Ross Video XPression U

Basics 131 - XPression Desktop Server Settings for the Blue Flash

Often times, back-to-back graphics have common elements, such as the story topic or on-camera subject name. The XPression Desktop Preview Server displays a short flash of blue to alert users monitoring the Desktop Preview Server, out of the corner of their eye, that the graphic has changed or been updated. Some members of the production team may find that flash alarming, so starting with XPression 6.5, it is now possible to disable the blue flash in the Desktop Preview Server settings.
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Basics 132 - Keyframing Effects in XPression

XPression utilizes keyframes to create animations, moving an object between two or more points. Did you know you can apply effects to objects, such as blur, color correction, even wipes and pushes. There is also a way to set keyframes for each property in the effect, when added to the Scene Director properly. Watch this video to find out just how that works and how easy it is!
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Basics 134 - Stagger Animations in XPression

XPression has a powerful tool called Stagger Animations. They can be used to create read-on effects for text as well as objects in a group. Stagger Animations can be set up on a per character, per word, per line or even per paragraph. Take a look at this tutorial to see just how easy it is to create a set of Stagger Animations and see how you can re-purpose them throughout your project.
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Basics 138 - Importing Take Items into the Sequence from an XML File

Working in the XPression Sequencer, Take IDs are very important. Being able to import a list of Take IDs from another show into the one you are working on is important, also. The hard part… the Take ID numbers might overlap, and there might be a reason to overwrite the existing Take IDs or move the new items to another range of numbers. Of course, this all has to happen to dozens (ok… hundreds) of Take IDs at once.
Well, now it is possible to import Take IDs from an XML file (you do know you can export a group of Take IDs as an XML file, right?), in bulk, and add them to the existing Sequence list, and choose how to handle the Take ID numbers, if there are conflicts. Watch and learn. Tell all your friends. This is gonna be HUUUGE!
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Basics 140 - Keyframing Published Properties of Objects

XPression Animation Controllers are based on the ability to keyframe the transform properties of objects in the scene. Did you know that all the published properties of an object are now able to be keyframed? Things like Texture Coordinates, Cylinder start and end angles, etc. Even effects functions can be keyframed, now. Imagine being able to control how much a Cylinder is tessellated or how much blur is applied to an material on a quad by keyframing it? Once you watch this video and learn, be sure to only use this power for good, and not evil.
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Basics 142 - Update Take Item Data After Changes in an XPression Scene

When someone asks to change a scene, and there are already dozens of Take IDs built from it; the best recourse was to exit the XPression application and restart it. Well, those days are over. Now it is possible to make a change to a scene in XPression and force the updates to that scene to be published out to the existing items in the Sequence. Things like moving a logo to a different area on the viewport, or changing the material on a quad, wouldn’t be reflected in the Take IDs already built from that scene. Those days are over, my friend! Find the Update button in the Object Inspector and relax. No need to quit XPression, now!
 
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Basics 144 - Counting Down to a Date or Time Using Function Blocks in XPression Visual Logic

Have a big day coming up in your future? Maybe the first day of spring? The start of the Fantasy League Draft? New Year’s Eve? Now you can easily display that in your XPression Graphics using Visual Logic. Set the date and then tell XPression to count down to it, we can count the hours until the big day, and make it magically appear, and count down; every time you out that Take ID on the Output Frame Buffer. Do you want to show your enthusiasm for the big day by showing the countdown clock to it? We want you to know how to do it, we are counting the seconds until you click on the video to watch it. See just how it is done.
 
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Basics 146 - XPression Material Tags to Change a Font Without Having to Actually Have Another One

How many times have you been asked if you can change one word in an XPression graphic to another color to highlight it? Maybe to a nice yellow?  Now if you have the material available in your project, it can be used to change the font material to it. Adding a simple Material Tag around a word or even dragging the material onto a selected string of text in the Take Item Inspector will allow you to change the material, which in turn, can change the text to be highlighted in a different color. You can even share the trick with the XPression MOS users in the newsroom, if you want them to be able to do this. This might force you to spend more time thinking about the names you give materials, now won’t it? Take a minute to learn how this is done.
 
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Basics 148 - Forcing a Material to Scale to the Height or Width of an XPression Quad

While building a scene in XPression, designers envision how it will look, and assume all materials are designed to fit onto the geometry provided. Well, sometimes that just isn’t realistic. Especially for an XPression MOS workflow. Maybe the still images are all one size, but videos from the edit room, only seem to come in one size (and not the same as the still images the artists create). Now, it is possible to set the Quad so that whatever material that gets dropped onto the Quad will scale to the height or width of the Quad for a uniform look. It is really easy to do, if you know how. See for yourself, after you watch the video.
 
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Basics 149 - Open Captions in XPression with 3rd Party Data Feeds

The ability to display open captioning for all fans to see and observe both informational announcement and emergency notifications has become a top priority for public venues. Ross Video is proud to have added a DataLinq™ Source feed to the XPression DataLinq™ option which can take 3rd party provider data streams and convert them into open captioning displays. This video shows how to use the new DataLinq™ source with an incoming captioning data feed from common 3rd party data provider partners.
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