quick! help setting up a video array?

Core Library Questions

radjudy

quick! help setting up a video array?

in Core Library Questions • 5 months ago

hi,
i am a grad stdent and have crit in a week... ive been having trouble trying to get my video project running on processing and i'm new to processing, so im not sure what's wrong.

at first i think it was a memory issue, but i increased my memory allowance in preferences.
it seems to run (as in there's no issues with the code and it opens, but then nothing happens... no screen pops up with videos...) is it still just thinking/working?

what i want to do is: start off with a video playing (compound9.mov) then i want another movie to be randomly selected from an array each time the mouse is clicked, and for it to start playing at that location (of the mouse click). ultimately i want movies to layer and crowd each other out.

here's the code that i've got so far:

import processing.video.*;

int maxMovies= 42;
int myMoviesIndex=0;
Movie[] myMovies=new Movie[maxMovies] ;

Movie firstclipMovie;
void setup() {
size (1400, 800);
frameRate (45);
background(0);
firstclipMovie = new Movie(this, "compound9.mov");
firstclipMovie.play();
myMovies=new Movie[maxMovies];

for (int i = 0; i < myMovies.length; i ++ ) {
    myMovies[i] = new Movie(this, i+1 + ".mov");
    myMovies[i].read();
    myMovies[i].play();
}

}
void movieEvent (Movie firstclipMovie) {
firstclipMovie.read ();

}

void mousePressed () {
image(myMovies[myMoviesIndex],0,0,mouseX,mouseY);

}

void draw() {
tint(255,155);
background(0);
image(firstclipMovie, 0,0, width, height);
if (mousePressed==true) {
    image(myMovies[int(random(myMoviesIndex))],0,0,mouseX,mouseY);
}
}

any and all help would be greatly appreciated! also, i am not 100% sure in what i'm doing, so please let me know where to look stuff up, too.
thanks!
--judy

Replies(33)

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

Do the movies start with "compound"? Or are the videos just numbered, with no letters whatsoever, like "1.mov"?
Because if it's A, then you forgot to add "compound" at the beginning.

- MenteCode.

radjudy

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

hi!
thanks for the reply.
the movies in the array are all 1.mov, 2.mov, etc.
the only one that isnt is compound9, which is the movie i want to start the sketch playing, that is not in the array and not part of the mouseclicked clips.
does that make sense?

what do you think my problem is?
(also, i didn't list them all individually as elements in an array because i thought the i+1 covered that. am i correct in thinking this?)

thanks for your help!

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

Oh, okay.
Ignore the last one.

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

Is there any "0.mov"?
If so, then I have spotted the problem.

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

nope, no 0.mov

but i do have 43 short clips, plus the compound.9

could it be thinking really hard?

what do you think it is?

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

The program is heavy, and it is thinking hard, but this has nothing to do with it.

Your myMoviesIndex doesn't change, so it will only play the first movie on the list.
It should be replaced with maxMovies - 1, as now the random function has something to choose from.

I'm also assuming that the "compound9.mov" plays, then it freezes on the last frame, as this is how it happens for me.
Put all the .play() stuff into draw(), and it will loop. Just a suggestion.

To sum it all up, the code should look something like this:

import processing.video.*;
int maxMovies= 42;
Movie[] myMovies=new Movie[maxMovies] ;
int rand = int(random(maxMovies));
Movie firstclipMovie;
void setup() {
size (1400, 800);
frameRate (45);
background(0);
firstclipMovie = new Movie(this, "compound9.mov");
firstclipMovie.read();
firstclipMovie.play();
for (int i = 0; i < myMovies.length; i ++ ) {
myMovies[i] = new Movie(this, i+1 + ".mov");
}
}
void mousePressed() {
rand = int(random(maxMovies));
}
void draw() {
tint(255,155);
background(0);
image(firstclipMovie, 0,0, width, height);
if(mousePressed) {
myMovies[rand].read();
myMovies[rand].play();
image(myMovies[rand],0,0,mouseX,mouseY);
}
}

I haven't tested the code, but it should give you an idea on how the program works.

- MenteCode.

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

so, i altered it to match yours, and now i've got a black screen, but none of the movies are playing....
this is progress...

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

The order of events goes like this:

Program plays "compund9.mov".
Inputs videos into list.
Once mouse is pressed, a new random value is assigned.
The program keeps replaying the randomly chosen video.

That's about it.
I hope that helped.

- MenteCode.

