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Scale Preset


Sedat

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Hi,

 

Is it possible to create a scale preset at Watchout and apply it to a media file ? Then when you need to change the size of all media files after you finished your programming with lots of different media and timelines, just change the scale preset and this will be applied to all media scalings ?

 

Thanks.

 

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Not clear what you are trying to accomplish here,

but I believe you can accomplish what you are after by deselecting

“Width and Height same as Display Resolution”

You can then scale the content on the stage up or down as needed for the projector.

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If you meant, can you set up all the media clips with different sizes and then change them all to be slightly bigger or smaller without changing each and every scale, then yes, you can do that.

 

First you need to add a Generic Input, and call it something like 'MasterScale'. Then you need to enable 'allow external control of scale, etc' in the options of your media cues. Now set your scale as desired for each clip, and then click on the little Fx icon for the scale tween track and change the values to 'TweenValue * MasterScale'.

 

Now, with the Generic Input set to 1, your cues will all be at the scale you set. If you set the Inout to 0.5 they will all be at 50% of the scale you set on them, for example. Hope that helps.

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JFK,

 

Let me explain what I try to accomplish. Here is the scenario: I have 20 videos for my show, I have 100 tasks, I use these 20 video in different tasks but all with the same resolution. I have a screen 10mx4m. I use scale tween and fit my videos to my screen. Somehow the client changed the screen size to 9.8mx4m. So in that case I have to go to the scale of all of the videos at all the tasks and rescale them one by one. If I had a chance to use a scale preset (like a media server) and use the scale preset for all my 20 videos, then I could just go to this scale preset and change the value to the new size then automatically all of the videos could be rescaled which I used that preset.

Is that clear now ?  

 

Similar to having presets on lighting desks. Think that you have a huge cue list. You are using a color preset (which you stored before, for example amber color) in your 1.000 cues. Then the director comes and tell you he doesn't like amber, he wants red. Then you don't go to your 1.000 cues and change the amber to red one by one. You only update your amber color preset with red. Then all of your cues which use that preset becomes red. 

 

Best regards.

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If you meant, can you set up all the media clips with different sizes and then change them all to be slightly bigger or smaller without changing each and every scale, then yes, you can do that.

 

First you need to add a Generic Input, and call it something like 'MasterScale'. Then you need to enable 'allow external control of scale, etc' in the options of your media cues. Now set your scale as desired for each clip, and then click on the little Fx icon for the scale tween track and change the values to 'TweenValue * MasterScale'.

 

Now, with the Generic Input set to 1, your cues will all be at the scale you set. If you set the Inout to 0.5 they will all be at 50% of the scale you set on them, for example. Hope that helps.

 

That would certainly work. You might want to range and offset the scaling a bit,

so you can go from say 70% to 200% or some such, depending on the actual needs.

An external control device to change the input value is not a requirement,

there is a trick that allows you to set the Master Scale input value with a single cue at the start of the show,

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Changing the screen size does not need to change the scale if you maintain aspect ratio.

 

Changing the screen aspect ratio would only need to change scale

if you choose to distort every video in the show to change their aspect ratio accordingly.

And the input / live tween trick should address that for you I guess.

 

If it were me, I would maintain apsect ratio by redcuing both height and width proportionately

(undershooting one dimension if necessary).

 

But I am from a generation that views any asymmetrical scaling as a mistake.

Prior to the digital world we would never allow this, and over the many years

I have become acutely sensitive to this.

 

And I guess am in the minority in that respect.

(Hotel televisions set to asymmetrically scale to fill the screen drive me nuts,

I change the settings to maintain the aspect ratio when I can.

Some hotel TVs do not allow aspect ratio changes,

and that forced "hillbilly high def" drives me nuts.)

 

ymmv

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I still do not understand, sorry.

WATCHOUT is agnostic about the final screen size, it functions with pixels.

It is still the same number of pixels, the size of the pixels will change, but the pixel count is a constant.

Therefore, changing the screen size does not require a change in the content scaling.

