camera moves and import high rez BG's

[JoeMurray]

Hello, I have a scene that is a vertical camera move, so I made a vertical bg. When I import it as PSD it makes a new clip. Can I import it as photoshop into my existing clip with animation on it? When I import a jpeg, it looks low rez when I get to the end of the pan/truck in. Also, it imports on it's side as a horizontal image. Sorry, first time making a film with this software. Lots of learning here.

[JoeMurray]

Also, If I have animated it already with "under camera " camera move on a rough bg, How do I size that existing animation to fit the camera move?

[D.T. Nethery]

Hello, I have a scene that is a vertical camera move, so I made a vertical bg. When I import it as PSD it makes a new clip. Can I import it as photoshop into my existing clip with animation on it? When I import a jpeg, it looks low rez when I get to the end of the pan/truck in. Also, it imports on it's side as a horizontal image. Sorry, first time making a film with this software. Lots of learning here.

Do you need the vertical background to be in layers (like in Photoshop) or can it be a single layer ? The reason I ask is that a Photoshop file will always come in as a new project.
You can manage this by bringing each layer into the existing animation project by using the Keyframer tool in the FX Stack (with your other project that was created by the Photoshop file as the Source in the KeyFramer) With the Keyframer import each layer one at a time (hide the other layers as you do this) to it's own layer in your animation project.

However if you made a duplicate of your BG in Photoshop ,then flattened the image and export it as a PNG (lossless), you can import the PNG into your existing clip as a layer.

Also, it imports on it's side as a horizontal image.

In the import window you can change the orientation to make it vertical again.


Use ROTATION to reorient the BG from horizontal to vertical -

Then after you've imported the BG into your vertically oriented scene, change the camera parameters to to 1920 x 1080 (or whatever aspect ratio you are using)
and set your camera move.


Adjust camera paremeters to 1920 x 1080 (or whatever output size you are using)

TVPaint_adjust camera parameters.png (87.09 KiB) Viewed 3615 times

Set the camera move:

When I import a jpeg, it looks low rez when I get to the end of the pan/truck in

How far are you trucking-in on it ? We are both "old timers" so if we imagine it in traditional animation terms , is it a truck-in from a 12 field to a 4 field or more like a truck-in from 12 field to a 10 field ? Keep in mind that with any kind of rastar art files (like Photoshop or TVPaint) if you enlarge the pixels too much the image will start to look noticeably soft. A short distance (like a truck-in from "12 Field" to "10 Field" or even "9 Field" is probably not going to be noticeably soft, but if it's equivalent to a long truck-in like "12 Field" to "5 Field" or "4 Field" , then the image will go blurry unless the original artwork is overscaled to begin with. Truck-in equivalent of 12 Field to 4 Field is 3 times magnification, so your original artwork needs to be 3x larger pixel resolution than your intended output resolution. Let's say your output is 1920 x 1080 : the rule is that the tightest field must be equivalent to the output of 1920 x 1080 (or whatever it may be). So in our imagined truck-in from "12 Field" to "4 Field" , the 4 Field camera field must be 1920 x 1080. For a 1920 x 1080 scene trucking-in from the equivalent of 12 Field to 4 Field (3x) then the original artwork needs to be at 5760 x 3240 resolution to avoid losing any image sharpness over the duration of the truck-in.

[slowtiger]

If I combine pan and zoom in I often paint just the zoomed part in high resolution and keep the rest in low res. This means I have 2 BGs which move together.

[D.T. Nethery]

If I combine pan and zoom in I often paint just the zoomed part in high resolution and keep the rest in low res. This means I have 2 BGs which move together.

That's a clever idea. How do you keep them coordinated in terms of size/registration ?

[slowtiger]

Firstly, I use a simple 1:2 or 1:3 or 1:4 size relation. I try to seperate them at regions where it doesn't need to be exact, and use a very fuzzy, hand-painted edge. Then I align them by eye. Or, if the zoomed-in part is enclosed by a line, this line will be its border.

[JoeMurray]

Thank you. I'm gonna try this. As far as my other question. It was bad planning on my part to animate with a scratch camera move. Is there a quick way to adjust existing animation in full field to the camera move field?

Yes, I'm sorry for the antiquated terminology. I've been making films for a while, and now just on my own digital with new software.

[D.T. Nethery]

Thank you. I'm gonna try this. As far as my other question. It was bad planning on my part to animate with a scratch camera move. Is there a quick way to adjust existing animation in full field to the camera move field?

Yes, I'm sorry for the antiquated terminology. I've been making films for a while, and now just on my own digital with new software.

Don't worry about the "antiquated" terminology. I still think in terms of camera "fields" . (started in the industry in 1984).

Is there a quick way to adjust existing animation in full field to the camera move field?