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

thanks so much, MenteCode.
it still isn't working, but im glad for the forward momentum, and happy someone responded.
i have a week or more to get this working, so with luck itll happen.
please do let me know if you think of anything else.
thanks again.
--j

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

I could entirely fix the issue if I were to know exactly what would need to happen.
Down to the last perk that would affect the sketch.
I'm aware that there shouldn't be too many.

From what I know is that you want a program that would play the first video, then, once the mouse is pressed, select a video at random, and play it. If the user were to click the mouse at any time, the program will overlap the previously played video with a newly selected video. The videos have to be resizable, other than "compound9.mov", which plays in the background.

Anything I missed? Ex. How many times the video should play, or should it loop.

- MenteCode.

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

would it help if i sent you a link to a dropbox with the file?
right now the display appears, black, but nothing plays on it. and clicking doesn't do anything.

ultimately, i'm going to hook it up to a gaze-tracker which is set to act as a mouse, "clicking" when one looks for a certain amount of time at one spot.

so, i have made a few video clips with some different things going on, hoping the viewer will look around. then, when they choose to focus on one thing (attracted by the color, shape, who knows) i want it to cause a new video clip to start in that location (of the eye/mouseclick).

i am not sure if i want them to keep looping or not. probably, because i think i do want them to layer.
but for right now i'd be happy if i could figure out why the videos aren't playing...

again, thanks for all your help!

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

I sorted a lot out, and you had the first part of the code correct, with the movieEvent(). I forgot about that.

Otherwise, here's the revised, and tested code.

import processing.video.*;
int maxMovies= 3;
Movie[] myMovies=new Movie[maxMovies] ;
int rand = int(random(maxMovies));
Movie firstclipMovie;
void setup() {
size (1400, 800);
frameRate (45);
background(0);
firstclipMovie = new Movie(this, "compound9.mov");
for (int i = 0; i < myMovies.length; i ++ ) {
myMovies[i] = new Movie(this, i+1 + ".mov");
}
}
void movieEvent (Movie firstclipMovie) {
firstclipMovie.read ();
}
void mousePressed() {
rand = int(random(maxMovies));
}
void draw() {
firstclipMovie.loop(); //Loop is optional.
tint(255,155);
background(0);
image(firstclipMovie, 0,0, width, height);
if(mousePressed) {
myMovies[rand].read();
myMovies[rand].play();
image(myMovies[rand],0,0,mouseX,mouseY);
}
}

- MC.

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

okay, so the first movie is playing.
when i click with a mouse, the first frame of another video flashes in the upper left corner, then disappears, overtaken by the black screen/original clip.

is this a positioning and opacity issue, or does the looping interfere with the playing of the clips?
should i not have the background(0) in the draw section refreshing?

--j

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

so,
apparently the mouse has to be depressed for the clip to keep playing. even if i change the command to .loop from .play
i'm wondering if i need to add a command for mouseReleased? i tried to, but the sketch complained it didn't exist.

hmm...
also, i'm wondering if there is a way to get it to play at the spot of the mouseclick, but then not to move around following the mouse afterwards....

let me know.
you are an invaluable resource.
thanks,
--j

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

You have the right ideas.
I altered you code to fit your current criteria.
I have also made code comments for you to know what is what in the modified code.

import processing.video.*;
int maxMovies= 42;
Movie[] myMovies=new Movie[maxMovies] ;
int rand = int(random(maxMovies)); //Random movie choice
int mX; //Mouse position X
int mY; //Mouse position Y
boolean mP = false; //Whether you clicked the mouse or not
Movie firstclipMovie;
void setup() {
size (1100, 600);
frameRate (45);
background(0);
firstclipMovie = new Movie(this, "compound9.mov");
for (int i = 0; i < myMovies.length; i ++ ) {
myMovies[i] = new Movie(this, i+1 + ".mov");
}
}
void movieEvent(Movie firstclipMovie) {
firstclipMovie.read();
}
void mouseReleased() {
rand = int(random(maxMovies)); //Re-chooses the video
mX = mouseX; //Sets X position
mY = mouseY; //Sets Y position
mP = true; //Makes video stay at chosen position
}
void draw() {
firstclipMovie.loop(); //Loop is optional.
tint(255, 155);
background(0);
image(firstclipMovie, 0, 0, width, height);
if (mP) { //If the boolean is true or not. You don't need to add mP==true for it to work.
myMovies[rand].read();
myMovies[rand].loop();
image(myMovies[rand], 0, 0, mX, mY);
}
}

As for layering, that involves the use of classes with the image() function inside, and calling instances.
It's not impossible, though.

