Rotation of Predefined Shapes introduces elongation

[Brad Stucky]

I just downloaded S5 a couple weeks ago and have begun to switch over to it.  It doesn't seem to be possible to rotate the Predefined Prop Shapes without them elongating at the same time?  If I import the props from S4 Pixel Editor or the Visualizer with any rotation introduced at the time of their creation, they import showing elongation.  Some of my Superstar programming requires a 24 spoke x 12 pixel per spoke prop where no spoke is directly up, down, left, or right.  Just curious why I can do this in S4 but not S5.

This sure won't keep me from using S5.  There are so many nice things about it. Well done!!

[MattBrown]

Importing Pixel Editor props that have been rotated is a known issue - listed in the release notes. You will need to adjust the rotation and scale of such props after they are imported into S5.

Elongation happens because the preview stretches to fit the size of the window (which depends on how you sized the window -- but most users have it set wider than it is tall). You can prevent this from happening by using a background image in your preview, then going to the Sequencer Preferences > Preview tab, and making sure  "Maintain the image's aspect ratio" is selected.

On 8/18/2018 at 9:19 PM, Brad Stucky said:

Some of my Superstar programming requires a 24 spoke x 12 pixel per spoke prop where no spoke is directly up, down, left, or right.  Just curious why I can do this in S4 but not S5.

Could you explain this more? How do you want the spoke prop to look in the preview? How do you want it to look in the SuperStar sequence grid?

Matt

[Brad Stucky]

Thanks, Matt.  I usually read the release notes but didn't this time and just jumped into the program. (I was eager to start!?)

I do have an image selected for my preview and checked the Sequencer Preferences > Preview Tab and found that I had checked "Maintain the Image's aspect ratio".  When I resize the preview window, the image does maintain aspect ratio.  I remember finding and checking this after I had initially selected my image and found that the window sizing affected the aspect ratio.  I un-selected this and checked the image again.  When I resize the window, the image and the props change and become compressed or expanded on the plane that I am adjusting.  The props also change.  In either case, with or without the "maintain aspect ratio" selected, if you select one of the props and rotate it, the shape distorts.

Just as a check, I created a new preview screen with the same background image and placed a predefined 16 spoke prop in the center of the screen. When I exit the Prop Definition screen, the prop appears on the preview screen, however, it is stretched sideways.   I can grab the corners and and bring in the sides until it is round.  When I grab the rotation handle, and rotate, it goes wonkers, particularly if you go 90 degrees.  This is with "maintain aspect ration" selected.  It's almost as if >  When the prop is placed on the preview screen, the program is looking at the actual aspect ratio of the image and then adjusting the prop to meet that same aspect ratio.  To check this, I loaded an image to background that is perfectly square.  When I placed a spoked prop on the screen, it appeared perfectly round and I was able to rotate it without distortion.  Looks like the prop is placed on the screen based on the aspect ratio of the background image.

The prop I created in S5 has the first spoke directly upward with channels set for rotating CCW direction.   What I would like in the preview is that directly up would be half way between spoke 1 and spoke 24.  Left would be between spokes 6 and 7, down would be between 12 and 13, right would be between 18 and 19.  I just need to rotate left the prop 1/48 of 360 degrees.

Thanks for your quick response, Matt.

Brad

 

 

[MattBrown]

1 hour ago, Brad Stucky said:

I just need to rotate left the prop 1/48 of 360 degrees.

So why not rotate it yourself?

Matt

[Brad Stucky]

I have rotated it for my preview except it now shows distorted in Preview Design.  It's not a lot in my case and certainly not a big issue.

  It seems anytime you have to adjust the aspect ratio of the prop to correct it's symmetry, there will be a problem if you rotate the prop.   The problem is compounded by the aspect ratio of the background image.  Try using a background image that is very wide with respect to height.  4 to 1 or higher. Place any predefined prop on that image in the Preview Design screen, adjust the corners of the prop for proper appearance/symmetry and then rotate it.

Hope this helps. 

[Brad Stucky]

Matt,

I imagine in a great majority of the prop design and placement options a user might choose, the Predefined props can and will be placed with no need for rotation.   The many first channel location and rotation options make this easy, but for someone that needs to rotate the prop to some place between those options or because one isn't available, that is when this issue comes up.  The best examples I can think of at the moment would be if someone wanted to create a circle of Predefined candy canes or simply place a Fan prop on the side of a tree or something.  The 90 degree rotation completely distorts the prop appearance.   I've included a wide image I used several years ago for a display in case you don't have one handy.

Edited August 20, 2018 by Brad Stucky

[MattBrown]

I agree that it would have been better to rotate without the elongation occurring. However, changing the calculation now would change the shape of rotated props in the existing previews of every user -- which we cannot do. So after applying a rotation, you will need to adjust the scale.

Matt

[Brad Stucky]

Thanks, Matt.

For me it's such a minor thing compared to all the neat stuff that S5 has, so I'm sure planning on using this for 2018.   The addition of Matrix-Horizontal-Quad in the Predefined shapes really gave me an excellent display on Preview Playback of a 45 degree angled long narrow trapezoid shape for a 150x16 star matrix.  Being able to individually adjust each corner in prop design made it easy to correct rotation distortion occurring at 45 degrees, giving a very nice uniformly spaced shape and sure beats having to adjust each individual row like I had to do in S4.

Thanks a bunch and have a great week!