Character Generator DirectShow Filter
Text, image, graphics and Flash overlay - now, in a single DirectShow filter.
Overview
MediaLooks Character Generator (CG) is a powerful DirectShow filter that produces static or animated overlay items and mixes them with the video stream. The availability of text characters, images, graphics, Flash animation and Flash video within a single engine provides maximum flexibility in multi-layered video overlay design.The component targets multimedia application developers and broadcast professionals.
For more flexibility see the DirectShow-independant Character Generator Toolkit.
VIdeo quality and smoothness may be affected by video re-encoding and streaming performed by YouTube. Our software is designed to be used with professional video equipment such as Blackmagic and AJA video output boards.
Key Features
- Generic interface for text, graphics, image and Flash overlay items
- Built-in support for news tickers (including crawls and rolls) with automatic file tracking
- XML-based configuration
- Support for item groups & compositions
- Smooth change of item size, position, transparency, background or view area
- Item movement, acceleration, fade in/fade out and entrance/exit effects, animation sequences
Benefits of Using Flash Animation Overlays
- Vector-based Flash animation can be scaled to any resolution without degradation of quality.
- Internal alpha-channel support allows for quality transparency effects.
- Dynamic content overlays (such as chat messages, weather or stock info feeded from an external source).
Relation to Legacy Products
Character Generator replaces the previously available Text & Graphics Overlay and Flash Overlay DirectShow filters.
Editions Comparison Chart
| General Features | Pro | Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited number of text, image or graphics items to overlay | √ | |
| Generic set of methods to control all item types | √ | |
| Smooth change of item size, position, transparency, background or view area | √ | |
| Smooth item edges for better display on low-resolution devices | √ | |
| Item movements | √ | |
| Fade in/fade out effects | √ | |
| Configurable item animation sequences (start time, effects, duration) | √ | |
| Scaling or cropping of input video to squeeze into an overlay scene | √ | |
| Events and callback support (on each frame, on end of clip, on end of transition, on Flash callback) | √ | |
| Special text items for time & date, time code and frame number overlays | √ | |
| Change item properties (text, font, size, color, etc.) during playback | √ | |
| Scaling without quality loss (for all available item types excluding raster images) | √ | |
| Several scaling modes with automatic adjustment to the input video's aspect ratio | √ | |
| Textures support for text or graphics fill, outline and background | √ | |
| Item references to save resources and simplify management/control | √ | |
| Interlaced video support (for smooth transitions, movements, etc.) | √ | |
| XML-based configuration | √ | |
| Overlay custom dynamic images (such as 3D animations) | soon | |
| Advanced support for news tickers (crawls, rolls and various other types) | √ | |
| Automatic file tracking for ticker content | √ | |
| Grouping of items for complex overlay designs | √ | |
| Z-order setting for the video stream | soon | |
| Acceleration during change of item position | √ | |
| Smooth fade in/fade out of moving items (such as crawls and rolls) via custom view-area masks | soon | |
| Compositions support for easier overlay design management, smooth transitions between compositions | √ | |
| Various effects: Blur, Glow, Motion Blur, etc. | √ | |
| Various animated effects on item movement and entrance/exit | √ | |
| Text Overlay Features | Pro | Flash |
| High quality vector-based text generation algorithm | √ | |
| Scaling of text without quality loss | √ | |
| Outlined text support | √ | |
| Word-break, vertical, tab-stop, uppercase, lowercase and other flags support | √ | |
| Various text scaling modes (word-break, maintain aspect ratio, exact fit, scale to fit in rect, scaling or item size change upon text update) | √ | |
| Subtitles support (.SRT files) | √ | |
| Text effects: Shadow, Glow, Motion Blur, Rotation, etc. | √ | |
| Gradient fill for text, outline and background (with transparency) | √ | |
| HTML support to enable rich text formatting or images within a single text item | soon | |
| Graphics Overlay Features | Pro | Flash |
| Supported figures: rects, round rects, ellipses, polygons, stars, etc. | √ | |
| Gradient fill, outline and background | √ | |
| Image Overlay Features | Pro | Flash |
| File formats: BMP (with alpha), JPEG, TGA (with alpha), GIF (animated, with alpha), TIFF, WMF, EXIF and PNG (with alpha) | √ | |
| Support for image sequences | √ | |
| Resizing of images during playback | √ | |
| Flash Overlay Features | Pro | Flash |
| Unlimited number of Flash items to overlay | √ | |
| Support for native Flash alpha-channel | √ | |
| Play/pause, various playing modes (loop, one time, one time and hide) | √ | |
| Flash "go to frame"/"go to label" commands support | √ | |
| Action Script 2.0/3.0 support: get/set Flash variables and call Action Script functions from code or call external methods from Action Script | √ |
Special Requirements
The original Adobe Flash runtime is required for Flash overlays: