How To create Previsualization Scenes

This how to is divided into several sections covering different previsualization scene use cases. You will learn all about of the available nodes for creating a previsualization scene. You can find and download the scene that is used here in the Project Browser, or use this how to as a reference using your own geometry.

Introduction

This how to will give you an overview of all of the nodes required to create a previs scene. The previs scene can help you estimate the required screens, space, mapping and aid you and your clients in visualizing a rough overview of the dimensions, look and feel of your creation.

This how to will cover the most common use cases and real life situations, though not every use case can or will be covered. The used 3D Model (Stage) is available for download.

For each node we start with a very basic use case and follow up with how it is used in the sample downloadable scene.

In addition to creating the 3D previs scene, we will also create the required configurations where applicable.

Preparation

Ensure that the latest version of Ventuz is installed that can be found on the ​Ventuz Downloads page.
Ensure there are no active Machine Configuration nor a Device Configuration set in the Configuration Editor.

To avoid confusion, create and start with a new blank Project and empty Scene when recreating any of the following examples.

To follow up with a more complex or so called "real world" scenario with geometries, please download the example scene with the Project Browser.

Simple Screen

Simple Screen - Simple Use Case

To begin using a SimpleScreen for previsualization purposes:

1. Add an Axis node to the Hierarchy editor.
2. Find the Screen node in the Previsualization tab inside of the Toolbox.  drag&drop the Screen node into the Hierarchy Editor behind the Axis Node. Resize the Screen to a size that's viewable.
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3. Find the the Previs Canvas node and create or  drag&drop it into the Content Editor.
4. Bind the Canvas property from the Screen node to the Previs Canvas as shown below:
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To show Content coming from a Composition Layer on the previsualization screen, a 3D Layer is needed.

5. Create a Composition Layer by  clicking the + in the Layer Editor and  clicking the Composition Layer to create it.
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6. Select the Composition Layer and create a standard 3D Layer. Create anything inside of the 3D Layer.
   • In this example, a simple rotating Ventuz Mesh cube - which is loaded by default if a mesh loader is used.
7. Create a 2D Layer gradient and place it above the 3D Layer.
   • Ensure both layers are placed in the following order inside of the Composition Layer:
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8.  Click on pencil of the original 3D Layer that the Screen and Canvas nodes were added to in the first steps.
9. Select the Previs Canvas node and  click the and select the Composition From Layer, to add the recently created composition (which is a layer) to our Canvas to be shown on screen.
10. The Composition for the newly assigned Composition from Layer property needs to be defined.
    •  click and select from the Composition in the bottom drop down menu of the Canvas node.  Click the Composition Layer named Composition 1.
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This will show the content of the Composition Layer created in the previous step on the previs screen.

Simple Screen - Real World Example

Please use the provided Previs Stage Scene downloaded in the steps above

Many of the following steps are covered in the Simple Screen example above.

We will make use of the existing StagePrevisLayer that is a simple 3D Layer with HDR to use as the 3D Previs Scene.

Create the stage here by using imported geometries of the event space such as the stage, rigs, screens and other props. The Screen node will create a geometry to use as well. The position of the screen that is already modeled be used here. We will make use of the exposed values from the screen model. If you have coordinates handy you can use them and position a Screen node simply with an Axis. Ventuz can use the real world coordinates in meters, and rotations in degrees.

To create the Screen, which will provide and show content in our previs scene:

1.  Drag&drop an Axis node into the Hierarchy Editor.

2.  Drag&drop the Screen node next to the Axis node.

We want to match the LED Wall model in our previs layer. With the exposed X/Y/Z Position Values, they can can be used for the Screen node's Axis already.

3. Either copy and paste the values from the LED_Wall0 Hierarchy Container or bind the values to the axis in front of the Screen. For best practice, is recommended to use the binding method; This way, when one element is moved, the other follows automatically.

As you can see, the Screen position now matches our geometry except the scale and the alignment.

4. Change the ScalingFactor - All property for the Axis to 2. We also need to  click the Screen node and change AlignY to Top, for the Screen Simple property:

To show your generated content on this Screen:

5. Create a Composition Layer.
   • This layer will contain the actual content that can be shown in the outputs, which will need to be configured with the Render Setup Editor later.

6. Create a new Composition Layer by  click the + in the Layer Editor and select the Composition from the drop down entry list.

You can now create and use any kind of Layer inside the Composition Layer. We will create a simple 3D Layer and show a rotating Ventuz default cube / mesh. You could also use a Movie Layer and show a full size Movie on the Previs Screen.

7. Select the Composition Layer using  click
8. Create a new 3D Layer.
9. Select the 3D Layer and  click the Pencil to edit the 3D Layer.
10. Add an Axis node and a Mesh Loader node behind the axis.
    • The Ventuz Cube will be loaded and rendered by default.

To show the Composition Layer content, use the Preview Selection Menu to select what is to be shown in the Renderer Window.

Select composition 1 from the Preview Selection Menu drop down list:

Now content of the Composition Layer is shown - the small Ventuz Cube mesh.

11.  Click the axis in front of the Mesh Loader and set the ScalingFactor - All to 15.

We also want to have the mesh animated or rotating. Using the build in feature Animate Floating Point numbers.

12.  Click the small sine wave symbol next to the value for the X- and Y Rotation
13.  Click the Linear (-)360(Rotate CW/CCW).
14.  Click on the green symbol and change the Duration to 5seconds.

Switch back to the Composition default with the Preview Selection Menu.

To show Composition 1 on the Screen:

15. Select and edit the StagePrevisLayer and  drag&drop the Previs Canvas into the content editor.
16.  click Screen node and  drag&drop the Canvas property onto the Canvas 1 Previs Canvas node.

17. Select the Canvas 1 Previs Canvas node and  click the [+] in the Properties Editor and add a composition - in this case, choose the option to use Composition From Layer.
18. In the Composition property drop down menu, select the composition 1 entry.

You should now have a working Stage with a Simple Screen that is previewing your content. As mentioned before, you can have any kind of content inside of the Composition 1 Composition Layer. Play around and add a Movie Layer or more complex scenes.

Videowall Multiple Screens with Bezel

This section will cover a simple use case and a real world scenario of using Bezel Screens.

Bezel Screen - Simple Use Case

Many of the steps shown in the Simple Screen Example above are used here.

1. Find the Screen node in the Previsualization tab inside of the Toolbox.  drag&drop the Screen node into the Hierarchy Editor.
2. Find the the Previs Canvas node and create or  drag&drop it into the Content Editor.
3. Bind the Canvas property from the Screen node to the Previs Canvas as shown below:
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4.  Click Screen - Simple drop down property and change it to Bezel:
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5. Adjust the BezelX/Y to the appropriate values needed.
   • Keep in mind that the TilePixelWidth/Height values apply to each individual screen tile. With the TileX/Y property the number of screen-tiles can be changed.
6. To show Content coming from a Composition Layer on the previsualization screen, a 3D Layer is needed:
   • Create a Composition Layer by  clicking the + in the Layer Editor and  clicking the Composition Layer to create it.
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7. Select the Composition Layer and create a standard 3D Layer. Create anything inside of the 3D Layer.
   • In this example, a simple rotating Ventuz Mesh cube - which is loaded by default if a mesh loader is used.
8. Create a 2D Layer gradient and place it above the 3D Layer.
   • Ensure both layers are placed in the following order inside of the Composition Layer:
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9.  Click on pencil of the original 3D Layer that the Screen and Canvas nodes were added to in the first steps.
10. Select the Previs Canvas node and  click the and select the Composition From Layer, to add the recently created composition (which is a layer) to our Canvas to be shown on screen.
11. The Composition for the newly assigned Composition from Layer property needs to be defined.
    •  click and select from the Composition in the bottom drop down menu of the Canvas node.  Click the Composition Layer named Composition 1.

This will show the content of the Composition Layer created in the previous step on the previs screen.

Bezel Screen - Real World Example

Please use the provided Previs Stage Scene downloaded in the steps above

Many of the following steps are covered in the Simple Bezel Screen example above.

This example will use Screen Tiles and a spinning Ventuz default Cube displayed on four 16:9 1920x1080 screens of the same size with a Bezel.
To have the correct placement and Bezels of the tiles, the physical dimensions of the screens and their bezels are needed.

If you followed up the Simple Bezel example from above, many of the steps are the same but involve additional steps to correctly place the Screen used for the previsualization.

1.  Drag&drop an Axis node into the Hierarchy Editor.
2.  Drag&drop the Screen node next to the Axis node. Then create or  drag&drop the Previs Canvas node in the Content Editor.
3. Bind the Canvas property from the Screen node to the Previs Canvas as shown here:
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4.  Click Screen - Simple drop down property and change it to Bezel:
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5. Position the Bezel Previs Screen correctly in the previs scene:
   •  Click the Axis node in front of the Screen and type in the following values for the Position and Rotation properties:

Position	Value
X	-6.287
Y	2.253
Z	-1.7

Rotation	Value
Y	-35

The coordinates are from the 3D Modeling software and taken from the whole screen group which are expressed in meters. The rotation is expressed in degrees. The values for the bezel also match the ones from the modeling software that created them.

6.  Click the Screen node and type in the following properties:
   • You'll only need to change the following values, keep the rest as the default:

Screen Properties	Value
Height	0.45
AlignX	Center (default)
AlignY	Center
BezelX	0.042
BezelY	0.05

The height has been calculated by:
Taking each of the two screens has a height of 0.9m,: 0.9/2 = 0.45. The Alignment has to be Center/Center since as the position and rotation is from the whole grouped geometry.

To show Content coming from a Composition Layer on the previsualization screen, a 3D Layer is needed.

7. Create a Composition Layer by  clicking the + in the Layer Editor and  clicking the Composition Layer to create it.
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8. Select the Composition Layer and create a standard 3D Layer. Create anything inside of the 3D Layer.
   • In this example, a simple rotating Ventuz Mesh cube - which is loaded by default if a mesh loader is used.
9. Create a 2D Layer gradient and place it above the 3D Layer.
   • Ensure both layers are placed in the following order inside of the Composition Layer:
   • 
10.  Click on pencil of the original 3D Layer that the Screen and Canvas nodes were added to in the first steps.
11. Select the Previs Canvas node and  click the and select the Composition From Layer, to add the recently created composition (which is a layer) to our Canvas to be shown on screen.
12. The Composition for the newly assigned Composition from Layer property needs to be defined.
    •  click and select from the Composition in the bottom drop down menu of the Canvas node.  Click the Composition Layer named Composition 1.

This will show the content of the Composition Layer created in the previous step on the previs screen.

Composition Projector

Composition Projector - Simple Use Case

To begin using a Composition Projector for previsualization purposes:

1. Find the Screen node in the Previsualization tab inside of the Toolbox.  drag&drop the Screen node into the Hierarchy Editor connected to an Axis Node.
2. Find the Composition Projector node in the Previsualization tab inside of the Toolbox.  drag&drop the Composition Projector node into the Hierarchy Editor connected to the Screen's Axis Node.

3. Find the the Previs Canvas node and create or  drag&drop it into the Content Editor.
4. Bind the Canvas property from the Screen node to the Previs Canvas.
5. Select the Previs Canvas node and  click the and select the Composition From Virtual Projector.
6. Bind the Projector property from the Canvas Node to the Composition Projector Node
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To show Content coming from a Composition Layer on the previsualization screen, a 3D Layer is needed.

7. Create a Composition Layer by  clicking the + in the Layer Editor and  clicking the Composition Layer to create it.
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8. Select the Composition Layer and create a standard 3D Layer. Create anything inside of the 3D Layer.
   • In this example, a simple rotating Ventuz Mesh cube - which is loaded by default if a mesh loader is used.
9. Create a 2D Layer gradient and place it above the 3D Layer.
   • Ensure both layers are placed in the following order inside of the Composition Layer:
   • 
10.  Click on pencil of the original 3D Layer that the Screen and Canvas nodes were added to in the first steps.
11. Select the Composition Projector node and  click the Composition dropdown.
12.  click and select from the Composition in the bottom drop down menu of the Canvas node.  Click the Composition Layer named Composition 1.
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This sets the "Source" of the Composition Projector to the selected Composition.
Now this Projector is projecting this Composition Layer to any Screen that is connected and configured to receive it.

An Axis Node can be placed in front of the Composition Projector to place its projection where it's needed in the Scene.

Output Mappings

Ventuz uses Render Setups to configure what video is shown on what physical display and how.
To display media on physical displays, the screens created in the setups above must be mapped to a physical output from a graphics card (GPU).
As the name suggests, the following steps will walk through how to map the screens to outputs of the GPU.
These settings will be applied using the Render Setup Editor from within the Ventuz Configuration Editor.

