Developing in a modular fashion?

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Evan Scott
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Developing in a modular fashion?

Post by Evan Scott »

I started out with ASP7 by dividing my video up into sections. I developed the action/time-line for each section more or less independent of the other sections, believing that at some point I would weld them together with appropriate adjustments to the time-line. I guess I was pretty naive! Is it possible to develop a video in a modular fashion and if so does anyone have some pointers.
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Peteroid
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Re: Developing in a modular fashion?

Post by Peteroid »

Evan Scott wrote:I started out with ASP7 by dividing my video up into sections. I developed the action/time-line for each section more or less independent of the other sections, believing that at some point I would weld them together with appropriate adjustments to the time-line. I guess I was pretty naive! Is it possible to develop a video in a modular fashion and if so does anyone have some pointers.
I think it is possible to do what you want using the 'Sequencer' view of the time-line. With it you can move whole sections up and down the time-line as a unit while letting others remain in place.

However, to do it this way is not very easy or efficient, and prone to errors. What you should do (if you can) is get a video editor. Then you compose each section as a separate project, and seam them together with video editor. And there are so many other advantage (like you can change timing, use the same sequence more than once, etc.) that it is worth it for a variety of reasons.

And video editors aren't that expensive... I got mine (which included a GREAT sound editor as well) for $90 (I use Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 which comes with Sound Forge Audio Studio 10 thrown in!).
[==Peter==]
Evan Scott
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Post by Evan Scott »

I thought about that but then the question is How does one transfer the end frame state of one video project to another video project. That is, it will be be necessary in many cases to assure visual continuity between video fragments but I have not been very successful at figuring out how to do this. I played with the "rescale time line" option because it seemed like it might offer some possibilities but didn't get far.
Blighty
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Post by Blighty »

Would it really be necessary for the end frame of one clip to be the beginning frame of the next?
I use the same method as the one Peteroid suggested, however each video project, as you put it, is a separate camera shot or scene.

For example;
Shot 1, character walks across the room to a door.
Shot 2, close up of turning door handle.
Shot 3, door opens and character walks through.

I render out each of these scenes and then stitch them together in a video editor.
If you really want to start a scene where the last one ended why not just extend the scene so that it carries on for longer?

Is there a particular shot you're trying to achieve?
Evan Scott
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Post by Evan Scott »

In the case I am working with at the moment, an insect is traveling horizontally, left to right, across a scene. The travel continues for 2284 frames. The viewport is about 400 frames wide. I thought about using cuts and zooms to resolve the continuity issue but decided to see if I could resolve the continuity issue before adopting an alternative approach.
Blighty
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Post by Blighty »

For a long continuous shot like that (and assuming you can't just loop the background over a shorter length of time) I'd personally:

1) Render out the sequence of your 2284 frames as one complete sequence

2) Go to your last frame and select Animation > Copy Current Frame and from the dialogue box that pops up check tick box for 'Copy entire document' to frame 0.

This will start your animation from the same point where you last one ended, animate whatever you need here, render it out and then stitch the 2 videos together in an editor.
Evan Scott
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Post by Evan Scott »

Yes! That was what I was looking for! I knew it must be something simple and that I was just missing the tree for the forest. Thanks.
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dueyftw
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Post by dueyftw »

Unless it is a simple animation with a few elements I would do this in a shorter sequence of 300 or 500 frames. If something does wrong you have only one block of 300 or 500 frames to fix or replace.

Dale
Evan Scott
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Post by Evan Scott »

Indeed! As I said in the opening query, I initially tried to do it in a modular fashion. My problem was mating the sections together. I think the "Animation > Copy Current Frame" idea from the response preceding yours will allow me to pursue my original approach and then I can follow your advice.
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