Hello everyone,
I made this set up a while back but thought I would share it with everyone.
It allows you to rebuild frames in batch without having to slip them back into place.
You can also test fluid morphs out without having to render patches and dropping them back to the timeline to review. You can adjust your start frame and duration of the transition all in batch. Give it a look!
Frame_Fix.zip (26.8 KB)
I also made a video for how to use it. Hope it helps somebody out of a jam someday.
Hi Brian,
I skimmed thru this. It looks like the fluid morph might be using 2 static frames, instead of keeping the underlying footage of the A and B still rolling?
Alan
Hey Alan, yes this morphs between two static frames. The one you choose and the one you want to get too.
I don’t find the Tim Farrell method of all the frames being morphed between each other gives any better results than this. The ease of use and being able to change the motion analysis resolution in one node and trying out different start frames and durations is very helpful. Once you find the frame and length you like you can always try it out with the other fluid morph set ups out there.
I will try and do a side by side comparison when I have some time. But I think the ML Time warp is the way to go 99% of the time if you can use it.
Yeah, we’ve had superior results with ML Timewarp. Not having it as a node in Batch really sucks, but the results are worth the hassle.
Here is a comparison of the three next to each other. You can frame through it by using the < and > keys.
I made the Fluid Morph for BFX demo nearly 4 years ago, and I had been using it for another 2 or so before that. I do update these things on occasion. My current version does all you describe plus more, and it does it with updating A/B frames.
Hey @ytf Tim!
I came from nuke and used the Frame fix method because that’s what we had. I build this in some down time one day because I did not know one existed. It seems like most flame tool set ups are mostly what the facility had on hand so I made this one. I have tried the Fluid Morph you build before but found that it can introduce artifacts that fewer frames sometimes solves. I would love to see your new version. I really geek out on expressions and loved your logik live. I have been using the heck out of the shadow boarder trick.
For that alone you have earned a setup and tutorial. Sadly, the oldest version I have is 2022, and I am running 2022.1. If you are compatible, let me know and I will try to work something up. I may be slow for the rest of the week.
HAHA!!! Excellent!!! I would love to see what you are working with now. I hated making the tutorial for mine. You could send it over or post it and I can try playing around with it until you have the time to do a proper walk through. These tools are super handy for us. Like Alan said its a shame we don’t have the ML TimeWarp in batch yet. But man when/if we get it. These set ups will be giving even better results.
FluidMorph_Batch_2022.zip (99.8 KB)
Unzip and load. Outgoing gets plugged into the Outgoing input, incoming to the incoming input, Variable 1 sets the start frame, variable 2 sets the duration. The TW node outside the group is for setting any parameters. Other than that, it is the same under the hood. It is still only 20 frames long because I have yet to need it longer. To use on the timeline, layer the outgoing and incoming on top of each other for the duration of the shots. It works great on the timeline, but I actually developed the timing tweeks to make it more user friendly in batch comps. This is for v2022.1
Watching the video, and watching how ihatebrianwilliams uses a mux node as a control node, I think that a good request could be a dummy batch node, with values only to be used for links, expressions or even python hooks. Adding new sliders with integer and flotant values, disable/enable buttons, etc. Something like after effects’s expression control, or nuke’s noOp node .
I’m not sure if something like that already exists. If not, it could be a great request for adsk.
I think the Variables node that Tim is using basically does that. Here’s an old example of how you can customize it:
@ytf I’d be happy to build a shader that says “Start Frame” with a slider and another that says “Duration” if you want that for your setup.
This has been requested in the past (and by others, not just me) but I think there might be a patent/ui-copyright thing or another. But I would love simple slider widgets that simply accept a value and other things can link to that value. I hate the concept of the dummy axis.
Sure. I’ll try anything.
Same here. I have tried opening the saved files and changing the names there with no luck. I would love a variables node that I could modify and label for what I needed.
@john-geehreng how do I use/look/see/install the .mx you put up? I am not an under the hood guy (yet). Also is this getting into a weird place where if someone does not have the ctrl.mx file it won’t work?
Hey John,
Would be great if you could take YTF’s latest setup integrate your matchboxes and save out a “complete” batch.
You can load the .mx as a matchbox. That file will be saved with your setup, so you won’t get into any weird places if someone doesn’t have that shader. If you want to look under the hood, check out the xml in the fluid_morph.zip above. It’s a good one to start with since it’s only 2 controllers. I like Atom.io for looking at xmls, but any text editor should be fine. I can dig up the the xml and glsl for the ctrl rig if you want, but that one went a little too far down the rabbit hole.
Thanks John. I will look at the one you provided and see if I can start to understand how these work. I am looking to clean up a few other set ups I have made.
Hey @ytf submitted for your approval…here’s your setup with the custom matchbox. It’s working for me, but let me know what you think.
FluidMorphCtrl_2022.zip (92.6 KB)