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7. POST PRODUCTION 2 Import, Hitzone, & Export Characters for use in the V-Author™ Authoring Software Version 1.0-0913 © 2013 by VirTra Inc. All Rights Reserved. VirTra, the VirTra logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of VirTra in the United States and/or other countries.

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7. POST PRODUCTION 2

Import, Hitzone, & Export Characters for use in the V-Author™ Authoring Software

Version 1.0-0913

© 2013 by VirTra Inc. All Rights Reserved. VirTra, the VirTra logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of VirTra in the

United States and/or other countries.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2013 by VirTra Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, translated into any language, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, photocopying, manual, or otherwise, without prior written permission from VirTra Inc.

DISCLAIMER

VirTra Inc. shall not be liable for any incidental or consequential damage resulting from the performance or use of this product. This company makes no representations or warranties regarding the contents of this manual. Information in this manual has been carefully checked for reliability; however, no guarantee is given as to the correctness of the contents. In the interest of continued product improvement, this company reserves the right to revise the manual or include changes in the specifications of the product described within it at any time without notice and without obligation to notify any person of such revision or changes. The information contained in this manual is provided for general use by the customers of the product.

TRADEMARKS

General Notice: Product names used in this manual are ascribed to their respective owners and acknowledged.

Author: Richard Kennedy

Editor: Brent Barcena, Richard Kennedy

Layout/Design: Brent Barcena

Version 1.0-0913

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. AFTER EFFECTS TEMPLATE 4

II. PROJECT PANEL FOLDERS 4

III. IMPORT FOOTAGE 5

A. RENAMING FOOTAGE 7

IV. IMPORT SOUND 8

V. CREATE A COMPOSITION 10

A. NEW COMPOSITION SETTINGS 10

VI. TIMELINE LAYER ORDER 13

A. ADD SOUNDS TO THE LAYERS AND TIMELINE PANEL 14

VII. CHARACTER HITZONE 17

A. CREATE NEW COMPOSITION 17

B. TRIM WORK AREA 18

C. AUTO-TRACE FEATURE 19

D. CREATE A SOLID LAYER 21

E. ANIMATING THE MASK 26

F LAYER MARKERS 27

G. ADDITIONAL DIE STATES 28

H. CHARACTER ICON 29

VIII. EXPORT AND RENDER ASSETS 30

A. EXPORT TO VSA 30

B. RENDER TO VSA 30

IX. SCENE IMPORT TOOL 31

A. LAUNCHING THE PROGRAM 31

B. IMPORT ASSETS 31

X. CONTACT VIRTRA 33

PAGE 4POST PRODUCTION 2 - IMPORT, HITZONE, & EXPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. AFTER EFFECTS TEMPLATE

II. PROJECT PANEL FOLDERS

This manual involves importing the footage and sound files rendered in the previous section, creating a new composition with those files, adding characters hitzones then exporting the character for use in the V-Author™ software.

1. Provided for you in this section is an After Effects template to work with. Follow the example below to locate the template file. Once located, double click “Post II Template.aep” and it will open in After Effects.

Once open, locate the Project Panel and notice the three folders placed within it. Rendered items from the previous section will be imported into these folders.

Fig. 02: Folders in the Project panel

1. Characters Folder will contain the character you wish to use within the V-Author™ software.

2. Footage Folder will contain all of the rendered character state.

3. Sounds Folder will contain all of the rendered sounds from the character states.

Fig. 01: Location of After Effects Template

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III. IMPORT FOOTAGE

Fig. 04: Location of Die Folder

Fig. 05: Select first .png file

With the Footage Folder selected ( See Fig 02 on the previous page ), choose File>Import>Multiple Files, from the Menu Bar at top. This will launch a window to locate and choose a file to import.

1. Follow the image to the right to locate the Die folder. Inside is the footage ren-

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dered out in the previous section.

1. Select the first .png file in the folder.

2. Make sure “PNG Sequence” box is checked.

3. Click Open.

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Fig. 06: Importing multiple files.

Once you have imported the sequence, the import window will appear again since we choose to import “multiple files”.

