45 replies to this topic

[News]

Thanks to VideoClix and Xfire you can check out the new interactive version of Full Micro Jacket. We'd like to know what you guys think of the interactive video features. Please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments thread.

[Weiman]

First lol.

Uh, I think there are some mis-taggings in there.

Like, Pvt. JAck-O-Latern, that's forthex, and S1n would be cb_32.

[LalaLand]

This is awesome! Hopefully when the PP dvds go Blu ray the PP crew will include features like this; on DVD's it's not possibly but with blu-ray it is.

[StrikerZero]

Jack-O-Latern ftw xD

[reaper234]

late much?

[amorpheous]

Ugh, "Gen. Douglas" was so not right for that role. He can't bellow like the original Sergeant from FMJ. Same goes for the privates tbh.

Great dialogue as always though. rofl @ "Private Myren" <3

[Kadajiroth]

First lol.

Uh, I think there are some mis-taggings in there.

Like, Pvt. JAck-O-Latern, that's forthex, and S1n would be cb_32.

I was just about to mention that. I don't even know the guys personally, but I knew that was cb_32, not S1N.

Well done though, but not too good for a first time view (to all those who haven't seen it before), since it's too tempting to be clicking on stuff and I'd imagine it'd be distracting, haha.

[Brenner]

how much time does it take to define the clickable boxes for each frame?

[Fate]

First lol.

Uh, I think there are some mis-taggings in there.

Like, Pvt. JAck-O-Latern, that's forthex, and S1n would be cb_32.

Oh just fail. qftl

[KuroFalcon]

Yeah I knew something was wrong when my darling S1N wasn't actually in there.

[Obidan]

how much time does it take to define the clickable boxes for each frame?

I would also like to know the answer for that.
Awesome feature

[diamondandy]

I enjoyed it, made me smile first thing after a late night out

[tankian]

nice, liked being able to see who was who, gave u a bit more of a behind the scenes look, and that "special envoy" in the background was interesting...

[LalaLand]

how much time does it take to define the clickable boxes for each frame?

Well, the video is done in flash -- so what they more then likely do is draw a mask around the object and then tween (animate) the mask to follow the object while it's still in frame. If you haven't noticed, when you click anywhere on the frame that isn't a specificed object a simple message about the "Gamer army" pops up -- meaning they don't have to mask everything in there, only the specific objects they want - which sounds fairly obvious but it saves a ton of time.

Now, since these masks are invisible they don't have to be perfect rotoscopes either, so they can do very simple tweens -- if the camera pans left the subject moves right, so the tween is simply keyframing between two points - the first and last - and the software fills in the rest.


For a single frame? Not very long. You just adjust the verticals of the mask; it's the action script of the video that defines the mask as a button which results in an action. Once you write that code it's a matter of copying and pasting it. If you've ever done lightsabers in an application like photoshop or After Effects you'll know how time staking rotoscoping can be - becuase you have to draw EXACT masks in much shorter keyframe intervals. Here as I mentioned the masks need not be so exact for simple objects - for more complex ones they may - unless they just draw a box around people or something similar.

So it ranges from either very quickly or quite a while; depending on the amount of effort you put into creating the mask. I know this is a long response, but I specialize in video composting so I thought I'd give you a heads up on what was going on behind the scenes to help answer your question. Making a video like this would actually be fairly simple assuming you know action script.

To make a long answer short: It depends really. Mostly on the complexity of the masks, but I'd say they're fairly simple.

[-cb_32-]

First lol.

Uh, I think there are some mis-taggings in there.

Like, Pvt. JAck-O-Latern, that's forthex, and S1n would be cb_32.

Word.

[VideoClix]

Thanks LalaLand,
You're half right. here is the full explanation.

The segmentation and tracking is done with our software called VideoClix, in development since 1999.
It allows you to tag objects within video. Once tagged the tracking algorithms take over and track the object throughout the video.
This is what the authoring app looks like:

The Tracking algorithms track color, contour, texture and movement. Then with AI the results are combined to detect the object in each frame.
Then when the object is detected a primitive hotspot (simple shape) is created that best fits the shape of the object.
Here is a sample: (red is detection algorithm white is the vector based hotspot)

Then when all objects are tracked, info, fun facts, story line, bios, download links are entered into each object info panel through an online tool, which looks like this: http://www.videoclix...ent_campain.png

Then the video goes live and it can be embedded in any website. To answer the question how long... well, the tracking is real time. But it can be even shorter than real time if a technique like tweening, which you mentioned, is used. Basically the tracking system would track each 4th or 8th frame... then tween between the keyframes. The software then interpolates the rest of the hotspot positions.

For you guys wondering what tween means... it originates from the word "Between" keyframes.

I'll let the boys know about the cb_32 and S1N mis tags.
Hope you still enjoyed the video.
Cheers
--
The VideoClix team.

[LalaLand]

Oh, neat, you guys developed your own software to do the tracking automatically. Pretty cool. Hypothetically it could do it manually as I described but that'd take a lot longer!

Just took a look at your SWF demonstration; looks like it works almost identically to the motion tracking in AE. Great stuff!

[Tree_]

Now I can see the names of the people not making me laugh...?

[Zeos]

Ugh, "Gen. Douglas" was so not right for that role. He can't bellow like the original Sergeant from FMJ. Same goes for the privates tbh.

Great dialogue as always though. rofl @ "Private Myren" <3

I second this.

[Shaun.]

Now I can see the names of the people not making me laugh...?

burn.