Travel Route Animation: Experimenting with options

terrypin wrote on 2/17/2014, 10:06 AM

Here's a quickly assembled illustration of some of the experiments I've been doing. I'm attempting to decide on one or two approaches as I have many walks to animate over the coming months. Would appreciate any feedback please.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lg4jb0snw4y0qz9/Examples-2.mp4

Hmm, the quality of my original wasn't particularly good, but better than playing that. It opened automatically in my FF browser. Transitions were all Thru Black but didn't look like it. I'd suggest a direct download. At least that would be faithful, important in reviewing animations.

I'll try copying it to my \Public folder and compare:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Examples-2-Public.mp4

Well, transitions are better, but apart from the dismally lengthy download, automatic playback by QuickTime was very jerky.

I'd try Vimeo, but so far I've found the upload-to-viewing-full resolution time frustratingly long.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Comments

browj2 wrote on 2/17/2014, 2:42 PM

Hi Terry,

I downloaded your file and took a look. It ran fine. I think your approach will have to depend on what you want to show. I like the GE method because it shows the terrain.

For the out and back, did you try a waypoint and then changing the colour of the line. Probably doesn't work in TRA but you could make two files with the tracks at different colours, one out and one back. You can use a jpg of the out track and superpose it under the return video and adjust the transparency to see the out track faintly. Or something like that.

I like your animation attempts. There must be something out there to help for images of people. Did you look at iClone? If you do a series of images at 3deg rotations, will the program re-align properly? 120 photos of you and your wife against a green screen? Just kidding.

To illustrate the 2 line types/colours concept, here is a link to my Angel Woods walk where I created a waypoint on the way back and changed the line type and colour (and played with a few other parameters). Remember that I superimposed the GE track into VdG and the two tracks are slightly off because of coordinate rounding and smoothing of the points on the line.The linear distance from side to side of the track is about 1.5km, so it is a mini-route.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7re52e7etxt2fzm/Angel%20woods%202%20lines.wmv

terrypin wrote on 2/17/2014, 3:37 PM

Hi John,

Yes, GE takes a lot of beating for this stuff!

Thanks for the tip about track colour alternating, I'll try that too.

I wrote a few macros (with Macro Express Pro) to help with some of the grunt work.

1. Copy a PNG 120 times and name like the existing ones.

2. Make 120 copies of a 2D image, each 3 degrees apart, and name as above. (2D objects are probably better left static. Rotating them leads to some very displeasing results, such as being upside down for sections of a circular walk.)

But the 3D objects are tough. I was indeed considering complex approaches, including green screen! But I think the effort outways the benefit. In your Angel Woods example, what sort of files support the walking man? Is it portable? If they are a set of PNGs, maybe I could add an edited version into the TRA Animation Objects.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

browj2 wrote on 2/17/2014, 11:03 PM

Hi Terry,

The avatar in Angel Woods is one of the figures from VdG, fully 3D. No idea how they do it. I went through all of the files with the program and program data, but could find nothing to help.

I have iClone 4 somehow from Magix and it seems to be the demo version. Just playing around quickly and limited to the quality of output allowed by the demo, I inserted the iClone man against the VdG man in your walk in Calif. He came along with a logo and I couldn't export with a transparent background, so I had to play with the image in MEP.

I first superimposed your map on a Google map, imported them both into VdG and added the VdG man walking along your route. Then I superimposed the iClone man in MEP with KFA's to move the image while he walked.

One could make a career out of this. Overkill, but I am impressed with iClone. You can even add in your face, front and one side and the program will model it and place it neatly on a body that can also be remodeled. One can add all kinds of movements to the images, turn left, right, etc., not just walking. Lots of fun, but time-consuming.

This probably didn't work. How does one do it? It is just an MP4 file.

Here is the Dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jjo0fhme1dhxs82/Test%20avatar.MP4

terrypin wrote on 2/17/2014, 11:45 PM

Morning John,

That looks good! Now a real risk of my getting sidetracked onto yet another program.

Seriously, this is a dilemma I constantly face. And looks like you do too. There's so much I'd like to learn and use, yet it all ends up taking far more time than I anticipate. And practical project work gets way behind. So I might resist temptation on iClone before I get hooked on it. It helps that it's expensive.

--------------------

Were you trying to add the video with the Video tool above? Was it one of the allowed types?
Please note that you may upload only *.asf, *.avi, *.mov, *.mpg,
*.mpeg, *.qt, *.wmv or *.3gp files.

Odd that MP4 isn't included. I'll try one by way of experiment...

No, I got the same result as you. So I'm guessing you didn't see the footnote. It's also surprising IMO that the procedure doesn't simply pop-up an alert, instead of allowing you to send the invalid file to the Magix server.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

browj2 wrote on 2/18/2014, 9:02 AM

Hi Terry,

Yes, the file was mp4. Maybe this is my problem with the tutorial as well. My third try with different export parameters but still mp4 gives a green screen. In the tutorials upload instructions, it says that mp4 is a valid format. I will try a different format.

I took a longer look at iClone videos and tutorials. It's a whole different world, but if I got into that I would never get a video done. Maybe in the future....

It would be nice if VdG or TRA had some way to add in custom-made avatars (objects). VdG has add-on packages of almost every type of aircraft and airline, ships and boats, and wild animals, but no extra people or vehicles other than what comes with the program. That said, it has the main objects that I need, airplane, a ferry boat, a vehicle that looks somewhat like mine, some couples, and they look good from all angles in 3D.

Here are the screens from VdG that show some of the objects. Under people and pets (no dogs) there are 15 choices, including a scuba diver and a mountain climber.

johnebaker wrote on 2/18/2014, 12:53 PM

@ John CB

For the main forum and Tutorial section I use mpg or mov files 720* 576 or 640* 480 - sometimes for an unknown reason my mpg 16:9 s get squashed!

For the Show & Discuss mp4's (720p) worked for me - see this topic in the German forum - the images say it all.

John

browj2 wrote on 2/18/2014, 1:17 PM

Hi John EB,

That is exactly what I did, except that I used the lower resolution - 720x576 to create the mp4. It also created the other web files. I used the mp4 that was created to upload. I will try again with wmv or something.

Thanks,