07: Animation and Keying

Graphic eraser

You can selectively clear any graphics.

Erase the whole drawing

Press the Eraser button. A cross button is displayed at the end of graphic elements that belong to the currently selected tool. Press the cross control to erase the drawing.

Erase one keyframe

Enable keyframe visualization. Press the small eraser button to delete the current keyframe only. The button is available only when a keyframe is selected.

Distance text

Some tools support showing a text that displays distance between end points of the drawing. An example is 3D Arrow tool.

Distance text settings can be found at the Distance tab of tool properties. The text can be aligned to its parent tool in different ways that are controller by TrackingType selector:

NONE - Distance text is rendered as an on-screen text. TextPosition property controls position of text on the screen, having [0,0] in the center and [1,1] in right upper corner of the screen.

SHAPE ALIGNED - Distance text is rendered as an object lying on the ground. TextPosition defines relative distance of the text, in meters, text from the center of measured distance line.

CAMERA FACING - Distance text is rendered as a 3D object standing on the pitch, rotating towards camera continuously. TextPosition defines relative distance of the text, in meters, text from the center of measured distance line.

To adjust how the distance value is presented to video, use TextFormat property. It is using float value formatting syntax similar to the one used in C or Java. For example, using formatting string %.2f meters results in displaying distance with 2-digit precision: 6.28 meters.

Use DistanceValueType to change units of distance measurement.

Keyframe animation

Most tools support animations. Once the animation is created, it can be stored in a clip and played together with the clip. Define the position and size of a tool drawing in several keyframes (time points), position and size between the keyframes is automatically interpolated.

Create new animation

• Select a clip
• Select a tool to animate and place drawing into preview
• Define the position of the drawing at several time points (drag drawing to the desired position).
• Size can be changed by mouse wheel while holding a Ctrl key.
• Save the animation into a clip

Edit existing animation

• Select a clip with a stored animation
• Press the Edit button
• Adjust the animation and save it to the clip

Remove existing animation

• Select a clip with a stored animation
• Press the Edit button
• Press the Clear button
• Press the Save button

Controls

	Keyframe
	Hovered keyframe: Click it to move to the time of keyframe.
	Active keyframe
	Delete actual keyframe
	Enable keyframe visualization
	Disable keyframe visualization

Linked keyframe animation

Paths

Paths allow you to create one-click animations from an existing path:

• Each existing Keyframe animation represents a path.
• Clips imported from Virtual Placement 7 with Tracab are capable of carrying paths of all players.

Bind Tool to a path

Each path represents a position animation that can be used to animate another drawings. Several drawings can be bound to one path.

• Select a clip that contains paths.
• Select the tool you would like to bind to a path.
• Press the Bind button.
• Select one of the paths.

Only tools with motion tracking ON can be bound to Paths created by a motion tracked tool. Paths that cannot be used by the selected tool are not displayed.

Delete drawing bound to a path

Use Graphic eraser to delete drawings.

Change offset from the path

You can change the offset of the drawing from the path. The drawing will animate on the path but will keep a fixed offset from it.

• Pick the drawing to be adjusted and place it on the desired offset from the path.

Edit existing path

The paths are editable. When a path is changed, the trajectory of all bound drawings is changed to follow the updated trajectory of the path.

Editing is implemented the same way as editing a Keyframe animation.

Choose which paths are visible

In default state paths are visible and accessible at the same time. But when pitch calibration is defined a user can come across two types of paths:

• 2D - Defined in pixel coordinates directly on the screen.
• 3D - Defined in meters on the virtual pitch set by calibration.

To see only one type or the other simple use the Paths view button in the left top menu to rotate between these 3 views:

All paths.

Only 2D. 

Only 3D.

Shape paths

To adjust small imperfections in paths, coming from the Player Tracking processing 
‎or after using the Join/Swap tools below, the path shaping tool can be used.

To shape a path, do the following:

1.	Enable Path Shaping Tool by activating the Path Shape button. All existing paths get shown as circles for current player positions with a trail visualizing immediate previous and next movement.
2.	Click on any path manipulator to select it, visualize its whole trail and hide all other paths.
3.	Jog the time where the path needs to be shaped.
4.	Drag and drop the path manipulator to a new desired position.
5.	Click on the path manipulator to go back to edit other paths (step 1) or repeat steps 3 and 4.

Linked paths

If some paths are linked together for example with the Linked Cursor tool, all linked paths will act as one, meaning clicking on either one will select/deselect all of them, and will be visualized at the same time.

