Exporting to Your Animation
Package
Once you are happy with the object paths and tracker positions, use the
Export menu items to save your scene.
The following options are currently available (note that this list is
constantly being expanded; check the web site):
· 3ds max 4 or later (Maxscript). Should
be usable for 3D Studio MAX 3 as well. Separate versions for 3dsmax 5 and
earlier, and 3dsmax 6 and later.
· After Effects (via a special maya
file)
· Bentley Microstation
· Blender
· Carrara
· Cinema 4D (via Lightwave scene)
· Combustion
· ElectricImage (less integrated due to
EI import limitations)
· FLAIR motion control cameras (Mark
Roberts Motion Control)
· Flame (3-D)
· Fusion 5
· Hash Animation:Master. Hash 2001 or
later.
· Houdini
· Inferno 3-D Scene.
· Lightwave LWS. Use for Lightwave,
Cinema 4D
· Maya scene file
· Mistika
· Motion – 2-D
· Nuke (D2 Software, subsidiary of
Digital Domain)
· Particle Illusion
· Poser
· Realsoft 3D
· Shake (several 2-D/2.5-D plus Maya for
3-D scenes)
· SoftImage XSI, via a dotXSI file
· Toxik
· trueSpace
· Vue 5 and 6 Infinite
· VIZ (via 3ds Max scene)
SynthEyes offers a scripting language, SIZZLE™, that makes it easy to
modify the exported files, or even add your own export type. See the separate
SIZZLE User Manual for more information. New export types are being added all
the time, check the export list in SynthEyes and the support site for the
latest packages or beta versions of forthcoming exporters.
General Procedures
You should already have saved the scene as a SynthEyes file before
exporting. Select the appropriate export from the list in the File/Exports
area. SynthEyes keeps a list of the last 3 exporters used on the top level of
the File menu as well.
Hint: SynthEyes has many exports. To simplify the list,
clickScript/System Script Folder, create a new folder
“Unused” in it, and move all the scripts for
applications you do not use into that folder. You will have to repeat this
process when you later install new builds, however.
There is also an export-again option, which repeats the last export
performed by this particular scene file, with the most-recently-used export
options, without bring up the export-options dialog again to save time for
repeated exports.
When you export, SynthEyes uses the file name, with the appropriate file
extension, as the initial file name. By default, the exported file will be
placed in a default export folder (as set using the preferences dialog).
In most cases, you can either open the exported file directly, or if it is
a script, run the script from your animation package. For your convenience,
SynthEyes puts the exported file name onto the clipboard, where you can paste
it (via control-V or command-V) into the open-file dialog of your application,
if you want. (You can disable this from the preferences panel if you
want.)
Note that the detailed capabilities of each exporter can vary somewhat.
Some scripts offer popup export-control dialogs when they start, or small
internal settings at the beginning of each Sizzle script. For example, 3ds max
does not offer a way to set the units from a script before version 6 and the
render settings are different, so there slightly different versions for 3dsmax
5 and 6+. Settings in the Maya script control the re-mapping of the file name
to make it more suitable for Maya on Linux machines. If you edit the scripts,
using a text editor such as Windows’ Notepad, you may want to write down any
changes as they must be re-applied to subsequent upgraded versions.
Be aware that not all packages support all frame rates. Sometimes a
package may interpret a rate such as 23.98 as 24 fps, causing mismatches in
timing later in the shot. Or one package may produce 29.96 vs 29.97 in another.
Handle image sequences and use frame counts rather than AVIs, QTs, frame times,
or drop-frame time codes wherever possible.
The
Coordinate
System control panel offers
an Exportable checkbox that can be set for each tracker. By default, all
trackers will be exported, but in some cases, especially for compositors, it
may be more convenient to export only a few of the trackers. In this case,
select the trackers you wish to export, hit control-I to invert the selection,
then turn off the checkbox. Note that particular export scripts can choose to
ignore this checkbox.
Setting the Units of an
Export
SynthEyes uses generic units: a value of 10 might mean 10 feet, 10 meters,
10 miles, 10 parsecs—whatever you want. It does not matter to SynthEyes. This
works because match-moving never depends on the overall scale of the
scene.