- MenteCode

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

rad!
thanks!
i'll be looking into the layering/classes.
with luck i can figure it out. if not, i might be bugging you for help again :)
thanks tons!

v.k.

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

Hi, the funny part is that things that are to be done with a class usually gets harder to do without it, and a class is nothing to be afraid of ;) Any way here is an approach without a class. I opted to use an Arraylist to store coordinates and movies playing, instead of boolean to control them. SO I have an array to store all movies, an Array list to store movies playing, picked form the movies array, and an Array list to store each movie position form mouse. A class would just group them together... have a look:

EDIT: movieEvent() method back on ...

import processing.video.*;
int maxMovies= 42;
Movie[] myMovies=new Movie[maxMovies] ;
ArrayList<PVector> moviePos = new ArrayList<PVector>();
ArrayList<Movie> moviesPlaying = new ArrayList<Movie>();
int rand = int(random(maxMovies)); //Random movie choice
Movie firstclipMovie;
void setup() {
size (1100, 600, P2D);
frameRate (45);
background(0);
firstclipMovie = new Movie(this, "tet.mov");
for (int i = 0; i < myMovies.length; i ++ ) {
myMovies[i] = new Movie(this, "tet.mov");
}
}
void mouseReleased() {
rand = int(random(maxMovies)); //Re-chooses the video
//store position
moviePos.add(new PVector(mouseX, mouseY));
// add a movie to playing list
moviesPlaying.add(myMovies[rand]);
}
void draw() {
firstclipMovie.loop(); //Loop is optional.
background(0);
tint(255, 155);
image(firstclipMovie, 0, 0);
if (moviesPlaying.size() > 0) {
for (int i = 0; i< moviesPlaying.size(); i++ ) {
moviesPlaying.get(i).loop();
image(moviesPlaying.get(i), moviePos.get(i).x, moviePos.get(i).y);
}
}
}
void movieEvent(Movie m){
m.read();
}

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

what is "tet.mov"?
is that a typo?
i copied and pasted to see how your code would run but this is weird.

thanks for your help!
--j

v.k.

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

Just. A test movie I used. Change for the names of yours movies :) compound movie and the others as well

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

ah!
thats great!
it does what i want it to, mostly. i have to mess a bi with mouse positioning and such.
but it also freezes after i have clicked three times.
i'm guessing this is because of memory drain?

v.k.

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

Don't know, i have not played with video so much. Here it foes a little further, like 6 videos playing. But I'm not sure how to handle videoEvent() callbak properly (i guess it's wrong in the code i posted). I'm into it now, and will post a question about it. If I faind out anything I'll let you know.

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

sweet! thanks for all your help!
also, do you know anything about PGraphics, the processing layers library, or this thing:
http://nootropicdesign.com/processing-layers/

these are plug-ins?
for layering?
i'm not sure if looking into these at the moment is the way to go or if it would cause more problems.

i will also look into tidying up the code and troubleshooting.
thanks again.
--j

v.k.

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

~~Well it seems that the movieEvent() it is not really necessary, I got this from conclusion from a simple example I wrote:~~

That is probably wrong, gonna ask about :)

import processing.video.*;
Movie um, dois;
void setup(){
size (800,300, P2D);
um = new Movie(this, "tet.mov");
dois = new Movie(this, "tet2.mov");
um.loop();
dois.loop();
}
void draw(){
background(0);
image(um, 10, 0);
image(dois, 400, 0);
}

But although this works it crashes some time later giving me this message:

java(483,0xacd53a28) malloc: *** error for object 0x16615d0: pointer being freed was not allocated

*** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug

Don.t know why.

The PGraphics is a new canvas to play with. It can be displayed as a PImage, look at reference

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

It's quite possible, as videos are heavy files.

I tend to avoid plug-ins, as it is required to learn their syntax as well.

PGraphics, however, allows you to output an image that you drew.

That's about as accurate as I could get.

- MenteCode.

v.k.

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

Ok, last update. I tried same code on 2.0b8. Then the movieEvent() method proves to be necessary. Adding that back (done in the code above) things works flawlessly and I was able to ad up to more than 10 movies. With no crash or hang.

Also the callback method movieEvent() don't seem to need to be called in each movie, just a plain

void movieEvent(Movie m){

m.read();

}

seems to be enough for all the movies...

edit, just posted that question :)

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

it is woking for me too, but it pauses to think each mouseclick rather than being fluid and stops after 8clicks or so.
in preferences i have 2000MB allocated.
if i try to do more i get warnings about javascript and setting the memory too high.
hmmm...

v.k.

