Anyone use Bauhaus Mirage Studio?

DataMeister wrote on 9/23/2006, 11:13 AM

Since Sony is selling this Bauhaus Mirage Studio software package I was wondering if anyone here has used it? Is it good and worth the time to learn or did Sony just put something online just to have a compositer for sale.

And heres the official feature list from the Bauhaus web site.

Comments

Paul Fierlinger wrote on 9/23/2006, 4:59 PM

I work with Mirage at least 12 hrs a day. It is considered mainly a 2D animation application and has some nifty video-paint features but generally is not used as a compositer although it can do some compositing very well and fast. There are tons of threads on the subject on the bauhaussoftware .com website with a good search engine to use once you sign in.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 9/23/2006, 5:21 PM

I use it and it and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what it is capable of yet. I like the ability to do handwritten text titles. It will let you draw a picture or words with splines and then animated the re-creation by tracing the splines. The imagine stabilization is very good as is the ability to motion tack and replace an object like a road sign or sign on the side of a bus. It also has a nice particle engine so if you were thinking of buying particle illusion you could spend a little more on Mirage and get a whole lot more than just a particle generator. I really like it and wish I had more time to play with it and learn it properly. I will say that Bauhaus has an incredible amount of video tutorials on their web site that will get you up and running in no time at all. Oh, and it does 2D animation too. ;-)

~jr

TeeJay wrote on 9/23/2006, 5:52 PM

I have had Mirage for about a year and like JR, i haven't even scratched the surface of what it can do.
I do use it for motion tracking and it's ability to do rotoscoping is awesome. It also integrates with many Photoshop plugins (up until version 5) so there has been many times where i've done cool post production FX in Mirage.........
The custom anime brushes are fantastic!

RBartlett wrote on 9/24/2006, 11:05 AM

Yup. Mirage is good software with a fine following of artists.

It is a blend of NLE, paintbox and a harmonisation tool (for 2D,2.5D and 3D applications). If you simply can't abide canned work, the limitations of the text generator but you don't want to get even deeper with 3D rendering tools - Mirage may well be for you. If you are into 3D rigging/animation - then you might enjoy the unfettered access to the finishing parts of this craft using Mirage.

I personally use Mirage for texturing stills, layering clips (barely compositing), motion-path 2D or 2.5D effects (DVEs) and to apply volumetric light and particles to brighten and improve work. This is barely touching the surface of what can be done. I'm not saying that Vegas isn't deep with the bump mapping (etc) and compositing functions in it's arsenal. However Mirage compliments well, IMHO.

Even though Mirage has become a very popular application (hence why it is marketed by Sony), the look you can achieve can be so unlike any other. Quite unique really. So once you discover what can be done, you might not be so troubled that it is still relatively unheard of (when compared with products that sell upwards of 100,000 units).

Partnered with Steve Bowie's Toolbox3 and Bob Tasa's Oasis TitleFX plug-ins - life is dreamy with Mirage and Vegas+DVD.

VTWorx:
http://www.vtworx.com/toybox/index.html

and

ZIP demo of Oasis TitleFX from toastergarage/BobFX:

http://www.bobfx.com/oasisdemo.zip

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/24/2006, 11:14 AM

Still learning the app, but it's extremely powerful, easy to grasp once you comprehend how it works, and like the others, I've just barely scratched the surface in working with it. thank heaven for their terrific tutorials.