Problems with turning image sequences into movie files for timelapse?

[adam-tl]

I have approx. 25,000 images (medium sized .jpg 2mb) I wish to turn into a continuous timelapse movie. I have been using Quick Time Pro to convert the images into 1080p HD movie files. I tried to do 20,000 in one go, although it exported ok, about a third of the way through the film starts jittering (not a smooth motion). I then tried doing it in smaller segments 5000 at a time and this seemed to sort things out. However the amount I seem to be able to export without subsequent jittering seems to decrease, little over 1000 images last time I tried. I upgraded the RAM on my macbook pro from 2GB to 8GB thinking that would make a big difference but it hasn't made any difference? any help or suggestions?

Do I need to upgrade my processor? I have noticed that the CPU usage is 90-100% or over during export.

It is not an issue with the images it is something to do with converting to a movie file.

[Baldrick]

Please don't cross post in several forums. I deleted your other thread.


I guess you have tried to play the hd movie with different players to rule out the player? Try for example VLC.

Have you tried anything else to convert the images to video? Like the free avidemux, open the first image and it should open all if they are named like image0001.jpg, image0002.jpg, etc. You can then adjust the frame rate under Video->Frame rate. Export to mp4 with h264 video.

[adam-tl]

Sorry didn't relise. wasn't sure where to post it?

Yes I have tried other players but not VLC. I started using photoshop to make the sequences but changed to quick time. worth trying another software thanks.
what about assigning more RAM to quicktime. is that possible?

just had another thought. Different regions have different frame rate standards I have been working with 25 fps could the player be configured differently?

[Case]

about a third of the way through the film starts jittering (not a smooth motion)

Increased RAM is good for a lot of things, but it won't help stuttering playback on a good movie if the processor can't keep up. Not sure if that is the case, but you should find out if this applies to your situation.
Also check the hard disk. Is it almost full? Is the movie very fragmented? A copy of the movie may play smoother, as Mac OS X tries to use large continuous blocks on the hard disk for transferred big files, resulting in quasi-defragmenting, when possible.
Image sequence movies may have less temporal compression (consecutive frames may have little in common), compared to a regular movie, making it harder to compress well. This may cause big files, which may be a bit tougher to decode on playback.
Another thing is GPU, the graphics chip that controls what is displayed. Faster GPU eases playback, and may even help decoding a movie, as some load can sometimes be shifted from CPU to GPU, in particular H.264 video.

Do I need to upgrade my processor?

I would expect a faster processor to convert faster and to have more ease on playback, but that doesn't relate to conversion errors (repeat frames). A faster processor might be able to do 1080p playback more smoothly, where a slow processor might start stuttering when it can't keep up with showing a new image each 1/25 of a second. I haven't heard of using slower processors resulting in bad conversions.

I have noticed that the CPU usage is 90-100% or over during export.

Awesome, maximum efficiency. Imagine the frustration some people notice on converting with 40% CPU usage!

It is not an issue with the images it is something to do with converting to a movie file.

Have you tried playing the movie on a different (faster) computer? I.e. try to find out if the movie is faulty, or if the playback is stuttering on a good movie.

what about assigning more RAM to quicktime. is that possible?

QuickTime Player will use as much RAM as it needs, if available. It isn't user-configureable, afaik.

just had another thought. Different regions have different frame rate standards I have been working with 25 fps could the player be configured differently?

Software players don't care about framerate, as long as they can keep up (enough processor speed).

[adam-tl]

Thanks,

so what your saying is if the movie files are very big which i think they are (500mb to 1gb) then it might be that the processor and/or graphics chip is simple struggling to play them, not that there is actually anything wrong with the file. The funny thing is that I have exported sequences that play back without a problem. What about key frame settings could this effect things?

[Case]

What about key frame settings could this effect things?

Key frame settings could not effect things that much. 120 to 250 would be fine. Automatic would be fine. A number to low could make the output needlessly bigger, but not result in stutter. Not sure what the effect would be for a number to high.

[adam-tl]

Hi thanks for your help but I haven't solved it yet. I tried exporting at a lower resolution to see if that would solve things (H.264 25fps 720p HD) but it is still the same. Bellow is a clip perhaps that will mean something to some one.

[jagabo]

The frames are in the wrong order. Instead of 1,2,3,4,5,6..., pairs are swapped, 2,1,4,3,6,5. Every now and then (every 90 frames) there is another error in the order. A mostly fixed version is attached. Frames 65, 155, and 245 should still be swapped with the frames before them.

