Animator on Mac OSX - bugs and glitches

[Oxer]

The first, thanks for the incredible plugin!!
The FFmpeg installation on Mac works but there are some problems:

1. I have to resize the Generation Video window to see all buttons.

2. The generation video doesn't work, while the video is generating the images are saved in the Film folder, but when the generation is finished it appears a error message "Error in the video file generation", then I press Save and Exit button and all images are deleted.

3. When press Open Folder button appears a error window, "No application defined to open the URL", the folder is in external HD, and it occurs the same if I press Test Image button:

I'll continue testing the plugin but I haven't many spare time and I have a lot of to learn about the plugin.

Mac OSX 10.11.4 & SU2016

PS: I copied the ffmpeg file only in the Plugins folder.

[fredo6]

Oxer,

Thanks for the feedback.

Apparently there is a problem in the execution of the FFmpeg command on Mac.

Could you please type the following commands in the Ruby Console:

ffmpeg = File.join(Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins"), "ffmpeg")

FileTest.exist?(ffmpeg) # should answer true

cmd = "open -n #{ffmpeg} --args -h" #just launch ffmpeg for Help panel

system(cmd) #should return true (good) or false (not good)

if you get a False to system(cmd),

Could you try with
cmd = "open -n \"#{ffmpeg}\" --args -h"

Thanks

Fredo

[Oxer]

These are the messages in the Console:

[fredo6]

Oxer,

Thanks.

Can you do a system(cmd) with the latest command, that is cmd = "open -n \"#{ffmpeg}\" --args -h"

Fredo

[Oxer]

The Console Message:

Then it appears a OS X alert window:
"ffmpeg is a Unix application downloaded from internet, Do you want to open it?"

I push Abrir (Open) button.

And then a terminal window:

[fredo6]

Oxer,

Many thanks. This message is ennoying however.

Could you try the following

ffmpeg = File.join(Sketchup.find_support_file("Plugins"), "ffmpeg") #same as before

cmd = "\"#{ffmpeg}\" -h"

system(cmd)

Thanks

Fredo

[Oxer]

Console Messages:

[fredo6]

Oxer,

Thanks for your support.
In release 1.0r, just published, I tried to fix the generation of video files on OSX.
Can you try and tell me if it works on your side

Just launch a video and then click on Preview Video after a few frames to see if you get the green triangles displayed.

Thanks

Fredo

[Oxer]

Hi Fredo,
The generation of the video files works right now.
But the Preview Video don't work because it appears an OS X error message window, there isn't application defined to open the URL.

[Oxer]

It's very rare, the .mp4 extension is associated in OS X to quicktime but for some reason the OS X don't recognize the extension or perhaps because the address has strange symbols in the URL ( %20 instead one space).

[fredo6]

Oxer,

Thanks. Good news.
For the Preview, I think I know what it is (filename should be prefixed by file://).

Fredo

[driven]

hi Fredo,

my hard drive crashed, but I now have a new one and may be able to help on the mac side...

I used Homebrew to install the ffmpeg binary and if I test help /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -h`` from SU it returns this...

Hyper fast Audio and Video encoder
usage; ffmpeg [options] [[infile options] -i infile]... {[outfile options] outfile}...

Getting help;
    -h      -- print basic options
    -h long -- print more options
    -h full -- print all options (including all format and codec specific options, very long)
    -h type=name -- print all options for the named decoder/encoder/demuxer/muxer/filter
    See man ffmpeg for detailed description of the options.

Print help / information / capabilities;
-L                  show license
-h topic            show help
-? topic            show help
-help topic         show help
--help topic        show help
-version            show version
-buildconf          show build configuration
-formats            show available formats
-devices            show available devices
-codecs             show available codecs
-decoders           show available decoders
-encoders           show available encoders
-bsfs               show available bit stream filters
-protocols          show available protocols
-filters            show available filters
-pix_fmts           show available pixel formats
-layouts            show standard channel layouts
-sample_fmts        show available audio sample formats
-colors             show available color names
-opencl_bench       run benchmark on all OpenCL devices and show results
-sources device     list sources of the input device
-sinks device       list sinks of the output device
-hwaccels           show available HW acceleration methods

