Awesome!

Hadn't thought to try that. I was about to recommend a friend order the magazine but was hestitant to do so with the TGA option not appearing in the drop down.

Thanks!

David

The TGA apears in the readme (i think). Kinda silly they didn't put the option IN the program.

OK maybe I'm a little dense but I don't see any way of saving a sequence of video to anything Vegas can import with the Digit version. Can someone help me with what I'm missing?

Thanks. Larry

Larry, i just export (using the little red button to the right of the frame counter) to AVI, uncompressed format. Vegas loads this just fine.

I uploaded a sample experiment here: http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/textdisp?chienworks-balcat-on-fire-1

Many thanks. Larry

big problem I have with the digit SE version is no alpha export.

How do you go about importing video to PI SE? I e-mailed support about getting errors when trying to import .AVIs and their (prompt) reply was:

>> "particleIllusion has trouble with most DV formats at this time. You'll
have to convert the AVI to another format to load it into particleIllusion.
If you are using particleIllusion 3.0, this will be corrected in a future
update.


Alan.

wondertouch, LLC
www.wondertouch.com"<<

Has anyone tried converting a file first, if so what kind?
TIA,
Randy

I used Vegas to render my "background" video to an uncompressed AVI file. Particle Illusion SE 2.0 imported this with no problems. It did take me a while to figure out how to get PI to use this file though. I finally discovered that right-mouse-button clicking on the grey box in the upper left corner would allow me to choose a background, and that the background could be an .avi file. It seemed odd that this wasn't a menu option somewhere. Same thing with exporting the finished movie: clicking the red dot button does it, but i can't find a menu to do it. Usually both import and export would be listed under the File menu. Oh well, whatever.

Hey Kelly,
Yes, you can right-click or double-click to select a background; I don't know why but it has no problem previewing and using an .avi created in Ulead's 3D Studio(even 720 X 480) but can't even preview anything I created in V4. I don't think it has anything to do with V4 because the support guy says it has problems with most .AVIs but " You'll
have to convert the AVI to another format to load it into particleIllusion". I've tried .mov, .wmv, and .mpg 1 and 2 but it apparently doesn't support anything but .avi (and stills). I don't know what the support guy is suggesting what to convert to and was hoping someone here would. I guess I'll ask him.
Randy

Actually Marquat, the support guy had this to say after asking:

>>>I'd suggest an image format if you can do that (TGA, or PNG) for the best
quality. If you'd rather have a single file, then do non-AVI with a modern
codec (DivX, MPEG4, etc.)

Alan.<<<<

Kelly (or anyone), would you say I'm out of luck if I only have V4?

Thanks guys,
Randy

Check out this thread.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=162832

I take a clip from my media pool that I wish to animate in PI and drop it in a new timeline.
Render the clip with the unchecked "Create Open DML . . . " to the media pool renamed as such.
Import the clip into the PI background as noted above.
Animate and export back into the media pool renamed as appropriate *.avi.

Works fine. don't have to encumber my little system with large files of uncompressed.

DGrob

Thanks DGrob, but it didn't work for me after trying it with 3 different AVIs. Am I doing it right? With an AVI on the timeline I:
1) I select "render as"/custom/video tab/and then de-select "Create an open DML".
Did I miss anything?
Thanks again,
Randy

Randy, that didn't work for me either. I had to go for uncompressed to get PI to use the file.

How the heck do you do that Kelly?
Thanks,
Randy

g randybrown: I'm pretty sure that's it. As I understand it from the thread I referenced, the "Open DML" is a file size limitation workaround that may be languishing in some apps. When I say a clip, I really mean a "short" clip. I focus on the intended animation background with perhaps a few seconds head and tail.

All I can say is that it worked for me. DGrob

Randy, File / Render As, choose Video for Windows as the file type, then choose Default Template (Uncompressed) as the template. The frame size and rate will match your current project settings or you can click on Custom to alter them. This is also how you can access other codecs such as DivX and MJPEG (if you have either installed), Cinepak, Indeo, Microsoft Video, etc.

Thanks! I was so disappointed when I first installed it and read the part that said it wont export the alpha channel.

Kelly, I could have sworn I tried that several times and it didn't work, but now it does. Perhaps it didn't work because I kept replacing an existing file (PI test.avi) but I don't see how that would make a difference. At the risk of being a nuisance though (someone please let me know if I am) PI doesn't render the video I imported, only the animation with a black background shows up in V4 (so I key the black out in V4 and place it above the original video). If this is a limitation that I have to deal with, cool, but just thought somebody could tell me what I'm doing wrong (again).
Thanks,
Randy