Loading...
> >

Is there a way of delaying an animated texture?

Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

Hi.

I have a bank of 8 screens all to display the same animated texture, but I'd like a tiny delay between each screen. so screen 1 starts, then 1/16th of a second later 2 starts, 1/16th later 3 starts etc.

I could import 8 x videos all with a slightly longer delay in the video, but I'd rather not clutter up the memory too much. The video is quite large.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Comments

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    After Effects is your friend !

  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    DUDU_00001 said:
    After Effects is your friend !

    ha ha. Yeah kinda. Only I'd rather do it in Carrara when the camera is moving and I've got the lights set up.

    Are you suggesting some kind of tracking ability in After Effects where I could retro fit the screens? I still have much to learn in this area.

    btw. In terms of this project the idea is dead within Carrara due to the size of each AVI file. I'm going to have to stick with one AVI and have them display all at the same time.

    Still would be interesting to know. I tried adding the same AVI at different start points (using the current position in the timeline). It just messes up shader 2.

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited January 2014

    Under Master Shaders in the timeline you should see a keyframe for Movie Time. That's where you control it.... You might try an Oscillate tweener set to sawtooth... Or you might try the graph editor. It appears to animate from 0 to 1.

    Screen_Shot_2014-01-29_at_10.37_.50_AM_.png
    780 x 317 - 46K
    Screen_Shot_2014-01-29_at_10.36_.17_AM_.png
    247 x 404 - 20K
    Screen_Shot_2014-01-29_at_10.32_.51_AM_.png
    754 x 300 - 43K
    Post edited by wetcircuit on
  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    Awesome! Thanks holly. I've give it a try.

    The dream is still alive!

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Sci Fi Funk said:
    Awesome! Thanks holly. I've give it a try.

    The dream is still alive!

    As far as I can tell it would still require separate master shaders, but they could all reference the same AVI…. I don’t know if that would help conserve texture loading… but at least you wouldn’t have to have a bunch of different videos.

  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    holly wetcircuit said:
    [

    As far as I can tell it would still require separate master shaders, but they could all reference the same AVI…. I don’t know if that would help conserve texture loading… but at least you wouldn’t have to have a bunch of different videos.

    Yeah that's a worry. I'm trying it and I'll report back. I'd give it a while though - these animated textures always give me trouble. Probably because I only need them now and again and I forget the finer points.

  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    Thanks holly.

    Yes using the tweener of linear and an ease in value of 3% seems to be delaying things. They might run at different speeds. Still experimenting, but it doesn't seem to store the AVI in the CAR file. It might load them separately in memory. Still testing ....

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited January 2014

    … and if you select your two keyframes “Movie time” and that you move them of some images?

    Edit: ok, it's for one shader only...

    Post edited by DUDU on
  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    I have to confess I don't know how to use the graph editor. How do I add a key frame. I can drag around the first keyframe, but I can't figure out how to add / edit one on the graph editor.

    On a happier note. The tweener idea is working well. Better in fact because they all finish at the same point. It's quite spectacular in it's own way.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    I remade your test and indeed, Carrara does not seem to read the same file used in several textures.
    I believe that there is only the solution of render into multipass and reassembly in AE.

  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited January 2014

    DUDU_00001 said:
    I remade your test and indeed, Carrara does not seem to read the same file used in several textures.
    I believe that there is only the solution of render into multipass and reassembly in AE.

    Oh dear is that right?

    Well that's bad news for your RAM, but I'm glad to say it doesn't store the huge AVI files inside the scene (at least by default). Therefore if you follow hollys suggestion (I chose linear tweener and edited the start %s to stagger the take up of the scene), it will work fine if you have the RAM.

    I have 8GB and the AVI was about 0.5GB so it must do some kind of internal compression as I was fine.

    Also make an AVI twice as long as you need, insert it into a number of unique shaders, take the start and end points in the sequencer (shaders section) and move them to various random points in the timeline. You can now have a pseudo random look to your screens (if the AVI was showing lots of different scenes changing quickly).

