Difference between revisions of "Tarsier tutorial: Simple fly-through"

Revision as of 14:16, 6 July 2009

Pre-requisites for this tutorial?

• Tarsier tutorial: Raster data
• Tarsier tutorial: Raster resampler - if you have a Geographic (lat/lon) raster, which would need to be converted to UTM before rendering
• Tarsier tutorial: Renderer

Placing cameras

1. Make sure the flight from the Renderer tutorial is open.
2. The Renderview window should be selected
   1. click on the cams tab
   2. on the usee control click the view button, an Agency editor window should come up
3. Select the Agency editor window
   1. click the Add button (lower left), a new list item gets created, click on the item
   2. select new camera from left window of Agency editor
      1. From Type drop-down menu choose AGENT_PROP_CAMERA_1
4. Select the Cam1 tab
   1. Click the Keys button (upper left)
   2. use flight controls to place camera in first/start position
      1. input easting and northing from render window into agency editor
         1. OR you can also enable auto add copy in the agency editor and send cursor3 (world tab)
         2. click cursor on render view and a copy of the camera is placed in agency editor with easting and northing
         3. if using auto add copy method don't forget to delete original camera
      2. click Rec cam button in render window (upper left)
   3. click + Add copy button (agency editor) OR click render view with cursor to create copy of camera
      1. change time (num or text) of your new copy
   4. Make sure you are still on Cam1 tab and keys button is selected
      1. highlight new copy in agency editor
      2. use flight control keys to place camera in second position
      3. click Rec cam button
         1. confirm easting and northing match between agency editor and render window (if not toggle between two cameras in agency window)
         2. manually change time (either num or text) in agency editor, change it to a time later than camera 1 position (change time in accordance to preferences for individual project/user)
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until final camera position has been set
6. To view progress of camera flight
   1. Select Time tab
   2. Click view from Usee control
   3. Drag playback window to appropriate place on screen
   4. Place cursor over playback control buttons to reveal function of individual button
      1. When playing back, make sure to select which camera you want to start from in Agency editor
7. Record and view flight (NOTE: Must have Quicktime pro software)
   1. Go to the "rec" tab
   2. Check the "Auto record directly to vid\folder" box in the top left
   3. Repeat step 6. Start from the beginning. Make sure the render view window is unobstructed on monitor.
   4. Wait (NOTE: Do not open any other programs while recording) (NOTE: This may take several hours depending on complexity of the renderer and the selected econ value)
   5. When the flight finishes check the "Help Quicktime" button
   6. Un-check "Auto record"
   7. Open Quicktime
   8. file > open image sequence > navigate to "vid" folder in project folder
   9. Save file as Quicktime movie ".mov" anywhere except in the "vid" folder
   10. Delete "vid" folder before recording a new flight
   11. Share movie with friends
8. My flight looks kind of shaky. How do I make it fly smooth?
   1. Go to "cams" tab
   2. Check "none" for playback mode
   3. Check "Show current cam", "Show Cams" and "Show Paths"
   4. Fly "cam1" to each camera
   5. Select the camera
   6. View the camera editor
   7. Click the "Keys" button on the bottom middle of the camera editor window
   8. Straighten out the cameras
   9. Increase or decrease the "ins" and "outs" as necessary, then straighten out the cameras again

Notes & Tips

• Do not overdue camera placements
• Remember the path from Point A to Point B is interpolated, it may not follow the controls you used to get there (remember to utilize the playback function so you know what you are getting).
• In Cams tab enable Auto in playback mode to update render view when selecting cameras in agency editor.
• Always confirm easting and northing match new camera view in render window
• New camera views will not update until time has been changed
• To change the time of transitions from cam to cam change either the times of the camera placements (the "Scale Time 2" tab at the bottom of the agency editor window may be useful for this), OR change the value of Time 2 (ratio of tarsier time and real time).
• To change the start or end time of the fly-through click between the start and end time boxes with red text in the Model time tool window.