Mixing Frames.

[Xypher]

I'm not even sure if I know what I'm talking about, and that's why I need some help here. I record all of my videos at 120, 240, or 600 FPS (in-game recorder that renders bmp files, which I put together in VirtualDub). I render them at 30FPS (after editing them in Sony Vegas), considering how Youtube and most other streaming sites stream at that frame rate. I record at such high frame rates mostly for smooth slow-motion scenes, but 30FPS looks terrible as it is, especially in real-time scenes. I'm curious on how to smooth this out, and the only method I can think of is mixing these frames together, which I have no idea on how to do so. I might be totally off, but I have seen a lot of videos that seem very smooth for a 30FPS stream. Any advice?

[jagabo]

Vegas has a temporal blending option. It will blend frames together, looking something like motion blur when the motions are small. When motions are very large it just looks like double or multiple exposures.

[poisondeathray]

I'm curious on how to smooth this out, and the only method I can think of is mixing these frames together, which I have no idea on how to do so.

You can use vegas' "velocity envelope" to smooth out ramp up/down speed changes . Have a look at the help file for illustrated instructions, or search for youtube tutorials

[Xypher]

jagabo: Do you mean by forcing one video into another video on the same track?

poisondeathray: Do you mean by inserting velocity and adjusting several points with different values on the same source to change the speeds smoothly?

If I'm right about your answers, I apologize for not being clear enough. Let's take this for example:

I'll add one of my 600FPS videos to the track, running at 100% speed. I need some way to make that 600FPS video in real-time become a 30FPS video with each frame being a mixture of 20 different frames (600/30=20). Same for if I decide to slow it down to 25%, so each frame would be a mixture of 5 different frames.

[jagabo]

jagabo: Do you mean by forcing one video into another video on the same track?

No, when you use velocity envelopes like edDV suggested, you have the option of blending frames or duplicating/decimating frames. I think if you just import a 600 (or other) fps file and output a 30 fps file it will also have those options. But your 600 fps files are flagged as 30 fps already so Vegas will see them as 30 fps.

[Xypher]

jagabo: Do you mean by forcing one video into another video on the same track?

No, when you use velocity envelopes like edDV suggested, you have the option of blending frames or duplicating/decimating frames. I think if you just import a 600 (or other) fps file and output a 30 fps file it will also have those options. But your 600 fps files are flagged as 30 fps already so Vegas will see them as 30 fps.

Where is this option? I've searched for a while and I can't seem to find it, nor could I find any tutorials about it, though I did find this: http://youtu.be/ZJ8g4gREHtQ . That is exactly what I'm looking for, but I did exactly what he said to do in a reply to someone else who commented, and nothing seemed to change. Once again, thanks for the help, I don't want to be a bother so I'll be sure to do my research as much as I can before asking questions.

[jagabo]

I think Vegas calls it smart resampling.

[Xypher]

I think Vegas calls it smart resampling.

I see that it's automatically set to "Smart Resample" when I right-click on the video and select "Switches". This hasn't changed anything. I also attempted to set it to Force Resample, and still there were no changes. I normally just add a 240FPS file, and render out into a 30FPS uncompressed avi, then encode in VirtualDub. I've tried remaking the video to run at 30FPS, then ctlr+dragging till it was 4x as fast, and then setting velocity to 200%. I use Sony Vegas Pro 9 if it matters. I'd hate to ask for a step by step tutorial here, but perhaps you can help lead me around Vegas to get me where I need to be.

[jagabo]

I normally just add a 240FPS file

The camera shoots at 240 fps but doesn't mark the files as 30 fps? So they play back in slow motion. What you need to do is flag them as 240 fps so that they get resampled in Vegas. I don't actually use Vegas so I can't give you detailed examples. I just see it referenced here all the time.

[Xypher]

I normally just add a 240FPS file

The camera shoots at 240 fps but doesn't mark the files as 30 fps? So they play back in slow motion. What you need to do is flag them as 240 fps so that they get resampled in Vegas. I don't actually use Vegas so I can't give you detailed examples. I just see it referenced here all the time.

No, I use an in-game recorder that renders 240 bmp image files for each second, until I decide to stop recording. I put them together in VirtualDub, making an uncompressed avi marked at a frame rate of 240. These are real-time videos at 240FPS, they aren't flagged as anything else, and Vegas recognizes that they are 240FPS files, I can confirm this in properties when I right click on the video in the video track.

[jagabo]

No, I use an in-game recorder that renders 240 bmp image files for each second, until I decide to stop recording. I put them together in VirtualDub, making an uncompressed avi marked at a frame rate of 240. These are real-time videos at 240FPS...

Ah, I see. There are several camcorders that shoot at those particular speeds. I thought you were using one of those. Hopefully someone will step in with some explicit instructions regarding Vegas for you.

[poisondeathray]

So you want it real time (not slow mo), just resampled to 30 FPS ? ie. you want to make it blurry ?

All you do is drop the 240 FPS video on a 30 FPS timeline, set render quality to best, and "smart resample" should already be enabled for the clip . That's it. Render out same settings, same dimensions, 30 FPS. Every 8 frames will be blurred

"Smart resample" means any sampling, speed changes use blend instead of duplicate frames. This applies to speed changes as well

You can test this for yourself, disable resample, zoom in and you will see individual frames sampled at every 8th frame , so 8, 16, 24 , etc... (instead of a blurry comibination of 8 frames). It helps if you overlay the frame number on top, you can easily see what is happening

If you used a 120FPS clip on a 30 FPS timeline, same idea: every group of 4 would be blended , or if you disable resample you would get 4,8,12,16 for every 1 frame interval on a 30 FPS timeline etc...

[Xypher]

So you want it real time (not slow mo), just resampled to 30 FPS ? ie. you want to make it blurry ?

All you do is drop the 240 FPS video on a 30 FPS timeline, set render quality to best, and "smart resample" should already be enabled for the clip . That's it. Render out same settings, same dimensions, 30 FPS. Every 8 frames will be blurred

"Smart resample" means any sampling, speed changes use blend instead of duplicate frames. This applies to speed changes as well

You can test this for yourself, disable resample, zoom in and you will see individual frames sampled at every 8th frame , so 8, 16, 24 , etc... (instead of a blurry comibination of 8 frames). It helps if you overlay the frame number on top, you can easily see what is happening

If you used a 120FPS clip on a 30 FPS timeline, same idea: every group of 4 would be blended , or if you disable resample you would get 4,8,12,16 for every 1 frame interval on a 30 FPS timeline etc...

Setting render quality to best did the trick... rofl. That was extremely simple. Thank you so much, this is looking great.