video problems

jbancroft

hello,

I'm trying to create a music video with lyrics. it consists of a song (mp3), about 6 short video clips, and then the text over top with transitions.

once I had the video clips pieced together and the song lined up, I saved it as wmv file because the program was acting strange and pausing to load screens on playback/preview.

then I opened it back up as a new project and started adding the text.

the current problem is I add a transition effect for one line, and the transition for the previous line stops working. I tried saving, saving and exiting, locking that level and putting new text in a new level... nothing seems to work. add one, lose one. add one, lose one.

in addition, I can't even preview what I'm doing anymore because ever few seconds it gives me a loading image message in bottom left corner and freezes.

I'm currently trying to save as wmv again and start another new project. if this works then the trouble is I can't go back and edit previous work prior to this save.

does it sound like what I'm doing is too involved for this program to handle? the song I'm using is 2:30 long.

[deleted]

First of all if you are satisfied with your edit at a certain point e.g. If you have your clips on the timeline and the song on the Audio track then don't export it...Save the project As..... and give it a name like "Music video 1" You can then carry on editing and when satisfied Save Project As.. again. This time as "Music video 2" etc. You can then always load the last one you were satisfied with.

Next check the preview resolution as it may be too high for your PC to process fast. (Tools/Options/Display) Lower it and see if it makes things better.

How are you adding your lyrics.....Subtitles or text.? Text may be easier. Each Text entry should be the same font size and should be less than a screen width or there will be position problems, Each text is created as an image clip which is placed on the overlay track and which can be adjusted in timeline position by dragging left or right or setting the cursor and placing the clip at the cursor on the overlay track. The duration of the text is controled by dragging the ends in or out.If you want the text to appear at the top of the frame use the align option in the text window. Finer adjustment is done by adding a Position effect to the text image. Are you using more than 1 overlay track?.......At most 2 tracks ought to be sufficient. Multiple tracks can slow things down a lot....

Now...Transitions..I cant see why a transition added to a clip will affect a separate clip ...What transitions are you trying to apply to the text? Fade in/Fade out should be relatively easy using Transparency effect and can be used on individual clips. The default duration of your transition relative to the length of the image clip may be set too high and consequently it may be impinging on the previous transition..just a thought.

Any chance of a screendump of your timeline? Might be able to advise better. You could also save the project as a Portable project and then upload the files to Dropbox where somebody can have a look at it.

Nat

jbancroft

I'll see if I can figure out a way to send you what I'm seeing. for now though maybe I can at least describe it better.

so on the video a lady walks by and I set the on screen lyrics (yes I'm adding text, not caption) are set to wipe right to left so as she walks by they erase as her body passes over them. looked great.

next, I added another line of text. this one was over a video of a puddle with rain drops so I set it to dissolve. looked pretty good too.

preview it... first transition is gone. I need to set it again and the time length reset to 1:00 which is default. i set it up again amd play it and it works.

hit save.

add a new line of text for the next lyric. also in the same puddle so I set it to dissolve. play it back...

first two transitions are gone.

set them both again. hit save.

it works.

add on other line... more transitions disappear.

as far as "save as" goes.. yeah ive been doing that took. im up to 10 files already. the trouble is, I'm just adding text, it shouldnt take this long.

I might have to try adding all the text then going through and doing all the transitions last then hoping they don't disappear between when I preview it and when I upload it.

jbancroft

I used debut to record a video of what's going on..i just need to figure out how to post it here

borate

As Nat suggests, please Upload your video to DropBox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive or the like and link it publicly here.

Or upload the project, after saving it as FILE|SAVE PORTABLE PROJECT. That will allow others to reconstruct it.

jbancroft

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxnMwaxlu1ghRDQzaUc5RzJMdGs

jbancroft

as you can see, i added two text images at the end and lost the transition for the first once i added the 2nd. This happens every time no matter how many times i save it.add one transition, lose another...

heres another example:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxnMwaxlu1ghODdpQjFmMkNSemM

i appreciate any help with this.

[deleted]

Unfortunately I couldn't play your video (not sure why) but I think the problem may be here and it's easily fixed...

The transitions are meant to be added between connected clips. If you are applying one to a single isolated clip (e.g. a "Wipe" ) as you may be doing, then it will work except it will have the full duration as set in options as the transition is not shared between two clips. This is shown here..........

Two isolated unconnected text clips can each have a transition applied. Here are two separated text clips with a transition on each...

However.....If the second text clip with a transition comes into contact with the first as you try to synch it..and this may happen with every text line......then as they stick together the transition on the left hand clip is deleted automatically....... as shown here .................

This is not a bug but simply due to the fact transitions are designed for use between clips. Even if clip 1 is long enough to take the normal transition when joined up to clip 2 VP won't allow it and consequently deletes it

If this is what is happening then the way around it is to place alternate text clips on Track 2.......Track 3.......Track 2.......Track 3 etc. like this.............

This way the transitions on each single clip will not interfer with each other . You can also overlap the clips to some extent if necessary to synch them in. Whether you can do this succesfully depends on the text length on the screen for each clip as that's the only part that is opaque. (Upper tracks obscure lower tracks except for transparent areas)

Hope this helps

Nat

jbancroft

thanks for taking the time to reply with such detail. I think for some that might have been an issue, as some were touching, but for most there is a space between the text clips. I spent many hours yesterday and today trying to get the transitions to stay put. I finally was able to get a satisfactory version saved and am publishing it on youtube now.

Because i had to do various saves to wmv and then reopen it to add more text i couldnt go back and fix anything like the black screen that i got for a second at the end.

I'm going to try another video and see how that goes but I have to tell you this one was VERY frustrating. I can't figure out why one transition would undo another.

If you could see the 2nd video I posted, you can see i'm just adding transitions over and over and over trying to get them to stick.

Here's a screenshot if that helps at all.

Thanks again.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxnMwaxlu1ghQ1JHVXM5T0J2bWs

[deleted]

I managed to download your original transitions fail.avi which then played OK but unfortunately didn't show the actual transitions on the timeline as it was the wmv copy you created that you used and which had incorporated the text clips already.

transitions fail 2 .avi was more useful as it shows you adding transitions to the text clips. These seem to register OK for a start and play correctly when you back over them but as you say don't seem play correctly as more are added. I presume you are allowing sufficient time for VP to cache the changes.

I tried repeating similar scenario here and it all worked OK..multiple texts on track2 with different transitions...all seemed to work ok. :mellow:

I would suggest placing each alternate text clip on track3 and see if this still happens

In order to see all the clips etc as well as have the project file (vpj) can you Save as a portable project and upload the contents to dropbox. Someone will reassemble it and take a look. Having said that I just noticed you are using version 4.5 which may have had a fault. :o Latest version 5.04

Nat