So my SA V5.5 art strategy for this kind of thing is to build a simple PASeq that process a movie frame. I started by loading a source movie. Then i run Action : Process with PASeq. If you want to output the rendered movie file you can go source movie to movie. If you don't want to output the movie file, you can cancel the final dialog and it will still run without outputting frames.
My PASeq was built to overdraw (don't erase the canvas). You can add 'Pre-Processing' actions in the beginning of the PASeq that modify the existing canvas in some way. I usually use a combination of a 'dissipative' action step, and a 'fade' action step.
Dissipative could be feathering, or water melt, or a geodesic ip op effect, or whatever your imagine can come up with. There are 100s, 1000s, or more different things you could do in SA to achieve this kind of effect.
For this example i'm using a water drop paint preset.
'Fade' means something that reduces the impact of previous frame draws over time. Now it could just be a fade to some fixed background color (Fixed Color IpOp). But usually i go for something way more sophisticated.
For this example i'm using a multi-octave gradient lighting effect. In combination with a custom Smart Blur IpOp that adaptive media filters into a Differential Darken composite effect.
Once you do the 'Pre-Processing' action steps, then you can do your actual painting.
For this example, i used a watershed path start regionization effect (where i cut down the Number of indexes to skip any large regions which are in the black background for this source movie). I did the index cut down so i would not paint over all of my previous frame with black paint.
I then used 3 passes of the Color Edge IpOp setup to draw vector edge sketches (3 octaves, progressively getting smaller brush size as th detail increases an octave).
I also used a selection mask that masked out the black background. I used that (feathered) to not process the painted figures with the dissipative and fade actions. I then inverted that for the ColorEdge IpOp action steps.
I did not use selection masking for my dynamic paint. My index cutoff for that effectively does it, but in a very loose way that spills paint out beyond the boundary of that selection mask (which is tight on the figures).
This may sound complicated, but again, it's a super simple PASeq when you dive into it.
You want to not do full paint coverage necessarily in your painting. This is because the details will fill in over successive frames (but being based off of the object movement. This (in combination with the Pre-Processing effects) work to build a much more interesting and complex painted look than you would have gotten without that stuff dynamically cooking over several frame cycles.
You're probably one of the few people who really groks what i'm talking about when i refer to pre-processing steps consisting of a 'dissipative' part and a 'fade' part.
My personal frustration is that most people do not seem to get this stuff at all. At least recent customers. People who watched me do live trade show demos back when we did live trade shows probably have a clue.
John, I am one of those who does not understand....but I am very very interested in possibilities. I know you are very extremely busy with the new release, but when you can please do an explicit training video on this for beginner "ignoramuses" (me) . I envision my future way beyond print.There are stories to be told in video/film that are not being told and I want to do that. This is so exciting.
Really fascinating example. Thank you for all the details on what you did here. Yes, I was one of those watchers at trade shows, but since I don't work in SA daily, I feel like I am only using about 1% of the capabilities of the SA app. This last week though I had a bit of a breakthrough and I feel like I got up to 2%. What I would say to newer StudioArtist customers is the time spent reading and looking around in this forum stimulates ideas and investigations into features, and is well worth every minute.
Comments
So my SA V5.5 art strategy for this kind of thing is to build a simple PASeq that process a movie frame. I started by loading a source movie. Then i run Action : Process with PASeq. If you want to output the rendered movie file you can go source movie to movie. If you don't want to output the movie file, you can cancel the final dialog and it will still run without outputting frames.
My PASeq was built to overdraw (don't erase the canvas). You can add 'Pre-Processing' actions in the beginning of the PASeq that modify the existing canvas in some way. I usually use a combination of a 'dissipative' action step, and a 'fade' action step.
Dissipative could be feathering, or water melt, or a geodesic ip op effect, or whatever your imagine can come up with. There are 100s, 1000s, or more different things you could do in SA to achieve this kind of effect.
For this example i'm using a water drop paint preset.
'Fade' means something that reduces the impact of previous frame draws over time. Now it could just be a fade to some fixed background color (Fixed Color IpOp). But usually i go for something way more sophisticated.
For this example i'm using a multi-octave gradient lighting effect. In combination with a custom Smart Blur IpOp that adaptive media filters into a Differential Darken composite effect.
Once you do the 'Pre-Processing' action steps, then you can do your actual painting.
For this example, i used a watershed path start regionization effect (where i cut down the Number of indexes to skip any large regions which are in the black background for this source movie). I did the index cut down so i would not paint over all of my previous frame with black paint.
I then used 3 passes of the Color Edge IpOp setup to draw vector edge sketches (3 octaves, progressively getting smaller brush size as th detail increases an octave).
I also used a selection mask that masked out the black background. I used that (feathered) to not process the painted figures with the dissipative and fade actions. I then inverted that for the ColorEdge IpOp action steps.
I did not use selection masking for my dynamic paint. My index cutoff for that effectively does it, but in a very loose way that spills paint out beyond the boundary of that selection mask (which is tight on the figures).
This may sound complicated, but again, it's a super simple PASeq when you dive into it.
You want to not do full paint coverage necessarily in your painting. This is because the details will fill in over successive frames (but being based off of the object movement. This (in combination with the Pre-Processing effects) work to build a much more interesting and complex painted look than you would have gotten without that stuff dynamically cooking over several frame cycles.
Here are a few canvas images i 'grabbed' (using the new SA V5.5 Grab button in the new Gallery Show ToolBar).
If you just do overdrawing with no Dissipative and Fade strategies, you can get something like this below.
A very different look obviously.
Wow... needless to say, I'm interested!
You're probably one of the few people who really groks what i'm talking about when i refer to pre-processing steps consisting of a 'dissipative' part and a 'fade' part.
My personal frustration is that most people do not seem to get this stuff at all. At least recent customers. People who watched me do live trade show demos back when we did live trade shows probably have a clue.
ZOOM! or not. ;•}
John, I am one of those who does not understand....but I am very very interested in possibilities. I know you are very extremely busy with the new release, but when you can please do an explicit training video on this for beginner "ignoramuses" (me) . I envision my future way beyond print.There are stories to be told in video/film that are not being told and I want to do that. This is so exciting.
Really fascinating example. Thank you for all the details on what you did here. Yes, I was one of those watchers at trade shows, but since I don't work in SA daily, I feel like I am only using about 1% of the capabilities of the SA app. This last week though I had a bit of a breakthrough and I feel like I got up to 2%. What I would say to newer StudioArtist customers is the time spent reading and looking around in this forum stimulates ideas and investigations into features, and is well worth every minute.
and if I may add… Sometimes you have to just let Studio Artist take you where it wants to take you. Sometimes it’s a wild and beautiful Mustang.