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New to Ventuz

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ashcat

New to Ventuz

Post by ashcat » 10 Nov 2013, 16:10

Hi all

i'm from the UK and I'm coming from a background in motion graphics where i use After Effects, C4D, PS and Ai.

I've only just recently found out about Ventuz and it looks pretty exciting what can be done with it. I've had a look around the FAQ and now just have a few mostly opinion based questions before i get fully into Ventuz, hopefully you can shed some light :-)

1) what do you know now that you wish you knew before you got started? (if there is anything that is)

2) How important is it be familiar with C# ?

3) Although I'm not a Viz user myself i see it used at work every day and there are talks about me being trained in it, how similar are the principles between the 2 and would someone benefit from having a basic Viz knowledge while trying to learn Ventuz in their own time ? ( just to add i think Ventuz looks far more appealing and will replace viz in most places eventually)


4) Is there much need or capability for integration between Ventuz and other software such as After Effects and C4D? I understand that answers would vary between project scenarios so this question is more in terms from your own personal experiences.


I hope that i've posted this in the right place and that these questions aren't too n00by for you :-)

Many thanks

saadahmed

Re: New to Ventuz

Post by saadahmed » 11 Nov 2013, 10:30

Hi ash , good to see a new-be like me :)
i am also a 3D artist in a TV Broadcast , recently start learning ventuz , so ican only ans the 3rd question
i think the major difference between viz n ventuz is Vizrt works on OpenGL platform and ventuz works on Direct X .

Thx
saad

ashcat

Re: New to Ventuz

Post by ashcat » 12 Nov 2013, 07:13

Cheers!

Christian Krix Schmidt
Posts: 290
Joined: 18 Jan 2012, 11:36
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Contact:

Re: New to Ventuz

Post by Christian Krix Schmidt » 12 Nov 2013, 12:06

Hi there.
Obviously Ventuz is great and all and you will have a blast with what you can do with it. :)

Here is my take on your questions:

1) What should you know? Forget about Undo. Seriously. It is available in Text Editor, Script Editor, etc but the main Undo function for the scene hierarchy is slow and undo much more than you thought. I have been using Ventuz for 10 years now and the first thing I do is turn Undo off anyways. It slows slightly larger scenes down and in the end does not help you that much anyways. That said, I don’t miss. You build a tree and and nodes can be set inactive or blocked. You can have multiple versions of parts of your scene in there and edit whichever bit you want to focus on. It is very flexible and you should immediately start working in a way that does not require an Undo. It is really not that bad but just a different way of working. Second, save your scenes manually under new names ever so often. Ventuz is very, very stable but shit can happen and you have to save your scene in different versions. Plus if you mess stuff up and need an old version (and Undo cannot get you there) then you will be happy to have an older file on hand. Next up would be the Realtime Rendering. Ventuz is realtime and the output you see in your render window is the final output. As such it behaves different to your C4D viewports. Meshes only have one visible side. In C4D (or any other 3D app for that matter) you always see both sides. That is a convenience feature of those software packages but does not represent the “real world” :) Polygons have a face normal and that’s what you see. So don’t freak if you don’t see an imported mesh or a Ventuz internal geometry. It might just face the wrong direction of has its normals inverted. And the other major bit is drawing order. Similar to AE and even PS/AI you have a rendering order. First you draw the background, then the other bits. This is by far not the general rule as it always depends on your scene. But in general when it comes to transparency you need to draw stuff in the back first and then transparent object over it. If not it will look like crap or you won’t see anything at all. This rendering order has to be reflected in the scene hierarchy and in the scene itself.

2) C#. Ahh the age old topic. There are a select few people on this forum that want things from Ventuz that you can only perform with Scripting. But I would say that 90% of all your work – especially in the beginning – can be done without any kind of scripting. At all. The first bits would be writing some one-line expressions such as A>B ? 1 : 0. Those expressions are simple nodes that do not require C# knowledge, just some basic math. It is really simple. C# comes into play when you either want to create a logic do deal with content or complex controls, data parsing, connections to external equipment (integrating third-party SDKs) or creating logics for games for example. The second programming bit would be HLSL shaders. Those are nasty to program and you need to spend a lot of time learning about those. But there is a lot you can do with them. A LOT. There is plenty of stuff on the forum and definitely worth checking out. Especially the plug-ins from Glare Technology. Those guys rule.

