Using Video Clips in Singular

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Singular is capable of handling most commons web video formats. However, there are various considerations to keep in mind when doing this. Most important is that Singular is based on HTML and behaves like a web page. Therefore, any linked assets will need to be cached and may not play immediately.

Additionally, download bandwidth, resolution and frame rate can affect smooth playout of your video asset. If you stick to best practices for web, you should be able to achieve good results. We have listed a few suggestions below to keep in mind while using video clips within your Singular Composition.

Recommended Video Format - Webm

When using the Video Clip Widget, at all times we recommend using a WebM video clip. WebM is an open, royalty-free, media file format designed for the web. Webm provides a low computational footprint while still providing high quality real-time video delivery.

• The file sizes are small
• Supports an alpha channel
• Has a low load on the CPU
• Looping these clips for backgrounds works well 
• Compatible with various software including Premiere and Adobe Media Encoder (click here for a Premier and Adobe Media Encoder WebM plugin).

There are several conversion services online to convert your videos to WebM format such as freeconvert or cloudconvert.

For more information on WebM, click here.

Optimizing Load Time - Set up a Local Web Server

Note, local web servers only work on projects that don't involve client-side rendering.

If you are rendering your Singular output on your local computer before sending it out to the web, you can set up a local web server to have singular point to a local clip's URL and then load time will never be a concern. If you're a Chrome user check out this web server extension for Google Chrome.

A Few Things to Consider

Bandwidth matters

If your video clips are hosted anywhere on the internet, there could be delays - this is the nature of web video. Singular will attempt to cache enough of the video upon load of the clip, but the caching may also cause a slight delay in playout.

Decrease your video size if possible.

if your video is in 4k but your final show is streamed at 1920x1080, well, that video size isn't necessary. Make sure to pay attention to this and get your video clip down to as small a size as possible while still making sure it is crisp enough for the viewing eye.

If all else fails, try another format.

Gifs can be used in the Image Widget and Singular also offers a Spritesheet Widget and Bodymovin Widgets.

Using Other Video Widgets (YouTube, Twitch, etc.)

Although we offer Widgets for popular streaming sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and Twitch, browsers still have to load videos from external CDNs. And if you aren't careful, you could be accessing a video that is considerably larger than perhaps necessary. This limitation tied with others prevents these widgets from timing playback to in/out animations.

In most instances, if you are accessing video from these sites, we recommend you simply run the video through your encoder and not through Singular.