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Preview could not be loaded for (Cinema) DNG files

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#11 Colin
Just got your last message after I'd already posted again.  Thanks.  I'll look into using LR in the future.  Because of the way I process and store my timelapses, Bridge and ACR have been much easier for me in the past even though I use LR for all of my other photography.  I also realized what you wrote about the white balance not showing up if there weren't changed values.  Although in the last sequence that I just got working and wrote about in my last post, the values did show up once I got everything correct.  The camera was set to auto WB and so the values change over the sequence and LRT sees and displays that now.  Except for with the first image.  It seems like sometimes LRT sees the WB value as "as shot" and therefor unchanging, and sometimes it sees it as actual color temperature values.  When I get LRT to read the WB correctly, I noticed that in ACR, it no longer displays the WB as "as shot" but instead as "custom" but with the same color temperature and tint.  Also, the graduated filters that weren't showing up were not empty, they were filters that I had edited and applied transitions to.  Cheers.
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#12 Gunther
Colin, it's important that you follow the workflow that LRTimelapse provides. You should not start working in Bridge, set stars or do first edits, because this will most likely mess up things later, since LRTimelapse cannot do its initializations.

Please ALWAYS load any sequence into LRTimelapse first, before doing anything in bridge. If you already did, use "Metadata Initialize" to get a defined start in LRT. Wait until the Exif Data is loaded too.

Then go through the first workflow row from left to right. No you can go to Bridge or (preferably) Lightroom.
There are strong reasons why the workflow is like it is. Mostly because otherwise you might expect weird behavior like you did.

Important thing about the WB: LRTimelapse does not interpret the White Balance. That means, LRTimelapse will set default values for WB when initializing. After the first Workflow row, when you are editing the keyframes, you can set it back to "As shot", if you want, the RAW converter will then provide the values. I always suggest to manually fine tune the WB based on those settings.
Once you edited one keyframe in Lightroom, you should use the "Sync" Script to bring the settings to the next: http://forum.lrtimelapse.com/Thread-how-...ync-script
If you use Bridge, there is no sync script. Just using copy/paste might will overwrite any "Holy Grail" abjustments, that LRT did before. One strong reason not to use Bridge.
Then continue editing the next keyframe based on the settings of the first - etc.

If you follow my workflow (it's explained in depth here: https://lrtimelapse.com/workflow on the tab "Visual Workflow" - everything will work out and you'll save a lot of time trying to fix things that LRTimelapse would normally do automaticaly.
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#13 Colin
Thanks Gunther.  I guess I'll try a LR workflow.  It has always said in the LRT support materials though that ACR and Bridge are also a viable option.  I use LR for my regular photography and love it but I prefer not to use if for video stuff.  I don't need a database program, just the raw developer, and I worry that LR wasn't designed for the hundreds of thousands of frames of timelapses and video that I shoot every year.  That's alarming about the potential for errors with copying and pasting settings.  That's the method I've used for years now and never had any problem.  Bummer.

Your tip about using "metadata initialize" is very useful.  I remember there used to be some sort of import and initialize button in a previous version and since then I've been wondering at what point LRT initializes the files.  

I know this should go in feature requests, but if you ever come across a way to show camera previews or generate quick previews upon initialization, I think it would be really helpful for setting keyframes on cinema dng sequences.  Also, if there is ever a way to incorporate the point curve!  Contrary to what some people say, there is simply no way to accomplish the same thing with the parametric curve or the sliders and it's a significant limitation.  I'm sure there are good reasons why it can't be done but...

Thanks again for all of your help!
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#14 Gunther
Hi Colin,
like I said, Bridge works, but since you don't have the sync script there, copy/paste will overwrite any former holy grail and deflicker adjustments. LRT will correct them later, but you will be editing slightly darker or brighter images. This might not be noticeable in many cases, but it can be in some.

If you are afraid of having too many images in your catalog (I don't care too much) - just remove the time lapse folders from lightroom when you are done. Any edits will be in the XMP files anyway, so you can always add them again to the catalog and will not loose anything. That's what I do all the time.

LRT will initialize when it first loads a sequence. it will try to preserve former edits, but it's always better to do this as a first step.

Normally camera previews are there for all image formats where a preview is embedded. For Cinema DNG the only way would be to develop the images (like the visual previews) and that takes some time. If you want, just activate the visual previews right after loading. Then you will see the previews and can judge where to put the keyframes. You don't even have to wait for them to complete, just scrub to some position then that one will be prioritized in preview creation. This is much faster then have to wait for the whole sequence to get previews, especially since they will have to be redone after editing/auto transition.