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

I got 20 movies running with this code below (2.0b8). Sometimes it hangs while adding anew movie though...

import processing.video.*;
int maxMovies= 42;
int rand = int(random(maxMovies));
Movie[] myMovies=new Movie[maxMovies] ;
ArrayList<PVector> moviePos = new ArrayList<PVector>();
ArrayList<Movie> moviesPlaying = new ArrayList<Movie>();
Movie firstClipMovie;
void setup() {
size (1100, 600);
for (int i = 0; i < myMovies.length; i ++ ) {
myMovies[i] = new Movie(this, "25.mov");
}
firstClipMovie = new Movie(this, "tet.mov");
firstClipMovie.loop();
moviesPlaying.add(firstClipMovie);
moviePos. add(new PVector (0, 0));
background(0);
}
void mouseReleased() {
rand = int(random(maxMovies));
//store position
moviePos.add(new PVector(mouseX, mouseY));
// loop movie and add to playing list
moviesPlaying.add(myMovies[rand]);
moviesPlaying.get(moviesPlaying.size()-1).loop();
}
void draw() {
background(0);
tint(255, 155);
for (int i = 0; i< moviesPlaying.size(); i++ ) {
// temp vars to keep things neat :)
Movie m = moviesPlaying.get(i);
float x = moviePos.get(i).x;
float y = moviePos.get(i).y;
if (m.available())
m.read();
image(m, x, y);
}
//frameRate
frame.setTitle("fps" + frameRate);
}

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

weird. it is highlighting void mouseReleased and saying void is an unexpected token.
do i have something in the wrong place?

import processing.video.*;

    int maxMovies= 42;
    int rand=int(random(maxMovies));

    Movie[] myMovies=new Movie[maxMovies] ;

    ArrayList<PVector> moviePos = new ArrayList<PVector>();
    ArrayList<Movie> moviesPlaying = new ArrayList<Movie>();


    Movie firstclipMovie;
    void setup() {
      size (1400, 800);
      frameRate (60);
      //background(0);
      firstclipMovie = new Movie(this, "compound9.mov");
      firstClipMovie.loop();

      for (int i = 0; i < myMovies.length; i ++ ) {
        myMovies[i] = new Movie(this,i+1+ ".mov");




      moviesPlaying.add(firstClipMovie);
      moviePos.add(newPVector(0,0));

      background(0);
    }




void mouseReleased(){   //this is where there's an error
      rand = int(random(maxMovies));
      moviePos.add(new PVector(mouseX, mouseY));

      moviesPlaying.add(myMovies[rand]);
      moviesPlaying.get(moviesPlaying.size()-1).loop();
}

    void draw() {

      background(0);
      tint(255, 155);




        for (int i = 0; i< moviesPlaying.size(); i++ ) {
        Movie m=moviesPlaying.get(i);
        float x=moviePos.get(i).x;
        float y=moviePos.get(i).y;


          if (m.available())
          m.read();

          image(m,x,y);
        }

        frame.setTitle("fps"+frameRate);
      }

mentecode

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

You rather don't have something. That "something" is a closing bracket for void setup().

- MenteCode.

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

aaaah. got it.
this code seems pretty comparable to the previous one. except for the position of the initial video.(where do i change that in the this last code so that it fills the screen width,height)? is it this line that is the culprit? moviePos.add(newPVector(0,0));
i am still getting a hang of the syntax...

still no way to prevent lagging at mouse clicks, huh?
i wonder if i were to go back into the video files and try to save them at a lesser quality so that they are just smaller files?

thanks again MenteCode and v.k. for all your help. you are A-mazing.

radjudy

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

i resaved the movies at half quality so that they now range from 30-130MB each, but it still lagging.
any sugestions for how to streamline it so its not thinking so hard?

v.k.

Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

Don't know... I wonder if the videos were converted to image sequences they would perform better... But you would have to forget video library and handle playing by yourself, not hard to do. I had used this approach before and i think it performance is better... Another thing is try a different video library. There are some listed here.

radjudy

Re: Re: quick! help setting up a video array?

5 months ago

thanks guys. someone else suggested OPENGL in the place of P2D, but its not doing any better.
i will keep trying. and look into the image sequence codes.
maybe i just need to drastically shrink the size/quality of the videos. also, im using a macbook so maybe it is processor speed?
--j

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