9. Pictures & Videos

You can embed pictures, videos, and image sequences into your credits. Once you reference a media file from the Credits spreadsheet, it automatically pops up in the styling window for configuration. You may omit the file extension, or append a qualifier to separately configure multiple appearances of the same file.

Conversely, you could also manually add a picture or video entry in the styling window, and thereafter reference that entry from the spreadsheet.

Name

This unique name is what you reference from the Credits spreadsheet. It may or may not match the name of the actual media file. Notice that the same file may be used by different picture/video entries, which is useful to, e.g., embed the same logo at different sizes.

File or Folder

Here, you select a picture or video file from the project folder or any subfolder:

Image sequences are also supported, and show up as their folder name. For example, the following image sequence would be called Vanity Card:

• My Cinecred Project
  • Vanity Card
    • Vanity Card.0000001.png
    • Vanity Card.0000002.png
    • Vanity Card.0000003.png
    • …

If some media file is missing, then either its format is unsupported, or its filename is not unique across all files in the project folder.

Resolution

By default, pictures and videos are shown in their original size. Use this setting to resize their width, height, or both.

Pictures

Be Cautious About Picture Formats

For logos, always try to use files with the extensions svg/pdf/ai/eps/ps. These are vector graphics that can be scaled arbitrarily without any quality loss. If you don’t have a vector version of a logo at hand, ask for it. Only fall back to png/gif files if absolutely necessary, as these are raster graphics, which may look bad upon rescaling.

Do absolutely never use jpg/jpeg files for logos. While JPEG compression appears visually lossless for organic photos, it badly messes up high contrast edges, of which there are plenty in typical logos. The result will look very amateurish:

Crop Blank Space

This setting crops the empty space around vector pictures (svg/pdf/ai/eps/ps).

Videos

In the credits, a video will start playing as soon as it comes into view:

The still preview shows the video’s first frame in low resolution:

In & Out Points

By default, the video plays from its beginning until it’s either over or out of view. You can trim the part of the video that is played using this setting. The out point is exclusive. Use the reset buttons to insert the first respectively last frame of the video.

Temporally Justify

If the video’s length (after trimming) doesn’t exactly match the playback timeframe, the video’s first frame is aligned with the timeframe’s beginning. Alternatively, you can use this setting to align the video’s middle respectively last frame with the timeframe’s middle respectively end.

Temporal Margin

By default, the playback timeframe starts as soon as the video comes into view and stops once it goes out of view. This setting controls how much time should be peeled off the timeframe at the start and end.

Fade In/Out

These settings specify how long fading in and out takes. A duration of 0 means no fade. Notice that the fading times do neither include black nor fully opaque frames. For example, setting Fade In to “2” frames will generate one frame with ⅓ opacity and a second frame with ⅔ opacity. Finally, you can also specify a transition style that governs the exact fading curve.

Audio

Cinecred only processes video streams and discards any accompanying audio. If you want to retain the sound, you need to bring it back manually in finishing. To do this, export the Audio Timeline of Embedded Videos as a csv/edl/otio/fcpxml/xml file from the delivery window, and use it to precisely align the audio of each embedded video clip.