Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

Regenerate Superstar .AVI files


Steven

Recommended Posts

When I transfer a .loredit sequence from one computer to another, and open it, it complains about files referenced by motion effects that cannot be found.

The only way I know how to recreate these .avi files is to double-click on each Superstar effect, then exit out of Superstar.

Is there a way to recreate all the *.avi files at the same time? How about all the *.avi files in the open sequence?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Jimehc said:

which lists the AVI files

Yes, that lists the files. The issue is that the files do not exist, because I deleted them, because I'm using DropBox to transfer sequences from one computer to another and I'm too cheap to pay for more storage I don't need, so I delete files that should be easy to recreate. It would be nice if there were a tool that would scan the .loredit files for missing SS_*.avi files and make SuperStar recreate them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was stated that they are looking at this type of feature and if it could be added to show player to recreate the missing SS files.. It was a S6 Beta Feature Request

Create a MEGA account to get 20 GB FREE storage

Edited by Jimehc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Steven said:

When I transfer a .loredit sequence from one computer to another, and open it, it complains about files referenced by motion effects that cannot be found.

The only way I know how to recreate these .avi files is to double-click on each Superstar effect, then exit out of Superstar.

Is there a way to recreate all the *.avi files at the same time? How about all the *.avi files in the open sequence?

 

10 hours ago, Jimehc said:

Copy the Sequence and "Sequence Menu" > "File References" which lists the AVI files

Not at my PC right now but can you just hit check all and I think the button you use is like redirect where these folders are located?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

S5 (and now S6) caused me to change how I do file storage.  Prior to S5, I had a directory for all sequences in a year / holiday.  In other words Sequences\Christmas 2017 and Sequences\Halloween 2017.  Because I do almost all my sequencing in SuperStar, that was quickly realized to be a problem with S5.  I now have a folder for each sequence - for example:  Sequences\Christmas 2022\All I Want, and Sequences\Christmas 2022\Hallelujah, etc .  That makes it far easier to compare a windows file list vs the File References in Sequencer.  I do have the huge advantage that because I normally have one "Insert SuperStar Effects" for all props and for the entire sequence, and therefore normally only have one current .avi file for each sequence.  I periodically delete the no longer needed .avi files, but I do keep the last couple, and they do get backed up to Google Drive (Steven, it's free for 15GB).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jim, thanks for the heads up about by year/season (directory) filing issues.

I don't currently use SS. but having to redo everything would be a PITA.

I have yet to play with S6 (I did buy the upgrade) , but I will keep this in mind.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, k6ccc said:

S5 (and now S6) caused me to change how I do file storage.  Prior to S5, I had a directory for all sequences in a year / holiday.  In other words Sequences\Christmas 2017 and Sequences\Halloween 2017.  Because I do almost all my sequencing in SuperStar, that was quickly realized to be a problem with S5.  I now have a folder for each sequence - for example:  Sequences\Christmas 2022\All I Want, and Sequences\Christmas 2022\Hallelujah, etc .  That makes it far easier to compare a windows file list vs the File References in Sequencer.  I do have the huge advantage that because I normally have one "Insert SuperStar Effects" for all props and for the entire sequence, and therefore normally only have one current .avi file for each sequence.  I periodically delete the no longer needed .avi files, but I do keep the last couple, and they do get backed up to Google Drive (Steven, it's free for 15GB).

Little at a loss for what your saying? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, ~DOC~ said:

Little at a loss for what your saying?

What he is saying is this: S5 and S6 allow multiple SuperStar effects in a sequence. This is useful for me, because there are some sequences in which I want a butterfly effect at one point, and some morphs at another. The latest sequence I was doing has 6 separate SuperStar effects.

In S4, the SuperStar effects are stored in a separate .sup file, which is usually named by the sequence name, for instance "Carol of the Bells.sup". This file was kept in the SuperStar\Sequences folder. IIRC, to use this in your show, you had to export it as a Light-O-Rama intensity file, which went in the Sequences directory along with the .lms file. The intensity file also had the name of the sequence, which made it easy to keep everything straight.

In S5 (and S6), the SuperStar data is no longer stored as a separate .sup file, but is embedded in the .loredit file. That's nice. However, the file that replaced the intensity file is now an AVI file, which is nice because that's standard, however the name of the file that gets generated starts with SS_, then a date, then a bunch of random hex characters. This makes it hard to match the file with the sequence.

For people who sequence on one machine, or multiple machines, and play the show on another machine, there needs to be a way to transfer the sequence files from one computer to another. In order to visualize the SuperStar sequence, it has to be converted to the .avi files. When I copy the latest sequence I'm working on to the shared cloud drive (because I'm lucky enough to have my neighbor also working on sequencing), I can copy the .avi files so the sequences can be viewed without opening each SuperStar sequence. If I copy them, I have to look at the dates to figure out which ones go with the sequence I was working on, or I could use the "File References" dialog, but that's just more work. The issue is that if I change a SuperStar sequence, it generates a new .avi file, but I still have the old .avi files on the shared drive, and they just accumulate. Periodically, I go through the drive and delete the old .avi files, but they may be from an old sequence that I'm satisfied with, and thus I haven't edited in a while. There is no easy way to look at a .avi file and figure out to which sequence it belongs.

Jim solves this problem by putting each sequence in its own sub directory. Then he knows all .avi files in that directory belong to that sequence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Steven said:

However, the file that replaced the intensity file is now an AVI file, which is nice because that's standard, however the name of the file that gets generated starts with SS_, then a date, then a bunch of random hex characters. This makes it hard to match the file with the sequence.
 

I would argue that this is a bug specifically for the reason mentioned above: hard to match to the sequence.  It also has the ability of creating lots of "artifacts" that are hard to distinguish the actual value (should they be removed or not).

While the workaround that Jim offers would help users keep things tidy, it would be more practical for the tools (S5 or S6) to either provide artifact management, or segregate them similar to Jim's solution.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not a solution to this specifically, but I keep all of my sequences in their own sub folder.   That way, all of the artifacts are there together and it is simple a matter of copying the entire folder from one system to another.   You can still get orphan AVI files which are not used in the sequence anymore which you carry along with it (but the effort to clean them up is not worth it).  Superstar was one of the main reasons I started using independent folders because I was filling up the main sequences folder.   But I also store any wmv and picture files there, plus any custom audio files I use for sequencing. 

Edited by TexasLights
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was also brought up before that the Naming of the SS***.avi should correspond with the name of the sequence... but it has not been addressed..

But outright deleting of the avi files - is reason enough to have to re-generate the files via SuperStar..

Edited by Jimehc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Steven said:

What he is saying is this: S5 and S6 allow multiple SuperStar effects in a sequence. This is useful for me, because there are some sequences in which I want a butterfly effect at one point, and some morphs at another. The latest sequence I was doing has 6 separate SuperStar effects.

I understand your issue well that’s why I jumped in here. Just did not know an easy solution. That’s why in another post I was inquiring about just using two dedicated PC one for Christmas and one for Halloween. Then no need to figure out the different files. I use a lot of superstar so I have more AVI to sort through.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got it now Click sequeance/ File references. Select all and click change directory go find folder their in. Click Ok. It reestablishes the connection. UGH!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...