A Few Ideas

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A Few Ideas

Postby Ben_DWP » Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:35 pm

Here's a few things that I've written down in the last few months. I didn't want to make a number of topics, so sorry if this list is all over the place. I've dug around in the forums and manual, but if a few of these are already in there thats even better. I love being wrong!

- Keyboard Shortcut - Drop a Cue at the playhead.
I frequently have to sync events to a larger over all video, for example PiPs in/out or lighting color changes. It would be nice to be able to play the timeline with the "master" clip in place, and drop cues or another marker in place on the fly. That way I can just play through once and mark all the interesting points.

- Ganging multiple server live inputs
Being able to gang like inputs on multiple servers would be a big time saver, and make backups more flexible. I've tried selecting the first servers's input 1.1 and adding the rest of the servers same inputs through the inspector, but they come up inconsistent. There are alot of shows that I could use in Virtual Site mode if I could just solve this!

- Assigning layer routing to DMX
Sam posted on my behalf while I was trying to use exactly that feature in a project (topic: feature wishlist from DWP students). Would it be possible to bring a layer in as an asset, and assign that a DMX ID? My most common use for layer routing is to dedicate a couple layers with no opacity to play out to many others. In this situation I would only have a couple layers that would need DMX IDs.

- Camera Routing
Another Sam posted for me. Being able to route the camera to layers would be great in some cases. It would allow you to setup a pseudo two pass renderer within PB. That would be great for certain mapping effects, as well as very useful for a full 3d work flow. You could use the first camera to work in the more conventional 2d compositing space, and route that to a 3d model to triangulate with the second camera.

- Nesting layers
Another from the previous topic, but this one needed more explanation. This is along the same thoughts as camera routing. It would be nice to group a set of layers together and have them rendering in to a master layer. The primary reason is again to texture a 3d object on the layer, while retaining control of individual layer parameters in a traditional 2D style compositing space. I have gotten this to work with a stack of effects, but the best I can do is size and position with that method.

Thanks guys!
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby Dennis Kuypers » Thu Feb 14, 2013 11:29 am

Hi Ben,
I'll go with the good'ol quote&reply:

Ben_DWP wrote:- Keyboard Shortcut - Drop a Cue at the playhead.
I frequently have to sync events to a larger over all video, for example PiPs in/out or lighting color changes. It would be nice to be able to play the timeline with the "master" clip in place, and drop cues or another marker in place on the fly. That way I can just play through once and mark all the interesting points.
You can currently drop cues at the nowpointer with the Widget Designer, maybe this can help you for now?

Ben_DWP wrote:- Ganging multiple server live inputs
Being able to gang like inputs on multiple servers would be a big time saver, and make backups more flexible. I've tried selecting the first servers's input 1.1 and adding the rest of the servers same inputs through the inspector, but they come up inconsistent. There are alot of shows that I could use in Virtual Site mode if I could just solve this!
That should actually be possible. Select one of the outputs and in the Inspector tab select "Attach". Now you can choose the other server's inputs and they are linked as one asset.

Ben_DWP wrote:Assigning layer routing to DMX - Camera Routing - Nesting layers

I think we have quite some compositing features in the current release. Maybe some of your wishes can be fulfulled with these features?

http://manual.coolux.de/#compositing.htm
http://manual.coolux.de/#v5_video_proce ... peline.htm

Best regards,
Dennis
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby Markus Zeppenfeld » Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:30 pm

Hi Ben,

as you wrote yourself some of your topics are already mentioned and therefore as well mentioned within our bug and feature tracking system.

- Dropping in a cue while running the timeline is as well already existing and hopefully come in soon. I am absolutely with you on that topic.

- The issue on inconsistent live inputs is happening when you are attaching inputs which are already part of the project. Be sure to only drop in one live input. Attach all other server inputs to this resource and it will remain consistent.

- As well opening the texture sharing to DMX is on the list. I discussed exactly these two topics the last days on site while programming a DMX show.

Hope to see these things soon.
Markus
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby Ben_DWP » Thu Feb 21, 2013 4:11 am

The live input advice is fantastic! Thank you Markus!

Still very curious of a good workflow for doing a 2d composite on to a 3d object. Using a 3d object on the output makes it not possible to triangulate cameras. This is one I am very eager to get working, especially with the new demos from the connect conference. Any advice?
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby malkuth23 » Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:47 am

I think the effect you are looking for is Media Overlay Mix.

But someone correct me if I am wrong. I do not have Manager open in front of me.

This should allow you to mix in other stills/videos and keep them glued to the UVmap of the object in question.

You would want to reserve the mesh in the camera section for small corrections to the lens through warper.

The effect I would love to see is a mesh effect. Where you could apply another mesh to a layer and distort the original object with a warp file without using up your camera mesh slot. There have been a few cases where this would have come in handy in the last gigs I have done.
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby Markus Zeppenfeld » Thu Feb 21, 2013 5:40 pm

Hi!

I am not sure if the morph target effect would help in this case.
Could you please define a little more what exactly you try to reach? Sorry!?

Markus
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby Ben_DWP » Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:48 pm

I think this would be useful for tracking objects and for much faster warping through camera triangulation, and I know you guys are in tune with that as well. Presently I can do this with layer objects and Media Overlay Mix as Matt mentioned, and that works great. But you don't get true layer style control at that point. The hurtle I am trying to solve is getting a stack of real full featured layers on to an object that can still be seen by a camera. It's a best of both worlds, where you can program in traditional 2d, but with a 3d scene for warping and tracking's sake.

I know im getting way off topic. Thanks for playing along.

Ben
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby malkuth23 » Fri Feb 22, 2013 1:03 am

Makes sense to me.

Still not sure if camera routing makes sense as there is the problem of visual feedback.

It seems more like what you want is the ability to route a layer with all of it's attributes (ie. fx, size, scale etc.) - into another layer with an object, as a Media Overlay Mix.

Really what you might be asking for is something I have been thinking about for a while. Which is the ability to route more than just the media and play mode. But to route an entire layer as a discrete render pass, into another layer or effect.

I wonder how well I communicated that?
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby Markus Zeppenfeld » Mon Feb 25, 2013 3:17 pm

Hi guys,

if it is the need to route the completely modified layers into another one as "shared layer" instead of "shared texture", this is already on the list.
Like always: No promise on when it will be implemented.

Markus
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Re: A Few Ideas

Postby malkuth23 » Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:42 pm

Yes! That is what I was talking about at least. Not sure if it is what Ben meant.

That would be a really exciting feature.
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