Rotoscoping with PAR
19 messages in this thread
Can anyone tell me how to get a record film on the PAR to be used as an
animated map in 3DS.
I tried by making the material map selecting the ANI file as TGA in the
Texture1 file box.
However only the first mentioned frame of the film is used??
Then I tried IFL but I can not specify the par drive in that, so when choosing
the IFL as a map, 3DS says invalid map file??? when rendering starts???
I could copy from the PAR all the Frames first to a seperate harddrive however,
I would prefer not using that disk space and would like to access the PAR drive
directly to do this.
I think there has already been a thread about this a while ago however forgot
how it worked, any help appreciated.
Christophe
This message was sent to me as I asked the same question, by Robert Ritger. I
hope it is useful.
-Kouros.
Assume that your animation file on the PAR is called FILE.ANI and that it has
100 frames.
1. Create an IFL file which has entries from FILE0000.TGA – FILE0099.TGA as its
contents.
2. Make sure the PAR drive and directory is in your MAPS PATH.
3. In the editor fire up the DPS_PAR PXP and set it to acquire TARGA files and
chose FILENAME as the option (as opposed to INCREMENT).
4. In the MATERIALS EDITOR assign your IFL file as a texture map and assign
this new material to the object you choose in the EDITOR.
5. In the KEYFRAMER you should set your rendering size to 752 x 480 x
85 (not
83). If you use the Vibrant driver then you don't have to chose 'Null'.
6. Render to DISK (send your TGA's back to the PAR) and also to DISPLAY. This
will leave an image on your computer monitor when a frame is complete and you
should see an image on your PAR monitor at two moments during the rendering of
a single frame. I believe you will briefly see the frame from the animation
you are scoping and the rendered frame as it goes back to the PAR. The final
rendered frame will pop on the video monitor just after you see your computer
display SAVING TARGA FILE.
There is no need to copy your ANI file off of the PAR to do what you wish. You
should be able to do exactly what you described its just not that clear in all
of the documents as to exactly how its done. The choices you made (ie. ANI
files for acquisition and INCREMENT for file type) seem completely reasonable
yet are exactly the wrong choices. Perhaps the interface should be more
explicit I know I had it backwards when I first tried it out.
Bob
OK I will try it out, thanks
I tried evrything as you said, coming to the conclusion I altready did, and it
does not work:
When assigning the IFL as a texture map in the materials editor and then doing
a render sample, i get the following error message, which I also get when
trying to start rendering in 3Deditor:
Can't find FILE0000.TGAQ (the Q stands for a smiling face character I do not
know the ASCI code for???
Image file not found in Mappaths
Although the PAR directory is in the MAPpath.
Maybe Brick Eksten could be of some help.
The IFL was normally created and I put it in my MAPS directory although putting
it somewhere else does not help either???
How do???
Chris,
>> When assigning the IFL as a texture map in the materials editor and then
doing a render sample … get error <<
I just tried this and it worked for me. Here's what I did:
1) I typed pardrv -t -f:0000 on my PAR machine's at the DOS prompt.
2) On my 3d Studio machine (a different one on my network) I created an .ifl
file with makeifl.exe (which has meta0000.tga to meta0200.tga). In my
c:\3ds4\maps directory.
3) In 3d Studio, I made sure I had the map-paths c:\3ds4\maps and p:\demo (this
is the disk drive and directory of the animation meta0000.ani).
4) I created a material with "texture 1" = meta.ifl and did a render sample. No
problem it worked perfectly.
I suspect you missed step 1. You can also run dpspar.pxp in 3d Studio and set
PAR output to be targa and filename.
You are missing the map paths probably.
Here's what I do and am doing right now.
First I make sure the roto file is properly named on the PAR directory.
Lets rename the imported video file to ROTO0000.ani. Always 4 leters + 4
zeros.
My PAR drive is D:
and the project is ROTOFILE
therefore the path is d:\rotofile
Now I go to my C drivew and CD to C:\3ds3 and type the: MAKEIFL Roto Roto 0
179
This will create an IFL with 180 file names in the c:\3ds3
Now I launch 3DS3 and first go to configure and add D:\rotofile
and c:\3ds3 to the map paths
Now I go to the materials editor and create a material named "Roto tex map"
I do this by selecting the texture1 and selecting the file Roto.ifl in the
c:\3ds3 directory
Next I go to the editor and create an assignment and map coordinates for the
object with the roto tex map material.
