MacroSystem VLab Motion Motion JPEG Board For The Amiga Series Computer Manual Addendum For MovieShop Software Version 1.2 As a result of our continous efforts to enhance MovieShop, the software package for the VLab Motion , we proudly present V 1.2 of this program. It features many new functions and a lot of streamlining/bugfixing. Actually, the new features are that many that this manual addendum is necessary to understand and use MovieShop V 1.2 entirely. What's New In V 1.2? If you have used V 1.0/1.1 previously, you might want to know about the new features. OK, here's an overview: * The biggest new program part is the effect module. Most of our latest development efforts went into this outstanding system! We will explain the concept and philosophy of the effect system later on in detail, but just to make you keen: It is a flexible, mouse-driven, easy to use, modular and expandable solution to add digital video effects to your video that will again knock your socks off... It gives you digital character generation, lots of astounding A/B roll edit events and also image processing right in MovieShop . * An auto-save-mode is implemented now that saves your work periodically (time slots changeable) and/or any time a new scene is ''born''. * The time line is entirely new. As a part of the effect system, it has been changed totally. You can now throw in your scenes, put effects (edit events, image processing effects) underneath or above them, set locators for playing only parts of the video, shorten and re-lengthen scenes in the timeline and much more. Also, the timeline is now horizontal and not vertical and can have 3 (simple mode) or unlimited (UPN mode) parallel scene lines. * The smoothing, en effective way to reduce the JPEG data rate, is now much more flexible, featuring separated horizontal and vertical smoothing, the horizontal one configurable (7 levels). * The Saving and Loading of scenes is now many times faster due to massive optimizing. * Many bugs have been fixed in order to achieve a much more stable operation. * You can now generate a MasterScene that reactivates stored JPEG images on your partition even if they have been deleted previously. We hope this new version of MovieShop will give you features you like. Keep in mind: VLab Motion is still in full development progress and new software versions are about to appear. =========================================================================== The Effect Software System This new part of the MovieShop software is certainly the most impressing and valuable new feature of the V 1.2 software update. It can be used for many purposes, and since it has a fully modular concept, it can be expanded easily without even changing the main MovieShop program. The effect system allows you to add digital changes to scenes placed in the time line. These changes can be anything and can affect one, two or even more scenes at a time. It can be used for three main purposes: * A/B roll edit effects. This means that you can fade one scene into the other or use any other way to bridge from one scene into the next. Let the old scene fly away, wipe over, build a pyramide from the old, launch the pyramide into space in front of the new scene, play 9 scenes simultanously, each one in its own window! * Image processing effects like mosaic, scale, color-to-grey and relief that makes export/import efforts and ARexx scripts for ADPro etc. obsolete in many cases * Character generation for adding text to your video using the digital way We would like to explain the basic concept about the effect system first before we will continue to explain each separate effect later on. Please take the time to read about the concepts before you start to play -- we promise it is going to be worth it. The Concept Of The Digital System As you know, VLab Motion is a pure digital video system. Therefore, video effects can and have to be rendered. This is an off-line process that can take its time, but will deliver perfect results otherwise only possible with equipment worth tenthousands of Dollars. MovieShop lets you put digital video effects to any image or scene you have stored in the MovieShop partition. The heart of the effect system is the time line. As you know or at least can imagine, the time line can contain scenes grabbed with the VLab Motion or imported from other Amiga programs. You can now grab an effect from a choice of available modules (very much like in ADPro) and put them into the time line as well. The frames being in the same time slot as the effect module will then be affected by the time line. Since you can freely place and stretch/shrink effect modules on the time line, you can easily decide which frames of the scenes in the time line should be affected. If you have 10 seconds of video in the time line, no matter in how many scenes, and you want to convert second 8 and 9 into grey, just grab the ColorToGrey module and put it underneath the scene(s), starting from second 8 and being 2 seconds long. You can start the rendering of such scenes easily now. The MovieShop system will render new frames now and store them on the VLab Motion partition, just like any video data it controls. The output of the rendering can be controlled in the time line control window very much like an independent scene. In fact, you can even generate a new scene from the output of the time line rendering! Four elements of the MovieShop user interface are involved in the effect procedure: 1. The Time Line, the heart of the system. 