DiyLightAnimation

Software => Olive Studio => Topic started by: PVPlaceLights on March 22, 2011,

Title: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: PVPlaceLights on March 22, 2011,

Hi Everyone,

A couple of weeks ago I started to put together my concept for light animation software. The idea has been mulling around in my head for the past year, since I went holiday light crazy. I have decided to release what I've put together so far to solicit some feedback.

I wasn't very thrilled with what was currently available on both the free and consumer/commercial market. I made do with a couple of software packages, but they all had one thing in common. They were sequencing software which made it time consuming to properly animate and synchronize to music. I have a lot of experience with both computer animation and video editing/compositing software and thought these model where much more efficient and productive than sequencing. So, I finally started my own software project that harnesses the power of computer animation and video compositing.

My editor is called Olive Studio (as in, "olive the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names...". A pre-pre-pre release is available at:

http://cms.dazlyn.com/?q=node/35 (http://cms.dazlyn.com/?q=node/35)

and I've include a screenshot with this post.

The application has limited usefulness at this time. But you can save and load projects, create light and RGB controllers with DMX settings, add displays for animation preview, and add tracks with lighting effects. It is enough for this week.

If you do choose to check it out, add a couple of lighting tracks, then drag some effects from the palette and drop them on the tracks. You can drag the effects around, change their duration, and customize their settings. Even though the effect palette has a number of icons, only two effect are implemented: On and Fade. After you put an effect on a track, you can assign light channels to the effect and run the animation using the playback controls (don't expect to see anything during playback. The values are output to a debug screen, but I can assure you they are the correct values).

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to play with Olive. Please post any questions or comment either here or at my site.

--Matt

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: RJ on March 22, 2011,

 <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: smartcontrols on March 22, 2011,

 <pop..  >.d9

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: chrisatpsu on March 22, 2011,

looks really promising...   i like it

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: gforman on March 22, 2011,

 <pop.. <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: PVPlaceLights on March 22, 2011,

Thank you. It looks like the audience is filing in for the show and we're watching the pre-trailer commercials and movie trivia.

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: vairmoose on March 22, 2011,

 <pop..  ..  butter?

Larry

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: Al on March 22, 2011,

olive the other reindeer,
that is clever

Al

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: lineman on March 22, 2011,

 <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: Pete on March 22, 2011,

 <pop.. <pop..

Downloaded - it looks very promising  :)

Pete

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: TheBanker on March 22, 2011,

 <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: PVPlaceLights on March 22, 2011,

I wish I could take credit for the name, but I borrowed it from an animated movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227173/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227173/).

I'm working on outputing to DMX this week. I'm prioritizing DMX output over the display editor because it's actually going to be easier and have more impact. When I get it implemented, I will make an immediate release.

Thanks again for taking a look at it.

--Matt

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: Rainlover on March 22, 2011,

The audience is growing <pop..

John

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: PVPlaceLights on March 22, 2011,

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

I have registered and never received any instructions in my e-mail. I have tried to log in and have a new password sent and still dont get any e-mail even though it says the e-mail has been sent.

Hi,
It looks like you eventually got logged in. If not, send an email to support@dazlyn.com and I will fix your account.

Also, I relaized that I didn't give authenticated users rights to post forum topics. That has been fixed and if anyone wanted to post something, you can now.

Thanks, and thanks to RJ and his well paid staff for this incredible community   <res.
--Matt

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: JimWright on March 22, 2011,

 <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: Dennis Cherry on March 22, 2011,

I like what you are doing, looking forward to next update.   ::) ;D :D <pop.. <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: onesmoothhead on March 22, 2011,

can't wait to try

 <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: abrianbaker on March 22, 2011,

 <pop.. <res.

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: keithr on March 23, 2011,

 <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: Made2Rock on March 23, 2011,

you guys took all the popcorn.  >.d9

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: keithr on March 23, 2011,

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

you guys took all the popcorn.  >.d9

here's a bag  <pop..  have fun catching it!

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: PVPlaceLights on March 24, 2011,

A new version of Olive Studio is available for download. This is version 0.1.1 and implements output to a DMX interface. It supports the DMX Dongle and Enttec DMX Pro. It works swimmingly with my Lynx Express and DMX RGB light controllers. Videos to come shortly.

Here is the download page:

http://cms.dazlyn.com/?q=node/35

You need to register on the site to see the list of downloadable files. Be sure to read the note on 32-bit vs. 64-bit to get the right download. If you have questions about which download is right for you, post them here or at Dazlyn.

In addition, here is a brief guide to configuring your DMX interface:

http://cms.dazlyn.com/?q=node/43

Alright! If you get some cool blinky/flashy going, post a picture or video and let us know. Until next time...

--Matt

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: batdive on March 26, 2011,

 <pop..

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: csf on March 29, 2011,

Cool project, good luck with it!

