Requirements

• Internet connection (necessary to create speech files)
• Banana Accounting Dev Channel Version.
• Subscription to the Video Maker Plan or at least the Advanced Plan.
• FFmpeg executables.
• Subscription to a text-to speech service
  • Azure cognitive API
  • Google text-to- speech service.

Setup the environment

In order to use the Educational Video Maker application.

• For Windows
  • Download and Install ffmpeg tools
    • Download ffmpeg tools for Windows
    • Under "Get packages & executable files" select the Window operating system.
    • Download the essential package.
    • Unpack the file to a directory for example C:\ffmpeg
      Under bin you should have the file ffmpeg.exe and fprobe.exe
  • Make sure your antivirus does not block or slow the execution
    • Search and go to  "Virus Thread and Protection"
    • Manage settings
    • Add Remove Exclusions.
    • Add Exclusion
    • Folder
    • Select the ffmpeg/bin directory
  • Install a video player for mp4 files.
    Video are build in mp4 format, the codec is not preinstalled on Window.
    • Install an alternative Video player like VLC video player.
• MacOS setup (Install Ffmpeg tools)
  • Download the ffmpeg and ffprobe binaries
    • Under "Get packages & executable files" select the Mac operating system.
      Download the
    • ffmpeg
    • ffprobe.
    • Unpack the files and copy them to a new directory.
    • Make sure the ffmpeg and ffprobe are executable file type.
      • Go to the "Get packages & executable files" section of the page.
      • Click on macOS icon.
      • Click on "Static builds for macOS 64-bit".
• Setup Banana Accounting.
  • Install and run the dev-channel version.
  • Run the software
  • Make sure you can open MP4 files
    • Menu Tools → Program Settings.
  • Activate the integrated Screen Capture.
    • Windows-Appearance → Show developer Menus.
    • Developer menu → Activate ctrl+3.
  • Set the default language to English.
    • Menu Tools → Program Settings.
    • File Handling → Extensions of files conisdered secure
    • Add mp4 to the list
• Create an empty video project
  • Create a new directory for the video project.
  • Download and the Empty educational video file and copy it to the video project directory.
• Setup the Global settings
  • Important you need to specify the ffmpeg executable.
• Request the authorization at Banana.ch
  Speech generation only work if you have the authorization.

 In the Clips table you enter the data that is used to generate the video.

• The sequence in the table is the one used to generate a video.
  • Use Alt+MoveUp and Alt+MoveDown to move rows up and down.

