Old 05-22-2022, 09:02 AM   #1
maxdembo
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Default Frame by Frame Animation tips

I searched, but couldnt find, a thread dedicated to doing animations in Reaper.

I know there is really technically no difference between video and animation, its all frames following frames, but I've been getting into A.I. generated animation which works by generating all the frames one by one (Disco Diffusion if anyone wants to look it up). I then upscale the frames to 4K on PC (Topaz Labs software), and add the frames to Reaper so I can load any songs I have, and create music video animation.

Here's the most recent finished piece, using a track by fellow forum member ZeeKat



I've been playing with BPM as a way to get round the length of each frame. Importing images at 50bpm, then taking the BPM up until I get smooth playback, sometimes up at 960bpm. Then the video gets rendered. I've only just read in another thread about thumbnail display length, which I obviously didnt connect with what I was attempting. 'Frame length', in terms of animation, might be a helpful name for this, tho I know I'll be missing more settings to be prepared for animations.


Anyway, all that waffle brings me to the intention of this thread...

Does anyone have have what they would consider choice tips for creating animations in Reaper? Vegas has a slow motion mode that gives a frame interpolation A.I. option which obviously would really help create smooth animations, but what do we have access to in Reaper that could help create animations before putting the final video into a different bit software?

Any knowledge, however basic*, could be really useful in one thread...



*basic is where I'm at, never once have I used the coding bit of the video processor fx, thats something I'm clearly going to have to explore.

EDIT: The video linked above is pre having bought Topaz Labs. The clips are all saved at 4K, but the frames are still way smaller.

Last edited by maxdembo; 05-22-2022 at 09:48 AM.
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Old 05-26-2022, 04:03 PM   #2
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That's all way over my pay grade, but I will say that I liked the video and I'm always strangely fascinated by infinite zoom. Always reminds me of a camping song I used to sing with the kids that we called A Bear Went Over the Mountain.

The verses are sung first by one person, then the next, then the next. Each having to think of something that fits.

A bear went over the mountain .... and what do you think he saw?
A forest on the mountain...
A cabin in the forest...
A window on the cabin...
A man in the window...
Pants on the man...
Pockets on the pants...
A nickel in the pocket...
A Buffalo on the nickel...
Horns on the buffalo...
A train blowing the horn...
Engine on the train...
etc til the kids fall asleep or someone can't think of a next verse.
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Old 12-27-2022, 04:06 AM   #3
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This is what I'm doing currently:
  1. Drop images onto the timeline (they'll all be selected)
  2. Make a time selection
  3. Use action "Item: Move and stretch items to fit time selection
Works a treat but there's probably a better way that I don't know about yet.
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Old 12-27-2022, 04:09 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IXix View Post
This is what I'm doing currently:
  1. Drop images onto the timeline (they'll all be selected)
  2. Make a time selection
  3. Use action "Item: Move and stretch items to fit time selection
Works a treat but there's probably a better way that I don't know about yet.
Hm, I am curious which question you answered to.
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Old 12-27-2022, 04:26 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by vitalker View Post
Hm, I am curious which question you answered to.
The OP was asking for tips for making videos from separate images. This is the best way I have found to turn a set of images into a video of the desired length, posted in the hope that it helps someone else.

Selecting the images with a razor edit and alt-dragging the edge works too but I think fitting the frames to a time selection is faster.
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Old 12-30-2022, 05:06 PM   #6
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As far as the grid, and this is useful for all video projects, right click on the grid button and set it to frames.
Under "Project Settings" you can set the frame rate of the project.
Right clicking on the ruler, you can set it to Absolute Frames.
In preferences under "Video/Import/Misc" you can set the default length for a still image as needed, rounding up to the nearest ms, i.e. 34ms for 30fps 17ms for 60fps
Then you might want to toggle "trim content behind media items when editing" which I have set to the hotkey Alt-Insert. Be careful to toggle out of this when not needed, it will automatically delete things and afaik doesn't have any indicator whether it's on or off.
This way, when you add another frame, it will automatically trim the fractional ms off the end of the previous one. Good housekeeping.
One last thing you should do to enhance your workflow is to right click on your media explorer, go to "Show" and check "All files" so image files will show up in the folder.
Hope this helps! btw which AI are you using?
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Old 12-31-2022, 04:59 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by profquad View Post
In preferences under "Video/Import/Misc" you can set the default length for a still image as needed, rounding up to the nearest ms, i.e. 34ms for 30fps 17ms for 60fps
Also, you can set that value to a negative number to specify the default length in frames, so at -1 each image is a single frame.

