Playing back multiple frames from an image sequence?

[dkrelina]

Hi,

I have a single file node that reads an image sequence. The file node is connected to the color channel of a material. I would like to assign this material to multiple objects in my scene and for each object to have a unique frame offset value.

Is it possible to have multiple frame offset values on a single file node? If not, what would be the most efficient way to load a single sequence and show multiple different frames from the sequence simultaneously? Is there any way to do this apart from having multiple file nodes (one for unique each frame offset value)?

[mspeer]

Hi!

This seems not to be possible.

Also about efficiency, you have to load all (/only) individual images of a sequence needed for rendering anyway regardless of the setup.

[dkrelina]

@mspeer I am wondering more about efficiency (speed of playback) in real-time within the viewport rather than at render time.

Say I have an image sequence "imageSequenceA.001.png" that has 100 images at 2048x2048 resolution. So I make a file node to play the sequence and I connect the file node out color to a new material, and then assign it to a cube in the scene. I press play in the viewport and the timeline plays back at a fast FPS.

Now I make a second file node with the same image sequence, "imageSequenceA.001.png", but here I enter a 10 frame offset. I connect the file node to a second material, and assign it to a second cube in my scene. I press play in the viewport but this time it plays back at a slower FPS.

Since the two files nodes refer to the same image sequence, is there any way to maintain high FPS when playing back from inside the viewport in real-time?

[dkrelina]

edit...

* I press play in the viewport with both materials in the scene but this time it plays back at a slower FPS. I'm wondering why, if the two materials are referring to the same image sequence, why would displaying them twice be more taxing on the hardware?

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

It's not about the image sequence it's about the current needed image(s) to be displayed as texture for a certain frame.

If you have 2 materials that use the same texture-image then there is no difference compared to using only one material.

As soon as you use an Offset for one image sequence then 2 independent images need to be loaded from disk and used for rendering, which is of course slower, so this is not a problem of the amount of used file nodes.

If you want your interactive Viewport playback to become faster, please use in the file node:

Interactive Sequence Caching Options > Use Interactive Sequence Caching (check)