Optical Flow produces only a still frame

Weird bug; hoping there's a workaround...
When I choose a clip and select Video Quality >> Optical Flow, it analyzes it and renders a still frame for the duration of the clip. (The thumbnail indicates shows motion throughout the clip, but indeed it's just a single frame.)
Any help is much appreciated.

As far as I can tell, this may only occur when the clip is set to a reverse direction (-100% speed, for example).

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Message was edited by: Manny Figueroa
Message was edited by: Manny Figueroa

Hi
*Not knowing the origin to Your problem - General approach when in trouble is as follows.*
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk if it is less than 10Gb should rather have 25Gb
• Delete iMovie pref file - or rather start a new user/account - log into this and re-try
iMovie pref file resides.
Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences
Macintosh HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences
and is named.
com.apple.iMovie.plist
com.apple.iMovie3.plist
com.apple.iMovie7.plist
com.apple.iMovie8.plist
and find com.apple.iApps.plist - trash this too
While iMovie is NOT RUNNING - move this file/s out to desk-top.
Now restart iMovie.
• Hard disk is untidy. Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple Disc Util tool)
• Garageband-fix. Start it, Play a note and Close it. Re-try (Corrects an audio problem that hinders iMovie)
• Screen must be set to Million-colors
• Turn off Mac and disconnect Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes - will at least re-set FW-port
• Third party plug-ins that doesn't work OK (not relevant for iMovie’08 or 09)
• Problems in iPhoto Library can affect iMovie to crash on start-up. Re-build this first then try to re-start iMovie.
This You do by
_ close iPhoto
_ on start up of iPhoto - Keep {cmd and alt-keys down}
_ now select all five options presented
_ WAIT a long long time
• iMovie updated ?
• QuickTime updated ?
• Mac OS version ?
• Program miss-match. iMovie 4 - will not work under Leopard
• Program miss-match. iMovie 5.0.2, up to Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK
• Program miss-match. iMovie 6.0.3 or 6.0.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iMovie’08 v. 7.1.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iMovie’09 v. 8.0.6, Mac OS X.5.8 AND QuickTime 7.6.4 - is OK (will work under Leopard and Snow-Leopard)
From LKN 1935. (in this case = iMovie HD (5), I tried it all, but nothing worked.
Your answer (above) has been helpfull insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that
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 Certified is right - the reason for this is that you can change the ins/outs on the fly in Motion, so it analyses the entire clip.
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Optical Flow and setting Offset make Not an Image

Hi all,
What I'm trying to accomplish is taking only a few hundred rows from a camera sensor to improve frame rate and moving the offset around based on movement in the image.
I am utilizing configure grab and grab in a loop to improve refresh rate.
I set up a test where the offset in Y was just incremented each loop and displayed the image. This is no problem. I have the incrementor as a remainder output and it will loop all day without error, and the image 'scrolls' across the available sensor space.
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Hi,
Please share your code if possible. This would be helpful to better understand your code flow and make recommendations accordingly.
Also for your reference, here is also a link to a forum regarding optical flow:
http://forums.ni.com/t5/Machine-Vision/Displaying-Optical-Flow-from-AVI-file/m-p/2738890
Luis S
Application Engineer
National Instruments

Check settings combinations to achieve good Optical Flow HDV 50i -ProRes422

Hi Guys
RE: Motion 3, HDV 50i, standard ProRes 422, optical flow
I'm trying to decide which combination of settings I should choose in order to ensure the highest possible standard of optical flow-treated video for a video clip which just features live people - no graphics.
So far my results haven't been as 'smooth' as I would have liked. Below I have detailed my steps taken - if you could recommend which combination of 'lighting', 'field rendering', 'motion blur' or 'frame blending' I should choose I'd appreciate it.
1. I captured my Canon XHA1 HDV 50i video via HDV - standard Prores 422
2. I edited in FCP6 with standard Prores 422
3. I sent a video clip to Motion 3, new project and chose Broadcast HD 1920 x 1080 25 fps field order Top (Upper First)
4. I treated the video clip with optical flow to slow it down.
5. Export as standard Apple ProRes 422 movie.
Prior to exporting which of 'lighting', 'field rendering', 'motion blur' or 'frame blending' would anyone recommend please?
For reference, in this forum David Bogie kindly stated the difference between the choices. I have included his post below. However I just want to be sure I'm making the correct choices, as I'm a bit confused about the '50i' (interlaced) aspect of my video footage.
Here is David's post:
"lighting
field rendering
motion blur
frame blending"
These are options you need to use when you know why you want to use them.
If you have lights on in your scene, you want to render them. If you have no lights (and no camera) you do not need to activate lights. why does the switch exist at all? I render without lights for preview purposes.
Fields are necessary for interlaced formats. You must know if your production format is progressive or interlaced.
Motion blur enhances the illusion of movement by simulating image smear caused by an open shutter. You get the illusion at the expense of rendering time.
Frame blending is only necessary if you have video clips in your scene and even then you don't need it unless you've changed the speed of the clip. Sort of. "
Zak Peric also kindly posted, although I think his post relates more to graphics as opposed to interlaced video footage. Nonethless, here is his post:
"Just use animation codec + alpha if you have alpha channel if not use animation codec millions of colours. This is the best codec for best quality. Also 4444 is a very good codec to use as it supports alpha channel but gives you smaller file sizes. Use always BEST from the render window, if you want additional motion blur then switch it on in render view. Be advised it takes much longer to render with motion blur on."
Any tips would be really appreciated.
Warm regards
Peter