SynthEyes generally tries to export the same way as well—sending its
numbers directly as-is to the selected animation or compositing package.
However, some software packages use an absolute measurement system where,
for instance, Lightwave requires that coordinates in a scene file always be in
meters. If you want something else inside Lightwave, it will automatically
convert the values.
For such software, SynthEyes needs to know what units you consider
yourself to be using within SynthEyes. It doesn’t care, but it needs to tell
the downstream package the right thing, or pre-scale the values to match your
intention.
To set the SynthEyes units selection, use the Units setting on the
SynthEyes preferences panel. Changing this setting will not change any numbers
within SynthEyes; it will only affect certain exports.
The exports affected by the units setting are currently these:
· After Effects (3-D)
· Hash Animation Master
· Lightwave
· 3ds max
· Maya
· Poser
Before exporting to one of these packages, you should verify your units
setting. Alternatively, if you observe that your imported scene has different
values than in SynthEyes, you should check the units setting in
SynthEyes.
Hint: if you will be exporting to acompositing
package, they often measure everything, including 3-D coordinates, in
terms of pixels, not inches, meters, etc. Be sure to pick sizes for the scene
that will work well in pixels. While you might scale a scene for an actor 2m
tall, if you export to a compositor and the actor is two pixels tall that will
rarely make sense.
Image Sequences
Different software packages have different conventions and requirements
regarding the numbering of image sequences: whether they start at 0 or 1,
whether there are leading zeroes in the image number, and whether they handle
sequences that start at other numbers flexibly.
For example, if you have a shot that originally had frames
img1.tif-img456.tif, but you are using only images img100.tif-img150.tif of it,
SynthEyes will normally consider it as a 51 frame shot, starting with frame 0
(img100.tif) or, withFirst frame is 1preference on, as frame 1
at img100.tif.
Other software sometimes requires that their frame numbers match the file
number, so img100.tif must always be frame 100, no matter what frame# they
normally start at.
SynthEyes gives you the option to pad the beginning of IFLs with extra
copies of the first frame, so that the SynthEyes frame number matches the image
frame number, by turning on the Match frame#'s preference. While this sounds
simple, it will cause trouble for many of the exports. It is especially a
problem if you do not have the unused frames, as is often the case.
By being aware of these differences, you will be able to recognize when
your particular situation requires an adjustment to the settings—typically when
there is a shift between the camera path animation and the imagery.
Generic 2-D Tracker Exporters
There are a number of similar exporters that all output 2-D tracker paths
to various compositing packages. Why 2-D, you protest? For starters, SynthEyes
tracking capabilities can be faster and more accurate. But even more
interestingly, you can use the 2-D export scripts to achieve some effects you
could not with the compositing package alone.
For image stabilizing applications, the 2-D export scripts will average
together all the selected trackers within SynthEyes, to produce a synthetic
very stable tracker.
For corner-pinning applications, you can have SynthEyes output not the 2-D
tracker location, but the re-projected location of the solved 3-D point. This
location can not only be smoother, but continues to be valideven if the
tracker goes off-screen. So suppose you need to insert a painting into
an ornate picture-frame using corner pinning, but one corner goes off-screen
during part of the shot. By outputting the re-projected 3-D point (Use
solved 3-D points checkbox), the corner pin can be applied over the
entire shot without having to guess any of the path.
Taking this idea one step further, you can create an “extra” point in 3-D
in SynthEyes. Its re-projected 2-D position will be averaged with any selected
trackers; if there are none, its position will be output directly. So you can
do a four-corner pin even if one of the corners is completely blocked or
off-screen.
By repeating this process several times, you can create any number of
synthetic trackers, doing a four-corner insert anywhere in the image, even
where there are no trackable features. Of course, you could do this with using
a 3-D compositing environment, but that might not be simplest.
At present, there are compatible 2-D exporters for AfterEffects, Digital
Fusion, Discreet (Combustion/Inferno/Flame), Particle Illusion, and Shake. Note
that you will need to import the tracker data file (produced by the correct
SynthEyes exporter) into a particular existing tracker in your compositing
package.
