Film & Stage plugin
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Regarding FILM & STAGE.
I have heard that it had been re-evaluated for update/improving/fixing. It seemed that there was a consensus that it either really needed to be totally reworked or rewritten. Evidently, there were other things of higher priority for the Boulder folks to tackle.
IT IS MY OPINION that SOMETHING should be done to give PRO-licensees a good, intuitive, thorough, and precision set of camera tools inwhich the camera could be controlled via user input values and/or cursor keys and/or shortcut keys and to store preset screen aspect ratios. Getting good transistion between scenes relying upon the mouse and steady hand and replicating output to match previous project output quickly and easily is not adequate for "professional" presentations.
Perhaps, if SketchUcation forum members make a conserted and "loud" plea, Boulder will reprioritize a replacement for Film and Stage and other needed camera tools. And do it soon.
Regards,
John -
Wow, when it's in bold red how could we not respond.
The Film & Stage plugin has been on our target list for updating for some time, but as you say we have limited resources and it didn't make the cut for SU7.
@unknownuser said:
IT IS MY OPINION that SOMETHING should be done to give PRO-licensees a good, intuitive, thorough, and precision set of camera tools inwhich the camera could be controlled via user input values and/or cursor keys and/or shortcut keys and to store preset screen aspect ratios. Getting good transistion between scenes relying upon the mouse and steady hand and replicating output to match previous project output quickly and easily is not adequate for "professional" presentations.
So in the list above, what is missing from Film & Stage? I'm happy to dive back into that discussion.
Cheers,
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I was thinking that part of what was broken was all the pan and dolly commands. To me those are less important than the aspect ratio control and physical camera creation. It can be very useful to have a physical camera at times, to really understand whats going on in walkthroughs.
Chris
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Pan an dolly could be ideal for creating images that can be assembled as 3D images - you know the ones that you watch with those fancy red and green glasses.
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well, Scott, if you're taking requests,
I would like a 'physical camera' mode that at least lets me interactively in a sketch-up-like-manner chose the focal point so that all render engines could grab the data automatically thru their respective plugins. The other phys. cam. properties wouldn't be a bad idea. While these can't be 'seen' in SU, they would be utilized by other plugins I think.
(I've never used the film & stage plugin, so don't know if this is already in there.) -
"The Film & Stage plugin has been on our target list for updating for some time, but as you say we have limited resources and it didn't make the cut for SU7.
Scott,
I was exchanging e-mails with Bryce Stout during the beta-testing period and told him that this is something that those of us in the film industry really need to have addressed. The Film and Stage plug-in was great for locking the aspect ratio but we need a way of inputting accurate lens data as well.
i could never understand why the angle of view was so different until I figured out Sketchup uses the vertical rather than horizontal field of view, whereas we normally use the horizontal number, for instance in Super 35 format all the ratios (1.78, 1.85 and 2.40) have the same horizontal angle of view. Only the vertical angle is different.
I've developed a series of wireframes for each format that I insert into my models to calibrate the window for the aspect ratio. Once that is done I can input the lens data from my conversion sheets to show a specific lens, both film or HD lenses. As far as I know no one has their software configured to allow for digital lenses yet.
I'd be happy to send you all my lens data. I've been writing an article for the Art Directors Guild magazine on my method of calibrating the program for specific lenses but hopefully you can make that method unnecesssary.
If you could work this into the program you'd have legions of grateful fans here in Hollywood. I use Sketchup on every film and it just gets better all the time.
Randall Wilkins
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@rdwilkins said:
I've developed a series of wireframes for each format that I insert into my models to calibrate the window for the aspect ratio. Once that is done I can input the lens data from my conversion sheets to show a specific lens, both film or HD lenses. As far as I know no one has their software configured to allow for digital lenses yet.
Hello Randall,
Who can say when the Film and Stage plugin will be updated; and although I don't know exactly what you mean about calibrating the window, it sounds as if automating your work-around is possible using an interim plugin.
Maybe if you posted a request in the Ruby Forum, someone will be able to help.
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@rdwilkins said:
i could never understand why the angle of view was so different until I figured out Sketchup uses the vertical rather than horizontal field of view, whereas we normally use the horizontal number, for instance in Super 35 format all the ratios (1.78, 1.85 and 2.40) have the same horizontal angle of view. Only the vertical angle is different.
I just ran into this myself when I wanted to illustrate on a plan drawing where the view I had created was taken from. I drew a triangle where the angle between two of the lines matched the AOF su reported only to find out that the lines would not match what was seen in the scenes.
I think that an ruby is in order here to rectify this. I'll see what I can do when I get some spare time. -
Working as a visualiser for a set designer I really would like to see an update to this feature.
Please
Pretty please -
Just found this thread: http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=9321&p=145393
If you open the Ruby Console and type in
Sketchup.send_action 10624it opens a window which allows you to change SU's behaviour so it sets the AOV horizontally instead of vertically.
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