Columns

• Chapter (Optional)
  • Enter a chapter number or letter, that help you organize the video in group of video clip.
  • Enter the chapter number within square brackets "[]" for automatic chapter numbering (progressive).
  • During build the chapter number is added to the language Text (for display only), unless the specific build option is not deactivated.
  • Chapter rows should also be associated to a Clip file name
• Clip File.
  The name of an existing file.
  • The name of the clip file is relative to the project file (ac2).
  • It can be:
    • An image file (png or jpg)
    • A video clip (mp4).
  • When modifying the value (autocomplete)
    • You will see a list of files available, and not yet used.
  • If you click on the little icon you see the preview and you can change the image.
  • The row that contains a Clip File name will be the start of a Video Clip.
  • The Video clip will contains all the rows up to the next row that contains a Clip File name.
  • Empty (value).
    If the clip file is empty, this row will be added to the previous video clip file.
  • Automatic file renumbering
    Use the file in the specified format to renumber file name based on the chapter number.  When you add a new chapter all the existing file with the automatic file format will be renamed.
    • The automatic file name format is in the form of chapternumber-progressive[-freetext].ext.
      The free text is optional.
      Examples:
      • "01-01.png" "101-101.png"
      • "01-01-freetext.png" "101-101-freetext.png"
• Effects (default is hidden)
  You can attach effects to the image that will be applied when the video is build.
  For the syntax see the Effects page,
• Text Style
  The style to be used for showing the text.
  • Empty.
    Same as Subtitles.
  • None.
    Text is not shown.
  • Any other you define in the Text Style table.
• Speech Style
  • Empty.
    Default speech style.
  • None.
    Text is not translated to speech.
  • Any other speech style you define in the Speech Style Table.
• Start (Time Start)
  The start time the clip, text or speech start to be shown. Relative to the clip file.
  If the time is empty, the start time is calculated based on the speech duration .
• Duration
  The duration of the clip, text or speech. Relative to the clip file.
• Time command.
  • Empty
    The duration is automatically calculated based on the speech duration.
  • Duration Time Command
    If you specify a Duration command the StartTime of the the next row is ignored.
    • DurationAdd (AddTime).
      The entered duration is added to calculated duration.
    • DurationFixed (FixedTime),
      The entered duration is used. If the speech is longer it will be cut.
      Useful for pause.
    • DurationPause
      Same as FixedTime, but with the option to exclude the pause in the build.
    • DurationPause[XX]
      Same as DurationPause, but if the Duration is empty, the duration of the last Duration[XX] is used. 
      You can create different standard pause "DurationPauseChapter", "DurationPauseImage"
      Pause will not be included in build if the option is activated.
    • DurationSpeech.
      The entered duration is used if the calculated speech duration is shorter.
    • DurationMin (MinTime).
      The entered duration is used if the calculated speech duration is shorter.
  • Time Commands for Title, text or effect rows that have no speech and therefore the duration is zero
    In case the rows have the SpeechStyle set to "none" or there is no text and there is no Duration.
    These commands allow display the text for a duration of the speech o clip..
    • SameNextRow (NextRowTime),
      The text will display at the same same start time and end time calculated for the next row.
      Useful in case you need to use for display and speech different texts.
    • SamePreviousRow (PreviousRowTime),
      The text will display at the same same start time and end time calculated for the previous row.
      Useful in case you need to use for display and speech different texts.
    • SameClip (ClipTime).
      The text will display for all the time the clip duration (from begin to end).
    • SameClipEnd (ClipTimeEnd).
      The text will display for up to the end of the clip.
  • Time Command that takes priority over the speech duration
    • SameClipVideo (ClipVideoTime)
      Only for clip files of type video.
      Takes the same duration as the original video clip.
• Text (language)
  The text to be displayed or for speech creation.
  There is one column for each language.
  Use Action->Add Language to add another language.

Structure and logic of a video

These are the basic elements of a FinalVideo.

• Chapter (optional)
  It is used to group together a series of Video Clip that together form a unit, exactly as youtube.com chapters.
  • VideoClip (Clip File)
    Start with a row that contains a file name in the column ClipFile
    It include all rows up to the next row containing a file name in the column ClipFile
    • Non-Video Clip Row
    • Non-Video Clip Row
  • Video Clip
    • Non-Video Clip Row
    • Non-Video Clip Row
• Chapter
  • VideoClip
    • Non-Video Clip Row
    • Non-Video Clip Row

FinalVideo

Is the result of the process of the command Build Video.

• The FinalVideo is the concatenation of the different VideoClips in the same sequence specified in the table Clips.
• The length of the FinalVideo is the sum of the length of the different VideoClips.

VideoClips

Each VideoClip is build separately and once all the VideoClips have been build they are concateneted to form a FinalVideo.

• A VideoClip is based on a ClipFile specified in the column Clip File
• All the rows before a row that contains a ClipFile are used to create the VideoClip.
• The number of Video Clips correspond to the number of Clip Files specified.

A Video clip file and can be of type.

• Image. jpg or png file.
• A video sequence (mp4 o avi file).

Times columns

The times columns (StartTime, Duration and TimeCommand) are used to determine the length of the VideoClip.

