PI10 & MSP8/VS9: [Handwriting onto video] Tutorial

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PI10 & MSP8/VS9: [Handwriting onto video] Tutorial

Post by Administrator » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:56 am

SUBJECT: PI10 & MSP8/VS9: [Handwriting onto video]
This Demonstration uses Photo Impact 10 to produce the graphics.
You can then either use Media Studio 8 or Video Studio 9 to produce the video.
Instructions for both editors are shown below.

The demonstration shows how to fill in a blank cheque with your own handwriting. The method can be adapted for other similar tasks, like a
nce upon a time� type opening for a fairy tale video

Step 1.
Before doing any handwriting scan the blank document.

Step 2.
Write everything you wish to appear on your document and now scan again.
You now have two images, a blank aster� and a completed document.

Step 3.
We need to shrink your document so that it will fit the TV screen and we must take into account the 10% safety margin known as the itle Area�.
PAL screens are 720 x 576 : NTSC are 720 x 480

My demo picture is wider than it is tall so I will work on the width.
If your document is taller than it is wide, you would need to work on the height.

My image is currently 2296 x 1049. I will therefore re-size it so that its width becomes 560 pixels wide thereby allowing for the 10% on each side.
In Photo Impact Select:-
Adjust, Resize. View the following picture to see how I do this
Image
We must now make the Canvas size the same as our final Screen size
PAL 720 x 576 : NTSC 720 x 480

In Photo Impact select
Adjust
Expand Canvas
Image
Now save this file as ase file.ufo�
You must now repeat this process with the second scanned image � the one containing your writing.

Save the second image as ompleted.ufo�

We now wish to copy items from ompleted.ufo� and paste them onto ase File.ufo� Each time we paste an item we will save the file under a new name.
For ease of use I suggest using a numbering system.

Before we start, select base file.Ufo and now save this as
01.ufo
Now select ompleted.ufo�
Using the tandard Selection tool� click just above and to the left of your first piece of writing which you wish to appear on the finished product, then drag out a square by holding down the left mouse button.
Image

Now select
Edit, copy

Switch to 01.ufo and then paste as object.
Image
Save this as 02.ufo
If you are using Video Studio as your editor you will also need to erge All� at this point because it does not seem that Video Studio can handle ayers�

Switch back to ompleted.ufo� and select another piece of writing
And again Edit, copy.

Switch to 02.ufo and then paste as object
Save this as 03.ufo

Complete this process until all of your text has been copied/saved in stages and saving to a new image file after each paste operation.

I ended up with a total of 6 images, though you can include as many as you wish
It depends upon how you choose to make your writing appear.

You can now close PhotoImpact.
Now open your video editor (Media Studio 8 or Video Studio 9) Instructions for each now follow.

Media Studio 8.
Start as new rame based� AVI Project using either 4.3 or 16.9 depending upon you finished target screen size.
Select insert image � use a duration of 8 seconds. (you can make this shorter or longer dependant upon how fast you wish your animation to appear � it is easier though to use even numbers 2 � 4 � 6 � 8 etc)
Image
and then select all of your above saved images and place them onto the timeline on ideo 1�

Now re-arrange your clips so that the odd numbered images are on video 1 and butt ended with each other. The even numbered images are on video 2 also butt ended with each other but starting half way along clip 01 on video 1.
Image

Now drag the images on video 2 down and on top of the images on video 1.
Replace the automatically created transitions with the
Wipe � sidewipe transition.
Also, select all the clips and right click your mouse. Choose Media Source Options
And select licker Reduction� and also eep aspect Ratio�
Image
You can now play the video and when you are happy with it you are now ready to render to a video file.

Video Studio 9
Open Video Studio 9 and select the image library, and import into it your newly created images. Add them all to the storyboard.
Image

Alter the image durations to 8 seconds (more or less to speed up or slow down your animation)
Image

Now insert the Wipe � side wipe transitions between your clips and alter the transition duration to 4 seconds.
Image

You are now ready to test and render your animation.

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Post by Administrator » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:57 am

Kenneth Veal wrote:Hi Steve,
Great tutorial!
Can u please clarify a few points to a not much more than novice user of VS9 and P.I. and PAL ?
Re step 3:- If PAL is 720 x 576 and I will need to take into account the 10% safe area ,how does this affect the image size and how did u arrive
at 560 pixels wide from an image that was 2296x1049?
I am not much of a mathematician but I cant workout how the width of 560 was worked out, am I barking up the wrong tree?I have the same prob with the height of 256 too
Regards,
Ken

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Post by Administrator » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:57 am

Ken,
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Firstly the full PAL TV Screen is 720 * 576.
However due to the way a television works it cuts off the top, bottom and sides and so if you placed something right up to the edge, say some writing, then you would lose a bit of the writing - it would appear to be off the edge of the screen.

Computer monitors work differently and would display all of that writing.

It is commonly accepted that you should allow a 10% safety margin.
For the width 720, 10% = 72. Here I have doubled that to allow 10% on the left and 10% on the right
= 144. I then took 720-144 = 576.

Similarly the height 576 / 10 = 57. allow 57 for the top and a further 57 for the bottom = 114.
576-114 = 462.

I was therefore working within the 576 * 462 central area of the screen.

My picture is wider than it is tall and I want to keep its aspect ratio and so I worked on an arbitrary figure of 560.

On the toolbar at the top of the Photo Impact Screen, the third item along is Adjust, Expand this and there is an option to resize. This then brings up the dialog box which you can see in my screenshot in the tutorial.

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Post by Administrator » Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:58 am

Kenneth Veal wrote:Steve,
thanks 4 your exlanation re the 10% safe area, after your
reply I realised that you said in your tutorial "10% ON EACH
SIDE" which is where I went wrong.Appreciate the prompt
reply and the useful info
Regards
Ken

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