Grass Valley After Effects Plug-in User Manual

After Effects Plug-in

User Manual

M852-1200-490

www.miranda.com

Belden, Belden Sending All The Right Signals, and the Belden logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Belden Inc. or its affiliated companies in the United States and other jurisdictions. Miranda, Vertigo Suite, Vertigo XG and Xmedia Server are trademarks or registered trademarks of Miranda Technologies Partnership. Belden Inc., Miranda Technologies Partnership, and other parties may also have trademark rights in other terms used herein.

Terms and Conditions

Please read the following terms and conditions carefully. By using the After Effects Plug-in documentation, you agree to the following terms and conditions.

Miranda Technologies Partnership (“Miranda”) hereby grants permission and license to owners of the Vertigo Suite to use their product manuals for their own internal business use. Manuals for Miranda products may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose unless specifically authorized in writing by Miranda.

A Miranda manual may have been revised to reflect changes made to the product during its manufacturing life. Thus, different versions of a manual may exist for any given product. Care should be taken to ensure that one obtains the proper manual version for a specific product serial number.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Miranda.

Warranty Policies

Warranty information is available in the Support section of the Miranda Web site (www.miranda.com).

Document Identification

Title After Effects Plug-in User Manual

Part number M852-1200-490

SW version Vertigo Suite v.4.9 GA

Revision History

After the original release date, the After Effects Plug-in User Manual may be updated with edits and then re-released. The following table tracks the versions of this document.

Revision date Description

March 31, 2014 Original release

ABLE OF

Introducing Miranda’s After Effects Plug-in ...................................................................... 1-1

Installing Miranda’s After Effects Plug-in ........................................................................................... 1-2

Miranda Animation option................................................................................................... 2-1

Using the Miranda Animation option.................................................................................................. 2-2

Export Options panel ......................................................................................................................... 2-4

Oxtel Export tab ............................................................................................................................ 2-5

VAF Export tab ............................................................................................................................. 2-7

HMP MXF Export tab.................................................................................................................... 2-8

Logging tab ................................................................................................................................... 2-9

Miranda Animation (Merge Mode) option .......................................................................... 3-1

Workflow for pre-rendering in-show promos using the After Effects Plug-in ..................................... 3-2

Using the Merge Mode option to perform a batch export of graphics files ........................................ 3-3

Creating a spreadsheet for Merge Mode ...........................................................................................3-5

Project Name column ................................................................................................................... 3-5

Output File Name column ............................................................................................................. 3-6

Subfolder columns ........................................................................................................................ 3-7

Layer tag columns ........................................................................................................................ 3-9

Intuition Template & Intuition Template Element columns.......................................................... 3-10

Asset Lifespan column................................................................................................................ 3-10

Asset Expiry Date column........................................................................................................... 3-10

Vertigo Template, Vertigo Template Element & VAF XmediaServer columns ........................... 3-11

Handling a Project with Multiple Compositions ........................................................................... 3-12

Transcoding TGA sequences into animation and/or video files....................................................... 3-13

ONTENTS

After Effects Plug-in User Manual TOC-1

1 I

OTE

NTRODUCING

IRANDA’S

FTER

FFECTS

Miranda’s After Effects Plug-in uses base After Effects projects to pre-render graphics into animation or video clip files that can then be used on a variety of Miranda playout devices.

• .oxi - OXI animation files for Intuition Classic devices

• .oxa - OXA animation files for Imagestore 750 and LGK -3901 devices

• .vaf - VAF video clip files for Intuition XG and Vertigo XG devices

• .mxf - MXF video clip files for HMP-1801 devices

The After Effects Plug-in can also embed a .VAF inside an .OXI or .OXA file by enabling a setting within the Oxtel Export Options in Merge Mode. This allows the asset to be used on Intuition Classic, Intuition XG, and Vertigo XG devices. See “Embed VAF in OXI” on page 2-6.

The Affects Effects Plug-in consists of two (2) options for rendering graphics files from an After Effects project:

• Miranda Animation - The M

• Miranda Animation (Merge Mode) - The M

LUG-IN

IRANDA ANIMATION

the currently loaded After Effects project to generate and save the After Effects project as an animation or video file. See page 2-1

multiple versions of graphics by using traffic data from an Excel spreadsheet to feed an Adobe After Effects Project template. The plug-in then combines the data and the template to generate multiple versions of the promo, as animation or video files, for different channels, days and times.

In addition to creating animation and video files, Merge Mode also allows you to output an Intuition template with the newly created animation inserted based on an original Intuition template.

