Need help getting an animated hand to write with a quill.

mathis · Post by **mathis** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:06 am

Hello, all.
I have just volunteered to make my first TV commercial. I need to make an animation of the outline of a hand holding a quill and writing something.

I have Ulead MediaStudio Pro 8.0 and there is a Quill font in the "Insert Text" option, so the end written result is not a problem, but I need to be able to get the quill and hand in there and I would prefer it to be an animated outline instead of a real hand, since I don't have access to a quill, anyway.

Along with MSP 8.0, I have Ulead PhotoImpact 12.0, which comes with Ulead Gif Animator 5.0. And I have Ulead Cool3D Production Studio 3.0. So I feel like I have what it will take, but I cannot draw and I have to have this completely done by the 1st of November. I don't absolutely have to do it this way, but since the commercial is based on the seasons of writing, it would be the perfect effect. I am not getting paid to do this, so it's got to be quick, elegant and cheap (free is the best).

Thanks in advance for any ideas of how to do this you might be able to give me.

Mathis,
Plainview, TX

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:12 am

You use a program named heroglyph found in our link:
ThirdParty Commercial Software for Intervideo-Ulead products

Sample:
http://www.prodad.de/www.heroglyph.de/c ... 56m7u4.asf

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:17 am

There are a lot of tutorials available for PI. Here is one you may be able to utilize for this http://wwell.net/tutorials/pi12/aniname/index.html

More can be found here http://www.pircnet.com/tutsites.html

mathis · Post by **mathis** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:18 am

Thanks, Steve. I am downoading the demo. I'll let you know if it works for me.
Mathis...

sjj1805 wrote:You use a program named heroglyph found in our link:
ThirdParty Commercial Software for Intervideo-Ulead products

Sample:
http://www.prodad.de/www.heroglyph.de/c ... 56m7u4.asf

mathis · Post by **mathis** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:30 am

Thanks again, Steve. But Heinz-Oz's suggestion worked for me.

Thanks to you both.
Mathis..

heinz-oz wrote:There are a lot of tutorials available for PI. Here is one you may be able to utilize for this http://wwell.net/tutorials/pi12/aniname/index.html

More can be found here http://www.pircnet.com/tutsites.html

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:35 am

Thanks for letting us know. At least that way we know if we were able to help. Not many users take the time to let us know if they got it working.

Thanks again

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:07 am

Absolutely brilliant and a lot better than using heroglyph, you can obtain a better finished result because with heroglyph you have to write it free hand which is a bit difficult using a computer mouse.

MrA · Post by **MrA** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:37 am

sjj1805 wrote:Absolutely brilliant and a lot better than using heroglyph, you can obtain a better finished result because with heroglyph you have to write it free hand which is a bit difficult using a computer mouse.

Or use a drawring pad. I almost bought heroglyph, and with PI12, glad I didn't.

MrA · Post by **MrA** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:45 am

Absolutely the coolest tutorial I have seen for PI 12, and, opened a whole new bunch of possibilities for using PI12 and all video editing with Ulead products. Thanks..

MrA · Post by **MrA** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 5:09 pm

Any luck on getting this to work with MSP? I am having problems since GIF animator does not save the Alpha channel. Using with chroma key leaves some of the background around the pen or quill. Color key same problem. (trying to get it to overlay a video, not just by itself on a white background..)

This is my results.. It left pixels that are not supposed to be there and the quill has part of the background as well. This version was a possible Cool 3d PS work around, but, same reults. I basically just created a graphic object and used the AVI created with GIF Animator as the texture, then exported as an Alpha Channel overlay.

http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m3/M ... verlay.flv

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:58 am

From within GIF Animator create a SWF file.
Import the SWF as a video on the overlay track.

MrA · Post by **MrA** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:54 am

Thanks Steve will try it..

EDIT..

Tryed it, even worse results...

http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m3/M ... atest2.flv

any other clues?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:45 am

What your second video shows me is that parts of the background were not fully erased when creating the individual frames.

Here is a sample using two methods.
The first is an uncompressed avi on the overlay track and then utilising the chroma key function. The second method is using a SWF file.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1574275tdbYs2nK

MrA · Post by **MrA** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:01 am

sjj1805 wrote:What your second video shows me is that parts of the background were not fully erased when creating the individual frames.

That's what puzzling. If the second video shows that, why didn't it show up in the first video, it's the same file? And, PI doesn't show any left over pixels in each frame.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:14 am

It did but it was only when I saw your second one that my suspicions were confirmed.