Global options (affect whole program instead of just one file;
-loglevel loglevel  set logging level
-v loglevel         set logging level
-report             generate a report
-max_alloc bytes    set maximum size of a single allocated block
-opencl_options     set OpenCL environment options
-y                  overwrite output files
-n                  never overwrite output files
-ignore_unknown     Ignore unknown stream types
-stats              print progress report during encoding
-max_error_rate ratio of errors (0.0; no errors, 1.0; 100% error  maximum error rate
-bits_per_raw_sample number  set the number of bits per raw sample
-vol volume         change audio volume (256=normal)

Per-file main options;
-f fmt              force format
-c codec            codec name
-codec codec        codec name
-pre preset         preset name
-map_metadata outfile[,metadata];infile[,metadata]  set metadata information of outfile from infile
-t duration         record or transcode "duration" seconds of audio/video
-to time_stop       record or transcode stop time
-fs limit_size      set the limit file size in bytes
-ss time_off        set the start time offset
-sseof time_off     set the start time offset relative to EOF
-seek_timestamp     enable/disable seeking by timestamp with -ss
-timestamp time     set the recording timestamp ('now' to set the current time)
-metadata string=string  add metadata
-program title=string;st=number...  add program with specified streams
-target type        specify target file type ("vcd", "svcd", "dvd", "dv" or "dv50" with optional prefixes "pal-", "ntsc-" or "film-")
-apad               audio pad
-frames number      set the number of frames to output
-filter filter_graph  set stream filtergraph
-filter_script filename  read stream filtergraph description from a file
-reinit_filter      reinit filtergraph on input parameter changes
-discard            discard
-disposition        disposition

Video options;
-vframes number     set the number of video frames to output
-r rate             set frame rate (Hz value, fraction or abbreviation)
-s size             set frame size (WxH or abbreviation)
-aspect aspect      set aspect ratio (4;3, 16;9 or 1.3333, 1.7777)
-bits_per_raw_sample number  set the number of bits per raw sample
-vn                 disable video
-vcodec codec       force video codec ('copy' to copy stream)
-timecode hh;mm;ss[;;.]ff  set initial TimeCode value.
-pass n             select the pass number (1 to 3)
-vf filter_graph    set video filters
-ab bitrate         audio bitrate (please use -b;a)
-b bitrate          video bitrate (please use -b;v)
-dn                 disable data

Audio options;
-aframes number     set the number of audio frames to output
-aq quality         set audio quality (codec-specific)
-ar rate            set audio sampling rate (in Hz)
-ac channels        set number of audio channels
-an                 disable audio
-acodec codec       force audio codec ('copy' to copy stream)
-vol volume         change audio volume (256=normal)
-af filter_graph    set audio filters

Subtitle options;
-s size             set frame size (WxH or abbreviation)
-sn                 disable subtitle
-scodec codec       force subtitle codec ('copy' to copy stream)
-stag fourcc/tag    force subtitle tag/fourcc
-fix_sub_duration   fix subtitles duration
-canvas_size size   set canvas size (WxH or abbreviation)
-spre preset        set the subtitle options to the indicated preset

and if I check the Liciense terms it returns...

ffmpeg is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

ffmpeg is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with ffmpeg.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

john

[Oxer]

With the last version (Animator 1.0t) the Test Image and Preview Video work fine.

[Oxer]

I have a question about the process to save the Animator parameters, this is my process:

1. I make a new movement in a new clip and then I save them (icon Save).
2. I create the video, then I save all Animator parameters before exit of Animator plugin.
3. When I return to the Animator plugin, the clip and movement previous saved is missing.

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, there is a .animator file in the same directory like Sketchup but I can't recover the clip and movement saved.

[fredo6]

Did you set up the AutoSave option?

When you start Animator, does it pop up a dialog box about a backup file?

[Oxer]

Yes, I have Auto-Save checked (I began to translate the plugin to Spanish language).

@unknownuser said:

When you start Animator, does it pop up a dialog box about a backup file?

No, it appears a message "There is not clip defined, do you want to create one?"