S4 - Importing GIF into Superstar Issue/Ideas

[BluMan]

I know your not working on S4 anymore so hopefully this can get fixed in S5 (if it's a problem there) and the ideas implemented.

When you import a GIF, it tells you how many frames it is.  It then asks you to choose a frame number.  Typically, you start from the beginning so you choose Number 1.  After placing it where you want, you want to import frame number 2.  Unfortunately, the program skips Number 2 and automatically shows Number 3.  So, every time after the first frame, you have to use the drop down box and select the frame before the one it auto selected.   On an GIF file that has 81 frames, it gets a little annoying.

Also, why can't we have a way for the program to "auto import" all the frames in a GIF file?  I mean once you place the first frame where you want it, the rest of the time you're just choosing the next frame number then clicking "Set Grid Bitmap and Add Image" then grid mode to "Standard" and finally the "Add" button in the Image Action.

It would also be nice if when you place each frame into your sequence that it gets placed next to the previous frame on the same line rather than below it.  Would just make it easier to add animations.

While I'm throwing out ideas, something I would like to see that's related to adding GIF files is once you have all the frames added to the sequence, you might have a need to nudge the length of the entire animation to make it run faster or slower so you select all the frames and click on the nudge button.  It would be awesome if there would be a way to have the program take away the space that gets created between the frames in the animation after you've nudged each frame smaller.  Or a grouping option where you select the entire animation and "group" it together.  That way when you nudge, they all stay together and automatically expand or contract as a group.  Sort of like they are magnetically connected at the ends of each other.

I know that's a lot of work just for one feature but I use that feature a lot and I know the idea could be done.  Programmers can do anything!

[dibblejr]

I don't recall any problems with any of what you speak of in my last upgrade which is 4.3.34 maybe something happened after that. Unless you are running a previous version. James I and others asked Brian to implement similar changes and Brian did implement the changes that you are asking about.

I haven't used SS in a while since James is sequencing the matrix and ccr tree. I use it mostly now for circles while our other friend is sick.

The only problem I ever had with skipping GIF slices were self created. 

I never had a problem nudging entire groups as long as you select the entire group which at times were difficult to see in the timeline.

JR

[Mr. P]

12 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

I don't recall any problems with any of what you speak of in my last upgrade which is 4.3.34

Did you upgrade your software and not correct your profile? You know better then that.  😁

[dibblejr]

21 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

Did you upgrade your software and not correct your profile? You know better then that.  😁

Nope, I only upgrade SS with the ssedit whenever James says the changes would be useful to me.

SE remains the same.

LOL

JR

[BluMan]

1 hour ago, dibblejr said:

I never had a problem nudging entire groups as long as you select the entire group which at times were difficult to see in the timeline.

I don't have a problem nudging, what I'm saying is if you shrink your selection, a gap appears between the selected group.  So: 0000 becomes 0 0 0 0  It would be nice if there was a mass way to remove those newly added gaps.

[BrianBruderer]

Lots of good questions and suggestions in the original post. I will try to answer or respond to all of them

1) The issue of skipping every other image in a gif was a bug and should be fixed if you get the latest S4 release which is v4.4.4

2) There is no "auto import" of an entire gif but in v4.4.4 there is an "Add+" button just above the "Add" button by the image action list. After adding all the images of a gif by using the "Set Grid Bitmap and Add Image" button, you can then highlight the first image you want to add and also select the time length you want on the time ruler, then repeatedly click on the "Add+" button and it will add the successive images one after another using the time length on the time ruler.

3) The last thing you discuss, I think what you are saying is to have an easy way to evenly space out images in a specified time length and not have any space between each image. Currently there is not an easy way to do that. You can group select and change the time length of each effect in the group, but then you have to nudge them to get rid of the space or overlap.

What I want to do to address that issue is to add an option in the "Modify Selected Effects" dialog box. The option would allow you to select a group of effects and then specify a new start and end time length and then it would evenly space out the effects. This would be helpful with images and with other effects also.