Hi Mark
Thanks for your kind prompt feedback.
"You say you sent a clip to Motion, but then you say you chose project settings - I don't understand this. If you really "sent' a clip to Motion using Final Cut Pro's "Send to Motion" command, you don't need to set project settings - Motion automatically creates a project with settings that match the FCP sequence. "
Okay I understand - sorry for any confusion caused - I had already used "Send to Motion" and applied Optical Flow to a clip which I then exported from Motion 3 as a Quicktime file. I was planning to repeat this process afresh, but am interested in which settings you could recommend from 'field rendering', 'motion blur' etc that might be applicable to my Optical Flow-analysed footage prior to exporting it as a Quicktime file.
As regards exporting my Motion work as a separate Quicktime file, I prefer to do this so as to avoid the waiting for it to render in FCP.
The already-optical-flow-analysed footage is actually pretty good (the original clips from FCP6 have already been stripped down to short durations to suit Optical Flow), but want to to double-check which of the 'field rendering', 'motion blur' etc combinations I should ideally choose to obtain best results, just in case I'm neglecting something that could otherwise make the quality even better?
Once I finish this video project I'm on I'll definitely be going for a clean install of SL and FCS3.
So, based on these choices...
lighting
field rendering
motion blur
frame blending
...I'm thinking that for my optical flow-treated video I won't need lighting, as it's mostly applicable to graphics.
I don't have any graphics in these optical-flow video clips. It's just moving video footage of people.
Am not sure about whether to choose Field Rendering (interlaced PAL 50i HDV - ProRes422 video).
Am not sure whether to choose Motion Blur.
Am not sure whether to choose Frame Blending.
Any tips would be really appreciated, and thanks again for your valuable feedback.
Peter

Can't get Optical Flow to render

I've read a couple of posts about other people having this problem, but they don't seem to apply as I can't find a workaround. I'm running FC 10.0.8.
If I render my timeline (about 15 minutes), the entire timeline renders, except for about five seconds that are in slow motion. The orange bar remains above that section even after the entire timeline is rendered.
After reading the other posts, I know the following might be relevant: I'm editing optimized AVCHD footage. There is no speed ramp. It's just a clip at slowed to 50%. The clip is completely separate (it's not just a selected range--in another post, somebody said just selecting a range was their problem).
I also tried creating a new project, bringing in a short clip (and nothing else), slowing it to 25%, and rendering all. The percentage display counted up to 100% like the clip was being rendered, but, at the end, the timeline still showed orange above the retimed clip.
I should say that I don't know if the clips are actually rendered properly in Optical Flow. I'm not sure I'd be able to tell the difference. All I know is that the timeline is still showing orange above them, so I'm presuming they aren't.

Russ--
Funny thing. I decided to test this by taking the same very brief clip and putting it into a timeline three times in a row. Then I made each slow motion 25%. Then I left the first normal, made the second frame blending, and the third optical flow. Then I exported the master file.
I guess I can see a difference, but the optical flow section actually looks kind of blurry to me.
Then I went back to the timeline and chose Modify> Render All. And FCX rendered the entire timeline, with no orange above any portion (not even the Optical Flow portion).
So I don't know what to think now. I don't know what the problem was, or if optical flow is any better than normal or frame blending. Maybe I need to try it with some different footage?

Batch Processing Optical Flow shots

Any one know if it's possible to batch process a lot of shots with optical flow somehow? I have over 20 clips that require various speed ramps and would rather batch them up versus having to come back every time. Any help of ideas would be great. Thanks!

Specifically, 8 bytes per pixel.
So - a 720x480 frame takes 720x480x8 or about 2.8 megabytes per frame. Times 30 frames per second, times 10 seconds and you're getting close to a gigabyte. Multiply that by 20 clips and you can see how you might start filling up your drive pretty fast. AND remember, the ENTIRE clip is analyzed, even if you only use 10 seconds.
So - make sure your clips are limited to the material you are ACTUALLY going to use.
make sense?
Patrick

Optical Flow - Native MXF

I'm trying to slow some footage down within FCP X but it seems that Optical Flow only works if I've already transcoded my Canon MXF footage to ProRes, and not if it's left in it's original media state (which is all FCP X seems to allow). I've checked this on several different computers and they are all the same. It's simply repeating frames!
Unfortunately, FCP X refused to transcode to optimised media (C'mon Apple, at least give us the choice!!!!), so I end up having to export the clip to ProRes and re-ingest it as an additional clip.   This is both time consuming and a waste of HDD space.
Are there any other work arounds?
All machines are 10.8.2 and FCP X 10.0.6.

OK. Can you tell me how you ingested the footage and what steps you took to get Optical Flow working?    It seems that other people on the web have the same problem as me and no one has a solution, so perhaps you can enlighten me
When I select a clip in the project, choose 50% and then choose Optical Flow, it goes through the motions (show it's analysing) but when it's done, and rendered, and I step through the frames one-by-one there are duplicate frames instead of new intermedia frames (just as if I hadn't selected Optical Flow).
If I export to a Prores file, import that back in and do the same thing it all works fine and there are new frames generated and no duplicate frames. So it's definately an XF100 / MXF problem.
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Optical Flow produces only a still frame

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