Video Input not working in 11.7 - now FIXED in 11.7.2 Topic is solved

[Jeremy Richard]

I remember there was a list of specific Canon DSLR models that were compatible with TVPaint (on Windows-only) if you used the TVPaint Canon Video Plug-In.

It seems that TVPaint recognises a Canon DSLR if used via the EOS Webcam utility.

I only tested it on Windows and with one DSLR but Mac and Linux version of the utility are available.

It doesn't seem to capture at the DSLR's native resolution but the one of the Live view.

And the Settings button doesn't show anything.

[D.T. Nethery]

I remember there was a list of specific Canon DSLR models that were compatible with TVPaint (on Windows-only) if you used the TVPaint Canon Video Plug-In.

It seems that TVPaint recognises a Canon DSLR if used via the EOS Webcam utility.

VideoInput-EOSWebcamUtilityPro.jpg

I only tested it on Windows and with one DSLR but Mac and Linux version of the utility are available.

It doesn't seem to capture at the DSLR's native resolution but the one of the Live view.

And the Settings button doesn't show anything.

Hey, that's good to know. Thank you !

TVPaint Developer's, if you have access to a Canon EOS camera I hope you will download the Canon Webcam Utility (for Mac, and for Linux) to confirm that it works to capture frames in TVPaint on Mac and Linux, as well as Windows , which Jeremy Richard has already confirmed.

https://www.usa.canon.com/cameras/eos-webcam-utility

Canon_EOS_Utility_for_Frame_Capture.png (76.89 KiB) Viewed 7143 times

It doesn't seem to capture at the DSLR's native resolution but the one of the Live view.

What's the resolution on the Live View ?

I think the workaround would be to animate using the Live View feed from the Canon DSLR (which will let you use Onion Skinning in TVPaint to check the spacing when animating objects or puppets), but each frame is also being captured to the Canon's memory card, so I think afterwards it would be possible to download the original high-res. images into a folder on the user's computer, then load those high-res. images into a new layer in the TVPaint project , thereby replacing the lower-res. Live View images with the high-res. images.

[Matthieu]

Hello!

We currently don't have any Canon's left at the office, so we unfortunately can't try it out for the time being ...
Regarding the macOS video input problem: it will be fixed in a future update, it is indeed a major inconvenience.

[D.T. Nethery]

Hello!

We currently don't have any Canon's left at the office, so we unfortunately can't try it out for the time being ...
Regarding the macOS video input problem: it will be fixed in a future update, it is indeed a major inconvenience.

Well, perhaps a TVPaint user here on the forum who has a Canon EOS camera could download the Canon EOS Utility to test it , but I expect it won't be testable on the Mac version of TVPaint until the problem with Video Input on MacOs is fixed. (I'll be glad just to get my webcam working again with TVPaint! But if possible I'll try to borrow a compatible Canon EOS camera to test it with the the Canon EOS Utility.)

[Jeremy Richard]

What's the resolution on the Live View ?

Well, in Dragonframe the video assist is 1056x704 but in TVPaint the only option I have is 1280x720 (which is a video format). I guess the utility fits whatever feed it receives into the dimension that a webcam would offer. It does means that black lines on either side are present in the captured images, as the DSLR's image format is not a 16/9 format.

I was able to try the utility on a macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), and it seems to be working.

Few things about it though:

• the Settings button is greyed out, and I can't see what is the actual framesize of the captured image (as it automatically fits TVPaint's project size once captured)
• and I needed to download the utility from this link for EOS Webcam Utility 1.0 or this second link for EOS Webcam Utility 1.1, instead of the link I first mentioned as it doesn't actually offer you the Webcam utility (not at least for the camera models I checked).

Also, I spoke too fast regarding Linux as Canon doesn't offer the utlilty for Linux distributions.

As a side note, on LinuxMint 21.1 Vera, for Dragonframe to recognise my camera, I had to install libsdl2.

[D.T. Nethery]

Here is another clue that may help with fixing the Video Input for Mac version of TVPaint 11.7 .

