AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

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Animark
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AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by Animark »

Hello,

I am fiddeling around with my new AS10 and start to love a lot of those new features. The "Preview Animation"-Feature seem sto be one I like to use a lot, but unfortunately it shows only a black video in my favorite videoplayer. So, everthing works as I would expect but there seems to be a problem with the video codec. I am on a Win7/64 System and my video player can show mp4 and H264 as well. When I render my animation for example, there is no problem with showing the files. The black screen also don't depends on using the 32 or 64 bit version of ASP.

Is there a special codec for the Animation Preview Feature?
Does someone knows where I could get that codec?

Thanks in advance!
richinri
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by richinri »

I have experienced similar issues. Preview movie for me is a lock up 100% of the time. The H264 codec won't work at all unless I select Quicktime which gives me a H264 option. I have submitted a ticket on the preview movie lockups. I loaded extra codecs from the Microsoft site...made no difference.
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Greenlaw
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by Greenlaw »

Just a thought but could it be a graphics card issue? If you haven't already done so, check that you have the latest drivers for your card or chipset.

My understanding of Preview Animation is that, unlike when you Render a scene, the Preview Animation command is just capturing data directly from the ASP display buffer or other cache source. (I could be wrong about that but, to me, that's what it looks like ASP is doing when you choose this command.)

G,
Animark
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by Animark »

Thanks Greenlaw, your hint was very helpful.

- A few days ago, I disabled the GPU-Acceleration because I had some problems with a flickering UI when GPU-Acceleration was enabled.
- Unfortunately it seems that the "Preview Animation"-function needs the GPU-Acceleration to work. If it is disabled, there is only a black video rendered as a preview.
- So I updated my GPU-Driver (for Nvidia GTX 260). Now I also have the flickering problem, but not as often as before.
- My actual workflow could now be to enable GPU-Acceleration on the fly, when I need to preview my animation. It is not a very practicable workflow, but now I know what I can do.

Maybe I like to have a one-click-solution that first enables the GPU-Acceleration, then renders the preview animation, then disable the GPU-Acceleration again. Does anyone knows if this is scriptable with lua?

Anyway, for the moment I can live with this limitation, but it would be even nicer if it works without this. Should I think on bying a new graphic card? Are there any suggestions which one should work better?

Thanks a lot :-).
Distinct Sun
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by Distinct Sun »

There is another potential situation where this could happen, if your default video/movie player application has been changed and it does not support the format or codec that "Preview Animation" is using.
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Animark
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by Animark »

Thanks Distinct Sun,
but that was one of the first things, I've tested with the preview file (located in C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp).
It could not be played in any of my videoplayers, or to be more precisely, every player played it, but with a black screen.
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relik
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by relik »

Just as an FYI, I am also using the work-around of re-enabling the GPU acceleration when creating a preview render, and this is on three different machines with three different video cards (one of which is pretty robust and relatively new). That would tend to indicate it's not brand specific or even driver specific. Like you said, I can live with it, but I would appreciate some input from the production team on whether they see the "blinking" of the work area on their systems with GPU accel on.
Animark
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by Animark »

Thanks relic,

your info prevents me from buying a hole bunch of different graphic cards.
wabbeljabba
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by wabbeljabba »

Hello,
I'm relieved to hear that I am not the only one with those problems. I have installed the latest Catalyst driver and the flickering that has been described has gone. But the preview animation problem remains. I can have a preview like you with the GPU acceleration switched on (if it's off I get a black video as well or AS crashes), what brings back the flickering of the viewport , but has someone with those problems made a preview of the file 'Fire_threshold2' from the library? The preview that I get is no real preview, the squares still remain squares and they are not blurred and there is no threshold effect. But that should happen, you can see this particular example being used in the latest webinar.
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SimplSam
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by SimplSam »

Hi,

I wasn't aware of an issue until this thread, but I also have the lights-out preview issue if I disable the GPU acceleration.

But I don't normally do that - as I don't have a flickering display issue.

Also confirm that the GPU enabled preview renders squares for Fire_threshold2.

NVidia GTX610 G/Card.

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luckynth
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by luckynth »

Animark wrote:Thanks Greenlaw, your hint was very helpful.

- A few days ago, I disabled the GPU-Acceleration because I had some problems with a flickering UI when GPU-Acceleration was enabled.
I found the same thing. I disable GPU-Acceleration because I didn't like the way curves were "straightened" during Preview playback (circles becoming stop signs ... that sort of thing!). I have to re-enable GPU-Acceleration to see Preview Animation.
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SimplSam
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by SimplSam »

luckynth wrote:
Animark wrote:Thanks Greenlaw, your hint was very helpful.

- A few days ago, I disabled the GPU-Acceleration because I had some problems with a flickering UI when GPU-Acceleration was enabled.
I found the same thing. I disable GPU-Acceleration because I didn't like the way curves were "straightened" during Preview playback (circles becoming stop signs ... that sort of thing!). I have to re-enable GPU-Acceleration to see Preview Animation.
I think there might be a work-around. I am assuming that you are using [Disable GPU] via [Edit Preferences]. Which for me renders a black screen for Preview Animation.

If however - I leave that enabled, but instead disable [GPU acceleration] it in workspace [Display Quality] settings, my Preview Animation works fine (i think), and seems to cure the hexagonal circle issue.

I don't know if this resolves the flicker problem though?
wabbeljabba wrote:The preview that I get is no real preview, the squares still remain squares and they are not blurred and there is no threshold effect. But that should happen, you can see this particular example being used in the latest webinar.
Also, I just quickly viewed the webinar again, and looks like he selects the fully rendered movie file from the file system . The Preview Animation is meant to be quick and dirty, so I guess the preview rendered squares for Fire_threshold2 is expected.

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wabbeljabba
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by wabbeljabba »

Thanks iteque for pointing that out. The presenter said he rendered it out- I have mixed it up with the new 'preview animation'- obviously I hoped for to much. So the solely idea of this preview function is having a smooth sequence with no frame skipped. That is nonetheless a useful feature, although it is still not quite comparable with After Effects preview then !
iteque wrote: I leave that enabled, but instead disable [GPU acceleration] it in workspace [Display Quality] settings,
Unfortunately this work-around doesn't work for me. If I enable GPU acceleration in the settings it flickers again and it's the same if I disable it in the viewport settings or not. The guy of the support has emailed me he has updated the report with the Project Team. I'm wondering if just PC systems are affected?
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Overdroid
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by Overdroid »

Hmmm. When I select the Preview Animation option from the menu nothing happens. Just nothing.
luckynth
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Re: AS10 - Preview Animation shows Black Screen

Post by luckynth »

Overdroid wrote:Hmmm. When I select the Preview Animation option from the menu nothing happens. Just nothing.
The Preview Animation saves out a video in .mp4 format and loads the default media player (in my case, VLC). Is it possible there is some problem with your system loading this kind of video in the default player? My first step in troubleshooting this would be to make sure that your system associates a player with .mp4. Find an .mp4 file outside of AS and double-click on it. If it plays fine, it's another problem.

What happens when you Export Animation? Does it load up after rendering?
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