• The Time columns are specific to each VideoClip.
  The VideoClips are concatenated to form a FinalVideo, so the next VideoClip will start exactly after previous one.
• The time of a new VideoClip is not influenced by the times value specified before.
• The duration of a VideoClip is the sum of the duration of the different rows that form the VideoClip.

Start and duration of speech rows

The speech rows are rows that have a text and don't have the SpeechStyle to "none".

• SpeechDuration
  The duration of the row is automatically calculated, based on the length of the speech.
• If the speech duration is longer then the duration specified, the SpeechDuration is used.
• If the next row has a StartTime, the Duration will be expanded so that the next row will start of the StartTime specified.
• CalculatedStartTime of a row is the the sum of the duration of the previous rows of the VideoClip. 
  The CalculatedStartTime has precedence over the specified StartTime.
• You can change the automatic mode with the Duration TimeCommands ( DurationAdd, DurationFixed, DurationMin, DurationSpeech).

Start and duration of Title rows (non speech rows)

In the VideoClip you can have rows that don't have speech:

• When there is no text
• SpeechStyle "none"
  • When the text is a title.
  • When the speech text need to be different than the speech.

In this case you need to synchronize the appearance of the text with the speech. So you can use the Sync Time Commands.

StartTime for Video Clip Files (Video Segments)

For Clip File that contains a video the StartTime is used to specify at what exact point a subtitles, title and speech should appears. But, if you build a Video in another language, the SpeechTime can be larger than the original one. In order not to have the speech to be cut fit the video, the program will have slow down a sequence of the video for the time necessary too fit all the speech. 

• During the build the Video file is cut in different VideoSegments each one corresponding to the specified StartTime.
• Each segment is than processed separately and the duration adapted to the specific content and time.
  • If the speech duration is longer than the original one, the duration of the segment is expanded (the video will be slowed down).
  • If there are TimeCommand they will be applied to the row and segment.
• The speech and text are added to each segment so that the speech and titles start always at the original point. 

You can control the duration of the different video segments by using the following TimeCommand:

• DurationSpeech.
  Use if you want to make the segment not longer than the speech duration.
  • If the original video segment duration is shorter, the video will be slow down.
  • If the original video segment duration is longer the video will be speed up.
• DurationAdd
  Add a duration to the DurationSpeech and speed-up or slow-down the video segment.
• DurationFixed
  Extend or cut the original segment duration of exactly the specified duration and and speed-up or slow-down the video segment. 
  If there is a speech that it is longer than the specified duration the speech will be cut.
  Use mostly in case for segments that have no speech. 

Calculated columns

With the command Tools>Add/Remove functionalities you can:

• Add Calculated columns
• Remove Calculated columns

The Add Calculated columns are made available for the developer of the application, but may be interesting also for people creating video.
The command will add the following columns:

• Start Clip
  The time when the row will start relative to the Clip.
• Start Clip
  The time when the row will start relative to the complete Video.
• Calculated Duration
  The duration taking in consideration also the Time command.
• C. Speech
  The Duration of the speech in the processed language.
• Calculated Fill
  The time that will be added to arrive at the specified Start time.

The calculated columns will be updated at the end of the build process.
The change will not change the modified flag of the file, so if you want to save the date you have to modify some text.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Define the text style to be used for displaying text on clips.

• Size and margins are defined in pixels, relative to an image size of 1920x1080.
• Colors you can use a name (red, blue, etc) or a symbol.

Use different colors for subtitles

Define the styles for any subtitle type you want to use.

Start from the default subtitle style and adapt it according to your needs.

• Id.
  Enter the name of the style.
  Use it in the column Text Style of the Table Clips.
• Font Name.
  Enter the name of the font.
• Size.
  Enter the size of the text.
• Primary Color.
  Enter the color of the text.
• Outline Color.
  Enter teh color of the outline of the text.

You can also change text sizes, bold, outlines, alignments and positions of any text style.

Add new voices in the Table Speech Styles, and combine each voice with a different subtitle style using the Speech Style column of the Table Clips.

