Hi John,

Thanks for that. But did you not see my Edit (red, not blue!) a few minutes later?

If you did, I'm wondering why your video didn't mention what proved to be the crucial step for me, namely setting the lighting direction? Did at least one of Xara's three lights default to full front for you then? That's presumably why your colours give the expected results. As I mentioned, mine didn't.They were something like this (I can't recreate the original as I haven't yet mastered these lights, and I don't see a 'reset to defaults' option):

Playing with those three, each of which can be sized/twisted etc, it seems there are various configurations that give the expected, 'normal' text result. My default wan't one of them, yours apparently was.

I'll experiment more.

Also, any thoughts about why the red background didn't appear in MEP timeline?

Hi Terry,

I missed the Edit. Not enough coffee by that time or I saw the message just after the first post and didn't go back to read it again.

As far as I can tell, the idea is to create a title, so MEP does not bring in the background. We can make our own backgrounds much better in MEP, as I have done in the clip below.The background in 3D Maker was green and does not show, but it should if I export to an avi from within 3D Maker. The shadow works though.

I crashed the program (VPX6) 5 times yesterday trying to export the animation before giving up. I use to be able to do it. Maybe it will work with the fresh start today. At least the title comes in ok.

Here are the positions of my lights. In the clip, I used only one colour on the text.

Here is a video showing that lighting placement was probably your problem with the text being dark on the front. You really have to play around with the lights. I have zero skill in lighting so it's trial and error. Maybe with practice and concentration I'll get it. I noticed that depending on where the lights are, the text face and sides tend merge, almost like a blur as the text rotates in some positions. To overcome this another way would be to have the text face and sides different shades. I also like to bevel the text a bit.

I didn't find that any reset to default changed the position of the lights, but opening a new 3D title had the lights back at the initial setting, not as set after making a previous title and moving the lights. Try resetting both, UI and All under Window. Are your light positions shown in your image below like that each time you open 3D Maker?

Other things noticed:

1. I have 2 monitors and use the second one for the preview. The luminosity (probably quality) is not the same. I had made adjustments but the brightness and colour is not up to the main monitor. Also I accidently hit the automatic button on the monitor so it probably had an effect as well. When I did the above video clip, I modified the winter scene as the colour clashed with the bluish hue of the snow flakes frame. I gave the video part a bluish colour, which got rid of the slight yellow hue. When I watched the exported video, the colour was too blue. When I put the preview screen back on the main monitor, I noticed a huge difference in the colour and toned down the blue. Lessons learned - use the main monitor for setting colour and hue; try again to adjust the second monitor.

2. This refers to the other thread about the lightning icon. I need to do a better comparison test between MEP2015 and VPX6, but I noticed 2 things: in VPX6 setting P off or on with Reduce resolution and frame rate on had no effect on playback of the timeline with the winter video above, it was just as juddery either way; however, I opened the same mvp in MEP 2015 Premium and the playback was smooth with the lightning button (P) on, but slightly more jerky than VPX6 with the lightning button off. Strange that. Both products have the same engine, but I think that the 2015 build is newer than the VPX6 one, which could explain the difference.

I have never been able to make 3D Maker work with MEP, only VPX6, even though exe for 3D Maker is with each MEP version. Double-clicking on the exe does nothing. Was the trick to get it to work with MEP downloading and installing the standalone trial of 3D Maker?

Lastly, I went through most of the images on my computer (other video and photo programs) looking for another Christmas type frame like the snowflake one. I didn't find one. I was sure that I saw other Christmas type frames somewhere. Did you find any?

Hi John,

Yep, those lights are headache-inducing, with or without coffee. I need to experiment a lot more. Much though I like the potential flexibility they offer, I wish there was a 'Simple' button that would allow me to use just the Text colouring tool.

I can't remember how it happened that I got Xara integrated sweetly into MEP 2014, but I'm thankful for it.

Right now all my time is going into solving a problem with one particular project that immediately crashes MEP 2014 on opening, but runs cheerfully in MEP 2013!

Hi Terry,

Watch out for corrupt files, although 2014 should not give you a problem. I had a corrupt mp4 file in a folder and whenever I navigated to the folder, VPX6 and 2015 would crash, but not 2014. MEP2014 gave me an error message about the file when I tried to preview it or add it to the timeline; the other programs just crashed. I've reported this to Magix. So maybe there is something that 2013 accepts that 2014 doesn't.

I solved my background frame problem. I found many, many suitable files in Pinnacle; I was just looking in the wrong place. I also have 2 Christmas type videos that I obtained from Catooh. I just spent an hour copying Pinnacle masks, backgrounds and shapes to my masks and others stuff folders. Now to do some weeding out and adding in shapes to the Image objects and preferred backgrounds to, well, Backgrounds.

Good luck with your problem.

Hi

@John CB

. . . . I have 2 monitors and use the second one for the preview. The luminosity (probably quality) is not the same. I had made adjustments but the brightness and colour is not up to the main monitor . . . .

Slightly OT however appropriate here I think - I have colour calibrated both my monitors, and the two laptops I use so they all display colours correctly.

I use a Color Munki but there are several other monitor calibration devices available and consider the intial outlay  well worth it for consistency.

John

PS The snow has arrived in liquid form !

Watch out for corrupt files, although 2014 should not give you a problem.

I suspect that these files are corrupted in some fashion. But I have now come to the almost definite conclusion that, on my system at least, MEP 2014 is unstable when working with Xara 3D. For the third time in a couple of days I've just abandoned editing in 2014 and re-opened the crashing project in MEP 2013, where it's editing sweetly. (With no proxy or other aids.) It also renders faster.

@John EB,

Thanks for the tip about Color Munki. I did some research into calibaration a while back after reading the following post on the Samplitude site:

"is Video ProX capable of using color calibration profiles, like DaVinci Resolve (for example)? I own a wide gamut monitor (Dell U2711), which I have calibrated with a Spyder4Pro. Works in Resolve."

No one answered this and I don't know what he means by "is Video ProX capable of using color calibration profiles."

I looked at Spyder4Pro but I didn't buy it. i

I went through the Windows routine to adjust the screen and obtained a significant improvement, until I accidentally hit the reset button. However, I'm sure that I can do much better with the calibration device.

Thus, I think I'll go for the Color Munki Smile. Any comments on that one?

Thanks,

@John C B, I can't comment directly on the ColorMunki Smile but I do have the ColorMunki Display installed in my computer, and its external "light monitor" (for want of a better description) constantly checks the ambient light in my room and adjusts the monitor brightness to compensate.  It also enables me periodically (about once every month or so) to fully calibrate my monitor.

I should add that since installing it I have seen a very marked increase in the degree of "colour matching" between what I see on the screen and what is printed (for stills) or exported to DVD or Blu-ray (for video).

Jeff

Hi John CB

. . . . I think I'll go for the Color Munki Smile. Any comments on that one . . .

That is the one I have - it is very good value for money, easy to use and works well on my different monitors / laptops.

Spyders are also very good, however they tend to be more expensive - they are aimed more at the Pro market.

John