Simple Screen

1. From inside of Ventuz Designer, press shift +  F8 to open the Stage Editor.
   • No Render Setups exist as a new project was created at the beginning of this tutorial.
   • If a Render Setup does exist, the following steps can be followed, multiple Render Setups can exist in the same project.
2.  click the dropdown menu that shows None and  click Manage render setups.
   • This will automatically open Ventuz Configuration Editor and automatically have the Project management tab open with the correct project selected.
   • While in the Project management tab, see on the right hand side the Render Setup related part. Here you can activate and select existing render setups, or create new one.
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3.  Click New to create a new render setup, give it a name relevant to this project for clarity's sake, such as Previs Scene and  click + Create to create a new Render Setup.
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   • Render Setup Editor will automatically open with the new Render Setup file loaded and ready to be edited.
4. In the upper right corner the Previs Scene selection  click the pencil to connect the previs scene to this render setup.
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5. A popup box will open. Select which previs scene of from your project you would like to connect to this Render Setup.
6.  Click on the appropriate previs scene here and  click OK.
   • On the left panel of the Render Setup window, there are multiple screens from the created and configured previs Scene.
   • Screen 1 (red corner) is the Simple Screen, a single FHD screen.
   • Screen 3 is the Bezel Screen and is visualized by multiple tiles (4 tiles all named screen 3 - green corner) and the <previs screen> (blue corner).

By default, no screen is mapped to any output (middle pane of the setup editor) though an output was added and exists by default: Output 0 (Screen).
To map the Screen 1 to an output:

6.  Click the yellow + in the middle of the shown output.
7.  Click on the dropdown menu to open it and  click Screen 1 to assign it to the output:
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8.  Click the Save button in the top bar of the Render Setup to save your changes.
   • Screen 1 has been assigned to the first output.
9. In Ventuz Designer, press shift +  F8 to open the Stage Editor.
10.  Click the dropdown menu that shows None and  click on the newly configured Render Setup.

From this point, any changes made to this Render Setup in the Editor will be instantly applied inside of Ventuz Designer when the Save button is pressed in the Editor.

While the preview inside of Ventuz is limited to 4096 when viewing inside of the Renderer Window, there is no limit when outputting from Ventuz; ie. not viewing in the Designer and is assigned to a Runtime.
When mapping the Previs Preview to a physical output, the resolution limit is the same as other rendered scenes, the max texture size of the graphics card: 16K.

Bezel Screen

In these steps, the Bezel Screen, consisting of 4 tiles, will be mapped to 4 individual outputs on the same machine.
The Bezel Real World example that contains a 2x2 grid of displays Scene will be used for this example.

1. Delete the existing Machine Configuration Setup;  click the trash bin icon next to the Machine 0 (default):
   • This should be done using a new or existing Render Setup.
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2.  Click the + Add Machine(s) button in the top to create a new Machine;
   • The popup screen can be used to automatically define how the output mapping for the Bezel Screen will be setup.
3. Leave the Machines text boxes to create one machine.
4. Change the value for Outputs Per Machine to 2x2 Outputs.
5. In the Output Type dropdown, select Single Screen.
6. In the First Screen dropdown, select Screen X (1)
   • Ventuz will use the adjacent screens (2,3,4) automatically and distribute them for the other remaining 3 outputs.
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Each of the new outputs inside of this new machine has the corresponding screen assigned to it.
It is possible to edit individual outputs to change the assigned screen, Output Type, and resolutions.

7.  Click the Save button in the top bar of the Render Setup to save your changes.
   • Screen 1 has been assigned to the first output.
8. In Ventuz Designer, press Shift +  F8 to open the Stage Editor.
9.  Click the dropdown menu that shows None and  click on the newly configured Render Setup.

From this point, any changes made to this Render Setup in the Editor will be instantly applied inside of Ventuz Designer when the Save button is pressed in the Editor.

Conclusion

The use of a previs scene can be very beneficial. Simply bind compositions to show content on the "virtual previs screens" to get a rough idea of how the stage or event will look.
The combination of a modeled environment and using real show scenes and content delivers a stunning new world when it comes to previsualization of shows and events.
In addition to previsualization, using this previs setup inside of the Render Setup window helps with automatically laying out the screens to start the process of mapping. This feature allows setups like the Real World Bezel setup to have screens that are automatically laid out and ready to map to an output, no manual cropping or placement should be needed, but is still an option.

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