I'll make this short, see "lighting problems" for full description. If your computer is crashing or freezing and you have background videos of any format, especially MP4's using iC7, you will find that iC7 is not background video friendly. The same scenes used in iC6 I have no problems with the size or format of the background videos. It doesn't matter what else you have in the scene, the background videos even alone has caused me to crash or freeze. So if you are having a problem with a scene in iClone7 and have background videos, you may have to recreate the scene in iClone6 if you really need the background video. Not sure? Delete the background videos in your scenes and watch what happens.   

Home built; ASRock X570 Pro 4, AMD Ryzen 9-5950X CPU, AMD RADEON RX6900XT, 16GB video card, 131GB of RAM.

If what you mean by "background videos" is using a video for your background (just to be clear -- you could also be referring to planes mapped to videos IN the background, but I don't think that's what you are talking about) then it really is something you ought to do by compositing.  Render the animation out as a PNG sequence and composite the video in.  Compositing isn't really something that should be handled by iClone, and while I have done it in 7 with no problems it's not something I would do as a rule of thumb.

It's kind of analogous to putting music or other audio in iClone except as a placeholder -- iClone is NOT the place to do audio, you should be rendering out and doing your Post work in your video editor.  While there are times it's convenient to do everything all in one place, it's kind of silly to expect iClone to handle all of this when the strengths of the program should be focussed on animation (and let other programs designed for compositing handle those chores).

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

I have used videos in Iclone 6 in a variety of ways... texturing props, adding extra characters on  billboards in the background, etc. I did have pretty good success in Iclone 6, though once or twice I got a pop-up notice that only 4 videos are allowed in a scene. But overall it worked okay, though all my videos were either avi or wmv. I don't think Iclone 6 could use MP4's at all. 

 I've done a lot of compositing over video background as well, for scenes where I need a layered kind of effect.

But I am working with a video background in one of my scenes in Iclone 7 right now. It is a complex scene with 4 characters and a lot of movement and lighting changes going on in the background video. In this case I can't just composite over the video, I need a reference during animation to properly orient my avatars as the background shifts. I am also lighting the characters to match the color and illumination of the background video as it changes, to try to tie the foreground and background together better. So I'm using the video as a background within Iclone.

One thing I have found, is that using an avi video background, the playback does not match the render output. The render actually skips sections of the background video, so my foreground animation no longer matches up with the background video. Very frustrating. Using a converted wmv file works better. I was able to render it out the way I had animated it. 

This result tends to support your observation that Iclone 6 handled video with less issues than Iclone 7. I had only 4 (admittedly high-poly) characters and 1 video in the scene and the video was skipping in the render. Most of my scenes have far more assets than that. 

I will experiment with dropping out the reference video altogether and rendering the animation without it, then compositng the animation over the video, to see what difference that might make. But from what I'm seeing I don't think the difference will be much. However, the compositing method  would allow for certain layer tweaking, so it probably will be the way I go

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KellyT, The videos I'm talking about, I rendered with no audio selected, so there is no audio. In a Brazilian scene with iC6 I used a large video I took out the window and stretched it so you could see it from the whole mountain as seen on YouTube under rioleo8. When I added the children running around with iC7 I thought it was the kids I added, so after I removed them one by one and it still crashed I was baffled, because I didn't realize I never really rendered this scene with iC7 only on iC6. After I removed the video of the ocean and beach below I could run the project with all the avatars but you do not see the ocean views.  I would just have the disappearing trees and I would have to boot iC6 load the banana tree, close and reboot iC7 to get them back. I also used iC6 for my disco scene, and in it I have 4 videos of people dancing in the back I bought from the content store, I updated the scene to iC7 and after I added about 50 avatars, when I wanted to render and the render screen popped up, I couldn't type the name it would freeze. After deleting about 3/4 of the things I added, and it still crashed. I loaded the project from iC6 into iC7 again and without adding anything I tried to render to any video format, and freeze. So I took a wild guess and eliminated one of the four videos at a time, and after all four videos were eliminated I was able to get a working render screen pop up box. So after all the work which is not seen on YouTube in the disco, I had to eliminate the 4 background dancer videos that I bought on here and then I can type in the name and render under any video format. I've been doing computer stuff since the beginning and Reallusion is not alone, but it's very disheartening when you update or upgrade to the next version and what was working fine doesn't anymore. For example I used every video software editor when they came out with the 5.1 audio version. The last 8 years I've stuck with Magix Pro. After Xmas I upgraded to their latest version and after I added the update I couldn't close the program without going through the task manager, I sent in a support ticket and then you get the regular stall of send us your computers info files, meanwhile their forum shows I'm not alone. 3 months now, nothing and no updates. I went back to their forum 3 days ago, and one person came up with a solution where you went into the registry and change one line from a =0 to a =1 and everything works fine now. Come on 3 months? Thank goodness for user forums and the people on them. I had to crossgrade to a new DAW software because Sonar Cakewalk gave up and I had them since DOS in 1986, and they have problems with the newer versions that certain functions stopped working right with some versions. I went there a few days ago and a company in Taiwan bought Cakewalk, thank goodness because the new DAW software I bought has problems with certain plug-ins and they know it that are up to date and critical to my work. So iCloners don't be too hard on Reallusion, every creative software I had has some kind of bug which each version some get fixed and others you have to find a way around it. Just don't hold your breath because more than often they will fix the right wheel but now the rear left wheel is broke. I know it was working fine the last version that's the real kicker. The guys who come on the forum who try to help you and me with their experience are priceless. And I thank you all.    

