Filming Path machinima filming tool now available

Hi folks, We're announcing the launch of our new filming system called Filming Path.

Quick excerpt from the notecard:

Filming Path - the machinimator's universal tool
creators: Geuis Dassin & Nand Nerd

There is a rising interest in Second Life to do cinematography, but the tools available have been limited. 
Filming Path seeks to provide an all-in-one solution for the filming needs of producers.

FEATURES:
- Setup your camera track simply by walking and flying
- Conveniently edit your track after its been created
- Utilize completely smooth movement along your track, including rotation
- Define the target your camera points at
- Track actors in walk-by shots using the mobile target attachment
- Lock both the camera movement and camera rotation to easily create pan shots and lock shots
- Dynamically control the speed of your camera moving along the track
- Work with multiple people on the same scene simultaneously, to control the target, camera speed, and more.
- All features are controlled via a HUD, no extras, no configuration, just one simple interface.

We've setup 2 vendors that are selling Filming Path.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Flyingroc%20Chung/90/224/22/
http://slurl.com/secondlife/secondlife://Lasiocampa/160/211/30

We're really excited about making this machinima system available to the film-making community in SL. Its our belief that having better, easier to use tools will "raise the bar" on the scale and quality of productions that people are able to create.

We're going to be organizing some public demonstrations in the next couple days, based on demand. We're also in the middle of producing an intro/tutorial film with Filming Path *about* Filming Path.

Looking forward to feedback.

Geuis Dassin & Nand Nerd

it is great that you developed your system....and im sure its a big help...
but for a beginner like me im not ready to spend 1500 L$ for this.

sorry guys your product is overpriced

but...hey..keep up your good work

greetings
Moyra

You kidding me... 1500 is not bad of a price at all...
features to price = exceptional..

Ive tries filming its nasty..
Something like this keps from keeping a noobish film looking noobish.
even using fraps you still havea ton of jumpy..

It also allows you to disable your interface and such then pless play..Great feature..

Hey Moyra, I can completely understand your perspective. The reason its priced at 1500 is because Nand and I have put in many hours of work into getting FP to do what it does (I'm still working on code for some updates as we speak).

We tried to make FP as dead simple to use as possible. I've spent the last couple nights rendering some video that I'm going to edit together for a demo movie. Quicktime doesn't like 33gb files on my computer for some reason. Its taking a while.

There's good free tools out there like Alt-Zoom that you can try if you haven't already. When you're ready to upgrade, FP will be here.

Geuis

Thanks for making sucha project. I will be in world to purchase it sometime today. This looks like what I've been looking for, and for me, the price is perfect.

Good response, btw.

Awesome guys! just what i was looking for I've tried it out and i'm very impressed so far.

I give this product 5 stars. If any of you have ever dealt with the Alt-Zoom camera, you know the frustration you can get out of it. It has a very steep learning curve and no matter how versed you are in it, it still takes quite a bit of time to set up.

The Filming Path HUD allows you to press a button, walk around setting a path, point to where you want to look, sit on the camera, and then go. It even hides the HUD for you!

If 1500L is too much for you, you're always able to use the free alternatives, but you'll end up spending a lot more on hair plugs after you rip your hair out.

Sounds like an interesting product... but I'd like to see the demo movies before purchasing.

I just tried this out for the first time. I'm a novice, and it took me about 10 minutes to read the notecard, set it up, and shoot. This is a no-brainer. Thanks guys.

Zigz, I got all the shots on my computer for an upcoming intro/demo of Filming Path. This weekend I just haven't had much time, have been running around most of the day with my fiance at a fashion show she's involved with(manages a couple of models). Will try to get everything together by Sunday.

Geuis,

Its cool man. Don't rush. Everyone is always rushing stuff out the door. Take your time.

Zigz

Fascinating product. Would be very interested in being able to have a camera dolly/vehicle to allow a second avatar to record sound synched to the camera POV.

At some point, I imagine, the open client will need to be modded to create a camera avatar...hmmm....

not sure even if FRAPS records sound for example.

It does.

Fraps records the same audio you hear on your speakers. That seems to be synched to camera POV. Fraps also captures input over Skype, so I use that sometimes for the audio.

At present, I seat my av and use crtl-alt-zoom to tag any moving object or av I want to follow. Results illustrated in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUe0bZTQ70

The limitaton is that it takes 2 people. So I need a little help from my friends.
TM

If it's any consulation to anyone, I paid a scriptor to develop our own version of this system before we even knew anyone else was also working on one. The cost to us was 15,000L$. I was about to test it live for the first time, when I came across Geuis Dassin standing proudly in his shop admiring the his new system installed in his vendor for 1,500L$.

If we intended to release our system, I can state that it would be for a similar unit value, not just to cover the initial scripting costs, but also the time involved developing it, vendor space, adminastration and or course profit, therefore we would need to sell around 20+ before make profit, dependant on how quickly they sell. If I had waited a month, I would certainly have bought one of Geuis Dassin systems, for the cost offered.

