New Features: IMPORTERS and EXPORTERS (Imp/Exp) Importers and Exporters have been improved. The import and export libraries have been rewritten and optimized. The way that importing and exporting works has been changed to make it more efficient and easier to use. Under the 'AmigaDOS Files' menu, in the center of the buttons you will find a new button labeled 'Imp/Exp' this button controls all the parameters of importing and exporting files. Import Chroma Filter: This works the same as it did before, when it is selected, color filtering for legal NTSC/PAL color values will be used. Targa Flip: If you are loading animation frames that were rendered on a PC, you may encounter files which have the fields reversed. This usually only happens with targa files rendered in 3DStudio. Selecting 'Targa Flip' will cause all the frames to be imported with reverse fields, this only works with TARGA images. Export Translate: (Quite possibly the coolest feature of all!) Translate forces other programs to see PAR animation files as if they are sequences of images instead of single animations. This means that any program that can load 24 bit iff's can now load images directly out of PAR animations without having to use ARexx or having to pre-export the files. This makes using the PAR for rotoscoping extremely efficient and easy to use. For instance if you wanted to use a picture viewing program to display PAR images on your computer monitor you just have to set the Export mode to 'Translate', then set the file type to any of the export types (IFF, SGI, PAR, TARGA, etc). Then from your image viewing software, select the par animation and the frame offset of the desired image, for instance if you want to have an animation called 'Boat' and you want to display frame 200, then from the file requester of the image viewer, select 'Boat' and edit the file name so that it has the frame offset appended. For frame 200, we would select 'Boat' and add .0200 to the end so the filename would become 'Boat.0200'. The PAR will automatically 'Translate' the request for the non existent filename and export the proper frame to your image viewer. The real power of the 'Translate' function is to allow the PAR to be a source of multiple image streams for use in rotoscoping and compositing software. Lightwave 3D To use the PAR as a source of one or more video streams for use in Lightwave 3D as animated texture maps (Rotoscoping), you would use the following method: 1. Select 'Translate' from the export buttons. 2. Select 'IFF' for the export file type. 3. From Lightwave, under 'Images' choose 'Image Sequence'. 4. Using the previous example, choose the animation you would like to use as the source, we would choose 'Boat' on the PAR hard drive and append '.' only to the end of the file name. (Lightwave works best if you leave off the frame number when loading sequences). 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all the image sequences that you would like to import. From that point on, you can use the image sequences in place of any texture map in Lightwave 3D. This method should work for any software that allows you to specify a starting frame and that it will be loading a sequence of images. Note: Any software that attempts to physically scan the directory for all the images will not work. Some batch rendering software works this way, expecting all files to be available at once and since the PAR translates the files on the fly, only one file will appear in the directory at any one time. Frame The frame button will allow you to choose which form of 'field' handling you use for exporting. In short, each file consists of two fields, with each field consisting of either all the even numbered horizontal lines, or all the odd numbered horizontal lines. So for any given 'Frame' (two fields) or image, all the odd lines starting at line 1 are one field, and all the even lines starting at line 2 make up the other field. This is the same way your television works. If you choose any mode other than frame, you will only export one half of the image data. Choosing field 1 for instance would export your files as 752 pixels wide, but only 240 pixels tall because you are only exporting one field of data (every other line). To export full size images, See 'Field Double'. Frame, Field 1, Field 2, Field 1&2: Frame will cause the entire image to be exported. Field 1 will cause only the first field to be exported. Field 2 will cause only the second field to be exported. Field 1&2 will cause both fields to be exported, but as two separate files. For instance in our 'Boat' animation, with this button selected, we would be exporting 'Boat.0001' and 'Boat.0002', with each file only containing one field of information. Field Double: Field Double when used in combination with any of the previous single field modes will cause each field to be exported 'doubled'. Each line in the image will be doubled so that the exported image is the normal image height of 480 lines. Field Double is used most often to remove motion artifacting from the image data. For instance if you were to record some live video using the TBC-IV, and then step through each image one frame at a time, you would see some motion in each frame, this is known as 'motion artifacting'. The problem with using 'Field' modes in combination with 'Field Double' is that you lose one half of the effective vertical resolution. For most rotoscoping applications, this loss of resolution is negligible. Export File Format This allows you to choose how the PAR copies files back to the system drive. The available modes are SGI, IFF, YUV (proprietary), TARGA, and PAR. This is the same effective set of controls that you will find in the controls of the 'Export' button under the PAR files directory. There is a special new import/export mode called YUV. This mode is proprietary and is not recognizable by standard YUV loaders. YUV is useful for ARexx scripts which are copying files from the PAR to the Amiga and back to the PAR but are not going through any external processing. (You cannot use it with an external image processing program) For instance if you had accidentally rendered your entire animation at too high of a block setting you can write a script to export each frame, and import it back into a new animation at a lower block value. The YUV importer is extremely fast and efficient and is in fact lossless so your animation will not lose any quality in the export/re-import process. NOTE: There are no controls for file importing as the PAR automatically recognizes the type of file that it is trying to import or view. IMPORT Another new power feature of the PAR is the new 'Import' animation builder controls. Selecting the 'Import' button of the Amiga File directory will bring up a new set of controls. The new controls allow you to control how the PAR handles the way it looks at the file numbers before it brings each file into the PAR. In the past when you imported files, the PAR would step frame by frame through each of the files to be imported, and import then in order, in increments of '1'. Boat.0001, Boat.0002, Boat.0003 etc. The new controls allow you more control over the