is there a way to add video clips into animations?
Toobis
Posts: 990
I am trying to do a animation in animate2 with M4 playing basketball in front of a large vibrant college audience in a large sports hall. I am using Iray so I know it can take a while to do and I wanted to add clips of the college audience cheering and stuff with him often in shots behind him as he plays on court. I figure I could use Iray to do this but I think to animate an entire audience of close to 50 or even 100 or more M4/V4 charracters in Iray would take forever. Is there a way to perhaps add a background video clip into an animation? I thought perhaps a much easier way to do this is in at least some shots to have some sort of clip playing in the background (perhaps blurred) from some sort of basketball event from a movie or a TV which just featured a clip of a crowd just cheering or reacting to something. Is this at all possible? is there a method at all to do this I mean to add a common Mpeg type clip (or whatever) into the background of an animate2 animation? doesn's matter if it has to be put in during the animation or postwork. Thanks.
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Remember copyright when considering this, and also remember that the video would be 2D sand so have a fixed viewpoint that would not, I suspect, be looking up from the court. If those can be worked around DS doesn't currently support aniamted textures, though Casual has a script that may help and I think there is a store product that works - however if you render your aniamtion to an image sequence using png or tiff you will get an alpha channel allowing you to composite your renders with the video.
What about Animated Textures Script Pro for Daz Studio 3 & 4
http://www.daz3d.com/animated-textures-script-pro-for-daz-studio-3-4
There is a demo of it on:
Thanks, that's the one I was thinking of - and I see it does have an update for DS 4.
what you presented looks good but do you think it could work for what I need it for?
maybe. I have the product and it works as intended. There are a number of factors that will come into play and some probable preprocessing of files beforehand. In the best case, your video and animation will be at the same FPS. If not, then you will likely need to resample your imported video to be at the correct framerate. Skipping/doubling of frames WILL be noticed in all but the most trivial of situations. Loss or extension of motion blur will stand out badly. Many people will say that it isn't noticeable, but I can tell you from experience that the audience will IMMEDIATELY notice that something is "off" and it will detract from your desired results.
Another consideration is the difference between lighting between the imported video and your frames. If the video is to be a simulated "screen" then this is less of a problem, but if it is a compositing into a main part of the animation, then you're better off adding it in via a compositing software designed for that purpose. Adobe Premier, Sony Vegas, HitFilm, and others have such features.
Finally, camera angles and distances differences between your animation and the original clip need to be taken into account. There's no software that's going to fix this, you need to make sure that your clips and your source animation's angles/positions are compatible.
Kendall
To use any of the animated textures tools (I know of two at DAZ, and a similar one at the Rendo site, and one at the mentioned mcasual site - find him in the freebies forum, he's got all kinds of cool stuff!), you usually have to first produce a series of sequentially numbered images in a folder from the original video stream you choose to use. Most video editors can produce/export an 'image series' in a folder, and that's what you want - jpg or png images are fine. Most video editors will probably number the frames in a useable way for the tool you're using.
Each animated texture tool uses a similar approach:
To start simple, we'd do a single frame render with a picture on your TV screen - assuming you have a scene you like with a TV in it...:
- make a simple flat plane in your Daz Studio scene
- adjust the width/height to match your TV aspect ratio (usually 4x3 or 16x9). The actual pixels/numbers don't matter as long as the ratio is correct.
- move, scale, rotate that plane to just cover the TV screen
- instead of assigning the plane a color or shiny-ness, etc. you assign it your image - diffuse channel, 100% diffuse and 100% ambient I believe.
- render the image from your chosen camera/viewpoint and the TV screen should appear to have the image.
These animation tools simply map a different (sequential) image for each frame to your plane... or what ever you tell the tool you use to map it to (you could map video to a person's skin, or a cube, or ... for cool effects!)
These animated texture tools add to the main Daz Studio animation timeline in concert with your existing animation elements on that timeline (e.g. animate2 w aniblocks), so it all comes together as you'd expect in each frame.
