Movie Palette
From ZBrush Info
Contents |
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Introduction
The Movie palette allows you to create (or view) ZBrush tutorial movies. You can also export .MOV files by harnessing QuickTime®, create turntables of your models and timelapse videos of your sculpting process.
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Controls
Load Movie: Loads a .zmv ZBrush movie file.
Save As: Saves the current movie as a .zmv movie with a new file name.
Export: If you have Apple's Quicktime package installed, this will bring up a dialog allowing you to choose options and export a .mov video file. You can download Quicktime freely: for OS X or for Microsoft Windows.
Play Movie: If you've recorded a movie in the current session of ZBrush (and not deleted it), this button will play back the movie.
Record: Begins or resumes recording a movie.
Turntable: Causes your model to begin rotating; you can then record a movie (or resume recording of a paused movie) that will show the model's rotation. Clicking on this button multiple times will change the rotation speed. How long the rotation goes on depends on the setting of Spin Cycles. The rotation will also end on other user actions, including pressing the Pause button.
Pause: Pauses recording of the current movie. You can resume recording with the Record button, export or save the movie, or delete the movie at this time, in preparation for recording another movie.
Snapshot: Inserts a snapshot of the display into the current movie. Snapshot Time determines how long the snapshot shows in the movie.
TimeLapse: When on, frames will be recorded only when the mouse button is released. This will result in a much smaller file.
Doc: If chosen, only the document (canvas area) will be recorded.
Window: If chosen, the entire window will be recorded.
Large: A shortcut for setting Movie:Modifiers:Frame Size to 1x.
Medium: A shortcut for setting Movie:Modifiers:Frame Size to 0.5x.
Small: A shortcut for setting Movie:Modifiers:Frame Size to 0.25x.
Delete: Deletes the currently recorded movie. Use this if you want to start making another movie.
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Modifiers Subpalette
Modifiers:Frame Size: Factor by which the actual recorded images will be scaled to produce the final movie. To minimize the amount of space your movie takes, set this just high enough to show the amount of detail you need to show.
Modifiers:Auto Zoom: When any value other than 0, only a portion of the window or document will be shown, and the camera will pan to follow the mouse. The size of the area around the mouse that is shown is determined by the value of this slider. There's a certain amount of tolerance built in; small mouse movements won't cause the camera to pan, which reduces unnecessary panning.
Modifiers:Recording FPS: Number of frames per second used when recording the movie. Small values reduce the movie file size, but result in a jerkier animation.
Modifiers:Playback FPS: Determines how quickly the movie will play back. If this is equal to the Recording FPS, the movie will play at the speed it was recorded at; if this is double the Recording FPS, the movie will play at double speed; and so on.
Modifiers:Snapshot Time: When inserting a snapshot into the movie using Snapshot, determines how long the snapshot will be visible when the movie is played.
Modifiers:Skip Menus: When on, menus will not appear in the animation.
Modifiers:Antialized Capture: Antialiases output, at possible cost of increased processing time, blurring of pixel-level details, and perhaps a small effect on file size. Normally this should be left on.
Modifiers:OnMouse: When OnMouse is active, then the movie will record only those actions that occur when the mouse is active. Basically, this means that clicks on controls, and sculpting and moving the model will be shown, but not movements of the mouse around the screen or over controls.
Modifiers:Cursor Size: Can be used to increase the size of the cursor used in the movie, which can make the cursor more noticeable is situations where it would otherwise be difficult to see.
Modifiers:ZCodec: ZBrush may offer a choice of different compression mechanisms, with different encoders appropriate for different uses. For most purposes, leave this at its default setting.
Modifiers:Quality: To obtain maximum quality in the smallest possible file, ZBrush uses an internal compression algorithm specialized for recording movies in ZBrush. This determines the quality of the movie. Higher settings will result in a more detailed and accurate image when the movie is played back, but will result in a larger file size.
The following controls are used with the Turntable feature.
