How to make Movie Maker background

sets for your own use or sale

Overall Information
The current version of Movie Maker doesn´t support indoor scenes.
We´re working on an upgrade to the software that enables this function.

1. Creating the Folder Structure

Create the following folders within your main DAZ Studio folder or your Documents
folder depending where you have them installed on your system.

This is where you will save your backgrounds in JPG format:

/content/Runtime/textures/Dreamlight/MovieMaker/Title/backgrounds/Daytime/

…where “Title” is the name of your set. Note that this will be the “short” name. For
instance, if your scene will be named “A Long Journey”, you may want to select a title
of: “LongJourney” or something similar.

In case you want to make a night or sunset version or anything else – rename
“Daytime” to “Night” or “Sunset” or anything else. You might maybe do an “Overcast”
version or something similar.

This is where you will save your icons in JPG format:

/content/Runtime/textures/Dreamlight/MovieMaker/Title/icons/Daytime/

Again, “Daytime” needs to match whatever you chose for the backgrounds.

This is where you will place your xml data file:

/resources/Dreamlight/MovieMaker/

Feel free to examine the existing background packages, to see how the files are
arranged.
2. Making the Backgrounds

2.1. Creating the scene

Create a scene in any 3D software. We have only tested with Lightwave 9.6 and Vue
7.5 Infinite, but it should work in any software as long as it permits rendering 360
degree panoramic images.

If your software can´t render 360 degree panoramic images, then you can probably
render 6 square images facing forward, back, left, right, top and bottom and then
stitch them together using any available stitching software package.

Make sure the scene is large enough to fit your characters and that it completely
surrounds them. Ensure there is no debris in the center area and that the area is as
planar as possible. If you like, place a V4 or M4 at the center of your area to get a
sense for the scale and also for help with the camera placement.

Note that your V4 / M4 or the center area does NOT need to be at 0,0,0. The plug in
will compensate for this later. However, your figure MUST stand on the floor / ground.
The center area should be square for now. Note that the center area is not a special
plane in your 3D scene, it´s just the area you intend to be the center area.

In the example above, I´ve used a panoramic sky backdrop made in Vue, mapped to
a sphere in Lightwave, to ensure that the sky renders quickly and that it automatically
surrounds the scene. I´ve also used it to cast lighting onto the scene using radiosity.
2.2 Adding lighting

Ensure you have full lighting on the center area, which is where you will place your
characters. When lighting your scene, avoid very low light angles as that will create
long shadows, which will probably interfere with the center area and also cause
Movie Maker shadows to be cast outside the shadow catcher plane. Ensure there are
no shadows hitting the center area. A good angle is 45 degrees or steeper. The
above screen shot shows the Lightwave area viewed though the light.

Movie Maker supports several lights, but at this time – only one light is tested – and
preferred, to avoid long render times. Use only distant lights for now. Make note of
your light angle / position.

2.3 Adding the cameras

Place several cameras or animate the camera position (for the creation of camera
nodes). Each camera position per Movie Maker background / node. Make sure the
camera faces rotation 0,0,0 at each position. You can rotate the camera and aim it at
V4 / M4 to get a feeling for the position, but you need to leave it at rotation 0,0,0
before rendering. The first camera should be at frame 0.
2.4 Rendering

Don´t forget to make V4 / M4 invisible or you end up rendering them in the

backgrounds. Render the backgrounds in 360 degree panoramic mode. Choose
resolution 6000 x 3000 pixels for good quality. You may render in lower resolution,
but the Movie Maker standard is 6000 x 3000. Save as BMP or PNG to avoid quality
loss as we´re going to perform some post operations.

When saving your images, make sure that you get the frame number included in the
filename, as this will help you sort out the images later on.
3. Mirroring, Resizing And Saving The Backgrounds
In Photoshop or Gimp, load your backgrounds. Apply a horizontal 180 flip / mirror,
since DAZ Studio will flip them the other way when applied to the sphere. When
saving your images, make note of the file format:

Title_Day_AA_BB.jpg

File location:
/content/Runtime/textures/Dreamlight/MovieMaker/Title/backgrounds/Daytime/

‘Title’ is the name of your background set. For instance: “UnderSiege”. ‘Day’ is the
type you choose to start with, like daytime, night or sunset. ‘AA’ is the node number.
The camera you rendered at frame 0, will be node 00. A camera at frame 15 would
be node 15.

BB is the quality. 01 means 6000 x 3000 maximum quality.

Make note of the underscores “_” in the filename.

After the maximum quality is saved, resize the image to 4000 x 2000. You may, of
course, resize to any size you want, but this is the Movie Maker standard. When
saving this time, the BB will be set to 02.

Next, apply Gaussian blur 5 pixels. This is for the DOF (depth of field background).
When you save the DOF background, use BB as 03.