Home built; ASRock X570 Pro 4, AMD Ryzen 9-5950X CPU, AMD RADEON RX6900XT, 16GB video card, 131GB of RAM.

Sorry about this, RG, but I just couldn't read your post (it will help if you break it up into paragraphs, and if the paragraphs are the sort that stick to one topic).

But nothing I said was contraindicated that I could tell -- iClone isn't meant for compositing background videos, and expecting it to do so isn't realistic.  I suspect if you used it for what it is designed for you would have had no problems.

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

Sorry Kelly if you couldn't see my whole post, but you said; "that what iC wasn't intended to do", but it worked on a older version, wouldn't think that it should noted to the consumers that in future versions this feature would be dropped or not supported anymore? How could something not intended to work a certain way worked for me? Unless I missed something or you were on the programming team, can you point me to where Reallusion specifically makes a reference to limitations for that? I wasn't born in Missouri, but you're old enough to know what I mean.

As I tried to explain to you a few months ago, maybe years now @ 67.5 y/o time flies I can't remember if it's weeks or months since I posted some things. I can do things with 128 RAM, that I couldn't do with 32, 64 and 96. I know I started iC3 with 8 RAM, because it was barely a 16 bit system, and I had problems with re-loading projects unless I added that extended RAM program that let me use almost all of my 8 GB of RAM. 

With iC7 I have a problem if I don't convert my background videos to WVM, that I may use to show a working TV screen etc, MP4's will work a few seconds if that, so if iC7 was not designed to work with MP4 files, then why does it allow me to use files with that extension, plus it is fine with iC6? I'm doing the same exact thing that worked with iC6 so I can't believe it wasn't made to do it. Programs that are made not to work with certain extensions, should be blocked from not uploading them, but they give you a option to use more than one video format. So I believe if this was the case the next update should make sure those video formats are excluded in the pulldown. If it's there it's suppose to work, if there are limitations then I need to see that written somewhere, I'm not into speculation. I worked for too many top companies, Siemens, GE, Cummins Engine Co, MTANY where guys told me certain things couldn't worked and I always proved them wrong or made it work. That's why I'm retired with more money coming in than when I worked. I have to see things in writing Kelly.not by hearsay, nothing personal. Thanks.           

Home built; ASRock X570 Pro 4, AMD Ryzen 9-5950X CPU, AMD RADEON RX6900XT, 16GB video card, 131GB of RAM.

All I'm saying (and I've forgotten more about computers than most will ever know) is that you were doing it wrong, and when it didn't work that wasn't unexpected.  If you want to do it right you can.  

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Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

KT, this is the item I bought from Granny, https://city.reallusion.com/ContentPreview.aspx?i=JICf7214175c15746e50. It worked fine with iC6, and sometimes on iC7 if it is not added with too many other stuff. I did not do anything wrong. I'm through with my video (+2 hours) so I don't do any testing or use iClone anymore. My video card renders the mp4 files perfect so I stopped using sequential files a long time ago. I never used iclone's audio for anything except to synch the waveforms to the vocal dubbings. My recording studio has 40 channels of audio and that's what I use for the audio. I use high quality mp4 encoders for my Blu~rays, and the difference from using sequential files and mp4 files is unnoticeable since I started using Nvdia cards for encoding iClone in mp4. I'll be 70 in 2 months and 2 years. My memory is still good, and still remember how to design and use vacuum tubes circuits. It's just some words I forget how to spell right. Electronic and computer stuff I don't forget. Have a great summer. My biggest problem now is scheduling the people to come in here and the doctors fixing my back problems. I had a problem with this computer and my DAW since I put in the 1070 card. When I moved my mouse my audio would make noise.sometimes freeze, crash. I'm not the only one with this problem. I tried everything. I switched back to a 290X card, and the problem lessened but still remained. Last Tuesday I bought a 1080 TI card, and the problem is no longer. The 1070, I left in my other computer. My other 2 computers get the hand me downs. No matter what Nvidia settings, USB sockets I switched the mouse etc., nothing else worked but this $900 card. I didn't buy the card to solve the problem, I bought it because video rendering with a 290X card was too slow. I'm starting to think that it is a interference problem with older video cards and newer motherboards that they know about.     

Home built; ASRock X570 Pro 4, AMD Ryzen 9-5950X CPU, AMD RADEON RX6900XT, 16GB video card, 131GB of RAM.

Hi Rgreenbridge,

If you are still having issues with video backgrounds please can you report the issue in the Feedback Tracker. The development team will then investigate the problem. Thanks.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Thank you Peter. But I'm done with I Clone. It took me 9 years to finish my video and I'm happy with the results. The only thing I notice that is a minor annoyance is that if you loop some motions there can be some jumpiness where others are smooth that you don't see when you are editing, but when the final videos are rendered you see them whether I used sequential, AVI or mp4 output, or a R280x, 1070 or 1080Ti card, it the same result. Good luck to you and Reallusion and everyone have a great and safe 4th and a great summer.

Home built; ASRock X570 Pro 4, AMD Ryzen 9-5950X CPU, AMD RADEON RX6900XT, 16GB video card, 131GB of RAM.