 

Also, as you say, there are no more S4 releases planned. But be aware that the same SSEdit.exe that is in S5 will run fine in S4. If you want to get new features that are in S5 into the S4 installation you can download S5 on a different computer and copy the SSEdit.exe that is in S5 over to your S4 installation. 

Or if you send an emal to brian@superstarlights.com I will get the SSEdit.exe to you and you can copy it into your S4 installation. SSEdit.exe will be located at one of the following two locations:

c:\Program Files\Light-O-Rama\SSEdit.exe
c:\Program Files (x86)\Light-O-Rama\SSEdit.exe
 

Also note that in the most recent release of S5 (v5.3.4) there are some other new features concerning images:

1) In the "image setup" dialog box you can now select multiple images in the image list. Then when you click on "Manipulate Selected Image" your changes will apply to all images selected. For example, if you want to reduce the intensity of all images in a gif, you can select all the images in the image list and then reduce the image of all of them in the "manipulate selected images" dialog box.

2) In the "Manipulate Selected Images" dialog box you can now move and scale the image.

 

For the future, the next two things I plan on doing are:

1) In the "Manipulate Selected Images" dialog box, add the ability to rotate the image at any angle

2) In the "Modify Selected Effects" dialog box, add the feature mentioned earlier that would allow you to easily change the spacing of effects between a new start and end point.

[Mr. P]

Good info Brian, thanks.

[BluMan]

3 hours ago, BrianBruderer said:

1) The issue of skipping every other image in a gif was a bug and should be fixed if you get the latest S4 release which is v4.4.4

I'm using 4.4.4 and the program only skips frame number 2.  All the rest are done in sequential order but since it skipped over number 2, it's always selecting one frame ahead of you.

Now let me tell you what I have to do before I can put Number 2 in place.  After I add frame number 1, I have to "position" the GIF so that it will appear on the tree.  So I have to modify the X coordinate to something like -22 to get the image in the center of the tree.  I then have to click modify for me to see the end result of me modifying the X coordinate.  After I have the first frame in place, all the other frames will automatically place themselves correctly by using frame one's modified X coordinate.  But after doing all that, I click to import the next frame and the program goes to frame 3, instead of frame 2.  Weird that it's only frame 2.  Hope that sheds some light on it a bit.  Would be glad to show you on my computer if you needed to see it.

[BrianBruderer]

I ran 4.4.4 and did the following:

1- clicked on "import image file (jpg, gif etc)"

2- selected a gif with 10 images in it, selected "1" in the drop down

3- set "Move X,Y" to "-30, 0"

4- clicked on "Set Grid Bitmap and Add Image"

At this point, in the steps you describe you mention that you "click on modify to see the end result of modifying the X coordinate" I tried clicking on the "modify" button under the image list and when I do, it momentarily switches to the lo-res view of the image in the green grid but quickly goes back to a view of the hi-res image.

5- To see the lo-res the image on the actual tree, I click on "Grid Bitmap" underneath the word "View". You can click on "Image File" to go back to the hi-res image

6- clicked on "Set Grid Bitmap and Add Image" and for me, it adds image 2. I keep clicking on "Set Grid Bitmap and Add Image" for each image I want to add.

Do the above steps and let me know if it is still skipping image 2

[BluMan]

That way seems to work and I didn't know you could do it that way.  Here's how I got the bug

1) I click on the Import Image File button and select the GIF file.

2) I selected number 1

3) Clicked on Set Grid Bitmap and Add Image button

4) Clicked Standard under Grid Mode (so I can see the tree)

5) Clicked Add under "Image Action" to add the image to the grid

6) Changed the X coordinate under the "Image Action" section to -22 (or something to move it towards the center of the 16 strand tree)

7) Clicked on the Import Image File button again and selected the same GIF file

8 ) The drop down list has now skipped Image number 2 and has gone to Image 3.

 

So, what've you shown me is a different way of doing things and I will use that way as it does seem faster.  Thanks!

 

[dibblejr]

The way Brian shows is the way it has worked since around 4.3.24 (or so).

If you accidentally forget to set an image action and submit it will skip to the next image. Its a pain if you forget to watch the little image sections at the top of the screen. One way I could always tell was if I had a space or a longer image line.

JR