Heya,
I've been testing tvpaint for some time now, and it's really great for traditional animation, the thing is, I'd like to work at 1920 x 1480 resolution and the software seems that it's not able to handle it, and all this for just a few frames.
My pc is a Pentium4 3Ghz dual core with 1gb ram and Nvidia 6600Gt graphics card.
I'm wondering if this can be fixed in any way, otherwise all the search i made through every software would be for nothing :D
I'd like the resolution to be satisfying as to cover Broadcast and perhaps a Dvd.
Cheers and thanks!
Mirage (Bauhaus) is selling a version of TVPaint without the permission of the TVPaint Company - don't buy it - go directly to TV Paint. They are in an lawsuit over this. Mirage hasn't been updated in years because of this and you can't use it on a new Mac for the same reason. The Mirage people can't upgrade the code.
Go with TVPaint.
In addition to not being Intel native, Mirage lacks a LOT of features that the current version of TVPaint has. TVPaint is also more expensive, but it does seem like Mirage will eventually die out either from the outcome of the current litigation or because they don't have the uncompiled code to update the software. Not being able to run Intel native will hurt them pretty quickly.
Well, the outcome of the lawsuits is not certain and it's possible that Bauhaus will win. Bauhaus filed the lawsuit after all, claiming that TVPaint violated their agreement.
I do find it VERY strange that Bauhaus has not touched the source code ever since the split. And the new TVPaint software does indeed have many nice new features.
The Bauhaus message board is much more active than the TVPaint board, though, so there are still many loyal Mirage users.
I'm going to wait and see what happens before I decide to switch to TVPaint, because it is fairly expensive to upgrade. I think Bauhaus is doing a complete rewrite of the code and it could end up being the best software. I'm not going to wait until the cows come home, though. I hope Bauhaus releases their newest version within the next year.
Both are fine products; the best for doing raster-type animation by far. I wish they could have worked out their differences.
Sorry, I shouldn't assume anything in those companies' situation. It would appear that Bauhaus does not have the source code.
That whole dilemma is fishy, and even if Bauhaus wins in litigation I don't think I personally could support them. If TVPaint had been licensed to them it would not have been for an indefinite length of time. So I can only see a court case changing the length of the license, not permanently owning something that was originally licensed to you. If the license were to be extended then TVPaint would not opt to renew afterwards, and then where would Mirage go? That's just my thoughts.
Yes, I think you are right Big Hache. I'm guessing that Bauhaus is currently rewriting (or writing from scratch) the code so that the next version will be totally their own. It will probably be similar to TVPaint, but everything will be a little different.
I read that they've got some good people working on it.
At that point I'll see which software I want to go with. I tried the TVPaint demo and thought it was fantastic. I do prefer the colors and graphics of Mirage better. (You can change the color scheme to anything you want, though, in both programs.) I am not a fan of the splash screen graphic of TVPaint. They should have made it just a logo of TVPaint or something simple. The artwork is a turn off. It's like bad graffiti art of a guy with a 'tude.
Some of the little icons in both programs should be given a better design. Those are just some small annoyances, though.
What are the advantages of TVPaint or Mirage over more traditional software, like Flash or Photoshop?
I like tvpaint cause its engine is based on raster graphics, like photoshop
and gives it a less digital character, flash is vector based.
Tvpaint isnt as intuitive as photoshop, but then again photoshop isn't based around animation, if it did i would give everything up and work with that :D.
I don't know if photoshop supports animated layers, tvpaint does, and tvpaint pro has an Xsheet(i don't know why the normal version doesn't but anyway) . Also tvpaint has alot more effects than flash, but for animating stills it's a pain when compared to flash.
I think for the price tvpaint is the best for traditional hand drawn animation,
although i don't suggest compositing in that.
Anyone knows another good raster based software that doesn't cost a fortune?
It's my understanding that Mirage is a lower-priced version of TVPaint...?
It's the previous version of tvpaint, it was sold from a different company licensed by tvpaint and they canceled their license and now they sell it anyway i think, something like that. They are basically the same thing.
Tvpaint pro though has an xsheet which should be really useful and you can view the sound waves when lip synching.
The splash art seems very French. A slightly aggrevated French artist man.
It's true, there are many nice, helpful people (and boy, are they loyal !) at the Mirage User forum , as there are also many nice, helpful people on the TVPaint User Forum. It is unfortunate that the North American distribution arrangement between Bauhaus Software and TVPaint Development went sour , for whatever reasons and no matter who is to blame (maybe mistakes were made on both sides , as is usually the case when relationships, personal or business, go bad) . It will eventually work out in the courts, but I expect by that time there will be two distinct (though very similar) software packages available : Mirage 2.0 from Bauhaus (rewritten from the ground up and maybe not called Mirage , depending on how the court case turns out) and TVPaint PRO as it has continued to be improved and updated by the originator , Herve Adam, and his team at TVPaint Development. I have tried as much as possible not to "take sides" in the matter . To me, it's about what I need and what works for my purposes as a consumer and an artist. I don't sign up with a "loyalty oath" to a software company or treat it as a religion. If one company makes the better product or makes a product which works better for my purposes, then that is what I use. Guess what ? I own Photoshop in addition to Mirage and TVPaint. Does that mean I don't think TVPaint/Mirage is as good an app as Photoshop ? Nope. It means that they each have certain strengths and weaknesses as applications and I am glad I can have both in my toolbox. I was never unhappy with Mirage. At great expense I ended up switching to TVPaint for the very pragmatic reason that my bought and paid-for full license of Mirage 1.5 does not function on an Intel-processor Mac , which is what I use. If Bauhaus had been able to make Mirage work on the Intel Mac (as they had previously announced) I would probably never have made the effort to find out more about the company which created TVPaint/Mirage , TVPaint Development.
