Commencing a Project

Before we begin, it is important to consider what constitues an ergonomic file/folder structure. I suggest setting up a main folder as a project directory which the final files will be written to, and having the image data in separate subfolders of this project directory. VOLPE can take image and other data from any folder on your computer, but let’s keep the image data together as far as possible so that processed images can readily be found and deleted when necessary.

At first only the Project and Admin tabs will be clickable.

Once VOLPE is up and running it is time to 1) set up and save a project with 2) a couple of options, load a first image, determine up a few parameters, and save a scene as part of the project.

Go to the project directory

Start up VOLPE and navigate to the desired main folder via the “Subdirectory” selector on the left. The current selected directory is shown on top. In this case my project directory is “F:/Videos/2020/WRJ 5”.

Save the project

Select Save as… from the Load project selector. This will change the label to Save project as: (1) and open an input field (2). The Save (3) button will also be activated. Type in the name of the project. When the input field is blurred, the project name will appear in the headline.

Before saving the project, remember to save the project parameters, i.e. the image size (width), aspect ratio and frame rate. Height is calculated on the basis of width and aspect ratio. These must be constant for all scenes. Video sequences with different parameters will first have to be converted. Image sequences will be converted to these values during processing.

After saving the project, all the other tabs become clickable.

Load an image

Once the project has been saved, switch to the Images tab. First select the subdirectory where the images are stored from the Video/Image box, and then a file from that box. Don’t worry, the program will start to load this image, and you will have to wait a little while before the image appears. During this time VOLPE switches to the Status tab and shows the processing progress (“Loading main image” will change to “Main image loaded. All loading completed.”).

Select some options and reload

Once the image is loaded, a number of options can now be selected from the Images tab:

• *Borders* can be set to any value; all borders are locked to the same value to begin with; to change this behavior, first change the value in *Lock*, and then change the indiviudal values; I want a uniform border so I simply enter *40* into one of the boxes and exit it, and the changes are immediate;
• If the image is not the same aspect ratio as the project, then black bars will appear on the sides or the upper and lower borders of the image. This black area can be filled out by selecting a *Fill/Crop* option and reloading.

Changes to the image can be previewed by selecting Fill/Crop and the Options values. I select Crop from Fill/Crop and an option to select an origin option (how far down the picture the crop starts) is visible. Further more I want automatic Chroma correction, Wavelet denoise of 1%, gtx (color enhancement) of 30%, and Sharpen value of 100. To see these changes, press on the Update Image button, and wait for the image to reload, which may take more time than the original loading because more processing will take place.

Save the scene as part of a project

Now switch back to the Project tab and enter a name for the scene in the Save scene as: input (in this case, Kayaking 2; it does not have to be the same name as the image subdirectory) and press the Save button.

You will now find a file Mangapurua.vol in the project directory, and the next time you start VOLPE you will find this file under Load project -> Recent projects. Load the file, then select the scene Kayaking 2 to load the mockup image. After saving a first scene in a new project or loading a project file with at least one active scene, the Produce scene button becaomes activated.