1. Notice the Die footage placed in the Project Panel under the Footage Folder.

2. Select the “Up One Level” icon, located in the import window, to navigate back a directory.

3. Double click to open the Idle Folder and select the first .png file within it

4. Then click Open.

Repeat the steps above to import the Shoot state into the Project Panel.

5. Once you have completed importing all of the footage items, click Done.

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Fig. 07: Renaming footage files

A. RENAMING FOOTAGE

Notice how the footage files contain a range of numbers after the name of the state. This refers to the individual frame num-bers that make up a footage sequence. See Fig.07 below.

Since this is an incorrect format to use, we will need to rename the footage files and delete the additional frame numbers.

1. To do this, select the first footage file, Die, and press “Enter” on the keyboard.

2. Delete the “frame numbers”, “the underscore”, and the “bracket” characters from the name of the footage file.

3. Final naming convention should read “Die.png”.

Repeat this step to delete the frame numbers from the other two footage files.

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Fig. 08: Importing Sound

Fig. 09: Selecting multiple sound files

IV. IMPORT SOUND

1. Select the Sounds folder in the Project Panel then choose File>Import>Files from the Menu Bar at top. Once again, this will launch an import window to locate files to import. This time, locate the Sounds folder and double click to open it.

Inside, locate the three sound files rendered out in the previous section.

1. Select all three by click and dragging over them or by holding down the “Ctrl” key and individually selecting each file.

2. Once all are selected, click Open.

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Fig. 10: All three files imported to both Footage and Sounds folder

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3. Once complete, you will notice three files in the Footage folder and three files in the Sounds folder.

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V. CREATE A COMPOSITION

A. NEW COMPOSITION SETTINGS

Create a composition from the imported footage files.

1. Select all three files in the Footage Folder.

2. Click and Drag them over to the Composition Panel.

To select multiple items, click and drag over the files or hold down the “Ctrl” key to individually select them.

Fig. 11: Dragging files onto the Composition panel creates a composition file

Fig. 12: New Composition dialogue box

When prompted with the “New Composition from Selection” window, choose the following options.

1. Under Create, select the Single Composition option.

2. Check the Sequence Layers box towards the bottom.

3. Click OK

The composition duration is determined by the 3 footage items combined.

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Once complete, your composition should look similar to Fig. 13 below.

1. Footage items appear in the Timeline and Layers Panel.

2. Video display appears in the Composition Panel.

3. A new composition file appears in the Project Panel.

Fig. 13: New composition should appear like the example above

Fig. 14: Drag the Shoot comp file up to the Character folder

1. Within the Project Panel, locate the new composition file in the Footage Folder named Shoot. The icon resembles a “film strip frame” and will appear different than the other footage items.

2. Drag and Drop the composition file onto the Characters Folder. See Fig. 14 to the right.

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A1. Moving the New Composition File

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Fig. 15: Leave space out or use underscore when renaming files

The composition will automatically take on a name from the footage files used to create it. In this case, the compositions name is Shoot. See Fig. 15 below.

1. The name of the composition will become the name of the character as it appears in the V-Author™ software.

2. To change the name of the composition, hit the “Enter” key with the composition item selected.

Next, type in an appropriate character name making sure to avoid spaces in the characters’ name. This is very important to remember when naming characters.

You can use an “underscore” instead of a space. Example: “Kneeling_Hostile01”.

Or, simply leaving the space out altogether. Example: “KneelingHostile01”.

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VI. TIMELINE LAYER ORDER

In the Layers and Timeline Panel, notice how the footage layers have been stacked throughout the timeline. This was done automatically when the composition was created. The next step involves organizing the footage to follow a specific layer structure.

The first footage layer in the timeline WILL ALWAYS be an Idle state or any introductory char-acter state. Placing it first defines the “default state”, or starting state, for any character while using the V-Author™ software.

Footage layers placed after the Idle state should be any Shoot, Cover, Comply, Dialogue, etc… states.

Place all Die states AFTER ALL OTHER STATES in the Layers and Timeline Panel.

