3d Objects

[joshgubler]

I have a very simple arc I'm looking to shoot onto. Here's the setup:

3 projectors tiled (not blended) shooting onto a single arc (120' long w/ 70' radius). The projectors are each centered and squared up with their individual portions of the screen, so you could basically treat it like 3 separate and identical arcs. The "screen" is actually a curtain with fullness, so that will cover a little bit of distortion.

Do I need to create a model for this arc, or will catalyst handle the curved surface through internal settings (i.e. mix settings, etc.)?

Thanks.

[litemover]

Definitely use the curved screen submix. It's very reliable, I would try to get a Triplehead2go on it so that you can just use same layer and it will be guaranteed to stay in sync.

This way you could control the 3 way tile with one long piece or 3 separate pieces if you want. If you don't need to spread one image all the way across, I would still use the internal curved screen control on the submixes that you are needing for and use 2 machines for it, unless of course it is a very small resolution screen...

Alternatively, if you need absolute seamless screen blending with point control for luminosity, you could use a Spider but to me it sounds like Submix curve screen would work just fine in this situation. Even Catalysts Blending is completely and totally awesome, stack right up to a spider with a few small exceptions.

Hope this helps

Kindly,

Christian Choi

[joshgubler]

Thanks Christian,

The triplehead solution is exactly what we have planned. If it was just three separate images then distortion at the edges wouldn't be such a big deal. It's because we want to throw a panoramic image up on our panoramic screen that it has to be relatively clean. I'll play with submix curves. Thanks.

[litemover]

Thanks Christian,

The triplehead solution is exactly what we have planned. If it was just three separate images then distortion at the edges wouldn't be such a big deal. It's because we want to throw a panoramic image up on our panoramic screen that it has to be relatively clean. I'll play with submix curves. Thanks.

u need to make sure that you aren't using old G5 1.8ghz or 2ghz ppc machines that have only 512mb of memory if you go with the tripleheads. You really should have at least a dual 2.5 ppc or macintel with 2gb or higher mem and you need a dual link video card on the machine that you are using the triplehead2go on, also, don't mix and match resolutions, keep the general default settings in the tripleheads and don't futz with them and you'll be right. , Catalyst like the same resolutions out of each of the outputs of the triplehead.

BTW, the blending in Cat is awesome, very reliable and even with HD. You should try blending your submixes so they are seamless.

Hope that helps.
cc
Christian

[samsc]

u need to make sure that you aren't using old G5 1.8ghz or 2ghz ppc machines that have only 512mb of memory if you go with the tripleheads. You really should have at least a dual 2.5 ppc or macintel with 2gb or higher mem and you need a dual link video card on the machine that you are using the triplehead2go on, also, don't mix and match resolutions, keep the general default settings in the tripleheads and don't futz with them and you'll be right. , Catalyst like the same resolutions out of each of the outputs of the triplehead.

BTW, the blending in Cat is awesome, very reliable and even with HD. You should try blending your submixes so they are seamless.

Hope that helps.
cc
Christian

nothing less than intel or quad g5. pci-e
doing the resolutions required 2400x600 or 3072x768 isnt even properly supported on older graphics cards.

[joshgubler]

We've already done a couple of shows using 2 tripleheads, so I'm sure we will be fine here since we're only using one. Are you saying that I need to run my preview monitor at 1024x768 and my triplehead at 3072x768 (I know the machine can handle this as I've run both outputs at 3072x768)? Or can I run my preview monitor higher? We're doing all of the programming through the hud for this show, so it would really help to have as big a preview monitor as possible.

I think edge blending would be cleaner as well, but my designer has done a test shoot and he's convinced that tiling is clean enough. He's afraid of loosing intensity by having to spread each of the projectors over a larger area.

[samsc]

We've already done a couple of shows using 2 tripleheads, so I'm sure we will be fine here since we're only using one. Are you saying that I need to run my preview monitor at 1024x768 and my triplehead at 3072x768 (I know the machine can handle this as I've run both outputs at 3072x768)? Or can I run my preview monitor higher? We're doing all of the programming through the hud for this show, so it would really help to have as big a preview monitor as possible.

vga refresh rates on multiple monitors can interfere-
sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt.
60Hz isnt exactly 60Hz 75Hz isnt 75Hz.
at 1280x1024 its 59.98 and 1024x768 its 60.02 - things like this- at different resolutions the refresh is different
you set one screen to one resolution and the other to another - and the real refresh rates cannot be handled very well.
you have to test.
its much better on intel machines. but not good on older g5's

I think edge blending would be cleaner as well, but my designer has done a test shoot and he's convinced that tiling is clean enough. He's afraid of loosing intensity by having to spread each of the projectors over a larger area.

'edge' blending isnt just a computer thing - it can be the projector angle, the projector brightnesses, color temperature, angle of incidence, screen gain. all sorts of things.
projecting a image onto a screen - has falloff to the edges because the light has travelled further, and light falloffs is 1/(distance squared )

[SourceChild]

I think edge blending would be cleaner...
...my designer has done a test shoot...afraid of loosing intensity by having to spread each of the projectors...

Trust me on this, if you can blend, even a little bit, it will look so much better. With even the slightest overlap of two butted edges, your intensity increases and it is very noticeable.

...3 projectors tiled (not blended) shooting onto a single arc...
...120' long...

Something of a concern, you mention 120'. That would mean a single projected image size of 30'x40'.
I am not sure what projectors you are using but that is a huge image.

I typically use LX-100 10k projectors and the largest size I would ever shoot is 18'x24' and that is in low light. Even if you are using a 20k projector, 30x40 is still huge and will only be about a tenth as bright as a typical screen.

If you're worried about running everything off of a single Catalyst, remember you can use 2 TH2Gs and run 5 projectors and put your HUD on one of the six outputs.

I have some intensity equations if you're interested.

[litemover]

Catalyst Blending works great, even at high Def.

If you need it to look better, work with the projectionist to do a dual blend between the projectors and Catalyst simultaneously, set a blend of around 20 to 35%, leave up the alignment marks then let the projectionist work out the rest of it.

If you are working in an extreme situation with a rediculous amount of souces that need to blended, composited, PIP, pixel adds, etc..., and don't want any hastles, USE A SPYDER and don't cheap out.

You can see everything that a Spyder does here: Vistasystems

For most cases though, Cat edge blending and a combination of projectionist will/knowledge will go a long way so treat your projectionist with class.

CC

[SourceChild]

work with the projectionist to do a dual blend between the projectors and Catalyst simultaneously...

What do you mean by this, "Dual blend between the projectors and Catalyst?"

You can see everything that a Spyder does here: Vistasystems

What are the costs of the different Spyders and are they worth it?