About VideoMaker software

VideoMaker software is application for producing videos on a computer.
You can use it for simple tasks like replacement for video editing equipment.
This means that you can perform digital video effects like blend, fade in and
out, chroma key, etc., but unlike using VCRs there is no loss of quality. And,
unlike video editing equipment you don't have to spend tens of thousands of
dollars to perform such video effects.
Or you can go one step further and make script for video composition which
will combine some or all of the digital effects. And above everything you can
do things which can be done only by computer like morph effect.
VideoMaker is a comprehensive tool which you can use to produce videos
ranging from simple presentations to broadcast quality professional video
clips.
This is the age of multimedia and virtual reality. Personal computers are
getting faster and better. For this kind of application speed and storage
capabilities are very demanding. As you can store a whole book in just a
couple of megabytes it is barely enough for one or two pictures. Big hard
disks and fast CPUs are must for video on a PC application. Today 486 and
Pentium processors offer enough speed for this purpose. PowerPC, Alpha
and MIPS will be even better. Soon it will be possible to do true real time
video on a PC (this could be read also that we are like many other software
developers depending on next generation of CPUs).

VideoMaker is true 32 bit software so it takes the full advantage of the 386,
486 and Pentium processors. The code has been optimized for maximum
speed under 486 and Pentium processors. So the operations on the images
are done couple of times faster than by other standard 16 bit Windows
software.


System requirements

Minimum system to run VideoMaker software must be PC compatible
computer with 386 or better processor, 4 MB RAM and 3MB free space on
the hard disk.
However, multimedia is the most demanding field for computer technology
regarding speed and storage capabilities. This is especially true for video
production. Therefore, here applies the bigger the better. If you will want to
produce high resolution and more than a couple of seconds videos you will
need a lot of free hard disk space. So for serious work we recommend 486
based computer with 8MB RAM and a large hard disk.
You will certainly
need to setup virtual memory manager (386Enhanced program in Windows
Control Panel) with substantial amount of disk space reserved for virtual
memory. I suggest that you reserve at least 8MB of disk space for VMM if
you have 4MB of RAM.
As VideoMaker is Windows software you will also need Windows 3.1 to run
it.
VideoMaker is desktop video production software so there is no point in
trying to run this software in B/W or 16 colors modes (even though it is
possible). We suggest that you use video card and set up the Windows mode
which will support 32K, 64K (16 bit) or 16.7M (24 bit) colors. If you have
also video card that has Windows accelerator it is even better. If you will run
this software in 256 colors mode there will be significant deceleration in
operation of the software due to the overhead generated by converting 32 bit
image output of the VideoMaker to 8 bit (256 colors) Windows
representation. For each Windows output VideoMaker will perform process
called dithering to achieve the highest quality possible. It will significantly
slow down the operation of VideoMaker. Preview option for real-time
playback in this mode is not very usable, unless you have 200MHz Pentium
system.

Installation

You should create directory where you want to copy VideoMaker. Switch to
that directory, copy VIDEO.ZIP into it and unzip it using PKUNZIP 2.04
version.
You can afterward install VideoMaker group and program icon
into your desktop manager manually. You must install just one file this way.
It is VIDEO.EXE. Or you can just start VIDEO.EXE through the File
Manager or the Program manager (Run option in File menu).
After finishing installation procedure you can start application by double-
clicking on VideoMaker icon.
If you didn't install VideoMaker program group into you desktop manager
you can start VideoMaker through File Manager of Program Manager by
starting VIDEO.EXE.


QUICK START

After starting VideoMaker software you will see the menu and two main
windows.

Swatch Window
This Window is used for preview purposes. When you double-click on the
specific frame number in the Composition Window computer will after
performing all of the effects and transitions for that frame display result in
the selected swatch sub window within main Swatch window.
All swatch sub windows are of the same size. If you resize one all other will
be resized according to that one. In the Swatch window there will be always
as much sub windows as it fits within drawing area of the main Swatch
window.

Composition Window
This is where you design and edit your video. It consists of two parts,
timeline and composition area. Timeline shows numbers which represent
frame numbers within your video. For example if you are making video for
NTSC standard then 30 frames on the timeline represent 1 second of video
(25 frames represent 1 second for PAL, and 24 frames represent 1 second for
movie). If you double-click in the timeline computer will move pointer for
current frame to that position, calculate all the effects and transitions for that
frame and display the picture in selected swatch sub window.
Composition area is where you "compose" your video by inserting and
linking desired effects and transitions. Each effect and transition is
represented by block within composition area. Dimension of
specific block represents duration corresponding to the timeline.
Blocks are connected by vertical lines showing which effect or transition
operates on the output of another block. For example if your composition
area shows that you have Filein connected to Blur effect above it  means that
computer will first take an image (or series of images) from a file and then it
will perform blur effect on it (or on them).
You select blocks representing events by clicking on them pressing the right
mouse button. To select multiple events you hold down the SHIFT key and
click using the right mouse button on desired blocks.