I don't think you can make an aniblock that captures the entire video-mapping scheme, but these tools can and do work in concert with each other - and coordinate/merge all of the animation elements on the main Daz Studio timeline for rendering.
The other option is to do the green-screen thing and make the TV screen in your animation green-screen green, 100% ambient, render your movie, and use a good video tool to map the video on to that screen. Most basic video editors can do this now. This presumes that the camera shots are static, otherwise this gets exponentially more interesting (mapping a video to a moving item.). There are other ways to render masks and the like but it's pretty much doing the same green-screen thing.
I hope this helps,
--ms
Ignore this sorry I made a mistake.
WOULD THIS WORK FOR ME???
Im doing a short film and need a few seconds of a charactor being thrown to one side - could i use this video plug in as a backdrop to get my animation timing right - then remove the back drop, render animation and export it ready for my editing software and then mask and trace items, so it looks like they are being thrown behind a moving car ---- this is all way before i use AF
- hmmmmm how do i explian this the easyest way?????
OK take the series THE FLASH, where for a split second you can see the animated charactor whizzes past a car , the animation is timed so it makes him look like he is whizzing around the car to dodge it - its all about timimg and position, before masking and stuff, could i do that with this plugin, just so i can animate in one place - again this is just for timing, placement and animation --------- so he looks like hes thrown behind the car
or do i need something else - all help is apreciated
If this works the way im hope , im sooooo gunna get KeyMate
It sounds like you want to do some 'rotoscoping' with these video-mapping tools. I don't know for certain if you can actually see the video-frames in the preview ports, or if you have to render the frame to see the projected video frame in that render... Not sure if any of the mentioned tools would let you see their results before rendering, but their product pages may indicate that capability.
There was a really basic rotoscoping tool over at renderosity.com by marcus dunn I think - maybe still in 'clearance' section, but it was pretty crude, 32 bit, and generated the animation sequence in a 'standard' (not DAZ-specific) skeleton that had to be imported and mapped to your DAZ character(s) in DS. Not really the best workflow, but it might still be an option worth mentioning...
Perhaps others have better rotoscoping tools/advice they can contribute, or confirmations of the rotoscoping capabilities of the mentioned video mapping tools.
--ms
If you were asking about Poser I would say yes poser has a AVI/MP4 importer for importing video clips as back grounds.
But using daz studio the only one way to have video or animated back ground would be to use Animated Textures Script on a back ground flat pane, Daz does not allow for AVI back grounds. Daz does allow for stills back grounds under the environments tab. and the animated texture script won't work for that tab unfortunately.
if you have aftereffect you can render your png image series with Blank or empty back ground and then use aftereffect to edit/add your video back ground in that way.
This is one feature I wish daz would add to the daz 5. But I guess that would mean adding in video editing capabilities to a 3d software, daz may not want to go that route.
Thank Mindsong, but ill be doing roto and masking in editing software - this is purely to have the background video as a keyframe refrence - the thing is if its a still refrence and then you put 3d animation over the video in editing - way way before retro, masking and way way before editing - the charactor will look wrong especially if theres say moving traffic in the scene so i will propbly have to go down Ivys route but thanks for all your help - it is trully apreciated.
AND thanks Ivy, think im just gunna try and experoment with The animated textures script - ive never liked poser after poser 4 pro wich is a shame - I will find away to work around some how. Will let you all know when i do
again thanks for all the information - it does help me alot
IVY one of you animations has the perfect refrence i can use - your street race animation for a few seconds has a car going through town and you have a charactor dodging out the way.