You can set the actual frame rate on the video tab of the project settings window.
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Old 01-01-2023, 06:34 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vitalker View Post
Hm, I am curious which question you answered to.
I am curious as to what you thought you were contributing? ;P

Quote:
Originally Posted by IXix View Post
The OP was asking for tips for making videos from separate images. This is the best way I have found to turn a set of images into a video of the desired length, posted in the hope that it helps someone else.

Selecting the images with a razor edit and alt-dragging the edge works too but I think fitting the frames to a time selection is faster.
Yes, and it was perfectly perfect contribution. Thank you!

Quote:
Originally Posted by profquad View Post
As far as the grid, and this is useful for all video projects, right click on the grid button and set it to frames.
Under "Project Settings" you can set the frame rate of the project.
Right clicking on the ruler, you can set it to Absolute Frames.
In preferences under "Video/Import/Misc" you can set the default length for a still image as needed, rounding up to the nearest ms, i.e. 34ms for 30fps 17ms for 60fps
Then you might want to toggle "trim content behind media items when editing" which I have set to the hotkey Alt-Insert. Be careful to toggle out of this when not needed, it will automatically delete things and afaik doesn't have any indicator whether it's on or off.
This way, when you add another frame, it will automatically trim the fractional ms off the end of the previous one. Good housekeeping.
One last thing you should do to enhance your workflow is to right click on your media explorer, go to "Show" and check "All files" so image files will show up in the folder.
Hope this helps! btw which AI are you using?
Useful, defo. I need to remember this. I didnt actually know this until someone mentioned it in another thread. Its def made my edits less confusing (they'd look fine and then on playback there would be ghost frames). Im still not doing it all as muscle memory tho yet, so reminders are really helpful. Thanks!

The video was done with Disco Diffusion 5 (i think it was version 5), which in AI terms is now ancient When I eventually go back to make some more animations, Im gonna have to learn all over again with Stable Diffusion or whatever is current at the time. 4 more Disco Diffusion animations waiting to be uploaded.

Quote:
Originally Posted by IXix View Post
Also, you can set that value to a negative number to specify the default length in frames, so at -1 each image is a single frame.

You can set the actual frame rate on the video tab of the project settings window.
I didnt know this about -1. Thats really helpful. Thanks!
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Old 01-02-2023, 01:33 AM   #9
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I use Blender to convert image series to video and edit/comp them. Set it to the correct fps, import image strip, select all the image files and you're done.
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Old 01-03-2023, 12:42 PM   #10
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I use Blender to convert image series to video and edit/comp them. Set it to the correct fps, import image strip, select all the image files and you're done.
I tried Blender briefly, couldnt figure it out, didnt watch a tutorial and went back to Reaper.

Spot my obvious mistakes Im going to go back to Blender as I need to do a few more things that may ultimately be easier in a dedicated video editor. Thanks for your post.

Also...

https://youtube.com/shorts/J98Ulc3TYb0?feature=share
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Old 01-03-2023, 03:04 PM   #11
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Here is another cool thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgMLbVHPrrw
https://youtu.be/lE8mGsBRJP4?t=249 (I've added time marker, so you don't need to watch 4 minutes before )
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Old 01-03-2023, 05:31 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by maxdembo View Post
I tried Blender briefly, couldnt figure it out, didnt watch a tutorial and went back to Reaper.

Spot my obvious mistakes Im going to go back to Blender as I need to do a few more things that may ultimately be easier in a dedicated video editor. Thanks for your post.

