Track motion / blur

[conrail6055]

Question about the track motion tool. I have a couple of video clips with license plates that I want to blur so I use the track motion, set the area that I want blurred out and everything looks good. As I continue adding other clips to my timeline and moving along I save the project just in case the program crashes and I lose the progress I've made. I also like to go back and rewatch the video just to be sure nothing needs tweaked as I go along. The clips that I've set to blur license plates work perfectly fine, UNTIL, I do the last save of the day and exit the program. When I open it the next day, all of the clips I previously had track motion blurring on, are reset back to just a simple video clip again. What am I missing!? How can the track motion / blur be there each time I save the file and rewatch it in the timeline, but as soon as I exit and re-launch Video Studio, it's as if I never added the blurring feature at all to these clips?

~Kris

[lata]

Hi Kris
First we really need to know what version of Video Studio you are working with, can you also update your profile to include those details.
Very unusual…..sorry to ask this but just to rule out the obvious….
When you close video studio are you saving the project by File Save or File Save As, giving the project a new name. Then are you opening an unedited version of the project?
How are you opening the project
If you launch Video Studio then go to File, to the bottom of the list shows the last four used projects, the first of the four being the latest saved.

When you open the project again has the Track Motion effect been completely removed, that is does the yellow star show the effect, or the effect is there but mosaic is only removed
As you appear to be able to replicate this behaviour can you create a short project, try using the Sample_360.mp4, although I guess its not gonna reveal much if the Track Motion is disappearing altogether
I have run a few tests using VS 2023 all works for me, I have even tried deleting the clip, which then shows a relink request, replace the clip and the effect is still there.

[conrail6055]

Hi Trevor,

I'm using VS Ultimate 2022. Before I close VS I save the project by File>Save, and then File>Exit. When I sit down to continue working on a project later I access the folder on my external drive where I have the project saved and it launches VS. When I started having issues with the track motion / blurring that was previously in place but apparently not saving once the file was relaunched a following day, I'd continue working on the project adding new clips and at the end of my working session would File>Save as and give it a new name ("March2023 4" instead of "March 2023 3" and "March 2023 2") just to see if any of the previous renditions kept the track motion / blurring.

The yellow star is gone entirely. I started thinking maybe I was just doing it wrong. I select a video clip in the middle of the timeline that needs blurred. Hit the 3 circle Track Motion button. Drag the tracker to set the location I want to track as a single point. I click the Apply/Hide Mosaic button and drag the box over to the license plate to be blurred. I click Track Motion. Once the tracking path is finished running, I click ok. Go back out to the timeline and the yellow star and aqua blue banner/line shows at the top of the clip. Hit play and all is well with the world. I move along to add another short video clip at the end of the timeline and throw in a new Text box on the Text section of the timeline just so I know when I re-open the program, I'm looking at the version I just created. I click File>Save as, give it a new name. Go back to the timeline and hit play once more... the blurred license plate is good and the added video clip and text is there. Perfect. File>Save. File>Exit. Go back to the folder on the external drive where the file is stored, double click to open. The blurring is gone, the yellow star is gone, the blue banner / line is gone as if I never did anything, BUT the previously added video clip and text is there. At a loss and hitting a wall. What am I missing!?

~Kris

[lata]

Hi Kris
You mention using an external drive, is that drive always connected to the pc?
Files on the timelines are virtual clips being linked to the files on the hard drive.
If we loose those links the program shows a re-link request.
It is possible that loosing the link to the files or VSP project files could cause you to loose the edits / Track Motion. I would think the VSP is ok as the titles remained in tact, so suspect the video files are not available at some point whilst VS is launching.
From what you are saying it does seem you can replicate this to order.
Can you create a new project using files on your C Drive also saving the VSP to the C Drive
I assume the program is installed to the C Drive?

To open your project first run Video Studio, then File – choose the project at the bottom of the list.

