#Titling software…
29 messages in this thread
I need to create a 1500+ frame animated texture map to overlay as telemetry
data on an existing animation. The effect we are looking for is like that in
The Terminator when we are looking thru his eyes.
What I need is an easy way to create a billion frames of bogus text…
changing numbers (frame count or similar?), etc. Will Razor Pro, Adobe
Premiere, or similar programs allow me to do anything like this?
Other suggestions?
thanks,
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
>> The Terminator when we are looking thru his eyes… <<
I think what I'd do is write a simple basic program that would randomly
generate ASCII text, and run it in dos with the text scrolling by… maybe
adding some pauses between characters so its doesn't scroll too fast.. and
output to an inexpensive SVGA card that's got composite out feature, you could
use a Targa with the overlay feature as well, then go back and frame grab the
result… something along those lines could be automated easily and give you a
decent enough result I would think… the only thing is the characters might be
too small but I think there's a way in many cases to put the display card into
a higher font size…
Be curious to hear what you end up doing…
John
>> output to an inexpensive SVGA card that's got composite out feature <<
I don't have the hardware to do it this way, although it seems like a
workable solution.
Thanks for your help.
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
>> I don't have the hardware to do it this way… <<
Yes I thought that might be the case… well my other thoughts we using a video
camera and shooting as many stills as you thought you would need or a scanner,
just collect a bunch of old documents and one by one scan each in… time
consuming but I really don't know what else to suggest…
Best of luck…
John
Hey Dan,
I think I had the right idea, just didn't carry it far enough… There's a
program called PCXDMP I think, and if you wrote a program to output ASCII
characters to the screen and then called this program you could screen capture
that to PCX and then convert it, there may even be better screen capture
programs which will output to tga… to me writing something like this wouldn't
take too much and you could automate the whole process without going out to
video etc. and the captures would be very clean…
What do you think, think that will do it for you?
John
>> PCXDMP <<
This is an interesting idea…. probably wouldn't take too long, either.
I'll give it a try if Ani Pro doesn't cooperate. <G>
thanks again,
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
Dan,
If you need info on PCXDMP, I think its in the library but after considering
what you intended to use, I concluded that with POCO it was probably a much
better solution.
BTW my comment about a bit of Irish, taken in the wrong light might seem to
imply something I hadn't intended. What I was referring to was the combination
of a little Irish with a full dose of Scottish can be a dangerous mix. <g> Like
all generalizations this one is terribly flawed but I appreciate that you
weren't offended and I trust you saw the humor. If not my sincere apologies…
I'm very fond of the Irish… and they welcomed me as an American with open
arms… even though there's no mistaking that I don't look at all Irish. (My
sister does however and she would have stayed indefinitely… the hospitality
was extrodinary. 🙂
Sincerely,
John
>> If you need info on PCXDMP, I think its in the library but after
considering what you intended to use, I concluded that with POCO it was
probably a much better solution. <<
I am working with Ani Pro now to find a solution there…. I will let you
know how things work out.
>> Irish / Scottish / Offended / Apologies <<
Sometimes the flashpoint of the Irish is highly overrated… I took no
offense to any such comment. Besides, O'Leary is a Polish name. <GBG>
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
Dan,
>> I will let you know how things work out. <<
That'd be great. Ani Pro still does alot of things better than anything else
out there.
>> Beside, O'Leary is a polish name. <GBG> <<
Could be, anything is possible in America, which is what makes it so typically
complicated. <G> For all I know you could be chinese, with polish parents who
got the name from their sponsors when they came to America so that they'd fit
into the community better… 🙂 Reminds me of this Chinese guy in the garment
district named Steinberg. <G> Great big smile of gold teeth… funny world.
John
>> Reminds me of this Chinese guy in the garment district named Steinberg.
<G> Great big smile of gold teeth… funny world. <<
Hehehehe. That it is.
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
>> Hehehehe. That it is. <<
O.K. Dan well I figure you're one in a hundred so I'll tell you the rest…<g>
So the story goes… this Chinese guy is living in Hong Kong and is a fairly
well known tailor… his eldest daughter goes to the American School in Taipei
and wins a scholarship to the US to attend college in New York City…
Well he gets sponsored to come to the US and setup shop while she's attending
college…. and he finds a little place in the garment district and goes about
fixing it up and running it… he doesn't know a lot of english but as I said
he smiled alot, and people would come in and ask him questions and he would
typically say "yes, yes" and smile.
