i8bozo
04-03-2005, 07:51 PM
thanks for offering this section to us all. glad to see you implemented my suggestion for this area.
when i use silhouette to do roto work the below techniques are a mainstay of how i work. in this sharing of info and how one interfaces with the application it is my hope that the programmers are better able to give us the tools we require to be more efficient and productive while having a pleasant experience. i can not extend a big enough thanks to the silhouette team for being so welcoming and accommodating during this development process. they're on their way to big things.
with that, here's how i work when i do roto work (mainly film work):
- i use b-splines, not those nasty bezier curves.
- i use the arrow keys to nudge selections of points...i equate it to a kind of sculpting where my clay is the spline and the end result is making sure the spline adheres to the edge of my subject matter.
- i'll use the page up/page down keys to advance forward and backward to scrub or scroll through a seq of frames to make sure any 'pops' or inconsistencies are minimized.
- i typically work in small chunks of data (ie: 5 frames at a time) so i can FOCUS on that range and make sure it's perfect before i move on.
- i always work on ONE active and unlocked shape at a time so i can again FOCUS and not have the accidental selection of any surrounding shapes or points.
- most times i will turn off visually annoying surrounding shapes so as to not have visual clutter distracting me from my task at hand.
- i am frequently wanting to (because it's not built in yet) turn off my points and get them out of the way so i can better see how my spline is adhering to my 'edge'. points cause visual clutter and make that decision or viewing process more difficult.
- i use the overlay feature to look at my shapes filled in with color while i play back a seq of frames. this will let me see if i'm missing anything on the edge or spot any areas that i've missed. i also tweak my color and opacity to suit the underlying image. not all colors work with every background. i also invert shapes from time to time because you get better results in different situations.
- i'll usually work on one shape at a time and carry that shape through the entire length of the shot; unless i can't get the whole shot in memory...in which case, i may just work on completing all of my shapes for a given loaded seq so as to minimize the loading of frames in memory for each section of the shot. doing that is time consuming and counter productive.
- i am used to using a crop on the image when the occasion fits. it'd be nice to have the ability to have multiple crops which we could save out to a file and load in as needed. it'd be brilliant too if these crops were keyframe animatable so as to allow following moving subject matter in the frame.
- i like large screen real estate so i'm constantly hitting the "F1" key to toggle between the menus and the larger screen. brilliant implementation. now, if we could have that hot key for making points invisible, we'd be golden. :)
- i'm constantly and i mean constantly zooming in and out using the "I" and "O" keys as i find that more suitable to my working style. i wish i could set these keys to my own liking though.
- i'm used to hitting the space bar to play and stop the clip from playing and am constantly doing it with silhouette which does nothing. wish it did. instead i hunt for the "J", "K" or "L" keys
- i use the 'home' and 'end' keys frequently after i've loaded in the next section of frames into memory so i can carry on with my current shape.
- i usually stretch my arms every time i have to sit and wait for a new bunch of frames to load into memory. an animatable crop would most helpful.
- i never work at less than full resolution as i feel the image is too far degraded. i know others are fine with working at a lesser resolution.
- from time to time, i pull a shape off the edge and out of frame so it won't render. usually i would turn the visibility off so it wouldn't render.
i'm sure there are many more little techniques i employ whilst working. these were the first to roll of the top of my head.
i'm anxious to see how others work. maybe i'll discover some efficient new habits.
peace,
.g.
when i use silhouette to do roto work the below techniques are a mainstay of how i work. in this sharing of info and how one interfaces with the application it is my hope that the programmers are better able to give us the tools we require to be more efficient and productive while having a pleasant experience. i can not extend a big enough thanks to the silhouette team for being so welcoming and accommodating during this development process. they're on their way to big things.
with that, here's how i work when i do roto work (mainly film work):
- i use b-splines, not those nasty bezier curves.
- i use the arrow keys to nudge selections of points...i equate it to a kind of sculpting where my clay is the spline and the end result is making sure the spline adheres to the edge of my subject matter.
- i'll use the page up/page down keys to advance forward and backward to scrub or scroll through a seq of frames to make sure any 'pops' or inconsistencies are minimized.
- i typically work in small chunks of data (ie: 5 frames at a time) so i can FOCUS on that range and make sure it's perfect before i move on.
- i always work on ONE active and unlocked shape at a time so i can again FOCUS and not have the accidental selection of any surrounding shapes or points.
- most times i will turn off visually annoying surrounding shapes so as to not have visual clutter distracting me from my task at hand.
- i am frequently wanting to (because it's not built in yet) turn off my points and get them out of the way so i can better see how my spline is adhering to my 'edge'. points cause visual clutter and make that decision or viewing process more difficult.
- i use the overlay feature to look at my shapes filled in with color while i play back a seq of frames. this will let me see if i'm missing anything on the edge or spot any areas that i've missed. i also tweak my color and opacity to suit the underlying image. not all colors work with every background. i also invert shapes from time to time because you get better results in different situations.
- i'll usually work on one shape at a time and carry that shape through the entire length of the shot; unless i can't get the whole shot in memory...in which case, i may just work on completing all of my shapes for a given loaded seq so as to minimize the loading of frames in memory for each section of the shot. doing that is time consuming and counter productive.
- i am used to using a crop on the image when the occasion fits. it'd be nice to have the ability to have multiple crops which we could save out to a file and load in as needed. it'd be brilliant too if these crops were keyframe animatable so as to allow following moving subject matter in the frame.
- i like large screen real estate so i'm constantly hitting the "F1" key to toggle between the menus and the larger screen. brilliant implementation. now, if we could have that hot key for making points invisible, we'd be golden. :)
- i'm constantly and i mean constantly zooming in and out using the "I" and "O" keys as i find that more suitable to my working style. i wish i could set these keys to my own liking though.
- i'm used to hitting the space bar to play and stop the clip from playing and am constantly doing it with silhouette which does nothing. wish it did. instead i hunt for the "J", "K" or "L" keys
- i use the 'home' and 'end' keys frequently after i've loaded in the next section of frames into memory so i can carry on with my current shape.
- i usually stretch my arms every time i have to sit and wait for a new bunch of frames to load into memory. an animatable crop would most helpful.
- i never work at less than full resolution as i feel the image is too far degraded. i know others are fine with working at a lesser resolution.
- from time to time, i pull a shape off the edge and out of frame so it won't render. usually i would turn the visibility off so it wouldn't render.
i'm sure there are many more little techniques i employ whilst working. these were the first to roll of the top of my head.
i'm anxious to see how others work. maybe i'll discover some efficient new habits.
peace,
.g.