Next I launch the DPS_PAR.PXP and be sure to select TARGA and FILE as opposed
to ani or increment. Also I recommend selecting field 1 as opposed to frame
because it will look better in my opinion.
Now go to the keyframer and render At this point you can also render to the
PAR drive but be sure you had selected animation in the DPS_PAR.PXP and the
proper BLF/QF. Otherwise render to the DOS drive.
That's about it. I really think you are just missing some path steps and you
need to have BOTH the location of the IFL and the PAR project listed in the MAP
paths.
Well as to what you and Martin said I think I did not miss out on any steps,
although I'll check it again, it seems rather strange however
BTW which versions of PAR software you both use??
I use 1.29, have any of you done it with that???
Christophe
Well I tried everything You and Martin said, and my problem stays:
When rendering in the Materials editor or anywhere else I get the following
error???
Can't find file ROTO0000.TGAQ
in Map Path(s) or Image Path
Continue
(The Q stands for a smilling face character??? which I can not Simulate in
WINCIM)
It is that smiling face character that seems to be added to entry in the IFL
file, although checking the IFL file everything is OK, just the image files are
mentioned one by one, on every new line.
Could it be that character is added by the PAR software???
I have no clue to the problem, it is pretty wierd.
Christophe
Since I can't seem to help you get your map paths to be recognized maybe I can
help you get a smiley face 🙂 or 🙂 or :} or :]
Just use the colon : followed by a minus sign – followed by a closed
parenthesis )
or some variation.
I use ver 1.30b but it has worked since my original ver. If you are doing
everything right it might be the PAL ver bug.
BTW I tried doing rotoscoping from any other harddrive on my system and that
works without any problem. So I can do rotoscoping if I first copy the ANI to
another drive as TGAs.
However I prefer to use that space for rendering before going to the PAR.
OK Lets wait until Brick gets this message, he might be able to look into it???
BTW anyone else has tried rotoscoping with the PAL version???
Christophe
>>BTW anyone else has tried rotoscoping with the PAL version???>>
I haven't tried rotoscoping yet but my first board would not export TGA files
properly so although you say you can export to another disk there may be some
similar hardware fault.
John
This is not the case my board exports TGA's perfectly to any harddisk in my
system.
So it has to be software related?
BTW the smiley should be turned up to resemble the character??? ;( ===> 🙂
OO No smiley faces are in the standard windows ansi character set. ??? C
Others suggesting that your files with the smiley face attached to the filename
causing your problem sounds like a good clue. I use MAKEIFL.exe. My filenames
always end up as ABCD0000.tga in the list and they are located fine.
Well I solved my problem, it is quite stupid but I was looking in the wrong
place, problem was my filenames on the PAR drive itsself.
When bringing in a rendered animation PAR automatically suggest to 4
letters + 0000 I tried to use some Videocaptures I did with my SVHS
camera, and, when importing them I typed a filename, but forgot to
add the 0000, so what the heck, at least I found so no problem with
software just a very stupid basic mistake.
BTW thanks to You, Martin, Theo and anyone else for helping me out at least it
eventually made find the mistake.
Christophe
I figured it was something simple like that.
I know several of us mentioned it. Funny how these little details can be
assumed to be done right and really be overlooked. Just glad it wasn't the
hardware or software bug.
Chris,
I have version 1.30b (ntsc).
>> It is that smiling face character that seems to be added to entry in the IFL
file, although checking the IFL file everything is OK, just the image files are
mentioned one by one, on every new line. <<
just a thought …. who did you create your .ifl file. You didn't edit it in a
word processing program, did you? You should stay with a plain ascii text
editor (dos editor, for example). A word processor might add some funny
characters.
I was thinking about your problem and here is a possible solution. The
character you are describing is an ascii symbol, you create it by using the
-ALT- Key and -001- or -002 together (one prints positive and one prints
negative), and you can also create this symbol by using the ^A or ^B, both
types of symbols usually can be created in a program editor. I created a test
IFL tried this in 3DS3 and it produced this same problem you are describing. It
looks like the problem may be comming from the type of word processor/text
editor you are saving your file with. Try using the program that comes with
3DS3 -MAKEIFL.EXE- and not saving it with any other program. Hope this solves
your problem.
Mike Morgan, CAD Forms Inc.
That is just my problem, I use Makeifl.exe, and when I use the file created for
the PAR drive I get this problem, if I use the file to extract TGA's from any
normal disk drive I do not get it.
However to be completly sure, I'll check everything again, however Im about
sure it is not the makeifl that adds this character.
Christophe