Luma Touch Support Forums

Hi!

I decompressed one of my archived projects spryzip files. In the folder, there are all original media files plus a spryarchive. I wanted to check the structure of this file, that contains the project structure. I was expecting an XML file, JSON file or something like a SRT file. I was so disappointed when I discovered that the file is in binary format instead of a text!

So here is my question: Is this file format documented anywhere? I mean, public documentation. I assume LumaTouch knows this file structure

I would love to compose this file from the imported clips using something like Pythonista. Being able to restore original structure even if I have no LumaFusion at hand... that would be awesome!

Best!

Hi elsatch

To answer your question - no it isn’t documented anywhere publicly - sorry

What exactly would you want to use it in?

_________________
.. Good things come to those who wait

Thanks for the clarification!

Let me explain briefly how do I use LumaFusion:

• I edit 100% of my videos using LumaFusion. I publish usually 1 video a week up to 30 videos a month. I tried desktop NLE's but I'd rather make the most of my commutes, than waiting to edit back home.
• Even though I love LumaFusion, I don't love editing. At least, when it comes to repeating the same moves again and again...
• I plan to produce a series of courses with the same setup: a front facing camera recording my voice, an overhead camera pointing to a whiteboard and my computer screen being recorded.

What do I want to accomplish? I would like 90% of the work to be done programatically, without me having to do it by hand.
How I would like to do it? This is my plan:

• I would AirDrop/copy all media into my computer. I would create a new folder and put videos inside. I would rename them front.mov, overhead.mov and screen.mov. I will also copy backgroundmusic1.wav, etc.
• I would launch a script in my computer that would put front.mov as the track number 1. It would also set audio to principal and then apply favorite LUT.
• Script then will capture the first frame of the overhead camera and use OpenCV to detect largest blob (whiteboard surface) I would detect changes on the blob surface to detect when I'm writing, using background subtraction. Every time it detects I'm writing, it would extract that fragment into a clip, taking the previous 1,5 seconds. Each of these clips would go to track number 2.
• Script then will check for movement on my captured screen and do the same thing. Extract moments were I'm moving around the script and extract those. These clips would to track number 3.
• Video tracks 2 and 3 would be muted.
• Background music would be copied to the audio track 1 and configured for ducking.
• When I say it would go there or that, I mean: these changes will be saved on the archive.spryarchive, according to the specs.
• I would write the time codes for in/out for each clip, project parameters, etc.
• I would put this archive.spryarchive in the same folder as the files, zip it, rename as foldername.spryzip and Airdrop it to my iPad for final edits.

So that's my goal! I've been checking several python libraries to manipulate the videos and it seems doable. This workflow would be highly beneficial, given it would save me around 2-3 hours per video (For a 30 days, 30 videos publishing schedule, that's taking back 90 hours back of your month).

Biggest challenge right now, how to add this information to a well structured spryArchive file

Wow!

That seems like an interesting programming project!

I’m not a developer but ‘Spry’ is used ‘in house’ by the team. My only suggestion is to contact the developers directly, but if Spry was my baby I think the answer would be sorry we are not releasing that info

_________________
.. Good things come to those who wait

Thanks Dave for your reply!

In my opinion, working with unknown format or non human readable files raises a few flags. Let me explain.

Let's hope it doesn't happen, but how could we recover our edits if Lumafusion ever becomes unavailable in the future? It might not happen, but I'm old enough to have seen a few "standard" apps go into oblivion.

It's like if we were back into the WordPerfect 5.1 era, with obscure formats, replaced by the Office 97 files... to be replaced by XML versions in 2007. I assume most professional video edition programs like FCPX, Premiere or Davinci have gone to the same route. Who in their right mind would choose long term an obfuscated format vs an open one?

Would you trust a camera that created a file format that can be deciphered only by a mobile app of the same company? I still have a Sony audio recorder around, that needs a Win98 operating system to read the recordings into the computer.

In this case, I think this might be related to some of the business plans on LumaTouch future. If the format is open, some people could create the FCPX or Premiere in/out programs, limiting the potential for the Pro feature pack.

Personally, it makes me less prone to trust LumaFusion for future scenarios, but that's MHO.

See my signature

You may get a surprise

_________________
.. Good things come to those who wait

I agree, we might get a surprise but let's hope it's not a dancing surprise like this

https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/04/the-l ... ial-robot/

I liked that ... I know what you mean

_________________
.. Good things come to those who wait

elsatch,

The spryArchive file is just a binary plist file. You can use the `file` command to discover this:

$ file ./archive-1.spryArchive 
./archive-1.spryArchive: Apple binary property list
$ 

If you add the .plist extension, you can open it on a Mac and then export it to XML, text, etc.