There is also a 2-D exporter that exports all tracker paths into a single
file, with a variety of options to change frame numbers and u/v coordinates. A
similar importer can read the same file format back in. Consequently, you can
use the pair to achieve a variety of effects within SynthEyes, including
transferring trackers from SynthEyes file to SynthEyes file, as described in
the section on
Merging
Files and Tracks. This format can also be imported by Fusion.
Generic 3-D Exporters
There are several 3-D exports that produce plain text files. You can use
them for any software SynthEyes don’t already support, for example,
non-visual-effects software. You can also use them as a way to manipulate data
with little shell, AWK, or Perl scripts, for example.
Importantly, you can also use them as a way to transfer data between
SynthEyes scene files, for example, to compute some tracker locations to be
used by a number of shots. There are several ways to do this, see the section
on
Merging
Files and Tracks.
The generic exports are Camera/Object Path for a path, Plain Trackers for
the 3-D coordinates of trackers and helper points, and corresponding importers.
You can import 3-D locations to create either helper points, or trackers. This
latter option is useful to bring in surveyed coordinates for tracking.
After Effects 3-D Procedure
1. Export to After Effects in SynthEyes to
produce a (special) .ma file.
2. In After Effects, do a File/Import
File
3. Change "Files of Type" to All File
Formats
4. Select the .ma file
5. Double-click the Square-whatever
composition
6. Re-import the original footage
7. Click File/Interpret Footage/Main and be
sure to check the frame rate and pixel aspect.
8. Rewind to the beginning of the shot
9. Drag the re-imported footage from the
project window into the timeline as the first layer
10.Tracker nulls have a corner at the active point, instead
of being centered on the active point as in SynthEyes.
After Effects 2-D Procedure
1. Select one or more trackers to be
exported.
2. Export using the After Effects 2-D
Clipboard. You can select either the 2-D tracking data, or the 3-D position of
tracker re-projected to 2-D.
3. Open the text file produced by the
export
4. In the text editor, select all the text,
using control-A or command-A.
5. Copy the text to the clipboard with
control-C or command-C.
6. In After Effects, select a null to receive
the path.
7. Paste the path into it with control-V or
command-V.
Bentley MicroStation
You can exporter to Bentley's Microstation V8 XM Edition by following
these directions.
Exporting from SynthEyes
- MicroStation requires that animated backgrounds consist of a consecutive
sequence of numbered images, such as JPEG or Targa images. If necessary, the
Preview Movie capability in SynthEyes's Perspective window can be used to
convert AVIs or MOVs to image sequences.
- Perform tracking, solving, and coordinate system alignment in SynthEyes.
(Exporting coordinates from MicroStation into SynthEyes may be helpful)
- File/Export/Bentley MicroStation to produce a MicroStation Animation (.MSA)
file. Save the file where it can be conveniently accessed from MicroStation.
The export parameters are listed below.
SynthEyes/MicroStation Export
Parameters:
Target view number. The view number inside MicroStation
to be animated by this MSA file (usually 2)
Scaling. This is from MicroStation's Settings/DGN File
Settings/Working Units, in the Advanced subsection: the resolution. By default,
it is listed as 10000 per distance meter, but if you have changed it for your
DGN file, you must have the same value here.
Relative near-clip. Controls the MicroStation near
clipping-plane distance. It is a “relative” value, because it is multiplied by
the SynthEyes world size setting. Objects closer than this to the camera will
not be displayed in MicroStation.
Relative view-size.Another option to adjust as
needed if everything is disappearing from view in MicroStation.
Relative far-clip. Controls the MicroStation far
clipping-plane distance. It is a “relative” value, because it is multiplied by
the SynthEyes world size setting. Objects farther than this from the camera
will not be displayed in MicroStation.
Importing into MicroStation
- Open your existing 3-D DGN file. Or, create a new one, typically based on
seed3d.dgn
- Open the MicroStation Animation Producer from
Utilities/Render/Animation
- File/Import .MSA the .msa file written by the SynthEyes exporter.
