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Old 12-13-2018, 09:55 PM   #1
sjs94704
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Default Question about inserting photos into a project

I am using the video features of Reaper as part of my projects and am doing this for the first time.

I have a video of myself singing that is all rendered and inserted into a new project. I also have several still images that I want to use as overlays and after doing some investigating I have discovered that showing each photo for 3 seconds each is a reasonable standard, so I was wondering if there is and how to find in preferences to set the default length of the pictures I insert to be 3 seconds each.

There will be a few photos show and then it will cut to me and then back to the photos etc..... That way, people are not just watching me sing for 3 or 5 minutes and have either pictures or video clips inserted into the project to look at and keep their attention.

How would you all suggest that I accomplish this the easiest?
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Old 12-14-2018, 02:21 AM   #2
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That's very easy: Create three tracks. By default the tracks above cover the tracks below. So put your video file at the first track (below) and place your images per drag and drop at the track above. You will see items with a small preview of the image. You can stretch these items like audio items. And it behaves exactly the same only that the length of the image(video) item represents not the duration of the sound but of the showing up in the video window.

Now you can stretch and place the images like you want. If you need an exact length just double click the items and type in the length (make sure its set to time!)

To make it more beautiful you should enjoy the pleasure of using the video processor. Fade in and out your images. Bring them to live by scaling and panning them slowly. To realize this you load the Track opacity, zoom, pan preset and automate the opacity etc. If you don't know how to do that. Just ask.


Place the images above the video!


That's what it looks like but with harsh pop up.


Use automated opacity to blend in and out and over!


Use other transformations to make your images less static.

Last edited by Eliseat; 12-14-2018 at 02:28 AM.
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Old 12-14-2018, 02:34 AM   #3
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More information in this thread: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=214010



Good luck!
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Old 12-14-2018, 10:17 AM   #4
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Thank You so much!

You clearly went to some effort to demonstrate a lot here and I picked up on a lot of little details of what you are doing here. My previous experience with using video editing software helped understand what is going on as well.

QUESTION:

When doing basically a slide show of photos, I was wanting to confirm information I heard that about 3 seconds per picture is about the longest to display each photo. Opinions?

How long do YOU think each photo should be displayed?
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Old 12-14-2018, 02:59 PM   #5
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Hello, I think how long the pictures stay up depends on your song and also the time when you tradition from each picture to the next will depend on the context/words or emotions being sung. Changing the pics on the bar or where the story/song changes context or emotion probably works best. They don't all have to be the same length unless you song is itself quite regimented and a fixed time sequence fits the bill. Put in some pics and play with length to match you mood. Great fun, it's my next project. fixedave
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Old 12-14-2018, 03:35 PM   #6
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Yes, it depends on what kind of mood and timing you want. But one thing always has to be the rule: Show them as long as a person needs to catch the content.

3 seconds is a good guideline but it doesn't have to be a fixed value. You can put variation in the timing, let some images hard popping with the beat and others slowly faded in and out. Best thing - if you never did something like that - is to watch a cool slide show on youtube or elsewhere and try to mimic the things you like in your own project.

If I find time and my kids want something to do on their own, I will make an short example video tomorrow.

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Old 12-14-2018, 07:05 PM   #7
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QUESTION

OK, things are really coming together, but, I want to know about how to create a smooth transition from overlays to video.

Here are my tracks:

1. Overlays of pictures. (I can add additional tracks if needed)
2. Video of me singing (Closeup of me & my MIC.)
3. Lead vocal Vox
4. Slap Delay Vox Fx
5. Vox Reverb
6. Music BUSS
7. Drums
8. Double BASS
9. Piano

So, basically, the song starts out with a slideshow of photos on the overlays track (and I will time it to the music vs be stuck at 3 sec.)... BUT, then I would just like to have a graceful not slow, but easier on the eyes than a traditional cut to the video track of me singing for a moment (all timed to the music) then a graceful transition back to the slideshow of overlays.

It is that graceful transition that I could use some instruction on how to accomplish it.

With Gratitude,

Steven
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Old 12-15-2018, 03:44 PM   #8
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QUESTION

I have two video clips on a single track. What I want to do is a fade out / fade in transition between the two..

How do I do that?
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Old 12-15-2018, 05:17 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sjs94704 View Post
QUESTION

I have two video clips on a single track. What I want to do is a fade out / fade in transition between the two..

How do I do that?
put each video on a separate track, overlapping where you want the transition. Insert the video processor plugin on the top track using "item fades affect video" and drag the fades at each item edge to make the transition
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Old 12-15-2018, 10:11 PM   #10
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QUESTION

All of the videos I am making I am posting on YouTube. In my videos I am including short video clips as well as photos so that people are not just watching me sing for 4 - 5 minutes. Both videos and pictures are relevant to the song.

I checked and what I found is that for photos, the ideal size is 1280x720, however, I noticed that several of the photos I picked are grainy looking and I just wanted to know what the specs are for the pictures I should be looking for that will give me nice clear clean professional look? Maybe I need higher pixel rate or resolution, whatever it is called.

I am getting the photos from Google Searches and so I can put the specific specs of the photos I am looking for.....

I would be grateful for any information or advice you can offer on this .....
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Old 12-16-2018, 06:01 AM   #11
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Hi sjs94704,

to have enough space for moving and zooming, the images should be larger than the video resolution. It also helps to avoid black background outside the images. But there are so many possibilities to blend, move and zoom images in that no rule exist. I'm working on an example slideshow with lost of possible blend-over-variations. But I ran into problems that fine vertical and horizontal panning at the same time ends up in shaky movement.

Lets see if I can fix that.

By the way. A graceful transition would be a blend in from black or white with ease.
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