Now I will try to replicate this behaviour

[conrail6055]

VSP is installed on the laptop C drive and all of the video files are stored on an external drive that's only connected to the laptop while working on a VS project. I'm familiar with the re-link requests if a user happens to change the name of a file or move it to a different folder while working where upon opening VS it will ask the user to map the file to its new location. All of my file names and locations remain the same on the external drive so I rarely have to relink anything.

I will say this, though, I took the video clip with the license plate and added it to my laptop, relinked the clip in the project to the new location on the laptop instead of the external drive and tried track motion / blurring again. File>Save, File>Exit. Reopened the project an voila! The blurring saved this time. I almost wonder if it's something with the external drive might be in some sort of a sleep mode after a few minutes so the track motion and blurring instructions/mapping doesn't get "attached" to the file? Doesn't seem like that would be the case, though, since the file itself on the drive isn't manipulated. I've notices after working on things in the project timeline and I go to hit play, VS doesn't immediately begin playing the track until the fan turns on and the external drive "wakes up". It's a WD Elements 10TB drive.

~Kris

[lata]

Hi
I am sure it is related to the external drive, I have a small 1 TB Elements which I have tried to replicate the problem, my drive is just a big USB memory no fans so does not go to sleep as such.
All my efforts and every time the Track Motion is retained.

Can you save the VSP to the external drive in the same folder as the video files
That way the external drive would have to be up and running to open the VSP.

[Davidk]

One aspect of using an external drive - eg usb - is the way data flows to it. The "policies" controlling this are set in the OS. This link describes more
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windo ... rage-media

[tletter]

I've notices after working on things in the project timeline and I go to hit play, VS doesn't immediately begin playing the track until the fan turns on and the external drive "wakes up". It's a WD Elements 10TB drive.

WD elements 10TB HDD has a sleep mode feature. Try the following two approaches to disabling this feature:

1. Open up Device Manager, scroll down and expand the arrow next to universal serial bus controllers. Look for a "USB mass storage device" or similar, right-click and select properties, and on the power management tab and uncheck the box that says "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". And click OK.
2. Install KeepAliveHD or similar program which prevents a hard drive going into automatic sleep mode. These work by writing a small text file to your external drive every few minutes.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[conrail6055]

Great, thank you everyone!

~Kris

[conrail6055]

Wanted to post an update to my problems with track motion blur. As tletter suggested, I was able to disable the sleep mode setting for the WD Elements 10TB external hard drive where all of my video clips and Video Studio files are stored. The Video Studio program itself is installed on my C drive. Over the last 2 months I've been diligently working on a rather large video for my YouTube channel. It's about 2.5 hours long and last night I was able to spend a few hours doing all of the track motion blurring on license plates and sensitive visual references that was needed on approximately 2 dozen video clips. The laptop and hard drive remained connected and on while I performed the editing, saved the file and the project rendered. (When the full length video was rendered, I was going to go back in and break the full episode down into 2 or 3 smaller parts saving them, obviously as different project names "April update Part 1", "April Update Part 2", "April Update Part 3". I went to play the finished 2.5 hour full episode mpeg and the very first clip 2 minutes into the video wasn't blurred. In total horror and disbelief, I went over to the still open Video Studio program (with the also still connected and running external drive) and none of the 2 dozen clips within the 2.5 hour project have the yellow star or thin blue line at the top indicating the track motion application to the file, but yet, all of the places within a video track that I used the 'split clip' scissors tool to cut parts of a clip that needed blurred are still showing the various places where they were sliced and diced... just no record whatsoever of the 3 or 4 hours I spent doing all of the track motion yesterday for the impacted clips. The other video clips that weren't split up and are only 5 or 10 seconds long and had track motion blur applied for the whole clip also are absent the yellow star & thin blue line. I'm at a complete loss here. I never had this problem with the previous version of Video Studio and am using the same external drive arrangement as I did then (Program installed on C drive, video files and Video Studio .VSP projects saved on external drive). If everything remains connected and running, the file is saved and then immediately rendered, what in the world could possibly nix all history of track motion blurring in files!?

