...especially how to easily (?) condensed, say, 200 individual files--nearly ten minutes long--into the 5 SECOND video clip they were originally created from. Can't quite get my head around it, thanks for any help, Dave
Since Targa files are image files I am going to assume that your 200 files represent some form of animation that you want to put into motion again and those 200 files need to be shown in 5 seconds.
If this is he case, 200/5=40 so you need to show 40 files in 1 second which means that each file needs to be .025 seconds long. Since you need 25 milliseconds per image, when you set the photo length you have a choice of 00:00:0X If you set "x" to 1 you will get 20ms if you set x to 2, you get 40ms because MEP is frame based you can't get to exactly 25 with the available settings.
So say if you start your project off at 50 fps, set "x" to 1 your play time will be 20ms when you have done that change your frame rate in movie settings to 80fps and your play time will be pretty close to 25ms.
There are other ways to do this by starting with a different frame rate, but this is the way I chose to calculate getting 200 images to play in 5 seconds.
Hi, that'll do just fine. Yes, it is for a Muvizu animation. Thanks for quick response.
I thought, perhaps, too, one might be able to "collect" all 200 and "squeeze" them right on the timeline. At least that was what I was toying with. I was also wondering if I was missing something in the initial import that would automatically play those targa files as in the initial animation. I've just never worked with such files, so I hadn't a clue. Muvizu recommends targa for maximum render quality.
If I recalll correctly, that file length---I HOPE--can be changed for all files at once? Right click?
You can put the images on the timeline as George has answered. Then export the timelina as a mxv file - File, Export. Video as agic video. Select the required resolution, aspect ratio and framerate and export video only.
Once the movie is exported you can then reimport the mxv file into a MEP project and use the Stretch mode of the mouse to reduce its length down to 5 secs.
In the program settings you can set the image file length - then you can import all 200 inmages in one go.
Yes you can change the length of all files at once. Click on one image and set the desired length then click "apply to all" that should do it. If you have any questions or for some reason that does not work out for you, ask more questions by replying on this thread.
John's answer is one that I had not thought of because I am an analytical type and John focuses on the fastest and easiest way to get something done. I like John's answer because you don't have to go through a lot of steps to calculate what you need. Two different ways of doing it, both will produce the same result, but John's way is more effeicient. Thank you John, I have learned something too.