Error with Radiance plugin?

[Madfox]

Great! Well.., to answer my question I tried to acomplish last minute.😐

I'm trying out an avii file on a screen background in a choreography.

The funny thing happens that a 54 sec avi file (not compressed) has a strange behaviour in the 24 sec animation.
On this site is a part called "Brains & Parker on the way to Penelope" that explains the subject.
The screen animation stops as soon as the car stops.
I could easily make a "still" from the last good frame, but it is a bit silly for a 54 sec file.
 

Quote

At this time I started to get trouble with avi files I used to have a nice background. Just a simple square with a projected scene of an avi file.
The effect was that the projected avi was loaded in the screen model I had,
but it disappeared in the original choreochraphy.
I thought it had someting to do with the codec, but I used only original frame avi's that were quiet large. (3.2Gb) And also now in AMv.19 I am countered with the same strange effect. The first time the project is loaded the avi background right and renders well. After the render the choreography is paralyzed and shows only a bland background mdl entirely white.
When I go to the imported image folder or the decal folder, the avi file is transparant.

https://mad-red.com/animationmaster/

With the avi file I get a missing plugin error "radiance error".

[Ganthofer]

@robcat2075 - can you move this to it's own post to make it more Visible. At the end of your "December 11, 2015"  Live Answer Time! - Saturdays Noon CDT post is not so practical.

@Madfox - HI Rien,

from what I can find, the "Radiance" plugin is apparently used for HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. We'll have to see if anyone has more details as to what the "Radiance" plugin is used for, since AM does support HDR Images. I don't know if the image frames in an AVI can be HDR.

I checked out the video you have at the bottom of the page on AnimationMaster – GateAway

I can see the sky video stops, along with the Car at around 0:18. 

1. What exact version number have you tried rendering images with the AVI?
2. Did the AVI work in any project previously? And if yes, what version AM (number and letter)
3. Does the AVI currently play outside of AM (z.b. Video player, VLC, ... ???)
4. Do you have VLC or something that shows the video data? example from VLC
5. can I get a copy of the AVI (perhaps post it on your webpage temporarily) to test in the current 19.5F2 ?

 

I know we've had weird issues with Decals lately in earlier 19.5 versions.

[robcat2075]

I note that it is not  "missing" plugin but an "error" while running it.

The first thing i would try is to convert the AVI to an image sequence and use that in the animation instead of the AVI.

[Ganthofer]

 

Digging into the Radience  (HDR_64) io plugin, it is defined as:

Radiance Files (*.hdr *.pic) | *.hdr; *.pic | hdr Radiance sequence (Plugin) - The Radiance format is a 32 bit lossless compressed file format used to store High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI).  The Radiance format is for still images and can only be read in. Not saved.

The AVI (AVI_64) io plugin is defined as:

AVI     AVI Files (*.avi) | *.avi | avi AVI Movie (Plugin) - The AVI format is used for Video for Windows.  Only 24-bit depth is supported

These are from AM version 19.5F2 64bit. These specifications may have changed over the years/versions.

The information I have is that AVI has no standard way to support the bit depth and the Meta data to specify what it contains for HDR. Below are the formats typically used for HDR Video.

Container format	Codec	Features
MP4	HEVC (H.265), AV1	Widely supported, with excellent compatibility for HDR across streaming services, TVs, and mobile devices. It can hold dynamic HDR metadata (like HDR10+ and Dolby Vision).
MKV	HEVC (H.265), AV1, VP9	A versatile, open-source container that provides robust support for modern codecs, multiple audio tracks, and subtitles.
MOV	ProRes, HEVC	Developed by Apple, this format is standard in professional video editing workflows and supports high bit depths and HDR color spaces.

 Now that is not to say that an MP4 with HDR video couldn't be run through a converter and be encapsulated in an AVI shell, but who know what if anything would be compatible to read/display it.

I would not expect the Radience error to be generated from an AVI file, since the AVI io Plug in is restricted to 24 bit and would most likely kick it out on that basis.

