Podcasting - 1 road bump down, Thousands to go...

I picked up Crazytalk yesterday. And started to experiment as soon as I got home. 

   My first trick was that the program wouldn't show the model in it's normal mode. It would let me edit, but then the screen would go white.  I remember this problem when I did the trail version, but I couldn't remember how it was done. 

   So that leads me to an hour of searching the Internet and reading forums. But the effort paid off, found the right .ini file and did the transfer. 

   After that it was pretty smooth sailing. I made a rough draft of the model, threw in a mp3 file and watched the fun for a bit. I tested the save mp4 format ( wasn't available on the trail) and it all works fine. 

    After that it was working on the green screen. The first step was to color the background down to the pixel   .  This separates the model from the background.

 While it is easy to understand and even watch, it is a pain in the wrist. Literally, I am still hurting today.

   After that, it gets even mire fun.  Neither crazytalk or iClone will do the Chroma Key ( ie green screen ).  Even though they say iClone can do it. If anyone knows how, please let me know. Please.... 

   This lead me to surf for awhile longer to find 123MagicVideo. They have a free trail, then pay to play. 

  Now onto my first mistake. When I was creating the green screen of the model, I really didn't want green. I choose blue. This is an industry standard also, so I saw no harm in it. When I go to upload my model to 123magicvideo, it only takes green. I figure no problem. I open up crazytalk, change the color from blue to green, and make another movie. But 123 keeps seeing the blue version. So I delete the blue movies. 123 still sees them.  
 
   I get so frustrated that I log onto eve for some ice mining.  

  This morning I uninstall then reinstall 123 magicvideo. Upload the green version and in works great. The model gave his speech in front of clouds then triangles. I then went to the next step and added the Dominion trailer for the background screen. I left the house while it said 4 hours to go. 

    I am leaning towards either doing still frame backgrounds, or figuring ( ie asking) what software STOked uses for their greenscreen. 

   Either way it's an adventure.  And that is what it's all about. 

-Jason