mcjSimpleVideoTool

Introduction

mcjSimpleVideoTool is basically an ffmpeg 'frontend'.

it lets you convert sequences of images into a video with a soundtrack of your choice.

History

February 5th, ‎2023 - Initial Release

February 7th 2023 - v2 added the "-pix_fmt yuv420p" switch to ffmpeg's command line

Install

The mcjSimpleVideoRool  zip  package is found at the bottom of this page

unzip it in your daz content folder,

typically :

C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library

once installed The Daz Script will be found in  My Library / Scripts / mcasual

You also need to install ffmpeg.exe on your PC

find it here https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

in the "Get packages & executable files" section"

Making Videos!

Producing videos requires the presence of ffmpeg.exe on your PC. 

The first time you run this script, click the [Browse] button in the [Path to Ffmpeg.exe] section and select the ffmpeg.exe file on your PC.

Click the [Browse] button in the [Path to Images] section and select an image from your sequence of renders. 

All images. in that folder will appear, sorted alphabetically, in the [Images List]

or

Click the [Browse One] button in the [Path to Images] section and select a single image

Set the [ Images ( input ) Frame Rate ] ex: 1 fps. Set the [ Video ( output ) Frame Rate ] ex: 30 fps

f your images are a render of a 30fps animation you will probably set both frame rates to 30. 

Note that you can use an input frame rate of 0.2 if you want each image displayed for 5 seconds

If you want a video with a sound track, Click the [Browse] button in the [Path to Audio] section. 

Ffmpeg supports most formats ex: mp3. 

Check the [Include audio in the video] checkbox

The looping setting will make the script insert  your series of images multiple times in the video.

ex: your ( looping or not ) animation is 30 frames at 30fps and you want a 10 seconds animation, set looping to 10.

The [Get Some Info] button should be used before proceeding further, 

It will display important information about the video that will be produced .

After Pressing the [Write makeVideo.bat] button, you will supply the path, filename and format for your video file.

ex: C:\\videos\\RickRoll.mp4

A batch file ( ex: make_RickRoll.bat ) will be created in your destination folder as well as a text file containing 

the list of images that ffmpeg will concatenate ( ex: RickRoll_list.txt ).

To run this batch file ( and produce your video ) double-left-click on the batch file. 

ex: C:\\videos\\make_RickRoll.bat

After ffmpeg finishes producing the video, you can delete the .bat and .txt files.

When the Auto-Show checkbox is checked, each time you click on an image in the images list, it will be displayed in the preview panel.

A Note about VR 360 and Flat Stereoscopic  videos

Google has a tool to add metadata to mp4 videos so that they are displayed correctly on youtube and on Facebook. Facebook also has one.

the google one runs on your PC, the Facebook one  you have to upload your video then download the metatagged one

the Google metatagger is here: https://github.com/google/spatial-media/releases

the Facebook metatagger is here https://www.facebook.com/360_media/create