Graphics

Hello all,

We have just upgraded to 5.7 and I have a scene that contains a published quad. The Scene Director contains a Pause at the beginning. What I would like is for news producers to drop a video clip on the quad. That clip also contains audio. When playing out, the video pauses just like I expect. However, the audio plays immediately.

Is there a way to pause the audio? The reason to pause is for a director to be able to punch up a scene from the switcher. I have looked at scripting, but I wanted to check here before I got deep into that.

Thanks for any help.

Correction: The video is not pausing like I thought. So, how can I pause the clip that is loaded by a producer? Would I use OnOnline or OnSceneOnline? How would I "capture" the clip do be able to do something with it, like put it on a track in a Scene Director? Again, thanks.

#XPression

I too am having this problem and we are on v4.1 build 2134. Yea, we need to upgrade and plan on it but there is sooo much going on.

#XPression

You're right, you can't do this that way. When you change a video file directly from the sequencer, you don't affect the existing material, Xpression create a "Volatile Texture File"...

#XPression

Try it like this.. From layout mode, make sure you publish the Quad and assign a video material that has both Autoplay and Freerunning turned on.

Now edit the OnOnline script for the scene and place this script:

`dim quad as xpBaseObject

dim mat as xpMaterial

Self.GetObjectByName("Quad1", quad)

quad.GetMaterial(0, mat)

mat.Stop

mat.Position = 0

`

That script should make sure the video starts paused..

Now on the scene director, add a pause event to frame 0.

On frame 1, add a script event with the follow script that will play the video.

`dim quad as xpBaseObject

dim mat as xpMaterial

Scene.GetObjectByName("Quad1", quad)

quad.GetMaterial(0, mat)

mat.Play
`

This should work when changing videos through the sequencer.

#XPression

Brian,

Thanks for the script. I ended up using something very similar. Here is the OnOnline part:

dim base as xptexturedobject

dim mat as xpmaterial

dim vid as xpvideoshader

self.getobjectbyname("MATERIAL",base)

if base.getmaterial(0,mat) = true

mat.SetPlayMode(3)

end if

if mat.getshader(0,vid) = true

vid.unshaped = true

end if

I added the part with the xpVideoShader at the end to clean up the alpha channel on the texture or video being applied.

This is the Scrip on the track part:

dim base as xptexturedobject

dim mat as xpmaterial

scene.getobjectbyname("MATERIAL",base)

if base.getmaterial(0,mat) = true

mat.SetPlayMode(0)

end if

michael allen,

I don't think 4.1 has scripts in the scene director, but I think there is probably a way to execute a portion of code when the scene director is played after a pause.

#XPression

john,

4.1 does have scripting in the scene director and i will give this a try after the weekend.

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

the other script did not work but thank you.

#XPression

dang, this is dope. thank you.

#XPression

I love this forum. So much good info. In my shop the designer computer wasn't even installed yet when the trainer came, so I got limited designer instruction on the studio computer. I'm supposed to be the in house "expert" but I feel like I'm on "XPression for Dummies" Level 1 sometimes. But such is life.

I'm trying to bring in moving maps created through ChyronHego Axis and I'm using the instructions/scripting that Brian Ford posted earlier. The map plays through once and stops like it is supposed to, but it plays immediately upon putting the graphic online instead of pausing. At the bottom of the event marker's OnShow script there is a message that says: 3,0 BC30451 Name 'Self' is not declared. I'm wondering if that is the source of my problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

#XPression

Hi Dan,

I think where you went wrong is that you shouldn't be using the "Event Marker" for the scripting. In the example I posted above it was intended for the OnOnline script. You get to it by rightclicking on the topmost object in the Object Manager (the Scene Node), and choosing Edit Script Events. This will give you access to the OnOnline script. (It runs whenever the scene goes online).

#XPression

YES!

Thanks for explanation on where to find the OnOnline script. It made all the difference. Now all I have to do is get the newsroom to figure out why the .mov files they're sending won't work. I'm converting their files in Mpeg Streamclip to make them work, but no one has time to do that for every map every day :)

#XPression

The MOV's need to be converted to XPression codec to be able to play them in realtime. You can use the XPression Video Coder to convert them to XP codec. Are you saying that the XPression video coder is not able to transcode them, and that is why you are using MPEG Streamclip? Or you are wondering why the MOV's can't be played directly inside of XPression?

#XPression

Dan,

Look at the bitrate. We are looking at that right now. We are using axisgraphics to make animated maps but the rendered MOV files have very large bitrates. We are looking at setting up a watch folder to convert the files to a MOV file with a lower bitrate. I'll let you know how that turns out.

#XPression

In iNews they open up the template for the moving map and have a choice of inputting a .mov, .avi, .mpg or .mpeg. In ChryonHego Axis they're making and exporting a .mov file, but Xpression doesn't like it. I can take that same file and run it through Mpeg Streamclip and save it as a .mov and it plays in realtime. I think they're just creating the wrong flavor of .mov, if you will.

#XPression

I just got their map to work! We're going to try another one from scratch and see what happens. John, if it works, I'll post the settings we used so that you can see them.

Couldn't reproduce the result with a new map. We're reaching out to ChyronHego this morning. You would hope they would have a solution.

#XPression