AllanADL | 4 years ago | 14 comments | 1.6K views
G'day
I have owned Bluff Titler a long while. I used it to great success as intros to teaching presentations in Keynote for Mac years ago working in a University. Then it went unused for many years and now it is just the program for such a time as this. Thanks to the Pandemic, every place of worship is turning to Facebook and Youtube for LIVE streaming and there is a need to have animated lower thirds in Live Streaming software. The program making a huge impact is Ecamm Live for Mac and you can drop on as an overlay .movs in Apple ProRes 4444 codec and it plays the animated lower third (LT) with transparency over a live camera feed. You can do these LTs in Keynote for mac (Mac version of PPT) However the designs in BT are very slick so I want to use them as well. When I updated my BT version and purchased BixPack 35 with plans to buy more then exported a Lower third file - I have struck a roadblock
BT exports these videos out as AVI uncompressed with Alpha Channels which are not readable in Ecamm Live.
QUESTION: How can I convert the BT AVI with Alpha channel into a .mov using Apple ProRes 4444 with transparency? I hope there is a quick and inexpensive way to do this? The teachers and users of Ecamm cant be expected to purchase and learn such programs as FCP or Premier.
I hope someone can help me with this please I would really appreciate it?
Regards
Allan Carrington
Now that BluffTitler supports external video encoders, including FFmpeg, it's relatively easy to add support for transparent MOVs. It will be added in the next version. Thank you for your request!
michiel, 4 years ago
Fantastic! this is the magic of Blufftitler.
Jesus, 4 years ago
G'day again
Sorry I did not respond sooner to your help everyone. I really appreciate it. Maybe I am doing something wrong but is there a way for this community to notify me when my post gets responses please. I am afraid I am too dependent on notifications ?
Michiel thanks mate as usual for supporting this great software. I don't mean to be pushy but is there any anticipated date for this upgrade. I have access to a large community of live streamers who will be very interested in Bluff Titler once you can export directly to .movs with transparency. They are all looking for transparent lower thirds and this will make Bluff Titler a good choice IMHO. ?
Will need to come back to the community more often I think.
regards
Allan
AllanADL, 4 years ago
Hi again
Wow just purchased BixPack36 and updated to BT V15. More excited about the new version of the software. I now have to ask an update to my question of 3 months ago. i believe in V15 of BT I can export a show directly into a .mov file in Apple ProRes 4444 with an alpha level i.e. transparency. Am I correct please and if so could some one please answer some dumb questions and walk me through the settings, I have tried to follow some of the help pages on Video export but maybe I am too much of a "newbie" For example
1. DRIVERS: There are three choices on QuickTime MOV Codec in the Options Which one do I use. QTRLE, ProRes ks or ProRes aw. I cant seem to find an answer on the web
2. Do I need an external encoder and if so which one please.
I have been successfully achieving the file type I want for transparent Video Bumpers on my mac for the last three months thanks to suggestions from this community.It is a two step process. AVI's with compression out of V14 BT and then conversion in Shutter Encoder. The results are excellent
However if I can get BT to export the correct format I will be way ahead on saving time and effort.
Thanks in advance for the help
Regards
Allan
P.S. I just discovered another problem in my V15. I opened a Lower Third I created successfully in V14 and edited the text for a colleague's details and it runs fine in BT but when exported as an Uncompressed AVI file with alpha channel the way I did many 3 months ago The AVI file runs blank and totally black. I have placed the BT file and a 374 mb AVI in a compressed file in my drop box. I hope that helps. All my Video Bumpers appeared to be broken until I find a solution
AllanADL, 4 years ago
AllanADL, I tried exporting your LEN KINGSTON show with an alpha channel and experienced no problems. So there's nothing wrong with your .bt show file.
The size of your LEN KINGSTON.avi tells me that you are using compression. Maybe the codec you use has trouble working with 64 bit apps. I advise you to export uncompressed.
michiel, 4 years ago
Hi again Michel
Sorry that it has taken a while for me to respond I finally figured out why I wasn’t getting alerts of posts to my conversations in the Bluff Titler Community. It had my now closed University email address of about 6 years ago when I retired. DUH sorry
I have also taken almost a week to double check everything as I really want to solve this and get QT Movies in Apple Pro Res 4444 with transparency directly from BT. It would save a lot of time to the way I have been getting there with another decoder.
This is the situation as I see it and I am happy to be wrong.
1. UNCOMPRESSED AVI’s in HIGH QUALITY VIDEO
I cant get High Quality AVI videos exported rhat work. I think there is a problem with V15 export in HQ (High Quality) Video. The video below shows the same BT file exported first as normal with a warning to change to High Quality which in fact works and the uncompressed AVI works as required.
However when I change the Setting to High Quality as the Pop up window recommends, the Uncompressed AVI exports as only a black screen.
I recorded the process and setup a small quick demo to show you what I mean. Please visit YouTube to see the problem youtu.be... If I am doing something wrong mate I need help to identify my mistakes and get it fixed at least then I can use HQ Uncompressed AVIs then use Shutter Encoder as I have for the last 3-4 months
2. QT Movs with Transparency - Apple Pro Res 4444
I have followed the instructions on the web page you recommended outerspace-software.com...
I think I got it correctly downloaded and installed. I have uploaded a couple of composite images of screenshots that might help you understand what I did. I visit this page to get the Zip file ffmpeg.zeranoe.com...
Please help me understand this Alert Notice - is it something we should be concerned about.
ffmpeg.zeranoe.com will close on Sep 18, 2020, and all builds will be removed. If you're using Zeranoe FFmpeg Builds in your product, please ensure that you have a hosting strategy in place by the 18th. Thank you to everyone who supported the project along the way!
I have two slides of the pop up windows of the procedure I used but none of the exported QTs work on a PC nor a Mac.
Please tell me exactly how to set up the options window. I cannot find the setting in the second url of more info which asks for the LAV Audio and Video Decoders … they are not on the list of choices.
I am confident I have installed the ffmeg.exe decoder as you recommended. But not sure which QT Codec to uses (see screenshot 3 on the first of my pictures.
I hopw this is clear enough and I am keen to troubleshoot this until we can get transparent movs directly exported from Bluff Title
Regards
Allan
AllanADL, 4 years ago
Michel
I could only upload only one image (picture) it was the correct width but I couldn't see it with my post so I will do it another way. This dropbox link has a zipped folder with two compilation images of the screenshots of my pop up and setting windows. Please download and look at them. Hopefully they will help
Regards
Allan
dropbox.com...
AllanADL, 4 years ago
AllanADL, choose the menu item SETTINGS > HIGH QUALITY to switch to high quality. This requires more video memory, which can be a problem on older graphics cards. Switch to normal or low quality if there are issues.
The SETTINGS > OPTIONS > DRIVERS tab has a video decoding and a video encoding box.
The decoding box is used when you play a video inside BluffTitler, so this has nothing to do with exporting. You do not have to touch this when there are export issues.
The encoding box is used when exporting as MP4, WebM, WMV, QuickTime MOV or Animated GIF. So you do not have to touch this as well when you export as uncompressed AVI. I advise to stick to uncompressed AVI. Only switch to MOV if your video editor/player does not support this.
BluffTitler offers 3 MOV codecs. Only way to find out which one works for you is to try all of them. Unfortunately there's no logic involved in compatibility testing.
michiel, 4 years ago
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