Combining multiple avi's

Wietskie wrote on 10/14/2003, 1:30 AM

I'm trying to make a gamemovie about the Return to Castle Wolfenstein game.
There's an in-game avi-demo recorder which basically makes screenshots at a chosen rate (f.i. 25 frames/second - 640x480 screensize).

I then use Bmp2Avi to convert all those screenshots into an avi-file =>25 fps - Xvid codec - bitrate : 2500 - 800x600 screensize)

I have several avi-files I want to combine to 1 movie. Problem is that Vegas even doesn't want to play/show the seperate avi's....and dragging a file from the media pool to the timeline doesn't work either.

What did I miss of what am I doing wrong ??

Comments

philfort wrote on 10/14/2003, 2:42 AM

You are probably missing the codec that would allow Vegas to read the video stream. Try using a different codec for the avi's.

Or, just import the still images right into Vegas. If the filenames of the bmp's are numbered in sequence, you can import them in one shot (File -> Import media, click on the first bmp, then click on the Open Still Image Sequence checkbox)

Wietskie wrote on 10/14/2003, 4:34 AM

Indeed, I guess it must be the Xvid-codec which is screwing it all up.
I've just tried to open a few other movies. Three of four were made in DivX and played flawlessly. The fourth was made in Xvid and Vegas showed the same probs as with my avi's.

Which means.....back to the drawing board and doing it all over again with DivX this time :o)
Tnx

Chienworks wrote on 10/14/2003, 7:43 AM

As Philfort suggested, you don't even need to muck around with the bmp2avi step. Vegas will open the image sequence itself and then there is no need for the images to be compressed in advance. You'll probably work much faster and with better quality images if you let Vegas handle the stills directly.

Wietskie wrote on 10/14/2003, 8:25 AM

Ok, I'll give it a try this evening. Tnx again :o)

TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/14/2003, 9:43 AM

I've done what you're doing with Quake 3 (at 60fps!). Here's what you should do:

1) export your demo as your desired framerate.
2) import those stills into Vegas (you must use the File-Import option).
3) Re-render your stills as a DV AVI (make sure you have the stretch to fill frame box checked)
4) delete your still frames: they take up to much space!
5) repeat for next demo.

A couple things to note here:
1)if you want to do slo-motion, render your demo out at something above 25fps (ie 50, 100, etc.) It will product better results then Vegas's re-sampling.
2) speeding up your slo-motion footage to a normal playback speed won't look as good as using the footage as the actuatul framerate you want (ie don't speed up 50fps to 25fps).
3) vegs imports everything at the fps the project settings are, so when you import a still sequence @ 50fps, it wil go slow.

enjoy!