Image Sequence Import

yagfxg33k

yagfxg33k

Well-known member
I have 1500 32 bit .tiff files that I have created as output from my 3D application. Each constitutes a single frame in an animation. When I load them into Premiere, Premiere will load them into the timeline end to end in the proper order (they have a numerical sequence name).

In AE 7 pro, however, when I create a new comp and bring the files in, AE wants each file to have it's own layer. How do I make AE arrange them sequentially in the same layer?
 
you can't put them in the same layer really... what you can do is import all of them into a sequence (in order) as seperate layers, set their duration to one frame, highlight the first frame and shift+click the last frame to select all of the images. Now go to Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Sequence Layers. This will put each image back to back, in order. Now you can create a new sequence and nest your sequence that has the images... this will essentially get your image sequence in a single layer.
 
I just tried importing a JPEG sequence in 6.5, and that worked. I had to select 'Jpeg sequence' in the import dialogue, and it worked just like a normal video. Are you sure that you can't do this in 7?

-Stephen
 
bigbossbmb said:
you can't put them in the same layer really... what you can do is import all of them into a sequence (in order) as seperate layers, set their duration to one frame, highlight the first frame and shift+click the last frame to select all of the images. Now go to Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Sequence Layers. This will put each image back to back, in order. Now you can create a new sequence and nest your sequence that has the images... this will essentially get your image sequence in a single layer.
Click to expand...

That is way too much work...when you import select the first image and shift select the last image and click the TIFF Image Sequence check box and it will import as footage. One "layer".
 
OK - some additional weirdness...

I have an image sequence that is the output from Lightwave. The sequence is 1500 frames. It's 640x480, 32b TIFF files. When I try to load this into AE 7, I select all of the frames and tell it that it's a TIFF sequence and click OK and nothing happens. If I break it up into 3 sets (0-800, 801-1200, 1201-1500) it loads it up just fine. Is this a bug in AE?

Additionally, when I scrub through the footage, AE randomly crashes. If I try to render the comp out to a compressed WMV9 or QT H.264 file, AE always crashes. Can anyone shed any light on this?
 
If all the frames are rendered from lightwave and are numbered correctly, you shouldn't have to select all the frames. you just need to select the first, click .tga or .tif file sequence box, and hit OK. That should do it. I don't see why you would need to lump them into sets.

I just did a quick test with 1500 32bit .tga files and it worked fine. I just clicked on the very first file, checked the "Targa Sequence" box, and they all imported perfectly.

Unless you rendered your image sequence out with different names or rendered it in batches which would not keep the "file".0001,"file".0002,"file".0003,"file".0004,"file".0005, series going, it should be fine.
 
Yeah, I got past that issue by doing what you said, Matt. Now I just need to get FCP or Premiere to ignore the Alpha.
 
Re-render them as a 24 bit file, or open them in AE, and render out a Quicktime with the Animation codec with the color set to millions (NOT millions +)
 
yagfxg33k said:
OK, re-rendered them at 24 bits (36 hours - ouch). Gonna try em again tonight.
Click to expand...


36 hours? What did you do to those files? AE shouldn't have taken anywhere NEAR that long for a 90 second project.

What kind of system do you have?
 
Heh heh. I am re-rendering the original frames out of my 3D application. 40,000 polygons + 1500 frames at 1920 x 1080 24bpc on my 3.6 Ghz intel machine = 36 hours.
 
yagfxg33k said:
Heh heh. I am re-rendering the original frames out of my 3D application. 40,000 polygons + 1500 frames at 1920 x 1080 24bpc on my 3.6 Ghz intel machine = 36 hours.
Click to expand...


Um, I meant re-render them out of After Effects. You didn't need to render them from you 3D app again. You would have made them 24 bit by simply making a Quicktime file with the animation codec and making sure your color depth was set to Millions of colors and NOT Millions of colors+


Yikes!


*runs and hides*
 
Oh, and for a hell of a lot more control, use the .psd exporter from Lightwave. You need Raw Color, Spec, Diffuse, Shadow, Depth (sometimes but cant hurt), Reflection.

Each attribute can then be adjusted seperately, in AE.
 
Thanks, Matt. I could not have rendered it out of AE anyway since it was just crashing all over the place.

I'll try the PSD format on the next run. This render is done tho :)
 
yagfxg33k said:
Thanks, Matt. I could not have rendered it out of AE anyway since it was just crashing all over the place.

I'll try the PSD format on the next run. This render is done tho :)
Click to expand...


Oh yeah, I forgot about the crashing issue. The .psd is really an optional thing only, but can come in handy if your client says "There's too much reflection", or "That looks too shiny", then you just dial down the opacity of the reflection pass or spec pass. Really convienet. But not really needed, and the file sizes grow like mad. one file may have up to 7 layers in it. But you can open only the layer you want when you open the image sequence and apply it accordingly.
 
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