Nick Fox-Gieg's Tutorials

Multi Medias

Nick — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:26:41 +0000

Mixed media (1950s?, fine art, 35M hits): Describes a work that mixes two or more visual media, often restricted to the disciplines of painting and sculpture.

Intermedia (1960s, fine art, 25M hits): Describes a work that mixes any two or more artistic disciplines usually recognized as separate. Popularized by the Fluxus group. (Coined by Dick Higgins.)

Hypermedia (1960s, computer science, 20M hits): Describes an organized collection of media files that the user can move between at will. Wikipedia is a hypermedia system. (Coined by Ted Nelson.)

Multimedia (1.2B hits)
1. (1960s, fine art): Describes a work that mixes any two or more media; largely replaced in current usage by “intermedia.” (Possibly coined by Bob Goldstein.)

2. (1990s, computer science): Describes a device that can display multiple types of media–sound, video, text, images, etc.

3. (1990s, popular): Describes a work in any medium either created or experienced using such a device; largely replaced in current usage by “new media.”

New media (1990s, media theory, 69M hits): Describes works which are both created and experienced using a computer.

Transmedia (1990s, marketing, 3M hits): Describes a narrative dispersed across multiple works in multiple media, each of which contains only a portion of the complete story. A long-running franchise like “Star Wars” can be considered one epic transmedia work. (Coined by Marsha Kinder.)

Rich media (2000s?, design, 9M hits): Describes works distributed via the internet that make use of sound and video, as opposed to images and text.

(Hit counts from search performed 23 mar 12.)

KinectToPin

Nick — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:27:25 +0000

If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to using my KinectToPin mocap app for After Effects, watch this series of video tutorials by Victoria Nece:

3D Depth Cues

Nick — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:31:41 +0000

Monocular
1. Motion parallax: distant things move slower; close things move faster.
2. Depth in motion: something coming closer to you gets bigger.
3. Perspective: parallel lines converge as they move away from you.
4. Familiar size: evaluating the position of an object whose size is known.
5. Relative size: comparing the position of an unknown object to one whose size is known.
6. Color and contrast: all else being equal, reds appear closer than blues, and high-contrast colors appear closer than low-contrast colors.
7. Accommodation: whether the eye is focused on a near or far object, as reported by our eye muscles.
8. Occlusion: an object blocking something else is assumed to be in front of it.
9. Depth of field: blurrier objects are assumed to be further away.

Binocular
10. Stereopsis: the difference between the views of the left and right eye.
11. Convergence: the angle from our eyes to the object viewed, as reported by our eye muscles (for objects closer than ~10m).

OBJ Batch Export

Nick — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:34:44 +0000

Export a sequence of frames from Maya as individual OBJ files:

OE Blaster (script plus button)

OBJ Sequence Exporter (script only)

This is a great way to do replacement animation with 3D printouts (although the standard ABS plastic feedstock isn’t easily paintable):

Format Suggestions

Nick — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 03:06:51 +0000

master

picture: 1920×1080 @ 12fps, 23.976fps, or 24fps.
sound: 48KHz 24-bit, stereo or discrete 5.1
codecs: PNG Quicktime or PNG image sequence; uncompressed AIFF or WAV files.

submaster

picture: 1920×1080 @ 23.976fps or 24fps.
sound: 48KHz 16-bit, stereo or discrete 5.1
codecs: Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD, or PhotoJPEG Quicktime video; PCM audio.

distribution

picture: 1280×720 or 1920×1080@ 23.976fps or 24fps.
sound: 48KHz 16-bit, stereo or discrete 5.1.
codecs: H.264 MP4 video, AAC or PCM audio.

Log and Transfer

Nick — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:55:40 +0000

Up through the mid-’00s, we used to capture footage in realtime from tape. If you think about it, “capture” is an exciting and dangerous sort of word which implies you’re getting a hunting party together and it might come back empty-handed. Now we “ingest” footage by copying it in non-realtime (that is, faster than) from memory cards and hard drives…which to me suggests a much more relaxing process, one that happens after a nice meal. However, it’s a bit of an arcane process in Final Cut:

Step 1. Choose File / Log and Transfer.

Step 2. Click this obscure icon to import files.

Step 3. Click this other obscure icon to view your Preferences.

Step 4. Check to see if your camera shoots “24pa” or “24psf” video. If so, you’ll need these extra steps. (Traditional camcorders are more likely than DSLRs to have this issue.) ProRes is a good default choice for your video codec.

Step 5. Select the clips you want to transfer, or else choose Edit / Select all.

Step 6. When you’ve made your selections, choose Add Selection to Queue to begin transferring.