Also...

https://youtube.com/shorts/J98Ulc3TYb0?feature=share
The key modifiers weren't obvious to me when I first started, but once you get that it's nice and simple.

Weirdly, I work in 3D but have only ever used Blender as a video editor to comp and edit 3D animations. I should probably start using the rest of it...
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Old 01-08-2023, 04:10 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by Judders View Post
The key modifiers weren't obvious to me when I first started, but once you get that it's nice and simple.

Weirdly, I work in 3D but have only ever used Blender as a video editor to comp and edit 3D animations. I should probably start using the rest of it...
Ha, and thats all I want to do with it, video edit

In the meantime, I utilised what I learned in this thread about the -1 for still image frames, and played with all the minus numbers being frames. I have a stupid amount of AI images and a boring Digitakt video, so...

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Old 01-08-2023, 05:27 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by vitalker View Post
Here is another cool thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgMLbVHPrrw
https://youtu.be/lE8mGsBRJP4?t=249 (I've added time marker, so you don't need to watch 4 minutes before )
What about this?
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Old 01-09-2023, 11:42 PM   #15
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What about this?
I see a video about surround sound which I dont understand how its applicable here, and then another one about assigning midi knobs to zooming functions which again I'm not really seeing relevancy of? Sorry if I'm missing something.
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Old 01-10-2023, 12:46 AM   #16
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I see a video about surround sound which I dont understand how its applicable here, and then another one about assigning midi knobs to zooming functions which again I'm not really seeing relevancy of? Sorry if I'm missing something.
Then you were not careful. It is about moving mouse inside video window, which creates envelopes for parameters you chose...
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Old 01-10-2023, 01:01 AM   #17
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Then you were not careful. It is about moving mouse inside video window, which creates envelopes for parameters you chose...
Forgive me, is this not just basic midi assigning parameters? What are you suggesting that Im missing?
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Old 01-10-2023, 01:09 AM   #18
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Forgive me, is this not just basic midi assigning parameters? What are you suggesting that Im missing?
Perhaps, but you assign it to mouse X and Y movements inside video window. Sorry, If you don't understand it, then I can't explain it to you any better.
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Old 01-10-2023, 01:33 AM   #19
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Perhaps, but you assign it to mouse X and Y movements inside video window. Sorry, If you don't understand it, then I can't explain it to you any better.
The camera moves are all done in the animation frames, if what you're suggesting is a way to move the camera around after the fact?

Altho I wonder if this could bring a rack focus zoom Hitchcock effect thing into play with the right footage and settings? I think a zoom-in on the footage is going to hit a wall of quality quite quickly but I shall give it a try! EDIT: Thinking about it, that wont work

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Old 01-10-2023, 01:45 AM   #20
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Originally Posted by maxdembo View Post
The camera moves are all done in the animation frames, if what you're suggesting is a way to move the camera around after the fact?

Altho I wonder if this could bring a rack focus zoom Hitchcock effect thing into play with the right footage and settings? I think a zoom-in on the footage is going to hit a wall of quality quite quickly but I shall give it a try! EDIT: Thinking about it, that wont work
I don't know what you are asking about, but if you have video processor preset for this effect, then you could automate its parameters with mouse.
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Old 01-10-2023, 02:08 AM   #21
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I don't know what you are asking about, but if you have video processor preset for this effect, then you could automate its parameters with mouse.
I'm still not sure how this helps with animation where the camera moves are already done, but I think I understand what you're saying, and much appreciated! Automation is a wonderful thing
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Old 01-10-2023, 02:11 AM   #22
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I'm still not sure how this helps with animation where the camera moves are already done, but I think I understand what you're saying, and much appreciated! Automation is a wonderful thing
It's not about camera only. You can use it for anything you want. It's just you can use video window for that. Hope that is more clear now.
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Old 01-10-2023, 02:16 AM   #23
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It's not about camera only. You can use it for anything you want. It's just you can use video window for that. Hope that is more clear now.
Think of it as XYpad, just inside video window.
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Old 01-10-2023, 02:38 AM   #24
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Think of it as XYpad, just inside video window.
I shall do just that
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