Importing of videos is slow

I’ve imported a video into into Synfig to use as a background for an animation but it’s slowing the project to a complete standstill. Sometimes it takes about five minutes before the program responds, and this happens every time I want to change any attribute of the video (size, start point etc).

Is there any way to make the videos render faster when working on a project? I’ve tried check the Low Res option but the program still struggles to respond.

The specs of the video are:
852x480
Quicktime movie
30 frames per second
5 mins 16 seconds
67.5MB file size

For reference my computer stats are Dell Studio 1555: Pentium Dual Core T4300(2.1GHz,800MHz,1MB), 4096MB 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel, 512 MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570 and I’m using Synfig 0.63.02 on Ubuntu 11.10

1 Like

Current video import implementation is that poor and slow. There is nothing you can do with your computer or video to improve it.
Since Video audio is not handled yet by Synfig it would be better to import an image sequence.
First you have to export your video to image sequence from your video editor (or even from Synfig)
Second is to create a List Importer file for that image sequence.
You have two great tools for that in the Tools and Script section of the website:
synfig.org/cms/en/download/tools/
-G

Thanks for the reply, worked a charm :slight_smile:

I heard of the LST files, and I would like to use it when using papagayo for lipsynching. However, it seem they are all Linux builds. is there a LST tool for windows?

AFAIK, Papagayo is available for windows too.
lostmarble.com/papagayo/index.shtml
-G

I meant the LST import tool. Do they have one for Windows 7? If it is already installed onto synfig, I don’t know how to use it.

The work-flow is this:

  1. Using Papagayo open your dialog sound file and text and obtain a text file with the phonemes timing.
  2. Rename the file to give it the lst extension. Modify the internals of the file according your needs: wiki.synfig.org/wiki/Doc:ListImporter
  3. Import the file directly in Synfig Studio. Be sure that you have the phoneme images in the same folder than the lst file to be able to import them based on the lst file.

-G

Thank you. :slight_smile:

Sadly I have 1 more question abou this. How do I lst import image sequence for windows? I also would like to try real word with 2d animation soon.

You just need a simple text editor (i.e. notepad) to create or modify a lst file (it is an plain text file).
If your footage is a video you have to extract the image sequence from the video. Then once you have the images in the folder a simple:

c:\my_images\> dir /B > imagelist.lst

It will put all the image files in the imagelist.lst file. Then modify the file header to match the lst format requirements.
-G

I must have misunderstood or went wrong somewhere. When I tried to import the .lst file, it was blank. I don’t know a thing about codeing. tell me what I did wrong here please.

  1. I exported the image sequence
  2. I copied the code in the text editor (notepad).
  3. Saved it as “something.lst” in the same file as the image sequence.

When I opened it up in synfig, nothing pops up inside of the box. Where did I go wrong?

Can you paste here the first 10 lines of the “something.lst” file.
Also, the image files, are in the same folder than the “something.lst” file?
-G

here is what I typed.

FPS 24
png
1 Activots ep1 s1.0000

This that was just to test it to see if I could get the .st import before I actually try to do videos. I have tried for a day or 2 but still couldn’t get it to work well by following the wiki, and from the advice for you. I don’t know whats wrong with me.

Whooo! I finally got it to work!

I knew nothing about .lst files, so i didn’t know that you had to make the code a .bat file at first. I found that out after a little bit of research :wink:
For windows, I had to use this code.

dir /a-h /b /-p /o:gen >filelisting.lst

What had to be done after this is delete the rubbish that wasn’t related at to the images in the beginning and the end (top of the list and the bottom of the list). After this, I just put the FPS then the number at the top like the wiki says, and it worked.

Thanks alot. I couldn’t have done it without you.

I’m glad you finally got it!
-G