3) Viz background knowledge does definitely help since the basic principles of realtime graphics are the same. From a user/designer point of view the difference between OpenGL and DirectX is virtually nil. User Interface wise viz is a nightmare (IMO). Ventuz also has better performance and the rendering quality is far superior. That is undisputed. Viz has more packages tailored to the broadcast market, basically providing the entire range from ingest, storage to production, playout and rundown control automation. It is super pricy but provides the entire solution. Ventuz does not provide all that. It takes care of “only” the graphics bit and using Director the rundown control. So ingest, storage etc. needs to be handled by a third party product. Not a downside at all but it depends on the TV station and the people involved in what way they want to work. The big difference I would say is that viz tries to give you an all-in-one solution. Ventuz does not. Viz does everything OK but not great. Ventuz focuses on less but does those great.

4) The integration with other software packages is not that complicated. Ventuz can import scenes from C4D and other 3D software packages. We do that in almost every project. The import is easy – especially with C4D. From other packages you can only import/use their output. Meaning you cannot import AE composition for example. Those applications are so radically different that it probably does not make sense anyways. But I am sure that there is some Ventuz user out there that curses every day that Ventuz cannot import AE compositions. Believe me, there is always someone… Maybe something like that will be added in a future version. You never know …. Very important though, you cannot import vector files. That is quite important. You can only display pixel-based pictures. So you have to convert to pixel based file formats from AI.

I hope that clarified a bit for you. Anyone else wants to pitch in? Those are my opinions. I am sure we can get some others as well.

Cheers. Chris

ashcat

Re: New to Ventuz

Post by ashcat » 12 Nov 2013, 22:34

WoW thanks so much for your detailed response! Its really has helped me out :D

schub
Posts: 54
Joined: 02 Feb 2012, 11:43

Re: New to Ventuz

Post by schub » 13 Nov 2013, 18:03

Welcome to the forum, ashcat :)

1) learn to use containers asap!
Its so much easier to work within a well organized scene than having all the logic on one big 'page'

Also, if you know your scene is gonna get complex or different people will work on it at a time, use scene ports to split the project.

You won't need scene ports or even containers to understand how Ventuz works, but they'll help alot in the long run with bigger projects.

ashcat

Re: New to Ventuz

Post by ashcat » 15 Nov 2013, 19:12

Thanks, i'll make sure its exactly what i do!

kberraho
Posts: 54
Joined: 12 Apr 2016, 16:01

Re: New to Ventuz

Post by kberraho » 10 Jun 2016, 16:45

Good morning all,

First I want to thank everyone on this forum for sharing their struggles and tips while using Ventuz,MUCH APPRECIATED.

So I have been using Ventuz heavily for the past 2 months so far, And all I have to say WOW!!!!, I am not exaggerating whatsoever, and I understand that it might seems hard or simple and basic at first, but Man..., as soon as you start unlocking its features and knowing how to do things in it, it really starts to make much more sense, Ventuz has allowed me to think outside of the box and being much more creative in many matters.
As much respect I have for this Software and its capabilities(including the smart people behind the development of it), it's still in its infancy, I feel this program will become Something much more bigger than you and I have ever thought of. time will tell.
There are many things that this software is capable of doing that I feel other software should look up to, and use in their own ways. however, there are things that I wish Ventuz would do, mainly due to the fact that almost every other software does. But I understand that certain things will take time and I appreciate and value the hard work that Ventuz team are doing.

OK so here are some of my quick tips that I have gathered since I started using Ventuz.

Naming your Nodes, this might sound simple but its extremely easy to get blown away and continue doing things without referring back and putting a name on important nodes.

Use Axis nodes, Container node, and Group nodes more frequently as you see fit.
this will help you keep you scene organized and neat.

Do not feel like you are bound by any of the available or unavailable nodes, there are many other ways to achieve the same task. and hopefully in the future you will find certain ways that will give you more outputs in a short amount of time.

Use Layers more often, I can't emphasize this enough, they are extremely useful, and very similar to AE or PS layer system.

Take advantage in learning how nodes work, hopefully Ventuz will be a stepping stone for you to reach and learn other software such as NUKE, Fusion, Or even Flame.

Just on a side note, I LOVE NODE/LAYER SYSTEM :) Thanks guys.

Continue being part of the Community, I can definitely say that Ventuz team are working hard and are extremely eager to Improve their product and the relationship with its users. Keep it up Guys.

So I guess that is my two cents. Thanks again to everyone. and have a great one.

Jodaine Moore
Posts: 35
Joined: 30 Oct 2015, 19:19

Re: New to Ventuz

Post by Jodaine Moore » 08 Sep 2016, 17:51

@schub Can scene port be used with director projects that uses scene port in there layout scene?

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