Step 7. Once you’ve transferred your clips, click on your Sequence.

Step 8. Go to Sequence / Settings.

Step 9. The default settings probably won’t be what you want, so click Load Sequence Preset.

Step 10. Most modern cameras in North America will work nicely with Apple ProRes 422 1920×1080 24p 48KHz as your preset.

Step 11. After loading the preset, your settings should look like this.

…and you should be ready to edit. Be sure to back up your original video files!

App Compatibility in OS X

Nick — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:36:49 +0000

Guessing which of your applications is broken following a major OS upgrade is a familiar ritual for Mac owners. Use these tools to learn what will need to be replaced:

If you’re upgrading to 10.6 Snow Leopard, download and run the SnowChecker utility to check whether you have any incompatible software.
For 10.7 Lion, use the RoaringApps wiki.

Reverse telecine 24p

Nick — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:36:55 +0000

In 2012, interlaced video will be 90 years old, so little wonder it’s a hard standard to completely get rid of. Many great cameras capable of shooting true 24p video still have to save the images in interlaced formats (confusingly called “24pa” or “24psf”—essentially the same thing). But this is only a temporary inconvenience; with a bit of extra effort it’s possible to perfectly reconstruct the 24p original:

Step 1. Choose File / Log and Transfer.

Step 2. Click this obscure icon to import files.

Step 3. Click this other obscure icon to view your Preferences.

Step 4. Make sure Remove Advanced Pulldown and Duplicate Frames is checked. Use ProRes as your video codec.

Step 5. Select the clips you want to transfer, or else choose Edit / Select all.

Step 6. When you’ve made your selections, choose Add Selection to Queue to begin transferring.

Step 7. Once you’ve transferred your clips, click on your Sequence.

Step 8. Go to Sequence / Settings.

Step 9. The default settings probably won’t be what you want, so click Load Sequence Preset.

Step 10. Choose Apple ProRes 422 1920×1080 24p 48KHz as your preset.

Step 11. After loading the preset, your settings should look like this.

Step 12. When you add clips to your sequence, you’ll be presented with this warning. Be sure to click no.

Step 13. The thin green bar indicates that a realtime reverse telecine effect has been applied. You should now be able to view and export clean deinterlaced frames.

Kinect and XML

Nick — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:55:42 +0000

(Check out the rest of the Kinect section for more tutorials.)

For general Kinect setup help, look here.

To record joint data or OSC output by the OSCeleton Kinect mocap utility to an XML file, to play back the XML, or to convert it for use in After Effects, get this KinectToPin Processing sketch from GitHub.

…the practical upshot of this? You can send all your motion capture information to your XML file in realtime, without worrying about capturing your video image. Then, you can read the file back later and do all the complex rendering you want in full HD. By the way, the sketches will work with anything that uses OSC, not just a Kinect–all you have to do is modify the XML tags to suit your needs.

Installation Checklist

Nick — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:22:27 +0000

1. Computers:

How many computers does this run on?
What are their specs (RAM, CPU, storage, graphics card, etc.)?
Do they need to communicate?
What types of network connections do they have (WiFi, gigabit ethernet, etc.)?
Do they need any peripherals (mouse, keyboard, Wiimote, Kinect, etc.)?
What types of peripheral connections do they have (USB, Firewire, Bluetooth, etc.)?

2. Media

What’s your storage medium (hard drive, SSD, optical disc, etc.)?
What’s your backup strategy (RAID, Time Machine, disk image, spare drive or optical disc, etc.)?
Will there be an attendant present in case the computers crash?

3. Video

How is the video being presented (projector, LCD, CRT, LED wall, etc.)?
Is there live video input?
Does it need to be recorded?
What kind of cameras are you using (webcam, industrial, DV, DSLR, etc.)?
Do they have a usable “live view” mode?
How are they connected to the computer (Firewire, USB, analog, etc.)?
Do they have manual focus/iris/white balance?

4. Audio

How is the sound being presented (built-in speakers, external amplifier, stereo, 5.1, etc.)?
Is there live sound input?
Does it need to be recorded?
What kind of microphones are you using (shotgun, contact, cardioid, lavalier, etc.)?
How are they connected to the computer (Firewire, USB, analog)?
Do they have manual gain control?

5. Sensors

What other types of live input do you need (light, temperature, vibration, tilt, acceleration, etc.)?
How is the data being presented?
Does it need to be recorded?
Can you find commercial products that fit your budget, or will you need to make your own sensors?
How are they connected to the computer (Arduino, MakingThings, serial port, etc.)?
What external hardware controls do you need (on/off switch, gain, threshold, status lights, etc.)?