Split Screen layer - need to crop source video

mimoLive
1

I’ve been looking through mimoLive and online trying to figure this out - seems like it should be possible. I have a video source that would be ideal if cropped. I am using it in a Split Screen layer in mimoLive but can’t crop the source video. I’ve looked through adding “fx” on the source but nothing in that list allows a simple crop. The “fx” “Image Resizer” is close but quite limited without the ability to recenter the image. I can place the source video in a “Placer” layer and crop, of course, but then I can use that result in the Split Screen layer. Any ideas?

2

oops - my last line should read: but then I can’t use that result in the Split Screen layer.

3

@“Scott Joing” Thank you for using mimoLive.

There is a way to do what you want: Set up a separate mimoLive document with the source you want to crop, a Placer layer and a Syphon Sender layer. Then, use a Syphon source in your main document and use the Placer layer in the helper doc to crop the source the way you want. This is certainly a work around and we realise there should be a way to do this without the need to run a second document.

4

Thank you for the response Oliver - I’ll do that for now.

5

@“Scott Joing” you can do this by adding the “Mask and Overlay” fx to the camera source. Here’s how:

I have provided examples of the process I am about to explain here: https://imgur.com/a/OnAfj

  1. Create mask image in Photoshop
    Create a new image that is the same size as the camera resolution. Add shape objects over the areas that you want to mask, leaving the parts of the camera source that you want to come through as transparent. Example mask image is (1) in the above examples. You have to download it to see what I’ve done, it’s 2x black stripes on the left and right and a transparent area in the middle. Imgur just shows everything as black.

  2. Add mask image as a source in ML
    Usual type of image source, nothing special here. You should end up with something similar to (3) in the examples.

  3. Add a “Mask and Overlay” fx to your Camera Source. In (4) of examples I had added the Mask and Overlay fx to a mimoCall source, but you can add it to any camera source. Once you’ve added the fx click on the cog icon and set your image from (3) to the “Mask” field.

I have shown you an example of the end product in (2) of the examples. That has two mimoCall sources that both have the same mask added to it. This is how I achieve the portrait view of the commentators, even though their mimoCall is sending me a landscape (1920x1080) image. You can see that the camera source image has been cropped to exclude the areas under the left and right stripes in the image.

Caveats:
You do have to play around with your masking to get it exactly right. I’m sure there is a way to calculate what pixels to cover but I just used trial and error. Took me 5 iterations to get it perfect for my purposes, so not too much effort.

Also, the mask has to be re-applied to the camera source every time you restart ML. I think this is a bug and have reported it to the ML developers in another thread.

6

Thank you for sharing this, @imchrises!