Does VMS 6 Have This?

ADinelt wrote on 1/4/2006, 9:37 AM

When I was playing around with a Vegas 5 demo a while ago, I noticed it had the option of loading a group of sequentially named images (e.g. pic001.bmp, pic002.bmp... pic999.bmp) as a single file. This allowed the program to treat the images as one "tape" instead of multiple images.

Does anyone know if VMS 6 or VMS 6 Platinum allow you to do the same thing?

I think the option was on the dialog box when you went to load a file into the media pool. You clicked on the first image in the sequence and a little checkbox became active in the bottom left corner of the dialog box.

Comments

rustier wrote on 1/4/2006, 9:51 AM

No - you have to have the full version. I work around this simply by using the control button when making my selection (to make multiple selections)

ADinelt wrote on 1/4/2006, 5:03 PM

It's too bad it doesn't have that feature. It was really nice because it would load each picture so that it took up one exactly one frame. I didn't have to set the image length in the preferences. It was a great feature for importing animation files into Vegas.

artone wrote on 1/5/2006, 1:04 AM

Hi,
yes, there's this feature in VMS 6.

ADinelt wrote on 1/5/2006, 10:02 AM

Thanks artone.

I downloaded the demo again and tried it on a computer at work to confirm your findings. VMS 6 Platinum does indeed have that feature.

Al

rustier wrote on 1/5/2006, 2:28 PM

Okay. . . If you would be so kind as to enlighten me on the procedure to bring in a still photo sequence in Sony Vegas Studio Platinum version6 I would appreciate it. When I attempt this thing the little sequence button you folks seem to be able to find active is grayed out in mine. When I investigate under "still" and seek info in the help files it says that sequence import is only available in the full vegas version (6 I assume). In any case I cannot and you folks seem to be able to. What am I doing wrong? Or are we talking apples and oranges?

dibbkd wrote on 1/5/2006, 4:02 PM

OK - I had never tried this before, but checked it out just now, seems to work. (not really sure yet what exactly it's doing..)

I click on File, Import, Media
(I have JPG's named like file001.jpg, file002.jpg... file010.jpg
I click on file001.jpg and then click "Open still image sequence"
Click "Open"
in "tape name", i just typed "test"
Now in my "project media", I have a file called "file001.jpg - file010.jpg"
I drag that to the timeline, and it's real short.
If I hit "play", it shows a bunch of the pics real fast.

and yes, I have Sony Vegas Movie Studio 6 build 43 ( I wish I had full Vegas)

So what good is the above used for?

Edit: And I see what you mean in the help file where it says "Still-image sequence importing is available only in the full version of Vegas software."

So maybe I'm doing something else?

Tim L wrote on 1/5/2006, 4:17 PM

Sounds like it would be useful for making claymation or brick films (legos). Take a bunch of photos on a digital camera, moving your characters frame-by-frame, then bring into VMS to make a movie.

I suppose you can set playback rate down to 0.50 or 0.25 so you only need 15 or 8 photos per second (approx.) at NTSC 29.970 frames per second.

Cool feature -- didn't know it was there.

Rustier -- are you selecting a numbered photo first? My button stays greyed out until an "eligible" photo is selected, then it becomes available.

Tim L

dibbkd wrote on 1/5/2006, 4:28 PM

Yeah, I was just thinking, it seems like since you can then choose the frame rate, that it's looking for like 30 pictures in a sequence to make one second.

Seems like I've seen other applications that can export an AVI or whatever into a series of JPG files.

I guess then you could import them with this feature.

I don't think I'll be using this feature, but it's there if I need it I guess.

And like Tim L said, my button is grayed out as well until I pick a valid JPG, one with a number at the end of it and there's at least one more file with the same name with an incremented number at the end.

Like file01, file02, etc..

rustier wrote on 1/6/2006, 6:01 AM

The picture sequence I was working with came from the photo lab which was put on a cd. They labeled the sequence:

86573 (1).jpg, 86573 (2).jpg, etc.

looks like a sequence doesn't it? I renamed a few removing the space and the parenthesis and only then did SVMS Plat 6 recognize them as a sequence. According to the help files this is only available in the Full Vegas 6 version - but it seems they threw us a bone. I can only guess that maybe in Vegas 6 the Full version that it might recognize sequences with the parenthesis notation . . . .

The person that was asking about this was doing animation and wanted to import his pics in a sequence. I guess you would have to play around with the timeline properties somehow to get the frame rate you want to get the motion right. I haven't tried any animation so I don't know.

It seems by default pics brought in brought in one at a time have a 5 second duration whereas a sequence by default is frames per second - so 29 pics would last one second - unless you altered the timeline properties. WOW this is a powerful program!

dibbkd wrote on 1/6/2006, 6:43 AM

I don't want to get too much off-topic, but one thing many people aren't aware of is a way to automatically rename files sequentially, in the same way you have your files:
86573 (1).jpg, 86573 (2).jpg, etc.

Say you have a bunch of pics you downloaded from you camera, and they're all named like DCS842, DCS843, DCS844, etc..

You can select them all (ctrl A) then right-click on the first one, rename it like "vacation (1)", and it Windows will automatically rename them all vacation (2), vacation (3), etc..

Pretty cool feature, but be careful and don't rename the wrong files.

Chienworks wrote on 1/6/2006, 10:15 AM

" Sounds like it would be useful for making claymation or brick films (legos)."

http://www.chienworks.com/media/lego-castle-1-square.wmv

ADinelt wrote on 1/6/2006, 10:29 AM

I have been using Anim8or (a free 3D animation program) to create 3D models for a Star Wars fan film. The models are created and animated on a pure green background so it can be chroma-keyed into a video sequence later. By being able to import the sequence of images into a 'single' tape, I can apply the chroma-key effect only once to the tape instead of each individual picture. Also, if the 3D model needs to be adjusted (color, contrast, etc.) to match the background, it can be applied once to the tape as well.

I had tried adjusting the image length to 1/30th of a second and importing pictures that way, but it did not always work reliably in VMS 4. As a result, a picture would seem to blend with another every now and then giving an interlace problem. By importing a sequence, VMS sets the length of each picture the proper exact length for 1 frame of video.

DrLumen wrote on 1/6/2006, 6:47 PM

Another option for this method is to export from another app, like a 3d app noted, as a sequence. Then you can do additional post processing on each frame; like for those apps that don't allow for frame serving. IMO, TGA is better than saving as JPG as it can save an alpha channel and is not lossy.

After I export a set of frames, I can then load them from a script in Corel Photo-Paint to get a particular effect. One which is not possible to reproduce in the rendering package or in Vegas. I run the script on the sequence, it adds the effect and saves to another sequence name. I then import them into Vegas to recreate the avi.

Just a possible use...