I've been running a lot of experiments recently working with keyframed MSG animations. These are usually totally procedural, but you can also set things up to process the source image (or canvas) with the MSG effect if you want to.
Below is how i configure my Studio Artist V5.5 workspace to help facilitate this kindof approach.
I usually start by pressing the Inspire button in the Evolution Editor. I then keep doing that until i see something that catches my eye.
I then click the MSG preview i like, and i get mutated variants of it generated in the Evolution Editor. The one i clicked will propagate to the MSG Advanced Editor.
Note that i have the MSG memory toolbar turned on in the interface. You can turn it on or off in the MSG tab in the main preferences dialog.
If you option click the memory cell, the current MSG preset loaded into the MSG Advanced Editor is recorded in the option clicked memory cell. Clicking the memory cell plays back the MSG preset into the MSG Advanced Editor. Note that the concept of 'memory buttons' that playback of record interface settings is all over the place in the Studio Artist interface.
You can use these MSG memory buttons to keep track of different MSG preset parameter settings while editing a MSG effect. But they can also be used to directly generate keyframed MSG animation in the PASeq timeline. If you option control the MSG Advanced Editor panel (right click on windows), you get a set of MSG contextural menus. There is one that lets you convert the MSG memory cells to a PASeq timeline animation. When you run the contextural menu, it asks you for the number of frames between keyframe cells. I usually pick something like 10 to start to see how what i am working with interpolates.
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You can generate keyframed MSG animations in the PASeq timeline from either the MSG memory cells, or from the the Evolution Editor previews. Use the appropriate contextural menu option in the respective control panel.
Keyframe animation is going to work best for MSG presets where each MSG preset has the exact same Processor Chain configuration. This means that after you pick a MSG preset for building a keyframe animation from, you want to only mutate it from that point on to build new keyframes.
Swap or Add edits in the Evolution Editor change the internal structure of the MSG Processor Chain. You are of course free to do that to build new MSG keyframes, but keep in mind that they might not keyframe animate very well (or at all) with your other MSG keyframes that have different internal structures for their Processor Chains.
Even if the MSG Processor Chain is the same for the different keyframes, how well they interpolate animate is really something you have to play around with. They might lead to smooth interpolated animation, or interpolated animation that changes abruptly from time to time, or even from keyframe to keyframe. You really have to experiment to see what is going on for your particular MSG preset.
There are various approaches to try and smooth out MSG keyframe animation that has abrupt changes in its keyframe interpolation. You can use techniques like Transition Context re-timing of the animation to smooth things out. You can also use various temporal IpOp effects to iteratively smooth out a rapidly changing animation. We'll check out some of those techniques in later posts.
MSG is one of my favorite things (hard to choose a favorite though!) in Studio Artist. Glad to see new processors and ways of working with it. I usually have put rather high numbers in the Temporal Generators (in the thousands or tens of thousands) to get some smooth animations. I will try out some of the things you posted. Thanks!
this is one of my favorite things to do in s.a. i usually pick 5 because i like to go frame by frame with the movie after it's done and use different temporal presets to make a new movie. i usually use a still image for this process. yesterday i was using a movie and i was surprised to see that it was updating the frames of the movie as it was being created.
I mentioned there are 2 different contextural menu options you can use to generate procedurally keyframed MSG animation in the PASeq timeline. Here's the first one you can use to take recorded MSG memories in the MSG Advanced Editor and convert them into a keyframed animation in the PASeq timeline.
The second one is accessible in the Evolution Editor, and takes all of the current MSG evolution previews and converts them into keyframes in the PASeq timeline.
Both of these will ask you for the number of frames you want to space your keyframes apart with.
I guess we should have some additional editing options for more targeted keyframes transitions that start at a specific frame time and extend out from there for a specific transition period.
I added a new contextural menu option in the MSG Advanced Editor in V5.5.5 that lets you procedurally auto-generate TG (temporal generator) animation in the current MSG Preset.
If you run that and then click on the MSG preview, it will mutate variations into the Evolution Editor that all have TG animation built into them. There is a contextural menu option in the Evolution Editor that lets your see the running TG animation play out in the evolution grid.
This is a way where you can mutate live running MSG self-animating presets in the Evolution Editor.
Temporal Generators are an alternative to using keyframes for MSG animation. TGs are temporal oscillators that adjust parameter values over time procedurally.
Note in the MSG Advanced Editor screen shot that there is a contextural menu to time compress-expand the TGs associated with the current MSG preset. You could edit them all individually, but this contextural menu is a big time saver if you have a lot of them.
Here is a tip on procedural vs keyframed animation in MSG effects. it covers what temporal generators (TG) are, and how to edit them in the MSG Advanced Editor.
The display bug associated with the MSG memory displays you saw on some on some operating system versions (not all) is fixed now in Studio Artist V5.5.5. We're starting to lock down any V5.5.5 feature changes, so every V5.5 customer will get the V5.5.5 update in their myaccounts fairly soon. More info as we get closer to when that will happen.
I haven't used MSG yet. After reading your experiment, I think it's cool. Thank you for sharing.