Mapping mapping mapping...where are you ? in WO v6 ?

[MISTERK]

As the market change ('cause that's what final customers ask for)

Capable 3d and mapping softwares are  more and more used for performances,

And now working with media files made "in point of view" of the projectors,

even with the grid warp deformation of watchout or of projector become difficult and very long to setup, with very complicated mapping shows.

 

the time between setup a system and the show itself has shorten.

these days production companies rent a hall, convention center rooms, for 2 or 3 days .

1st day is setup of evrything, video, watchout etc...and rehearsals the same day, and the 2 days of show.

for long period installation watchout is perfect but most of the time it's for short or one shot performances.

 

watchout is most of the time very easy to setup and one of the most stable softwares i've ever work with.

watchout can make a 22 000 px X 1080 so easily.

i'm a watchout user since 10 years now (i remember my first shows with G4 macintosh...ol'days)

 

So what's the problem now ?

i think of several things

some of them have been already told in the forum but...

sorry for repeating.

1- to be able to see the grid mesh deformer on the display itself (should b helpfull...)

 

2- possibilty of drawing bezier masks or shapes in watchout (i had a show one month ago, with sort of organic shaped screens, and it could have been so great to have that option.in real time.

 

3- the 4 corner option was a major feature, but i had to put my show entirely in compositions and then use the 4 corner option to deform the way i want (not very simple)

maybe enhancement for that option would be great. same deformation option as the screen itself (perspective, full etc...)

 

4- the mapping "dossier" : i'm sure you already think about something for next version of watchout...

and what to do to modify an object texture, it's uv coordinates etc...to give a part of the job to the video technician, some kind of remote module where it can handle deformation.

 

5- importing a 3d object was a pain in the ass with previous versions of pandora, they have change that stuff and now u can import simple 3ds files. and then mapping medias become more efficient.

i'm not sure but the uv coordinates must be done first or you can modify it after imorting (i've played with pandora sometimes but very ugly, complicated and unfriendly interface )

 

GPU are so powerfull now, i'm sure it's possible to use that power.

 

i remain a fervent user of watchout since beginning as it is the most simple, reliable, hardware independent, system i know.

 

So what can we expect for wo 6?

 

Thanks for reading and sorry for this long list of questions...

 

Tak

 

K.

 

6- maybe a way to work with two master computer on the same show, to gain time for big performances (and let us sleep one hour or two hahahha)

[ARTABASE]

Agree with him

[matkeane]

I agree with a lot of what you say - video mapping is an increasingly common request and it's starting to feel like the Watchout deformation tools are lagging behind some of the other mapping tools available, but I'm sure Dataton is aware of this.

 

A quick tip for your point 1 - While I agree it would be nice to be able to do it automatically, I often import a grid image and overlay it in the display while warping. The number of columns/rows depends on the display resolution, but there aren't that many different combinations, and now that I have prepared a folder of grid images, it makes it easier to work out which control point to grab.

[MISTERK]

oh and i forgot

 

7 - selection before the locator

8 - selection of all medias and cue on one layer

9 - duplication of compositions

10 - in-time for compositions

11 - better managment of stage tiers, there's no way to destroy or rearrange tiers.

12 - shortcut and/or keystroke for most common tween tracks keyframing (opacity, position etc...)

to get rid off as possible as it can of mouse (...slow programming)

13 - to be able to choose a part of a media or the whole media itself for deformation (with an adjustable warpgrid)

14 - same for display itself

 

and so on....

[makkot]

I have been using watchout since year 2000 and in the last 2 years i have been frequently asked to jump on Pandora due to mapping and interaction easy of use.

 

I really hope that Watchout 6 will improve both (mapping and interaction) because i really prefere it over P.box and would love to keep using it without approaching the german software.

[nikolai]

yes!

And to optionally view ALL tweaks realtime on the outputs. So we don't have to hit ctrl+d 10 000 times each day.

In generall I would like to know more about where Dataton is planning on taking WO in the future.

[Thomas Leong]

A suggestion:

Perhaps if WO can be coded such that with, for example, CTRL+arrow key = CTRL+D in real time. This way geometric grid adjustments can be seen live, yet not changing the traditional way that updates to Displays are done for other media and changes to the Timeline with CTRL+D.

 

Thomas Leong

[makkot]

yes!

And to optionally view ALL tweaks realtime on the outputs. So we don't have to hit ctrl+d 10 000 times each day.

In generall I would like to know more about where Dataton is planning on taking WO in the future.

 

The future of watchout is an interesting point.

I personally dont agree with the company about the recent focus on the new Watchpax. I think other competitors are already on the right way for such job. 

I hope that watchout will keep on building his own skills having in mind where the competitors are going. They are no more the only good choice on the market. Hope they speed up the leadership process in all the shows categories.

Thats my wish.

[ARTABASE]

Absolutely agree with misterK