Text Style Effects

In the column Effects you can enter commands and element to use in the columns Effects of the Clips table.

You can specify:

• object=RowId
  A command with elements.
  Example: "DrawRect:pos=800:200,size=500:400,border=red:4,opacity=0.9;Arrow:3:3
  The parameters can be modified in the table Clips.
  "Object:id=frect,pos=800:300,size=500:300"
• style=RowId
  Attributes that are used to display a command.
  Example: "border=#ffe01b:3:5,fill=blue,opacity=0.1"

 

 Create style to use for creating speech.
If you use a style you should specify also for any language you use.

Columns Speech Styles

• Id.
  • default.
    The style to be used in case the speech style is not specified.
  • Any other name for a style.
• Language
  The language code used for the column text in the Clips table.
• Voice Language.
  Language code  and country code.
  It should be the same as the one of the Voice name.
  Example: "en-US".
  For each language and id you should have only one country code. If you have more the program will use the first id it find.
• Voice.
  The voice name that available in your service.
  The software will show to you a list of available voice based on the service you have selected.
  Example: "en-US-AriaNeural"
  • Microsoft  azure voices (click on section Text-To-Speech)
  • Google voices.
• Rate, Pitch and Volume see Microsoft Azure explanations.

Predefined Speech Styles

If not defined the software will use this speech styles.

The Speech service used (Microsoft Azure or Google) will be automatically selected based on the API key you have entered in the global settings.

Azure and Google have different voice name, so once you enter the one that is specific to the service you use.

Microsoft Azure

See. Microsoft  azure voices

Predefined languages for Microsoft Azure Service.

• "de","de-DE","de-DE-KatjaNeural"
• "es","es-ES","es-ES-ElviraNeural"
• "en","en-US","en-US-AriaNeural","cheerful"
• "fr","fr-CH","fr-CH-ArianeNeural"
• "it","it-IT","it-IT-IsabellaNeural"
• "nl","nl-NL","nl-NL-ColetteNeural"
• "pt","pt-BR", "pt-BR-FranciscaNeural"
• "zh","zh-CN","zh-CN-XiaoxiaoNeural"

Google Speech to Text

See available Google voices.

Predefined languages for Google Text to speech Service.

• "de","de-DE","de-DE-Wavenet-A"
• "es","es-ES","es-ES-Wavenet-C"
• "en","en-US","en-US-Wavenet-A"
• "fr","fr-CH","fr-FR-Wavenet-Al"
• "it","it-IT","it-IT-Wavenet-B"
• "nl","nl-NL","nl-NL-Wavenet-B";
• "pt","pt-BR", "pt-BR-Wavenet-B"
• "zh","zh-CN","cmn-CN-Wavenet-B";

 

The Lexicon tab allows you to specify a forced pronunciation for specific terms.

Column description:

• Id
  Specify the term that will be replaced with the defined pronunciation.
  • The Id is case-sensitive.
  • The replacement will be applied to any text used for voice generation.
  • If the same term appears in different contexts and may require different pronunciations, make the text unique, for example by adding a symbol, such as "$File".
• Phoneme IPA
  • Enter the phoneme using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).
  • You can use an AI assistant to convert the term to the Phoneme IPA.
  • The IPA must be valid, otherwise the build will fail.
  • Do not include brackets.

This is the text that will be displayed.

 

 

 

This dialog allow to add effects to the image.

Command Syntax

The column Effect support the following syntax (Version 2, from December 2021).