So, node 00 would be:

Title_Day_00_01.jpg – 6000 x 3000 version

Title_Day_00_02.jpg – 4000 x 2000 version
Title_Day_00_03.jpg – 4000 x 2000 version with DOF
Node 01 would be:

Title_Day_01_01.jpg
Title_Day_01_02.jpg
Titie_Day_01_03.jpg

And so on for all your backgrounds…

4. Rendering The Icons

4.1. Rendering the node icons

To render the icons, go back to your 3D scene. If you haven´t already done so, place
a V4 or a M4 (with clothes) at the center of your center area. Choose this carefully,
and make sure that your figure touches / stands on the ground. If you have the V4
already placed, make sure it´s visible in the render and casts shadows.

Choose normal render mode (non panoramic) and select render size 150 x 100
pixels.

Remember, for the backgrounds we used camera rotation 0,0,0 at each node. This
time, we´ll need to manually aim the camera at V4 / M4 and create a compelling
composition. You may need to use a low focal length, around 15-18 degrees to get a
good view.

When saving, choose JPG format and save in the following format:
Title_Day_Icon_00.jpg

File location:
/content/Runtime/textures/Dreamlight/MovieMaker/Title/icons/Daytime/

‘Title’ is the name of your set, just as before. ‘Icon’ must always be ‘Icon’.
00 is the number of the node / camera.
4.2. Rendering the main icon

Now, remove the V4 / M4 from your scene, or make her / him invisible and choose a
good angle that shows your scene. This will be for the main icon. Same render size,
150 x 100.

Save as:
Title_Day_MainIcon.jpg

File location:
/content/Runtime/textures/Dreamlight/MovieMaker/Title/icons/Daytime/

Again, “Daytime” can be anything you want to, but it needs to be the same for the
icons and backgrounds.

5. Creating The Data File

5.1. Get an XML editor

For this, you can use the free XML editor found here:
http://download.cnet.com/XML-Marker/3000-7241_4-10202365.html?tag=mncol

Run the XML editor and load the data file template supplied with this package.

5.2. Edit the file names

At the top, adjust the filenames so that they match your background set name and
also whether you choose “Daytime”, “Night”, “Sunset” or anything else before. Note
that you start by defining the “Long Title” – ‘name’ on the second line. This is the
name that will be displayed next to your background set in the first tab of the Movie
Maker plug in. This name can be somewhat longer. For instance: “A Long Journey
Downtown (Day)”. The background path, includes ‘Title’ which is the short version of
your title. For instance “LJDownTown”. Then, be careful as you enter the remaining
three names – as they include both the short ‘Title’ as well as ‘Day’ or whatever you
chose. Make sure they all match.

5.3. Adjust the shadow catcher size and shadow intensity

You can leave the default shadow catcher plane size as is, or resize it to whatever
you need. A larger size will result in more blurred (less sharp) Deep Shadow Map
ground shadow, but will of course ensure a large center area. The larger the center
area, the more of it will catch shadows. The easiest way of seeing the size of the
shadow catcher plane, is to test run your package and toggle the shadow catcher
plane visibility in the scene tab.

As an option, you can also adjust the shadow intensity. As default, a value of 0.5 is
used – ensuring that 50% of the shadow will show through. This is a good overall
value. In case you need darker ground shadows, move the value up. In case you
want a less intense shadow, move the value down. The value spans between 0 and
1.0.
5.4 Setting the camera / node positions

This is pretty straight forward. For each of the camera positions / nodes, do the
following:

First, you see that there is “Day 00” and so on in the data file. “Day” needs to be
changed to whatever you choose for your scene. A night scene would have “Night”
instead. This text will be displayed next to every node icon in the 2nd Movie Maker
tab.

a) Move to the correct frame in your 3D scene

b) Make note of the camera position. Be very careful to know in which order the axis
are displayed. Movie Maker needs them to be in X,Y and Z (Where Z is the height).

c) Enter the camera information to the data file, AND make sure you use a single
metric system. For instance: meters. Some 3D software, such as Lightwave, preferrs
to display in meters when the value is greater than 1, but in millimetres when below
1. Make sure you re-calculate that when translating the camera positions. You can
enter in millimetres, but make sure it´s millimetres for every node.

Some 3D software use a negative axis value for up / down. For instance, a negative
Z axis in Lightwave means up, while it means down in DAZ Studio. DO NOT change
this! Just enter the values as they are, but keep the same metric system.

For instance. A Lightwave camera has the following position:

X = 1.5378 meters
Y = 500.342 millimeters
Z = -30 meters

You would enter the following in the data file:

“1.5378,0.500342,-30”
Note that I translated the Y value to meters, to ensure that I keep the same metric
system. There are only 10 cameras in the template data file. You can delete the ones
you don´t need and add as many as you like up to 99.

