Video input size and aspect ratio

[DBLD]

Hi

 

What is the relation between a video screen created in Vectorworks and the image that is mapped to it using a video or NDI source? I have found that I need to scale the texture of the video screen within Vision to fit the correct size but this ends up with an incorrect aspect ratio (squashed too narrow).  I can of course scale it from the source to get the size, position and aspect ratio correct but there is a lot of guess work.

 

To get an image that is close to correct I have been cropping the video input (in Vision) so that it is square (guessing) which gives a close to correct aspect ratio (the media server is sending 1920x1080), then scaling the texture to 0.5 in the Properties panel, then adjusting the Texture Offset Vertical and Horizontal if need be. This seems is a really clunky and inaccurate workflow. Am I doing it wrong or is there a better way to do it?

[bbudzon]

The best way to do it is to ensure that proper texture mapping exists on the VW side before export.

 

The way that I normally do this with televisions is selecting an image texture from the default content that matches the televisions aspect ratio. So, if my television screen is 16:9, I make sure that I select the 16x9 Color Bar Test image in VW as it's image. If you enter shaded mode, you should see that the color bar test image is "mapped" correctly to the television screen and that all corners of the image are where you expect and no tiling is occurring.

 

When you send this to Vision, Vision will be able to then render a 16:9 video or NDI stream to this television screen perfectly and without distortion as the texture mapping is correct from VW and the aspect ratio of the texture mapping matches that of the source video input.

 

It took me a while to figure this stuff out in the past myself. I hope this helps and makes sense. The key, really, is getting VW to look right in shaded mode before the export to Vision when using an image in VW that is the same aspect ratio as the video or NDI stream in Vision.

[DBLD]

Hi @bbudzon

 

Thanks very much for this! It worked first go. I have been trying to figure out this for ages.

 

It would be great if the online help could explain this.

 

Thanks,

[bbudzon]

I'm glad it helped!! It took me a little bit to figure it out as well I didn't think changing the texture in VW would have that sort of effect. It's fairly simple with the easier cases where it's a well defined aspect ratio such as 4:3 or 16:9. I'm not the best with the texture tool in VW. So, the more bizarre / custom situations still baffle me a bit 😛 

 

And I'll pass this information along to our Technical Publications team as well to see if we can find a way to better document this. Thanks!