Looping Video

[mpgil]

Say I have a 100-frame quicktime file and I want to use frames 30-35 in an infinite loop, as a compositing element. How can I do that without editing the actual QT file. In other words, I want to leave the file intact, but only us those 5 frames, looping endlessly, in my comp.

Am I making myself clear?

I figured out how to freeze frame using the TimeX node, but I can't figure out how to loop a select portion of the video using TimeX or the FileIn nodes.

Can it be done?

TIA

[cucobures]

Of course it can be done.

If you load the fileIn node for that qt in the parameters tab, you can see two tabs: source and timming, select the last one -timming- and there are the inPoint and outPoint, 30 and 35 in your case, and inMode and outMode and these are set to "freeze" by default, change these to "Repeat" or what ever you want them to do. And there it is, now you have a looping video in your comp.

Best Regards,
Cuco Burés

[mpgil]

Thanks for the response, but that method doesn't work. The clip remains the same length, but appears as all black frames except for 30-35. Unless there's some trick to it that I'm missing.

[loops]

You can't do it inside the FileIn with a Quicktime. In a TimeX you could go like "(time % 6) + 30", or just convert to an image sequence and use the source frame controls to select 30-35, then timing tab in 0, out 9999, repeat mode loop :)

[cucobures]

Ok, I haven't tried to do that with a QT, and it seems to be a little tricky, but it can be achived in the fileIn node!!
In the same timming tab that I tell you in my first post, set the inPoint to "-inf" and the outPoint to "+inf" then set the reTiming option to "Remap" there appear some new controls: and now set the startFrame to 30 and the endFrame to 35. Set the inMode and outMode to "Repeat". And now it works!!!!

The "-inf" and "+inf" are for set the loop to infinite in the both directions, but you can set these to whatever you want.

Best Regards,
Cuco Burés

[loops]

Hey, I hadn't realised that, handy!

[mpgil]

Cuco, your method seems like it's going to work, but then it keeps crashing Shake. Maybe it's something with my system.

Loops, the TimeX node looks like it'll do the job nicely. I'd been trying to figure out how to use that node, but I find the manual extremely unclear on what expressions you can use and how they work.

Thanks, both of you.

[cucobures]

Well, here I hadn't this issue, then, when I read your post, I went to shake to try it in depth, and seems to have problems with infinite loops, so try to set only the play range that you need for the loop (inPoint = 1 and outPoint = 500 for example).

I hope that this solve your problems, it seems to work fine here.

Best Regards,
Cuco Burés