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The tool PureRef is fantastic. However, as a game art VFX designer, I often use MP4 videos in my work. I have become very reliant on this tool, and I hope it can support the MP4 format in the future.

Thank you for the suggestion! How would you expect videos to be handled in PureRef? Do you want to be able to link to external videos like Youtube? And if you add a local video file would you expect it to be embedded in the .pur file when saving or would a link to it on disc be sufficient?

If I can voice an opinion... I think mp4 support would be ideal. The recent animation support is great but gif files are notoriously terrible to work with, but since PureRef is limited to the gif format for animation, you are forced to work with it.

Currently if I have a long video/animation and need a snippet of it in PureRef, I have to get into a long drawn out process in Image Magick, making sure the colours are not butchered, the file size is manageable, the encoding process is not long etc etc this is surprisingly unpredictable, because of the gif format.

Where as if it was a case of outputting a small snipet of a long mp4 video to mp4, it would be as simple:
ffmpeg -i my/video/file.mp4 -ss 3 -c copy snippet.mp4

with mp4, its possbile to get a video snippet that is 1:1 to its source and the advantage of skipping the encoding process.

>>would you expect it to be embedded in the .pur file when saving or would a link to it on disc be sufficient?
I can see use cases where both options would be ideal to have, but I generally go with "self contained" PureRef files and scene size is not a huge concern.

Second this. There is currently a huge gap in moodboard software that supports video playback and it easy to use/export (sure you can embed video files in indesign etc, but they only play/work as you want them to when opened in a specific software) . As a 3d artist working in a 30+ team (from graphics to video to 3d). The ability to add mp4 support to pureref would make it an even better tool, for it's main purpose (moodboards + also displaying moving images) but also as a presentation tool without limitations for a whole multidisciplinary team, the double click feature is wonderfull to highlight images you want to talk about during a meeting. Adding video (mp4) references would be that next step. The ability to open it as an online board/ in a fileformat everyone can open would make it accessible as well. Would be a wonderful feature.

I envision the video import feature in the following way:
When you drag and drop a video file(any format) in program, it shows a dialog box. In it, you can cut a segment from the video no longer than 10 seconds. Or make a freeze frame shots sequence of the video. The segment or sequences will be stored in a file. Videos recorded in vp9/av1(open formats). The quality can be set in the program settings, by default it is low. Sequence can be stored as apng/webp or other format suitable for image sequence compression. But the latter is not necessary. Through the menu, you can update the video or sequencing from the original file if it is saved. Support for video from the internet may not be added right away. The player interface, for gif, sequences and video should be the same. A playback bar needs to be added above the popup.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2024-06-23 17:26 by AAAYaKo.

I hope to support the ability to directly drag and drop MP4 or other video files into the PureRef canvas, and to be able to resize the video file. I also expect the file to be embedded directly into the .pur file, saving it as a standalone file.

I am really looking forward to this feature being available soon

I hope to add the loading function of mp4. It does not need to be saved into a file. It only needs to be able to link and load mp4 files for viewing. It is useful for some dynamic references.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-09-07 21:52 by PureRef.

definitely second the ability to import video into PureRef.

I think for maximum customization it would be great to have the option to link to the video or embed, just like in photoshop.

And when addding a web link to a video (like on youtube or vimeo) it would be awesome to be able to play it PureRef. A good reference is how Milanote does it.

When you paste a link it automatically loads it as a video (if it is a video link) and if it is for example an Instagram Link then it shows the preview of the post which is really handy especially when gathering reference.

+1111