Hi,

A lot of requests here seem to be for a fully fledged character generator. It seems to me that vMix should focus on what it does well, and utilise something like CasparCG for that purpose.

I think a good feature of vMix would be either support of CasparCG's SDI output (2 outputs, 1xfill and 1xkey, brought together in a single alpha channel'd input), or a collaboration with the CasparCG project on creating a DirectShow output module for CasparCG that would show up as an alpha channel'd input on vMix.

The first option would be more useful to large vMix installations, where the number of input's isn't such a big issue, and the second would be useful for smaller setups like laptops or microATX based mixers.

Is this a good plan?

Thanks!
Andrew.

And perhaps a connector to allow Vmix to control CasparCG like Justmacros for the BMD ATEMs. Granted it would take a pretty serious computer to handle doing both vmix and casparcg with multiple HD inputs and an hd output and hd graphics from caspar. In that case it would still be the best solution to keep them on separate computers. However, a connector would still be a good idea.

I'm still trying to get my head around CasparCG and learning about it, but I think the main attraction is the animated graphics possibilities with Dynamic (or editable) text fields, yes the templates are built in flash and that is a process in and of itself, but with an array of templates potentially becoming available down the line, there may not be a need for everyone to learn flash. CasparCG would just be another tool in the arsenal to be used with vMix to raise the production value and add to the "professionalism" of a broadcast, show or presentation.
Perhaps a lot of the same could be accomplished with XAML, as with vMix's animated Title input, but I for one am not familiar with the XAML process nor do I have the software to edit or modify it. I have dabbled in Flash and AE so I understand the animation process in those software's and am attracted to the notion of being able to customize my own animated templates.

Ice

The main advantages I can see of the CasparCG/vMix setup is:

1) It is a client/server model, so it allows you to run with a second operator managing the graphics separate from the mixer PC.
2) Whilst vMix does support flash inputs, it doesn't provide control software for managing those inputs. We've run some flash overlays and written our own control software, but it's not ideal. The built-in control of XAML inputs is great, but the animation possibilities and programmable nature of flash is more flexible than XAML.
3) Trying to manage a lot of graphics in the current vMix input layout is difficult. Once the number of inputs gets above about 10 (for me) I start to find it tricky to get the inputs I need on screen quickly. Some sort of input management system would eliminate this, which I've also put in a feature request somewhere I think.

It's definitely not essential to me, but I think it'd be a great tool, and particularly if other commercial CG's provide a similar dual SDI key/fill input it'd open up the market for vMix a bit more as well. VizRT Trio CG for instance appears to output Key/Fill over 2 channels as well.

Well done AmbotZ!
I think we are getting much closer to having functional motion graphics and lower thirds with this.
Is it full alpha or do you have to key out the black in vMix?

I have done some tests with Flash from CasparCG and even though they were full alpha I still had to key out black from the background in vMix, but I am no expert with Flash so I may have been wrong about how CasparCG uses the alpha channel.

@ Grimble
it wasn't the output from CasparCG I was using, just the swf file...
CasparCG's latest beta release 2.04 is experimenting with single channel alpha, again most of it is beyond my understanding, but it looks like we might be getting closer.

Ice

That looks fantastic AmbotZ!
Is the process difficult or are you planning to "share" in the near future?
Does everything need to be built into the swf file or will it work on any swf?

Ice

This is really cool... Well done @AmbotZ We that do not know much about flash animation should go and start now... vMix is fast becoming a killer switcher from the rest...