Cameras Scene Cut, Transition and Parallax

Report · Nov 05, 2019

Hi, I love the new camera function in the program. It is very smooth and very easy to work with. The triggers are awesome too it make it very similar to a multi cam TV studio setup.

I am still new to the program and I am still figuring things out. But I was hoping someone could help me with something that I am trying to figure out. I am not sure if there is a function already in place or not yet, but I was hoping to find out if there is a way to change to another scene using a trigger. Maybe to another scene with a different angle background or a different background completely with different character sets.

The only way I can think of to mimic something similar to the idea is to use the same scene and create a lot of trigger to hide and show groups which is a bit of work to set up and really jumbles it up panel a bit. Is there a way to use this method to mimic cut scenes and transitions too? If there is a way to cut between scenes will it continuously record between them sort of like a master camera instead of the one camera locally in one scene?

Is there a way to program a way you can make is so we can add a list of background, midground and foregound layers(Character included) into the camera function with a way to program the distance between the background and foreground in relation to the midground. Then have the camera movement calculate the distance between the layers in the list and move them in the x and y position to create a fake dynamic parallax affect between them and maybe add motion blur feature too to help create the illusion of the character is moving in a certain direction during a character walk cycle? I am not sure if this function will be worth using for everyone who uses this program, so can you add a parallax, motion blur feature checkbox to turn it on and off for people whom do not want to use it to save processing power.

Report · Nov 05, 2019

Hi there,

Thanks for appreciating the new additions to the applications.

Is there a way to use this method to mimic cut scenes and transitions too? If there is a way to cut between scenes will it continuously record between them sort of like a master camera instead of the one camera locally in one scene?

Is there a way to program a way you can make is so we can add a list of background, midground and foregound layers(Character included) into the camera function with a way to program the distance between the background and foreground in relation to the midground. Then have the camera movement calculate the distance between the layers in the list and move them in the x and y position to create a fake dynamic parallax affect between them and maybe add motion blur feature too to help create the illusion of the character is moving in a certain direction during a character walk cycle? I am not sure if this function will be worth using for everyone who uses this program, so can you add a parallax, motion blur feature checkbox to turn it on and off for people whom do not want to use it to save processing power.

I've shared the questions you've asked with our engineering team to check if it is possible.

I'll update as soon as I hear from them.

Thanks,

Shivangi

Report · Nov 06, 2019

Glad you're liking the cameras feature!

Triggering scenes - good question. You can drag a scene into another scene - but I don't think triggering will work as you would expect. BUT what I would recommend checking out is the "Start Here" project on the home screen. Basically, there are a bunch of puppets and backgrounds, and they're getting switched between via triggers AND there's a camera too. So it doesn't feel impossible / too crazy to me to keep everything in one scene like that...I think if you pick apart that cartoon you'll get some great ideas.

Parallax is not yet in the app - there isn't any z-depth yet - so for now you have to fake it like I show at the end of the Cameras tutorial video. For walking though, you could add a Walk behavior to foreground and background elements and have them all move with the character - see the "Brooklyn Buddies" on adobe.com/go/chexamples as a great example of this.

Hope that helps!

Report · Dec 04, 2019

I have been watching your videos since the first release. They are like the bible for me in learning this and relearning. They have been a great help. Thank you for those monthly updates!

Thank you for the suggestion. I will check that example out later this week and see if I can take it apart and tinker with it.

Report · Nov 07, 2019

For transitioning scenes I think you are on the right track with using triggers to say trigger replays to fade backgrounds in/out. Remember that you can define multiple triggers independently with the same key. So 'b' can trigger one background to appear and another to disappear. But as soon as you say transitions I think of using a replay - you need to use keyframing or similar to adjust the opacity to make things fade out.

Funky idea - you could have one scene with multiple puppets in it off the edge of the screen. E.g. X=0 to X=2000 might be the first scene and background. Then at X=5000 to X=7000 you have another background and puppets. You then use a trigger on the camera position so the camera jumps sideways to display the right puppet and background (X=0 or X=5000). Think of it like a TV news desk with different reporters - you move the camera from the anchorman to the weather reporter - they are standing a short distance apart on the same stage - the camera moves between them. However I worry about performance having too many puppets in such a scene.

Report · Nov 27, 2019

I think I've been running into the same challenge.

I have a 3 minute audio file of a conversation, which I would like to animate into a conversation between multiple puppets. For ease of use, I would prefer to have that audio file within a single "Scene", and be able to cut back and forth between different puppets who are having a conversation, each with their own background.

I've been able to do this by overlaying all 4 puppets in the timeline, each with their own background as part of their puppet. Then, as the first puppet's dialogue ends, I keyframe that puppet's opacity to drop to 0%, revealing the next puppet in the timeline so that that puppet will be visible for the next lines of dialogue. And when it's time for the first puppet to resume speaking, I keyframe his opacity back up to 100%.

Toggling keyframe opacity between 0% and 100% for all four puppets is a bit tedious, but it lets me cut back and forth within a scene. If you know of another way to do this, I would love to hear it.

Report · Nov 27, 2019

How about putting the scenes and puppets next to each other, then using the camera view to jump sideways (in one frame so you don't see it move). Think of like the TV news. They have several desks in real life right next to each other, but the camera always shows you one desk or the other. You just change the Camera X position to position 5000 or something for the second scene, 10000 for the third scene etc. Then no need to change opacity - you just change the camera position via key frames.

Report · Dec 04, 2019

That is a good idea, I will give that a try.

Report · Dec 04, 2019

I wonder if they have a cool option like using multiple audio and video sources at once. Sort of like running a sound board and mixer in our live studio. If we could control the volume and gain of those multiple microphone input into the program and then set it up so that each audio channel can link to their linked character that would be cool too. Maybe even use the gain control to help filter other voices in the room out so that when people are talking at the same time it doesn't bleed into the mix, or something like using those two or three microphones pickup to also work as noise cancellation for the other inputs.

Maybe even having the program use use multiple cameras or web cameras inputs at once and then assigning each camera to a different character actor so it can use it for lip syncing and character movement live directly into the program. The only other way I can think of to get around this is to run two computer and have it output into a third party system like newtek, which sounds a bit complicated and not budget friendly.

I am still new at this but they might already have a feature like this in place. I'm going to have to dive deep into researching stuff again too see if they have something similar. I would not be surprised if they already have something like that in place either, since they been doing some really neat stuff since the first release.

Report · Dec 04, 2019

I have not seen that, and suspect you would need a REALLY beefy computer to keep up with it. Closest I have heard of is using NDI streaming where multiple computers generate their own video stream (one character each) that gets sent to a central video stream mixing computer.