There is a free animation app I've used for students called TupiTube. TupiTube previously had video camera capture function to allow for capturing pencil on paper drawings or stop motion puppet animation. It stopped working because of new MacOS security policy (much the same as TVPaint's Video Input has stopped working)

The developer of TupiTube does the development work on the app on a part-time volunteer basis, so it took him a while to find the solution. But he seems to have found the solution. This is what he wrote to me:

"The problem is when an app like TupiTube tries to access privacy-sensitive data (such as access to user's Camera) without a proper usage description in the info.plist. The app's Info.plist must contain an NSCameraUsageDescription key with a string value explaining to the user how the app uses this data. Then it will allow the user to click OK to access the camera. Here is a possible fix in the configuration file of the package: https://github.com/xtingray/tupitube.de ... Info.plist , but I don't have any way to test it because my only Mac computer is in the shop for repairs."

However , he released a beta version with the NSCameraUsageDescription key with a string value included as part of the app's info.plist. It works. You can download it here:https://www.tupitube.com/index.php?r=cu ... view&id=31 It is version 0.2.20 for Mac.

The code he included in the info.plist can be seen here: https://github.com/xtingray/tupitube.de ... Info.plist , as an example of what needs to be included in the info.plist so that the camera can be accessed. Perhaps this will provide a path to fixing the problem with TVPaint Video Input if a similar configuration is included in the TVPaint info.plist ?


Select the Camera capture mode and select camera -

Give permission to app to use Camera -

Capture frames -

.

[Matthieu]

Thank you for this information: it will certainly be useful to fix this issue.

We have updated our internal bug tracker with it so the developer team can investigate things further

[D.T. Nethery]

Hello, TVPaint Developers -

I'm checking back again to see if there has been any progress on fixing the Video Input for MacOS users of TVPaint and if there is an ETA for when the fixed version will be rolled out?

This came up again recently when I was training someone to use TVPaint. She is drawing her animation on paper and would like to capture line tests directly into TVPaint's timeline using the Video-In feature. (later she plans to do clean-up and coloring on new layers with the tools in TVPaint, but prefers to do the rough animation on paper). I have to explain that Video Input has been broken on MacOS version for four years since MacOS Catalina and it only works on MacOS Mojave or older.

(by the way, this is why it took me so long to notice the problem... I was on MacOS Mojave for a long time , before I finally updated my computer in 2022 and jumped to MacOS Monterey ... then I notice the Video-Input no longer works. But it has been an issue since MacOS Catalina as far as I can tell from my research. In 2019 was when the online hand-drawn animation classes I teach switched to using Harmony instead of TVPaint (not my choice) and the stop-motion classes switched to using Dragonframe, whereas previously we had used TVPaint for both hand drawn and stop motion animation classes , so I would certainly have noticed the Video-Input problem sooner if I was still using TVPaint in the online classes because students would have been complaining.)


As it is now I have to recommend to her that for shooting line tests she should use Tahoma2D (a version of OpenToonz), then output a .mov and import the .mov to TVPaint if she wants to work over the drawings in TVPaint ... or else shoot the drawings with a digital camera or use a scanner, then import the scanned image sequence into TVPaint. This works fine , but it is an extra step and sometimes it is nice to have a quick and convenient way to capture a pencil test directly into TVPaint's timeline using a webcam on a downshooter (copy stand) . Also, if TVPaint could be updated to take advantage of the current SDKs available from Canon and Nikon , then TVPaint could be a serious option for stop-motion frame capture. (this may need to wait for TVPaint 12, but I hope it is being considered for version 12)

[Dean]

Hello David, webcam compatibility on MacOS is part of the 11.7.2 backlog and we have a new lead on how to improve it! It is still a high priority target but those OS updates don't always break the same things.

[D.T. Nethery]

As of today, Dec. 05, 2023, with the release of version 11.7.2 , Video Input is working again for the MacOS version of TVPaint. I am marking this issue as Solved. (green check mark).

I am still hopeful to see more development of the Video Input mode , so that it can connect to DSLR cameras. (or at least make use of things like Canon's EOS Webcam Utility Pro https://www.usa.canon.com/cameras/eos-webcam-utility .

[D.T. Nethery]

One thing I'm using the newly restored Video Input mode for is to capture various bits of animation (on paper) that I've saved over the years. (my scanner is acting a bit wonky these days, so until I can afford to replace it with a new scanner, it's really convenient to be able to shoot pencil drawings with my Logitech C-930 HD webcam.

In some cases if it's just one layer of animation over a BG the layer with the animation can simply be put in Multiply blend mode so the BG can show through from underneath.

Or for more control over the image , use Scan Cleaner Color FX (maybe in combination with Histogram or another FX in the stack to tweak the image quality) so the drawings are turned transparent to allow the BG to show through from underneath.