Crazy Keystoning

[Marty Postma]

Landy,

There are 2 ways to appraoch this, and they can be done separatley or both together.

The first thing you want to look at is using the "Mix Shape Control". This will allow you to Keystone each of your three Output Mixes separately directly via DMX. It only takes up 8 channels of DMX per Mix, and is patched in the Cat server the same way a layer is.

This looks like it will solve your problems in pictures 2 and 3.

In picture 1 if you need say 1 layer per set piece, then you will need to either keystone on the layers or do some serious prep of your content.

To Keystone on a layer you must select the proper Visual FX mode of "Movie on Keystone" to get the Keystone parameters to work on that layer.....and yes this Effect will change your scale.

Another thing that might help you is to use Scale to shrink your layer down some. Then use X and Y position to move it to where you need it. Followed by fine tuning with the layer Keystone.

So in short for you picture #1:
1 - Set your Mix Shape Control to line up the edges as best possible for all the set pieces covered by each mix
2 - Set Visual FX to "Movie on Keystone" for all the layers you need to use

Then layer by layer:
3 - Scale image down
4 - Move with X and Y Pos
5 - Adjust with Scale and X/Y Pos to get as close as possible
(You also may want to try adjusting either the Horizontal or Vertical Aspect ratio here as well)
6 - Use Layer Keystone to clean it all up

Hope this helps

[samsc]

dont use keystone on a layer- dont even touch it-

dont mess with the keystone visual fx layer parameters -

use keystone on sub-mix - then all perspectives and scales on layers stay aligned - and you can playback multiple layers on the same object - keeping everything aligned - just by routing a layer to an output mix - its much much easier.

use one sub-mix for each object on stage-

you will need an alignment image which allows for easy adjustment for every object on stage - probably matching the aspect ratio of the objects on stage.

[Marty Postma]

dont use keystone on a layer- dont even touch it-

dont mess with the keystone visual fx layer parameters -

use keystone on sub-mix - then all perspectives and scales on layers stay aligned - and you can playback multiple layers on the same object - keeping everything aligned - just by routing a layer to an output mix - its much much easier.

use one sub-mix for each object on stage-

you will need an alignment image which allows for easy adjustment for every object on stage - probably matching the aspect ratio of the objects on stage.

Of course using Mixes is the ideal way to go....as long as you have a full PRO version server this should work well....otherwise you will run out of available Mixes fast.

So in this case, set up 6 Mixes, 2 per "output" of the Triple head that cover the entire raster of their respective "output", and then you can use the Mix Shape Control to adjust them to fit the set pieces.

If, for some reason, you need more than 8 Mixes at once to do this, you will get in to trouble, and have to use some of the steps I listed initially.

[samsc]

Of course using Mixes is the ideal way to go....as long as you have a full PRO version server this should work well....otherwise you will run out of available Mixes fast.

So in this case, set up 6 Mixes, 2 per "output" of the Triple head that cover the entire raster of their respective "output", and then you can use the Mix Shape Control to adjust them to fit the set pieces.

If, for some reason, you need more than 8 Mixes at once to do this, you will get in to trouble, and have to use some of the steps I listed initially.

i have watched people setup these things and done them myself. its much easier setting up the mix.
i did a show at the royal opera house earlier in the year - chris wheeldon with this type of set arrangement -
lloyd newson of dv8 is also doing something similar on his current touring show. lots of little bits of set.
Leo is also doing this type of thing with 13 mixes on a touring show called 'alex'

i have increased number of mixes in all versions for exactly this type of thing.
pro has 10 mixes - dv 8 - express 6 - lite 4...

you can change the mix keystone over dmx.

you need to work out method for yourself of doing thing type of thing - its all in the setup slides you create for yourself you need a grid with lots of crosses to hit the objects on the set.
to set marks for the mix keystone.

[ljb2of3]

Thanks for the replies, good information in there!

I like the idea of having a mix per object, but I'm wondering... is it possible to reroute layers to different mixes via dmx? We have our entire show mapped out in layers, but those layers serve different functions over the course of the show.

Looking at the ground plans, we have 22 different setups for all those boxes.

We do have a pro server, so we have access to all the features. I'm on my way up to the theater now so I can play with it again. Thanks for the help!

[samsc]

Thanks for the replies, good information in there!

I like the idea of having a mix per object, but I'm wondering... is it possible to reroute layers to different mixes via dmx? We have our entire show mapped out in layers, but those layers serve different functions over the course of the show.

Looking at the ground plans, we have 22 different setups for all those boxes.

We do have a pro server, so we have access to all the features. I'm on my way up to the theater now so I can play with it again. Thanks for the help!

yes it is possible to reroute the mix via dmx.

the enormous advantage of running the mix per object is that once its setup - you can run any movie or layer on the mix, shift its position, and scale it in and out- and its all perspectively correct.

[ljb2of3]

Ok, so I figured out how to patch the mix layer select and mix shape... where can I find a DMX chart for those? The manual in catalyst only has the dmx charts for layers.

I've figured out how to assign mixes to outputs, so I've set it up so that three mixes are on the left screen and three are on the right screen. Thats where I need the most keystone control... I've left the center screen without any mixes besides mix 2 (output 2 runs all this) so I think I should be able to use run some layers there like normal.

Maybe I'll know when I see a dmx chart, but can I also change where mixes are assigned? I most likely can get along with only three mixes per side projector, but I'd like to know if it possible just in case they throw something even more crazy at me.

Thanks!