Video slideshow assistance

[spacman75]

Hi all

I am trying to create a slideshow using sub 10 second video clips and have a camera move between all the clips.

I have recomposed each video clip into a Polaroid style frame and have used the loopout expression to continuously loop the videso.

My main composition is two minutes 45 seconds long and I have 25 clips.

I have tried to find a YouTube tutorial for video slideshows but all the ones I found were using photos. All the videos I found have each photo composition lasting the whole of the main composition so does that mean I have to do the same with my video compositions as well and if so how do I do this because I have cut the videos down from a much longer video and only want the selected elements .

I am still learning after-effects so could do with some advice. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Keith

[Mylenium]

You can move and trim the layer bars as needed. I recommend you look it up in the help.

Mylenium

[spacman75]

Hi.

I have trimmed each composition to the length of the video already. If that's what you mean.

Keith

[Mylenium]

Then I'm not quite clear what you are having issues with. Care to elaborate? Are you saying that the pre-comps don't actually loop/ continue as would be required or is it something else?

Mylenium

[spacman75]

As you can see from the below image each video is less than 10 seconds long so how how do I do go back and forwards with the camera through the different layers.

https://ibb.co/By4kpmM

[ScooterD76]

spacman75  wrote

how do I do go back and forwards with the camera through the different layers.

https://ibb.co/By4kpmM

Am i understanding correctly, you want each video to go forwards the camera and fade out to the next?

You can acheive this with scale and opacity keyframes...

[spacman75]

No sorry you are not understanding what I'm wanting! Take a look at this video tutorial but replace the photographs with short video
3D Picture Gallery Slideshow in After Effects | After Effects Tutorial | Effect For You - YouTube

When this guy lays out the images in his main composition they all extend from the beginning of the composition to the end. Using photographs is easy compared to this because you are not restricted on the time for each composition. I want to choose clips at random from the list of the clips shown in the image.

I am putting together a short promotional video for a local kite surfing school and I have got drone footage of people kite surfing as well as some ground footage when it was too windy for the drone.

[Peru Bob]

Use a stills captured from the videos in place of the videos, just like the photos..  When the video comes to the center as the main video, then substitute the cut video for the captured still on the timeline.

[spacman75]

I just found this example for a expression on YouTube which should loop each video endlessly but I have just tried to extend my pre-comps to 2 minutes 45 seconds but they are not extending and I have no idea why.

loopOut(type = "cycle", numKeyframes = 0)

[spacman75]

Okay I'm using the above suggestion by going into each video clip and typing in a different looping value in main. Hopefully this should alleviate the problem. I am going to college tonight for my final lesson and we were meant to have our projects finished by tonight. Not sure I will get there but at least I will be well on my way to finishing it.

Thank you to all who have offered their advice in this thread.

[Towerguy]

Hi. Put each of your Polaroid videos into its own precomposition which is 2 m 45s long. Make a main composition (2:45) and place each of the precomps into it - you will then have the video layers going from the beginning of the comp to the end.

[Warren Heaton]

Did you enable Time Remapping for your video layers?  You'll need that with the keyframes set correctly so that your loopOut expression has something to loop out when you extend the layer out point.

-Warren

[Towerguy]

Thanks Warren. I was imagining that he would make each 'pre'comp from scratch which would negate having to extend the layer (I shouldn't have changed the wording which originally said "Put each of your Polaroid videos into its own composition which is 2 m 45s long.")

[spacman75]

Hi all

Thanks very much for your help but what expression should I use? I have just used the very simple loopOut("cycle"). Can you suggest another expression I can use to extend the length of the click without slowing down at all. And some of them I have got a scale in effect so don't really want to touch that.

[Warren Heaton]

As long as it’s setup correct, loopOut works pretty well.

Try selecting a clip in the Project tab and then choose File > Interpret Footage > Main.  At the bottom of this dialog box you can set a Loop value.  Change this from 1 to 18.  That should allow you to extend the clip in a Comp for up to three minutes without an expression.

To quickly apply this to your other clips, you’ll see an option to Remember Interplation from one clip and then apply it to other clips in the same menu.