.avi video file does not appear when imported

[Anonymous]

 I have a .avi file that I'm adding into a plane. I drag the file from the folder onto the bitmap slot in materials. Video does not appear onto the plane. I tried UV mapping it but that doesn't help. The plane turned black and doesn't play. When I try rendering it, the plane appears either white or grey. 

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Hi @Anonymous,

this may be due to the avi codec.

Avi format is a "container" and can be encoded via various codecs.

Max currently supports avi codec : uncompressed, DV video and MJPEG.

Same as the render output.

When selecting a video file from the Material editor Bitmap picker, if the file does not produce a thumbnail in the UI, the file is not readable by max.

Ideally you'd use a image sequence.

There is another thread on this forum about that, here :

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/mpeg-as-a-bitmap/td-p/6374303

Here is my own recipe.

There are many utilities out there to convert videos from a codec to another.

The one I usually use is called HandBrake, it is an open source freeware that can convert any format to an .mp4 format, using either the h.264, h.265, mpeg-2 and mpeg4 codecs.

What I end up doing is to use hand brake to convert using the "mpeg-4" codec and then I rename the extension from .mp4 to .mov to load in Max.

I hope this can help you ! 🙂

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much. I will try this out. 

[Anonymous]

 Hello again,

Since I am an amateur animator, I was unsure how to convert & use a image sequence. However, I tried your tip of downloading HandBrake and it worked! Thank you again

[ads_royje]

Great to know !! 🙂

Thank you for your feedback!