Latest posts for the topic "Quick Help and Reference Guide (Troubleshooting Updated 16/6/08)"

Quick Help and Reference Guide (Troubleshooting Updated 16/6/08)

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Introduction

AngriBuddhist wrote:

Disclaimer: I am not a employee of Short Fuze and am not affiliated with them in any way. This information has been gathered from questions and answers from users within these forums. Although the "Troubleshooting" tips have been successful for some there is no guarrantee that they will work for you. End Disclaimer.

If any of this helps you, please leave a comment. I'm aiming for 1,000,000 served. 1. Installation 2. Troubleshooting - Have a technical problem? 3. The Basics - Getting Started - ( Updated 25/5/08 ) 4. Advanced Techniques - Ready to take it to the next level? 5. Media Types - What types of files does MovieStorm support? 6. Modding without the Modder's Workshop - It's a hacky approach so be careful the entire way. 7. Modding with the Modder's Workshop - (Wanted- Moviestorm Mod Shop User's Notes) 12. Links - From MovieStorm news to Free Sound Effects. 13. Credits - Who's helped with ths guide? (Hopefully Coming Soon) As MovieStorm is designed to be immediately accessible to users of varying levels of experience and technical know-how there will always be, regardless of the information available in these forums, questions repeatedly asked simply because it's unclear exactly how to phrase a "search" query correctly. Additionally, what might have been accurate information for the Early Release Version 1.01 might not necessarily be true of the Early Release Version 1.04. What I'm going to attempt to do here is to organize the available information from these forums and my experience. Topics will range from "Troubleshooting" to "The Basics" all the way through "Types of Media" (i.e. supported audio or video for dialog, ambient sound, or images on primitive backdrops), and information about techniques such as Compositing. Since creating and maintaining this will be a mammoth task, it will grow over time. At first many of the sections will just have links to pertinent information. These will be expanded upon as time permits. As of now, my primary focus will be dredging the forums and building up the "Troubleshooting" and "The Basics" sections. Comments about, or what you'd like to see in, this "Guide" should be made here in this thread.

Installation

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Installation If you haven't done so, download MovieStorm from here. Microsoft Vista users need to follow these installation instructions. Mac users should be sure to download and install the nvidia cg toolkit BEFORE attempting to install Moviestorm.

