Dataton WATCHOUT User's Guide

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to export the video in a “QuickTime compatible” file format, which may not include the latest advancements in QuickTime codec technology. Adobe After Effects. After Effects, available on both Mac and Windows, is one of the most popular computer tools for doing video compositing and effects. As in WATCHOUT, you can layer video and still images and control their properties over time. However, its rendering method means that it can apply many more effects to the material (usually accompanied by a corresponding increase in rendering time). After Effects is a professional tool for incorporating video into WATCHOUT presentations in creative ways. It handles masking of video into non-rectangular shapes, cropping, splitting large movies for multiple displays, etc. Macromedia Director. Director is most often used for creating interactive CD-ROMs and games. However, it can also be used to create animated Quick- Time movies in a way similar to After Effects. If you want to incorporate a Director animations into a WATCHOUT presentation, just export it as a Quick- Time Movie (Video). As with most computer-generated material, use a highquality codec such as Animation or PNG. ◆ NOTE: Director does not support transparent background, and therefore can only be used to make square movies unless post-processing is performed in another application. Macromedia Flash. Flash is another program that is in many ways similar to Director, although somewhat less confusing for a novice user. It’s become very popular for creating interactive web-site animations. Just like Director, it can also export to QuickTime. Although QuickTime includes a Flash codec, allowing you to play Flash animations directly, this is generally not recommended for use in WATCHOUT due to the unpredictable 80 Chapter 6: Media Files
playback rendering times related to the native Flash vector format. Instead, export it as a “QuickTime Video”, using any suitable codec (this feature is available under MacOS only – use the extra step outlined below under Windows). Flash does support transparency (“alpha channel”). However, background transparency is currently (as of Flash version 4) not preserved when exporting as a “QuickTime Video” directly. To preserve background transparency, export it as “QuickTime” (ie, a QuickTime movie containing a Flash track), then open this using the QuickTime Player and re-export it using the desired codec, choosing a color depth of “Millions+”. Although this extra step is inconvenient, it does not reduce the quality of the end result since the first step uses the Flash vector format, and therefore doesn’t suffer any quality loss due to compression. Audio Audio File Formats Audio is used in WATCHOUT in a way that’s very similar to moving images. Simply bring the sound file into WATCHOUT and place its icon on the display in the Stage window where you want to the sound file to play. ◆ NOTE: Do not place the sound file’s icon so that it straddles multiple displays, unless you specifically want the same sound file to play from multiple display computers. Having the sound file play from a computer that isn’t really used for sound reproduction places an unnecessary processing load on that computer. WATCHOUT can play any sound file format that QuickTime can handle. However, the recommended sound file formats are AIFF (a popular sound format under MacOS) and WAV (common under Windows). There’s usually no reason to use a compressed sound file format, such as MP3, and the additional decompression step adds unnecessary load. The size of uncompressed Chapter 6: Media Files 81
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Table of Contents 1 Introduction...
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Dataton WATCHOUT software and this
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System Overview This section provid
Page 10 and 11:
Software Overview Stage Window Time
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Related Technologies QuickTime Java
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14 Chapter 1: Introduction
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Display Computer Network Displays T
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tors often results in grey banding
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Plasma Displays Plasma displays are
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Display Software Obtain the WATCHOU
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Network Hook-up Stand-alone System
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Using Switches The second option us
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Displays 15-pin Mini D-sub Connecto
Page 30 and 31: Projection Screens Sound Sound outp
Page 32 and 33: Next, choose the “IP Address” t
Page 34 and 35: • Set “Connect Via” to “Eth
Page 36 and 37: Energy Saver • Open the “Energy
Page 38 and 39: Monitors • Open the “Monitors
Page 40 and 41: Control Strip • Open the “Contr
Page 42 and 43: Displays General Set-up Considerati
Page 44 and 45: A keystone-shaped image resulting f
Page 46 and 47: Sound The sound system should be pr
Page 48 and 49: Removing Unused Files All files tra
Page 50 and 51: The scalability allows you to creat
Page 52 and 53: Controlling the Environment Display
Page 54 and 55: These positions can be entered nume
Page 56 and 57: A large image spanning multiple dis
Page 58 and 59: Video playback requires powerful pl
Page 60 and 61: For photographic images (eg, scanne
Page 62 and 63: Using Adobe lllustrator Follow thes
Page 64 and 65: Using Adobe Photoshop Follow these
Page 66 and 67: 6. Set the options as shown to the
Page 68 and 69: • The origin of the movie; eg, co
Page 70 and 71: Computer Generated Material When us
Page 72 and 73: Using Transparency Computer generat
Page 74 and 75: Choosing a Codec Codec stands for e
Page 76 and 77: Pre-splitting Large Movies In order
Page 78 and 79: This is how you would split a movie
Page 82 and 83: sound files is usually not an issue
Page 84 and 85: 84 Chapter 6: Media Files them inde
Page 86 and 87: multiple display areas will line up
Page 88 and 89: WATCHOUT to use relative file acces
Page 90 and 91: Timeline The Timeline window shows
Page 92 and 93: Layering Media The horizontal track
Page 94 and 95: Optimizing Playback of Large Videos
Page 96 and 97: Tween Tracks Adding a Tween track T
Page 98 and 99: Corners and Smooth Tween Points The
Page 100 and 101: Editing Position Points Moving Alon
Page 102 and 103: 102 Chapter 7: Production
Page 104 and 105: Downloading Media Whenever you go o
Page 106 and 107: Looping the Presentation For a trad
Page 108 and 109: 108 Chapter 8: Presentation
Page 110 and 111: Manipulating Windows All WATCHOUT w
Page 112 and 113: Timeline Window The Timeline window
Page 114 and 115: Media Window The Media window lists
Page 116 and 117: Editing the Media File Refreshing M
Page 118 and 119: 118 Chapter 9: Windows
Page 120 and 121: Open Opens an existing WATCHOUT pre
Page 122 and 123: Edge-blend Curve External Serial Co
Page 124 and 125: You can use the Replace function to
Page 126 and 127: Outline Dimmed Images Online Update
Page 128 and 129: described under “Pre-splitting La
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Timeline Menu Add Pause Cue Timelin
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132 Chapter 10: Menus
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Removing and Duplicating Displays D
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136 Chapter 11: Displays
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To position selected cues, drag one
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Cue Specifications To open a cue’
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Tween Points Add points to a tween
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Example; set frame 1234 as the stop
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Code Name Description D* Acknowledg
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148 Appendix A: Serial Protocol
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control panel apple menu 40 date an
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M Macromedia Director 80 Flash 80 F
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stage adding displays 111 adding me
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Dataton WATCHOUT User's Guide

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