Let me be sure I understand the situation: You have animation that was animated at full field ("12 Field") but now you want to resize the animation to fit inside a tighter camera field ?


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Did you find the Field Guide in TVPaint yet ? It's in the Guidelines .

TVPaint_Field_Guide.png (62.42 KiB) Viewed 3545 times

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[JoeMurray]

Thank you!

[D.T. Nethery]

I'm still trying to visualize what you're trying to do with adjusting the existing animation to the camera move fielding ? Do the drawings need to be resized ? (try the KeyFramer tool in the FX stack) Or is it that the camera fielding is not keeping the animation centered in the composition ? In the latter case, just re-adjust the camera move with the Camera Time Profile editor.

TVPaint Camera Time Profile Curve.png (88.54 KiB) Viewed 3515 times

Or reset the camera and start over by recreating the camera move.

TVPaint_Reset_Camera_View.png (26.02 KiB) Viewed 3466 times

[JoeMurray]

I have a question that I'm trying to have answered by TVpaint contacts, but maybe I can get the answer sooner. Because I think it's a simple yes or no.

I have TVpaint pro 11. If I am exporting clips for interns to help me paint my film, is it a problem if they have a standard edition or educational edition of TVpaint. Will they still be able to color on a file?

[Dean]

Hello Joe, it seems that you didn"t receive my email response, this was its content:

Hello Joe,

There are no "Educational licenses" per se, they are the very same as the usual TVPaint licenses, students just get them for a cheaper price.

Project files made in Professional Edition TVPaint can be opened on Standard, but content made using feature exclusive to Pro (such as CTG layers) won't appear in Standard and will be erased if one saves

modifications on the project inside Standard.


Kind regards,

[JoeMurray]

Ah thank you. No I didn't receive it. So all of the brushes and such are the same, etc. I'm not sure what CTG layers are, but that probably means I don't use them.

[D.T. Nethery]

I have a question that I'm trying to have answered by TVpaint contacts, but maybe I can get the answer sooner. Because I think it's a simple yes or no.

I have TVpaint pro 11. If I am exporting clips for interns to help me paint my film, is it a problem if they have a standard edition or educational edition of TVpaint. Will they still be able to color on a file?

If your file in TVPaint Pro contains only the line art layers of the animation and you send the file to an intern to color it in TVPaint Standard using the standard color fill tools (paintbucket or filled stroke/filled rectangle) there is no problem at at all.

The only conflict could be if you are using the Color & Texture Generator (CTG) layers for coloring in your TVPaint 11 PRO edition. When the interns using TVPaint Standard edition open your files containing CTG layers they will not see the CTG color layers in their standard edition because CTG is a Pro-only feature. They can still open the file on their end in TVPaint Standard, but the CTG color layer will not be visible to them in TVPaint Standard edition.

So, for example, if you've done some color key frames using the CTG method of coloring , when the file is opened in TVPaint Standard Edition the CTG color layers won't be visible ... or maybe if you've colored just the main character using the CTG layer in TVPaint Pro , but someone else will do the coloring for the secondary/background characters in TVPaint Standard edition , they won't see the CTG layer for the main character when they open the file in TVPaint Standard. However , they would be able to do the coloring on the secondary/background characters using the standard flood fill tools (paintbucket or filled stroke/filled rectangle) and send it back to you, then when you re-open the file in TVPaint Pro you will see your previously created CTG layer(s) , in addition to the new color layers that your interns did on separate layers using the paintbucket fill tool. When you export this scene from your TVPaint Pro to a .mov file there will be no visible difference between the two types of color layers. The two different types of color layers (CTG and traditional Paintbucket) are compatible within TVPaint Pro, it's just that users of TVPaint Standard can't see a CTG layer when they open the file in TVPaint Standard because CTG is available in Pro only.


Here's something to keep in mind: If you've already done some color keys on certain layers using CTG or if you've colored an entire layer using CTG , but your interns will be coloring other layers in the scene using the standard color fill tools, before you send them the file you can duplicate your CTG layer , then right-click on the duplicate CTG layer and select Make Anim from the menu. This converts the duplicate CTG layer to a regular Anim Layer. This will be visible to the intern using TVPaint Standard.

TVPaint_Convert_CTG_to_Anim.png (22.13 KiB) Viewed 3405 times

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[D.T. Nethery]

Project files made in Professional Edition TVPaint can be opened on Standard, but content made using feature exclusive to Pro (such as CTG layers) won't appear in Standard and will be erased if one saves modifications on the project inside Standard.

Oh, that's interesting. I did not know that. Is that new ?

So, am I understanding you correctly: if I have CTG layer(s) in my TVPaint Pro file and I send the file to someone who is using TVPaint Standard to make additions to the scene , the CTG layers are not visible to them, but if they make any modification to the project and save it then that will erase the CTG layers ?!