Another practical use of the Merge Mode option is to transcode Targa (TGA) sequences from disk to OXI/OXA animations and/or VAF video clip format.

See “Miranda Animation (Merge Mode) option” on page 3-1 information.

option is the basic mode that simply uses

for further instructions and information.

ERGE MODE

option allows you to prepare

for further instructions and

After Effects Plug-in User Manual 1-1

Introducing Miranda’s After Effects Plug-in

OTE

Installing Miranda’s After Effects Plug-in

The After Effects Plug-in is packaged with the Vertigo Suite software’s installation wizard. It can be installed as part of the full installation or as an individual (standalone) component (figure 1-1). In both cases, you simply need to run the installation wizard on the workstation where the Adobe After Effects software is installed.

The After Effects Plug-in for CS3 and CS4 is only available from the 32-bit version of the Vertigo Suite installer. Similarly, the After Effects Plug-in for CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 are only available in the 64-bit version of the Vertigo Suite installer.

Figure 1-1. The Miranda After Effects Plug-in

When running Adobe After Effects and the Vertigo After Effects Plug-in on Windows 7, you must be logged on as Administrator.

Once the After Effects Plug-in is installed, start the Adobe After Effects application and then load or create a new After Effects project.

To verify that the Miranda After Effects Plug-in has been installed and is present in the After Effects application:

1. Select the F

2. Confirm that both the M commands are displayed.

The Miranda Animation command will be disabled (gray) until a valid After Effects project is loaded and a composition is selected.

The first time that you run the After Effects Plug-in, you will be prompted for a license code. Please contact a Miranda Technical Support representative to request an After Effects Plugin license code.

1-2 After Effects Plug-in User Manual

ILE>EXPORT

menu command.

IRANDA ANIMATION

and M

IRANDA ANIMATION

ERGE MODE

)

2 M

IRANDA

NIMATION OPTION

The Vertigo After Effects Plug-in’s M the currently loaded After Effects project to generate an animation or video clip file. The resulting file can then be saved to a specified directory as one of the following formats: OXI, OX A , VAF, o r M XF.

Figure 2-1. The After Effect Plug-in’s Miranda Animation option

The following sections provide instructions for using the M as descriptions of each of the Export options that are available:

• “Using the Miranda Animation option” on page 2-2

• “Export Options panel” on page 2-4

IRANDA ANIMATION

option is the basic mode that uses

IRANDA ANIMATION

option, as well

After Effects Plug-in User Manual 2-1

Miranda Animation option

OTE

Using the Miranda Animation option

To use the Miranda Animation option to generate an animation or video clip file:

1. Start the Adobe After Effects application.

2. Load or create a new After Effects project.

3. Select the F The E

ILE>EXPORT>MIRANDA ANIMATION

XPORT MIRANDA ANIMATION

dialog box appears (figure 2-2), which allows you to

select the output file path and the type of file to be exported.

menu command.

If the M a composition.

4. Specify the O

XTEL

OXI F

IRANDA ANIMATION

option is greyed out, load a valid After Effects project and select

Figure 2-2. The Export Miranda Animation dialog box

UTPUT FILE PATH

a. Click the Ellipsis button to open the E

in which you want to save the animation or video file:

XPORT ANIMATION

dialog box. b. Navigate to the directory location where you want to save the animation or video file. c. In the F

ILE NAME

d. Select from the S

field, specify the name by which the file is to be saved.

AVE AS TYPE

drop-down list, the desired animation or video clip file type. The suffix at the end of the file name defines the type of file to be exported.

Choose one of the following file types:

ILE

(*.oxi)

Exports an animation file for Intuition Classic devices (default)

XTEL

OXA (*.oxa)

ERTIGO ANIMATION FILE

ATERIAL EXCHANGE FORMAT

e. Click S

AVE

(*.vaf)

(*.mxf)

Exports an animation file for Imagestore and LGK devices

Exports a video clip file for Intuition XG and Vertigo XG devices

Exports a video clip file for HMP-1801 devices

2-2 After Effects Plug-in User Manual

Miranda Animation option

5. Select the O

PTIONS

button to expose advanced options, which specify how the animation or video file will be created, including desired looping behaviors. See “Export

Options panel” on page 2-4 for more information.

6. Launch the creation of the animation or video file by clicking OK.

XPORT MIRANDA ANIMATION

The E dialog box (figure 2-3

) appears and tracks the progress of the procedure. Once

dialog box closes, while the E

XPORT PROGRESS

finished, the file is saved to the specific directory location.

Figure 2-3. The Export Progress dialog box

After Effects Plug-in User Manual 2-3

+ 21 hidden pages