Problem exporting animations

Bugs
1

Hello everyone!
I started using TD some days ago and I have some problems exporting my animations (I have the commercial version).

I tried to export my animation with H.264 Codec via MovieFileOutTop and then with “export movie” but the exported video glitches and has always some weird artefacts/pixel on it and sometimes the audio glitches a little bit. I followed numerous tutorials. I think there is a problem with the codec because also MPEG4 and others doesn’t work properly. I have a RTX 3070 (laptop) with a recent driver installed so I don’t think that there is an hardware problem and i usually use other programs like blender, after effects; etc… without any problems.

Immagine 2024-08-14 202533
Immagine 2024-08-14 2025331920×1078 72.1 KB

I tried everything. I changed bitrate, resolution, quality and almost every parameter that were involved but that doesn’t work. I tried also to export the default simple scene but I still have this problem.
What can I do?

(Sorry, English isn’t my first language)

2

Hi @Kamilex,

sorry for your issues, I’m assuming you are using TouchDesigner 2023.11880?
Another question I have, does it look like this when played back in another software or also when loaded back into TouchDesigner?

cheers
Markus

3

Yes, i’m using that version. Yes, i tried to import the video in Premiere but i have the same issues.

4

Hi @Kamilex,

thank you! Would it be possible to share the video that the above image was taken from? It will help us approach the issue.

Thanks
Markus

5

@snaut Yes, of course!

I can’t upload the video here in the forum so I’m posting a WeTransfer link where you can download it.

If you scroll through the video, you can see the problem I was talking about. I usually use QuickTime Player, but it happens with other players as well, even on the phone.

LINK: Unique Download Link | WeTransfer

Thanks,
Camilla

6

Hi @Kamilex,

I can see the issue when scrubbing the movie in VLC for example - but don’t see it during regular playback - is that the same for you?
Also i see artifacts when exporting H264 and scrubbing but MPEG 4 doesn’t seem to exhibit these. Just looking for a short term solution for you to work around this issue.

cheers
Markus

1 Like
7

Hi @snaut

I’ve done many export tests in H.264, and in some videos, I could see the pixels even during playback, while other videos were exported completely white (it’s possible that I set the wrong parameters since I tried many different settings). Unfortunately, I’ve deleted the videos where this issue was visible.

I tried to export a more complex scene. It’s true, MPEG4 works. I initially thought it wasn’t working because it was choppy when I tried to play it on the player, but that was likely due to the large file size (over 2 GB). I solved the MPEG4 issue by importing the video into Premiere Pro and exporting it again, although this is a very temporary solution.

Thanks

8

Have you made your recordings with the real-time flag turned off? This should be turned off generally for exporting movies so any dropped frames do not result in jumpy, non-smooth exported movies.

1 Like
9

Yes, I did it, but thanks for the advice anyway.

1 Like
10

Hi @Kamilex,

it’s logged as a bug and we are having a look at it.

cheers
Markus

1 Like
11

@snaut
Thank you so much for your availability! Let me know.

Camilla

12

@snaut

Hello, I wanted to give you a small update.
Sometimes MPEG4 doesn’t work as well (especially in more complex videos).
But if I apply any codec conversion by using ffmpeg, these problems disappear.

As a temporary solution I’m using this script DAT chop to do the mpeg4—>h264 conversion

import os
import subprocess


print("start")
output_path = 'C:\\path\\to\\file\\prova3.mov'  

output_h264_path = output_path.replace('.mov', '_h264.mp4')


ffmpeg_command = f'ffmpeg -i "{output_path}" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -strict experimental -b:a 192k "{output_h264_path}"'


subprocess.run(ffmpeg_command, shell=True)


if os.path.exists(output_h264_path):
    os.remove(output_path)  

print(f"Conversion completed. File H.264 saved in: {output_h264_path}")
13

Hi @Kamilex,

thank you for the update! We’ll update here as soon as we have something.

cheers
Markus