Rule #1

Rule #2

Rule #3

1. Locate the Idle state in the Layers and Timeline Panel and move it to the top of the layer stack.

When changing a layers stacking order, a black line will appear to indicate the placement of that layer in the stack.

2. Once you have the Idle state at position 1 in the Layers Panel, reposition it at the beginning in the Timeline Panel.

Take a look at the current layer stacking order. From top to bottom is Idle, Shoot and Die. This is an example of a correct layer stacking order.

3. Next, reposition the Shoot state to the center of the Timeline Panel, filling in the gap between the Idle and Die states.

Fig. 16: Drag Idle state to the top of the stack

Fig. 17: Position Idle state to the beginning of the Timeline Panel

Fig. 18: Move the Shoot state between Idle and Die state

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A. ADD SOUNDS TO THE LAYERS AND TIMELINE PANEL

Fig. 18: Drag Idle sound state to Layers and Timeline Panel

Fig. 19: Drag Shoot sound state to Layers and Timeline Panel

1. From the Project Panel, locate the “Sounds” folder and drag the Idle sound state ( Idle.wav )to the Layers and Timeline Panel and place it below the corresponding footage state.

Remember, a black line will appear to indicate the placement of a layer in a stack.

2. From the Project Panel, drag the Shoot sound state ( Shoot.wav )down to the Layers and Timeline Panel and place it below the corresponding footage state.

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3. From the Timeline Panel, reposition the Shoot sound state exactly under its footage layer.

4. In the Timeline, move the Current Time Indicator to the beginning of the Shoot state.

5. Zoom into the Timeline to view its frame level by using the slider control. This is to insure the Shoot sound state is posi-tioned exactly under its corresponding footage state.

Fig. 20: Line up character’s Shoot state and Shoot sound state

Fig. 21: Line up character’s Die state and Die sound state

6. From the Project Panel, drag the Die sound state to the Layers and Timeline Panel and place it below the correspond-ing footage state.

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Fig. 22: Use Zoom feature to line up states accurately

Fig. 23: Current Time box display

7. Repeat the steps from above to reposition the Die sound state underneath the corresponding footage state. Use the Zoom feature to make sure the sound and footage states line up exactly. Drag the pointer left and right to Zoom in and Zoom out.

8. With the Current Time Indicator positioned at the beginning of the Die state, locate the Current Time box which reads 256. This displays the frame number of Current Time Indicators placement.

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VII. CHARACTER HITZONE

Hitzones allow for the detection of a weapon type such as a firearm. Once a hitzone is detected, a character response is triggered referred to as a Die state.

With this said, every state that has a corresponding die state will need a hitzone.

Example: Idle, Shoot, Comply, Dialogue, Run to Cover, etc…

Die states WILL NOT receive a hitzone.

Fig. 24: Drag character to create a new comp

Fig. 25: New Composition created

A. CREATE NEW COMPOSITION

1. Drag the composition from the Characters folder down to the “Create a New Comp” icon positioned towards the bottom of the Project Panel.

Once created, you will automatically be taken into the new composition. Here you will notice three things.

1. New composition item in the Project Panel under the Characters Folder.

2. In the Layers and Timeline Panel, all layers have been grouped together into one layer.

3. The Composition Panel shows the same video preview as before.

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Fig. 26: Type exact frame number

Fig. 27: Current Time Indicator moves to desired frame number

B. TRIM WORK AREA

Scrub through the timeline to determine how much of it will be hitzoned. As discovered earlier, the end of the shoot state was at frame number 256.

1. Click in the Current Time box. A “Go to Time” dialogue box pops up.

2. Type in the frame number 256 and hit OK.

3. Notice how the Current Time Indicator moved to frame number 256. This is the end of the character’s Shoot state and right before his Die state.

4. Press “N” on the keyboard to end the Work Area here at this point.

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C. AUTO-TRACE FEATURE

The Auto-trace option is a feature that will automatically trace an outline around a moving object for a given period of time. This is the first step in creating a hitzone.

