Creating Analog Clocks

Evertz Microsystems Ltd.
Analog Clock White Paper
Creating Analog Clocks
InstaLogo is a powerful program designed to create many different types of logos and
images, including analog clocks. To create an analog clock, first start the program.
Clock logos are made up of a key and fill file that contain the analog clock face. Review
the section of the Keyer Toolkit on how to create a logo as this introduction is required
before making Analog clock files. You need to supply a TGA BMP or Tiff file that
contains the image that the analog clock hands will be mapped onto. All clock files must
be 256 x 256 pixels. You can generate smaller clocks; they will be generated from the
center of the 256 x 256 box. The key can be supplied separately or automatically
generated as specified in the Keyer Toolkit manual.
Please remember that the keyed analog clock hands will be displayed using the contents
of the key file either supplied or automatically generated. The hands can not be displayed
at a different transparence from the clock face.
Analog clock hands can be imported from existing clock hand files, known as EVH files.
They can be automatically generated from within InstaLogo using the defaults or custom
settings modified by you. Or the hands can be supplied as separate files. If you want to
use custom graphics for the hands, please contact customer support for addition
information on the type, format and number of graphics required (you need lots).
In the top left hand corner, there will be four radio buttons, as shown above. The decision
for which button should be selected depends on the type of mode the logo is intended to
be created for. If the logo is meant for standard definition, then 525 or 625 should be
selected. If the logo is meant for High Definition, then 1080i should be selected. If the
logo is meant for a High Definition progressive setting, then 720p should be selected.
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Evertz Microsystems Ltd.
Analog Clock White Paper
Use the Get Logo button and select your clock face file.
Like this one,
Then click yes to select your key like this one,
Not that the hands are generated or pasted over top of the clock face file when the analog
clock is displayed in video. This means that if the key file doesn’t contain white where
the hands will be, then the hands will not be visible.
This is a sample of a valid key file, the hands will generate but they are displayed in the
area that is “black” thus rendering them as 100% transparent. They will not appear with
this type of key file. Clock hands take the transparency of the clock face, they do not
have a separate key
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Analog Clock White Paper
To create an analog clock, select the Temperature & Clocks radio button, located near the
top center of the page. The following dialog box will appear:
Every time a logo is created, certain information is attached to it.
If a logo is created with all of these boxes checked, then the logo will have temperature
information, a digital clock, an analog lock and the date. If none of these boxes are
checked, the logo will not generate any of this information. This feature allows the user
to customize exactly what kind of information they want displayed by the logo.
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Analog Clock White Paper
Select the analog tab.
This option allows the user to
select what hands will be
displayed on the clock face. The
hands can display hours and
minutes, hours, minutes and
seconds or not have hands at all.
If this boxed is checked, an EVH file will be
created when the clock is created. An EVH file
saves the settings of the clock hands, so the
same clock hands can be created once and used
with many different clock faces. This will
allow for easy sponsor advertising.
The clock can be offset from
the time of the system clock or
a separate timing device. To set
it ahead, the first menu box
must be set to “+”. If the clock
is intended to be set behind, it
must be set to “-“. The number
of hours the clock should be set
ahead/behind can be adjusted
using the box labeled “H” while
the number of minutes the clock
should be set ahead/behind can
be adjusted using the box
labeled “M”.
The radius determines the
width of the image “face”
utilized to make a quarter
section of the clock. This
should always be set to
128. Please do not change.
The offset in pixels determines where the
apex point of the clock hands will lie (in
relation to the image the clock is mapping
itself on). This is the point of rotation for the
clock hands. Default is 24 and should work
for most instances.
The change buttons can be used to change the color
of the hour, minute or second clock. The boxes
beside the respective hands display the current color
of that particular hand on the clock.
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Analog Clock White Paper
The Hands Shape tab (located beside the Settings tab under the analog clock tab) allows
the user to adjust the settings that determine how the hands of the clock will look.
The Auto Hands Generator will create
the analog clock automatically based
on the settings in the Auto Hands
Settings below.
The Hands Size scrolling bar allows the
user to select how large the hands on the
clock should appear when compared to
its largest potential size.
The length
boxes control
how long the
hour, minute
and second
hands will
be.
The start width
boxes control
how wide the
hour, minute
and second
hands will be
at the base.
The end width
boxes control how
wide the hour,
minute and second
hands will be at
the furthest point
from the base.
Check the Customize Auto Hands check box to adjust the values used to automatically
generate clock hand images.
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Analog Clock White Paper
Under the custom files tab, the user can choose the specific images they would like to use
in the creation of the analog clock.
Opens a browse menu
to select the desired
file.
The boxes labeled C: next to their
respective hands describe the chroma
images that will be used to create the
clock. The image selected for this box
must be the first in the order and all the
other images utilized must be labeled
sequentially.
The boxes labeled L: next to their
respective hands describe the lumina
images that will be used to create the
clock. The image selected for this box
must be the first in the order and all the
other images utilized must be labeled
sequentially.
If you want to use custom files for clock hands, please contact Evertz customer service
for additional information.
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Analog Clock White Paper
The user may also use pre-saved files to re-create a clock that was already created using
the EVH File tab.
This button will open up a browse window which can be
used to find an existing EVH file. An EVH file has preset settings based on a clock that has already been
created.
Once you have set your analog clock settings, you can proceed to format and save your
logo as you do with any other logo file. Once InstaLogo has completed the process, you
can transfer the logo to your desired 9600 series logo enabled unit and view the results of
your efforts.
Clock logos are not supported on the 9500 series logo inserters. You can display up to 2
clock logos simultaneously. Cue times will very as the clock hands are regenerated every
time a clock logo is called up from the file system. Clock logos are removed from
memory when faded out. For frame accurate logo display, please ensure you pre cue your
clock logos using the appropriate automation command, front panel button (LG units
only) or GPI trigger.
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