Video Texturing [cool demo]

[ZZII 527]

Hrm, the videography forum seems a bit underutilized. Maybe I can stir things up a bit. I've been doing video editing for my team(s) since I got my first digital camcorder and I can tell you that short of the actual robot, the coolest thing a team can have to show off is a really great video. So in my efforts to push the limits of amateur videography and editing, I present an easy (and free) video texturing technique that produces some distinctively good-looking results:

http://web.mit.edu/first/www/bird_21.wmv (~7 MB)

The Software:
The two programs involved are both freeware: POV-Ray (http://www.povray.org/) and Virtual Dub (http://www.virtualdub.org/). The first is a raytracing tool that has a bit of a steep learning curve, but with some basics you can produce really nice looking 3D stills and animations. The second is a video conversion tool that can break video into frames and recombine frames into video.

The (Simplified) Process:

1. Open the video clip you want to use in Virtual Dub. This is probably the best time to trim the start and end points. Then, use Virtual Dub to save it as a set of images with sequential filenames (e.g. video001.jpeg, video002.jpeg, ...).
2. Create a POV-Ray model (of anything). Decide where to texture the video and use a "mesh" object to create a flat surface with a 4x3 aspect ratio. Use the "image_map" modifier to texture a still image onto the mesh as a test.
3. Animation in POV-Ray is an interesting adventure, and I won't try to explain it fully here. It is based on a clock variable that increments at each new frame. You can use this clock variable and some string manipulation functions to load the video frames in sequence as each frame of the animation renders. So in each animation frame, the mesh texture from before becomes a frame of video.
4. Rendering could take a few hours, depending on the size of the clip. After it's finished, you will have a set of new .bmp's which you can then recombine into video using Virtual Dub.

I know this is far from a complete explanation, and I promise to follow up with a more detailed one at some point. I just wanted to present the technique, maybe others will expand on it. But it is a great way to make some real professional-looking video effects.

[Kyle]

Thanks I have always wanted to be able to do stuff like that, thanks for the sites.