BCC7 - struggling with trial

PeterWright wrote on 10/22/2010, 11:05 PM
There may be a better Boris type forum to try, but as I'm trying to test it in Vegas, hopefully there may be some help here.

My overall impression is quite good, as far as simply applying a basic effect is concerned, but trying to successfully tweak things has been a little more elusive, in fact very frustrating.

First of all, just about every feature and sub-feature has an "Animate" button, and clicking this changes the appearance of the button, but where is the timeline to change settings and add keyframes?

Motion Tracking - generally acknowledged as a big plus, but I have not managed a single instance yet, despite JR's helpful tutorial. All I keep getting is the "Move the current time marker ..." error message. Does the thing you're tracking have to be very clearly distinguished from its background? I've tried many objects, including peoples' heads, a logo on a tee shirt, a white hair bow, and I've played with Target and Search widths, but that message never stops appearing. If I move the cursor back and clear Render cache, the same message keeps reappearing.

Presets - if I select a supplied preset, settings and preview are updated, but the box still reads "No preset", so I can't keep track of what I've selected.

I'd like to have this plug-in, but at present it ain't worth $600 if it won't work for me.

I've read lots of documentation - all to do with Boris in AE, and I cannot find a general help file for Animate.

Assistance appreciated.

Comments

farss wrote on 10/22/2010, 11:43 PM
As you know I'm an AE user but it all works much the same.
Motion Tracking;
Yes, object needs distinct edges. That's why tracking markers are stuck onto things that are going to be tracked.

Rest of your problem sounds like you haven't done the track by playing the clip first. Pass 1 creates the tracking data, then you turn Off 'Track On The Fly' and select what to apply the tracking data to then whne you play the clip you should see the FX moving as determined by the data (nodes or path) created in the first pass.

Bob.
PeterWright wrote on 10/23/2010, 1:16 AM
Thanks for the reply Bob.

I just rendered a movie of a white rectangle on a black background moving horizontally across the screen. I then applied BCC Sparks effect, to see if I could get this effect to track across the screen. When I try first pass with Track on the Fly enabled, I get the "Move the current time marker ..." error message each time I try. I don't know how I could make it any easier to track, but I've never got past this stage.

My comments about Animate weren't only about Motion Tracking, but for changing any parameter during an event. For instance if I wanted to apply a BCC blur at the beginning of a clip and make this blur disappear by the end. Takes two seconds with a "normal" Vegas effect, but no matter how many Animate buttons I click, I have not discovered where to find the timeline, or how to add keyframes to it, wherever it is.






farss wrote on 10/23/2010, 1:51 AM
It does seem to me that it is generally messed up from what you're describing. Looking at JR's tutorial again the FXs themselves have no timeline that I can see I therefore assume they write the nodal data for both the FX values and tracking data into the Event FX timeline. For that to work you'd have to sync the cursors but I don't see any icon to do that either.
I think we're both missing something, probably something obvious but short of downloading and installing the trial myself I'm in the dark here.

Oh, I assume you are applying these FXs to an event rather than a track?

Bob.
PeterWright wrote on 10/23/2010, 1:58 AM
Yes, definitely Event level FX Bob.

Hopefully someone with Boris experience can help. The documentation talks about adding your own keyframes, but doesn't say how or where.

I've still got 6 days trial left ....

edit: Minor Aha moment - after clicking animate, the timeline opens, out of sight, at the bottom of the FX window - and it has Synch Cursor, but doesn't seem to do live preview as I move the effect .....anyway, so that's manual tracking, but auto Motion Tracking is the big attraction, and it just keeps on telling me to replace the current time marker...
rsp wrote on 10/23/2010, 2:26 AM
Unfortunately can't test bcc7 but looking at this page

BCC7 wiki

Where its says: "(1) Apply the BCC effect "

Can you click those little circles, at the end of "global intensity" ? does that add a keyframe to the vegas timeline?
PeterWright wrote on 10/23/2010, 2:50 AM
rsp - thanks so much, and thanks to whoever did that wiki entry.