- Modifiers:SpinFrames: The number of frames that will be used for a full rotation of the model. This setting, together with Recorded FPS, determine how quickly the model will appear to rotate.
- Modifiers:Spin Cycles: Determines how many times the model will rotate before the rotation stops. You can interrupt the rotation by performing another action.
- Modifiers:X: Controls axis of rotation to the X axis. You can activate more than one rotational axis at a time to tumble the model, but using only one at a time to rotate the model is probably more common.
- Modifiers:Y: Controls axis of rotation to the Y axis. You can activate more than one rotational axis at a time to tumble the model, but using only one at a time to rotate the model is probably more common.
- Modifiers:Z: Controls axis of rotation to the Z axis. You can activate more than one rotational axis at a time to tumble the model, but using only one at a time to rotate the model is probably more common.
- Modifiers:Scrn: When on, the axes of turntable rotation are screen axes, not model axes.
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Overlay Image Subpalette
This subpalette can be used to overlay an image of your choosing onto a movie, typically to identify the source of the movie, or ensure that credit for it cannot be claimed by others.
Overlay Image:Custom Overlay Texture: This leftmost thumbnail defines an image that will be overlaid on the recorded movie.
Overlay Image:Custom Overlay Mask: This rightmost thumbnail defines a mask that will be used to define the areas of the movie frame the image defined by Custom Overlay Texture will be overlaid on.
Overlay Image:LR Pos: Controls the left-to-right positioning of the overlay on the movie screen. Takes a value from 0 to 1, and controls the distance from the left edge of the screen (0 is left, 1 is right). The overlay will always be fully displayed within the screen area; these values control the position of the overlay when the overlay is smaller than the screen.
Overlay Image:TD Pos: Controls the top-to-bottom positioning of the overlay on the movie screen. Takes a value from 0 to 1, and controls the distance from the top edge of the screen (0 is top, 1 is bottom). The overlay will always be fully displayed within the screen area; these values control the position of the overlay when the overlay is smaller than the screen.
For example, with a small overlay icon and values of 0 and 0, you'd end end up with the icon (your logo, perhaps) displayed in the top left corner of your movie.
Overlay Image:Opacity: Controls the opacity of the overlay image.
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Title Image Subpalette
This subpalette allows you to put a title image (defined by the thumbnail image—click to select an image) into your movie.
Title Image:Custom Title Image: Defines the image to use as the title image. Click to select.
Title Image:FadeIn Time: How long (in seconds) the movie underneath the title image will take to fade out at the beginning of the movie. The fade out at the beginning of the movie begins with the title image opaque on the screen, and fading out over time by becoming transparent and revealing the movie underneath. A value of 0 will result in no beginning image.
Title Image:FadeOut Time: How long (in seconds) the movie underneath the title image will take to fade in at the end of the movie. The fade in at the beginning of the movie begins with the title image transparent on the screen, and fading in over time. A value of 0 means there will be no end title image.
The fades occur while the movie is playing. So, if you have for example a three second fade-in, make sure that nothing important in the first three seconds of your movie is obscured by the title image, as the movie fades in under it. This behavior allows you to make your movies more interesting by having them showing actions in the background while the fades take place.
Title Image:Text1: When a Text button is pressed, you will be prompted to type a line of text that will display on your beginning and end title screens. You can define up to three lines of text; Text1 will display as the topmost line on the title screen, Text2 will be the middle line, and Text3 will be the bottom line of text on the title screen.
Title Image:Text2: When a Text button is pressed, you will be prompted to type a line of text that will display on your beginning and end title screens. You can define up to three lines of text; Text1 will display as the topmost line on the title screen, Text2 will be the middle line, and Text3 will be the bottom line of text on the title screen.
Title Image:Text3: When a Text button is pressed, you will be prompted to type a line of text that will display on your beginning and end title screens. You can define up to three lines of text; Text1 will display as the topmost line on the title screen, Text2 will be the middle line, and Text3 will be the bottom line of text on the title screen.
