Sequenced JPG for animated Shader Help, also What is correct codec for importing an avi?

Headwax

Hya

two questions.

I have exported a sequence of JPGs from Carrara that I want to bring back into Carrara and apply to a plane in an operator relaitionship (multiply) with another sequence of JPg.s -

I'm not really sure what's going on as everything seems pretty random- sometimes the sequence plays fine, other times it starts in the wrong place, other times it doesn't play at all.

second question - I am using Adope Premier elements 13, if I take my sequnce into Premier and export it as an avi and try and bring it into Carrara I am getting a codec error message.

 

any help appreciated :) 

 

 

DUDU

As I said in another thread, the compressed .AVI don't work, the uncompressed .AVI is fine to do that.

About .jpeg seq., Carrara is very bad to encode the renders in jpeg, do that in Premiere, export in .psd, TGA or TIF seq.is better but I never tried an image seq. as texture, let me know is that work.

Headwax

Thanks Dudu, yes I never compress anything :)

Thanks for the suggestion re the file formats - I never do anything in JPEG but i did this time!!

The image sequnce I had to screw around till I even got the right number sequence. 

I have a functiong video but not what I wanted but it gets the message across - I;ll post it when I get it uploaded 

thanks for your help!

 

cheers!

DUDU

You can also export an uncompressed .AVI directly from carrara...

Headwax

thanks Dudu, when I do that I get a file error right at the end but I can go and get it intact from the Temp folder luckily !

Headwax

this is what I am trying for - that hand made look

 

 

DUDU

Very special and well done!

3DAGE

Hi Andrew :)

first step,. make sure you're loading an Image sequence in the texture map loading options, (pic1)

I normally use PNG,. since it can support alpha,.. and is smaller than Tiff / TGA etc,. but with the same high quality.

When you load a Sequence it'll ask you for a frame rate,. (this is first indicator that carrara doesn't know what's happening) since it's a sequence of frames it shouldn't have a frame rate,. it should be a frame per frame thing,..or   it should be whatever your timeline is set to.

Anyway,..

When you're dealing with a sequence as a texture map,. Carrara is a bit clunky,. and keyframes are important to tell it exactly what to do.

When you load an image sequence,. there's a little playback slider on the "Texture map" area, in the shader,.(Pic 2)

on the last frame of your animation,. you need to move that playback slider to the end of your Seq/clip to create a keyframe in the timeline for the shader

you may also need to go back to the start of your timeline and make sure that your sequence is also at frame 0.

that should be it,.

Hope it helps :)

Headwax

DUDU said:

Very special and well done!

thanks Dudu :)

 

Headwax

Hya Andy, thanks for the insights :)

When you load a Sequence it'll ask you for a frame rate,. (this is first indicator that carrara doesn't know what's happening) since it's a sequence of frames it shouldn't have a frame rate,. it should be a frame per frame thing,..or   it should be whatever your timeline is set to.

yes I was wondering about that

When you load an image sequence,. there's a little playback slider on the "Texture map" area, in the shader,.(Pic 2)

on the last frame of your animation,. you need to move that playback slider to the end of your Seq/clip to create a keyframe in the timeline for the shader

Thanks for that. Yes wasnt sure, will need to have a play, not at Carrara machine at moment. So moving that slider as picture will create a key frame at the point in ,my timeline that I am upto?

A few more questions:

Is the button in the pic between the 'stop button' and the slider a 'loop' button? Nothing I can see inthe manual about it. I thought an earlier Carrara had a pop up when you cursored over it?

Sometimes when I hit the 'play' button in the shader room the sequence plays, other times it doesnt - any clues?

And what is the stop button in the shader room for as far as practical use?

 

thanks again for your help :)

WendyLuvsCatz

check for any rogue keyframes in the shader too, sometimes the slider can end up being set either end somewhere along the timeline.

I have had no issues using jpgs though mostly use png

Headwax

thanks Wendy, yes I need to sit down and click and watch now I know what to look for :)

 

3DAGE

there's no loop button,. but you can loop the clip by using tweeners,. if you use an Oscillate tweener, set to Saw tooth,. that'll give you a repeat as many times as you need,.

i usually rely on what i see in the assembly room,. the shader room can be "iffy" sometimes,.. depending on the angle of the camera to the figure,. carrara won't even try to render the preview of the shader,. move the cam a bit,. and it's back

I'm not sure,. but sometimes when you're building interface components,. there's a list of presets,. and i think the controls for that area (including the stop button) are some type of preset i really can't see any purpose for a stop , and play.

when you click on any of those,. no keyframes are created in the shaders timeline,. so i'd say they were redundant.

use the slider to set start/stop keys,. and tweeners to change the playback.

:)

Headwax

thanks for that Andy, obliged again.!

I was interested today to find two small (pixel size wise) at the beginning of the shader animation for an image sequence in the list on the left - first one changes wit the height of the graph (must be frame number? ). The  one at the top I didn't get a chance to investigate yet,

cheers once more