I can't say I understand the point of the animation if you can't export it to any format. Hopefully i'm just missing something obvious.
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Unknown member
Mar 24
I'm unsure why that is, and apologise I skimmed through some very long comment lol, but the animation is probably one of the main reason why I and so many I know use shot designer. Not exporting it was a shame definitely, but just like everything...ever. we work our way around the cons if the pros are too good.
For the animation I just record the screen playing the animation. Simple. wow who would've thought ahahaha.
*literally don't mean to be anything by saying anything that offends anyone who cares to think about anything in anytime anywhere. hehe Just putting a comment out there. Cheers :)
I get what your saying, but I feel a little taken aback that seemingly obvious functionality is thought of as ”totally worthless”. For what I’m trying to do, I definatley need it exported so it’s actually kind of insulting
I'm sorry if it sounded dismissive. I accidentally leaked what internal discussions around features sound like, where we have make a judgment call on what solves the end-problem, which is to communicate.
We've built many features that turned out to be worthless. In Causality, we've spent in total a full year full team building totally worthless features that nobody uses because their end result isn't as effective as we thought. I thought Block and Lane overviews would be magical. But I haven't used them once, because they don't bring the clarity I thought they would.
In our judgment, diagrams are hard to understand as it is, but with everything playing, it's drinking from a firehose. From on-set experience, people need to go through it step by step, one shot at a time, explaining what is what, zooming in, focusing on shots, backing up, repeating what people don't understand until it's clear. It's hard for video exports to know how each person needs it played back. And all the text that explains it will be too low resolution to read in a video. Instead, they could just install the app for free, receive the file via email, and do a premium playback a video export could never compete with.
But it's not the only reason. As I mentioned, the app is made in an old framework, and the only way we could get video encoding in there is to use FFMPEG. So this could never work on mobile (ahead-of-time compilation is required), and would need a separate (and technical) install for every desktop user to get FFMPEG installed and linked, and on Mac also helping people through allowing our app to execute another app. Since it's an old framework, there's little eco-system around it, so we don't have the same off-the-shelf support that you have in a modern framework.
So the ultimate judgment isn't only about whether it's useful. It it was free and easy, we'd just have done it, and then if someone finds it useful even though we don't, that's fine. But video export is an uphill battle in an old AIR app on multiple platforms. Does the value of video export justify possible spending months? When that same energy could be spent working on the 3D app which is what people really want?
In 3D, this is a core feature, so much that we did the animation exporting as the very first thing in testing which game engine to use. The full exporter is written and working great. We see this as extremely fundamental, because the explanatory power in 3D is immense. Nothing makes a crew get it like 3D previz. So we're 100% on board with the general idea.
On the contrary, exporting the animation is practically worthless. Yes, there are some technological hurdles in the current 2D version of Shot Designer which is made in an old framework. But the equal reason is that you need someone to walk you through the steps. Simply having animation thrown at you as a DP or gaffer has close to zero explanatory value. You can test this for yourself by making a screen capture and sending it to some of your crew, and then quizzing them on how much they understood.
The reality is that a diagram is hard to read for most people, and a diagram at rest is actually easier to read, without the pressure of trying to catch up with animation while everything is moving like a complicated machine. So because of this realization, we didn't move heaven and earth to get the current 2D version to export animations. They require you to be there, on the set, to walk people through what we're shooting. And then it doesn't play continuously, it goes to the next step with an explanation, and then the next step with another explanation. This is what it's made for.
Now, the 3D version that we're working on will have animation export, but primarily of the 3D side. There, of course, it's crucial, and the explanatory value is enormous. Everyone will understand what's being shot just from the animations.
I'm unsure why that is, and apologise I skimmed through some very long comment lol, but the animation is probably one of the main reason why I and so many I know use shot designer. Not exporting it was a shame definitely, but just like everything...ever. we work our way around the cons if the pros are too good.
For the animation I just record the screen playing the animation. Simple. wow who would've thought ahahaha.
*literally don't mean to be anything by saying anything that offends anyone who cares to think about anything in anytime anywhere. hehe Just putting a comment out there. Cheers :)
I get what your saying, but I feel a little taken aback that seemingly obvious functionality is thought of as ”totally worthless”. For what I’m trying to do, I definatley need it exported so it’s actually kind of insulting
Hi,
On the contrary, exporting the animation is practically worthless. Yes, there are some technological hurdles in the current 2D version of Shot Designer which is made in an old framework. But the equal reason is that you need someone to walk you through the steps. Simply having animation thrown at you as a DP or gaffer has close to zero explanatory value. You can test this for yourself by making a screen capture and sending it to some of your crew, and then quizzing them on how much they understood.
The reality is that a diagram is hard to read for most people, and a diagram at rest is actually easier to read, without the pressure of trying to catch up with animation while everything is moving like a complicated machine. So because of this realization, we didn't move heaven and earth to get the current 2D version to export animations. They require you to be there, on the set, to walk people through what we're shooting. And then it doesn't play continuously, it goes to the next step with an explanation, and then the next step with another explanation. This is what it's made for.
Now, the 3D version that we're working on will have animation export, but primarily of the 3D side. There, of course, it's crucial, and the explanatory value is enormous. Everyone will understand what's being shot just from the animations.