Acceleration in CG Infinity

[fluggo99]

Is it possible to create smooth acceleration/deceleration in CG Infinity? (that would be so awesome...)

[fluggo99]

Ahem. I mean, that is, accelerating objects on the screen instead of having them move with constant velocity.

Hello?

[fluggo99]

I guess no one has any info on this topic. Oh, well.

As long as I've got the floor on this topic, anyone seen my video in the video showcase?

[Patrick]

Hey, who said it only takes 3 1/2 minutes to download that video? Maybe with a cable modem...

I've never been one to shy away from any kind of discussion at this forum , but a couple of topics I do usually avoid in normal conversation are politics and religion. Keeping that in mind, I'll try and limit my comments to the technical aspects of this video.

I don't know what kind of experience you have editing video in the past, but this is a colorful, fast paced, well done little production. The audio sounds great, the "actors" were wonderful, good use of graphics and/or titles, overlayed clips were well done.

Please don't be offended by this comment, but considering I had no interest in the subject matter, I still found the video to be most entertaining. There can't be a larger compliment than that.

[This_Idiot]

Oops

Sorry Patrick, I was in a bit of a panic just trying to get everything published last night and put in the clip length instead of the download time.

Fluggo, yeah, I gave it a good look over. It seemed to download alright, but when I play it it seems to skip to the end after 2 minutes or so. Unlike Patrick I refuse to be offended by anything short of personal abuse, so I didn't have any problem with the content. Although we never had anything like that when I went to Sunday School.

Both puppetry and lighting are great, which allows the bluescreen backgrounding to work well almost without being a noticeable effect (if you know what I mean). I enjoyed it, I even played it a second time. In fact I'm heading over to the son's bedroom to try and dig out that old Tufty puppet and blue curtain

[Patrick]

Now Chris, I never said I was "offended" by Fluggo's video. I stated I had no interest in the subject matter. There's a huge difference there. By the way, that's not a Sunday School in the video.

As I stated in my previous post, I found the video itself to be quite entertaining. I've watched it about five or six times. It's very well done.

[fluggo99]

I appreciate the comment regardless, Patrick. Thanks.

And This_Idiot: ... ?! I have no idea why it would do that! Once the clip's on the hard drive, the seek control should work; maybe click back when it starts skipping. Thanks for looking at it.

I'm glad the video's a hit! Do you guys have anything like SYATP in the UK? (Student prayer rallies?) And who's Tufty?

[This_Idiot]

Hi both,

Patrick, I wasn't totally serious. Just like to make sure you stay awake ya know ? Smile with me please..

Fluggo, I haven't tried it again today (other irons in the fire). I don't know about SYATP equivalents over here in the UK. I guess there is something. My post-school studying consisted of a 3 1/2 year cadetship in the merchant marine, prayer rallies didn't get much of a lookin. However, Moira and I used to go to a Christian rock festival over here called "greenbelt". Always a good turnout, we loved it.

Tufty ? Public information films from the 60's advising kids to a) brush their teeth and b) cross the road safely. Tufty was a Squirrel puppet.

[yeast]

Great clip fluggo99. I was amazed at your work. How long have you been doing Media Studio/video editing? The green (I don't think it's blue) screen worked really well. Any suggestions on that? Whenver I do that, somehow the edges would blur, and so the green would stay there.

In one words : GREAT JOB. Amazing. Well, hope you can persue this hobby through college (UCSD is where I'm at), and time is very scarce.

cheers,
Ethan

[Patrick]

...I'm smiling, I'm smiling...

Chris, I suspected you were just kidding, but Fluggo may not be aware of our sense of humour. I didn't want him reading your post and think that I believe in throwing Christians to the lions.

Fluggo, I live in Canada and I have never heard of this practice here, not in the public school system anyway. I don't understand the significance of the flagpole in relation to praying. SYATP may be a regional thing in your part of the States. Are you from the south by any chance?

[fluggo99]

Patrick: Yes, I'm from the south; I live right between Dallas and Fort Worth. The practice started in Burleson (an hour or two further south), where a Bible study group decided to pray for the kids at their school, and so the symbolic place to meet was the flagpole. (Perhaps because we pledge allegience to the flag as one nation under God?) Lately, it's come to represent some bravery among Christians because of SYATP-related shootings (Last year, kids fired guns into the crowd as they prayed; this year, just a few miles west of where I live, a post-SYATP rally was fired upon at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth.) It also symbolizes some defiance to laws forbidding prayer in public school. It's a messed-up nation we live in; that's why this is so important.

Supposedly, SYATP has spread throughout the nation at this point. It may never grow beyond that, because it's so linked to the USA.

Don't worry, I didn't take it the wrong way! I'm smiling too!

yeast: Thanks! This was my first project with Media Studio; before that I only did one video I was "serious" about, and it was just dubbing between VCR's. I've been wanting to do something like this for years, and now I've got promo requests from every direction! (sigh) Too bad this had to happen the year before I left for college.

As for the green screen, lighting is an important factor. The screen and the subject have to both be lit brightly, and the screen should be lit as evenly as possible. And though you can't see it in the web version, there is some fading around the edges I couldn't take care of, mostly because the singer was moving so fast. Otherwise the TV signal blended everything together. (Don't trust everything you see on your computer monitor!)

I used flourescent green posterboard in this because it's so bright and even; a larger effect I did recently involved green-colored fleece.

I hope I can keep this up in college, too, but I won't have a camcorder when I leave!

This_Idiot: Really! Tufty the Squirrel! Was he a puppet in those films, or a cartoon character?

Yeah, same as Patrick. SYATP is closely tied to circumstances here in the U.S., so there might be nothing like it in Europe. Maybe other countries...

[yeast]

fluggo99: Can you post your settings for your ASF file? I'm sure many of us could learn from you. I've tried doing many tests, but never could figure out what is the best setting.

Thanks.

p.s. We do the flagpole here in California too...so don't feel left out.

-Ethan

[This_Idiot]

Fluggo,

Well they do say that if you remember the 60's you didn't live through them. Since I was born in '59, I guess I got an excuse.

As I recall, Tufty started out as some kind of puppet. It's possible that he made it to cartoon later, I can't recall. But by that time we were all into Scooby Doo anyhow (my kids still watch that, but it was never the same after Scrappy got an appearance)

Pesky kids

[fluggo99]

Sorry it took me so long to reply, Ethan, but durn me! I got rid of my settings! I reproduced them, though:

Bandwidth: High Speed Internet (100 kbps)

Video: Microsoft MPEG-4 V3, picture size at 176x120 (dimensions exactly one-quarter full rez video), sharpness-smoothness set at 50, clipped off a few pixels (because you never see them on a TV screen)

Audio: MPEG Layer 3 at full quality available (16 kbps?) - I prefer Layer 3 to WMA

I set the settings this way because it was such a long video; shorter videos of course should go with higher rez. Just make sure it's an even multiple so that the fields work right - 176x120, 352x240, 704x480. I used the standalone Windows Media Encoder because I didn't want MSP to mix the fields together; the standalone just throws out one field. (MSP's weird that way...)

Hope that helps.

fluggo99

[yeast]

thanks Fluggo,

Chris : you should update the tips/tricks to include some of the stuff fluggo wrote (settings), so others can easily refer to them other than blindlessly searching for it in a message board....

-Ethan