Projecting graphics over live video

[Andrei Zakow]

Great, thanks.

So I got QC to work and I have the live video inputting with the animation on top but now I can’t figure out how to successfully get this composite to play out of the projector. Is it really just something like enabling “mirror” etc for the display…

I’ve been looking online to for answers to no avail.

[Walter Soyka]

Yes, mirroring the display should do it — or opening the composition full screen on the second display.

System Preferences > Displays > Show displays in menu bar

This will add a little monitor icon to your menu bar, and you can set the display resolution and toggle between mirror and extension mode from there.

Walter Soyka, Principal
Keen Live, Inc.
Presentation, Motion Graphics & Widescreen Design
RenderBreak: A Blog on Innovation in Production

[Gary Renaud]

We make an exhibit called Face Age for children’s science centers that allow them to aged their face and see how their face will change as they will grow up and grow older. To do this we need to first capture a good face image. We are developing a new face acquisition system that involves a webcam positioned above an LCD monitor.

To capture a face image, we present the user with a live video of their face however there is no guide for indicating how close they should be to the camera before taking their face pictures which often causes reject face images. Very frustrating.
What I would like to do is place an static oval ring over the live video so that the user can use it as a centering and positioning aid. And I would like to do this using software only i.e. no external switchers if possible. We are running Windows XP Pro. I would need to have some control over the color and opacity of the oval ring.

Can you suggest any ideas to accomplish this?

[Gary Renaud]

Let me be a little clearer if I can. I want to display live video on a regular LCD monitor and then overlay a fixed static oval ring onto the middle of that live video as a visual positioning aid. The live video is coming from a webcam placed above the LCD monitor. Face position and size is very important to our Face Aging application.

[Walter Soyka]

Gary, presumably you are using some custom software to take the pictures? Can’t you build this in?

If you’re using something off-the-shelf, perhaps contact the developers about your specific need?

Or what about a low-tech solution — a physical mask around the screen?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Gary Renaud]

Thank you for your reply. We are using very specific webcam software, the only one we’ve that works for our other requirements because what we are doing is not straight forward. We could of course contact that webcam software company as you suggest to see what they suggest. However I know we cannot place a physically permanent graphic on the monitor screen (as nice and simple as that sounds to me) since we need the monitor’s full real estate to display the aged images later on. I had suggested to my programmer that we set the video at 50% opacity and place the graphic oval in behind the live video but he says we do not have that ability with this webcam software. What to do. Any other ideas??

[Walter Soyka]

This is outside my realm of expertise, but your developer might be able to write a second program that lays the guide window in over top of the other running applications. The old Adobe apps on Windows used to have irregular, partially transparent splash screens when they loaded, so it’s certainly possible to do.

On the simple fix side, since masking the display won’t work, what about masking the camera lens itself? You could have a circular filter made for your lens size.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[David Arseneault]

Hello there, I have read your responses back in 2009 and I am looking to do the exact same thing with a Halloween project. I would like to have a live feed from a camera and have white ghost like graphics appear on the screen with the live view. Can you please tell me how you accomplished this.

Thank you