Character Generator - Ultech Corporation DV2000 User Manual

1.3 Character Generator

You may purchase DV2000 with an optional character generator to produce text and graph-
ics on-screen. The CG option consists of a 2.5 GByte hard drive, 120 MByte LS-120
SuperDrive, 16 MByte video RAM module, faster CPU, and associated software. The CG
provides two video frame stores of 24 bit RGB plus 8 bits of transparency ("alpha" channel).
You can create any image in 16 million colors with 256 levels of transparency over the
background video. Your image can occupy up to 512 TV scan lines in each frame. Although
the DV2000 is not intended for special effects, it is possible to create simple animations with
smooth motion—a rotating globe or a logo that grows, for example. A global fade function
allows you to fade images on and off the screen independently from transparency settings.
How to create images with DV2000 CG
The DV2000 CG can display text and graphics based on low level "drawing" commands (the
traditional method), or it can display text and graphics as individual "subpictures" (the
modern method). In both cases, the commands and/or subpictures are received via a commu-
nications port, network interface, or local script file residing on disk. Commands and
subpictures can be displayed by DV2000 based on longitudinal time code, GPI triggers, and
internal or external timing.
In drawing mode, DV2000 provides the same commands found on ULTECH's SG401
Subtitle/Character Generator. This mode is useful for repetitive display of text such as
subtitling. Characters are rendered within the DV2000 in the specified font with the speci-
fied effects. In drawing mode, DV2000 uses the Unicode character set together with
TrueType fonts. TrueType fonts may be downloaded through any communications port, or
may be installed via disk. Version 2.26 Note: SG401 backward compatibility
In subpicture mode, DV2000 can display graphics images that are in .BMP, .PCX, .TIF, and
.PNG formats. Subpictures are loaded into a non-displayed graphics buffer then displayed at
the desired time. Subpictures are always rendered off-line, that is, on an external PC, Mac, or
workstation. You can use any graphics drawing program to create subpictures including
those from Adobe, Macromedia, MetaCreations, and many others. Subpictures can be wiped
or faded on and off the screen.
Animation is accomplished by creating a series of individual frames—perhaps dozens—that
represent the desired motion. The frames are downloaded to DV2000's hard drive via a
network interface or 120 MByte SuperDrive, then played in sequence. Animation packages
such as MetaCreation's Bryce3D render individual frames from key frames automatically.
1. General Information 7