Fraps is ok.. hunt about for HyperCam3... you will not be dissapointed.

HyperCam3 looks great for screen capture. I plan to use it the next time I need to make a tutorial. And I will test in for ripping clips fomr YouTube. And of course I will see if I can rip DVD's with it.

I will probably keep using Fraps for vid capture in SL. Familiar. Fortunately, they are both low cost, so I can use both.
TM

Quote 'HyperCam3 looks great for screen capture. I plan to use it the next time I need to make a tutorial. And I will test in for ripping clips fomr YouTube. And of course I will see if I can rip DVD's with it.

I will probably keep using Fraps for vid capture in SL. Familiar. Fortunately, they are both low cost, so I can use both. ' UnQuote

The main advantage I found with HyperCam3 is the 'save in raw avi' as many codex applied before production, can create harder to use material. HyperCam can capture any window or screen area (including cursor) assuming you dont have the 'the connecting wire between your mouse and the OS is incompatible' crap OS Vista from MS, not that I am promoting ripping off DVD or any other material, although there are smarter video 'ripping' programmes available at low cost.

I personally found HyperCam to show less overheads when producting ingame movies than most.

This Filming Path is great piece of kit and is very easy to use; I used it to shoot a film this weekend with a long (c.100m) fly through - it worked perfectly...

Whist using it, I had a few thoughts that might be helpful in the next update, Geuis, please take these in the spirit intended - and keep up the good work.

i. HUD - it's very large, and for a product designed for fillm work, it tends to clutter the screen a bit whilst you are working to set up a screen (esp. in 800x600 rez), could it be smaller, and perhaps have an option to be minimized (you could rotate the HUD to do this).

ii. RESET/SCENE BUTTON - Opps, I spent an hour and a half setting up a complex scene!, then, because the HUD buttons are so large I accidentally pressed the reset button - poof, the lot gone. This is related to the above point, but even so, perhaps a menu window could spring open with an 'are you sure' message.

iii. STORE Scene? Would this be possible?

iv. If you edit a waypoint, then send the new data a new camera is generated, could you instruct the new camera to delete any older cameras? - AND also send the speed setting to the new camera, at the moment new cameras will use the default speed, not the user setting.

v. I like the simplicity of walking/flying to define a camera-path, this works well, but an option to just rez a single waypoint at your current position would be nice, especially for confined spaces where walking/flying may be difficult - (a bit like how you rez a target).


That's it for now, like I said these comments are suggestions to enhance an already great product....

Cheers

Robbie DIngo.

1) The next update will see a redesigned hud along with a hide/unhide control.

2) will take into consideration.

3) have been thinking about this, will require external database communication. not sure if there's enough value to add this, in consideration.

4) both are minor bugs that should be fixed, noted.

5) you already can do this with the Cam Waypoint button. it will create a single waypoint at the position of your camera.

I'm looking for something like this, as I've had very bad luck with the alt-zoom package, and this *sounds* like the cat's meow.. however, I'll not pay $1500 sight-unseen for it.. I've been burned several times on items in SL with similar price tags and overinflated hype.. Not to insinuate that the authors of this product are guilty of this, but I need to see a demo/video example of the product's ease of use.. When can we expect that video, guys??

Tas

Geuis has made a Filming Path ad and posted it here:
/278/bf/163196/1.html
available on youTube (not the best quality thanks to youTube compression/lower res): http://youtube.com/watch?v=pfkOtZQlQdw
or at the cost of 54Mb download, here is the high-res: http://services.commoncache.com/Filming_Path_commercial_1.mp4

Also, you'll find that Instant Messaging (or offline IM-ing) Geuis will generally result in arranging for a demonstration of the Filming Path product.

Regards,

nand Nerd.

/me points at Nand

"What he said." =)

Hi Geuis, when and where will you be doing Filming Path demonstrations?

I've been using in-world camera and alt-zoom camera. So far my biggest frustration was to set up the alt-zoom camera perfectly to shoot the view I liked when I saw with the built-in camera. I'm hoping to find a camera that's more flexible, easy to set up, and can be left at the set for next shot. Is your camera that cool?

Hi.. just bought Film Path and have been giving it a test drive. The interface and controls are pretty straightforward so far, tho I still don't quite understand some of the functions as they were explained in the accompanying notecard... but the basics of setting way points and target and such.. not a problem.

I'd like to ask if you might consider reducing the size of the HUD buttons so it takes up much less screen space? (Why do the buttons need to be so big?)

I also have found that the camera doesn't always point toward the target and if I try to manually adjust my view to correct, then my camera is disengaged from the seat and it flies off along with my avatar without me!

Thanks!

Allen Brynner
SIMlight Digital