1. From the Menu Bar at top, choose Layer>Auto-trace. See Fig 28 to the right.

Fig. 28: Auto-trace option

Fig. 29: Auto-trace dialogue box

Fig. 30: Adjusting the Threshold settings affects the amount of shadows

2. Once selected, you will be prompted with an Auto-trace settings dialogue box. These settings are used to adjust the outline created around the character. See Fig. 29 below.

3. Under Time Span, select the Work Area option. This generates an outline for the duration of the defined work area.

4. Under Options, follow the example below to adjust the Tolerance, Threshold, Minimum Area and Corner Roundness.

5. Make sure Apply to New Layer is Unchecked.

6. Select the Preview option at the bottom.

7. When complete select OK and the software will process the outline. This will take a few minutes.

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8. Depending on the size and shape of your character, you might need to make further adjustments. You can achieve this by adjusting the Threshold setting.

9. Notice how increasing the threshold selected less of the characters shadow. Compare the shadows on Fig 29/Fig.30.

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Fig. 31: Applying the Auto-trace mask to the original composition

Fig. 32: Click Tab to navigate in the in the Layers and Timeline panel

Once the Auto-trace completes, the masks should automatically appear in the Layers and Timeline panel. If not, select the layer and hit “M” on the keyboard to make them visible.

1. Once completed, notice the masks created from the Auto-trace feature down in the Layers and Timeline panel.

2. Also, notice the “black dots” created within the Timeline region. These are referred to as Key Frames.

In Fig.31 below, all of the masks are highlighted which means they are all selected. If by chance yours are not selected, hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on each to select them.

3. Copy these masks and Paste them over into the original composition. To do so, press Ctrl + C on the keyboard to Copy the masks. Ctrl + V on the keyboard to Paste.

4. Navigate back to the original composition by selecting the tab at the top left of the Layers and Timeline panel. Paste the marks to the original composition.

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D. CREATE A SOLID LAYER

To create a new Solid layer, follow the steps below:

The Solid Settings dialogue box will appear.

1. Name the layer “Hitzone”

2. Set the color to RED by clicking on the color box.

3. Select OK when complete

1. From the Menu Bar, select Layer

2. Scroll over to New

3. Scroll to the right and click on Solid

Fig. 33: Creating a new Solid layer

Fig. 34: Solid Settings dialogue box

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* Tip: Hit “Ctrl+Y” as a shortcut to creating a new Solid layer.

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D1. Trim Hitzone Layer

D2. Change Mask Mode - Add Mode

Fig. 35: Pasting masks

Fig. 36: “Add” mask mode

1. Make sure the Current Time Indicator is positioned at the beginning of the timeline. To do so, press the “Home” key on the keyboard or click and drag it to the beginning.

2. With the Hitzone layer selected, press Ctrl + V to paste the masks from the previous comp over to this layer.

3. With the Hitzone layer selected, press “M” on the keyboard to make the masks visible.

1. Scrub to frame number 256 using the Current Time Indicator or by typing it in the Current Time box.

2. With the Hitzone layer selected, press “Alt + ]” on the keyboard to trim the layer at this point.

3. On the Mask 1 row, change the mode to Add. To do this, select the drop down menu for Mask 1 under Mode.

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In most cases, the Auto-trace feature will trace out several masks. The first mask WILL ALWAYS BE the characters main outline and mode set to Add. The other masks will be areas such as empty space under the characters arms or between the legs etc... These areas will need to be Subtracted.

1. Change all other masks to the Subtract Mode. See Fig. 39 below.

At the beginning of this section on page 17, we created a new composition by dragging “Kneeling_Hostile01” to the “Create New Comp” icon. The result is the creation of a new composition called “Kneeling_Hostile02”. This composition was only used to create the hitzone and is no longer needed.

