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lucin

Q: Clips in Views disappearing?

I'm experimenting with making a multi-screen project which is comprised of four anamorphic 720x480 clips that right now for a test are each 99 frames long. The length at this point is arbitrary, I'm just trying to figure out how to do this.

After much struggling since I'm a newbie to Shake I created four Viewer windows each being 720x480 in size. Then I imported four different clips for each Viewer.

At this point I wanted to try to transform each clip to some extent using transform nodes such as Scale, flip, but there are things happening that I don't understand even though I'm sure that there's a simple solution.

I want each Viewer to have their own clip no duplicates, but I'm having trouble getting the clips to stay the same because if I select a node with a clip then the Viewer that's selected will change to that node. It's hard to explain, but I'm wondering how to best select the Viewers individually and apply the appropriate nodes from the node view?

Another thing that's happening is sometimes the clip within a Viewer will vanish and then I have to make a new Viewer and re-import the clip for that Viewer.

I hope this isn't too confusing. I'm trying to read how best to use multiple Viewers and haven't found solutions for these questions.

I Mac G5, Intel 24" IMac, 3.0 gigahertz, Mac OS X (10.5.6), own FC Studio

Posted on May 3, 2010 9:08 PM

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Q: Clips in Views disappearing?

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  • by stuckfootage,Helpful

    stuckfootage stuckfootage May 4, 2010 3:29 PM in response to lucin
    Level 4 (3,040 points)
    May 4, 2010 3:29 PM in response to lucin
    I think you'll have much more fun making one 1440x960 Viewer
    attached to your Last Node, just look at it while you're working.
    That way you can really make sure everything "stacks up".

    After the Last Node MegaViewer you can split off 4 Viewports
    to 4 FileOuts for your 4 DVD Quicktimes.

    You can put Scales between the the Viewports and the FileOuts
    to adjust for Projectors cutting off the edges.
  • by lucin,

    lucin lucin May 4, 2010 4:20 PM in response to stuckfootage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 4, 2010 4:20 PM in response to stuckfootage
    Wouldn't the size be for four 720x480 outputs: 2880x1920=the megaViewer? not what you're saying here: 1440x960?

    I did try to make what you call a megaViewer, but I couldn't figure out how to partition for the four different Views/screens to 720x480 and to crop in order to output. Sorry, but again, I'm new to Shake.

    And, I don't understand what this means:
    _+After the Last Node MegaViewer you can split off 4 Viewports+_
    _+to 4 FileOuts for your 4 DVD Quickti+mes._

    After the last Node MegaViewer? I have no idea what you mean here.

    Or the next:
    _You can put Scales between the the Viewports and the FileOuts_
    _to adjust for Projectors cutting off the edges._

    Sorry, but I'm a newbie and I really don't get how to do what you're saying. I'll try this and see if I can figure it out, but if you have the time maybe you could please explain a bit more. I'd be very thankful.
  • by stuckfootage,Helpful

    stuckfootage stuckfootage May 4, 2010 10:48 PM in response to lucin
    Level 4 (3,040 points)
    May 4, 2010 10:48 PM in response to lucin
    lucin wrote:
    Wouldn't the size be for four 720x480 outputs: 2880x1920=the megaViewer? not what you're saying here: 1440x960?


    2x2=4. So if you double the height and double the width, you get an image that's four times as big.

    When I said Last Node, I meant whatever node is at the bottom of your tree before you
    would put a FileOut. It might be a big Multilayer, or a little color tweak, whatever.
    The Last Node before you slice it up into 4 streams. That's where you want to
    look with your Viewer.

    Once you're happy with the way the Big Picture looks, chop it up into your 4 smaller pictures.
    Try using 4 Viewports or 4 Crops and tweak them until you get the big image perfectly sliced up.
    Once you do that, you just add 4 Fileouts.


    Or the next:
    _You can put Scales between the the Viewports and the FileOuts_
    _to adjust for Projectors cutting off the edges._

    Sorry, but I'm a newbie and I really don't get how to do what you're saying.



    Don't worry about it too much. Just get your workflow going,
    make your DVDs and run them in the projectors.
    Now, if you notice that the projector is cutting off a bit around the edges,
    you have the option of scaling the image sizes down in Shake
    before you do your second version. If the edges look great, then lucky you!
  • by lucin,

    lucin lucin May 5, 2010 9:12 PM in response to lucin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 5, 2010 9:12 PM in response to lucin
    Okay, will try this....but I still don't know how to do this:

    Once you're happy with the way the Big Picture looks, chop it up into your 4 smaller pictures.
    Try using 4 Viewports or 4 Crops and tweak them until you get the big image perfectly sliced up.
    Once you do that, you just add 4 Fileouts.

    If I use the Crop Node won't it crop the whole View rather than just crop for the 1/4 that I need? I don't see how to slice up the larger Viewer to four smaller ones? sorry! I just don't know how to do this. Once I get this I think I'll be okay. Still getting used to using nodes, but I do like this application very much.
  • by lucin,

    lucin lucin May 5, 2010 10:18 PM in response to stuckfootage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 5, 2010 10:18 PM in response to stuckfootage
    Okay, I can't figure out how to make the MegaViewer to begin with because when I type in Custom in the Globals and put the 1440x960 for the size of the Viewer it stays at 720x480. This is after I create a New Viewer, then I go to resize and I can't get it to work, to the new larger size. Then, I can't figure out how to link this new Viewer to my last Node which is one of the Clips, actually Clip #4. This is frustrating because I'm sure it's simple, but I don't see answers in Help or anywhere right now. Ugh. So, how do I make the MegaViewer a different size from the other four Viewers I already have and how do I connect this to the last Node clip? But, if I do connect it, won't I only see that one Node? not all four? I'm really missing something here. Something is not working for me in my understanding of how to do this.
  • by stuckfootage,

    stuckfootage stuckfootage May 7, 2010 2:05 PM in response to lucin
    Level 4 (3,040 points)
    May 7, 2010 2:05 PM in response to lucin
    Here's something that should work:

