mjluser2 - all messages by user

2016/12/18 3:44:48
Optimize appearance of text as imported texture MrDrWho13 wrote:
I would agree with Rocque that HitFilm is the best free video editing software out there. ... Image sequence are the best output since they're not compressed in any way, but you do need to use a video editor/compositor to import them. (Unlike MP4 where it's just a video)

Found the above in another thread as helpful information. I am starting to figure out how to improve the quality even though I was pleased with the rendering from Muvizu showing the key-framed text slides. I have used one video editor, but it is not adequate for this new task. Suggestions always appreciated!
2016/12/18 3:20:13
If your computer has multiple graphic cards My laptop is older so it only has 16G of RAM with an i7, but it also was custom built. The NVIDIA Quadro K2000M card has 2G of dedicated memory. I do not have a benchmark for rendering, so I cannot compare it to other computers. But if it is a little slow on rendering, I just go get a cup of tea and occupy myself with other things. :-)
2016/12/17 6:07:30
If your computer has multiple graphic cards When I first downloaded Muvizu, it was taking 30+ minutes to boot. It would work after it came up, but somewhat roughly.

The problem was the presence of multiple graphic cards on my pc that run the laptop's screen and two external monitors. Muvizu was loading into the Intel graphics card in the laptop, which is supposed to be responsible only for the laptop screen.

I opened the control panel for the NVIDIA graphics card and looked for Muvizu in the list of programs under the tab for assigning programs to the card. Muvizu was not in the list, but the Add button brought it into the list by browsing. I assigned Muvizu to that card and have been so very pleased with Muvizu's performance.

If your computer has multiple graphic cards, you might want to check whether Muvizu is running on the card that would give you the best performance.
2016/12/17 5:53:57
Optimize appearance of text as imported texture Great news!! The jagged-letters problem is in the Muvizu user-interface camera window rather than in the video itself. Because I am new to Muvizu, I was learning how to use it rather than stopping to create a video that included the presentation. When I got everything ready, I realized the problem might be only in the Camera window.

So I key-framed the slides and made a video. The presentation slides are fine in the video. In case it would be useful, I exported the slides from Illustrator as 1024x1024 300-dpi pngs. All the slides for one presentation are in a single file on separate artboards, and the Artboards box is checked at export. That exports the images as individual files numbered in sequence. In Muvizu, the images are displayed on a square backdrop that appears to be part of a larger backdrop for the blank screen.

Here are the instructions from Jamie in support for doing the images as key frames (requires the key-frame expansion pack). I had been trying to do the images as a directed animation, but that method is limited to 10 images by the size of the image palette.
I think there shouldn't be any problem having 27 images on 1 backdrop - if you use the Key Frame option.
1. Select your backdrop
2. Prepare > Object Properties
3. Select "Image" from the properties drop down
4. Select "Key Frame" as the animation type
5. Select the Initial Image to show
6. Go to Direct > Object Properties
7. Place the Playhead, on the timeline, at the point you want the second image to show
8. Click the + button to add a new key frame
9. Click the thumbnail icon and select the second image to show
10. Repeat steps 7 - 10 until you have all 27 images loaded
2016/12/17 0:50:33
Optimize appearance of text as imported texture PatMarrNC wrote:
First of all, welcome to the forum! We're happy to have you here, and to hear what cool stuff you're doing with Muvizu! Cool ideas inspire us all!


Thanks for the welcome! I will do whatever I can to help others as I learn.

I had forgotten to mention the perpendicularity issue and thanks for bringing it up. I had solved it by setting the backdrop to keep upright and then pulled the camera far enough away to align the edges of the backdrop with the edges of the camera window. Then moved the camera back into position so that the edges of the backdrop disappeared.

I have been doing each lecture session as a separate scene so had not even thought about using a video editor. That is an option I will explore more.

My primary issue for the view when the presenter is included is the jaggedness of the individual letters. Part of the issue is their mapping onto the monitor resolution, but there seems to be more to it than that. So far I have not been able to get the presentation slides looking professional enough. Are there any guidelines for creating text such as signs that are imported? Any and all suggestions to improve the slides are greatly appreciated!
2016/12/16 23:56:23
Optimize appearance of text as imported texture I have a character who is doing a presentation to students in a lecture hall. The 'slides' in her presentation are separate textures assigned to a backdrop as a key-framed animation. My question is about optimizing the appearance of the text on the slides. I do each slide in Illustrator and then export the slide image to a .png or .jpg file for importing into Muvizu as a texture. There is way too much text to do the text directly in Muvizu.

By trial-and-error I have discovered that the clarity of the displayed text in Muvizu is affected by the camera settings (e.g., distance from camera to backdrop displaying text) and by the type and resolution of the imported image. For example, in one comparison a 72-dpi lossless jpg had better clarity than a 300-dpi png. Any suggestion on the combination of variables that would optimize the appearance of the displayed text in Muvizu? Are there other variables that I need to consider also? Is there a better way than using key-framed textures on a backdrop?

I am a newbie with Muvizu but an old-timer with displaying graphics. Muvizu is awesome fun! Thanks in advance.
2016/12/16 6:10:59
Things I'd like to see in Muvizu. MrDrWho13 wrote:
primaveranz wrote:
And by far the most important - the ability to stretch and compress actions on the timeline.

This seems quite easy in my head, but the staff have yet to comment on if this is possible. Currently the little clips are keyframed in by the devs with set intervals between each tiny movement to build up the whole movement. It would need to be possible to have this as a variable timing.

There is an easy alternative that would be very helpful. We can already slide actions around on the timeline and delete them. Could we at least delete one action and insert a new one? For example, I decide a Wave is too expressive and want to replace it with Conversation 1. As far as I have discovered so far, the only way to replace an action with another is to rerecord the entire timeline for that character.

If insertions were allowed, then an action could be stretched by inserting multiple instances of the same action. An action could be compressed by deleting it and inserting a shorten duration for the same action. With delete/insertion, the micromotions of an action would not need to be changed. The only differences would be the user interactions for defining what action to insert when.

I am a newbie to Muvizu and am very thankful to have it to use. Kudos to the sponsors, developers, and users who contribute to the site. Your excellent work is very much appreciated!
edited by mjluser2 on 16/12/2016
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