- Set the View Size correctly—this
isrequiredto get a correct camera match.
- Settings/Rendering/View Size
- Select the correct view # (typically 2)
- Turn off Proportional Resize
- Set X and Y sizes as follows. Multiply the height(Y) of your image, in
pixels, by the aspect ratio (usually 4:3 for standard video or 16:9 for HD) to
get the width(X) value. For example, if your source images are 720x480 with a
4:3 aspect ratio, the width is 480*4/3 = 640, so set the image size to X=640
and Y=480, either directly on the panel or using the “Standard” drop-down menu.
This process prevents horizontal (aspect-ratio) distortion in your image.
- Hit Apply
- Turn Proportional Resize back on
- Close the view size tool
- On the View Attributes panel, turn on the Background checkbox.
- Bring up the Animation toolbar (Tools/Visualization/Animation) and select
the Animation Preview tool. You can dock it at the bottom of MicroStation if
you like.
- If you scrub the current time on the Animation Preview, you’ll move through
your shot imagery, with synchronized camera motion. Unless you have some 3-D
objects in the scene, you won’t really be able to see the camera motion,
however.
- If desired, use the Tools/3-D Main/3-D Primitives toolbar to create some
test objects (as you probably did in SynthEyes).
- To see the camera cone of the camera imported from SynthEyes, bring up
Tools/Visualization/Rendering, and select the Define Camera tool. Select the
view with the SynthEyes camera track as the active view in the Define Camera
tool, and turn on the Display View Cone checkbox.
Transferring 3-D Coordinates
If you would like to use within MicroStation the 3-D positions of the
trackers, as computed by SynthEyes, you can bring them into MicroStation as
follows.
- You have the option of exporting only a subset of points from SynthEyes to
MicroStation. All trackers are exported by default; turn off the Exportable
checkbox on the coordinate system panel for those you don’t wish to export. You
may find it convenient to select the ones you want, then Edit/Invert Selection,
then turn off the box.
- In SynthEyes, File/Export/Plain Trackers with Set Names=none, Scale=1,
Coordinate System=Z Up. This export produces a .txt file listing all the XYZ
tracker coordinates.
- In MicroStation, bring up the Tools/Annotation/XYZ Text toolbar.
- Click the Import Coordinates tool. Select the .txt file exported from
SynthEyes in Step 1. Set Import=Point Element, Order=X Y Z, View=2 (or
whichever you are using).
Transferring Meshes
SynthEyes uses two types of meshes to help align and check camera matches:
mesh primitives, such as spheres, cubes, etc; and tracker meshes, built from
the computed 3-D tracker locations. The tracker meshes can be used to model
irregular areas, such as a contoured job site into which a model will be
inserted. Both types of models can be transferred as follows:
- In SynthEyes, select the mesh to be exported, by clicking on it or
selecting it from the list on the 3-D panel.
- Select the File/Export/STL Stereolithography export, and save the mesh to a
file.
- In MicroStation, select File/Import STL and select the file written in step
2. You can use the default settings.
- Meshes will be placed in MicroStation at the same location as in
SynthEyes.
- You can bring up its Element/Information and assign it a material.
To Record the Animation
- Select the Record tool on the Animation toolbar
(Tools/Visualization/Animation)
- Important: Be sure the correct (square pixels) output
image size is selected, the same one as the viewport size. For example, if your
input is 4:3 720x480 DV footage,
youMUSTselect640x480output to achieve 4:3
with square pixels (ie 640/480 = 4/3). MicroStation always outputs square
pixels. You can output images with any overall aspect you wish, as long as the
pixels are square (pixelaspect ratio is 1.0). Note
that HD images already have square pixels.
- Don’t clobber your input images! Be sure to select a different location for
your output footage than your input.
Blender Directions
Blender has a tendency to change around frequently, so the details of
these directions might best be viewed more as a guide than the last word.
When working with image sequences and blender, it will be a good idea to
ensure that the overall frame number is the same as the number in the image
file name. Although you can adjust the offset, Blender incorrectly eliminates a
frame number of zero.
