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Experimental Feature: VFX Toolbox Image Sequencer

November 9, 2016 in Technology | 2 min. read
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One of the major production challenges for VFX Artists lies in making good and reliable flipbook texture sheets. We just released our Image Sequencer as an experimental feature. This tool is a base for authoring optimized texture sheets, but we plan to improve it in the future to generate other motion-based VFX textures.

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This tool packs up a full in-engine toolchain for flipbook texture sheet authoring. It relies on Image Sequences which are Editor-Only assets containing references to input frames, a set of settings for processing image sequences, and export parameters to output one or more texture files.

A Workflow Accelerator

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In the Realtime VFX industry, the common basic workflow for texture sheets involves the use of successive tools (AfterEffects, Photoshop, scripts, ...) and produces large amounts of intermediate data. This slows down iteration time dramatically as the users have to switch between software, export then re-import their data, and do the same set-ups multiple times.

In the Image Sequencer, we reduced the workflow to the simplest: you import your texture sequences directly in Unity, create an Image Sequence Asset, and simply drag & drop the folder containing your sequence in the Image Sequencer window. Then you can start assemble and export your flipbook texture sheet.

Then, your pipeline is set! Once you've exported, you can make changes and re-export very quickly.

Features

  • Instant preview of all changes
  • One-click export update
  • Retime and change length, acceleration and dynamics of your sequence
  • Create looping sequences and adjust synchro points in a few clicks.
  • Remove background color and restore true smoke/fire color
  • Crop, fix borders and ensure consistent size.
  • Adjust color correction, remap from gradients.

Currently we have features for the 90% most common cases, but we plan to improve it over time.

Download and Get Started!

If you are interested in testing this tool, please join the experimental forum section and start downloading the package.

Download

The Image Sequencer comes in two flavours:

  • One package with the editor only.
  • One larger package with editor, templates and source assets*

* We released these assets under Creative Commons Zero license, so you can use them in your projects!

We also advise you taking a look at the documentation of the Image Sequencer.

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November 9, 2016 in Technology | 2 min. read

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