UpStage 2 user manual
Contents
1. sseessesssessss 26 5 3 1 Customising UpStage ot tt ee e E He e CR deris 26 54 Meu E 27 5 4 1 Recommended Web Cam FTP Software ssesssssssseesse 27 5 4 2 Recommended Software for Windows Operating Systems 27 5 4 3 Recommended Software for Macintosh eee 28 5 4 4 Recommended Software for LINUX eesesee mr 28 5 4 5 Web Cam FTP Configuration Code pod sn ties den ppc n o des aene 28 5 5 Speech ees AA EA E E e ete De EP e Ee eis uec nee ete OP EA 29 5 6 Troubleshooting 1 o t ee es ee t 31 5 6 1 Browser Problems 3 reor etre rei hens ei pere rubea rep qe dra ee 31 5 6 2 Stage Won t Load sssssssssssssssssssseeeseeneee n emen nen ener rh nnns 31 5 6 3 Fonts look Dad ii sion iere eee hare Eae er ees 31 5 6 4 Ein x EOnts x nett eoe E rere A cd ped appa 32 5 6 5 Other probleimis x 2 t e e e e Rt td nea eh Ea o reat 32 UpStage is free and open source software and it is constantly in development as is this manual Contributions to the manual and the software are welcome please email info Qupstage org nz Version Control June 28 2007 UpStage Version 2 User Manual July 22 2007 V2 manual updateed to include information about layering avatars on stage links and audio 1 Introduction 1 1 Background UpStage is a web based venue for the real time compilation of digital media2. a web based venue for live performance User Manual for UpStage V2 Updated July 2007 ses een AT w MEDIALAB Eee COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP FUND e Serious Broadband UNIVERSITY Contents 1 2 3 INtrOGUCUION S CE 1 1 1 Background eie RD EROR ORE RC RECTE 1 1 2 Project Team ex Deeper Free e a a a ad aa a re Eve an 2 1 3 eli 3 AUdlence u iti etat e a du Ia Une eta ted 4 2 1 Getting to the stage eerie terere rore ea ee Da daga 4 2 2 Audience Chat eoe e euren eae ote tacet eed UU eod nd ed Up ceca 4 Players eene Lee Ene HET e Ree TRE eg Fee e e ee ee Leva eee gus 5 3 1 LOGGING Roter D Ata ea nats 5 3 2 The Workshop administration interface cccceeeceeeeeeeeeceeeeneeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeees 6 3 2 1 Creating and Managing Players ee 7 3 2 2 Creating and Managing Stages sssssssseesene 7 3 2 3 Uploading and Managing Avatars essseeenm 9 3 2 4 Uploading and Managing Props eseeemm 10 3 2 5 Uploading and Managing Backdrops sseesesee 11 3 3 OM SUAGG INTE MCN NR UNE E Un etl n E 11 3 4 Holding and Moving an Avatar esssesem mee 12 3 4 1 IK cp EE 13 3 4 2 Operating Multi frame or Animated Avatars sssessssssss 14 3 4 3 Changing Your Avatar s Name sssssssssssseeenme 14 3 4 4 Avatar Layers oo uan ea eee dade ee ned 14
3. email list for UpStage developers http lists sourceforge net lists listinfo upstage list 5 3 1 Customising UpStage Once you have installed UpStage on your own server you can customise it to suit your own projects TInStanea V2 Ilear Maniial iinelatan hil 2007 DR nf 2 The Foyer and Workshop screens can be easily customised by editing the HTML code You can add your own titles images and logos change colours and create links from the Foyer to specific stages at performance times To modify the client itself you need an actionscript compiler the one we are currently using is Mtasc http www mtasc org note that you do NOT need this for the standard installation and use of UpStage 5 4 Web cams Players wanting to use live video in UpStage will need to have a web cam and a separate application that allows the player to FTP their video to the server as motion JPEGs 5 4 1 Recommended Web Cam FTP Software FTP freeware or shareware is available for the major operating systems Theoretically any web cam FTP application should work however the following software has been researched and tested during the development of UpStage Please note that this is by no means all the available software and as time passes there will be more and better options The main features that we have looked for in web cam FTP applications are ease of use free or cheap with no advertising on the image the ability to resize the web
4. is determined by the order in which each avatar is assigned to a stage To control which avatars are in front or behind others assigned them to a stage one by one saving the stage each time The first avatar assigned to the stage will be the furtherest back and the last will be the closest to the front If the order of layering does not matter you can assign your avatars as a group It may be possible to develop a better way to control this is future including being able to change the layer order on stage 3 5 Holding and Placing Props The props available to you in a particular stage appear as small icons in the Props Gallery at the centre bottom of the screen When you roll your cursor over the icons a name label appears allowing you to distinguish between similar or very small props You must be holding an avatar and be on stage to hold a prop Click on the prop icon in the Gallery and it will appear at the top left of your avatar Click again on the prop icon TInStanea V2 Ilear Maniial tindatad hil 2007 14 nf 2 in the Gallery and it will remove the prop from your avatar If another player clicks on the same prop that you are holding it will be transferred to their avatar 3 6 Changing Backdrops The backdrops assigned to a particular stage appear as small icons in the Backdrops Gallery at the bottom left of your screen Roll your cursor over the icons to display the name label so that you can accurately choose the backdr