1. In SynthEyes, export to Blender
(Python)
2. Start Blender
3. Delete the default cube and light
4. Change one of the views to the blender Text
Editor
5. In the text editor, open the blender script
you exported in step 1.
6. Hit ALT-P to run the script
7. Select the camera (usually Camera01) in the
3-D Viewport
8. In a 3-D view, select Camera on the View
menu to look through the imported, animated, SynthEyes camera
9. Select View/Background image
10.Click Use Background Image
11.Select your image sequence or movie from the selection
list.
12.Adjust the background image settings to match your image.
Make sure the shot length is adequate, and that Auto Refresh is on. If the
images and animation do not seem to be synced correctly, you probably have to
adjust the offset.
13.Decrease the “blend” value to zero, or you can go without
the background, and set up compositing within blender.
14.On the View Properties dialog, you might wish to turn off
Relationship Lines to reduce clutter.
15.Use a Timeline view to scrub through the shot.
Cinema 4D Procedure
1. Export from SynthEyes in Lightwave Scene
format (.lws) — see below.
2. Start C4D, open the .lws file
3. From the Objects menu, add a
Background
4. Create a new Texture with File/New down
below.
5. At right, click on “…” next to the file
name for texture.
6. Select your source file.
7. Click on the right-facing triangle button
next to the file name, select Edit.
8. Select the Animation panel
9. Click the Calculate button at the
bottom.
10.Drag the new texture from the texture editor onto the
“Background” on the object list. Background now appears in the viewport.
DotXSI Procedure
1. In SynthEyes, after completing tracking, do
File/Export/dotXSI to create a .xsi file somewhere.
2. Start Softimage, or do a File/New.
3. File/Import/dotXSI... of the new .xsi file
from SynthEyes. The options may vary with the XSI version, but you want to
import everything.
4. Set the camera to Scene1.Camera01 (or
whatever you called it in SynthEyes).
5. Open the camera properties.
6. In the camera rotoscopy section, select New
from Source and then the source shot.
7. Make sure “Set Pixel Ratio to 1.0” is
on.
8. Set “Use…” pixel ratio to “Camera Pixel
Ratio” (should be the default)
9. In the Camera section, make sure that Field
of View is set to Horizontal.
10.Make sure that the Pixel Aspect Ratio is correct. In
SynthEyes, select Shot/Edit Shot to see the pixel aspect ratio. Make sure that
XSI has the exact same value: 0.9 isnota substitute for 0.889,
so fix it! Back story: XSI does not have a setting for 720x480 DV, and 720x486
D1 causes errors!
11.Close the camera properties page.
12.On the display mode control (Wireframe, etc), turn on
Rotoscope.
ElectricImage
The ElectricImage importer relies on a somewhat higher level of user
activity than normal, in the absence of a scripting language for EI. You can
export either a camera or object path, and its associated trackers.
1. After you have completed tracking in
SynthEyes, select the camera/object you wish to export from the Shots menu,
then select File/Export/Electric Image. SynthEyes will produce two files, an
.obm file containing the trajectory, and an .obj file containing geometry
marking the trackers.
2. In ElectricImage, make sure you have a
camera/object that matches the name used in SynthEyes. Create new
cameras/objects as required. If you have Camera01 in SynthEyes, your camera
should be "Camera 1" in EI. The zero is removed automatically by the SynthEyes
exporter.
3. Go to the Animation pull-down menu and
select the "Import Motion" option.
4. In the open dialog box, select "All Files"
from the Enable pop-up menu, so that the .obm file will be visible.
5. Navigate to, and select, the .obm file
produced by SynthEyes. This will bring up the ElectricImage motion import
dialog box which allows you to override values for position, rotation, etc.
Normally, you will ignore all these options as it is simpler to parent the
camera/object to an effector later. The only value you might want to change is
the "start time" to offset when the camera move begins. Click OK and you will
get a warning dialog about the frame range.
This is a benign warning that sets the "range of frames" rendering option to
match the length of the incoming camera data. Hitting cancel will abort the
operation, so hit OK and the motion data will be applied to the camera.