Anyway, over the store was the name of the last owner and in Chinese he had
painted his name under it. Well the story goes that a couple came in and asked
if he was Mr Steinberg, to which he replied "yes yes". The couple rather
disbelieving ushered him outside and pointed up to the sign and said
"Steinberg" and he nodded and smiled and said "yes yes"… course he thought
they were talking about his sign not the sign about it…
Well it didn't take long before word got around that there was this Chinese
tailor named Steinberg, which of course people found rather amusing, especially
in New York… and so they'd go to investigate and as a result his business
grew, and he became known as Mr Steinberg… <g>
I'll leave it to you to decide whether its plausible or not… that's the story
I was told and either way, I like it. 🙂
John
Dan,
>> What I need is an easy way to create a billion frames of bogus text…
changing numbers (frame count or similar?), etc. <<
FWIW, animator pro would do fine for this. You can create a file of "bogus
text" and then have anipro read in a character, or whole line in at a time and
display it in a definable window. Quite powerful really.
>> FWIW, animator pro would do fine for this. You can create a file of
"bogus text" and then have anipro read in a character, or whole line in at a
time and display it in a definable window. Quite powerful really. <<
I have to admit that I am not as versed with Ani Pro as I should be. It must
be a powerful package, but the interface is just … shocking. I am looking
at the manual now, and see that the text dialogue boxes have Load/Save
options for ascii text files, but I don't see how that would allow me to load
a single word or line as you suggest. Are you suggesting that I write a POCO
routine? That would seem difficult since I seem to have no reference for the
language… is that supposed to be included with 1.3?
I will dig further into your suggestion by spending a bit of quality time
with Ani Pro this evening, but I would certainly appreciate a few more
details
thanks much!
– Dan / n-Space, Inc. (in AniPro denial no more!)
Dan,
>> but I don't see how that would allow me to load a single word or line as you
suggest. <<
no POCO programming is necessary. Everything you need is in the titling menu
selection. It seems pretty self-explanatory. When you define a window for the
text with the mouse, that will determine, to a large extent, how the text comes
up. I'm by no means an expert in animator pro (more of a dabbler actually), but
I got some good results in a few minutes.
>> When you define a window for the text with the mouse, that will
determine, to a large extent, how the text comes up <<
Ahhh. Ok, that sounds good. I am glad that it wouldn't require POCO, as I was
looking at that last night. Is it just me, or is POCO an interpreted C?!
Bizarre.
Thanks again for your help.
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
Hi Dan,
<<.. Is it just me, or is POCO an interpreted C?! Bizarre. >>
Sure is. I wish I had this product years ago when I was learning programming.
Visuals are much more fun than some number crunching banking app.
<< What I need is an easy way to create a billion frames of bogus text…>>
Maybe one of the following…?..
File Info for TIMECD.RLS
Section: Animator Studio/Pro Contributor: 70303,456 Size: 2761
Submitted: 2/9/93 Type: Text Accesses: 263
Title: Animator pro poco timecode generator release not
Keys: POCO TIMECODE SMPTE CLOCK TIMER UTILITY RELEASE
Animator Pro POCO timecode generator release notice. Version 2.0 of this
useful utility now available. Features include choice of fonts, click and drag
positionable box, choice of color, selectable start values for hours, minutes,
seconds. Elapsed time feature allows choice of from 1 second per frame to
1/1000th second per frame (default is 1/30 like SMPTE). Great for previews
and adding to .tga sequences in 3D Studio video post. Uploaded by author. .
File Info for VARTXT.ZIP
Section: Animator Studio/Pro Contributor: 73447,2105 Size: 24680
Submitted: 8/22/94 Type: Binary Accesses: 244
Title: VARITEXT, a POCO Program for Text Animation
Keys: POCO TEXT FONTS ANIMATOR CHARTS PRESENTATIONS
POCO program that can animate most aspects of text applications, including
sizing (with scalable fonts only), character and line spacing, and movement of
text. The program can also produce, and animate, shadowed text. This is a
significant increase in capability over the previously uploaded SHDTXT.ZIP
program by the same author. The program requires Animator Pro version 1.3
or later. Freeware.
File Info for TYPCEL.ZIP
Section: Animator Studio/Pro Contributor: 73204,3522 Size: 37565
Submitted: 9/16/94 Type: Binary Accesses: 162
Title: TYPECEL.POC v1.1 – create your own fonts
Keys: POCO CEL TYPE ANIMATOR PRO NAAUG TELECOURSE TOXIC FROG
This routine allows ANI users to create and type their own fonts. The process
of creating the font is explained, and a sample font and GIF are included. The
font was hand-moused. This routine is provided by Toxic Frog Multimedia for
the NAAUG Telecourse Program, and to show users the untapped power of
POCO.
