□_MovieTools can process up to 500 background movies or background/foreground sets of movies in an unattended batch operation. Nearly all operations can be automated in a batch; the exceptions are chromakey compositing and extraction of an alpha channel based on chroma information.
To start a batch operation, first close any open movies so that the main window is closed. The Batch Processingﾉ item under the File menu will then be enabled. Select it to open the Batch Processing window.
Batch lists can consist of background movies only or background/foreground movie sets. Since all movies in a batch will undergo a single process, you cannot have mixed lists with some background only and some background/foreground sets. MovieTools will warn you if it encounters such a batch list.
To enter a background movie into the list, click the Add Bkgd. button, or press the ﾒBﾓ key on the keyboard. MovieTools will open a standard file open dialog which will allow you to select a background movie.
Once a background movie has been loaded, the Add Bkgd. button will change to read Chg. Bkgd. if you select a line with an existing movie. Also, the Add Fgnd. button will become active once a background movie has been entered.
To enter a foreground movie into the list, click the Add Fgnd. button, or press the ﾒFﾓ key on the keyboard. MovieTools will open a standard file open dialog which will allow you to select a foreground movie.
Once a foreground movie has been loaded, the Add Fgnd. button will change to read Chg. Fgnd. if you select a line with an existing foreground movie.
You can scroll through the batch list using the scroll bar or the up and down arrow keys.
The Delete button deletes the currently-selected line, including both the background and foreground movies on the line. If you hold down the Option key while clicking the Delete button, the entire batch list will be cleared.
The Save and Load keys let you save and load batch lists. If you load a batch list, it will replace any list currently in memory. Batch lists must be saved in the same folder that contains the files for the batch list.
When your batch list is complete, you can start the processing by selecting a function from the File menu.
MovieTools performs a basic analysis of files as you add them to the batch list, and will only make available those functions that are appropriate for the files in the list.
When running a batch list, MovieTools will open and close its main window as it opens and closes files. The batch window will stay open, but may be hidden behind the main window, depending on where you position the windows.
As each line in the batch list is processed it is marked as Done. When a batch list is complete, or if you stop batch processing by clicking the Stop button in the main window, you can toggle the ﾒDoneﾓ status by selecting a line and then clicking on the check mark.