6. Select "Import Object" from the Object
pull-down menu.
7. Enable "All Files" in the pop-up
menu.
8. Select the .obj file produced by
SynthEyes.
9. Create a hierarchy by selecting one tracker
as the parent, or bringing in all trackers as separate objects.
10.If you are exporting an object path, parent the tracker
object to the object holding the path.
Fusion 5
There are several Fusion-compatible exporters. The main exporter is the
Fusion 5 composition export, which can be opened directly in Fusion.
The Tracker 2-D Paths export can write all the exportable trackers to a
text file, which can then be read in Fusion with the Import SynthEyes Trackers
script and assigned to any Point-type input on a node. Select a node and start
the Import script from its right-click menu. At present, it appears that you
should animate the desired control before importing, then tell the script to
proceed anyway when it notices that the control is already animated.
There is also a generic 2-D path exporter for Fusion.
Houdini Instructions:
1. File/New unless you are addding to your
existing scene.
2. Open the script Textport
3. Typesource
"c:/shots/scenes/flyover.cmd"or equivalent.
4. Change back from COPs to OBJs.
Lightwave
The Lightwave exporter produces a lightwave scene file (.lws) with several
options, one of them crucial to maintaining proper synchronization.
As mentioned earlier, Lightwave requires a units setting when exporting
from SynthEyes. The SynthEyes numbers are unitless: by changing the units
setting in the lightwave exporter as you export, you can make that 24 in
SynthEyes mean 24 inches, 24 feet, 24 meters, etc. This is different than in
Lightwave, where changing the units from 24 inches would yield 2 feet, 0.61
meters, etc. This is the main setting that you may want to change from scene to
scene.
Lightwave has an obscure preferences-like setting on its Compositing panel
(on the Windows menu) named “Synchronize Image to Frame.” The
available options are zero or one. Selecting one shifts the imagery one frame
later in time, and this is the Lightwave default. However, for SynthEyes, a
setting of zero will generally be more useful (unless the SynthEyes
preferenceFirst Frame is 1is turned on). The Lightwave
exporter from SynthEyes allows you to select either 0 or 1. We recommend
selecting zero, and adjusting Lightwave to match. You will only have to do this
once, Lightwave remembers it subsequently. In all cases, you must have a
matching value on the exporter UI and in Lightwave, or you will cause a subtle
velocity-dependent error in your camera matches in Lightwave that will drive
you nuts until you fix the setting.
The exporter also has a checkbox for using DirectShow. This checkbox
applies only for AVIs, and should be on for most AVIs that contain advanced
codecs such as DV or HD. If an AVI uses an older codec and is not opened
automatically within Lightwave, export again with this checkbox turned
off.
Nuke
The nuke exporter produces a nuke file you can open directly. The pop-up
parameter panel lets you indicate if you have a slate frame at the start of the
shot, or select renderable or non-rendering tracker marks. The renderable marks
are better for tracking, the non-rendering marks better for adding objects
within Nuke's 3-D view.
Poser
Poser struggles a little to be able to handle a match-moved camera, so the
process is a bit involved. Hopefully Curious Labs will improve the situation in
further releases.
The shot must have square pixels to be used properly by Poser; it doesn't
understand pixel aspect ratios. So if you have a 720x480 DV source, say, you
need to resample it in SynthEyes, AfterEffects or something to 640x480. Also,
the shot has to have a frame rate of exactly 30 fps. This is a drag since
normal video is 29.97 fps, and Poser thinks it is 29.00 fps, and trouble
ensues. One way to get the frame rate conversion without actually mucking up
any of the frames is to store the shot out as a frame sequence, then read it
back in to your favorite tool as a 30 fps sequence. Then you can save the
640x480 or other square-pixel size.
Note that you can start with a nice 720x480 29.97 DV shot, track it in
SynthEyes, convert it as above for Poser, do your poser animation, render a
sequence out of Poser, then composite it back into the original 720x480.
One other thing you need to establish at this time---exactly how many
frames there are in your shot. If the shot ranges are 0 to 100, there are 101;
from 10 to 223, there are 214.
