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Disguise User Guide

Image Sequences

An Image Sequence enables the playback of a contiguous sequence of images as a video.

Enabling image sequences

Any folder inside VideoFile with a name ending in .seq will be ingested as an image sequence. As long as it matches the requirements described in this topic, it will behave just like a conventional video file.

Supported Formats:

  • TGA

  • TIFF

  • DPX

8-bit and 10-bit is supported where applicable. All formats support the use of alpha channel (with the exception of 10-bit DPX), and any framerate.

Although other formats may work, only those listed above have received enough testing to formally support.

Sequence Requirements

Alongside supported formats, there are rules that must be followed when creating image sequences for them to be recognised by . These rules are in place to ensure reliable and predictable playback performance.

  • The name of images within the folder must end with their frame number. For example: My_video_00035.tif would be the 36th frame in the sequence.

  • As an additional precaution, the name of the images should be prefixed with the folder name.

  • Eg: My_video.seq\My_video_00035.tif.

  • The numbering must start from 0.

  • There must be no gaps in the numbers between frame 0 and the final frame of the sequence.

  • File formats cannot be mixed within the same image sequence folder.

Ingesting image sequences

Image sequences will always be imported at 30fps. The playback fps can be changed in the clip properties.

Additional frames can be added to a sequence while is running and will be available for playback immediately. It is not recommended to play back the sequence while receiving extra frames as this will affect playback.

In much the same way, gaps in image sequences can be filled in while is running and once complete the sequence will become available.

Frames cannot be removed from a sequence without first exiting the project.

Any errors in image sequence formatting will be announced by a notification.

Content management

Version, frame replace, and proxy tags behave in the same way as with regular videos, as long as the .seq portion of the folder name stays at the end.

For example: My_video_v2_frame150.seq would be a frame replacement for My_video.seq starting from frame 150. Tags are only ever applied to the .seq folders, never the image files themselves.

The rules for frame numbering are the same for frame replacements - the frames inside My_video_v2_frame150.seq must still be numbered from 0.

If a sequence is accidentally imported without .seq at the end of the file name, the several thousand image files ingested can be removed by taking the following steps:

  1. Exit the project.
  2. Add the missing .seq to the folder name.
  3. Start the project.
  4. Right-click the missing tab in the videoclips editor and select Remove Missing. After a brief pause, the images will be removed.

Performance

Due to specific performance optimisations, the preferred settings for TGA and TIFF are as follows.

TGA

  • Do not use RLE compression

  • Render at 24-bits per pixel. Only include an alpha channel if required.

TIFF

  • Use IBM PC byte order

  • Do not use LZW compression

  • Segment size should be equal to the height of the frame (this is often the default and not editable).

  • Render at 24-bits per pixel. Only include an alpha channel if required.

DPX

  • Render at 8-bits per channel unless working in a fully 10-bit pipeline.