Troubleshooting

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Troubleshooting At this point in Moviestorm's developement, the majority of technical issues stem from graphics cards and their drivers. There are an entire host of problems which are associated with not having the most up-to-date and functioning versions. Follow the guidelines below for your particular type of card. Nvidia - The cards with the best compatibility, simply update to the newest available drivers. Intel - Unsupported at this time. Due to errors in the driver's "openGL select" function, selecting in Moviestorm's interface doesn't work correctly. The most recent drivers reported to work are version 4543. ATI - As with the Intel drivers, ATI's have suffered from the same "openGL select" error causing the selection function within Moviestorm to not work correctly. ATI FireGL Cards - The last reported drivers which function correctly are version 8.391. Other ATI Cards - Up until 5/08, the 7.11 drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista were the last to work correctly. Recently, ATI released the 8.5 drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista and they eliminate the issues found in previous versions. Any drivers before 7.11 or in between it and 8.5 will not work correctly. I've recently upgraded my drivers to the 8.5 version and everything works like a charm. Problems associated with drivers prior to or in between versions 7.11 and 8.5 include- Constant crashing of MovieStorm Cannot paint walls Unable to place character Tutorial crashes Blank workspace within a movie MovieStorm crashes when zooming out Can't place items on top of other items in Set Workshop Cannot select objects/characters/icons Placed characters appear in the wrong place Characters will not move to the correct place or animate correctly Character Shop crashes Other issues Distorted Screen - You can't even navigate through the menus because Moviestorm's screen is too big. Moviestorm requires a resolution of at least 1024x768, change your monitor settings. Characters are distorted by color - Typically blue or red, this happens on set or when a camera's focus is changed. If your drivers are updated this could mean that your graphics card does not support the proper version of Shaders. Turn off "shaders" in the Settings>Graphics menu. Tutorial Crashes - If your drivers are updated this could mean that your graphics card does not support the proper version of Shaders. Turn off "shaders" in the Settings>Graphics menu. Crashes when trying to create a new movie - If your drivers are updated this could mean that your graphics card does not support the proper version of Shaders. Turn off "shaders" in the Settings>Graphics menu. Character Shop crashes - If your drivers are updated this could mean that your graphics card does not support the proper version of Shaders. Turn off "shaders" in the Settings>Graphics menu. Crashing during set navigation - If your drivers are updated this could mean that your graphics card does not support the proper version of Shaders. Turn off "shaders" in the Settings>Graphics menu. Extreme slowdown - 2GB of ram is probably the low end for running MovieStorm and any other intensive program simultaneously on a Vista machine. Ram is cheap. Upgrade. Items or characters disappear or act unusual (i.e. they don't animate correctly) in the Character Shop or on set - If your drivers are updated this could mean that your graphics card does not support "hardware skinning". Turn off "hardware skinning" in the Settings>Graphics menu. Applying a texture to a wall/door/floor changes the texture of something else - If your drivers are updated this could mean that your graphics card does not support the proper version of Shaders. Turn off "shaders" in the Settings>Graphics menu. Downloaded Addons don't appear for you to install or once installed the assets do not appear within MovieStorm - Most likely you are running Microsoft Vista as your OS. If so, Vista has a problem placing your addons in the correct place and will create a new one for them. This is called "Virtualisation". This happens when you don't start MovieStorm by "Running as Administrator". See Installation Section. Go to Program Files\Moviestorm and you should see a link on the top bar of the File Explorer labelled "Compatibility Files". Click on this. Anything in this file is not actually installed in MovieStorm. Delete these files. Restart MovieStorm by "Running as Administrator" and then re-install your Addons. Video does not play on a backdrop - Turn on "shaders" in the Settings>Graphics menu. Update your graphics card drivers. If you have a problem which is not solved here, please do a thorough search in the help forum and if you still need help, read this thread and then create a separate thread requesting help in the Help Forum.

The Basics

AngriBuddhist — GMT

The Basics Tutorials Official MovieStorm Tutorials - The tutorials library is continually growing. You can follow the link to the left for all of them or the individual links below for a much faster loading experience. Basics: Moving Around - How to move around on your Moviestorm movie set, as well as how to make basic adjustments to your set. Basics: Giving Instructions - How to control your characters' actions on set, and how to make them interact. Basics: Creating Characters - How to create and modify characters for your movie cast, using Moviestorm's Character tools. Basics: Changing Your Set - Customize your set, including changing colours, adding walls and doors, adding furniture and deleting objects. Basics: Using Cameras - Learn the ins and outs of using Moviestorm's Camera system like a pro. Characters Change a characters mood and limit their improvisations. - Effects facial expressions and idle animations. Adding Dialog There are two ways to do this. Within Moviestorm - Make sure that the character which is to speak the dialog is selected in the character selection pane which fades in when you hover the mouse over the far left side of the screen. Then, Left-click on the character and choose "Say". Click the red record icon and speak the dialog. Click the record icon again to stop recording. You can click the green play icon to preview your dialog, click the record icon to redo your dialog, or (very important) click the green check mark to accept your dialog. Once accepted, move the timeline back to before the dialog and play the scene. Remember, just like other items on the timeline, you can slide the dialog to different points in the scene without having to re-record it. Outside Moviestorm - Using an audio editor (such as the wonderful and free Audacity) record your dialog and save the file as a .wav somewhere that you can find it easily later. Now, open Moviestorm and load your movie. Make sure that the character which is to speak the dialog is selected in the character selection pane. Then, Left-click on the character and choose "Say". Below the red and green play and record icons you will see an icon of an archaic technology called the 3.5" Floppy Disk which represents you loading an existing file. Click it, browse to the location that you saved your dialog, and select (double-click) the correct file. You can click the green play icon to preview your dialog, click the record icon to redo your dialog, or (very important) click the green check mark to accept your dialog. Once accepted, move the timeline back to before the dialog and play the scene. Remember, just like other items on the timeline, you can slide the dialog to different points in the scene without having to re-record it. Note: Although the second method is much more involved, opening an audio editor and recording your own vocals (or those of the nearest person) is much quicker from start to finish. Additionally, if you are using Voice Actors who have supplied their lines to you via the Internet, this is how you'll have to add the dialog.