1. After completing tracking in SynthEyes,
export using the Poser Python exporter.
2. Start Poser.
3. Set the number of frames of animation, at
bottom center of the Poser interface, to the correct number of frames. It is
essential that you do this now, before reading the python script
4. File/Run Python Script on the python script
output from SynthEyes.
5. The Poser Dolly camera will be selected and
have the SynthEyes camera animation on it. There are little objects for each
tracker, and also SynthEyes boxes, cones, etc are brought over into
Poser.
Open Question: How to render out of Poser with the animated movie
background. The best approach appears to be to render against black with an
alpha channel, then composite over the original shot externally.
Shake
SynthEyes offers three specific exporters for Shake, plus one generic
one:
1. MatchMove Node.
2. Tracker Node
3. Tracking File format
4. 3-D Export via the “AfterFX via .ma” or
Maya ASCII exports.
The first two formats (Sizzle export scripts) produce shake scripts (.shk
files); the third format is a text file. The fourth option produces Maya scene
files that Shake reads and builds into a scene using its 3-D camera.
We’ll start with the simplest, the tracking file format. Select one
tracker and export with the Shake Tracking File Format, and you will have a
track that can be loaded into a Shake tracker using the load option. You can
use this to bring a track from SynthEyes into existing Shake tracking
setups.
Building on this basis, #2, Tracker Node, exports one or more selected
trackers from SynthEyes to create a single Tracker Node within Shake. There are
some fine points to this. First, you will be asked whether you want to export
the solved 3-D positions, or the tracked 2-D positions. These values are
similar, but not the same. If you have a 3-D solution in SynthEyes, you can
select the solved 3-D positions, and the export will be the “ideal” tracked
(predicted) coordinates, with less jitter than the plain 2-D coordinates.
Also, since you might be exporting from a PC to a Mac or Linux machine,
the image source file(s) may be named differently: perhaps
X:\shots1\shot1_#.tga on the PC, and //macmachine/Users/tom/shots/shot1_#.tga
on the PC. The Shake export script's dialog box has two fields, PC Drive and
Mac Drive, that you can set to automatically translate the PC file name into
the Mac file name, so that the Shake script will work immediately. In this
example, you would set PC Drive to “X:\\” and Mac Drive to
“//macmachine/Users/tom/”.
Finally, the MatchMove node exporter looks not for trackers to export, but
for SynthEyes planes! Each plane (created from the 3-D panel) is exported to
Shake by creating four artificial trackers (in Shake) at the corners of the
plane. The matchmove export lets you insert a layer at any arbitrary position
within the 3-D environment calculated by SynthEyes. For example, you can insert
a matte painting into a scene at a location where there is nothing to track.
You can use a collection of planes, positioned in SynthEyes, to obtain much of
the effect of a 3-D camera. The matchmove node export also provides PC to
Mac/Linux file name translation.
trueSpace Directions:
Warning: trueSpace has sometimes had problems executing the exported
script correctly. Hopefully Caligari will fix this soon.
1. In SynthEyes, export to trueSpace
Python.
2. Open trueSpace.
3. Right-click the Play button in the
trueSpace animation controls.
4. Set the correct BaseRate/PlayRate in the
animation parameters to match your source shot.
5. Open the Script Editor.
6. From inside the Script Editor, Open/Assign
the python script you created within SynthEyes.
7. Click Play (Time On) in the Script
Manager.
8. When the Play button turns off, close the
ScriptManager.
9. Open the Object Info panel.
10.Verify that the SynthEyes camera is selected (usually
Camera01).
11.Change the Perspective view to be View from Object.
12.Select the Camera01Screen.
13.Open the Material Editor (paint pallete).
14.Right click on Color shaders button.
15.Click on (Caligari) texture map, sending it to the
Material Editor color shader.
16.Open the subchannels of the Material Editor (Color, Bump,
Reflectance).
17.On the Color channel of the Material Editor, right click
on the "Get Texture Map" button and select your source shot.
18.Check the Anim box.
19.Click the Paint Object button on the Material
Editor.
