export video - option for both start and end time

[hazardman]

i find myself wanting to export a certain time frame...so, being able to chose a range with a start and end time would be a nice feature

[Terry Payman]

Handy for testing and demos.
It would be cool to be able to export between specified scenes.

[Magic]

Hmm, yes, I can see how that would be useful.

Have you tried playing with the "audio start time" option though? It basically lets you do the same thing, although I guess it's a bit less convenient. See the "Audio File Menu" section of this chapter: http://magicmusicvisuals.com/downloads/ ... AudioFiles. You can make the audio file start at 1 minute in, for example, and then when you export a movie, it will start from there, and go for the duration you specify.

[Terry Payman]

...Have you tried playing with the "audio start time" option though?..

Thanks for the suggestion Eric, I have now played with this feature.

It doesn't seem to do what I would like though , as the music starts late and no longer relates to the scenes that were designed to accompany it.
To achieve the requested export video feature, the audio would need to start partway into the track.
Am I missing something?

[Magic]

To start the audio partway into the track, you can use a negative value, such as -01:00. By contrast, a positive value will add silence at the beginning, causing the music to start late.

In other words, the value represents the "timeline position" at which the audio file should begin.

If you combine a negative value with the Use current scene option in the Export dialog, you can export any scene at any offset. So it's useful for generating quick scene tests.

Of course, as I mentioned before, it's not the most convenient solution. So there's definitely room for some added options in the Export dialog .

[Terry Payman]

Ah! Thanks Eric.
That'll be useful in the meantime.

[hazardman]

eric, i did think about the audio start time but i'm using up to 7-12 layers of audio that i would also need to alter...

further, i'm not getting the compression quality i want from the built-in mp4 codec so i've been rendering the entire project as sequenced *.png files for later assembly and encoding...for example, there is a 7 minute long project that i worked on and, to my chagrin, sometimes noticed a few things that needed tweaking somewhere in the middle...so, having the ability to only render out *.png for that particular time range would be a great time saver (as rendering 7 minutes worth of 1920x1080 at 60 fps takes about 4 hrs on my workstation and 35 GB of disk space--whoa!)...

[Magic]

eric, i did think about the audio start time but i'm using up to 7-12 layers of audio that i would also need to alter...

You can Shift- or Ctrl-select multiple audio files and edit the start times all at once: http://magicmusicvisuals.com/downloads/ ... oSelection

having the ability to only render out *.png for that particular time range would be a great time saver.

I think you could still do that using the above approach, at least in the meantime...

[hazardman]

You can Shift- or Ctrl-select multiple audio files and edit the start times all at once:

yes that would work but when i go to render the serialization of the files will start at zero (i was hoping to simply replace those frame files)...i guess that's not too big of a problem for me as i found a good renamer app that will allow me to change the file names to match the frame numbers...so, overall, looks like this "workaround" will save me some rendering time...thanks

[hazardman]

it just occurred to me that, when changing the start time of the audio file, will also need to ensure the change matches the start time of the scene...i would imagine that if you start in the middle of the scene, any automated parameters in the module using a ramp/sine/triangle etc, will be different and would not match up with the original full length rendering...something to keep in mind...

[Magic]

yes that would work but when i go to render the serialization of the files will start at zero (i was hoping to simply replace those frame files)

Ah, I see what you're saying now. Good point.

if you start in the middle of the scene, any automated parameters in the module using a ramp/sine/triangle etc, will be different and would not match up with the original full length rendering...

Yep, that's true. Definitely something for me to keep in mind when I'm working on it.

[hazardman]

i can't believe it's been two years since i posted this feature request however...

i was working on a project today, rendering out as image sequence for the entire video --took more than 4 hours -- and realized there was a time area just past the midpoint that i need to re-render...

has there been any further thoughts about implementing a start time/frame and end time/frame?..it's probably too tricky to implement this but just thought to ask...in the meantime will start a new render job overnight....

[Magic]

Yes, it's a very tricky thing to solve properly. Besides the issues mentioned above, there is the additional problem that certain effects are time-based, meaning that it's impossible to know how much "pre-roll" they need to look exactly right at the given start time.

For example, let's say you're using the Trails module. At any given frame, the Trails module displays the history of many previous frames -- potentially tens or hundreds. So if you specify a start time of 1:00, the video export would somehow have to know to start several seconds before that, but not actually store those frames until the start time is reached. Know what I mean?

It especially becomes a problem when third-party effects are used (such as FFGL or ISF), because there is no way for Magic to "ask" the effects how long beforehand they should start.

My suggestion is that you always render an .mp4 as a "proof" of your video before you move on to the much longer .png export process. And you can do it at a lower resolution to save rendering time.

I also have an idea for speeding up the .png export which I will implement in one of the next releases.

[hazardman]

figured as much...

i did think that for this to work properly, Magic would have to play back in real time--or a bit faster as it doesn't need to display the "pre-rolling" frames on the screen-- from the absolute beginning until it reaches the "Start time" to then begin the the process of rendering the frames...but i guess this is still not simple to do....

with regards to exporting a proof, there's still no guarantee...some plugins, such GSL shaders (which was a source of an unwanted artifact in this particular rendering pass), do not generate the exact same image on the time line every time they are invoked....

anyway, i'm glad to read that you're looking into speeding up the *.png rendering process...

really do appreciate the time you spend on this forum...i've never seen this type of commitment by any developer before and this really adds to the sense of community on this board...thanks for all your hard work!