Advanced Techniques

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Advanced Techniques Chroma-keying - Also known as Compositing. This chroma-keying tutorial for Adobe After Effects gives the basic principal for all post-production editing software that supports it. The actual steps will vary. For the more technical users, Elf's Intro to Compositing is a good advocate for investing in a dedicated compositing tool. Rendering - Although posted before MovieStorm was able to support many different codecs and render in High-Defination, Overman's MovieStorm Render Workflow is an excellent step-by-step example that will help you design your own render workflow.

Media Types

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Media Types Ambient Sounds - Ambient (consistant and looping) sounds can be added to a scene in the Set Workshop. The audio files must be MP3s and need to be placed in ...\Program Files\Moviestorm\Data\Sound\Ambient. As of 4/08, MovieStorm is very taxing on your computer. If you use an outside video editor adding these sound effects during your post-production will reduce MovieStorm's workload.

Modding without the Modder's Workshop

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Modding without the Modder's Workshop nb99's excellent overview. Please leave comments about it in that thread.

Modding with the Modder's Workshop

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Modding with the Modder's Workshop As of 5/08, the Modder's Workshop has been opened up to the general user. The Pioneers (early Beta testers of MovieStorm) had access to it but, in favor of getting Moviestorm ready for commercial release, the Modshop had been left in a "Work in Progress" state. There is, of course, a newer build of the Workshop being used in-house at Short Fuze but a couple of Daves are holding it hostage until they are happy with it. :? Go to The beginning of the Beginner's Guide to learn how to get started.

Re:......... (Coming Soon)

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Reserved

Re:......... (Coming Soon)

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Reserved

Upcoming Version- Early Release 1.05

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Upcoming Version- Commercial Release 1.1.2 Although anything here is subject to change, Short Fuze staff members have referenced these as coming up in the future. Refinements- New walk paths

Links

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Links News MovieStorm Development Blog - News and insight straight from Short Fuze, the developers of MovieStorm. MovieStorm Blog - News and insight straight from Short Fuze but prettied up for general consumption. Resources

Credits

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Credits These forum members have supplied assistance ranging from correcting my mistakes, filling in the blanks, writing tutorials, or providing links to information that MovieStorm users would find helpful. Thanks everyone!!!

Re:Quick Help and Reference Guide

Spong3y — GMT

Thanks Angri! This thread should definetely help those in need of answers.

Re:Quick Help and Reference Guide

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Thanks Spong3y!!! I hope so. Like I said somewhere in all that mess above- It'll grow as time goes on.

Re:Quick Help and Reference Guide

Trinity — GMT

thanks AngriBuddist, this looks like it's going to be very interesting. maybe it should eventually be on a wiki. something similar has been on my to-do list.

Quick Help and Reference Guide

febe films — GMT

Excellent! I propose a sticky! (...and don't let Johnny see this; he might get jealous you beat him to the punch!) :) Thanks, Angri!

Quick Help and Reference Guide

Synnah — GMT

febe films wrote:

Excellent! I propose a sticky!

Done, and done.

Quick Help and Reference Guide

AngriBuddhist — GMT

Hey, thanks for the thanks everyone. I'm planning on taking my 3 days off this week and getting into 1.04 with an idea that'll hopefully be my first released film. I probably won't even be thinking about this.

febe films wrote:

(...and don't let Johnny see this; he might get jealous you beat him to the punch!) :)

Nah!! He's got so much thunder I'm sure he won't notice if I steal a bit of it. 8)

Re:Quick Help and Reference Guide

johnnie — GMT

Get yer filthy stealing hands off my thunder! I worked hard for that!

Re:Quick Help and Reference Guide

AngriBuddhist — GMT

I steal such a small part of your thunder and you take my one and only sticky? :cry: Couldn't you have let me off easy and just chopped off one of my hands?

Re:Quick Help and Reference Guide

Synnah — GMT

Re-stickied. That's what we get for using cheapo glue!

Quick Help and Reference Guide (Updated 25/5/08)

Lionheart — GMT

Fav'd