20.Click on File/Display Options and change the texture
resolution to 512x512.
21.You may want to set up a render background to overlay
animated objects on the background, or you can use an external compositing
program. Make the Camera01Screen object invisible before rendering.
22.In trueSpace, you need to pay special attention to get the
video playback synchronized with rest of the animation, and to get the render
aspect ratio to match the original. For example, you must add the texture map
while you are at frame zero, and you should set the pixel aspect ratio to match
the original (SynthEyes's shot panel will tell you what it is).
Vue 5 Infinite
The export to Vue Infinite requires a fair number of manual steps pending
further Vue enhancements. But with a little practice, they should only take a
minute or two.
1. Export from SynthEyes using the Vue 5
Infinite setting. The options can be left at their default settings unless
desired. You can save the python script produced into any convenient
location.
2. Start Vue Infinite or do a File/New in
it.
3. Select the Main Camera
4. On its properties, turn OFF "Always keep
level"
5. Go to the animation menu, turn ON the
auto-keyframe option.
6. Select the Python/Run python script menu
item, select the script exported from SynthEyes, and run it.
7. In the main camera view, select the
"Camera01 Screen" object (or the equivalent if the SynthEyes camera was
renamed)
8. In the material preview, right-click,
select Edit Material.
9. The material editor appears, select
Advanced Material Editor if not already.
10.Change the material name to flyover or whatever the image
shot name is.
11.Select the Colors tab.
12.Select "Mapped picture"
13.Click the left-arrow "Load" icon under the black bitmap
preview area
14.In the "Please select a picture to load" dialog, click the
Browse File icon at the bottom --- a left arrow superimposed on a folder
15.Select your image file in the Open Files dialog. If it is
an image sequence, select the first image, then shift-select the last.
16.On the material editor, under the bitmap preview area,
click the clap-board animation icon to bring up the Animated Texture Options
dialog
17.Set the frame rate to the correct value.
18.Turn on "Mirror Y"
19.Hit OK on the Animated Texture dialog
20.On the drop-down at top right of the Advanced Material
Editor, select a Mapping of Object- Parametric
21.Turn off "Cast shadows" and "Receive shadows"
22.Back down below, click the Highlights tab
23.Turn Highlight global intensity down to zero.
24.Click on the Effects tab
25.Turn Diffuse down to zero
26.Click the Ambient data-entry field and enter 400
27.Hit OK to close the Advanced Material Editor
28.Select the Animation/Display Timeline menu item (or hit
F11)
29.If this is the first time you have imported from SynthEyes
to Vue Infinite, you must perform the following steps:
a. Select File/Options menu item.
b. Click the Display Options tab
c. Turn off "Clip objects under first
horizontal plane in main view only", otherwise you will not be able to see the
background image.
d. Turn off "Clip objects under first
horizontal plane (ground / water)
e. Turn off "Stop camera going below clipping
plane (ground / water)" if needed by your camera motion.
f. Hit OK
30.Delete the "Ground" object
31.If you are importing lights from SynthEyes, you can delete
the Sun Light as well, otherwise, spin the Sun Light around to point at the
camera screen, so that the image can be seen in the preview window.
32.You may have to move the time bar before the image
appears. Vue Infinite only shows the first image of the sequence, so you can
verify alignment at frame zero.
33.You will later want to disable the rendering of the
trackers, or delete them outright.
34.Depending on what you are doing, you may ultimately wish
to delete or disable the camera screen as well, for example, if you will
composite an actor in front of your Vue Infinite landscape.
35.The import is complete; you can start working in Vue
Infinite. You should make probably save a copy of the main camera settings so
that you can have a scratch camera available as you prepare the scene in Vue
Infinite.
Vue 6 Infinite
- Export from SynthEyes using the Vue 6 Infinite option, producing a
maxscript file.
- Import the maxscript file in Vue 6 Infinite
- Adjust the aspect ratio of the backdrop to the correct overall aspect ratio
for your shot. This is important since Vue assumes square pixels, and if they
aren’t (for all DV, say), the camera match will be off badly
最終更新:2009年04月05日 22:16