1. Navigate up to the Project Panel and locate the second composition located in the Characters Folder and delete it.

2. In this example, the second composition is named “Kneel-ing_Hostile02”.

Fig. 37: “Subtract” mask mode

Fig. 38: Delete extra composition file in the Project Panel

D3. Change Mask Mode - Subtract Mode

D4. Delete Composition File

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Fig. 39: Zooming in using the mouse or magnification dropdown

Fig. 40: Clean up unwanted areas of the hitzone using

“subtract” mode

D5. Zoom into Composition Window

D6. Cleaning up Mask - Add Subtract Mask

While drawing or adjusting masks, you might want to zoom into the footage to get a closer view. There are TWO ways to zoom into the Composition Panels preview window.

1. Using the Mouse: With the mouse pointer positioned over the Composition Panel, use the Scroll Wheel on the mouse to Zoom In and Out.

2. Magnification Dropdown: Select the Magnification dropdown list to choose a magnification percentage.

In most cases, there will be unwanted areas of the hitzone you didn’t see until you’ve zoomed in. For example: Hands, feet, loose clothing, weapons, etc. These areas will need to be subtracted from the characters main hitzone.

1. First, select the Hitzone layer from the Layers and Timeline Panel and press “T” on the keyboard to bring up the Opacity parameter for that layer.

2. Click on the parameter that says 100% and change it to either 50% or 25%. This makes the character visible to determine if areas need to be subtracted. See Fig. 40 below.

3. Notice the area on the ground and between his legs. This is part of his shadow that the Auto-trace feature picked up. This area will need to be subtracted from the hitzone.

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First, select the Hitzone layer and press “M” on the keyboard to make the masks visible once again.

1. Next, select the Pen Tool from the Tool Bar at top.

2. Click around the unwanted area to subtract. To close the mask path, you must select the first point created. Also, Click and Drag when creating points to create a rounded edge. See Fig. 42 below.

3. Notice that Mask 6 was created in the Layers and Timeline Panel.

4. Select the Stopwatch icon located under Mask 6.

5. This sets a Keyframe to record changes as you adjust the mask to the characters movements.

6. Use the dropdown arrow and select “Subtract” under the Mode column.

Fig. 41: Select Pen Tool

Fig. 42: Subtract mode eliminates unwanted areas on the mask

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D7. Using the Pen Tool to clean up unwanted areas

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E. ANIMATING THE MASK

When the characters footage plays throughout the timeline, the new mask created will need to be adjusted to line up with the characters movements.

1. Scrub through the timeline using the Current Time Indicator until the character begins to move into his Shoot State.

2. Using the Selection Tool, click in an open area in the Composition Panel. This deselects all points allowing you to reposition them.

3. Adjust any points that are no longer in line with the character. When you click on a mask point, it will turn into a large solid square.

4. At the position of the Current Time Indicator, a keyframe will appear when mask points are moved.

Fig. 43: Use Selection Tool

Fig. 44: Character’s hitzone trigger appropriate state transition

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F LAYER MARKERS

Once a hitzone is activated by a firearm, a character response is triggered. In this case, the character’s Die state. In this section, we will create Layer Markers on the hitzone layer to trigger the appropriate state transition.

1. Position the Current Time Indicator at the beginning of the timeline. Shortcut: press the “Home” key on the keyboard.

2. With the Hitzone layer selected, press the “ * “ (star) key on the keyboard to create a Layer Marker.

3. With the mouse, right click on the Layer Marker in the Timeline Panel and choose “Settings” from the list of options.

Fig. 45: Set the Current Time Indicator to frame zero

Fig. 46: Accessing the Layer Marker settings

Fig. 47: Die Layer Marker properties

4. Locate the Comment box and type in the state to transition to - in this case “Die”. Make sure that the name is typed exactly as it is on the state layer. See Fig. 47 to the right.

5. Press OK.

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G. ADDITIONAL DIE STATES

If the character you are creating has multiple die states, then creating multiple Layer Markers is necessary.

When adding multiple Layer Markers, position each at an appropriate point on the timeline where the die state would match if the hitzone was activated. Make sure that each Layer Marker has the corresponding Die state typed in the Com-ments box exactly how it appears in the Layers and Timeline Panel. Once you have pressed OK, the marker will have a tag next to it with the name typed in the comments box.

