Tutorials

[zebragal]

It was very disappointing to learn that the Mirage QuickTime tutorials I was referred to on this forum had no voice. Bauhaus tutorials had audio. So, I am wondering about voiceovers for TVPaint programs?

Personally, I would rather have a tutorial with the voice in French or German, rather than "no voice. The tutorials move along so fast, I cannot keep up visually. "It would be a great way to learn the language. I think that over time, this would be a good thing if you cannot offer tutorials in English. A lot of the English language originates from French and German. Personally,I think learning French would be easier. (No offense to mien Deutsch kinder.) And, trying to read instructions while watching a video tutorial . . . nien, nada, noway. There are those out there that already know the deeper levels of animation programs and will jump into TVPaint, fitting right in. However, there are those of us that need not only the basics but, info on how to use the deeper levels. Sample projects work well. I'd like to know what your plans are for tutorials with audio prior to purchasing. Thank you

[guitartist]

Regarding the playback speed of the tutorials, I agree . . . they zip right along. Have you tried setting the playback in Quicktime to half speed? It makes them a lot easier to watch and you can save the setting. I have Quicktime Pro so I'm not 100% sure that you can do this in standard QT.

Ron

[zebragal]

Yes, I can adjust the speed. Nothing like audio with video. I'd gladly settle for a voice in French. I think I could figure out what it is saying. "Brush, tool, layer, etc." What do you think?
Thanks for the playback speed tip.
exxona

[Fabrice]

Dear Zebragal,

Have you tried the excellent Cresshead tutorials on youtube ?

[zebragal]

Thank you for the response Fabrice. I went to the Cresshead tutorials. They were disappointing. Mostly advanced and Lightwave or TVP. There was a very cool MIrage demo by an animator but, that was a demo, not a tutorial. This forum is great to have and learn from other members, however, I must say that when purchasing software as complex as TVPaint, I want to know how well the manufacturer will support it with tutorials, prior to purchase. I am at a level in Mirage whereby I am ready for beginning intermediate tutorials. I am kind of "stuck." Spinning my wheels so to speak. Why would I want to upgrade when I haven't learned what I need to know with MIrage yet?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Why would I want to upgrade when I haven't learned what I need to know with MIrage yet?

Why have so many upgraded and are busy at work with TVPA without the tutorials? Tutorials are only one way to learn software intricacies; I prefer trial and error, experimentation, failure and advancements. There's a lot of joy that comes from diving into cold water; do you have a deadline? Are you preparing for a test?

[slowtiger]

(If a program is so hard to grasp that only with a step-by-step tutorial I'm able to achieve small things, then it's not a good program.)

One of the best manuals I ever used was the one for Freehand 4.0. It not only listed every possible function (as all manuals do), but it had a bunch of everyday problems and how to solve it in that program, very concise, with good illustrations. It even listed the problems without cryptic wording!

My way of learning was always to play around with the program, having the manual open to get the first steps and basic consepts right. Then I worked with it, and when I came to a problem I hadn't encountered yet I took another look in the manual. No need to read the whole thing. There's whole regions in Photoshop I haven't touched in a decade, because I never needed them.

[idragosani]

(If a program is so hard to grasp that only with a step-by-step tutorial I'm able to achieve small things, then it's not a good program.)

One of the best manuals I ever used was the one for Freehand 4.0. It not only listed every possible function (as all manuals do), but it had a bunch of everyday problems and how to solve it in that program, very concise, with good illustrations. It even listed the problems without cryptic wording!

My way of learning was always to play around with the program, having the manual open to get the first steps and basic consepts right. Then I worked with it, and when I came to a problem I hadn't encountered yet I took another look in the manual. No need to read the whole thing. There's whole regions in Photoshop I haven't touched in a decade, because I never needed them.

I think what we need isn't so much a new set of tutorials but a cookbook -- kind of like a more in depth FAQ kind of thing, like 'How do I create an animation on twos' or 'How do I create a pan', 'how do I do lip-synched animation if I have an audio file' -- real world solutions for real problems. That would be an extremely useful thing, and doesn't even need to be done as videos, but as step-by-step recipes.

[slowtiger]

I think what we need isn't so much a new set of tutorials but a cookbook -- kind of like a more in depth FAQ kind of thing, like 'How do I create an animation on twos' or 'How do I create a pan', 'how do I do lip-synched animation if I have an audio file' -- real world solutions for real problems. That would be an extremely useful thing, and doesn't even need to be done as videos, but as step-by-step recipes.

Exactly.

[zebragal]

"Yes" to last two posts.

[CreativeSoul]

I'm new to using "Mirage" and want to find a tutorial on Rotoscoping with the software. Can someone explain the process or direct me to a great tutorial?

Thanks,
CreativeSoul

[Mandalaholic]

I would have never purchased Mirage if they did not have all the tutes on their website, and their video introductions. I would have been far too intimidated. There was also an incredible amount of support in the forums, and everyone there were extremely generous with their help. What was that guys name... hmmmm Fanany?.... (or something like that) (I think he stuck his head in a bowl), he was very helpful when I had sooooo much trouble with my export settings. I can't really imagine how Paul ever found the time to finish his film, considering all of the time he spend helping others in those forums. I doubt if TVP is really all that intimidating for basic line drawing, shading, panning and zooming. Yet when you get into more of the detailed tasks, like particle modifying, pixel tracking, rotoscoping, and a lot of the other goodies in the stack, things can be quite intimidating. I remember one evening I spent hours just trying to figure out how to create one fireworks burst from the fx stack.
I've just decided to take a little dive into "Blender". I probably wouldn't if it wasn't free, because one look at that interface and all of the options, buttons, settings and doodads would freak me out......but there are tons of tutorials for that program on line.
I somehow imagine that a good set of narrated video tutorials and tips would really help to drive sales for TVP program.

[Peter Wassink]

I'm new to using "Mirage" and want to find a tutorial on Rotoscoping with the software. Can someone explain the process or direct me to a great tutorial?

Thanks,
CreativeSoul

Rotoscoping in TVP is technically quite a simple proces.

you open a new project with the desired settings (pal or HD or NTSC etc...)
then open the video file you want to use as your reference (in the import panel make sure "preload" is not checked, this prevents having the videofile in memory and makes working smoother)
choose "layer" as your import option (not project or brush)
create an empty animlayer on top of the animlayer with the imported video.
basicly thats all!
now you can start rotoscoping.

to save yorself work you could work on doubles
to set up the animlayer for this, the easiest way would be to use the instance panel.
you can find it in "content sharing" on this forum

[greeble]

G'day !
Does anyone know a good tutorial for pixel tracking, I am compositing a two elements in TVP/mirage, hand held video and motion tracked animation from maya which worked pretty well considering the video I had. Unfortunately there a little wobble here and there, so I thought TVP's tracking would iron it out during the comp.
Unfortunately I haven't used TVP for a few months and I've reverted to newbie status when it comes to the FX stack (it's pretty out there I think, the programmers should ease off on the disco biscuits).
Anyway, I'm a bit lost and would appreciate any pointers.

[slowtiger]

Pixeltracking is covered good enough in the manual, even I was able to chew my way through. Give it a try.

The general workflow is like this: first you use the pixel tracker (any flavour of it) to create a curve track, which is just a bunch of keyframes of positions. Don't forget to save this! After this you apply this very curve to an element you want to follow the curve, in your case the whole video image.