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Changing the Imagery
You may need to replace the imagery of a shot, for example, with lower- or higher-resolution versions. Use the Shot/Change Shot Images menu item to do this. After selecting the new image sequence or movie, the shot settings dialog will re- appear, so you can adjust or correct settings such as the aspect ratio.
The situation is a bit more complex when the the length of the shot is changed, with more frames added, especially at the beginning. The animation may need to be time-shifted to remain synchronized with the imagery, and the Start Frame and End Frame may need to be updated.
In common cases, ie when both old and new imagery is an image sequence with Match Frame Numbers turned on, or an image sequence or movie with timecode, Change Shot Images will do the time-shifting automatically (asking you to confirm), including updating the Start and End Frames. Depending on the situation, you may or may not be presented with an additional shot settings dialog; even if you are (to possibly tweak Start/End Frame) you do not have to do any further time shifting.
In other cases, when frame numbers or timecode aren’t available to inform SynthEyes, you may need to make the adjustments manually, based on whatever information you have. When activated as part of Change Shot Images, the shot settings dialog enables the Time-Shift Animation setting. You should set the Time-Shift Animation setting to the number of frames added or removed at the beginning of the shot (positive for added, negative for removed. When you click OK, this will time- shift all the tracking data, splines, object paths, etc later or earlier in the shot by that amount. You should then adjust the Start and End frames accordingly.
Tip: time shifting by a negative number of frames is destructive to keys before frame zero. When unsure of the amount, always shift positive first, adjust negative second. If the adjustment will be negative, adjust by the fewest likely number of frames first, then slowly go more negative. If the adjustment might be -5 to -10 frames, start with -5 and work your way to -10. Timeshifts are undoable (though use a lot of memory), so finalize the adjustment before closing the scene in SynthEyes.
Tip: You can use Synthia to time shift without Change Shot Images/Time Shift Animation spinner using Synthia, with the commands such as “ time
shift camera 1 by 8 frames” or “time shift camera 2 by -3 frames ” etc.
Once you’ve got the shot settings adjusted, you can extend the trackers into new the frames (using supervised tracking).You’ll need to unlock them, and re-Enable them on the first new frame. If you add additional trackers, be sure to track them well into the existing sections of the shot so the transition can be determined smoothly. Once the additional tracking is complete, you can re-solve the shot.
You can also add more auto-trackers from the Features panel. Change the shot playback range to include the new frames and an overlap region of 10-20 frames with the previously-existing frames. Click Clear All Blips, Blips playback range, then Peel All.
Time-shifting is a fairly complex operation not to be taken lightly, as it involves the creation or possible destruction of information. Some caution and scrutiny should be given to shifted shots, and some cleanup or fine-tuning of animation may be required in the vicinity of the beginning of the shot.
If frames from the beginning of the shot are no longer needed, it’s far easier to leave them in place, but change the shot start value by shift-dragging it in the time bar.
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