last frame of each scene..
$ ffmpeg  -loop 1 -i stillimg1.png -r 25  -frames 75 scene1a.mp4
$ ffmpeg  -loop 1 -i stillimg2.png -r 25  -frames 75 scene2a.mp4

then
$ cat filelist.txt
scene1.mp4
scene1a.mp4
scene2.mp4
scene2a.mp4
scene3.mp4

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"greytery" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > However, what I also want to do is put in a few still images between the scenes.
> > But I guess I can just let POV-Ray render them too..
> >
> I think you are talking about a filler between the animation scene files. One
> way to do this is to use ffmpeg to loop a still image for a certain number of
> frames (e.g. 1 sec = 25).
> e.g. for a couple of 3 second fillers, using the last frame of each scene..
> $ ffmpeg  -loop 1 -i stillimg1.png -r 25  -frames 75 scene1a.mp4
> $ ffmpeg  -loop 1 -i stillimg2.png -r 25  -frames 75 scene2a.mp4
>
> then
> $ cat filelist.txt
> scene1.mp4
> scene1a.mp4
> scene2.mp4
> scene2a.mp4
> scene3.mp4

That's EXACTLY what I mean and need.
Thanks a lot!

(Btw, here's the latest version: https://vimeo.com/263747056 )

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