9 replies to this topic

[Archeia]

This has been something that I've been wondering for a while now, but I haven't seen any threads about it. So I might as well
I have some questions (and possibly a script request I guess?) about the movie capabilities of VXACE?

1.) Is it possible to make a movie file run on the background. Like as a battleback or part of a panorama?
2.) Is it possible to include blending options for movie files? (Normal, Add, Sub)
3.) Is it possible that the movie playback won't interfere with the game? (like stop it for example)
4.) Is it also possible to change the z value of the movie to appear below/above a character?

If anyone wants an example/visual explanation... here's one:

Spoiler

Uhm, I think I should post some of the pros just in case.

1. For files that have too many animation frames. I have one that reaches over 180 frames and extracting them one by one as a picture takes time. And putting them as a spritesheet is also huge. Some image programs like photoshop doesn't allow to save it as a png and instead in another format. I think it's a huge time waster since I still would have to render them in a movie maker.

2. You can control the frames and time, add effects in a movie file than putting it all in RM or as an image file.



Alternatively, is there a size-and-processing efficient way of rendering tons of frames at once other than a spritesheet?

[Link]

Uhm...? Photoshop definitely can save to png...

[Archeia]

1. For files that have too many animation frames. I have one that reaches over 180 frames and extracting them one by one as a picture takes time. And putting them as a spritesheet is also huge. Some image programs like photoshop doesn't allow to save it as a png and instead in another format. I think it's a huge time waster since I still would have to render them in a movie maker.

If you want a literal example, 640x37440. (That's 90 frames)

Yes it can save PNGs. BUT at a specific size photoshop actually limits your options. You CAN'T SAVE as PSDs or PNGs or JPGs. You have to save as PSB (Photoshop Big File thingmajing)/TIFF and some other image format. We even had to use a separate image program to save it as PNG.

Go ahead and try it out, you'll see.

[Lemony]

I think that there isn't a simple scripting way of doing it since the movie playing is handled by a simple method call in the Graphics module. Maybe writing a new movie playing method and/or heavily editing the Graphics module. (or using a bunch of individual images for each frame.. Oh..)

It would be awesome to be able to do what you ask, specially for quick time events and other complex systems.

[Tsukihime]

microsoft paint allows you to save 640x40000 png's, though it was a blank image.


Anyways a new library will need to be written for the movies because as mentioned you have no real control over it.

It's probably just a "lol feature" kind of thing with no real plans for extension until maybe the next release.

Then they can say "allows you to control your movies!"

Edited by Tsukihime, 17 July 2012 - 01:55 PM.

[Vee]

This would be pretty awesome to have. I'd be willing to donate towards the development of a script that can do this.

[Victor Sant]

1) No.
2) No.
3) No.
4) No.

Yeah, sad, but the movies of ace are very limited...

But there's some workarounds.

You can make something like a animated sprite that displays Static images in sequence, with that all of the options would be doable.
In fact this is a good idea, i might do something like this.

1. For files that have too many animation frames. I have one that reaches over 180 frames and extracting them one by one as a picture takes time. And putting them as a spritesheet is also huge.

It would be better to leave them as separated files, and do something like the above.

Edited by Victor Sant, 17 July 2012 - 03:31 PM.

[Archeia]

But what if it's 300 frames with sizes 640x416
Then again, might as well do everything the hard way, ahaha D:

[Gleen]

Working with separate images will save you time.

[Vee]

...I have one that reaches over 180 frames and extracting them one by one as a picture takes time. And putting them as a spritesheet is also huge. Some image programs like photoshop doesn't allow to save it as a png and instead in another format. I think it's a huge time waster since I still would have to render them in a movie maker.

BTW, you can do this with Photoshop and save some time (over extracting one by one manually):

• File > Import > Video Frames to Layers...
  (Limitation is that it only does up to 500 frames. You can configure it to gather every 'N' frames though, as well as a starting and ending point.)
• File > Export > Render Video
  (Do not use 'File > Scripts > Export Layers to Files...'. That will take a long time to run, especially with a lot of layers. Seems it likes to iterate through all the sub layers for each layer export.)
• In the Render Video window, select 'Photoshop Image Sequence' and set the name of the file and the numbering how you want. If saving to .png format and some of the frames have transparency you need preserved then you'll want to configure the Alpha channel option as well.
  Not sure on straight vs. premultiplied? See this video that discusses it:
  Spoiler

There are probably other options as well. I believe Quicktime or Final Cut has an export to image sequence function as well that you could use.

Alternatively, is there a size-and-processing efficient way of rendering tons of frames at once other than a spritesheet?

Probably the best option is to have a custom script made that will look for files with the same prefix (Eg. 'Mymovie-00') and then run them in order based on the suffix ('Mymovie-001, Mymovie-002...). Putting them in a spritesheet is unrealistic. At least this way, since the frames are displayed as pictures you can apply effects to them or have them displayed above or below stuff. Not sure about the effect on processing. Might have to have the script buffer a percentage of the frames before running the movie.

Edited by Vee, 17 July 2012 - 07:04 PM.