Media Gen loop effect flickers as it loops ??

will-3 wrote on 3/20/2008, 3:52 PM
I'm using the Media Generator Noise Texture to create a moving Chroma Key background.

My Status:
- I selected the blue sky with white clouds.
- I set Progress in Degrees to a value of 2
- I dragged the cloud clip the length of my 30 second movie so the clouds would be moving the entire time in the background.
- Works great EXCEPT I get a "flicker" every few seconds... I think it is when the cloud clip ends and loops.

My Question:
Which adjustments do I work with to minimize the visibility of the cloud clip looping in the background?

Thanks for any help.

Comments

Kennymusicman wrote on 3/20/2008, 4:11 PM
The flickering will be when the loop is. Afterall, you're ending at value = 2, but starting at value = 0. Therefore you need to end at a point that looks similair to value=0, or use a transition between each loop to get to go from one into the other less sharply than the loop repeat will yield.

I good way could be a combination of 3 loops (not necessarilly 3, but good for this example).

Loop A, B and C. Each is the same.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA|AAAAAAAAAAAAA|AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
....... BBBBBBBBBBBB|BBBBBBBBBBB|BBBBBBBBBBBB
..................CCCCCCCCCCC|CCCCCCCCCC|CCCCCCCCCCC

By staggering each, and fading them in and out, you'll simulate a 'constatly growing environment' without any noticable edges. Some derivative on these should yield a good results.
will-3 wrote on 3/20/2008, 4:36 PM
Kenny, Thanks for the tip.

I thought the Degrees = 2 setting controlled speed... because when I crank it up to ten the clouds move faster.

I really would like to learn about what each of the controls on that panel does...

But, your idea of overlapping the effect clips and using a transistion is a good one and should hide the flicker... I'll try it.

Any more tips would be great. Thanks!
Chienworks wrote on 3/20/2008, 4:42 PM
Degrees does control speed, but it's linear, not circular. You don't get back to where you started from.

My method involves a single generated event rather than three. Since the event progressed through time i'll represent it like this:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Split the event at some point near the middle. Then drag the first half to the right so that it overlaps the end of the second half slightly, like thus:

nopqrstyvwxyz-------------
-------------abcdefghijklm

The end of the generated media will gradually crossfade into the beginning again.

The one difficulty with this method is that if you want to change some parameters of the generated media then it's almost impossible to maintain the looping. I've found it easier to delete the second half, drag the first half out to full length again, make the adjustments, then resplit and recrossfade.
Kennymusicman wrote on 3/20/2008, 4:50 PM
I have to disagree about degrees = speed - at least calling it that. Afterall, set a 'speed' value of 10, and leave it there - what happens? nothing. no progress, no movement..
It's positional progress (distance). So going from 0 to 10 in less time will mean a faster travel.

Further more, by duplicating tracks, if you change the parameter of the gen'd media - all tracks update. Great for altering color or similar. Only need to make 2 changes and everything updates (2 changes - one for first keyframe, one for last)
will-3 wrote on 3/21/2008, 12:06 PM
I simply dragged the event up to the timeline 3 times... overlapped the ends so there was a transition between each section... seems to work fine..

More degrees seems to create more movent on the screen so I settled with something like 3 for the clouds... to get the effect of drifting clouds.

Thanks for all the help guys.