Background Image (Movie clip) appearing purple

Question

I want to add a video as a background "image" in blender 2.8 to match my camera movement. Blender is however only displaying a purple solid (like when the source file cannot be found). I've tried multiple videos, both as mp4s and image sequences (png). All of them do not work.

Background images work as normal, so this issue is only with videos.

Update: Apparently, this issue was just related to my working file. I could just copy all my objects to a new .blend file where everything worked as it should. I would still be interested in an answer though.

Answer 1

Pink always mean that the image used is missing or cannot be displayed.

If the frame you are trying to use does not exist in your video file you can instruct blender where to start the video file.

as described in this link:

How can I make a "Movie Clip" node start at a certain frame of the scene?

use the frame, start frame and offset for the video or image sequence.

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Now why would your video be missing the first frame?

It is likely that you are dealing with video that has been compressed with an interframe codec using P or B frames and the reference keyframe at the beginning of the Group of Pictures is missing or cannot be read, so the first image displayed is the first keyframe of the next GOP. For more info on this read: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/video/tips-and-solutions/compression-a-basic-understanding

Answer 2

I have now figured out what the issue is (or more precisely, how to solve it). When I scrub through the timeline, the purple color only appears at the first frame. If I then go back to the first frame, the video does not disappear.

Additionally, if you are using your active clip as a source, make sure that it starts at the first frame.

Answer 3

Magenta .mp4

If you load your .mp4 and the image source defaults to Image Sequence, click the drop-down selector and set it to Movie instead.

Additionally, the total number of frames may have ended up in the Offset field instead of the Frames field. Cut/Paste that number into its correct place.

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Other issues

If a non-magenta solid color is shown, the video is probably loaded but not mapped correctly. Try using the Texture Coordinate node. Finally, the Image Texture node and the Environment node look nearly identical, but offer different options in the projection type drop-down, so make sure you're using the appropriate one for your intended purpose.