Animated flags, GIF, Cyber PowerDirector, Picture in picture

[SearchQuality]

Hi Experts,
I am not really sure whether this post belongs to this forum, but I could not find a better one. Based on product reviews I started using Cyber PowerDirector (CPD) under WIndows 10 to capture, edit and produce my videos. Contrary to all the publicity on the nearly all encompassing editing functions of CPD I was surprised to find out that GIF animation files can not be used as Picture in Picture (PIP) objects. To do that you have to go through a tedious procedure of creating the animation frame by frame on a transparent background using for example GIMP and then convert this animation to MP4 and capture it as a video clip in CPD. Even then the biggest problem is to keep the transparent background layer intact. All this is quite cumbersome and time consuming, whereas all I need is animated flags of many countries on transparent background so that I can use them as PIP. Can anybody help, please. Thanks.

[poisondeathray]

Hi Experts,
I am not really sure whether this post belongs to this forum, but I could not find a better one. Based on product reviews I started using Cyber PowerDirector (CPD) under WIndows 10 to capture, edit and produce my videos. Contrary to all the publicity on the nearly all encompassing editing functions of CPD I was surprised to find out that GIF animation files can not be used as Picture in Picture (PIP) objects. To do that you have to go through a tedious procedure of creating the animation frame by frame on a transparent background using for example GIMP and then convert this animation to MP4 and capture it as a video clip in CPD. Even then the biggest problem is to keep the transparent background layer intact. All this is quite cumbersome and time consuming, whereas all I need is animated flags of many countries on transparent background so that I can use them as PIP. Can anybody help, please. Thanks.

Do you already have the animated GIF flags? And are they already prepared with transparency ?

PD should be able to import AVI video files with alpha channel intact. You might have to "interpret" them in PD, but for most editors, the transparency should be automatic. For example UT Video RGBA, or Lagarith RGBA . Or Quicktime MOV with animation codec. So one approach is to batch convert them with ffmpeg (or some GUI for ffmpeg)

If you don't have the assets made, you can probably find free animated flags on Google and such, but they might have usage restrictions . If some of them are not transparent, you can make the BG transparent by keying or masking

[SearchQuality]

Do you already have the animated GIF flags? And are they already prepared with transparency ?

Yes I do.I checked all of them in GIMP and in fact I added a transparent base layer to them. Then I converted each GIF to MP4 using an online utility.

PD should be able to import AVI video files with alpha channel intact. You might have to "interpret" them in PD, but for most editors, the transparency should be automatic. For example UT Video RGBA, or Lagarith RGBA  . Or Quicktime MOV with animation codec.  So one approach is to batch convert them with ffmpeg (or some GUI for ffmpeg)

Then I imported them into PD as mp4 files and placed them in a track above the main track and made them small and placed in the corner. So the PIP was done, but the transparency of the background was not there. I could not find any parameter that allows alpha channel to be imported with the clip. I shall try again. Do you have any clues on this subject that I can use?

[racer-x]

Perhaps you can add a blue background before you export to mp4. Then key out the blue using a chroma-key filter. I'm assuming your editor has such filter.

Or use ffmpeg to export to Animated PNG:

SET PATH="D:\FFMpeg\64-bit"
for %%a in ("*.gif") do ffmpeg -i "%%a" -f mov -c:v png -pix_fmt rgba -movflags faststart -an "%%~na.mov"

pause

[poisondeathray]

First - what is the reason why you're using GIF ? I ask because GIF's are low qualilty, 256 colors max (255 if using alpha channel / transparency) . So what is the original, original source of your animated flags ? Because there are other higher quality formats to use. If the GIF is all you have, then nevermind and carry on

You need a codec that supports embedded alpha. So when you converted to MP4 , likely you dropped the alpha channel. Use one that supports RGBA (the "A" means alpha channel) . A good one is UT Video Codec. You need to install it in order for editors like PD to use it

Here is an example of a gif with alpha channel (non seamless loop) , and the UT Video Codec RGBA conversion with ffmpeg. Install UT Video Codec, and then import the AVI and see if the alpha channel works in PD . If the small testworks, I'll post the code so you can batch process them in 1 go

(Gif preview on this website is messed up on some browsers...)



Back in the day, PNG in MOV or animation codec in MOV were the default choices, but quicktime has been discontinued in windows officially (many people still use it) , but for that reason it might be a good idea to stick with AVI formats

[racer-x]

Grass Valley HQX also works well and has a much smaller file size than UTvideo or Lagarith. The quality is pretty good too.

[SearchQuality]

To All Contributers to this thread. Sorry for coming back a little bit late. You have given quite useful info. I managed to sort out the problem with the PD editor. But I'll keep suggestions in case this happens again. One additional question which software do people use regularly for animation purposes? Can Blunder be used as a standard for animation or is it too complicated?

[poisondeathray]

I managed to sort out the problem with the PD editor.

Can you explain how you solved it ? So other people using PD facing the same problem can get help

One additional question which software do people use regularly for animation purposes? Can Blunder be used as a standard for animation or is it too complicated?

Yes, blender is very powerful and can be used for all types of animations. But it can be complicated at first (bit of a learning curve), fortunately there are many tutorials of all levels on youtube and similar sites

[racer-x]

I animated my flag with Aviutl using the "Ripple" effect. I agree that blender is a great choice if you can figure it out.

[SearchQuality]

Animating a GIF in Cyber PowerDirector 15.
Normally one has to use PIP designer for this purpose. However although GIF files are accepted by PD they are taken as simple JPG files. The picture can move around the screen but itself is not animated. To go around the problem one has to convert the GIF to MP4 or any other video format used by the project in PD. Be sure that in GIF each one of the GIF frames sits on transparent background. The conversion can be done using any online converter. Once the MP4 file is ready, import it in PD as a normal video file and place it on a video track with a number higher then the main track number. Then double click the clip to fire up the the PIP designer. There under Chroma keyou will see whether the background carries the Alpha channel. In case it does not, use Chroma Key, which is generally white and place picture in its proper place.
After a lot of hustle I found this solution.