Smoothing

Path shaping tool also supports adjustable level of smoothing/propagation of the adjustments to the nearby times to control whether only the current position should be edited or a more realistic player movement is preferred (without spikes).

To adjust the smoothing level, hold the CTRL key (CMD on macOs) and scroll. The current level is visualized by a white highlight around the current keyframe. Examples:

No smoothing ‎only the current position is adjusted.
Low smoothing.
High smoothing.

Extending paths

Path shaping tool can also be used to extend paths on either end. To extend a path simply jog outside its definition (before beginning or after end). This is visualized as a dashed manipulator at last known position.

And then drag and drop the path manipulator to a desired position. This will define a new keyframe at given position and current time and add it to the path.

Swap paths

Another tool used most often to improve results of player tracker processing.

Allows to swap two paths crossing each other where at the crossing point, paths get swapped between players incorrectly.

To swap paths, use the following procedure:

1.	Enable Path Swap Tool by activating the Path Swap button. Existing paths get shown.
2.	Jog in time a few frames after the incident. Click one of the two path manipulators to select the path. Its selection is visualized with a blue color.
3.	At the same frame, click the other manipulator to select the second path.
4.	After both paths are selected, they are swapped at the point of the crossing, or at the point where they are closest to each other, when they are not crossing directly.

‎Split paths

Any path can also be split into two at required time. Typical use case for this is cutting off sections which otherwise would be difficult to shape into desired form. The missing section then can be filled by extending the "well-behaving" part via the Shaping tool.

To split a path, use the following procedure:

1.	Enable Path Split Tool by activating the Path Split button. Existing paths get shown.
2.	Jog to the time where you want the split to occur. Click the manipulator of the path that should be split.
3.	Path is now split into two and the first part (earlier in clip) stays selected and highlighted.
4.	Select the Shaping tool to edit/extend the first part or click the manipulator again to deselect the first part, jog forwards and select the second part.

‎Join paths

Typical scenario for Path Joining is connecting two distinct paths coming from the Player Tracking processing. Paths to be joined should not overlap in time. In case they are overlapping, the path that is starting first in time takes precedence.

To join two paths, do the following:

1.	Enable Path Joining Tool by activating the Path Join button. Existing paths get shown.
2.	Jog to the 1st path time range. Click on the path manipulator to designate the first path for joining.
3.	Jog to the 2nd path time range. Click on the path manipulator to designate a second path for joining.
4.	Paths get joined.

Remove path

Removing paths is not supported.

Chroma Key

Paint comes with a built-in chroma keyer. There are 2 types for keyers, Automatic and Manual. Type of the keyer can be set in the Config editor, User Interface tab.

Automatic

The automatic keyer is only used in a Paint Live configuration (although it can use the manual keyer too). The automatic keyer is fully automatic. An initial key is computed when the application is started. Then the algorithm maintains and adapts the key as the match continues and the light conditions change.

You can check the current key at any time. Just open the Chroma Key Editor and choose Mask or Preview mode. All other functions in the editor will be disabled.

Manual

This type of keyer is fully user-operated. Open the Chroma Key Editor and pick the colors you want to be part of the key.

Chroma Key Editor

Adjust the size of the pick area

Use the Pick size slider in the Chroma key dialog to adjust the size of the pick area. Alternatively you can use CTRL + mouse wheel to change picker size.

Automatic refinement

Each time you create a new drawing, a new sample of the chroma key is taken and added to the current key. Only samples that don't cause significant changes to the current key are taken into account.

All refinements are discarded:

• When the Chroma key editor is opened
• When the Clear button is pressed

Automatic refinement is available only when Live input is selected.

Automatic Keyer

If Automatic keyer has been enabled in the config editor, the chroma key editor will be able to toggle between automatic and manual keyer functions. It is not possible for you to add or remove chroma when automatic keyer is enabled and behavior is only supported inside manual one.

Chroma key stored in a Clip

When a new clip is created, the current chroma key setting from Live cameras is copied and saved with the clip. Clips with no stored key inherit their key from the Live input. A stored key can be redefined. Just select the clip, open the chroma key editor and redefine the key.

A chroma key stored in a clip can be deleted. Select the clip, open the chroma key editor and press 'Clear'. From then, the chroma key for the clip is inherited from the Live input again.

Tools using chroma keyer

Most tools support the chroma keyer. You can change the keyer settings in the popup invoked for a tool.

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