5.5. Setting the camera offset and multiplier

When you´re done with all the cameras, locate your V4 or M4. Note the position.
Back in the data file, enter the OPPOSITE value at the bottom where it says
CameraOffset. If V4 is at 500,-20,30 then enter -500.20.-30. This will tell Movie
Maker to offset the camera position so that V4 can be placed at 0,0,0 in the DAZ
Studio scene. This will also ensure that the shadow catcher plane can be at 0,0,0 in
the DAZ Studio scene.

Now, it´s time to tell Movie Maker to re-calculate the metric system. DAZ Studio uses
centimeters. Lightwave uses meters. The difference is 100, since there is 100
centimeters per meter. So you would enter 100,100,100. (Note, if your 3D software
has a negative Z axis, you need to enter 100,100,-100).
If you used milimeters when entering the data, then you will need to enter 0.1,0.1,0.1.
As 5000 mm equals to 500 cm.
(Or with a flipped Z axis, 0.1,0.1 and -0.1). So, the goal of the multiplier, is to make
the values in centimeters and unflip the Z axis – if any.

5.6 Match the ambient lighting and bounce light

This requires opening one of the backgrounds in Photoshop / Gimp and using the
color picker to get some color information. Point at the sky and select a medium /
bright part of it. Enter the HEX value to all the 8 first ambient lights (lights 1-8) in the
data file. The format is “#FFFFFF”, where FFFFFF is the HEX value. The first two
values stand for the R value. The middle two for the G value and the last two for the
B value – forming RGB. For instance, #FFFFFF means RGB 255,255,255.

In case you don’t know the HEX value, you can convert them here:
http://www.parkenet.com/apl/HexDecConverter.html
The Gimp will show you the value in HEX directly.

Next, point the color picker to nearby walls or surroundings in mid-height-level. Enter
the HEX value into the next 8 ambient lights in the data file (lights 9-16). If you´re
unsure what color to use here, try #DDDDDD. (Bright grey)

Finally, point the color picker to the ground where your figure stands. Select a
medium / bright color. Enter the HEX value into the final 8 ambient lights in the data
file (lights 17-24).

Note that in case you are placing your figure in an environment where the lighting
around him/her differs a lot, you may need to adjust the individual ambient light
intensities. In an open space environment, this won´t be necessary. However, if you
place your character close to a wall, then the lighting bouncing off that wall may be
more or less intense or even in a different color than the normal value. Since this is
more advanced, it´s left out of this user guide for now. The rotations and intensities
should not be adjusted in most cases.
5.7 Match the preview lighting

Copy and paste the first ambient light HEX value into the first three preview lights
HEX value (lights 1-3). Ensure that each of the preview lights has an intensity value
that is 4 times brighter than the ambient lights – as default 0.6. This is since we use
24 ambient lights in the final render, but only 6 of them during preview. Hence the
difference of 4.

Next, copy and paste the LAST ambient light HEX value into the last three preview
lights (lights 4-6). Again, ensure the intensity is 4 times brighter than the ambient
lights. What the preview lights do, is ensure that Movie Maker previews the lighting
as close as possible to the render quality during design time.

5.8. Match the main lighting

Finally, you need to enter the rotation data for the distant light that will give the main
lighting. It needs to be a 100% match with your 3D scene. You can´t always rely on
the rotation data when translating into a different software. Therefore, you will need to
do a little bit of estimation and trial and error until getting this right.

The X value determines the heading of the light or horizontal rotation.

The Y value determines the pitch or vertical rotation.
Leave the Z value at 0.

Set the correct intensity. 1 means 100%. 0.5 would be 50%. You can go above 1 if
you have a very bright scene. For instance, the Marrakesh Day background set uses
1.5. This will be different for every background package and needs to match the DAZ
Studio lighting intensity against your backgrounds. Leave everything else as is.

6. Test Your Package and Tweak The Settings

Now, give your package a test run, and see how the lighting and shadows match.
Unless you have a good match, go back to the data file and tweak the settings. Don´t
forget to click on the Clear Ambient / Reflections in the Movie Maker 3rd tab to ensure
that you see the proper lighting.

Make sure to make several renders from different angles, to really test drive the
lighting / camera matching.

7. Packaging for Distribution Or Selling

Create an empty folder structure as mentioned in the first step and copy your Movie
Maker files from your DAZ Studio folder. ZIP it up and send to DAZ for Quality
Assurance if you plan to sell your package or just use filesharing websites if you want
to give it away for free.

Important note: Stonemason props can NOT be used for selling and sharing
Movie Maker background packs. Stonemason props can however be used for
your own personal use with Movie Maker, making your own animations.

Have fun!
/Waldemar Belwon
Your 3D Coach
www.dream-lounge.com
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© Copyright 2009, Dreamlight AB, Waldemar Belwon

You may not resell or give away this User Guide, in whole or in part, modified or non modified, in any form, printed or digital
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