clipmgr_readme.htm

STK LW convert V2.28 LW convert V2.28

			the number to determine the units.&nbsp; Three letters are understood: <STRONG>k</STRONG>
			means kilobytes, <STRONG>m</STRONG> is megabytes (the default units), and <STRONG>g</STRONG>
			means gigabytes.&nbsp; You may enter more than the first letter (such as kb, 
			megs, Gigabytes, etc.) but only the first letter is used to determine the 
			desired units, and additional letters are safely ignored.&nbsp; It is not 
			case-sensitive.</P>
		<P>The <STRONG>Play WMV video when done recording</STRONG> button will launch your finished clip into the
			player associated with WMV files on your machine (typically Windows Media Player)
			when the recording finishes successfully.</P>
		<P>You have now completed the quick-start guide for Clip Manager.</P>
		<H1>Advanced Operations</H1>
		<P>This section explains the functions of Clip Manager that were not used in the 
			quick-start guide, above.</P>
		<H2>Custom Connect scripts</H2>
		<P>Each clip can have its own Connect script in Clip Manager.&nbsp; This is useful 
			for many situations where things need to look different, or be set differently, 
			on&nbsp;a per-clip basis.&nbsp; When you highlight a clip from the main list, 
			its Connect script is shown in the bottom-left pane of Clip Manager.&nbsp; You 
			can enter STK Connect commands directly into this pane.&nbsp; These commands 
			will be sent to STK each time a clip is queued up by <STRONG>Play Normal</STRONG>,
			<STRONG>Play XRealTime</STRONG>,&nbsp;and/or <STRONG>Record</STRONG>.</P>
		<P class="note"><STRONG>NOTE:</STRONG> The available&nbsp;Connect commands are 
			documented in the STK Help system, which is available in the <STRONG>Help</STRONG>
			menu of STK itself.&nbsp; It is stored in the file <STRONG>stk.chm</STRONG> in 
			the Help subdirectory under your STK installation directory.&nbsp; Load the 
			Help system, and look under <STRONG>Contents</STRONG>, <STRONG>STK Modules</STRONG>,
			<STRONG>Connect</STRONG>.</P>
		<P>There is also a mechanism for you to apply a single connect command to multiple 
			STK objects.&nbsp; To use it, click on the <STRONG>Con Cmd</STRONG> button on 
			the toolbar.</P>
		<P><img src="images/ConCmdButton.gif" height="69" width="210"></P>
		<P>This opens the Connect dialog, and gets a list of available objects from STK.</P>
		<P><img src="images/ConCmdDialog.gif" height="275" width="666"></P>
		<P>Here you can multi-select your STK objects, and the command entered in the top 
			of the dialog will be applied to all of the selected objects.&nbsp; In the 
			above example, the <STRONG>Graphics ... Label Off</STRONG> command is being 
			applied to a facility object.&nbsp; This will prevent the facility's label from 
			appearing in this clip.&nbsp; When you click <STRONG>OK</STRONG>, the command 
			is written into the script once for each object selected.</P>
		<P><img src="images/ConCmdScript.gif" height="136" width="557"></P>
		<P>You may have another clip, where the camera is farther away from the facility, 
			and you want the label to be visible.&nbsp; This other clip would get a Connect 
			command to turn on the label.</P>
		<P class="note"><STRONG>NOTE:</STRONG> Typically, if you set a property such as 
			label visibility for an object in one clip, you should set it in all of your 
			clips for that scenario.&nbsp; That way, the clips can be played and recorded 
			in any order, and the label visibility&nbsp;and other&nbsp;properties will be 
			correct in each clip.</P>
		<H2>Continuing a clip</H2>
		<P>Multiple clips can be recorded to a single WMV file or frame stack.&nbsp; This happens
			when the path, filename, and other output settings match the previous clip.&nbsp; It can
			be enforced by clicking the "Continue from previous clip" checkbox at the top of the
			clip's settings.</P>
		<P><img src="images/ContinueFromPrev.gif" alt="ContinueFromPrev.gif" width="214" height="58" /></P>
		<P>When checked, the clip's filename, window number, and start time are imported from
			the clip above.&nbsp; Several clips can be cascaded together in this fashion.&nbsp; Note that if you're
			recording a frame stack, the numbering of the frames allows different segments to be
			recorded at different times.&nbsp; But for single files like AVIs and WMVs, all "continued" clips
			must be group-selected with the original clip and recorded in a single session.</P>
		<P>The Razor tool and Julianne tool use the "continue clip" feature automatically.</P>
		<H2>The Razor tool</H2>
		<P>Sometimes, you will want to change a setting in the middle of a clip.&nbsp; This 
			could be a camera view, or a custom Connect setting such as label 
			visibility.&nbsp; You can use the <STRONG>Razor</STRONG> tool to split a clip 
			into parts, which become separate clips that can have their own Connect scripts 
			and other settings.</P>
		<P>Before using the Razor tool, get your clip running in STK with the <STRONG>Play 
				Normal</STRONG> button.&nbsp; Animate forward to the place where you want 
			to split your clip, and pause STK there.&nbsp; Then, click the <STRONG>Razor</STRONG>
			button in Clip Manager.</P>
		<P><img src="images/RazorButton.gif" height="70" width="143"></P>
		<P>Clicking this button sends a query to STK to discover the current scenario 
			animation time.&nbsp; The selected clip is then broken into two clips at that 
			time.</P>
		<P>The two resulting clips have the same name.&nbsp; If you are recording AVI or WMV
			files, you will need to record both segments in the same session.&nbsp; If you are saving 
			out these clips as BMPs or other images, they can be recorded independently, because
			their output will go to different numbered frames in the stack.</P>
		<P><img src="images/RazorClips.gif" height="114" width="716"></P>
		<P>In the above example, Clip 01 was split at Epoch time 3000, which happens at 
