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StopmoNick wrote: I use an old technique from film called frontlight-backlight, where alternate frames are shot with normal lighting on the puppet, then a light on a white screen behind and the puppet in silhouette.

That's a clever method. you can then use the silhouette set of frames as a mask layer for the front-lit frames. nice. never thought of it before

That's right! It handles soft edges and transparency beautifully. Tedious though, switching lights on and off. I'm using it for a flying robot with transparent dragonfly wings at the moment.
I map the image sequences on a rectangular object in Lightwave 3d, with the backlight sequence as a transparency map. Then I can re-size and position it anywhere in the frame I like.
I got the idea from Jim Danforth, it was used for some of the puppet shots in Jack the Giant Killer. It's a technique that works with stopmotion puppets, because they hold still while you take both frames, but not with live actors.

would be nice to have had some switch that in one button push grabs to shots, and turns the corresponding lights on/off too.
surely it's possible through some circuitry.
As for mapping in lightwave, did you mean that you map the robot on a rectangular object?
can you post some tests?
I'm intrigued.

StopmoNick wrote:That's right! It handles soft edges and transparency beautifully. Tedious though, switching lights on and off. I'm using it for a flying robot with transparent dragonfly wings at the moment.
I map the image sequences on a rectangular object in Lightwave 3d, with the backlight sequence as a transparency map. Then I can re-size and position it anywhere in the frame I like.
I got the idea from Jim Danforth, it was used for some of the puppet shots in Jack the Giant Killer. It's a technique that works with stopmotion puppets, because they hold still while you take both frames, but not with live actors.

Well Hello Nick!

I remember that technique although I had never tried it. One of my old stop-mo books from the 80s had a nice article on the technique. Amazing, isn't it, how the old "analog" techniques are still sometimes the best, isn't it?

Ich liebe das Programm,
weil es mir die Möglichkeiten bietet, mich frei zu entfalten.
Weil ich alles sofort sehen kann, was ich verändern möchte.
Weil die Farbbearbeitung soviel einfacher ist und soviel Flexiebler ist, als in anderen Programmen.
Weil die Vielefalt mich anregt neues zu versuchen.
Weil ich nicht nur Zeichentrickfilme herstellen kann, sondern auch Videobearbeitung machen kann, die mir sehr viel kreatieven Freiraum gibt. Weil es so viele Brushes gibt, dass ich mir meine lieber selber erstelle.
Weil es so viel Päpers giebt, dass ich bis zum Jahre 2040 nicht alle Ausprobieren kann.
Weil ich immerhin 3 User damit anstecken konnte.
Weil ich schon seit 1996 damit arbeite,
ersten PaintTV?(Amigazeit 4000) Aura ,Mirag, und letztendlich das TVPAint Animator Pro ,
mein Werkzeug ist. U:S:W:
Weil ich hoffe, dass ich irgendwann all meine Ansprüche an das Programm erfüllt bekomme.
Es sind nicht viele aber mindestens 3 wünsche sind noch offen.
Damit bedanke ich mich bei den Programmierern und bitte lasst das Programm niemals sterben,
es ist ein Werkzeug auf dass ich niemals mehr verzichten kann. Gruß Roselle2 Nun in GoogleEnglish:
I love the program because it offers me the opportunities I freely.
Because I can immediately see everything what I would like to change.
Because the color is so much easier and so much Flexiebler than in other programs.
Because the new Vielefalt stimulates me to try.
Because I not only may produce animated films but also video editing can make me very much creative freedom there. Because there are so many brushes that I prefer my own making. Because there is so much that I Paepe giebt until the year 240, not all can try. Because I only 3 users could thus infect.
Because I have worked since 1996 so,
first PaintTV? (time Amiga 4000) Aura, Mirage, and ultimately the TVPAint Animator Pro,
my tool. U: S: W:
Because I hope I someday all my rights to get the program meets.
There are not many but at least 3 would remain unanswered.
Thus I am grateful to the programmers and please never let the program die,
it is a tool that I can never renounce. Greeting Roselle2
Look heere from my lektionen:
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Malcooning,
Yes, I map the images of the robot onto a single-polygon rectangle in Lightwave. The backlight frame provides the matte ("transparency map" in LW) - the white background is fully transparent, the black silhouette is solid and shows the matching colour image. (Occasionally the edges of the rectangle show up in LW, as if it ws the edge of a sheet of glass catching the light, and I have to make a clip map to make the edges totally invisible.) The light grey transparent wings come up as mostly transparent. Because it's levels of transparency, rather than a clip map which is all-or-nothing, it keeps blurred edges and shades of grey. If I add a motion blur in TV Paint, I select the area and apply it to both layers, the colour image and the matte. There's a brief clip showing the process at my Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Z3Wc_O64k
Idragosani (Hi Brett!) may have seen the flying robot shots because he is doing the music for the joint project, but I can't show them in public yet.

When I load the shot into TV Paint, I have alternating frames of colour and silhouette. So I copy the layer, then shrink one layer to half the duration. That gives me only the colour images. Then I remove the first colour image from the second layer, repeat the last B & W image to get back to an even number of frames, and shrink to half the frames again. That gives me the matte frames on another layer. I usually boost the contrast to make up for a bit of reflected light spill on the puppet. Then, with a flying puppet, I paint out the support rig with white so it goes invisible. The rig is still there in the colour images, but that part is going to be transparent so it doesn't matter.

I have the switches for the lights next to the computer, so I click in StopMotion Pro to take a video assist frame and the final image, then switch off the front lights and switch on the back lights to take the matte frame. Then I switch the lights back and go animate the puppet. So it's not too bad.

Roselle - I also first had TV Paint on an Amiga, then Aura, Mirage,and now TV Paint again. I also use it for almost all the video editing - I only load into Final Cut Pro to add the soundtracks, because TVP does all the rest. It's so good in many ways, I really wish they would fix the things it is not good at!