Hello,

I was hoping if anyone knew of a video editing software that can import .exr file sequences and allow me to sync them to audio by frames rather than time.

My trial subscription to Premier expired and I would get another month if it was my final project, or even just use Davinci Resolve.

Because in Houdini I have all the frames synced with audio source starting at frame 1, so with either of those editing software it works if its my final project because I just slide everything( houdini .exr and .wav ) to the start of their timelines.

But at the moment I'm just testing different parts of my project which don't start at the beginning.

Reight now I have a sequence that goes from frame 1100 to 1500. And I am having hard time lining them up as I have it Houdini( with the audio ). Yes I can import audio into MPlay and see/hear both, but I am wanting to see what the final product looks like in its final format like .avi after its uploaded to a website.

I've tried Sony Vegas but it really messes up the exr file sequence and couldn't figure out why.

Lighworks and Media Composer don't import .exr although with Media Composer I guess I could just write out a .tiff sequence for that.

I had an issue with Magic Video Pro, although I can't remember what that was.

Been a busy day lol

As I am writting this the idea that maybe I'll just write out an audio clip from Houdini Chops that starts at the same
frame I'm wanting to look at and use that.

But it would be good to know if there is any software out their that allows me to have more precise control of placing and mixing clips in the manner that I am intending.

Thanks for any suggestions

Moin,

I am not sure what the issue with Vegas was that you experienced. I just did a quick test, rendered out a sequence of 16bit EXR (though not using Houdini) and imported them (screenshots of the import requesters attached) into the current version of Vegas (Magix did do fix some bugs and overall added some improvements).

It's possible, of course, that I was just lucky - but I upgraded to the Magix version of Vegas even though I switched from Magix Video to Vegas a few years back, since Magix refused to fix some serious show-stopper bugs in their own software … the world is weird.

Marc

Thanks Malbrecht for your input.

Yeah I have the same settings as your screenshot. I tried some variations like setting frame rate to 24 ( same as my houdini file ) and also using timecode in file. Used ‘Video 1’ stream too.

So I imported them again to try and see if I could change anything. But I get the same behavior as before.

It's like it is skipping frames and shifting my image around left and right in the process. Towards the end it shifts it up and down as well.

If it wasn't for the shifting I'd say it's just some resolution issue of not being able to do playback fast enough. But the shifting of the image is bizarre, since I only have the camera move for about 24 frames at the begining( in my Houdini file ). The rest of the time its stationary.

I thought I would try a render anyway just in case it's only something with the ‘preview’. But it reproduces the same effects of skipping and shifting.

The good thing about this program is it has a Time and Frame option, so I can move my clips to exactly the same frames as originaly intended.

Very strange - I haven't experienced what you are descibing, but then again, I usually don't create EXRs anyway. Just an idea: Have you tried re-creating the EXR, meaning: Have you tried repackaging them using some image processing tool? I am not claiming that Houdini is writing malformed EXR, but sometimes it helps trying to narrowing the target to e.g. middlenames when you want to shoot at Will

Marc

It's quit possible Houdini is writing malformed EXR.

I already once re-wrote the sequence because even in MPlay there was a whole object that wasn not showing at all from the exr sequence.

I had only one camera in scene and only one mantra node. Didn't make any changes, then re-wrote it and it showed up fine in MPlay the second time.

The reason I didn't use Davinci is because it too was showing unusual results with the same ‘object’ that was missing first time around viewing in MPlay.

And none of the correction controls in Davinci could make the necessary changes. It was going beyond some simple gamma adjustments.

So I'm going to re-render the exrs tonight and try Davinci again.

Your comment made me try Vegas again and in looking at how it's time/frame option reads in timeline made me go over Davinci again. And so it seems I am able to insert my clips exactly where I wan't them too as well.

Just have to work on the exr part now though. Thanks for your comments.

Blender has an image sequencer that supports sound as well.

Try using TIFF files instead of OpenEXR file for your final output.

For a short term solution your suggestion is a good idea Enivob, Thanks for that.

Although it does bring up a few thoughts that border on my lack of experience/technical knowledge.

It may not really matter but my intent is to try and work with a specific file format to gain experience for “down the road”.

At the moment I'm only using Indie but eventually want to upgrade to the full version so that I will eventuall be able to produce higher resolution images.

At the moment I am fine with the limit and am only creating formats for animations seen on the web on computer monitors.

I just saw a recent article about a trade show that highlights to coming OLED type monitors.

My long term plans is for animations seen in private viewings on these types of monitors/technology in the future. There's a list of reasons of why OLED interests me but I would be digressing too much and just leave it at that.

In looking at the comparison between tiff and exr I guess this article gives a good synopsis of what I read elsewhere as well:

http://www.openexr.com/about.html [openexr.com]

Actually in reading this, it would seem to suggest my best bet in my current application is to just go with tiff ( so long as its 32 bit as I don't have an issue with disk space ).

But this article highlights some questions about Houdini…it seems to suggest that both tiff and exr can have some variations of formats they save too. Which might explain why Houdini exr looks different in MPlay than it does in say Davinci. Both programs may have default settings of what they are expecting to look at, hence the difference.

I think it would be a good question to put forth to support on what is actually being used when exporting from mantra when one chooses tiff or exr as the file extension.

Although in mantra there doesn't seem to be a choice ( I should go over the node to make sure that this is true ) the docs do seem to suggest that capacity - at least through scripting/command line? )

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini/props/mantra [sidefx.com]

For example:

EXR Compression
Houdini
vm_image_exr_compression

Compression type for EXR format images. Possible values are “none”, “rle”, “zips”, “zip”, “piz”, “pix”.

Certainly an area of Houdini I'm sure I would benefit much from further study/research, so your comments are much appreciated.

Further to my recent post…so yes there is the option in Mantra for tiff and exr specific formats.

And the default for exr is zip. I think I will try none and see how that works out. Also work with some of the tiff formats.

Probably a better to get some working knowledge of the different formats rather than sticking with one.

Well changing the exr format to none( in Mantra node), rendering a sequence then importing to Davinci gives me the same as what I see in MPLay.

So I'll go with Davinci since it has some nice controls to make subtle adjustments, it's almost like having an extra (post) shader.

Out of curiosity I tried Vegas again and same problems ( and I never mentioned it but I also made sure the resolution was set to the same as what I used for the camera in Houdini - 1280 x 720 ).