Before exporting, make sure the hitzone layer has only ONE layer marker named “Die”. Also make sure the opacity for the hitzone is set back to 100%. See Fig. 49 below to adjust the opacity.

1. With the hitzone layer selected, press “T” on the keyboard and change the opacity back to 100%.

2. Click on the Opacity’s numerical value (orange text). This will allow you to type a value between 0 to 100.

Fig. 48: Creating multiple Layer Markers

Fig. 49: Set hitzone opacity back to 100%

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Within the V-Author™ software, characters are assigned a thumbnail to locate them when searching in the Character Library. To do so:

H. CHARACTER ICON

1. Position the Current Time Indicator at the begin-ning of the timeline. Shortcut: press the “Home” key on the keyboard.

2. With the Hitzone layer selected, press the “ * “ (star) key on the keyboard to create a Layer Marker.

3. With the mouse, right click on the Layer Markerin the Timeline Panel and choose “Settings” from the list of options.

4. Locate the Comment box and type in Icon:Frame

5. Press OK.

6. The Layer Marker should read like the one below.

Fig. 50: Set the Current Time Indicator to frame zero

Fig. 51: Accessing the Layer Marker settings

Fig. 52: Icon: Frame Layer Marker properties

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VIII. EXPORT AND RENDER ASSETS

Once you have finished creating hitzones and placing layer markers to define the corresponding Die state, it’s now time to Export and Render the character information.

1. From the File Menu at top, choose File > Scripts > ExportToVSA.jsx

2. This will launch a window to locate a folder to export to. Locate the Export Folder found in the Post Production I manual folder, under “Sample Project”. Refer to Fig. 54 below.

3. Select OK.

Fig. 53: Select ExportToVSA.jsx script to export and render character information

B. RENDER TO VSA

A. EXPORT TO VSA

Fig. 54: Export and Render location for character information

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4. Next, from the File Menu at top, choose File > Scripts > RenderToVSA.jsx. See Fig 53 above.

5. Again, this will launch a window to locate a folder to export. Follow the same path as be-fore and choose the Export Folder.

6. Select OK.

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IX. SCENE IMPORT TOOL

Once the render is finish, it’s now time to convert these assets to an acceptable file format for the V-Author™ software.

1. Locate the Scene Import Tool on the desktop and double click to open it. See Fig. 55 to the below.

Fig. 55: Scene Import Tool icon

Fig. 56: Scene Import Tool user interface

Fig. 57: Select “Export.xml”

A. LAUNCHING THE PROGRAM

B. IMPORT ASSETS

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1. To import the rendered assets, select the Magnifying Glass icon at the top left. This will launch a window to locate the file to import.

2. See Fig. 57 below to locate the Export file. Select “Export.xml”

3. Select Open.

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Next step is to setup the Scene Import Tool.

1. In the Scenario Name section, type in a name. This WILL NOT affect the name of the character. The name of the After Effects composition will become the name of the character as seen in the V-Author™ software.

2. Leave the Scenario Format section set to: 180/300.

3. Press OK.

Once you have pressed OK, the Scene Import Tool will begin importing your character into the V-Author™ software. See Fig. 59 below.

4. Once complete, the Scene Import Tool will say “Completed Scene Import” in the Status section.

5. Click on the Quit button to exit the program. To import more characters, repeat entire steps in Section IX: Scene Import Tool.

At this point your character is complete! Open up the V-Author™ software and search for your character in the Character Library.

Fig. 58: Setting up the Scene Import Tool Fig. 59: Scene import complete!

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B1. The Scene Import Tool Setup

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X. CONTACT VIRTRA

If you have any questions/issues with any part of this manual, please see contact below:

Brett ErnenputschService Manager

7970 S. Kyrene RoadTempe, AZ 85284 USA

Office: 480.968.1488 x 5029Mobile: 602.456.9173Email: [email protected]

To download an electronic copy of this manual, please scan the QR code below with your smartphone device or visit

www.virtra.com/PDF/Manuals/Content/PostProduction2.pdf