CompuServe Thread

#GenlockingImagine

7 messages in this thread
#43291From: George S. RolandSep 4, 1994 10:11 PM
I'm looking for help genlocking Imagine 3.0 rendered images over live video. Whenever I render Imagine images with default settings, the background color (a black rectangle) is assigned to color 1 instread of color 0, making it opaque to a genlocked video signal. Has anyone had any luck using Imagine to render/animate objects over a live incoming genlocked video signal? George
#43398From: Charles BlaquiereSep 11, 1994 12:21 AM
George, I tried recreating the genlocked sky effect using Imagine 3.0, but my efforts were as fruitless as yours. Seems like Imagine will not render using color 0, period. As a test, I placed a chrome sphere in front of a black plane, and gave the Globals a nice gradient for the sphere to reflect. The result: a shiny sphere with a black background… but the background uses color 1. I switched colors 0 and 1 in DPaint, saved the image, and told Imagine to re-render the scene using an external palette file. This would force Imagine to draw the background in color 0, right? Wrong. Even though color 0 was now black, and the plane behind the sphere was black, Imagine used _color 15_ as the background, which was a dark brown. Yep, brown, not black. Seems like Imagine picked the darkest color it could find in palette positions 1-31. The way I see it, Imagine 3.0 will never render using color 0, period. A solution would be to render in 24-bit mode, and use an external program to compile your animation; that program could be locked to a predefined palette. (Create the palette from a sample still from your animation) It's a bit annoying that Imagine 3.0 ignores color 0. This is actually _decreased_ functionality compared to 2.1. Blaq!
#43406From: George S. RolandSep 11, 1994 9:51 PM
Thank you sir. I have called M. Halvorsen and others at Impulse a couple of times about this to no avail. Mike's "answers" were in- credibly vague and the suggestions of others simply didn't work. Your suggestion about using some sort of conversion, batch-processed by AD Pro or another image processor might be my only possibility. I guess I thought it was just me. Surely, I reasoned, with all the need for flying logos ant titles "flown in" over somebody's used car dealership in TV, there would be a simple way to do this, right? Guess not. Anyway, I appreciate your time in trying out some possibilities and trying to help me out. Best, George Roland
#43409From: Alan HenrySep 12, 1994 7:42 AM
George, You were never alone in your quest for the genlock answer. After your initial post, I've tried several times to get the background to genlock color "0" with the same results as yours. My biggest question is where did the "Genlock Sky" button go in the Globals requester? I am apparently missing something, but without the capability to tell Imagine that you want to genlock the background, how does it know to replace it with the color "0" as defined in the preferences? Blaq's explanation makes sense because Imagine reserves color "0" strictly for genlocking the sky and apparantly the ability to select that option has been inadvertently removed. Hopefully, 3.1 will correct it. Alan Henry – Digital Plastic F100-PW-200 Inside
#43417From: Peter GreciSep 12, 1994 4:08 PM
Perhaps the Genlock Sky option is now in the Pref's menu??? Dunno I never genlock , I'll see if I can find something for ya'll Memeber of AMP Midgard Graphics
#43424From: Charles BlaquiereSep 12, 1994 9:28 PM
George, I'll cross-post my reply over onto AmigaVend and see what Mike H. comes up with. One thing is for sure: a user setting up an especially-colored background (i.e. 0,0,0 or 255,0,0 or…), designed for post-render removal by an external image processing program, will _not_ get the same result as good ole Imagine's "Genlock sky" button, simply because any reflections will pick up the background color and become transparent when genlocked; "Genlock sky" created a transparent background, but the "real" environment (reflection maps, +/- Zenith colors), _not_ the genlock color, showed in reflective objects. Blaq!
#43613From: James R. OllickSep 23, 1994 7:49 PM
You may have already seen the posts in the Imagine forum but just in case you havn't Mike has finally realized what we were all talking about in regards to color register 0. He said OOPS, it will be fixed in Imagine 3.2. BTW, I just received 3.1 in the mail today. Jim R. Ollick Using AP from Bergenfield, NJ