The screen snap above shows a simple 3 processor MSG preset in the MSG advanced Editor. The preview image in the top left corner shows a preview of the MSG preset being edited. Many (but not all) MSG presets are resolution independent, so the small preview is usually a good indication of what the preset will look like when rendered into a larger canvas. To render the preset into the main canvas you can either drag and drop it on the canvas, or you can switch to MSG operation mode and press the action button. The MSG advanced editor always edits the current MSG preset that is displayed and executed in MSG operation mode.

The list on the bottom left side of the editor above can either display the Processor Chain or the Bus for the preset being edited. The Processor Chain is a list of MSG modular processors that make up the preset. The Bus is a list of Streams that can be connected via IO connections to the individual processors. Streams can be things like images, color gradient, or color palettes.

The area on the right side of the MSG advanced editor is a context sensitive editor for the selected processor in the Processor Chain. It also holds a source library that can be used to add additional processors or Streams to the Processor Chain or Bus respectively.

The example preset is very basic.  The AdvTurb processor is used to generate a monochromatic texture. That black and white texture is then mapped through a color gradient with the 1to3GradMap processor to generate a 3 channel color output image.  The AdvTurb processor accepts a modulation input so the SetToValue processor is just generating a solid color input modulator for the AdvTurb processor input modulation.

How to edit the processor adjustable parameters and io connections that make up the example MSG preset will be described in detail below.

Parameter Editing

If you select a processor in the Processor Chain list and then press the Parameter (Parm) tab on the right hand side you will see the individual editable parameters associated with the selected MSG processor. Each parameter has a name, value, lock status, and a number of Temporal Generator (TG) controls. A temporal generator can be thought of as a time varying signal or oscillator that can modulate the parameter value in real time performance or in animations between a min and max value. Locking a specific parameter means that it will not change when the preset is mutated or evolved in a directed evolution session in the Evolution Palette.

If you click a specific parameter value you can then adjust it. As you adjust it you will see the MSG preview at the top left of the editor change accordingly to reflect the new parameter value and it’s effect on the generated preset output.

There are also a few common parameters that can be adjusted interactively with the mouse in the preview image if you hold down the appropriate hot key prior to clicking the preview image. For example, if you hold down the t key and then mouse down in the preview image moving the mouse horizontally will translate adjust the preset (if it support internal parameters for translation). Other hot keys include r for rotate and h for spatial frequency adjustment. The preview image will adjust accordingly in real time as you make these generic interactive adjustments.

Shift hotkey interaction in the preview will just adjust the selected processor in the processor chain editor as opposed to adjusting all of the processors.

IO (Input-Output) Editing

If you press the IO tab on the top right of the editor the IO connections for the processor will appear in a list. IO stands for input-output. Each processor has a specific number of input and output Ports. If a processor just generates an image it will only have outputs. If the processor performs some kind of operation on an input to generate an output then there will also be inputs. Inputs could also be modulation signals that adjust what the processor is doing based on the input values. 

The individual IO connections are connected to Streams on the current Bus. As mentioned before, Streams can be images, color palettes, color gradients, etc. Image streams are monochrome, so a color image would be represented with 3 different streams. There are specific Streams for the preset source (R Src, G Src, B Src) and output (R Out, G Out, B Out). Additional Streams can be used for temporary image buffers. Float image Streams are special intermediate buffers used with some processors like Chamfer or FSA processors.

Each MSG preset can have up to 3 color gradient and color palette streams on it’s Bus. The Grad and Pal tabs on the top right side of the editor can be used to examine and edit these color gradients (Grad) and palettes (Pal). So the display contents of these 2 tabs will not change based on the selected Processor in the Processor Chain on the left side of the editor.

In the screen snap above the Out IO Port connection for the AdvTurb processor is being edited to send the output to the R Out bus stream. The options in the popup are the different Streams currently available on the preset’s Bus.

Source Editing

The Source (Src) tab brings up a source library. If the Processor Chain tab is active on the left side then the source library displayed will be a complete list of all MSG processors. You can drag any of these processors from the source library to the processor chain list. If the Bus tab is active on the left, then you will see a complete source library of Bus Streams. You can drag any of these Steams into the current preset Bus list. Some Streams (like the Source and Output streams) can only be used once in the current Bus. Others (like the Tmp Image streams) can be used multiple times as different temporary buffers.

