creating images for a Matrix

[ezimnow]

What method is used  for creating images/icons for a Matrix? I see most people use Text and Video but how do you create obects/animation to go along with your sequence?

[sean]

-get video clips
-get animated gifs
-create your own animations with something like http://www.piskelapp.com/
-purchase animations for your trees or matrices from holidaysequences or brian bruderer or whomever. xlights can import superstar sequences directly
 

[Gilrock]

You can draw them in xLights.  I made this video a year ago and most of it should still apply:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzfePh6ROGU

[ezimnow]

Thanks guys, I'll check these options out...

[bhosted]

It would be nice if in the picture and video effect that the item you are going to use could have an option to resize it. Even with my 20 foot long matrix i have not been able video that is low rez enough but still maintaining some quality. My matrix is 100 x 63 with a two inch spacing in between each node. My hope is to wrap the entire house one year. But if I cant get xlights to handle the video by auto sizing it to the size of the matrix or having a scaling option i will be stuck just using the exciting effects for some of my whole house groups. This will be the first year that everything I have will be in xlight, No more lightorama software for me.
Last year I was using 30/10 strips for the matrix, this I have rebuilt it using 30/30

[babybear]

the images I put in free images were all made in xlights. Very easy to do.  One trick I do is I have a Matrix pre drawn of my mega tree 16 wide 50 tall in the shape of the tree. I then get my grand kids crayons out and color away. Once I get what I like then I transfer/draw them in xlights. kept things simple.     

[Gilrock]

It would be nice if in the picture and video effect that the item you are going to use could have an option to resize it. Even with my 20 foot long matrix i have not been able video that is low rez enough but still maintaining some quality. My matrix is 100 x 63 with a two inch spacing in between each node. My hope is to wrap the entire house one year. But if I cant get xlights to handle the video by auto sizing it to the size of the matrix or having a scaling option i will be stuck just using the exciting effects for some of my whole house groups. This will be the first year that everything I have will be in xlight, No more lightorama software for me.
Last year I was using 30/10 strips for the matrix, this I have rebuilt it using 30/30

The video effect already automatically scales to the size of the model you put it on.  Picture effect has the scale to fit checkbox.  You can use scaling in picture effect to dynamically change it during the effect and you can use rotozoom to scale and rotate any effect.  So what it is you couldn't do?

[jnealand]

Remember that you are only building a matrix that is 100 x 63 pixels.  Think about how whatever video you are considering would look on a TV that had only that many pixels.  You really have to start with small resolution things to get decent pictures on a 100x63 matrix.    You might be happier using some kind of video projection on your house.

[bhosted]

It would be nice if in the picture and video effect that the item you are going to use could have an option to resize it. Even with my 20 foot long matrix i have not been able video that is low rez enough but still maintaining some quality. My matrix is 100 x 63 with a two inch spacing in between each node. My hope is to wrap the entire house one year. But if I cant get xlights to handle the video by auto sizing it to the size of the matrix or having a scaling option i will be stuck just using the exciting effects for some of my whole house groups. This will be the first year that everything I have will be in xlight, No more lightorama software for me.
Last year I was using 30/10 strips for the matrix, this I have rebuilt it using 30/30

The video effect already automatically scales to the size of the model you put it on.  Picture effect has the scale to fit checkbox.  You can use scaling in picture effect to dynamically change it during the effect and you can use rotozoom to scale and rotate any effect.  So what it is you couldn't do?

No that is incorrect. If the video option did that I would not post my last statement. when i load frosty the snowman which is at 640 x 480 onto a matrix that is 100 x 63 I only see the middle of the video xlights does not resize it at all. So could someone please reply to this that has this problem or is able to show a video or screen shots of the video effect resizing I have no problem being wrong im just telling what I am experiencing. xlight 2016.39

[Gilrock]

I am one of the 3 main developers you think I don't know how that works? LOL

Your problem is obvious in the screenshot.  You didn't put the video effect on your matrix model.  You put the effect on a model group named Matrix so it distributed the video across the entire layout space like a whole house model.  You need to put the effect on just the matrix model by itself if that's what you want it to scale to.

[bhosted]

Thanks for the reply. The screen shot was from last year. Currently using a new matrix. It has three separate screens. Yes I know see that if I only put the video in any one screen it will resize the video and looks great. BUT when I group the three screens together and then place the video on top of that group the video plays but it does not resize.

[Gilrock]

For clarification:  The video will always scale to the size of the render buffer for the model you place the effect on.  The default render buffer for a model group is the size of the entire Layout screen.  That's why you are seeing it appear to not scale.  It actually is scaling to the size of the Layout screen but you can only see it where the models exist in the group.  For what you want you need to change the "Render Style" in the Layer Settings panel to "Per Preview".  That will reduce the render buffer to the actual boundaries of the models in the model group.  That setting can be changed for every effect.

[bhosted]

I love you guys. I think I just grew back some hair. Per Preview worked. I will send along some videos. This will be first year that I am 100% xlights.

[markrvp]

One of the things I found helpful to make sure my videos fill every pixel on my matrices, is to size/crop them ahead of time using this simple program:  https://www.wondershare.com/pro/video-converter-ultimate.html

I never could get Adobe Premiere to crop to non-standard sizes, but this little program does it without a hitch.  The idea is to pick a Ratio that matches your screen.

I have a 12mm pixel matrix that is 50 wide x 45 tall.  When converting a 1280x720 video I have to crop to the correct ratio which would be 800x720.  I'm getting rid of a lot of video on either side, but it fills every pixel on my matrix.

Hope this helps.

[Gilrock]

By the way when you create a Model Group there is a Default Layout Mode or Type I forget the exact name but that is where you can tell it the default mode of the model.  The problem is that feature has been broken for some time so I fixed it last night and it will be in next release.  So currently all new model groups were being set to "Grid as Per Preview" which makes them the full size of the Layout screen.  And the bug prevented you from changing it to "Minimal Grid" which would have made it only fit the models in the group.  I believe we used to also have "Minimal Grid" as the default and that apparently changed when I moved the code from a dialog to the property grid area.