5. 1 Hardware If your computer has a browser with the Flash player plug in then you already have everything you need Obviously faster processors and higher RAM give improved performance but UpStage has been designed to work on relatively low spec client machines A broadband internet connection will give the best performance but UpStage performs quite well over dial up The main disadvantage when using dial up is that the load time for each stage is much longer You may need to allow up to 15 minutes to load a stage depending on how many graphics are on it Once it s loaded the real time interaction and overall performance of UpStage is not dramatically worse on dial up than on broadband 5 1 2 Software UpStage has been designed to run on a wide range of clients using the Macromedia Flash Player plug in version 7 or above Linux users may need to install gsfonts and gsfonts x11 see Section 5 6 4 TInStanea V2 lear Maniial tindatad hil 2007 DE nf 2 5 2 Firewalls UpStage will function through most but not all firewalls depending on how the firewall has been set up If you install your own UpStage server it will ask you to specify which ports you want to use the defaults are 8081 and 7230 You will need to ensure that your users have the correct ports open The Open UpStage server http upstage org nz 8084 uses ports 8084 and 7233 therefore these ports need to be open if you are trying to access this server throug
6. 3 5 Holding and Placing Props sseeemm eee 14 3 6 Changing Baekdrops saatesddastubco aia bdbBusn B uo agabob c ato a dabas o aa oes 15 Speech arid Text Call eee etate dette uude tmc bec otis ats deduc e dedu ee E Unus 15 3 7 1 Saving the log zie iiie iere Lone eee ieget etel 16 3 8 MBISDOFIPhg cre petet ee ted perte ver eth reo Aor perte ae he Pc e dk 16 3 9 Commands 2 58 sce rd e ER E RE E PR rA e ERU TR EN RUE 17 9 10 JDYAWING LR 17 Bull Aud O eea i ates oie do Reawudoade wanted abetted Biss 19 Graphics Recommendations ccceeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeaeeeeeeeeeeeeaaeneeeeeeees 20 4 1 General COMMENMS cccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeaaaseeeeeeeseeeaaas 20 4 2 Creating NOS eme 20 4 3 Creatihg SW Seienn a a a a a rest ab o aio oe osse o aaaea a baa eaa raant 20 4 4 Animated Avatars and Props cccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeeeeeaaaeeeeesaaeeeeesaeeeees 21 4 5 Backdrops p 22 4 6 FilO SIZOS E 23 4 7 Deleting Graphics m 24 4 8 On siage LINKS ss o re ree T ID ede 24 Technical Rm eae ta P Reed ret 25 5 1 Client Hardware amp Software Requirements ccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaes 25 5 1 1 Hardware duce us cia ates eh Wee tn da be s eiie tede gutes eiue dte ugs dare une cet wa 25 5 1 2 SOWA E a ce Ree eb e RR ee a E eb e RP E xd 25 5 2 Firewalls vais ace hand fe E ee a ded ede 26 5 3 Downloading and Installing the Server Software
7. ShockwaveFlash amp P2 Platform Linux amp P3 Browser Version Netscape4 untar gzip close all browsers run the installer see installation instructions on the url above 5 6 5 Other problems Please email info upstage org nz if you have any other problems and we will endeavour to answer your questions and solve any bugs TInStanea V2 Ilear Manal iinelatan hil 2007 42 nf 2
8. The reason it took me so long was TTS I failed completely and utterly in making the German festival extensions for use with mbrola voices http www ims uni stuttgart de phonetik synthesis festival opensource html work Then I tried txt2pho with mbrola http www ikp uni bonn de dt forsch phonetik hadifix HADIFIXforMBROLA html http bogmog sourceforge net document_show php3 doc_id 34 has a nice installation description ignoring festival and this worked at once TInStanea V2 lear Maniial tindatad hil 2007 AN nf 24 5 6 Troubleshooting 5 6 1 Browser Problems We are constantly monitoring browser compatibility so if you experience problems connected to your choice of browser please email info upstage org nz If you are having browser problems we recommend the following ensure that you have at least version 7 of the Flash player installed close the browser window open a new window and log in again If you still have problems after doing this quit the browser application and restart it 5 6 2 Stage Won t Load If the stage fails to load properly and the splash screen remains over the stage with the message Couldn t load all images this could mean that there is a corrupted image assigned to the stage The first thing to do is try reloading as it could just have been a blip in the data flow either use the reload button on the splash screen or use the back button in your browser to return to whe
