Video as a material

[David Ormsby]

As I recall, it only showed the first frame in the editor. But it rendered out as it should.

[Greg Paterson]

This is the problem ….you only see the first frame in the editor.
This is fine unless you need to key frame an object to the position of a subject in the video.
To date the only way I can do this is by setting the video frame I want as the first frame…. render the view and with a felt pen mark the position on the monitor. Change the first frame to the next desired frame and repeat the excercise.
After this I can match the position of my C4D object to the marks on my monitor …… PRIMATIVE Indeed!

Had a good look on COW and the C4D plugin sites but could not find the plugin Brian mentioned.

Cheers
Greg

[Nolan Scott]

Please have a look at this link at “postforum”

https://www.postforum.com/forums/read.php?f=6&i=117256&t=117256

“tcastudio” might have a solution for you.

Cheers
Nolan

[Brian Jones]

That was it! 10Comm. I have never got the xpresso thing to work though, not in 9 anyway. Is there a secret?

[Greg Paterson]

Thanks for that.

I have got the Xpresso version kind of running.
That ‘track’ tagged onto the movie start frame has me a bit puzzled.
Not sure what to do with this.
Also why is the frame rate only 1?

Any references?

Greg

[Lennart Wåhlin]

To make a long story short. Use the example files as a template.
Make sure your clip is the same length as the scene.
-Allways- use picture series for animated material.
If your scene differs in length from the example, delete the last “movieStartFrame” Key and set a new one at the last frame of your scene.
(If your scene is 241 frames, Key that.)
Change the “MovieEndFrame” to one -less- than your scene (240).
FrameRate have to be “1” or your render will not match.
Note, the second last frame -will- be wrong. (Don’t ask)

The Xpresso setup -sort- of work.
The 10comm -sort- of work better. -Plus- it caches the animation so you can shuffle back and forth in more than real time.
If possible use the Background Object instead. That does work.
And post to Maxon about this.
Thats all I can say.

Cheers
Lennart

[Lennart Wåhlin]

Oh.
Also use none compressed picture series. Like tif, tga etc. Makes a big difference in performance.
Cinema then dont have to unpack each and every frame for playback.

Cheers
Lennart

[Greg Paterson]

Thanks Lennart,

I am using DV AVi type 2 and all seem to work fine.
In the editor if I move frame by frame all is perfect but pressing play C4D runs out of puff and resorts to wire frame view.
Not a prob for me as all i am doing is macthing video subject position to create a spline path for a C4D object.
I know SFA about Xpresso programming.
Thanks for sharing your work.

Regards
GReg

[John Paterson]

The background object is really useful because it allows the video applied to it to run in real time as you run your animation. It also frames the material orthogonally, ie square to the camera which helps greatly when you are trying to place 3D objects in the scene. No matter how you orbit within your scene, the video material stays square to camera. The material also fits exactly the output dimensions that you set up in your Render Settings.