Exhausted, frustrated and beyond disappointed I cordially remain,

~Kris

[conrail6055]

I sat back down again tonight with the project. I have a total of 13 mp4 video files that require blurring. I took those files from the external hard drive and saved them to the desktop on my laptop where the Video Studio program is installed/saved. I changed the file names of the 13 files still on the external drive and relinked the videos in the timeline to the new location where they're saved on the laptop. I added track motion blurring to the first video clip and it took. Yellow star & thin blue line showing on the timeline. Hit play, the blurring is there. Win!

I do a File > Save As, and give the project an entirely new name, it saves to the external hard drive. I do File > Exit. I go back to the external drive and open the newly saved project and - shocker - the file that I just added the track motion blur to again has no yellow star, no thin blue line, no blurring whatsoever as if the work I just did 25 seconds ago, watched, saved and re-opened was nothing more than a figment of my imagination. Does anyone have any ideas what I'm missing here? There are zero answers other than something within the program itself is faulty.

~Kris

[Davidk]

Are you able to put the vsp and a segment of the rendered project - say the first 5 minutes - which has the 'not blurred' elements in it up on a public folder (eg, OneDrive) where we and the alludo dev team can see it, and provide the weblink to that location/those files?

[conrail6055]

Hi David,

I added track motion blurring to the clips at the 1 minute, 2 minute and 4 minute mark just to see if it would take. I did a File > Save as, and gave it a new name, then rendered the first 5 minutes. File > Exit and watched the rendered MPEG. This time, the blurring worked at the 1, 2 and 4 minute marks but when I went back into the vsp file, none of it is there. I will send you a PM with the links.

~Kris

[lata]

Just to sum up on what you did
1 / transfer the video file to the laptop hard drive
2 / created a VSP and applied the track motion, all ok
3 / save the VSP to the external hard drive ????
Why not save to the laptop?
When you opened the vsp from the external drive did you have to relink, if so did you re-link to the files on the laptop, those have the track motion applied.

Working with the laptop only, “Do not use the external drive at all”
All video files on laptop within a dedicated folder, save VSP to same folder, effectively you have a smart package, apply track motion.
Render the vsp, does that work ok.

[conrail6055]

For now I've set aside the large project entirely and attempted a different, much easier route. I created a brand new project that simply contains three 10-second long clips. Again - my mp4 video files are stored on an external WD Elements 10TB hard drive along with the .vsp project files I create... this one being named "Test project 3 clips blurred". The Video Studio program itself is installed on my laptop. On each of the 3 video clips I added track motion and blurred out a random, large selection within the clip. Each clip then has the yellow star and thin blue line at the top of each clip in the timeline. I ran a preview of the full video in the preview window and blurring works as expected. I did a File > Save as > "Test project 3 clips blurred.VSP" to my external drive then went to the Share tab to render it as an MPEG4. When it was done rendering I did a File > Exit.

I opened the mpeg4 to watch it and - as should be expected - the trio of clips all have the appropriate blurring in place. Great!

I go back to my external drive and open "Test project 3 clips blurred.VSP". Video Studio launches, my project opens and once more, every single clip in the timeline that had track motion blurring applied is again gone!? No blurring, no yellow star, no blue line, just the video clips still in their muted state. There is zero explanation for this that I can come up with. Here is the smart package along with screenprints to show what I've done. The smart package was created based on the VSP project that was last opened... the one that no longer had the track motion applied... not sure if that matters any or if I should apply the track motion, save the project, render the project then do a smart package prior to exiting.

screen print - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nmW ... ue&sd=true
rendered video - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LlfAvM ... share_link
smart package - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... share_link

Appreciate anyone's insight before the white flag is raised and I look at other options for editing. Thanks!

~Kris