Changing the screen size changes the magnification - changes the resulting image size, but that is what you would expect.

So I still do not understand what you are trying to accomplish.

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It sounds like Sedat may have run into a situation where the overall projection area has changed. This happened to me recently when a convention centre decided to replace the video screen between the tech pre-visit and the event without telling anybody. And of course the new one wasn't the same size or even ratio, so my dual displays no longer fit the screen. As it happens, that project was quite simple and so, after changing the softedge, scaling the media by hand was a minor hassle.

 

The project I was working on yesterday had nearly 200 video clips that needed to fill the screen vertically, even if only 950 pixels of the 1080 are actually visible once the scenery was finally installed around the monitors. That's when I decided to use the input for the scaling - there's only so much copy-pasting I can bear to do! I like the idea of using an local output to set the input used for scaling though - I was just doing it by hand in the interface, but JFK's way sounds safer. Can you set inputs in the autostart file, by the way?

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...  Can you set inputs in the autostart file, by the way?

 

Yes you can.

 

As I mentioned earlier, you might want to range the scale factor.

Instead of  'TweenValue * MasterScale'

you can range the scale, so that the static scaling factor covers both up and down scaling.

 

To achieve an adjustment range of 0 to 4x,

TweenValue * (MasterScale*4)

would provide a range from 0 to 4x and

the static input MasterScale value .25 would equal no scaling.

So with the modified formula, the command to add to your autostart.txt file would be:

setInput "MasterScale" 0.25

(If this is the last command line in your file,

be sure to leave a blank line after it, or it will not execute.)

 

If you do not want to change existing tween formulas,

for your example formula, to achieve no scale, you would send.

setInput "MasterScale" 1

 

There are considerations, restrictions

that go with using live tweens in this way.

When the pixels move (and they do with scaling),

you must set the media's properties in

the media window listing to allow More Effects and Capabilities

This will restrict maximum media size to 4K x 4K in WO5 (8K x 8K in WO6).

This setting causes WATCHOUT to always load the entire image,

  even when only part of it is visible.

The normal way is to load only the visible area.

I guess with modern computers, you will not likely see much of an issue.

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These are the discussions I truly enjoy on the forum.

 

2 thoughts.

 

1- I would love some sort of master list I could refer to about expressions. I know they exist, but since I've spent no time with them, I don't incorporate them into my workflow.

 

2- In relation to presets from a lighting perspective. In order for lighting presets or color palettes to be useful, you have to create them first. I don't believe task lists are like palettes, they are like individual cue lists. I would put all my media into compositions (palettes), THEN put those compositions into tasks. I would have to change 20 compositions, but not 100 tasks. Yes, I don't want to have to change 20 comps or color palettes either, but between that and 100 tasks........

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... 1- I would love some sort of master list I could refer to about expressions. I know they exist, but since I've spent no time with them, I don't incorporate them into my workflow.

 

There is a EXPRESSION section in the User Guide, page 212  - Chapter 12  - Tasks and Expressions.

There is a List of Operators table on page 215.

 

There is an update to expressions in Dataton WATCHOUT™ version 5.5.x Release Notes

 

Conditional expressions are now supported in trigger conditions and tween expressions. This allows you to select one of two possible values depending on a condition. The expression a ? b : c yields b if a is true, otherwise it yields c. This can be used to limit the range of a calculation. For example, assume you have an input that goes from 0 to 100, but you want to constrain it to 0…50 in a tween expression, use the formula in

 

--------------

The MasterScale value used above is first defined in the Input Window as a generic input.

 

BTW The setInput command is usable with all input types - DMX (ArtNet), MIDI or generic.

You can use it in autostart.txt to define startup / default values for DMX or MIDI inputs.

WATCHOUT will execute the most recent change received from either live or external command.

So the startup setInput value will be overridden as soon as the live signal comes online.

 

While running, when setInput is sent to an input in a cluster with live MIDI and/or live DMX,

the last received change is executed, regardless of source - live or IP command.

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