Interlaced Videos

Okay, I;m trying to interlace two videos, i.e. Frame 1 of First VIdeo, Frame 1 of Second Video, Frame 2 od First Video, Frame 2 of Second Video, etc… Don’t really have any idea how to do this. Any ideas?

Yes I do. Dont use Blender.

No actually you can create a mask (of 1 pixel high alternating black and white lines) and use it to mix between the frames you select for upper and lower fields. I made one in GIMP using the pattern feature.

Oh I just remembered that if you are starting with 50 or 60 fps footage then you must create a 25 or 30 fps scene and use a speed strip on both with 1 frame offset (on just one strip) to contract the strips correctly. I think I should make another tutorial for this before I forget how :wink:

@DoTheGeek: What you are asking for is not interlaced video. Please specify if you really want interlaced video or the effect you describe.

@3pointEdit: I think you try to give the answer to the question: “How to create interlaced video”, but I’m not sure if @DoTheGeek asks about exactly this.

Bartek I see what you mean. When I record 50fps video on my dslr I split the stream into strips of alternating frames. I guess it is not likely that the op is doing same. If it was there are better apps than Blender for that.

He’s asking to find a way to mimic active shutter splitting?
Could you use a switch node with a keyframe to switch between sources? You’d easily be able to make a script that repeats the keyframes for a large enough range.

Here’s how I’d do exactly what @DoTheGeek is asking for:


Explanation:
On the left we have two image sequences.
Both of them have drivers added to “Start Frame”.
Drivers are set up so that both of sequences play back at half a speed and one is one frame ahead of the other.
The easiest way to add driver is to write an expression directly inside the property. We begin with # and then write python expression.
First sequence has “Start Frame” set to:

frame / 2 + 1

Second:

frame / 2 + 0.5

Please don’t ask me why. I simply tested this, made few mistakes and came up with exactly those expressions. They just work, so I don’t ask more questions :slight_smile:

Then I mix those sequences using simple “Mix” node where I add driver to “Factor”.
Driver checks if the current frame is odd or even, so it changes between zero and one on each frame.
Checking if a figure is odd goes like this:

frame % 2 != 0

This way odd frames play one sequence and even frames play the other.
Hope it helps.

I did this for HDR mixing a while ago. You can do similar with VSE:
http://blendervse.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/hdr-video-using-compositor-nodes/

Bartek I really like the driver solution! Saves performing a start frame bump at the second input source meaning that it could be scripted to any input image node.

@Bartek: wow!!!

It’s just sinking in how much cool time related stuff you can do with those expressions (which I didn’t realise you could do in the field)!

EDIT:
Hmmm, I wonder if you could set up a slow motion blur of a video clip this way? That is, iterate the input node with a drive using something like frame/N + 1 and mixing them all (with a cascade) for an echo blur? would be much easier than doing it in the VSE.