2. The Time Line Control, where you can check, execute and play the time line with effects. Here, you can also set ins and outs for the locator to render or play only a part of the time line. 3. The Effect List, where you can pick all effects from the there-listed choice and then move them into the time line. 4. The Time Line Menue, where you can set options for the effect editing procedure and control some further functions. We will explain how to use the two different modes by giving you an example, one for the simple and one for the UPN (expert) mode. The Simple Mode The simple mode is well suitable for effects like fading from one scene into the next or wiping over. It is fast and comfortable, but does not allow you to perform combinations of effects for getting customized special effects. You can activate the simple mode in the Time Line menue and open the time line using the window menue. In this menue, make sure now that 'Position Window' and 'Operator Window' is both marked as active. It will come up with 3 vertical rows now, the first and the last called S1 and S2. These are for scenes that you want to arrange in the time line, like an A and B roll. Why 2 scene lines? Well, you can now overlap scenes in the time line, one in the top and one in the bottom line! For the overlapping area, you can (and need) to insert an effect that decides what will happen with the overlapping part of the video. A fade would just fade through from the first scene to the last. A fade could now look like this: [.] Edit List ------------------------------------------------------------------------- S1 IXXXXXXXXX-Scene1-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- OP XX-Fade-XX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- S2 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-Scene2-XXXXXXXXXXXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To do your first fade, now do the following: 1. Digitize two scenes. 2. Drag the first scene into the first line of the time line (named S1), just by clicking on the scene and keep clicked for some time. After the mousepointer has turned into a hand, you can now drag it over to the time line. Place it to the extreme left. The position window should now be opened (otherwise check the menue bar settings for the time line). You can manually set the start position to 000.00:00. 3. Now drag the second scene into the bottom line of the time line (S2). Place it into a position that overlaps the start part of the second scene with the end part of the first, just like in the "picture" above. TIP: You can move the scenes and effects by clicking on them and also shorten (and re-lengthen) scenes by clicking at the left or right border. 4. Now, open the effect list and look for the Fade effect. If no effect shows up, check the pathes for the operators in the settings menue. 5. Pick the fade effect and place it into the OP-line (middle) of the time line. Place it exactly into the overlapping area of the both scenes, if necessary, change the size to make it fitting properly. TIP: You can zoom in and out if the sizes of the scenes are not comfortable. Do that with the + and - symbols in the top right corner of the time line window. 6. The window for the fade settings should now open. If not, doubleclick on the effect in the time line or change the settings in the time line menue. Select "through" in the mode cycle gadget. 7. If your window looks like the above "image", open the edit control window. 8. Click on "Check". Now, the time line will be checked for logical correctness - f.e. if there is a valid effect for overlapping areas and if there are enough scenes to deliver necessary inputs to the effects. Also, it will check for illegal breaks in the time line. If you have set the safety requesters to "often", you will be informed if the time line is OK. Errors will be reported in any case. 9. Now, click on "Execute". The time line will now be executed and the fade-area frames will be rendered. The small white line in the top of the time line will show you the progress of the rendering (if the zoom is correct). 10. If the execution is finished, you can play the time line as usual. 11. You can now generate a scene from the time line output by selecting "Edit->Time Line->Generate Scene" from the menue. A new scene will appear, called "Movie". This scene contains the video that the time line holds and can further be used equal to any other video scene in the scenes window. Instead of the fade, you can now use any effect that works as stand-alone. Some effects can only be used in combinations with others, those are only valid in the UPN-mode (expert mode). The valid effects for the simple mode (for the UPN-mode as well, of course): ColorDepth (1 input scene) ColorToGrey (1 input scene) Delay (1 input scene) Fade (1 or 2 input scenes) Flip (2 input scenes) Freeze (1 input scene) Mirror (1 input scene) Mosaic (1 input scene) Negative (1 input scene) Nop (1 input scene) Relief (1 input scene) Shift (2 input scenes) Title (1 input scene) Wipe (2 input scenes) Some of the others are possible, but would not make a lot of sense in the simple mode: Background (0 input scene) Border (1 input scene) Compose (2 input scenes) Noise (0 input scene) The other effects can only be used in combination with other effects and are invalid for the simple mode: Alpha (1 input scene) Crop (1 input scene) QuickScale (1 input scene) Scale (1 input scene) Rotate (1 or 2 input scenes) Trapezium (1 input scene) We do encourage you to play with the effects! Refer to the explanations for each scene for further info. The UPN (Expert) Mode Let us say something first: The UPN mode is not really easy to use. It requires probably a long learning phase. If you think you do not want to invest time in this part of the software, maybe the simple mode is OK for you. Otherwise, be prepared! The most complicated part on the UPN-mode is the way you need to set up the scenes and effects. If you have once understood the principles, it is no longer mysterious but very effective. UPN is the (German) abbreviation for Reverse Polish Notation. Users of scientific pocket calculators (HP 48) will probably know about it already. The Polish Notation is doing things reverse to the normal way of organizing stacks. The algorythm will work through your scenes and effects from the top to the right, starting work after it has parsed through from the bottom to the top. This forces you to put the first things to happen underneath the next! Let us start with something simple: The same fade as described above for the simple mode, but now in the UPN. Now, you put the first scene in line 2 (or deeper). Put the fade effect in line 3 and the second scene in line 1. Stretch the effect over the overlapping part of the first and second scene. Done! [.] Edit List ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L1 I XXXXXXXXXX-Scene2-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L2 IXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-Scene1-XXXXXXXXXXXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L3 I XX-Fade-XX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L4 