How to ignore missing frames in an image sequence?

[Molgaard]

I'm working with a JPEG image sequence, and have deleted frames frames at various points before bringing them into AE. Instead of skipping the missing frames, AE renders missing media frames in place of the ones I deleted, instead of just skipping them. Is there a way around this without having to manually rename all of the images so there are no missing numbers?

Thanks,

Molgaard

[Mylenium]

Unfortunately not. AE is quite dumb in that department If the images are at regular intervals, it would be possible to skip them using time-remapping with an expression or some time-stretch trickery, but otherwise eitehr filling in the gaps or remapping manuall is pretty much the only option.

Mylenium

[Rick Gerard]

Batch rename is a very simple process in Bridge, Windows and on the Mac. If your sequence works with the removed frames then you can simply batch rename the files with sequential numbers. It will take you about two minutes.

[erikmalk]

Just a note on batch renaming if anyone is using a camera raw sequence that relies on .xmp sidecar files (for example with an LRTimelapse workflow). You can rename in Lightroom, but you need to make sure you read the xmp metadata into your LR catalog before renaming, then after rename, you need to "save metadata to files" for the full sequence again. Alternatively you could also rename your original .xmp files in a bridge batch rename to make the new dng sequence names. I have used both rename options successfully, but I am now using "force alphabetic order" method descibed both others here as it is quickest option. 

[rtijn]

I can't believe this took me 12 years from the moment you posted this, to find this out. I've relied on sketchy third party software to rename my files..

[defaultp2ikbdl2l729]

You can also select "Force alphabetical order" when selecting your image sequence on Import File dialogue box. No need to rename. It will force the frames together as if there's no missing frames.

[Guonderland]

Waht Can I do to fix the missing frame if Im already in a imported session ?

[patrickabroad78]

Check the "Force Alphabetical Order" box when importing.  (On a Mac, it's right under the "Targa Sequence" box that you have to check to import the sequence).

[maximiliann_com]

Thanks - this worked a charm.

[mistigrif51231268]

@patrickabroad78I can't check this box (it's grey and not black) Please help me !

[patrickabroad78]

Hmmm... not really sure. Off the top of my head, make sure that BOTH "as [file type] sequence" and "Force Alphabetical Order". I think the second one is greed out until to check the sequence box.

Maybe post a screen shot for me to look at?

[mistigrif51231268]

No, I tried nearly everything, but it won't work. Thanks for your fast answer!

[patrickabroad78]

Try clicking on only one file in the folder rather than selecting all of them.

[mistigrif51231268]

Thanks, you're amazing! Have a nice evening

[mistigrif51231268]

I have an other problem now: I have made everything like everytime but now there is only this image while saving/rendering the file:T

There is still sound in the finished video, but not the correct image. I also tried to load the immages again and again, but it won't work Do you have an idea perhaps?

[mistigrif51231268]

Ok now it worked, but I don't know why (I only did the same again). If you know why it would be cool to say me, if not it's no problem. Thanks

[patrickabroad78]

Hey, I saw that you had fixed it so figured I'd wait until I had some time to answer you.

Honestly, I don't really know, considering that it worked a different time but I'll make a couple guesses just to help.

First, obviously make sure that you selected to export video and not just audio. But I'm going to assume that wasn't it.

It may be a couple things: AE sends the file to Media Encoder for rendering, which is another RAM intense application. If you happen to have other applications open as well (e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) you can quickly find that you have maxed out the RAM on your comouter. You may need to close other applications, and maybe even AE, to give Media Encoder enough RAM to correctly process your video. Monitor the RAM use the next time you render a video to see if you need to take these steps.

Do you use an external hard drive? Sometimes the external hard drive is simply not fast enough to complete the RAM requests from both AE and Media Encoder at the same time. Again, try letting Media Encoder do its thing on its own without operating other applications and, if you notice that your videos start coming out okay, then you know it's a memory issue.

But I'm sure someone smarter than me will point out that it's simply some box you have to check... Good luck!

[andrejsg75277556]

Thank you. Still works in 2019!

[ben.bland]

For what it's worth, I had a similar problem and got round it with a mix of different settings. Selecting "Alphabetical Order" seemed to work on some folders and was unnecessary on others, despite being very similar files and folders.

In some cases, the sequences imported with thousands of missing frames. In these case, I was able to select "Alphabetical Order" and another check box for "Multiple Sequences". This tried to import the JPEG sequence thousands of times but I was able to just stop the import after the first sequence came through, and it worked a treat.

[anttir57345984]

I got a sequence of 100K frames.

i am trying to replace some of those with different renders randomly, since AE can not just put a transparent in there I need to find a workaround.

difference matte didnt work because there is a scrolling frame number to mess it up.

So only thing to do is to render 100000 blank alpha frames with same name and write over the frames with the footage i got.