[adam-tl]

thank you, thank you, thank you! It did seem like they were out of order but I have checked many times the they are in order in the image source folder. How did you do that! thats amazing. It must be putting the files out of order when I import the image sequence? are my file names to complex?
E2E4-00001.JPG and so on.

what is the solution?

[jagabo]

If you've verified your source images are in the right order the software must be screwing up. Though I don't really see how it could do that. I would try using names without numbers in the base name, eg, pic00001.jpg, pic00002.jpg... See if that makes any difference (probably not). You may just have to switch to some other software.

I fixed the video on a Windows PC using AviSynth's SelectEvery() command to swap pairs of frames. The original video had the pairs swapped except every 45th pair where they were in the correct order. Since my fix swapped all pairs it put those particular pairs in the wrong order.

[adam-tl]

Just looked again. they are defiantly in order both numerically and visually in the source folder. I also imported the image sequence in to quicktime pro and checked the resource files which were also in order, it must happen in the export part of the workflow. I will try simplifying the file names if not I have heard a lot of timelapse film makers use after effects to import/export. I will also try AviSynth seeing as I have exported all the movie files already. I can't thank you enough, I have been weeks on this conundrum. The finished film is going to be in a big exhibition in january, so... thanks

[jagabo]

If you have access to a Windows system you can use VirtualDub to import the image files and export them as AVI.

[adam-tl]

Thanks again, you were right the file names didn't make any difference. when I bought quicktime I had trouble downloading it from apple, I wonder if there is a problem with my version??? I don't have a windows system myself but friends do, so I could give that a try. Is it better to re-export them correctly rather then repair the movie files I already have using AviSynth (which I also need windows for?)?

[jagabo]

Is it better to re-export them correctly rather then repair the movie files I already have using AviSynth (which I also need windows for?)?

Getting it right in the first place is preferable. Especially since SelectEvery(2,1,0) left errors every 90 frames.

VirtualDub is pretty easy to use. Just use File -> Open Video File and select the first image. It will automatically append sequentially numbered files. Select Video -> Frame Rate to set the frame rate you want, the File -> Save as AVI. That will create an uncompressed RGB AVI. You can probably import that easily into any editor on a Mac. If that's too big, you can select a compression codec before saving, Video -> Compression.

If you're familiar with AviSynth you can import image sequences with that:

ImageSource("E2E4-%05d.jpg", start=0, end=269, fps=25)

Then encode with whatever encoder you want.

[adam-tl]

Ok thanks I will see how I get on. Hopefully I should be able to sort it now. very helpful

Adam

[terryj]

I have approx. 25,000 images (medium sized .jpg 2mb) I wish to turn into a continuous timelapse movie. I have been using Quick Time Pro to convert the images into 1080p HD movie files. I tried to do 20,000 in one go, although it exported ok, about a third of the way through the film starts jittering (not a smooth motion).

I use to do this with iMovie '06 and Photoshop CS3..
Run a Batch convert to get all the pictures the same size
( 720 x 480, or in your case, 1920 x 1080)
at 96dpi ( as video doesn't care about dpi), output to a folder.
...import all the pictures into iMovie,
then put all the pictures on a timeline in the order I wanted.
Then, with all pictures on time line, add audio and transitions,
and export out to a Quicktime Mov file at the fps I wanted,
Using no compression, audio set at khz I wanted, and then made the attempt to playback
using QT Player.

If all was good, then I'd use ffmpegx, visualhub, Compressor, or even QT Pro
to export out the final movie from that Quicktime file, as h.264 or whatever.

Never had a problem doing it this way...Haven't used the new iMovie '11, but
should be the same....

Hope it helps....

[Herve]

stupider …but simplier and better

you have 25 000 photos
verify their names: has to be something like 00001.jpg to 25000.jpg (extension does not match here)
if their names are not continuous, just rename them, personnaly I use RName to do that (PS: first copy your entire folder/pics to avoid mistakes )

now go to QuickTime Player Pro, menu item "Files" > "open Image Sequence…" and select your first picture (aka "00001")

QT will prompt about "Image Sequence Settings" (means framerate and duration), eg:
- "25 frames per second" means a regular PAL video framerate (duration will be 25000 / 25 = 1000 seconds = 16 minutes)
- "2 seconds per frame" means a very long vidéo (duration will be 25000 *2 = 50000 seconds = 833 minutes = more than 13 hours !!!)
…and QuickTime will produce a movie from your still images

save your resulting movie (with dependencies)
Now you have a movie you can export to what do you want (with QuickTime Player, MPegStreamClip, Compressor, a shareware, …anything you want)

PS: some advantages with this method:
- you don't mind about size of still images (you will decide the final size during the final export, not during the importation/initial movie generation)
- your resulting movie cannot have jerk ('cause you specify the exact framerate you need during import)
- you always keep control
PPS: I use this to generate movie animation for the web (from an animation in Flash software). It's rocks