    I'm quite happy. All done within Carrara this time (although I'm becoming a fan of AE with it's non destructive editing)

    Post edited by Sci Fi Funk on
  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    OK, it goes!
    But I must make a reading of film in the window of each duplicated texture if not, there are some things bizzares and the images remain fixed as soon as we touches at the keyframes…
    Have you the same problem ?

  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    DUDU_00001 said:
    OK, it goes!
    But I must make a reading of film in the window of each duplicated texture if not, there are some things bizzares and the images remain fixed as soon as we touches at the keyframes…
    Have you the same problem ?

    Hi there.

    I don't quite understand your problem. But I will say that the whole thing is a bit buggy and has potential to confuse!

    The preview (in the assemble room) is usually wrong. So take all render settings to minimum (for fast rendering) and check by rendering. I loaded up the AVI into 8 separate shaders. I did it manually to make sure. Also make sure that the player is at the left hand side (in the shader room). It will be there by default but I'm just saying.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    You are shure that the problem is in the assemly room only, not in the render ?

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    I sometimes used this delay before, but for only one shader.
    I believed that what one saw in the assembly room was equal to render but it is not the case apparently.
    Thanks for the tip...

  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    DUDU_00001 said:
    I sometimes used this delay before, but for only one shader.
    I believed that what one saw in the assembly room was equal to render but it is not the case apparently.
    Thanks for the tip...

    No worries. One thing to make sure you dont do is consolidate duplicate shaders. That will remove all your hard work with moving them around and leave a single copy.

  • DUDUDUDU Posts: 1,945
    edited December 1969

    Good to know too...;-)

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited December 1969

    So Steve, did you ever get the delay to occur?
    You should be able to sawtooth/oscillate the avi like Holly said, which will make the avi loop start-to-finish back to start immediately upon finishing. Now, if you grab those two key frames, the first and the last (or all keyframes if more than one) and drag them down the timeline to where you want the avi to start for the first time, that should cause a delay - but I'm not positive.

  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    Dartanbeck said:
    So Steve, did you ever get the delay to occur?
    You should be able to sawtooth/oscillate the avi like Holly said, which will make the avi loop start-to-finish back to start immediately upon finishing. Now, if you grab those two key frames, the first and the last (or all keyframes if more than one) and drag them down the timeline to where you want the avi to start for the first time, that should cause a delay - but I'm not positive.

    Yes - that's exactly what I did. However I used a linear tweener with a staggered 3% delay (so screen 1=0, 2=3%, 3=6%, 4=9% etc). It looks really nice.

    I'll do a tutorial (might as well - this held me up for a while today).

    :D

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,537
    edited December 1969

    Man, I am so happy to be back into animating scene for my own pleasure, once again! I'm amazed at how much better, faster, and more fluid at it I am now compared to not long ago. I guess I just notice it now because it really has been a while since I've been doing it.

    Where I used to rely more on animated files, like aniBlocks and PZ2s (not much BVH use, but some), I now find that I really enjoy keyframing in most of the things I need now - and I'm now much faster and more predictable - and the motions are rendering out really natural looking. Very happy = me!

    I try animating like this in Poser or DS, however.. OMG does it ever take forever! LOL

    Whoa... sorry for going off topic, there!

  • Sci Fi FunkSci Fi Funk Posts: 1,198
    edited December 1969

    Good stuff Dartan.

    It's just being at that point where you've done a technique before or it's similar to something you've done before. Cuts out all that experimenting time!

    What project are you working on then?

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Sci Fi Funk said:
    Good stuff Dartan.

    It's just being at that point where you've done a technique before or it's similar to something you've done before. Cuts out all that experimenting time!

    What project are you working on then?

    Uh oh! I hope you enjoy reading- a lot! :lol:

Sign In or Register to comment.