• Levels separated by "|"

Main commands

One per level

• DrawEllipse:
• DrawHtml:
  Print the text specified in the Text column.
  TextStyle and Speech style should be "none"
• DrawImage:
  Draw the specified image file.
  The image is resized.
  Use for inserting a logo.
• DrawMarkdown
  Convert the markdown text specified in the Text column to html and print.
  TextStyle and Speech style should be "none",
  See further explanation below.
• DrawRect:
  Draw a rectangle at the specified position and with specified size.
• DrawText:
  Draw a text. The text is resized to fit the rectangle.
• FFmpeg:
  You can enter an FFmpeg command
  Examples:
  • FFmpeg:drawbox=x=400:y=100:w=300:h=200:color=pink@0.5:t=fill
  • FFmpeg:scale=4*iw:-1,crop=iw/4:ih/4
• ObjectClip:rowid
  It use an object defined in the table Clip column Effects with the RowId specified
  • Example: ObjectClip:id=001,pos=800:300,size=500:300
    Use the object defined, but with a specified size.
• ObjectStyle:rowid
  It use an object defined in the table TextStyle column Effects with the RowId specified
  • Example: ObjectStyle:id=frect,pos=800:300,size=500:300
    Use the object defined, but with a specified size.
  • Use to automate the object creation and styling.
    Create the object in the table Clip and then copy in the TextStyle table.
• Rescale:
• SelectRect:
  It makes the rest of the image darker.
• VideoCut:
• ZoomIn:

Elements (separated by ";")

Are relative the the commands.

• ;Arrow:
  Add and arrow next to the form
  • ,align= 1 to 9, numeric on the keyboard
  • ,dim=1 to 5
• ;Number
  • ,text=
  • ,align=1 to 9 , numeric on the keyboard
  • ,dim= 1 to 5
• ;Grid:numberpixels
  Will display a grid every specified pixels.
  Example: ";Grid:100,fill=yellow" grid every 100 pixels in yellow.

It use the styles of the main command, unless a different style is specified.

Attributes (separated by comma ",")

Attribute are added to the commands or to the elements.

• ,align=[number 0 to 9)
  Used for Elements Number and Arrow.
  The position of the elements is as the key on the numeric keyboard.
• ,Dim=1 to 5
  The size of the Elements Number and Arrow.
• ,border=color:[width]
• ,color=color //text color
• ,endtime=hh:mm:ss.mmm
  for VideoCut
• ,fill=color:[pattern]
• id=RowId
  Use the text at the row with the specified RowId
  For ObjectStyle it retrieve the effect specified in the table TextStyle
• image=filename
  for DrawImage
• ,opacity=number (0 to 1)
• ,pos=x:y
• seconds=seconds
  for ZoomIn
• starttime=hh:mm:ss.mmm
  for VideoCut
• ,size=width:height
• ,style=stylename
  Use the content of the column Effects in the table TextStyles at the line with the id stylename.
  Examples:
  • DrawRect:pos=800:200,size=500:400,style=saa,border=blue:30
• ,text=text
  Use the text that is specified.
•  

Examples

• SelectRect:pos=800:300,size=500:400,border=red:3;Arrow:align=1,dim=3,fill=yellow;Number,text=1,align=7,dim=3
• DrawImage:pos=900:300,size=200:100,image=filename.png,pen=red
• DrawRect:pos=900:300,size=200:100,border=red:3,fill=yellow;Number:1:9:3;Number:6:5:3;Number:3:7:3
• DrawRect:pos=900:300,size=200:100,border=red:3

DrawMarkdown

Markdown is syntax that can be converted easily to html
You can create slides and reuse.

This is an example of markdown text

# Title 1

## Title 2

### Title 3

Proof of **bold** *italic*

* line 1
* line 2
* line 3

This commands allows to use markdown in the text.

• When using this command the columns TextStyle and SpeechStyle should be set to none.
• The markdown text is rendered in html using the style defined in the file _video.css in the table Documents
• Example:
  DrawMarkdown:pos=200:100,size=800:600

With the DrawMarkdown command you can use also this elements:

• ;HtmlSelectLi:2
  A class "selected" is added to the specifiend html tags "li" ;
  This you can display an item with a different style.
• ;HtmlAddClass:classname
  A class "classname" is added to all html tags that belong to the markdowns.
  You can have styles specific to a single markdown.