Composing video
As it was mentioned to "compose" a video you set up blocks representing
images (or sequences of images), effects and transitions in the composition
area of the Composition window.
Effects and transitions cannot  exist only by themselves within composition
area, they must be connected to one (effects) or two (transitions) blocks.
Every video should always start by one of the options in Image menu. It is
because you cannot have video without pictures. Filein operation is used to
import images for you video.
So, let's do one simple video which will take just one image from the file on
your disk and then apply Edge detection on that image and finally rotate that
image for 30 degrees. The duration of the whole video will be 90 frames (3
seconds for the NTSC standard).
First we must insert a block for Filein image import operation which will
read specific image from the file. We go to the Image menu and choose
Filein. The dialog box opens where we must specify name of the file
containing image, starting frame and ending frame.

All other fields are optional. So we put starting frame number 1 and ending
frame number 90. The filename can be specified by writing the name in the
filename field or browsing the disk for it by choosing Browse. We can read
any of the following image file formats: Targa (TGA), BMP, TIFF, GIF,
FLI, FLI, FLC, JPG.
After clicking on OK button you will se Filein1 block within composition
area. The block will be wide 90 frames.

After specifying the image we can apply to it edge detection effect. We select
block  (by clicking on it using right mouse button) Filein1 first to avoid
writing the name of the block in the edge detection dialog box. (You know
that the block is selected within the composition window when it gets
additional border.) Then we select Edge detection from the Effects menu.
Dialog box opens where we should insert starting frame number, duration,
source (already filled with Filein1 name), level of edge detection and colors
for background and edges.

We will set up starting frame 30, duration 60 and colors as you wish. Level
will be 50. After clicking on OK button Edge detection1 block will be
inserted from frames 30 to 90 above Filein1 block and it will be connected
by vertical line to Filein1.

Now to apply rotation to the output of edge detection we select Edge
detection1 box by clicking on it and finally we choose Rotate from the
Effects menu.

Now the source is Edge detection1, start frame will be 60 and duration 30.
Center of the rotation we will put on 100,100 coordinates. Now we can
specify starting angle and ending angle and computer will gradually apply
rotation to our image within frames 30 and 60. So we set 0 as starting angle
and 30 as ending angle. It means that computer will rotate our image from 0
degrees in frame 60 to 30 degrees in frame 90. Clicking on OK puts Rotate1
block above Edge detection1 and connects it to it.

Our video is now finished. We can preview any frame by double-clicking on
it in the timeline.
Now that the composition is finished we can produce 90 frames in any of the
supported formats in any resolution by using Generate frames option in File
menu.

Loading and saving compositions
You can load previously made compositions by using Load composition
option in File menu.
To save composition choose Save composition from the File menu.
To save composition under different name than current use Save As option
from the File menu.
Composition files have SCE extension.
Composition files are ASCII files containing scripts describing how will the
whole video look like.

Generating images from the composition.
To produce images (files containing pictures) according to the composition
you should choose Generate images from the File menu. Images are
developed according to setup information which can be adjusted to your
needs. In the setup you should specify resolution and image file type which
will be used to produce pictures.

Previewing composition.
It is used to play images previously generated in FLI format in real or near
real time in up to 320x200 swatch window. Why is this limitation necessary?
It is due to the extremely large amounts of data needed to store pictures. So
to achieve real or near real time previewing images must me generated in
small enough resolution with just 8 bit color and compressed. On the PC
based on 486DX2 processor with fast local bus or similar video card one can
achieve playing of the FLI files at rates of up to 30 frames per second.
To use preview option preview images must be created from the
composition. (This is done through Generate images option in File menu.)
This can take some time depending on complexity of composition and
duration. It means that they will be stored in a single file with FLI extension.
Preview images are always in 320x200 resolution with 8 bit color. This is
due to preserving as much free space on disk as possible and to fulfill speed
requirements for playing images in real time or near real time.
Note: To use this option you must first generate images in FLI format using
Generate images option in File menu.



Note: Support for JPEG compression/decompression and JPG file format:
this software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group