9. Then resize it Modify gt Transform remembering that avatars and props will increase in size by about 2 3 times when uploaded into UpStage Around 100 pixels is a good size to begin with if you don t know what size you want Once you have reduced it to the requred size adjust the document size to match From the File menu choose Export Image Uncheck the compress movie option and put the jpeg quality up to 100 4 4 Animated Avatars and Props UpStage supports both animated sequences and Flash movie clips When you put sequenced frame by frame or motion or shape tweened animation onto the stage it will appear static with the image in the first frame a 1 To change to other frames of the animation type a 2 a 3 etc To make the avatar animate type a 0 Movie clip animation does not need any commands it will automatically loop and can be used on stage either as a continuosly looping animation or as a series of still avatars that are swapped using the a command as above Props and backdrops can also be animated using Flash But bear in mind that Flash animations can end up as larger files which will increase the time it takes to load your stage To create an animated sequence follow these steps First create a series of png files as above and give them numbered filenames e Open Flash and from the File menu choose Import and navigate to the first png file Flash will ask if you want to import the series say ye
10. cam image to custom sizes any special effects features are a bonus 5 4 2 Recommended Software for Windows Operating Systems Fwink At the time of writing we are testing Fwink version 0 9 95 beta on Windows It s free has no ads and allows customised sizing Fwink is a free and open source web cam application for Windows It takes still images from your camera at timed intervals and puts them on your web site with FTP You can add effects like text messages time stamps and an overlay image http lundie ca fwink TInStanea V2 lear Maniial tindatad hil 2007 27 nf a 5 4 3 Recommended Software for Macintosh Oculus Oculus version 3 1X at the time of writing works on both Mac OSX and OS9 and earlier it s free to try cheap to buy and has some pretty nifty features The free trial period is unlimited and registering unlocks further features Oculus is a Webcam software that has been enhanced to include motion detection time lapsed movie creation and remote image and movie cycling It has flexible captioning options including an unlimited amount of translucent text and pictures It has options to transmit an image to a remote FTP site or to save a file locally if you have a Web server running on your video capture machine You also can add captions http www intlweb com 5 4 4 Recommended Software for Linux WebcamD WebcamD can Take pics every X seconds Add date amp hour on pict
11. hil 2007 15 nf 246 3 7 1 Saving the log The text chat is automatically saved by the server and can be viewed by adding log to the end of the URL in the address bar of your browser while you are on the stage You can then save it by either selecting Save as from your browser s file menu or by copying and pasting the text into another application 3 8 Whispering Players can whisper to other logged in players this lets you communicate with your fellow players without the audience hearing or seeing You can whisper to an individual player a number of players or to all logged in players present on the stage Typing in a whisper command incorrectly displays a how to message in your chat field If messages are not delivered to users due to misspelling a username or a user not currently being online the whisper bounces and informs the sender what went wrong in the chat field Commands To whisper to a single player type wh usernamel Message To whisper to multiple players type wh usernamel username2 Message To whisper to all users on the current stage type wh Message Note whisper works exactly the same as wh Hin St anao V2 IIcar Manal iineatan Lih 2007 1R nf 246 3 9 Commands When you are on stage there are a number of commands you can type into the text field to do certain things fa 1 a 2 etc diisplays a different frame of an animated or multiframe avata
12. into live performance by multiple remote players for an online audience People anywhere in the world can participate in live performance events by using standard browser software to access UpStage without having to download and install additional software and without needing to know anything other than a web address The concept for UpStage was developed by Avatar Body Collision a globally dispersed cyberformance troupe whose members have been experimenting with online theatrical performance since 1999 UpStage was born from the desire to reach a wider audience and to make it easier for audiences and performers alike to participate in live performance via the internet The software combines the different elements of cyberformance graphical avatars web cams audio images text chat and who knows what else in the future into a single interface The audience simply direct their browser to the web address at the appointed time to watch and participate in the cyberformance UpStage is open source and free to download It is available under dual licensing a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 2 5 License and GNU General Public Licence GPL The initial development of UpStage was funded in 2003 through the Smash Palace Collaboration Fund a joint initiative of Creative New Zealand and the NZ Ministry of Science Research and Technology In 2006 the UpStage project received funding from the Community Partnerships Fund
