Choose import sequence, or individual files, or both

NAaT

i'd like the ability to tell Watchtower when it encounters a folder full of sequentially named image files whether to import those files as a sequence, or or as individual stills. Ideally, i'd be able to check "both," and Watchtower would create a bin with the sequence AND the stills.

Sir_Ivan

To clarify, you want to get a pop-up that will ask you how to import images? And this pop-up should appear each time when possible image sequence is encountered?

NAaT Ideally, i'd be able to check "both," and Watchtower would create a bin with the sequence AND the stills.

Why would you like to import one set of images both as sequence and still images?

NAaT

Take a look at how i do my videos:

https://youtu.be/FkhhbNIFE5o?t=514

In this section, i show a tile rotating on the board. Then two elements pop onto the top of the board. Then the blue pawn moves to another section. Then it moves back.

When i photographed these images, i used a standard stop motion animation process: click, move, click, move, etc. But when i built this section of the video, only part of it (the tile rotating) needed to play back as a smooth sequence. The other images needed to change only as i spoke about them. They're meant to stay on screen much longer.

So right now, the way i use Watchtower is this: i point it to my footage folder. Watchtower imports everything and puts it in bins. (Nice!) But it imports everything as sequences. So when i need to use the images from a bin, i need to additionally import all the images again, manually, as individual pictures. It would be great if i could click the Folder button, select a folder, and have the option at that point to import as sequences, import as separate images, or both.

Sir_Ivan

NAaT Thank you for explanation. Why don't you want to use Hold frame in Premiere Pro? This way you won't have bloated up project: only one sequence clip, without additional still images. You can hold frame for as much as you need and if you will use it quite a lot you can assign shortcut to it in Keyboard Shortcuts.

On a side topic: what is your stop motion setup? I've did stop motion animation about 10 years ago (oh wow time passes by) and used conjunction of Dragonframe, DSLR connected to MacBook and voice commands to make a photo. I'm not sure that you need Dragonframe, but voice commands saved me a lot of time.
Also there is Stop Motion Convert extension by Kamil Pekala. As I understood there is a technique where you shoot video and doing all stop motion live. After that you cut phases you need for an animation. Extension above automates it.

NAaT

Part of the issue is that Add Frame Hold doesn't work as advertised. Try this:

Drag an image sequence to the timeline
Decide that you want to hold the first frame. So position the playhead at the beginning of the clip, right click, and choose "Add Frame Hold."

Expected: PPro should split the sequence into two pieces: the first piece should be the first frame of the sequence as a held frame that you can stretch across the timeline for as long as you want. The second piece is the rest of the sequence.

Actual: PPro obliterates the rest of the sequence and makes the entire thing show the first frame. So you have to click and drag the sequence in from a Bin a second time to get image 2 onward (and possibly resize/reposition the clip to match image 1). To my mind, it's a lot more straightforward to drag image 1 from the Bin, stretch it past the point where i need image 2, make a cut, and then alt-drag image 2 into the second clip so it inherits the position and scale of image 1. Repeat. (If i'm insane to do it this way, please let me know!)

With the style of video i produce, "held frames" are the rule, not the exception. It's more rare that i'll need to play a sequence of images at speed to show an animation, and much more common that i hold on an image and blather on about some board game rule for a sentence or two, before changing the image. If i were to use held frames on a sequence, i would constantly be zooming waaay in on the tiny, short sequence to hold frames, and then waaaay out to stretch them over my vo. Then zoom waaaay back in, hold a frame, then waaaaay back out. Sounds time consuming!

i'll check out Dragonframe and Stop Motion Convert - thanks for the tips! What i do is not 24 or 12 fps in the traditional sense... it's just sequential images held over a vo, with very occasional bursts of motion. i switched from a DSLR to my iPhone a few months ago. i just position the elements on my table, and then click to take a picture with my remote shutter button so that i don't have to touch the camera. i'm using the Pro Camera app for stills, and Filmic Pro for video, because i can manually set the white balance in each. (And Filmic Pro gives me a clean hud-free feed, so i can stream with it if i need to)

Sir_Ivan

NAaT try Insert Frame Hold Segment, it does exactly what you need:

splits sequence in 3 parts (not 2): sequence before, hold frame, sequence after
hold frame has a default duration of 2 seconds. It can't be changed apparently.

Filmic Pro is amazing, Pro Camera I will check it out. Thank you for sharing your workflow!

NAaT

Have you given any further thought to adding this feature to Watchtower, Sir_Ivan?

Sir_Ivan

NAaT I have feature request for allowing to choose type of folder (sequence/flatten), when it appears inside already existing watch-folder, but I don't think I will provide dialog for choosing how to import specific file sequence.

Did you try Insert Frame Hold Segment?

NAaT

Yes - it's not suitable for my purposes. As it stands now, i use Watchtower to import all of the sequences into Bins, but then i have to hit CTRL+I in each Bin and explicitly import the individual photo files as well, because i need both. i do a lot of picking and choosing between frames, because i make stop motion videos, and doing it on the timeline with Insert Frame Hold Segment makes it even more tedious than being able to see all of the frames laid out in thumbnail view inside a Bin.

Sir_Ivan

So editing happens more in a bin, rather than on a timeline, right?
I wonder, do you need to use image sequence at all? From what I understand, still images are more important than sequence in your workflow. You can just drop whole bin on a timeline and images will be laid out in sequential order.
It is always possible to change still duration to one frame in Premiere Preferences.

NAaT

You can watch me work here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M20Qx8TRN9U

Sir_Ivan

To be honest, I still don't understand why you don't want to use Insert Frame Hold Segment (don't mistake it with Add Frame Hold).

Here:
https://youtu.be/M20Qx8TRN9U?t=3668
you already have playhead at frame you want to hold, so instead of cutting manually, looking for the same frame in project bin, then dragging it in the timeline you could just use Insert Frame Hold Segment and you will have your sequence cut at playhead position and a hold frame clip will be inserted (I see it give 2 seconds of duration, which is pretty great I think).

NAaT

If i use Insert Frame Hold Segment, everything will stay purple, and i won't be able to tell at a glance which frames are static and where my animated sequences are, which will make it far more difficult to navigate the timeline by sight.

Sir_Ivan

NAaT I would just assign a shortcut to label that represents hold frame segment. This way two consecutive shortcut presses instead of looking around and dragging. Try it, I think you will like it.
I also like to label hold frames 🙂

NAaT

i drag a sequence onto the timeline. It's 4 frames long, so i have to zoom way in on it because it's so small.

i want it to hold on frame 3. i use Insert Frame Hold Segment. It holds for the default of two seconds (60 frames). i have to zoom back out.

i adjust the frame hold segment duration default to less than 2 seconds. The next sequence, i DO want it to hold for 2 seconds. And on and on.

Sir_Ivan

You don't need to zoom in, because you already see what frame you are at in Program monitor.
And from your video I see that you still change duration of hold frame, each time it is different for specific scenario, right? So I don't see a contradiction to your workflow here.

NAaT

You know, nobody needs Watchtower. Why don't they just click buttons to create Bins, and import their assets into them?

Sir_Ivan

Alas, I see I failed to persuade you. In any case it was great for me to learn more about your workflow.