Just got the demo and have a general question about Merge

#1

In After effects and Combustion you work with layers, they are not linked even with effects, filters…, just stacked, everything works fine.

in Digital fusion they have to be merged.

I made some tutorials about basic merging, it works but i don’t see the use of it at the moment, allhough it has to be very important.

Why merging 2 videos if you don’t even need effects? is this merging the same thing as a layer stack order?

am very confused

second question: When a loader is set to View on Left 1 the others get invisible. How can i make them all show when i scroll the timebar from frame 0 to 100? (5 image sequences of 20 frames)

#2

PIXAR;

The tutorials that ship with the demo, are the first few from the comprehensive courseware, and so you are only beginning to see the learning process. There are effects inserted in to the footage after in later projects that are not included in the demo.

Merges are the way of layering one clip on top of another, but the first tutorial also covers using some of the more advanced features of the loader tool, such as clip lists, and global in and out.

There are 2 ways to play back a clip. The main interface has play controls under the time ruler, and those are the ones you’ll need to use to play back two clips at the same time. Just drag each loader (you’ll need 2) to the left and right views.

If you use the transport controls (under the tool controls on the right hand column) it will override the left veiw. (you can change this under the preferences to right, or floating). It will not allow play back of 2 clips at the same time.

#3

i’ll realy have to get used to this workflow, i fail every time, starting to think something is wrong with me.

i added 2 clips, merged them, i simply press play under the timebar (not the individual player on the right at the bottem of the layeroptions) and the first one doesn’t even play, my clip is static. Simply moving the timeline from left to right doesn’t change anything either.

back to lesson one for me i guess…

#4

There could be a few reasons for this… the most probable being a numbering order problem. Fusion expects numeric sequences, and separate from the file name.

shot1.0001.tga is the prefered method, but shot10001.tga would also work. The issue is that if for instance your application doesn’t pad 0’s, you could end up with;

shot10
shot11
shot12
shot13
shot110
shot111

etc, and then there would be a gap as far as DF is concerned.

Another option might be that you have your trim settings in the loader set to a single frame with loop enabled.

I know I may be biased, but keep at it, I think once you get it figured out, you’ll really enjoy a node based approach to things.

#5

Hey Pixar,

I used to use AfterEffects all the time but I was introduced to DigitalFusion almost a year ago. The node/flow based approach was quite unusual when I first started using it but now I’m in love.

If your having tons of trouble replace your loaders with backgrounds and attach it to your next message. I’m not quite sure what exactly is causing your problem but I’d be happy to take a look.

-Victor

#6

I just dl the demo too and although the node based functionality is not that odd to me, node based clip editing seems just more work than in premiere for example

I have only done the first four chapters of the demo courseware and all of that can be done in premiere easier

I suppose when its time for real compositing the node based tool really shines but to bad the demo courseware does not go into it … I want to see df at work with effects after all when I think of ae I think of the tons of effects you can do with a static image over time … can you also do this with df

#7

Digital Fusion as other views besides the Flow you can change it to a timeline view or a spline view. I use the flow to set my shot up and switch to the other views to get a good Idea of what is happening over time. The key to DF is learning how to use all these views. Kaiser you can work with still images over time just make sure that you mark loop in the Loader tool panel. Pixar make sure you have the merge tool in the Viewer or you will not see the output of that tool. I hope I helped a bit. :bounce:

Jeremy Nelson

#8

I have been using it for the past couple weeks and I likey alot

#9

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