Video Tutorial: Import for Rotoscoping!

[Alon Dan]

Hey All,
After so many requests in my inbox about rotoscoping with OpenToonz I've decided to make a quick video as soon as I can.

So here is what I found works (for me), I hope it will also works for you as we all know that OpenToonz is still not so stable but hopfuly it will get better in future releases.

For now, I hope that you can do Rotoscoping using my tips, Enjoy!


OpenToonz - Import for Rotoscoping   (click to watch via YouTube)

[Rodney Baker]

Nice one Alon!  

Makes me want to do some rotoscoping!  :)

You mention difficulty in loading sequential images...

There is a topic that discusses that at length and describes some of the issues.

A workaround at present appears to be to make sure the images are named with four zeros (and it's said... that the sequence needs to start with 1 and not zero.

I've had success with sequences in a variety of ways and at the moment I'd have to check again to make sure which way work best.

Using OpenToonz browser to find and identify the sequence is a good way (in most cases).  The sequence will appear of the form image..0023.png, where there is a filename... two dots (indicating you are looking at a sequence, the number of files in the sequence and the dot extension of the file format.

MOVs should import, as long as the code is in place (a few installers didn't have it).

A bit more esoterically, Juls just posted that a trick to getting MP4s, at least of certain types imported is to rename them .MOV.

[Alon Dan]

Thanks Rodney!

Actually before posting the video, I did many experiments... not sure if I was clear about it in the video tutorial because of my bad English ;)

Anyways, I did try some 0001 and 001 and many others, I even tried with point, for example:   Filename.0000.png  Filename.0001.png  with less, and more zeros.

Some of them started to load but... OpenToonz crashed again, and again... unlike with .AVI file which works so smooth (at least for my test, not sure how stable it is for a longer project).

The thing is that, OpenToonz is still not very stable so the reason I talked about what I found working for me (AVI) is only for people who don't know much about Image Sequences and how it worked in the original Toonz (with the zeros and such).

In my opinion and personal experience, People should only use a temporary video for the rotoscoping process and not actually render it as the final result (if they want top quality). but I didn't talk about it because I like things to be basic and simple for beginners, I'm not a professional OpenToonz user, but I'm a professional Animator so what I do for clients works that's the experience I enjoy to share with others but still... trying to make it simple and user-friendly as possible.

I still believe that OpenToonz will get more stable in the future as more and more bugs are fixed so we'll have to wait and see...

I can't wait to see what awesome new features will be added because I'm already in love with OpenToonz.

[Rodney Baker]

I should have also said...

If you are using the Right Click method to import an image sequence into an Xsheet then I haven't had much success with that.

Dragging and dropping into the Xsheet works quite well, although it didn't have much success getting the entire sequence in until I had the formatting correct (no spaces, correct number of digits in the number, etc.

I use a straightforward filename 000.png type of naming convention in other software I use and have to adjust those to get them into OpenToonz.  OT doesn't like those spaces.

I posted some of my experience in another topic concerning crashing upon loading with files inside folders via Right Clicking and trying to add them that way.

That only seems to work if the images are in the root folder.

I have a theory on that but haven't had time to investigate.

I keep saying I'm going to put some video together and some of that arcane importing process/experience might be worth documenting.

I must admit that when I see video tutorials like yours though it makes me a bit nervous as there is absolutely no way I can come close to the quality of your videos.

But... hey... as long as you keep making videos that's a good thing!  :)

[Alon Dan]

Actually I did try using the actual Load either from the menus and from the Browser room... still crash.

It may be OpenToonz, it may be my computer... who knows.

Still I believe that OpenToonz "should" load or import the same way either from loading menu, import, or dragging... but it's not yet.

I think it's too early to explain the all files system of how OpenToonz works until it will be more stable, fixed or working better in general, I think it still relay on the old structure of Toons which is an originally old on from the basics and need some improves and serious updates (not only on the file-system) but don't get me wrong.... I'm not complaining ;)

BTW - Thanks for the kind words I appreciate it!
My video tutorials are not in a good quality, and my English may be hard to understand or follow...  but I think that the secret is to  make videos that can actually help others. :)

[Simon]

I do not know why it is crashing (It is not crashing on my system) but the format  Filename.0000.png will not work. because it will read the "." as the end of the file. The best option for filenames would be filename_0000.png.

[Juls_3000]

Starting with "filename_0001.png" !

To rename files BulkRename does a good job for me.

[Alon Dan]

Unfortunately, I did try ALL the options of the different weird naming requests for OpenToonz and it is crashing when trying to import.

As I said, it may not work for me but it may work for others... OpenToonz is not acting the same on all systems there are still lots of bugs so we can't really test everything.

My Current System:

░[CPU]: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50 GHz

░[GPU]: EVGA GTX 980 4GB GDDR5 SC

░[RAM]: 32GB

░[OS]: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

As I've mentioned before, I think it is weird that OpenToonz programed for a VERY specific FileName_### while in other software it doesn't matter everything will be accepted as long as it's ordering in the end file with zeroes and running numbers.
Take Adobe After Effects, HitFilm Ultimate, and many others...  so I think we can just hope that it will be simple as: Drag & Drop instead of loading from the browser and OpenToonz will recognize the FileName### and automatically load it like in other software. For now, we can only work with what we got. :)

[Juls_3000]

Alon, have you tried this sequence : filename_0001.png, filename_0002.png ... etc

Configuring this ?

[Alon Dan]

Yes, I did try messing with the configurations before I've recorded the video tutorial and had no luck with more than few tests, but after so many crashes I've just used the .AVI and was happy to see that it work.