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: ptone on March 30, 2011,

cool, do you have any white paper, or architectural manifesto?

I see controllers and channels, are you providing any abstractions above those?

Is this essentially grid  based?  Such that your effects will "render" as alterations to grid values?

Congrats on getting this started.

-P

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: frankr on March 30, 2011,

An idea that I have been toying with for a while is to have an interface to allow the use of the flam3 APIs to generate some fractal images for pixel mapping. It seems like this could be a powerful mechanism to generate cool effects.  Just a thought. 

This could be a potential plug in as well...

Frank

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: PVPlaceLights on March 30, 2011,

All thoughts count!

I was responding to another post last night and trying to list the potential plugins and forgot about the media generators (until you just reminded me). One of the effects I have in the pipeline is an image or video projection effect where the image or video is mapped to the physical layout of a display. This is nothing new as a number of professional systems do this and it matches up good to matrix like fixtures. It wouldn't have to be limited to video or images though, since any computer generated pattern could be projected (i.e. media generators). A media generator could be a solid color, moving lines, checkerboard patterns, gradients, plasma, fractals, or whatever someone can program. So yes, great thinking. This is going to be my second favorite feature when all is said and done.

--Matt

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: PVPlaceLights on April 02, 2011,

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

cool, do you have any white paper, or architectural manifesto?

I see controllers and channels, are you providing any abstractions above those?

Is this essentially grid  based?  Such that your effects will "render" as alterations to grid values?

Congrats on getting this started.

-P

Olive is not grid based. Grid editors are the common interface for sequencing software. Olive is not a sequencer, rather it's a composite animation editor. A brief white paper is in the works that explains the model/paradigm behind Olive. I will publish it our site soon and let you know. Also, a member is working on a comprehensive User's Guide so Olive will be fully documented along the way.

Simply put, though, the Olive interface is a cross between NLE video compositing and computer animation software. You use "tracks" to visually layout "effects" that target "channels". Output values are calculated by the computer using interpolation and other animation techniques. This is pretty much the same as popular CGI animation packages. The white paper provides examples of workflows and compares them to existing workflows using sequencers. My belief is that Olive will help users achieve levels of productivity not currently possible with existing tools.

Controllers in Olive are used as containers for channels and are of a specific type. This simplifies the output configuration for large groups of channels, which are more generic in use. There will be Virtual controllers that can have no common protocol and allow channels from other controllers to be associated with it. There will be Fixture controllers for handling DMX stage fixture devices. There are Light/Dimmer controllers for handling channels with single address lights (i.e. Lynx Express) and RGB controllers for managing channels with multiple address lights.  There are many other planned controllers and a plug-in system for developing controller extensions.

Channels will also come in many flavors. A channel is an abstraction for a place to send data. It's not a physical location, although the physical attributes of a channel can be defined. If it's a dimmer/light channel, then it will receive dimming values from 0 to 255. If it's an RGB channel, it will receive 3 values defining the color. RGB+W channels will serve common wall washers and floods. R+G+B+W channels will seamlessly support the many users with stands of red, green, blue, and white lights. Servo channels will support moving hardware. Multiplex channels will support channels that put common DMX stage devices into different states based on specific range values. A plug-in API will also allow third partied to develop channels.

Channels are associated with a controller. You could create an RGB Controller and add as many RGB channels as you need. You do not need to configure this controller's protocol, so you're not tied to a particular piece of hardware. For example, you could set you controller to manage 150 RGB channels, like you would find in a Cosmic Color Ribbon. You can animate the channels and make full use of the internal display visualization system. When you're ready, you go back and configure the controller for the actual protocol. In this case, I'm using a WS2801 strip over DMX that works exactly the same as a CCR for less than half the cost. Or, I could have used Smart Strings and the PixelNet protocol.

Thank you for your questions. I'm working hard to get a new release with more functionality out soon.

--Matt

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: rrowan on April 02, 2011,

Thanks Matt

Nice write up on Oliver and its basic goals

Looking forward to the next release

Cheers

Rick R.

Title: Re: My New Light Animation Software
Post by: ptone on April 02, 2011,

Matt, sounds really good, I've used a lot of NLE, compositing, and 3D software, so the paradigm is really familiar to me.  I think non-linear changes, and tweening will be key to getting the high channel displays to have some really organic motions.

I've been working on some more programatic software, which won't have nearly the UI of Olive, but will hopefully allow for some extremely powerful ways to script out some complex effects that would likely not be possible in any kind of GUI.

Stoked to see that it is cross platform, I might be able to help contribute a Mac Installer.

Really look forward to your white paper, I enjoy talking about architecture and have thought about it a lot.  You can see some of my thoughts in the initial docs to my project:

http://birdfish.readthedocs.org/en/latest/introduction.html

and the code is all open source and available here:

https://github.com/ptone/BirdFish

-P