JASigning Video Generator

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The software described on this page is © UEA and is for evaluation use only. Please contact the Virtual Humans Group at UEA VirtualSigning@cmp.uea.ac.uk if you wish to use this facility for other purposes.  

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Video Generation using JASigning

JASigning is able to generate a video of an animation using a video video generation server application. The server needs to be installed on the same computer system as the main JASigning application being used. Video files are generated as .mp4 files in H.264 format.

This page gives information on installing the Video Generation Server and explains how to use the SiGML Player application to create videos.

An earlier system was based on the Xuggler package which is no longer supported. See Xuggler Video Generator.

Installing the Video Generation Server

  • Download the Video Generator installation ZIP file
  • Unpack the ZIP file to a suitable location. It will be unpacked in a folder VideoGen
  • Check (e.g. using the Java Preferences app) that you have a 64-bit Java installation
  • If necessary configure the run-jas-video-gen-server script file for your platform to match the Java installation
  • Since use of Java has become very restrictred, you may need to override security settings to run the server and download and run the SiGML Player

Launching the Video Generation Server

  • Use the run-jas-video-gen-server script file appropriate to the platform, Mac or Windows, to launch the server
  • The server app should launch with a Test and Quit button
  • Test runs a test client that uses the server to generate a video from frames held in the frames subfolder of the VideoGen folder
  • Quit is used to terminate the server

Using the SiGML Player to Generate Video Files

  • Once the video generation server is running, a video of an animation can be generated using the Java Web Start SiGML Player app, accessible from http://vhg.cmp.uea.ac.uk/tech/jas/vhg2022b
  • Use the SiGML Player's File->Video Generation... menu item to generate a video of the most recently played signing animation
  • The SiGML Player accomplishes this by transmitting the animation's frame data to the video generation server, which produces the .mp4 file
  • The SiGML Player should refuse to attempt video generation if it is not feasible, e.g. when there is no current animation, or when the server is not running
  • Some videos may be larger than expected due to high resolution displays such as Apple Retina displays

Configuring the Video Server

  • The Log checkbox can be used to provide more verbose logging of server operation
  • The Video checkbox, selected by default, causes a movie to be generated in a specified location
  • The Frames checkbox causes a folder to be created containing a set of PNG images for the frames sent to the server
  • Frames are placed in a folder whose name is the same as the movie with ".frames" appended
  • Files are created in XML and Java Properties formats recording settings sent to the server: movie name, width and height, frames per second, and frame count

Adapting the Video Server

  • The server uses JavaCV, a Java interface to FFmpeg, and has been built with Maven on NetBeans
  • The VideoGen folder contains a NetBeans project containing sources and assembly information
  • In order to support older MacOSX releases, such as High Sierra, older versions of JavaCV are used
  • The Netbeans project should assemble a new installation ZIP file but may fail to run the server directly from NetBeans

 

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