>> POCO = Interpreted C <<
Ok, it sounds cool, but is there supposed to be a reference for it?
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
BTW, thanks for the pointers!
Dan,
>> Is it just me, or is POCO an interpreted C?! <<
sure is! and it's cool. I've actually used it quite a bit and made some beer
money with it, selling my timecode routine. I'm now more heavily into
keyscripting which I use on every project.
Animator Studio doesn't have anything like that, and rumour has it that 3ds
won't have keyscript. That's a major step backwards and a big mistake, IMHO.
>> sure is! and it's cool. I've actually used it quite a bit and made some
beer money with it, selling my timecode routine. I'm now more heavily into
keyscripting which I use on every project.
Animator Studio doesn't have anything like that, and rumour has it that 3ds
won't have keyscript. That's a major step backwards and a big mistake, IMHO.
<<
Beer money is good. Keyscripting is better. (not better than beer, mind you)
What does your timecode routine do?
I have also read the rumors that Keyscripting is on its way out. A _very_
poor decision if it is true, I think. Keyscripting, and more importantly,
TSE, has allowed me to do things that I have to do without calling on the
programmers to write an off-line formatter. You've got to figure that, with
as big a fan of TSE/Keyscripting that Jonas is, they couldn't possibly pull
it. Right, Jonas!!!!?
Thanks again,
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
Dan,
>> I have also read the rumors that Keyscripting is on its way out. A _very_
poor decision if it is true, I think. Keyscripting, and more importantly, TSE,
has allowed me to do things. <<
I can only hope that they have something _better_ up their sleeves. We may all
have to become visual Basic/C or Microsoft C++ programmers to tap the power of
r5. Who knows I'm just speculating wildly.
The beauty of keyscript (I don't use the full TSE that much) is the speed of
development. I can write things in minutes that would save me hours or days of
manual graft and debugging is pretty insignificant with the quick and dirty
scripts that I write.
Martin
>> We may all have to become visual Basic/C or Microsoft C++ programmers to
tap the power of r5. <<
Counting the days to SIGGRAPH…. Visual Basic wouldn't be too bad.
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
Dan,
I can't wait for Siggraph either!
Martin
Dan,
>> What does your timecode routine do? <<
check out the files Jonas mentioned for a full description of features.
Hi Dan,
<< You've got to figure that, with as big a fan of TSE/Keyscripting that Jonas
is, they couldn't possibly pull it. Right, Jonas!!!!? >>
You bet I'm a fan of Keyscript!
However, until Siggraph "mums" the word.
>You bet I'm a fan of Keyscript!<
>However, until Siggraph "mums" the word.<
Torture, pure torture.
Hi Tim,
<< Torture, pure torture. >>
Tell me about it!. I've bitten my tongue too many times in the last 3 months
watching all the discussion here that I can't join in on 🙁 ……
;-> jonas
<<What I need is an easy way to create a billion frames of bogus text…
changing numbers (frame count or similar?)>>
For your scrolling numbers, go into Photoshop create an tall thin image with
alpha. Fill it with the text you want. You can get your dog or cat to walk over
the keyboard for about 15 minutes to the random text you need. In 3DS create a
long flat rectangle then apply the texture map tiled alot vertically onto the
long rectangle. Attach this to the camera and have it move upward over the
animation to give a scrolling effect without any hassle.
You'll notice that although the readout in Terminator appears really random it
is in fact very carefully designed. Something that isn't as easy as it appears.
Good luck!
DaviD "beeep, ziiip, boing!" GouID
>> tall thin image <<
This is a very interesting suggestion as well. Hmmm. So many things to try,
so little time to get it done! Thanks to all that responded.
>> You'll notice that although the readout in Terminator appears really
random it is in fact very carefully designed. Something that isn't as easy
as it appears. Good luck! <<
Very true. We are scripting our "random" text today.
Thanks again,
– Dan / n-Space, Inc.
>> I need to create a 1500+ frame animated texture map to overlay as telemetry
data on an existing animation. The effect we are looking for is like that in
The Terminator when we are looking thru his eyes.
What I need is an easy way to create a billion frames of bogus text…
changing numbers (frame count or similar?), etc. Will Razor Pro, Adobe
Premiere, or similar programs allow me to do anything like this?
Other suggestions?
thanks,
– Dan / n-Space, Inc. <<
One thing that I have done when I need custom counters and changing text is to
use Visual Basic to print in a window and automatically save each window as a
frame in a numbered series of BMP files. This file series can then be used as
a texture map in an animation. There may be easier ways, but this one gives
very good control and VB is pretty easy to set up for this kind of thing.
Terry Gilbert
Forcade & Associates