I . . . . What does the UPN mode now do? Well, it starts at the top, detecting Scene 2. No effect underneath this scene - so it is an output directly. Then, Scene 1. Underneath Scene 1 is an effect with two outputs - so it is clear now: Take the one above the effect as the first input and the one above as the second. If there would be an effect with one input underneath Scene 2, it would perform the fade between Scene 1 and the output of the effect beeing put on Scene 2 (say, a ColorToGray). Why this method? Well, it looks odd, but it has the big advantage that it makes it possible to combine an unlimited amount of effects without specifying inputs and outputs manually. Another example: We want to use the Flip effect to flip from one frame to the other, performed on a green background. Three effects and two scenes are involved here: - The background operator - The Flip operator - The compose operator - The first scene - The last scene The setup is like this: [.] Edit List ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L1 I XXXXXXXXXX-Scene2-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L2 IXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX-Scene1-XXXXXXXXXXXXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L3 I XX-Flip-XXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L4 I XX-Back-XXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L5 I X-ComposeXX ------------------------------------------------------------------------- L6 I . . . UPN starts at the top, detecting scene 2 and 1 as inputs for the flip, then discovering the output of the flip and the background (set to green) as the inputs for the Compose. You can do this with any amount of effects and scenes as you would like. This method opens new horizons for you! You can create your own, totally unique effects with this easily. We encourage you to play with it! The Effect Operators This list gives you short descriptions of the operators how they are at this time. Fade This is the most popular effect. It just fades a scene in, out or through into another scene. The operation is very simple and should be obvious to you. Wipe This is an easy way to just wipe from one scene into the other. This can work in four directions (up, down, left and right). It is easy to use. Shift Very much like the wipe, but one scene shifts the other one out of the screen. It is like shifting photos on a table! Flip This effect treats the two scenes by pressing the first scene together and then extending the second. It looks like the scenes are on a double-sided sheet that gets turned around. You can set wether this should happen vertically or horizontally. Compose This composes two images with each other. It has to be used if the output of an effect is not full size (like the scale). Then, you need to define a background (a scene or the background effect) and comose the smaller image on the other one. It is also the "motion engine" in the MovieShop effect system. Since it can place the image anywhere on or besides the screen and you can give start and end coodinates, you can easily make a scene move in front of a background. Use the trapezium to build a pyramide out of your scene and launch the pyramide off! If you close the window having Start or End active in the Position line, a motion will be rendered. If it is set to Start=End, the position remains stable. This method is the same for any motion-capable effect in MovieShop. QuickScale This effect scales the image very quick, but only to fixed ratios like 25 or 50 %. Remember a downscaled image needs to be combined with a full size background via the compose operator. Border This operator draws a border around the image. Nice for downscaled frames. You can set the color and the thickness of the border, and also if you want to have the border around the frame or inside, but at the borders, covering the outer part of the image. Scale This lets you freely set the resolution of the frames. Since it is motion-capable, you can set Start and End values. The Scale needs to be composed to a full size background if it is used for downscaling. Background This is an image generator. It has no input, but serves as a scene because it has one output. You can set the size and the colors of the image, and even the transparency value (alpha) is changeable. The background is a motion effect and can change colors over the runtime. ColorDepth This lets you reduce the colors of a scene. The power of the reduction can be from 2 up to 50 bitplanes, so from 2 to 125000 colors. ColorToGrey This one generates b/w video from color scenes. Crop The crop just cuts out a piece of the image at the specified place. It does need a composed fullsize background. Alpha Lets you fade an image over another, using the compose in addition. Title This is a true digital character generator. It has two modes: - The auto-mode - The manual mode The auto mode is very simple: Set your settings in the window and load an ASCII text file (to be made e.g. with the "ED"). The first line of a section of text will always be printed in a times 24 font, the rest in times 18. The text is always pure white. You can generate text easy and quick using the auto-mode. The manual mode is however more complicated but very versatile. To activate it, set the Format to "Free". Now, you can and have to specify steering sequences, always in an own new textline, starting with a "\". These are the available steering sequences: - \Align (Left-Right-Center) [row] Sets the text direction in row [row]. - \Color r g b [a] Sets the color and alpha values for the text. - \Direction {UP LEFT STANDSTILL} Sets the roll direction of the text. - \Distance x The distance between lines in pixels. - \Font fontname [size [B][U]] Sets the font to be used. B and U are for Bold and Undelined. -\Rows x1 w1 [x2 w2 [x3 w3...]]] Defines columns (one to four). X is for the left border, w the width. \TopMargin x For LEFT direction only - sets where the textline should scroll on the monitor. Range is from 0 to 100 %. \\ Line for comments As you might have noticed, some of the operators are not listed. Do not panic! We will make a manual available to you. We picked the here listed effects mainly to explain the system. Effects are pretty easy anyway - we again encourage you to start playing with it.