8 Replies Latest reply: Apr 9, 2010 1:34 PM by filelab1 RSS

    Is there an overlay feature?

    filelab1 Community Member

      I am a photographer who's been asked by a client to construct a live video feed through the camera that does not impair my ability to shoot at the same time. So I'm mounting a small pen sized camera to the ground glass( or eye piece ) on my camera feeding directly to another computer hopefully running OnLocation. But I also need to be able to place a Photoshop file over the live feed showing a mask of the package design the photo is going into. I'm hoping to create a PDF or Tiff file with a cleared area the photo will fill and import that into OL, Is This Possible ? and can it be scalable and movable?.

      Thanks

        • 1. Re: Is there an overlay feature?
          Basilio Alferow Community Member

          There was in OnLocation CS3, unfortunately it was dropped in CS4.  Maybe it will be restored in CS5, one can only hope as it was a most useful feature. Key words to search for are Onion Skin and Stop Motion.

          • 2. Re: Is there an overlay feature?
            Mark Mapes Employee Hosts

            This can be accomplished in OL CS4, albeit with a hoop or two to jump through.

            1) Drop your Photoshop image into a Premiere timeline, and stretch it to extend at least a few frames.

            2) Render the video out as an AVI or QT clip.

            3) Import the clip into OL

            4) Load the clip into OL's player

            5) Enable Split Screen. That basically makes the current frame from the video clip a foreground layer.

            6) Doubleclick the crosshairs at the center of the split region to maximize it.

            7) Switch to the live source (or another clip). The active source will be behind the split screen's frozen frame.

            8) Adjust the opacity of the split screen frame through the Monitor Settings dialog or via keyboard shortcut (the commands are available in the Edit Keyboard Shortcuts dialog under Field Monitor: Split Screen Opacity: Decrease & Split Screen Opacity: Increase, but no shortcuts are pre-set.)

             

            A couple of shortcomings for this applications:

            a) the split screen source cannot be scaled or positioned w/in OL, so you may have to go through a few iterations to get your "frame" properly positioned in Photoshop, rendering out a new clip each time.

            b) As far as I know, OL does not respect alpha in the video, so you'll have to play with the Split Screen Opacity to achieve an acceptable view.

            • 3. Re: Is there an overlay feature?
              filelab1 Community Member

              Thank you. I'll look into these.

              Chris

              • 4. Re: Is there an overlay feature?
                filelab1 Community Member

                Thanks Mark.

                Seems like this is a feature provided only to broadcast or enterprise 

                class systems. Someone else responded that it was available in OL CS3. 

                Are you aware if thats a true statement or not?

                Chris

                • 5. Re: Is there an overlay feature?
                  Mark Mapes Employee Hosts

                  I believe what Basilio is referring to is the ability to import a still image into OL for purposes of split-screening w/ onionskin and stop motion animation. OL CS3 did indeed support still images; CS4 does not.

                  • 6. Re: Is there an overlay feature?
                    filelab1 Community Member

                    Thanks Mark for the quick reply. Would your statement regarding no 

                    alpha support in OL apply to CS3 and OnionSkin as well.

                    Chris

                    • 7. Re: Is there an overlay feature?
                      Mark Mapes Employee Hosts

                      Both CS3 and CS4 allow you to control the opacity of the Split Screen frame. The means of doing so changed from a slider overlaid on the Field Monitor to a control in the Monitor Settings dialog, with keyboard shortcuts for incrementing.

                       

                      I honestly can't recall whether CS3 or CS4 supported alpha in the Split Screen frame, and I don't have a test clip handy to check.

                      • 8. Re: Is there an overlay feature?
                        filelab1 Community Member

                        Thanks so much Mark. You've pointed me in a direction to pursue at 

                        least.

                        Chris