Parametric curve can be used, just not animated. So just put it on the very first keyframe, then do the regular workflow and you will have it on the whole sequence. The reason why it can't be animated is that you can change then number of points etc. so there is no definied start and end like for all other 1-dimensional tools.
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#15 Colin
Hi Gunther,
Thanks for all of the clarifications.  Good to know about the holy grail/deflicker issues with Bridge and also about the point curve.  In the future would there be any way to animate the point curve with a fixed number of points?  Or even just the two default points?

Thanks for your thoughts on using LR.  There are some other potential issues for me using LR for this work.  I won't use my normal catalogue for video/timelapse work so that requires then maintaining separate catalogues.  Also the "keep presets with the catalogue" and "automatically write changes to xmp metadata" are very handy for me in my stills workflow.  I've seen before that you've recommended keeping those unchecked for LRT compatibility so that would require turning those settings, which apply across catalogues, on and off every time I switch catalogs from stills to timelapses/video.  It sounds like I'll have to switch though anyway.  Or urge Adobe to implement a sync script into Bridge.    

I'm still experiencing erratic behavior not caused by incorrect workflow.  I have processed about 8 sequences now and every time there is different weird behavior.  I start by initializing all metadata for the sequence, changing the white balance handling and saving.  The "sort by filename" box gets unchecked every time I reload the sequence.  Also, virtually every time I reload a sequence, a random new keyframe is added somewhere, usually the frame right before the last keyframe.  And no matter when or how I change the white balance handling, it always takes me several passes of changing the white balance in ACR before LRT stops setting it back to some incorrect white balance.  Can't seem to find any logic to how or why this happens.  I do the exact same thing and eventually LRT accepts the white balance.  But the first few times it ignores the white balance that I give the keyframed images and turns them an awful purple.  I change the WB handling and save, change the WB in ACR, reload the sequence, apply transitions, and they're all purple again.  On the last sequence I processed, LRT would not recognize the correct (as shot) WB for the final keyframe, which was the last image of the sequence.  It read the other 3 keyframes accurately, and applied the transitions correctly, but not the last one.  In the end, I had to go in and manually type in the correct color temperature for the last frame and then everything worked perfectly.  So weird.

Visual previews cannot be generated when I first load the sequence until after I initialize the metadata and save.  I guess that's expected.  I also can't stop the visual previews from generating once they've started without switching folders.

Nothing really you need to address here.  I'm able to accomplish what I need to at this point.  Just thought you might want the extra info.  I think more and more people will continue trying to use LRT for cinema dng from a various cameras.  Lots of thanks for all of your time!
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#16 Gunther
I will try, if I can detect the WB handling for those files right away.
It's correct that you should let the sequence initialize, then save, before you can activate the Visual previews.
You can turn them off at any time just by clicking the button again.
Sorting by filename is usually not needed, if the exif data has been loaded. In that case LRT prefers the date-time sorting, which is much more accurate.

The problem with Bridge is that it is constantly saving to the metadata whenever you do something. That's as if Lightroom is set to automatically write XMP. You don't get a defined workflow then and strange things can happen, like you experienced, since Bridge might be just overwriting changes from LRT.

I'd not use a separate Lightroom catalog. Just use your regular catalog for Time lapse, after you are done with the sequence, just remove it again from the catalog. I'm dealing with 200K photos in one big catalog and never had issues with that.
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#17 Gunther
Another thing: would it be possible, that you send me a sequence of say 100 frames to do some more tests? Thanks!
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#18 Colin
Really good to know that bit about Bridge's saving behavior and the "automatically write changes to xmp metadata" setting in LR.

That makes sense too about the "sort by filename" option getting turned off.  Although when I reload the sequence and that option gets unchecked, the photos end up out of order.  Oddly, all the keyframed images, except for the last one, get grouped together up at the top.  Maybe another issue with these weird .dng files that DJI is producing.

Also, I try to click the stop button to end the rendering of visual previews but it won't stop unless I switch over to another sequence.  

All minor issues though.  I'll email you a link to a larger image sequence.

Thanks,
Colin
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#19 Gunther
Ist the Date/Time column in the LRT table properly filled? Then sorting will happen on this column, not on the filename (if you don't click "Sort by Filename". You might force resort by turning this checkbox on and off once.

Which "stop" button? When you click again on the Visual Previews button it will switch back to the (blank) regular previews of your sequence and stop the generation of the visual previews. Maybe the few ones currently being processed will be finished, so give them a moment. But the process will then stop. No need to load another folder.

Thanks for sending me a larger sequence.
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