Camera movement baking/printing

[TVPUSER]

I recently worked on a project where the storyboard artist was able to quickly give me the camera movements for a shot for me to work on in any other program.
I was simply sent a PSD of the single shot of the storyboard file including the camera movement notations.

It is really common to professionally jump between software and often times extensive visual notations help bridge the gap as there is no agreed upon standard for exchanging animation data.

Simulated example

tttt.jpg (54.99 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

Going back to TVPaint makes me want some improvements on this front.
I'm aware that there is a publish feature which includes renders of the camera movements but It is not really useable beyond having a general idea of camera movements

Example:

scene_1_clip_1.jpg (31.65 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

This is good for a general idea but what is missing are the intermediate keyframes for the camera movement, You can only see the beginning and last keyframe guides with the motion path being drawn.
Another note is that I was only able to get this image through publishing as an HTML, this feature does not export full resolution previews (it even crops the sides) so it is not ideal to use this for proper production.

Here is the actual project file which has 3 keys that are essential to see all of the keys of framing
example:

Untitlesd.png (24.36 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

Hironori Takagi made a function in george that takes steps in solving this issue, however I think this can be expanded upon
Example:

ssUntitled.png (56.82 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

The script takes the current camera view and allows you to stamp directly where the camera is at on the timeline, This actually allows us to print the camera position regardless of how many key positions are used
Example:

This tool Is very helpful but It is limited to only stamping the frame and printing the frame number in which the position lands.
Having a way to also print the motion curve along with changing the sequential labeling between numbers or letters would further increase the usability
Example:

Untitlddsssdded.png (76.71 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

Taking it a step further would be an option to visualise the spacing per frame along the motion path.
Example:

Untitlddsssddsssed.png (66.52 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

Last but not least would be the option to toggle the visibility of where to show the motion paths between all edges and center frame.
Example:


Mr.Takagi's script also has a feature to burn the frame notations on a separate oversized canvas when panning in a large project file is unfeasible, this way of notating allows for the animated cels to be independent of background/foreground movements
This process is a little bit complicated so I suggest contacting him regarding this if this does get considered...

Example:

Untitled_(3)_Clip_00121.gif (146.68 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

DSCF2028-001-001-DSCF2028.jpg (75.91 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

Untitled_(3)_Clip_001221.gif (248.24 KiB) Viewed 4818 times

I'm sorry for long post. I was not sure about how to better communicate these ideas, It is probably tough to implement features like these but I figured it didin't hurt to ask, Thanks for the consideration!

[Hironori Takagi]

Thank you for pointing this topic out again.
For a while, I made a lot of effort to print the trajectory of the camera,
but there are limits to what George can do now,
and that's why I stopped improvement at what you pointed out.

・Layer that moves with the camera

If we can achieve this, I think it will be a big step forward.

[NathanOtano]

As a temporary solution I guess you can try to use my script on a layer where you drew 4 points on the corners of the camera : https://forum.tvpaint.com/viewtopic.php ... NO#p116737
It makes any drawing follow the cam, the same way your character is on your exemple

[TVPUSER]

As a temporary solution I guess you can try to use my script on a layer where you drew 4 points on the corners of the camera : https://forum.tvpaint.com/viewtopic.php ... NO#p116737
It makes any drawing follow the cam, the same way your character is on your exemple

What an interesting script! Thanks for sharing!
It is quite a hacky solution to the issue so I don't think i'll be able to use this for production but it may have its uses in basic visualisation.
I think what we really need is a more robust solution to TV paint's camera feature. It seems like anything beyond basic camera movement across the canvas requires some level of destructive processing that makes us simply have to apply an effect image by image..

[Hironori Takagi]

As a temporary solution I guess you can try to use my script on a layer where you drew 4 points on the corners of the camera : https://forum.tvpaint.com/viewtopic.php ... NO#p116737
It makes any drawing follow the cam, the same way your character is on your exemple

This is interesting.
I felt the benefit of running it for temporary preview.

[NathanOtano]

Happy you like it