The vital part for me was Step (5) - to use Dynamic Preview !!!!!!! When I do this, it ...... works as it should! Previously I was just pressing play at the base of the Preview window, and getting that error message. After pressing Shift B, I watched in amazement as it created a line across the screen and the tracking was done.

Hopefully several other questions will soon be solved, and Mr Boris E. Fects may yet be getting my $600.

Peter

rsp wrote on 10/23/2010, 3:25 AM
Peter - glad that was useful!

Will try to install later today - seeing how BCC7 works within Vegas

Rudi
Laurence wrote on 10/23/2010, 7:31 AM
I just charged the $600 the other day because I know I'd never spend a grand on it. So far the main feature I couldn't live without is the blurring of faces and license plates.

I've used the smart deinterlace a bunch of times already and I like it even better than the Mike Crash one. The Mike Crash plugins were the last thing keeping me at 32 bits. Now I think I'll rarely go there.

I'm sure I'll use the chromakey but I already had a pretty good keyer with New Blue Video Essentials.

Hopefully it will grow on me. $600 is a lot to spend on motion tracking blurred faces and a deinterlacer.
Jøran Toresen wrote on 10/23/2010, 7:42 AM
Question: When you purchase BCC , does this include both the 32 bit version and the 64 bit version of BCC 7 for Vegas 10?

Jøran
rsp wrote on 10/23/2010, 8:28 AM
That's where i ended this afternoon - there's only a 64 bit version available for download...

rudi
Jøran Toresen wrote on 10/23/2010, 9:04 AM
According to "Dirk from BorisFX" there will be a 32 bit version of BCC :

"BCC 7 installer for 32bit Vegas Pro 10 coming soon"

See:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=731935&Replies=9

Jøran
rsp wrote on 10/23/2010, 9:37 AM
That's good news Jøran - also looking forward to see Boris Red for Vegas !

Rudi
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/23/2010, 10:07 AM
> The vital part for me was Step (5) - to use Dynamic Preview !!!!!!! When I do this, it ...... works as it should! Previously I was just pressing play at the base of the Preview window, and getting that error message. After pressing Shift B, I watched in amazement as it created a line across the screen and the tracking was done.

Yes, making sure that every frame gets played back is very important. If Vegas had an option to "play every frame" this would work better but it doesn't so RAM Preview is a good way to ensure this.

Here is another trick: You don't have to press play at all! What you need to do is feed BCC the next frame and you can do this simply by advancing the timeline cursor by one frame. So you can use the right-arrow key to advance the frames and BCC will track!!!

One trick I have been using is to use the jog wheel (i use my ShuttlePro2 but you can use the Vegas jog wheel in the lower left-hand corner of the timeline) to play the timeline back at 1/4 speed (0.25). BCC will lock onto the area you are tracking better if the playback is slower. Nothing says you have to track in real-time.

Also note that if you do loose the track, just move the timeline cursor to the last good frame that tracked and press the Clear Render Cache button and then play from there. BCC will continue to track from where it left off.

Hope this helps,

~jr
PeterWright wrote on 10/23/2010, 5:53 PM
Thanks Johnny, that's very helpful.

Having finally found a way to achieve a good track I intending spending most of Sunday playing with BCC7.

Ideally I'd like to be able to find out the effect of every slider, which will be a mix of trial and error and reading help files.

Looking forward to any further tutorials that you or Boris produce.
farss wrote on 10/23/2010, 6:30 PM
Seeing as how this has come up again I have a question, more to clarify something.
Watching your tutorial I see that the tracker is part of the FX itself. On the other hand I also saw that the tracker has a choice of what it is applied to. Does this mean the one tracker can be used to control more than one FX inside of BCC and does it mean that somehow the tracking data could be used to control other FXs and media generators in Vegas itself?

Bob.