You can see from the Bus Source Library screen snap above that there are only 4 different Streams on the Bus for the MSG preset shown above. One Color Gradient Stream and the 3 image output streams.

Movie Streams provide an alternative to the Action generate movie command menus for generating movie files. They are a little more difficult to use than the batch processing oriented Action menu commands, but also give you more flexibility over how individual movie frames are generated. An Image Stream is essentially the same as a movie stream, except the individual frames of the generated movie are output as individual numbered frame images into a folder. You can think of a Steam as an open movie file that frame images can be written to either manually or at specific times you specify.

To open a new movie or image stream use the appropriate File : Stream menu as shown above. The other stream menu options will be grayed out until you have a stream open. The Write Frame menu lets you manually write the current canvas view as a new frame in the open stream. The Flags menu options let you turn on automatic frame writing for different situations.

AutoWrite is an option that when turned on will automatically write frames based on a timer. You can set how often frames are written out when AutoWrite is enabled in the Movie Preferences. The screen snap of the movie preference dialog below shows that AutoWrite is setup to write frames at 15 frames per second when AutoWrite is enabled.

Enable Always AutoWrite will start writing frames immediately as soon as it’s turned on and will continue to do so whether you are doing anything in Studio Artist or not until it is turned off.

Enable Gated AutoWrite will only write out frames when you are doing something (like painting manually or automatically, or after a processing operation like an image operation is complete). The Gated AutoWrite option is useful because otherwise you may generate movie files with extended periods of inactivity.

Enable Write on Op End will automatically write out a frame whenever an operation (manual or automatic) in Studio Artist is completed. So if you had draw a paint stroke for example, you would get one frame written out when the stroke was finished drawing. The difference between this and AutoWrite is that AutoWrite could write out frame continuously as you did the drawing so the resulting movie would see the stroke being drawn as opposed to just popping into a new frame fully drawn.

Enable Write on PASeq Cycle will automatically write out a frame at the end of a complete Paint Action Sequence (PASeq) cycle (when the PASeq has finished all of it’s steps).

Enable Write on Gallery Show Cycle will automatically write out a frame at the end of a complete Gallery Show performance cycle. For more information on the new gallery show feature check out this tip.

When you are finished writing frames into your open movie stream you need to close it before you can view the generated Quicktime Movie File. Depending on your Movie Preference settings the finished movie file may open in the Quicktime Player for viewing when the open movie stream is closed if that preference option is turned on,

Generated Movie Timing

The actual playback rate of the generated Movie Stream is whatever you have specified in the File : Movie Codec Settings dialog. So if you have the Movie Codec Settings configured to generate a 10 fps movie then the generated movie stream will play back at 10 frames a second.

Be aware that the AutoWrite FPS preference setting is the timing for how often frames are written out in real time. Not the playback rate for the generated movie file. So if you AutoWrite frames at 20 frames a second and have setup the Movie Codec Settings to generate a movie that plays back at 10 frame per second, then the screen drawing you captured in the movie stream will appear to playback at half speed.

Loop Action

Loop Action is a new feature in version 4. When loop action is turned on using the Action : Run Loop Action menu command the current Studio Artist operation is run repeatably until loop action is stopped by pressing the space bar. You can import new presets when loop action is running and they will seamlessly be executed when the loop cycles. Using the favorites Preset Toolbar is a great way to quickly move between different presets when in loop action.

If you have an open movie stream and the Stream: Enable Write on Op End menu flag turned on then at the end of each loop in a loop action cycle a frame image will be written out into the open movie stream. There are also menu options under File : Source Settings that can be turned on to enable the source movie to frame advance while loop action is running.

The combination of loop action and movie streams provides a great way to use Studio Artist like a live video synthesizer where you can dynamically edit parameters in real time and see the effect on the continuously generated screen imagery while recording this generated imagery into a  movie file.  Using AutoWrite will record frames in real time. Using Enable on Op End will record frames after they are fully generated, and may be more effective if the operations you are running are slow.

This is because the final timing of the generated movie stream is a function of the FPS setting in the File : Movie Codec Settings dialog. The AutoWrite rate is just the rate the frames are written out at, it does not specify a playback rate for the generated movie file. The perceived rate of motion events occurring in a movie stream is a function of the interaction between the AutoWrite frame dump rate and the FPS playback rate of the generated movie file.