Now imaginge all your footage was real life film and you needed to put a 3d person in the film to dodge out of the way - is it possible to use animated textures as a refrence to get the right key frame timing and animation and angle....then delete the animated texture - render the 3d person animation on its own with no bakground
then i would import it into my editing software position it corectly so it looks like the 3d person is part of the film
This is sooooo hard trying to explain in text form and not sat face to face - but again alll information i can get is trully so valuable to me and IVY , loving your work
Heres clipp of angry birds on how they did it, they use autodesk - i dont like auto desk and love it if ANIMATED TEXTURES allows us all to do this
Sorry for bombardiing you all - but like i say its extremely hard trying to explain in teaxt exactly what im trying to do so hopefully clip will help you all understand what im trying to ask and just hoprfully animated tetures allows me to do this
NEVER MIND - AFTER 36 HOURS OF SEARCHING - I came across (( pCharacter2FBX )) ----- which means i can use daz3d to create - go back to C4D to animate, use video footage with keyframes then to element then to after effects - I CAN FINALLY GET SOME SLEEP NOW
heh, I've always wondered how long that product would remain in the store, given its age and the limited character support (up to mil4?), but I've always been one to pick up a good tool when it's at a good price, JIC...
But hey, that's excellent news that you can make it work for you. To be sure, I have no opinion regarding the program/app, I've merely browsed it and read the blurb. I have a few of the author's other works. FWIW, I think it's the same fellow that did that rotoscoping tool I mentioned - just sold at the other site, lol.
If I understand your correctly, you simply want to 'simulate' your future compositing scheme in a 3D environment so you can get the 3D elements keyframed accurately? Then render with alpha and composite, hopefully looking exactly like your simulation, but better? IF so, that makes perfect sense...
I just don't know if you can preview the video in the DS viewport with any of the mentioned tools. Again, there were two versions of the DAZ store animated textures product (lite and pro?), and another at the renderosity store. I don't know if Iclone can do this, esp with export/import to other packages.
Best wishes on your project.
afterthought: you do know that the current DAZ Studio exports FBX as well, right?
Let us know how it comes out!
--ms
I would think the best way to do that is run your daz characters in rendered PNG series that uses transparent back ground and import the image series as a folder into aftereffects or just about any movie editor will edited png into a film accept for windows movie maker..
But you can render your characters and edit & resize them in the film editor . would be the easiest way for me anyway. I seen people do what you want by using home made green screens and setting up scene points . but i don;t havet hat kind of talent. myself. so I would just render my images in series and place and edit them in a film editor
the animated texture scripts work great for back ground if you have a pane node to place your pre rendered back ground textures to. the animated texture scripts complies your pre rendered images into your daz scene as a second animated scene with in daz studio . But i must tell you . that you can not see each frame advance in the animated texture script, like you would see your character advance. The texture script works off the render cycle . so you only see each frame advance if your render the frame. or see the complete results after your done rendering the animation, so this may not be what you need for trying to accomplish matching real life film characters.
I used animated texture script for the clouds at :30 - 38 second mark when viewing the clouds from insdie the plane. because this was iray film & the HDR does not rotate in animation, so the animated texture script using pre rendered scenes on a back ground pane was my work around for making the clouds and sky move from looking out from inside plane . the city scene was another challenge..lol
AGAIN THANK YOU SOOO MUCH IVY AND MINDSONG - it trully is nice to know that people like you both are extremely helpfull, Thank you
not sure what quite happened there lol
update: a quick check of DAZ' animated textures Pro, has a script icon "Preview animated textures ON" and one for 'OFF'. The 'ON' version pops up a message indicating that the video image sequence files need to be located in a certain folder/heirarchy to work as expected (witth a button to enable that function), so it may be a good indication that what you are looking for can be done with that tool.
With that discovery, I would bet the product docs include some mention of that capability and its limits...
--ms
eta: It looks like there are no docs with the Pro version, and only a more basic PDF with the first (lite) version that doesn't seem to have that capability, but the actual product page (pro) implies that there is some sort of previewing capability. You can see the mentioned script interfaces mentioned above on that page.
question - does FBX convertor work on beo2k and dazs dragon 3 ??
I don't believe the exporter is figure or prop dependent... meaning anything you have in a scene should be exportable. Whether or not the importing application knows what to do with DAZ's export (type or compatibility issues, etc.) carries the usual risks.
but I would think anything you try to export, should export...
--ms