It is true that TVPaint 8.0 has many more features (and is being updated again in the near future) than Mirage 1.5 , but at their core functions they are more or less the same software, which is very good for doing traditional (hand-drawn) style of animation using an Intous or Cintiq tablet. If you have Mirage 1.5 (aka TVPaint 7.0) and it does what you need then you're blessed with an excellent software and a wonderful user community resource to draw upon. If you have TVPaint then you are also blessed to have a wonderful software, sold and licensed by the originator of the software going back to the Amiga days, and also access to a wonderful community of users to draw upon for help and inspiration.
Let the two companies sort out their legal dispute as businessmen ,
and for the artists among us choose the tool that works best for you. (of course it's obvious that I think TVPaint has the edge here, with more features and frequent updates , so I'm biased , yep, just like everyone else who has certain favorite tools. I used to prefer my Blackwing pencils, while others swore by the Blaisdell Layout pencil or Tourquoise 3B or Col-Erase Blue . Whatever works for you. )
"EustaceScrubb" has left the building
Hi there,
Personally I don't expect to see any Mirage 2 coming in the future (I can't really explain why, just a feeling) and the features in the TVPaint products are really worth it and improved my workflow significantly... As I globally agree with everything EustaceScrubb said, i'd say that i found the software that fits my needs and I honestly wish everyone was in the same situation, whatever is your app :)
Also TVPaint is about a new update to their products, the third one in less than one year and Mirage is still stuck at its version 1.5 since 2005 now...
I just wanted to add my own personal experience to the discussion ^^
I use TVPaint , usually at 2k film resolution, 2048 x 1556 , 24 fps.
I am running it on a MacBook with 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1.25 GB of SDRAM, RadeonX1600 graphics card. I have my temp directory for TVPaint set to a 80GB external hard drive (firewire ).
Did you set up a temp directory in your preferences ? Go to EDIT --- PREFERENCES---GENERAL----Temp Directory - Set .
TVPaint is running on your system drive, so TVPaint will use the temp directory space as virtual memory to swap data back and forth as you work in TVPaint. There should be as much space available on this temp directory as possible, especially if your TVPaint project has a lot of frames and multi-layers. You will need to quit from TVPaint and re-start it after you set the temp directory to the external drive to activate it as your temp/swap drive. You can also set the temp directory as an internal drive if you have more than one internal hard drive , but I find that the little external firewire drive I have works fine . The main thing to remember is that the temp directory can not be the same drive as your OS is residing on .
Also, when you set the project configuration in the start up window make sure you set the Aspect Ratio to 1.000 , and the Field to Progressive.
At the top of the TVPaint tool bar (the one along the top of the screen) there is a green button. Click on that button to set Proxy Rendering State . Your options for Preview are : Realtime, Proxy, and Render . Format : RBGA or YUV, Ratio: Full, Half, or 1/4 size.
I have mine set to Realtime , YUV , 1/4 render size for the preview. This , combined with swapping images to the temp directory makes it run quite a bit snappier.
There's a lot of discussion of these sorts of issues on both the TVPaint User Forum and the Mirage User Forum.
http://www.tvpaint.com/forum/index.php
http://www.bauhaussoftware.com/forum/
"EustaceScrubb" has left the building
Also, if your final product is going to be for TV screen (broadcast or DVD) you might want to consider working at 1280 x 720 . You'll need to run tests of course to be sure that 1280 x 720 gives you the level of detail you want in your final , but it might be possible to use 1280 x 720 instead of 1920 x 1080.
"EustaceScrubb" has left the building
I had it on the same drive as my OS, i've put it on a different drive and changed the proxy settings like yours, it now seems to be working fine, thank you so much, you saved me once again :D.
One more thing, do you know if there's anti-aliasing in the preview , cause when i zoom out it all looks pixelized, (i have the anti-aliasing on the brush on).And btw do you paint in tv paint? I painted in Digicell's flipbook and it does that much better (doesn't leave blank pixel outlines on half blurred black lines, it seems to paint the alpha channel as well. I played with smooth and range on the paint tool in tvpaint, but it doesn't seem to cut it, it leaves blank pixels near the lines everywhere, is there a setting i missed?
Cheers and thanks once again.:)
I haven't TVPaint, I use Mirage - but they're largely similar, I gather. And I too have a problem when working with projects at a high resolution. 1920-1080, for example, I can use for, at best, perhaps a 20 second segment, even with my rendering options tweaked as has been suggested in this thread. After that, the program becomes unresponsive, it takes forever to rebuild the video, the video and audio lose sync, etc., etc...
It was suggested to me to get a workstation with slots for up to 8 GB RAM, to get a RAID setup, etc., etc. -- a lot more than I can manage financially, at present.