incrementing of frames. Increment: Increment allows you to control the number that the PAR adds to the previous frame number in order to calculate the next frame. For instance, normally the PAR would add '1' to the previous frame so that the next frame would be one frame greater than the previous frame. Boat.0001, Boat.0002, Boat.0003, etc.. Setting the 'Increment' number to any number other than '1' will cause the PAR to add that number to the previous frame. For instance setting the increment number to '2' will cause the Par to import every other frame. Boat.0001, Boat.0003, Boat.0005, etc.. This is used to control the effective playback speed of an animation and to make quick previews. You could create a quick preview of the animation you are working on by importing only every other frame. This would of course result in a your animation playing back twice as fast, so to restore normal 30 FPS timing, refer to the doumentation regarding 'Multiply'. Multiply: Multiply allows you to control the number of times each frame is imported. Normally the PAR imports each frame '1' time. Setting the Multiply control to any other number causes the PAR to import each frame 'x' number or times. Setting it to '2' would cause the Boat frames to be imported as Boat.0001, Boat.0001, Boat.0002, Boat.0002, Boat.0003, Boat.0003, etc.. Multiply only does one true import per frame, and then it writes the frame 'x' number of times out of its local memory so there is very little penalty in terms of time for doing a multiple import. CHART A new animation Charting function has been added. The new button is labeled 'Chart' and is found where the 'Format' button used to be, under the 'Projects' area. Chart allows you to get a graphical display of the size of each frame in the animation. (Number of blocks used per frame). This will allow you to see how efficiently your animation is being saved and to get some idea of how each frame is handled by the PAR. If you are doing live recording, you can get some feeling for which frames are near the block limit, and if it would be possible to re-record the sequence at a higher/lower block level. MAP A mapping function has been added that will give you a graphical display of how the drive is being utilized. When you choose map, the program charts the space on the disk that each file is using, starting at the left hand side, and filling up the screen towards the left. The area on the far right is the map of the still images on the drive. The currently selected file on the PAR files menu will show up as a highlighted section. Ideally you should have an unbroken 'map' from the left hand side of the screen to the last file. This would indicate that your disk is optimized and being utilized efficiently. Blank spaces in the map indicate areas of the drive that are not being utilized. If you see a large portion of the map that is blank or many smaller areas, then the drive is fragmented and needs to be optimized. Play -N- Grab In `Play N Grab' Recording, each frame is recorded whenever you manually trigger it, using the zero key on the keypad. Each grabbed frame is recorded to the end of the animation sequence. `Play N Grab' is used to do stop motion animation, where you have a camera focused on a set of objects, and the objects are manually manipulated between frames. `Play N Grab' is unique in that it is the only interactive record mode that lets you use live video as a part of the animation preview. The way it works is that it will play back a portion of the animation and then at the last frame it will switch to E/E (live video mode), then it will go back to the beginning of the animation sequence and start playing again. To use `Plan N Grab', you will first have to record the base portion of the video. Record 30 or more frames of video so that you have some video to work with. Next, set the inpoint and outpoint so that the video is playing back from frame 1 to frame 30. This will limit the preview portion of the playback (pre recorded video) to the last 30 frames. When you add more frames, the preview portion will automatically move up by one frame for each frame of video added. For instance if you have frames 1-30 the preview will play frames 1-30 then switch to live video at what would be frame 31, when you add this frame to the sequence, the preview will now play back frames 2-31 and will switch to live video at frame 32. The next step is to move to the actual recording mode. With the PAR animation that you are going to be working with selected in the FILES area, go to PREFS and select the `Play N Grab' button. Then close the PREFS window and select LOOP mode and PLAY. You should now have a looping sequence of 30 or so frames. You will see the animation sequence playback and then switch at the last frame to live video. Make sure that you are working with valid Q-Factor and Block Limits. When you are ready to add the live video to the preview sequence, press ZERO on the numeric keypad. You will now have added one more frame of animation as part of the sequence. This is an example of using the PAR to capture some stop frame animation. 1. Hook a camera up to one of the inputs on the TBC-IV. 2. Place a small object in front of the camera making sure it is visible by the camera. 3. Make sure that stable live video is coming through the PAR by selecting the E/E button on the main PAR screen. 4. Record 30 frames of video using the standard method. You should now have 30 frames of an unmoving object. 5. Set the INPOINT of the animation by selecting the vertical control bars on the left hand side of the PAR slider. 6. Open the PREFERENCES window by selecting the PREFS button from the main PAR screen, then select the `PLAY N GRAB' button. Close the PREFERENCES window. 7. Set the PAR to LOOP mode by selecting the LOOP button from the vcr control panel. 8. Select the PLAY button on the vcr controls. 9. Now move the object slightly in front of the camera, noting the object's position during the live video frame. You can see the difference between the pre recorded video and the objects new position. When you are satisfied with the objects new position, then grab the video frame by pressing the ZERO key on the numeric keypad. 10. Repeat step 9 until you finish the animation sequence. ARexx: FREE Returns the largest freespace in blocks. If you want to know the amount of space left on the drive, you can call FREE, and multiply the return value by 512 to obtain the number of bytes of freespace left on the drive. DOSSELECT This will return in standard ARexx fashion, all the files that are chosen in the Amiga Files directory. Sunrize Audio Support. Play audio and video at the same time! ------------------------------------------------------------- You can now cue the PAR from the AD516 boards SMTPE Generator. Set the time you want the PAR board to start playing in SMPTE time code by clicking on the SMPTE button in the VTR control area on the PAR software screen. Set pause mode on, then click on play. Go to the AD516 software screen and start the SMPTE generator. When the time code matches the value set in the PAR software the pause will flip off and Video will start playing.