| Please note that this is a BETA version of the document. All information presented is correct but we are working on improving the details. |
Introduction
In this document, we discuss the function and setup procedure of the Studio Control Panel.
NOTE: By this point, you should already have finished keying the video input. If you haven't keyed the video input yet, then we recommend proceeding to the following documents:
Studio Control Panel
The Studio control panel is essentially a 3D cropping tool used to establish a video crop of the tracked cameras' video input. Since tracked cameras can freely move in the studio space, cropping their video input requires additional steps compared to the Virtual Camera compounds' Crop X control panels.
You can find the Studio control panel on the INPUTS control board.
As usual, after selecting it you can find its adjustable parameters on the right side of the screen, on the Pin Values tab.
Setting up the Studio
First, on the MONITOR X control panel click on the Studio button to switch to Studio view mode.
You should see a virtual grid superimposed on your video input, like this:
NOTE: the green PLAY 1-- overlay in the upper left corner is displayed because in the example a prerecorded video is used for demonstration.
The virtual helper grid has two different types.
Walls are standard grids that we align with real-world studio walls.
Green grids align with the green screen to crop out the unnecessary parts of the video input.
NOTE: In the screenshots above we represent the default position of the grids, before alignment.
Base Cam Transformation
The Base Cam Transformation parameters allow for aligning the orientation of the virtual Walls with our real-world physical studio. This is an important step if we are working with a smaller green screen and if we want to maximize the effective area of the cropping.
If the tracked camera and the green screen are on the same floor (height), then do not adjust the Y parameter (which is the second box of the Pos row). Otherwise, it is suggested to use the CTRL + SHIFT key while editing the Y value for fine adjustments.
The Base Cam Transformation parameters are as follow:
Pos - Position, from left to right these are the X, Y, and Z coordinates of the virtual Walls. These parameters use meters for measurement.
Rot - Rotation, from left to right these are the rX, rY, and rZ coordinates of the virtual Walls. These parameters use the degree for the measure.
NOTE: You can learn more about Camera and Head Transformations here.
Wall
The Base Cam Transformation is best used in conjunction with the Wall pins. They allow for the independent positioning of the virtual Walls. These pins use meters for measure and they are named based on the camera's perspective.
Front Wall - The Wall in front of the camera, usually the green screen itself.
Left Wall - The Wall to the left of the camera.
Right Wall - The Wall to the right of the camera.
Back Wall - The Wall behind the camera. In a bigger green screen studio, the camera may be able to move more than 180 degrees within the green screen.
Ceiling - The ceiling of the real-world physical studio
Floor - If the tracked camera and the green screen are on the same floor (height), then do not adjust this pin.
Here's our results after setting up the Walls:
Green
Use the Green pins to crop out the unnecessary parts of the video input. The Green pins use meters for measuring, just like the Wall pins.
Green Front Left - adjusts the crop mask's left edge on the Front Wall.
Green Front Right - adjusts the crop mask's right edge on the Front Wall.
Green Left - adjusts the crop mask's left side on the Left Wall. Useful when the green screen is a corner setup.
Green Right - adjusts the crop mask's right side on the Right Wall. Useful when the green screen is a corner setup.
Green Top - adjusts the crop mask's height on the Front Wall.
Green Floor - adjusts the crop mask's length on the Floor (the higher the value, the closer its edge will reach towards the camera).
Here's our results after setting up the Green:
Additional Pins
Wall Opacity
Lowering its value will make the virtual helper grid more transparent while increasing its value will make it more opaque (or the video input more transparent).
Show Green
It turns on/off the Green mask allowing us to see clearly the results of the crop mask (the part of the video input we want to use).
Show Non-Green
It turns on/off the Wall mask allowing us to see clearly everything we cropped out of the video input.
Talent Trk
These pins are used for cases when the tracking system used for talent tracking differs from the camera tracking one, and the aligning of their coordinate systems is not possible in any other way.
Use Talent Trk Area - turns on using Talent Trk Transf's value to align the two tracking systems
Show Talent Trk Area - turns on / off the display of the Talent Tracking Area on the virtual helper grid. NOTE: it is affected by the Wall opacity pin.
Talent Trk Area Size - defines the Talent Tracking Area's size. It uses meters for measure.
Talent Trk Transf - allows for individual alignment of the Talent Tracking Device's coordinate system.
Marker
Markers are virtual reference objects useful for checking the precision of the tracking system as well as checking the scaling of the virtual scene.
Show Marker X - turns on / off the marker
Marker X Pos - allows for the positioning of the marker alongside the X, Y, and Z axes. It uses meters for measuring.
Marker X Height - defines how tall the marker is. It uses meters for measuring.
Studio Models
Studio Models can be used when the Studio control panel is not enough to crop your green.
You can specify more abstract green areas by importing and connecting 3D models to the Green Model pin of the TrackedCam_xxxx.xcomp compound.
You can also specify more abstract non-green areas by connecting 3D models to the Additional Mask pin.
These models for example can mask out a studio lamp in front of a green screen or specify the boundaries of a complex green wall.
For example, here a Rectangle body module is connected to the Green Model pin.
NOTE: The Rectangle module is a basic primitive shape inside the Flow Editor. The Scene Node module is used to rotate and position the model.
By rotating the Rectangle it is possible to make the green floor diagonal.
Here a studio lamp is masked out from the green. The green area was set in the Studio control panel and the mask was created by connecting a Box body module to the Additional Mask pin.
NOTE: Show Green and Show Non-Green pins also affect these models' visibility and can help greatly when placing these models.
If you want to use your own models and you are not sure how to import models, then follow this document: Importing a 3D model