    Set the Custom in Globals to 1440x960.
    Create a Color node. Leave it in the default (black) state. Note that it is 1440x960.
    Create a Max node, and connect the Color node to the Max node's right input.
    Make sure the Max node is set to clipMode "background". That makes it 1440x960.
    Now hook up the rest of your Shake tree to the left inlet of the Max inlet.
    Now the output of your Shake tree should appear in a 1440x960 frame.
    You may have to move things around to fill up the screen.

    Connect your 4 Viewports to the output of the Max node.
  • by lucin,

    lucin lucin May 8, 2010 1:36 PM in response to stuckfootage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2010 1:36 PM in response to stuckfootage
    I'm so glad you responded! I pretty much gave up on this in Shake. I will try this in the evening and see if I understand what to do. I'm not sure about the Viewports part, but I'll do my best and let you know if this works. Thanks so much again!

    Lucind
  • by lucin,

    lucin lucin May 8, 2010 11:33 PM in response to stuckfootage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2010 11:33 PM in response to stuckfootage
    Well, I've got much of this that you mentioned to do and it looks great. However, where you tell me: "Now hook up the rest of your Shake tree to the left inlet of the Max inlet." That doesn't work because I'm going to filein Node and bringing each of the four clips into the Node View. When I try to hook up all four to the Max Node it doesn't work. It seems that I can only hook one node/clip/file in.

    Sooo, am I to make four Max Nodes? one for each of the clips I'm importing? or am I missing something, some step here?
  • by stuckfootage,

    stuckfootage stuckfootage May 9, 2010 12:07 AM in response to lucin
    Level 4 (3,040 points)
    May 9, 2010 12:07 AM in response to lucin
    lucin wrote:
    am I missing something, some step here?


    Maybe I'm missing something. When I do multiple-screen projections,
    I prefer to make a single giant image that shows me the final result
    of all the screens, make sure it's working, then split it up to FileOuts.

    It sounds like you have a different workflow. It sounds like you've got
    your videos split up already, and you just want to take a look at them
    all together. Hmm...

    In that case, you can run your 4 FileIns into something like a MultiLayer.
    Using the big black Color node as background will help you force the
    overall size to Big, and you may need Move2D nodes to put each
    FileIn in its proper place in the big image. That will work, but it
    seems a little backwards to me.

    Good luck!
  • by lucin,

    lucin lucin May 9, 2010 12:35 AM in response to stuckfootage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2010 12:35 AM in response to stuckfootage
    I see what you're saying. It's only that I had this footage different clips in I stop Motion and wanted to try it. I'll try both and let you know. Thanks so much!

    So, there's no way for me to take the four clips/file in nodes and attach to the Max Node? I've been trying and trying and can't do it.
  • by stuckfootage,

    stuckfootage stuckfootage May 9, 2010 12:47 PM in response to lucin
    Level 4 (3,040 points)
    May 9, 2010 12:47 PM in response to lucin
    Color1 = Color(1440, 960, 1, 0, red, red, 1, 0);
    N720x480clip = SFileIn("$HOME/Desktop/720x480clip", "Auto", 0,
    0, "v1.1", "0", "", 0);
    N720x480clip2 = SFileIn("$HOME/Desktop/720x480clip", "Auto",
    0, 0, "v1.1", "0", "", 0);
    N720x480clip3 = SFileIn("$HOME/Desktop/720x480clip", "Auto",
    0, 0, "v1.1", "0", "", 0);
    N720x480clip4 = SFileIn("$HOME/Desktop/720x480clip", "Auto",
    0, 0, "v1.1", "0", "", 0);
    Move2D1 = Move2D(N720x480clip, 0, 480, 0, 1, 1, xScale, 0, 0,
    width/2, height/2, "default", xFilter, "trsx", 0, 0, 0.5,
    0, 0, time);
    Move2D2 = Move2D(N720x480clip2, 720, 480, 0, 1, 1, xScale, 0,
    0, width/2, height/2, "default", xFilter, "trsx", 0, 0, 0.5,
    0, 0, time);
    Move2D3 = Move2D(N720x480clip4, 720, 0, 0, 1, 1, xScale, 0, 0,
    width/2, height/2, "default", xFilter, "trsx", 0, 0, 0.5,
    0, 0, time);
    MultiLayer1 = MultiLayer("v4.0", "L1", 0, Color1, 1, "L1", 1,
    0, "Over", 1, 0, 0, "rgba", 0, Move2D3, 1, "L3", 1, 0, "Over",
    1, 0, 0, "rgba", 0, N720x480clip3, 1, "L4", 1, 0, "Over",
    1, 0, 0, "rgba", 0, Move2D2, 1, "L5", 1, 0, "Over", 1, 0,
    0, "rgba", 0, Move2D1, 1, "L6", 1, 0, "Over", 1, 0, 0, "rgba",
    0);
  • by lucin,

    lucin lucin May 11, 2010 11:30 PM in response to stuckfootage
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 11, 2010 11:30 PM in response to stuckfootage
    I see what you're doing here, but as I said, I'm really new to Shake and don't have confidence in the language here yet. I have some ways to go before I can really understand this. I'm sorry because I don't want you to have to go to so much trouble. I wouldn't know what to do with this at this point.