-----

(out of topic)just for my info (I never realized real timelapse 'cause I'm too lazy for the moment):
you shooted a very large amount of photos …why did you not use a camcorder: shoot "1 hour" and accelerate its movie? (it produces a time lapse too, I did it once : I shooted the passage of a boat lock, initial duration more than 30 minutes, resulting duration 1 minute)

bye

[adam-tl]

now go to QuickTime Player Pro, menu item "Files" > "open Image Sequence…" and select your first picture (aka "00001")

I am using QuickTime Pro to export the images as a movie file. I have all the images in a folder named numericaly. I go file>open image sequence click on the first image and import. The images are in the correct order in the source folder I have also checked the resource files under show movie properties and they are in the correct order there.

I then export as a QuickTime movie file at 1080p H.264 the film is stepping and the frames are out of sequence in the eported movie file.

The frames are in the wrong order. Instead of 1,2,3,4,5,6..., pairs are swapped, 2,1,4,3,6,5. Every now and then (every 90 frames) there is another error in the order. A mostly fixed version is attached. Frames 65, 155, and 245 should still be swapped with the frames before them.

Why is this? Has anyone come across this before?

[jagabo]

Why is this? Has anyone come across this before?

From your description, it appears to be a bug in QuickTime Pro. I haven't heard of it before but I don't use QuickTime Pro. All QuickTime software has been banished from my computers (all Windows).

[adam-tl]

Why is this? Has anyone come across this before?

From your description, it appears to be a bug in QuickTime Pro. I haven't heard of it before but I don't use QuickTime Pro. All QuickTime software has been banished from my computers (all Windows).

As you have probably guised video editing is all a bit new to me I am a Ceramic Artist not a film maker. I have learnt a lot over the last few months but obviously not enough. this is the project I am working on, if you are interested: http://adambuick.com/category/earth-to-earth/

Have you tried anything else to convert the images to video? Like the free avidemux, open the first image and it should open all if they are named like image0001.jpg, image0002.jpg, etc. You can then adjust the frame rate under Video->Frame rate. Export to mp4 with h264 video.

I downloaded AviDemux to try that but couldn't work out how to export from it? or if you were able to crop/resize. Also the colour scale look very green.

VirtualDub is pretty easy to use.

I haven't had a chance to try this especially as I don't have windows system personally, so I guess that is the next step.

[jagabo]

VirtualDub works under Wine (the Windows emulator).

[poisondeathray]

There are many documented problems with quicktime, and quicktime avc, but this isn't one of the common complaints. Your sample video has way too many frames out of order

Occasionally there is a frame out of order with QT AVC, and it's related to Apple's implementation of AVC (there are a few posts about this here and on other forums) but it's a rare occurrence.

I just tested a few image sequences with QT Pro , encoding using QT's AVC, and none were out of order

Try re-installing it. Or perhaps something is peculiar about your images ?

When you load a short test sequence, and step through, are the images out of order before you encode ? If not, what happens when you use different compression scheme e.g. mjpeg just for testing purposes ?

[adam-tl]

When you load a short test sequence, and step through, are the images out of order before you encode ? If not, what happens when you use different compression scheme e.g. mjpeg just for testing purposes ?

I tried View>Play all frames and they looked in order pre-export. Just done an export with compression type jpeg2000 (it didn't look good at all) mjpeg wasn't an option. forgive me if i'm being stupid, not familiar with all these different types of compression.

Also as suggested by aedipuss on another topic (now closed, apologies to the moderator) here is a screenshot of my export settings

[aedipuss]

since you probably want pal, change the framerate to 25. and turn off frame reordering!

[poisondeathray]

Everything is fine in the screenshots. (In case you're wondering "frame reordering" has nothing to do with the order of the frames, it has to do with encoding frame order, which is different than display frame order, so unchecking it shouldn't make a difference)

[jamiep]

hello
i made a program and maybe it will do what you need...
here is a movie of it in action
as long as your .jpgs really are in order and all have the same prefix and number padding you should be good to go!

http://homepage.mac.com/lindsayellis/imagez2mov.html

click on the blue rectangle and it should play the mov.
c ya
jamie

[lordsmurf]

VirtualDub works under Wine (the Windows emulator).

Well, not entirely.
Quite a few filters do NOT function properly. It's also a bit unstable.

Yes I have tried other players but not VLC.

VLC is really lousy on a Mac.
Use MPlayerOSX Extended instead. It's more like VLC on Windows than VLC is.
http://www.mplayerosx.ch/