TIFF image sequence import problem

[Steve Roberts]

Split the sequence into two folders, then import one sequence at a time, then butt them together in a sub-comp.

[Kevin Camp]

i’ve never imported such a large sequence, i would theorize that maybe you hit a limit in ae. the work around, if you haven’t already done so, would be to break up the sequence into 2 (or more) parts and put them back to back in the same timeline.

the only minor workflow issue i can see is if you need an effect to effect the entire footage (like a color adjustment, etc…) the most efficient way would be to put it on an adjustment layer over the footage segments, that way you only need one effect to effect the segments (vs. one effect for each segment).

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Pentti Kakkori]

Have you checked frame 32767? Does it open in Photoshop? It can be some even very minor fault in the file.
That is normally the case if image sequence import fails. 36431 is not too much I think.
I have used over 65000 without problems.

[Darby Edelen]

[moldyboot] “i would theorize that maybe you hit a limit in ae”

My guess as well, the number 32766 stands out to me as a definite indication that you’ve reached some sort of technical threshold (32768 is the highest positive number that can be stored in a standard 16-bit integer). If AE is using a 16-bit integer to store some sort of reference to the images in the sequence then you would run across problems when you approach 32768 images. I’d try Steve’s suggestion earlier in the thread.

[Darby Edelen]

[pena] “That is normally the case if image sequence import fails. 36431 is not too much I think.
I have used over 65000 without problems.”

Well that kind of punches a whole in my technical limitation theory =) I’ll see if I can recreate the problem.

[Tim999]

Thanks all for your help and suggestions, much appreciated.

Splitting the image sequence into two folders (slit was made at frame 15000) to make two out of one and then importing them back into AE worked fine, thanks. However, this is the strange thing, I can import the full TIFF sequence into Premier Pro 2.0 without splitting and all as it should be and I

[Pentti Kakkori]

I had faulty memory chip in my head. I have rendered over 65000 tgas in AE and imported them to Premiere. Premiere can handle that.
I just tested with 40000 8 bit tgas and indeed last frame was 32766 as Tim said.
I also tested short tif sequence with one faulty frame in the middle of sequence, imported them to AE and Premiere,
both imported them without hiccup. When srubbing timeline AE gave error message: not a tiff file. In Premiere Pro when scrubbing timeline, it just duplicated previous frame. But when rendering it says export error.
In the past when I have had problems with image sequences it usually is one imcompleted frame from Maya or corrupted otherwise.
This time I was totally wrong, I apologize. Next time I write only after testing.