As long as it works, I'm happy with it. :)

[Juls_3000]

What compression codec you use with these avi ? (Format Factory > Advanced > Info Media File > drop file there)

[Rodney Baker]

Alon,

Sorry we are turning your topic into a troubleshooting discussion for loading sequential images.

It seems we all want import of sequential images to run smoothly.  

Simon said:

Filename.0000.png will not work. because it will read the "." as the end of the file. 

I am quite prepared to believe that the "." matters BUT I'm sitting here watching sequences with files of that form load (Warp.0001.png specifically).

From what I can tell it appears to be required (for default settings).

The exact steps used in my particular importing case were:

RIght Click on a cell in the xsheet and select Load Level

Navigate to the Drive and Directory* containing the image sequence

Select the first image from the sequence (making sure it has the number 0001... in case that still matters).

The image sequence should load into the xsheet with each image in a cell from top to bottom.**

Note that it's important to only select the first file in the sequence unless you prefer other results.***

There are a lot of variables to contend with here and errors I've experienced before I'm not seeing now.

Is it possible this was fixed in a recent nightly build?  I dunno.  I didn't see those specific fixes mentioned in the release so I tend to think it relates to something changed on my end.

Something definitely has changed though because I'm getting different behavior (for the good though!)

I'm running the latest nightly build as of 5/26/16.

The important thing is that I'm NOT seeing crashes on loading image sequences in current nightly build and I'm actually TRYING to make them happen so that I can record them. :)

So consider installing the latest nightly build if you are experiencing problems and aren't using that.

*Placing image sequences with dots in them was problematic before IF the files were not in the root directory.

This appears to be no longer the case for reasons I cannot account for other than to guess a recent nightly build addressed the problem.

Note that for my purposes 'properly formatted' is of the form filename.0001.ext (actual filename at the start of my test sequence is Warp.0001.png).

Results from my testing:

The filename can be anything as long as there are no blank spaces

The dot between the filename and the number IS important.  Failure to put it there results in only one image of the sequence being imported

The number should be four digits starting with 0001 and not 0000.

The .extention should be present

Note that we are suppose to be able to change/customize the file formatting via Preferences/Loading (using the code there) however most people do not do that and the Retas file formatting is used by default.

What is Retas file formatting?  Apparently it is of the form .+[0-9]{4,4}\.tga where there is a dot separating 0a filename of 0 to 9 characters from four digits with a three letter image or video extension.

Added:  Odds and ends regarding numbering of file sequences.  

I just checked and drag/dropping Warp.0000.png into xsheet results in the entire sequence being loaded BUT without that first 0000 image in the sequence.  

Missing frames from the sequence are replaced by a white image... which I believe unless otherwise defined is actually not white but transparent)  Not sure about that though.

This is working every time I try via any way I try to get the image sequence into the program.

**Files that are not properly formatted will still import into the xsheet but into a new column rather than the same one.

OT apparently recognizes them as a new level rather than a sequence in the same level.

***In the current build dragging and dropping a selection of (properly formatted) files into the xsheet results in muliple columns of the exact same sequence being loaded.

This is why you only want to select the first file of the sequence.

Sorry for all the text guys.

I'm trying to move toward recording and sharing videos.

Note to Forum Admin:  Perhaps these image sequence loading posts can be moved into their own topic.

[Alon Dan]

Juls:

I'm using Xvid codec it is the best for referencing job because it is very light.

When I'm done with the effects, I only render it's layers without the .AVI and then I can use the original version of the Video Footage on the edit software and put what I've rendered on OpenToonz above the full quality video footage I get the best quality I can for the project.
However, that's how I'm working for years but most of the time with image sequences because I like the way I can render and pause, or continue rendering in a later session. 

Tip: It doesn't matter how you get it to work, as long as it works for you. :)

Rodney:

What I'm saying is: OpenToonz should work like any other updated software, Drag the first  Filename### to the collum and BOOM! it will automatic load the full sequence like the other video editing software, and animation software.

It's already working with Drag & Drop, so they can somehow work this magic, I strongly believe in the community to make this happen sometime, I don't mind if it won't work on Drag & Drop and we will just load the sequence from the menus or browse room, as long as it will accept ANY FileName### by default without messing with a configuration or following very specific format for the file name naming.

And of course with less crashes... 

WHY? 

Because I would like to see more newcomers to just hug the software and see that it's not trying to make their life harder on a very basic tasks such as importing a file that is a very basic thing in almost any video/animation software for years, there is no reason to scare the user and make them get away from OpenToonz because something like that. This is how OpenToonz will become the next standard! and I hope it will.

Again, please understand I'm not complaining or demanding anything! I admire this community and just hope to see some improves in the future, that's it. :)

Drivers:

I always updated my drivers, software that I'm using often and anything that may improve my workflow so that's not the reason.

Extra Test:

I did install 1.0.0 on my other computer, and tried to import image sequence, it start loading... I could even see the files on the column! but after few seconds OpenToonz just gave up on me and... crashed.

I didn't bother to try 1.0.2 on that other computer, because that's what installed on my personal machine.

As I said in the video from my tiny experience with OpenToonz: some tasks may work for me or not work for me, and some may work for YOU! it is a very weird thing to say, but it is the truth... we all know that OpenToonz is not very stable yet, it is too early based on a very old built of Toonz, we have to wait for the fixes to come and let the community developers do their magic, I believe in them! but it takes time.

If some of you remembered Blender's early days, it wasn't very stable compare to today... I never had a crash from the software it's very strong, so there is no reason OpenToonz won't improve on this area and in others of course, that is why I can't wait to see how it grows and improve. 

Sorry for the long text and for my bad English and thank you for your patience with me. :)