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Grimble  
#1 Posted : Saturday, June 29, 2013 5:20:11 AM(UTC)
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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.
IceStream  
#2 Posted : Saturday, June 29, 2013 12:40:24 PM(UTC)
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+1

fordry  
#3 Posted : Saturday, June 29, 2013 2:51:20 PM(UTC)
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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.
admin  
#4 Posted : Saturday, June 29, 2013 10:35:42 PM(UTC)
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I'd be curious to know what features in CasparCG you would like to use in particular.
From what I can tell it is a layering system similar to what you can do with MultiView in vMix.

There doesn't appear to be a built in character generator, instead relying on flash inputs which vMix also supports.

Regards,

Martin
vMix
IceStream  
#5 Posted : Sunday, June 30, 2013 1:26:46 AM(UTC)
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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
fordry  
#6 Posted : Monday, July 1, 2013 3:00:21 AM(UTC)
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Ya, Its the template capability of CasparCG. You build the template in Flash and then you can modify the editable fields and playback from CasparCG. I'm no programmer so I have no idea what their external programming stuff is capable of, but at the least being able to trigger templates with certain preset settings in the editable parts seems to be something other stuff can do (Justmacros). Its not hugely important as someone else can do the triggering. But to get perfectly timed transitions between Vmix and Caspar, it would about require that one is triggering the other or that a 3rd party is triggering both, as in Justmacros.
Grimble  
#7 Posted : Wednesday, July 3, 2013 6:57:45 AM(UTC)
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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.
AmbotZ  
#8 Posted : Wednesday, July 17, 2013 2:34:45 AM(UTC)
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Check my Flash animation control GUI here.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Expect to see more flash overlays for vMix in the future :D
Scoreboard, animated multi-view, animated lower-thirds, custom graphic stinger etc...
IceStream  
#9 Posted : Wednesday, July 17, 2013 11:53:56 AM(UTC)
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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?
AmbotZ  
#10 Posted : Wednesday, July 17, 2013 4:20:39 PM(UTC)
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@IceStream

FLASH supports full alpha. In my video it looks like the black is keyed out but it's not, the circle has a radial black to green gradient color :)
So far my Flash control can only edit text input, control animation PLAY, STOP, RESET with color slider/picker to change font color, I just added this.

Please follow my thread to get updates on this http://forums.vmix.com.a....aspx?g=posts&t=1139
I will be posting another video in the coming days controlling actual flash animated lower-third and graphics overlay like scoreboard and multi-view.


AmbotZ
thanks 1 user thanked AmbotZ for this useful post.
OpenROADer on 7/17/2013(UTC)
IceStream  
#11 Posted : Wednesday, July 17, 2013 4:37:15 PM(UTC)
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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  
#12 Posted : Thursday, July 18, 2013 3:11:58 AM(UTC)
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That's because the single output from CasparCG does not support an alpha channel. You need a pair of SDI outputs to support a key and fill signal, which unfortunately vMix doesn't support.
IceStream  
#13 Posted : Thursday, July 18, 2013 7:21:33 AM(UTC)
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@ 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
AmbotZ  
#14 Posted : Friday, July 19, 2013 11:02:12 AM(UTC)
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I posted a new video link here http://forums.vmix.com.a....aspx?g=posts&t=1139

I tested my GUI flash control on a customized flash animated lower thirds.
IceStream  
#15 Posted : Friday, July 19, 2013 1:48:48 PM(UTC)
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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
AmbotZ  
#16 Posted : Friday, July 19, 2013 5:27:56 PM(UTC)
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@IceStream

I created my GUI to show our friends in vMIX that it is possible to control a flash animated overlay if we are going to set
a standard/common actionscript for all to use in making SWF overlay targeting dynamic text field.

This feature can be added easily since the control wiil only modify a simple configuration text file "config.txt" that comes with my SWF.

Text configuration looks like this:

text1=HEADLINE
&text2=Subheadline
&text3=www.blahblah.com
&text4=
&text5=
&text6=
&text7=
&text8=
&color1=0x0000ff
&color2=0x000000
&color3=0xffff00
&color4=
&color5=
&color6=
&color7=
&color8=
&control=start

Let us wait for vMIx if they will add this feature... if not, I will probably share my Flash control :)
I am now started creating my collection of flash animated Lower-Third.

WATCH VIDEO HERE


Next time I will post a video controlling a flash animated Multiview overlay.


Regards,
AmbotZ



Damn2Good4U  
#17 Posted : Friday, July 19, 2013 6:32:46 PM(UTC)
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AmbotZ wrote:
@IceStream

I created my GUI to show our friends in vMIX that it is possible to control a flash animated overlay if we are going to set
a standard/common actionscript for all to use in making SWF overlay targeting dynamic text field.

This feature can be added easily since the control wiil only modify a simple configuration text file "config.txt" that comes with my SWF.

Text configuration looks like this:

text1=HEADLINE
&text2=Subheadline
&text3=www.blahblah.com
&text4=
&text5=
&text6=
&text7=
&text8=
&color1=0x0000ff
&color2=0x000000
&color3=0xffff00
&color4=
&color5=
&color6=
&color7=
&color8=
&control=start

Let us wait for vMIx if they will add this feature... if not, I will probably share my Flash control :)
I am now started creating my collection of flash animated Lower-Third.

WATCH VIDEO HERE


Next time I will post a video controlling a flash animated Multiview overlay.


Regards,
AmbotZ



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...

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CasparCG integration (Feature Requests)
by Rinsky 8/7/2013 10:34:48 AM(UTC)
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