Theoretically: tif/tiff (TIFF), exr (OpenEXR), hdr (Radience HDR), psd (photoshop), avif (AVIF) and jxl (JPEG XL) can be HDR images. 

AM version 19.5F2 supports reading JPEGXL, Tif/Tiff, OpenEXR, PSD, HDR

Are you sure that you have none of the above image file types in the project?

 

Following @robcat2075 suggestion, I know that VLC can extract individual frames from a supported video. If you have VLC and need instructions on how to do it, let me know and I will direct you to the YouTube videos I learned from.

 

[Madfox]

@Ganthofer: 

What exact version number have you tried rendering images with the AVI?

Not sure. The usual settings I always use.

 

Did the AVI work in any project previously? And if yes, what version AM (number and letter)

As soon as I load the projectfile I get the radiance error. Then the avi file has become transparant.
I can reload it one time, after rendering it is goone again.

Does the AVI currently play outside of AM (z.b. Video player, VLC, ... ???)

Yes. Except Windows Media Player.
 

Do you have VLC or something that shows the video data? example from VLC

See one.

 

can I get a copy of the AVI (perhaps post it on your webpage temporarily) to test in the current 19.5F2 ?
 

I made an download for the skyani.avi (zip file).
May take some time to load (0.99Gb).


 

[Ganthofer]

26 minutes ago, Madfox said:

What exact version number have you tried rendering images with the AVI?

Not sure. The usual settings I always use.

@Madfox

I am requesting the AM Version number.   z.b. current version is 19.5 F 2 it is displayed from the Help  > About AnimationMaster and/or NetRnderServer

 

27 minutes ago, Madfox said:

I made an download for the skyani.avi (zip file).

I see that you are in the process of uploading the zipped file. I will check again later.

[Madfox]

[Ganthofer]

@Madfox - with the AVI you provided, I can reproduce the issue in a Chor. It occurs at 18:06 (V19.5F2 and V15.0j+) and is repeatable. This also appears to be where the sky turns white in your video online. In 15.0j+ I get the same error you did. In 19.5F2, I get "Error Loading String: 2118".

Since it happens at the same point in the AVI (18:06) on 3 AM versions and 2 different PC's, my guess is a problem with the AVI file.

 

Since you are using a 24bit uncompressed AVI, extracting the frames and using an image sequence in place of the AVI would be equal size wise. And you would have a wider selection of formats, even lossless compressed, which would of course use less space.

 

I have not tried it in Netrender yet.

 

I have yet to generate or find another AVI of similar size and also some different codecs maybe a lossless compressed version to see if they also fail, which would point towards an issue with the AVI io plugin or something else within AM.

 

Where did you get this AVI from, or did you render it in AM direct to uncompressed AVI , or ???

I find Rendering direct to AVI from AM to be a bit finicky(unreliable). 

Since you mention you are using Netrender for the project, what are you using to create the movie files from the image sequences?

I was successful in extracting all the frames from the provided AVI, then import as an Image Sequence and apply as a decal to a patch (or patches). Then dropped the display model in a chor and render frame images. I also rendered direct to AVI but used the Microsoft Video 1 and not uncompressed (seems more stable/reliable maybe). 

[Madfox]

@Ganthofer Thanks for your througly comment in explaining the radiance error.
It seems to me the best solution will be to add the screen animation as png files.
That way the animation continues to the end without stopping.

A bit contruary to my idea an avi file is simpler, but I'm counting on a less powerfull computer as I now have. 
Or maybe it has to do with the codec i'm using.
for the image convertion I use ImageToAvi 1.0.05
Usual I prefer uncompressed images, but t hen the avi grows into Gb.
Codec Avi MPG4 seems to do it fine and gives a much smaller file of some 20Mb.

[Ganthofer]

@Madfox There are some multi image file formats that are supported by AM. TIFF is an example. I have not used a TIF/TIFF file in literally decades. I'll have to check if Gimp or Krita can save to multi image TIFF format and test if it works. Anyway, it's on my list of things to try.