seamless loop snow

[martinhan1979]

Hi

I have created a 14 second seamless loop in adobe after effects. I have a jpeg of a forest imported in the background and created snow using particles as top my top layer. I then duplicated that layer and split each in half, around 7 seconds in. I then moved top one to end of timeline and bottom one to start so the end and start match perfectly. Also created an overlap in the middle of about a second and faded one into the other. Thats all fine and when I do a ram preview it loops perfectly. Problem is when I render it out and view mp4 file created there is a small but noticeable glitch when it loops from end back to start. Frame rate I am using is 29.97fps (have also tried 24fps), I have tried pre-composing  particle layers, I have tried moving layer at end of timeline forward a frame and back a frame. But nothing seems to work. I viewing in media players such as quicktime or in VLC. When rendering my output module is at H.264 in format settings to create an mp4 if that makes a difference. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Martin_Ritter]

To clarify, is your final video one loop only and to see the actual looping, did you just activate the loop option in your media player?

If this is the case, don't mind the glitch - it's the player.

Most players are not smart enough for looping. They just replay the video, which means they have to open the file and decode the first frames which takes a little amount of time. A smarter player would preload the video, or cache everything into RAM on the first play.

*Martin

[martinhan1979]

Unfortunately its not just one loop but continuous as its the backdrop to a play so will continuously play for up to 15 minutes. I had a feeling it may be the media player when it worked perfectly in the ram preview. I did just activate the loop option in the media player, is there another way or a better media player I could suggest to customer that is free and easy to use that would solve the problem

[Martin_Ritter]

What I mean is, did you render and playout one loop (14 seconds), or did you put this one loop one another several times and render and playout this?

I'm asking to determine if the loop glitch comes from AE, or if it is the player.

It just happens very fast, what you add or remove a frame by mistake and the loop starts to glitch. But if you really just playout the 14 second loop and this one was perfect in the preview - and is also perfect when you put it back into AE and preview it in loop again - we can impose this source of errors.

If it's the player, you can of course create the whole 15 minutes video by just putting the loop one another. I suggest using time remap and the loop() expression. It's less pain then getting to 15 minutes in 14 seconds steps.

You can try another player as well. MediaPlayer Classic might do it better, DJV Player is for sure worth a look. I have no for sure recommendation.

*Martin

[Roland Kahlenberg]

As Martin has suggested, you should render the entire duration in AE, 15 minutes, for use by the media player, on location. Not many mediaplayersoffer capable loop procedures.

You can loop a footage item in the Project Panel, within the Interpret Footage dialog - you'll find the loop feature at the bottom of the dialog window.