			frame 50.&nbsp; The two resulting clips both have the same name, but use 
			different ranges of frame numbers, so as not to overwrite one another during 
			recording.</P>
		<P>The properties panel lets you select the starting frame number of any 
			clip.&nbsp; The ending frame number is computed based on the start frame and 
			the animation time settings.</P>
		<P><img src="images/RazorFramesA.gif" height="59" width="209">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="images/RazorFramesB.gif" height="59" width="209"></P>
		<P>At this point, a custom Connect script could be written for the second part of 
			Clip 01, or a different camera view could be selected for it.&nbsp; When both 
			halves are recorded and imported into a 3rd-party video editing package such as 
			Adobe Premiere, they will appear to be a single, seamless clip.&nbsp; 
			Alternately, if both clips are selected for AVI or WMV output, Clip Manager 
			will attempt to record both halves into&nbsp;a single file.</P>
		<H2>The Julienne tool</H2>
		<P>This tool is mostly used for cascading type special effects, such as when a 
			large group of sensor beams switch on one at a time.&nbsp; Start by making a 
			backup of your current save file, since this tool can be difficult to get 
			accustomed to.</P>
		<P>Select a single, large clip that you wish to julienne, and then click the 
			button:</P>
		<P><IMG height="69" src="images/JulienneButton.gif" width="170"></P>
		<P>This button opens the Julienne dialog, shown here:</P>
		<P><IMG height="267" src="images/JulienneDialog.gif" width="396"></P>
		<P>On this dialog, specify either the number of smaller clips ("segments") to break 
			up the original clip, or specify the duration of one segment.&nbsp; The 
			original clip will be broken into a corresponding number of smaller 
			clips.&nbsp; If the checkbox is checked, the smaller clips will have modified 
			versions of the connect script associated with the original clip.</P>
		<P>For example, let's say you have a scenario with 10 sensors, named "Sensor1" 
			through "Sensor10".&nbsp; Make a single, large clip, with a connect script that 
			enables only Sensor1 for display (but does not disable the other sensors.&nbsp; 
			That will have to be a separate clip used only for initialization 
			purposes).&nbsp; Use <STRONG>Copy</STRONG> and <STRONG>Paste</STRONG> to make a 
			backup copy of your master clip.&nbsp; Then, run the <STRONG>Julienne</STRONG> tool 
			on this clip.&nbsp; Select 10 segments, and hit OK.&nbsp; The clip will be 
			split into 10 smaller pieces, and the connect script of each smaller clip will 
			have a different sensor number being enabled.&nbsp; Turn all the sensors off, 
			then multi-select all the clips and hit <STRONG>Record</STRONG> to produce a 
			single AVI, WMV, or stack of frames where the sensors all turn on, one at a 
			time,&nbsp;in a cascade.</P>
		<H2>Time ramps</H2>
		<P>A clip can speed up or slow down along its duration to give the effect of time
			compression.&nbsp; This is especially useful for interplanetary missions and other scenarios
			where a long stretch of minimal activity is followed by a burst of rapid actions that
			must be shown in detail.</P>
		<P>Typically, one uses the <STRONG>Razor Tool</STRONG> to mark the boundaries of
			where the ramp starts and stops, and then converts the middle clip of three into a
			time ramp clip.&nbsp; Following the above example, the first clip might be a long flight
			from Earth to Mars at a high time step.&nbsp; The second clip would be a continuation
			with a time ramp to dramatically slow down the time step prior to aerobraking on
			Mars.&nbsp; The third clip would be another continuation, but not a time ramp, showing
			the aerobraking operations at a lower time step.</P>
		<P><img src="images/TimeRampButton.gif" alt="TimeRampButton.gif" width='202' height='56' /></P>
		<P>To activate a time ramp on the desired clip, just click the <STRONG>Time Ramp...</STRONG>
			button next to the Time Step setting.&nbsp; This brings up the Time Ramp dialog.</P>
		<P><img src="images/TimeRampDialog.gif" alt="TimeRampDialog.gif" width='506' height='227' /></P>
		<P>This dialog shows animation settings and calculations similar to the basic settings,
			with the exception that the time step can be set differently at the start of the
			clip from where it ends up at the end of the clip.&nbsp; The run time calculations are
			more complicated due to the ramping effect, but the results are shown on the
			panel.&nbsp; Typically, a time ramp clip is sandwiched between two non-ramp clips,
			and the start and end time step size of the ramp are set to the previous and
			next clips' time step size, respectively.&nbsp; This gives a smooth transition between
			the two flat rates.&nbsp; However, time ramp clips can also be chained together if
			desired, with the next ramp's start step size matching the previous clip's
			end step size.</P>
		<H1>Conclusion</H1>
		<P>STK Clip Manager is designed to streamline the process of designing your movie 
			clips as well as recording them.&nbsp; Its built-in animation time calculator 
			and its <STRONG>Play Normal</STRONG> and <STRONG>Play XRealTime</STRONG> functions 
			provide a clear idea of the movie you're trying to create, before you create 
			it.&nbsp; The custom Connect scripts let you keep track of subtle visual 
			differences between clips in the same STK scenario.&nbsp; The batch recording 
			capabilities allow you to schedule many different clips to record while you're 
			away from the computer.&nbsp; The purpose of this tool is to help you reach the 
			full potential of STK's rendering power.&nbsp; Put it to good use!</P>
		<P class="wai">6/24/2005, 3/02/2007, 1/14/2008&nbsp;- Ed Mackey
		</P>
		<P class="wai">&nbsp;</P>
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