Xuggler Video Generator

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 now able to generate a video of an animation using a video video generation server application. The server needs the supporting Xuggler video processing library to be installed on the same computer system as the main JASigning application being used. Video files are generated only in the .mov format.

This page gives information on installing the Video Generation Server and explains how to use the SiGML URL 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

Installation on MacOS X

Download the Xuggler Library installation script
Run the installation script to install the Xuggler 3.4 library
- Start the Terminal application and move to the directory containing the script
- Enter sudo sh xuggle-xuggler.3.4.1012-i386-apple-darwin9.8.0.sh
- Authentication is needed to install in the standard location /usr/local/xuggler
- Follow the instructions given, in particular, so that the XUGGLE_HOME environment variable is appropriately defined
Download the JASigning Video Generation Server ZIP archive, and unzip it in any convenient location
- Check (e.g. using the Java Preferences app) that you have the 64-bit Java SE 6 installed.

Installation on Windows

Download the Xuggler Library installation program
Run the downloaded program to install the Xuggler 3.4 library
- On Windows, Xuggler requires a 32-bit version of Java 6 or Java 7
Download the JASigning Video Generation Server ZIP archive, and unzip it in any convenient location
- Batch Script run-jas-video-gen-server-win-jre6.bat sets JAVA_X86_HOME to the normal location for Java 6
- Batch Script run-jas-video-gen-server-win-jre7.bat should be suitable for Java 7
- If necessary, use a text editor such as Notepad to ensure that the JAVA_X86_HOME setting matches the actual location of your 32-bit Java Runtime Environment installation
- The JRE location can be found using the 32-bit Java Control Panel, Java tab. On 64-bit Windows systems, select View 32-bit Control Panel Items from the main Control Panel window to see the 32-bit version

Launching and Using the Video Generation Server

Launch the Video Server

Use the run-jas-video-gen-server script file appropriate to the platform, Mac or Windows, to launch the server.
- The server app has a Test button
- This runs a test client that attempts to use the server to generate a video file using a set of image files
- These files are held in the frames/ subfolder of the server folder
- The Quit button is used to terminate the server.

Use the SiGML URL Player to Generate Video Files

Once the video generation server is running on the local system, a video of a signing animation can be generated using the JASigning SiGML URL Player app, accessible from http://vhg.cmp.uea.ac.uk/tech/jas/std/
- Use the SiGML URL Player's File->Video Generation... menu item to generate a video of the most recently played signing animation
- The SiGML URL Player accomplishes this by transmitting the animation's frame data to the video generation server, which produces the .mov file
- The SiGML URL Player should refuse to attempt video generation if it is not feasible, e.g. when there is no current animation, or when the video generation server app is not running

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 QuickTime 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 QuickTime movie with ".frames" appended.
- Files are created in XML and Java Properties formats recording the settings sent to the server: movie name, width and height in pixels, frames per second, and total frame count.