• AnW
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Topic: Rotostitch

Edit: Version 1.1.0 has been released! Please see here.

Hello everyone, this is the announcement of a little open source app I just finished.

Some of you may have noticed this thread by Sean from a while ago: FacePaste demo. I had thought it was a neat idea but had completely forgot about it until interest was shown in using it. Since Sean didn't seem real interested in releasing his app I decided to put together a nice (hopefully) GUI version that does the same thing: assemble a cylindrical image map from a sequence of images.

In other words (and since a picture is worth a thousand words...), it takes this...
http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=0B4mE2PMzEyv1ZEowQXpsQUNzUmc
... and turns it into this:
http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=0B4mE2PMzEyv1ZzZ2UWIxa2NOcFE

See the top of this post.
I have just released the first public version on GitHub right here: Release Version 1.0.0.

Here it is in action:
http://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=0B4mE2PMzEyv1czAwcnZXZVAwT3M

This is liable to be a relatively little used program, given its very specific purpose and the difficulty of creating an image sequence that is useful for this, but no matter. I wanted to give anyone capable the ability to make minifigure head scans. It is actually able to be used on any object, it isn't limited to minifigure heads in any way. Take a look at the readme for more information on both usage and installation.

Last but not least, I have no illusions that it is bug free, so when someone finds something, please let me know here (or on github if you are so inclined). I will be trying to get some stuff on the github wiki for this in the next week or so, as the readme is a bit vague. It is a really simple app though, so if you have an image sequence you want to use it on, you should be able to figure it out.

Known issues (3/2/2015):

  • None

Last edited by AnW (March 2, 2015 (08:00pm))

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Re: Rotostitch

This sounds pretty cool! Though I cannot see the pictures.

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Re: Rotostitch

Can't wait to use this! I'm downloading it now. Like Harbor said, the pictures are missing (except for one picture of Windows Explorer).

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Re: Rotostitch

Thanks for the heads up. Should be fixed now. Don't hesitate to post any questions.

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Re: Rotostitch

This program is really awesome. Really. I already made a test. Yea, it didn't turn out well, because my camera was shakey. I am going to build a gear system to smoothly and efficiently rotate the head (and not touch my camera next time mini/tongue ) May I ask how you made your setup to make the head rotation so smooth?

http://bricksafe.com/files/rioforce/Minifigures/roto.jpg

I do have a bug report while I am here, though. In the image preview window, when I scroll down, it zooms in, and when I scroll up, it zooms out. Is that intentional? Also, may I ask why you did not freeze the Python files into an EXE? My brother uses cx-freeze.sourceforge.net, but he says thinks there may be a bug in with with Python 3.4, but he hasn't used it in a while, and thinks it might be fixed. You may want to try it anyway. It'll help out those who have difficulty setting it up (like me mini/tongue ).

Last edited by rioforce (February 22, 2015 (08:08pm))

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

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Re: Rotostitch

I realise my question may sound absurd, or rather silly, but I am curious as to what this program could be used for?

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Re: Rotostitch

LMDigitalMovies wrote:

I realise my question may sound absurd, or rather silly, but I am curious as to what this program could be used for?

If you wish to do digital facial animation for a brickfilm, you could use this app to stretch out your LEGO minifgure head, trace the stretched out face in a program such as Illustrator, and then create the different phoneme shapes from there.

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Re: Rotostitch

Oh man this is awesome. I can't wait to try this out.

http://i.imgur.com/1jdCsUr.png
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Re: Rotostitch

So I might be an idiot because I can't get this to work. I get stuck at installing the dependencies. The readme isn't very clear on how this is achieved. Any possible way to have an exe for us dummies, like Rio mentioned?

http://i.imgur.com/1jdCsUr.png
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  • AnW
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Re: Rotostitch

Hey everyone thanks for the comments. I'll answer questions in more detail tomorrow.

@Nathan Wells Don't feel bad. Getting a Python program to work from source can be an issue if you aren't familiar with Python. I'll try to get a .exe released soon also.

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Re: Rotostitch

How do I download a compiled version?  I see two zip files with source code - that's no use to me.  Am I missing a link or something?  Thx.

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  • AnW
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Re: Rotostitch

*** Ok everyone, here are some binaries! Windows 32bit Windows 64bit ***

@rioforce
About the zooming issue. Yeah, that was actually intentional, though now that you mention it, I notice it is opposite most programs. I'll switch that in the next release.

As for the my setup for turning the head, unfortunately it would be difficult to replicate for you probably. I used my custom built camera pan head. It is stepper motor controlled, geared down, and turns on bearings, so it is very, very smooth. Using pure Lego gears and technic pieces and such should get you pretty close though, close enough for step 2 to finish it off. The real magic I applied was after filming (I just used my QC9000 btw). After I filmed the rotation I put the video through a 2d stabilization pass that pretty much removed all remaining wobble and jitter. Honestly, the 2d stabilization step worked wonders. I am going to post a short tutorial on how I did that sometime this week.  Your test doesn't look that bad though really!

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Re: Rotostitch

Great work - thanks for the exe's. 

I'm not quite sure how I'll use this yet but if I can push any envelope just that little bit further then I'm all over it.  mini/lol

Aka Fox
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Re: Rotostitch

Totally geeked out.  I don't animate faces, but I have to dl this & try it just for the coolness factor, one I have a free moment!

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  • AnW
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Re: Rotostitch

Hello everyone! I just released a new version of Rotostitch.

** You can get the release binaries on github here: Rotostitch Version 1.1.0. **

The changes are listed there but since there are not many, here they are:

  • Added support for aspect ratio adjustment to compensate for some perspective distortion

  • Version number now displayed in title bar

  • Mouse wheel zoom direction in previews switched to better match most other programs

In addition to the new release, I also updated the project's Wiki on github. There is now a fairly extensive tutorial for anyone who was have issues using the program. It also describes how to use the new aspect ratio adjustment feature, so check it out! mini/yes

As always, I'll try to field questions and bugs fairly quickly. Don't hesitate with feature requests either, though I obviously can't promise anything.

Last edited by AnW (March 2, 2015 (08:02pm))

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Re: Rotostitch

Since we're not all developers, the wiki can be accesed by the "toolbar" on the right of the github page.

Aka Fox
Youtube: My channel   Twitter: @animationantics
Best brick films: My selection