Also, michael, something I had noticed on one of my computers is that when I decide to activate certain things like water textures, or toon mode, it will not show up while I am putting the production together...but, when I do a quick image preview, all the render elements are in place. So, sometimes, just check a quick Preview image of your project, and see if those elements show up more solidly. :)



"Incompetence will always prevail so long as evil men stand by and do nothing."
-Martok2112

yeah, you have to kinda watch it if a video you intend to import has letterboxing already in it. You might have to take that video, and crop it in an external video editor like Magix Movie Edit Pro, or Pinnacle, or Avid, or whatever you have with that capability before importing into iClone.

Now, as far as the video appearing "transparent"...first, of course, make sure you check your opacity settings (usually found as a slider somewhat below the Material Textures and Settings boxes). Also, you might simply need to turn the plane (or whatever surface you are superimposing onto) around 180 degrees opposite of its current facing, unless it means turning around the entire prop, then you might wanna hold off on that, but there's still at least one more option.

You'll notice three little color boxes further down the Material Textures and Settings side...the three boxes are Diffuse, Ambient, and Spectral. Try turning those to solid white, and see if that solidifies your video at all. :)

Hope these hints help. :)



"Incompetence will always prevail so long as evil men stand by and do nothing."
-Martok2112

What was the Video output size in iClone??? 

sjonesdc :hehe:

STILL LEARNING!!!

I appreciate all the help and comments but I am still very much struggling. I watched this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2U2S9_61bk&list=UUgigyhFYBO-trin-NBtJWeQ&index=3&feature=plcp&noredirect=1

and I tried to replicate it step by step but was unable to because I did not get many steps in when the things the narrator was doing did not occur for me. I tried dropping the video on an empty setting like was done there but mine did not look anything like what his did. My video was very transparent and ghostlike and no matter where I put props, the video always ended up behind them.

I tried the recomended use of a pre built studio and messing around with that and  my best result was this video http://youtu.be/6q7-8gY73nU I cant get rid of the black bars on the top, bottom, and sides, even when  I went back to popvideo and used the masking brush around the borders.

Indeed you are right, animatom. :) I should've specified that, by "video ready", I meant that the video would show up normally on a flat surface that was UV mapped for that. Indeed, all surfaces, as long as UV maps have been applied, will display video. I use water droplet video when on a character's skin when I wish to simulate a "wetlook" effect on characters. But, a flat surface appropriately mapped, will display the video without distortion of curvature like on a character.

And thank you for the kind words. :) They mean a lot. :)



"Incompetence will always prevail so long as evil men stand by and do nothing."
-Martok2112

martok2112, you wrote this so well that it was pleasure to read it, even I knew all that.
One thing to add maybe, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know is there a such thing as "video ready" objects.
I think that everything that can be textured, can be textured with video texture. I was toying even with character's faces (for tears, for example), cloth, grounds, etc.
Am I right?

.

I have the set and the billboards are video ready, just drag and drop the video onto a selected billboard.

michaeltveal,

One more suggestion: Just to get off the ground use one of the project files that comes with Virtual Studio.

sjonesdc :hehe:

STILL LEARNING!!!

You're welcome, Michael. :)
Now, as I said, I've not worked with VS before, but, whenever I've wanted to insert video onto anything like a bill board, it really depends on if such a surface is "video ready".

If you look in the Content Manager, under Set>Template>3D Surface, you will see a series of surfaces, all of which are video/image ready. I usually use "plane A", size it to fit the object in question, and then, when I insert video on it, I go to the Modify>Materials and Texture Settings on the right of the UI, and double click on "diffuse". Then, you should be able to load your video. I find .wmv the best (and I use that word very loosely) file format for that purpose. (And that's really the ONLY time I use .wmv for anything in my productions).

Now, there are other things you'll need to know. If the inserted video is of shorter duration than your production, then you'll need to know how to make the video play when you want it to. This is actually quite simple. :) Go to the timeline (at the bottom of the UI, activated by the "Timeline" button, or you can right click on "plane A", and select "Timeline" from the pop up list.). When you have activated the timeline for Plane A, click on the "Video" button. Your inserted video should appear as an animation bar in the Video timeline. But, say you don't want that video to appear until later on in your production? Ok, slide the video animation bar containing your inserted video over to the right along the timeline, until the left edge of the animation bar coincides with the first frame of the point where you want the video to start playing, and voilla. If you need to fine tune just exactly where the video begins, zoom in on the timeline at the start point, and adjust to the left or right as needed. Also, to make sure that the video does not "appear" until you wish, go back to the beginning of the timeline, and click on the On/Off button for Plane A in the Modify>Materials>Display section of the right of the UI. Click Off. That will make the plane disappear. Go back to the time line, to the start of your video, and then Click On in Modify>Materials>Display. Now, your video should appear, and since you moved the animation to that point, it should start playing once it appears. If the video image should start appearing at any point before you're ready for it to display, check back along the timeline between the start of the production, and the point where you are ready for the video to actually begin. (This should be in the "Visible" track of your billboard/Plane A on the timeline....click on "Visible" to bring up this track.) If you see any areas where a tick mark or hash might appear, simply delete those hashes and ticks, and that should eliminate any unexpected/unwanted premature appearances. :)

If I understand correctly, the billboards you are referring to may already be "video ready"...so adding a Plane A might not even be a consideration. In that event, use the steps I provided above for the billboard. :)

I hope this helps.

As always,
Friendly neighborhood, Martok2112.



"Incompetence will always prevail so long as evil men stand by and do nothing."
-Martok2112

Iclone is a complex program my friend but it does many complex and wonderful things once you know how to use it. Watching the tuts will help immensely but, as Peter said, get in and get your hands dirty, it will be rewarding not only for your company but for you as well.

If you have any questions, the people on this forum are always (and I mean always) ready to help. Believe me when I say that you can't ask any iclone technique question that these fine folks won't try and get you an answer to.

Remember also, there are no questions that can be asked that are more noob than the ones I have asked. I set the bar on noobness pretty low so don't be afraid to ask them anything. They love to help.

Good luck and have fun with it. 


http://www.youtube.com/user/peterblood50?feature=mhee

Thanks Martok that will help quite a bit once I get the studio set up and working. I think that will work bettter than the way I had figured out which was putting the video on a billboard.