13. of the New Zealand government s Digital Strategy to develop UpStage version 2 UpStage V2 has also been supported by partners CityLink MediaLab and Auckland University of Technology This manual provides general instructions for the use of UpStage it is divided into five sections o Introduction Audience Player Graphics and Technical including server installation O OO 0 For further information and updates please visit www upstage org nz i www avatarbodycollision org Cyberformance uses internet technologies to bring remote performers together in live theatrical events www cyberformance org TInStanea V2 IlIcar Maniial tindatad hil 2007 1 nf 25 1 2 Project Team The UpStage project was initiated and driven by Avatar Body Collision who are Vicki Smith Leena Saarinen Karla Ptacek and Helen Varley Jamieson For more information about the Colliders please visit www avatarbodycollision org The programme was written by Douglas Bagnall who has a background in open source development of online projects and is also a digital artist His artistic work includes the development of a film making robot and a cloud classifier visit http halo gen nz Since December 2004 the UpStage server has been generously hosted by Citylink www citylink co nz and MediaLab has provided project management support and resources for the project www medialab co nz Thanks to Anne Philpott we have established a relati
14. the image can travel from your computer to the server and out to the other players and audience Once you have configured your web cam and are sending a live stream to your UpStage server you should be able to find the filename of your web cam stream in the list of available video streams in the Add a new avatar section of the workshop You can then create an avatar using that stream and assign it to a stage in the Manage stages section Use it on the stage as you would a normal avatar 5 5 Speech UpStage s speech is generated by the Festival Speech Synthesiser developed at the Centre for Speech Technology Research at Edinburgh University http www cstr ed ac uk projects festival An avatar s voice is selected from a dropdown menu when adding a new avatar and changed in the Manage avatars section see section 3 2 3 There are currently about 100 voices on the UpStage server http upstage org nz 8084 if you are setting up your own UpStage server please see the technical documentation regarding installing voices You can install additional speech plug ins on your own server to extend the range of voices available to the avatars As long as you don t mind messing around with the sourcecode a little bit it s not difficult Patricia Jung explains how she did it for Linux using UpStage V1 Just add another entry in the VOICES section in Upstage upstage voices py like txt2pho mbrola del usr local mbrola pi
15. your avatar Drawing allows you to draw directly onto the stage in one of four layers The top box will draw on the top layer obscuring avatars The next two layers will let you draw amongst the avatars and the bottom layer draws behind the backdrop Tools for each of the four layers are in the boxes on the right click on the pencil to select that layer and draw The black border shows which layer you have selected a pale blue border indicates that another player is holding that layer If you select a layer with a blue border you will steal it from the other player TInStanea V2 lear Maniial tindatad hil 2007 17 nf a P 02 A 00 a em gt avatars aM Click on the eye to hide or show your drawing Click on clear to erase the all the drawing from that layer The slider in the layer box controls transparency move it to the left and the drawing in that layer will become more transparent move it all the way to the left and it will vanish completely The colour picker at the top has three sliders letting you adjust the colour of what you re about to draw Move the sliders to change the hue and the new colour appears in the square to the left of the sliders The slider immediately below the colour picker controls the transparency of what you are about to draw use the slider in the layer box to change the transparency of something you ve already drawn tito s gonna bake you in a p
16. ally held on the first Wednesday of E 510 PEE the month however we have suspended them until August in order to focus on the 070707 performances join the announcements list for notification of the next open walk through and other announcements Login To attend an open session as a chatter audience member simply follow this link at the time of the session audience members can participate via the text chat function You will then see and hear turn your sound onl what we re doing and vou can narticinate bv rvnine in 4i TInStanea V2 Ilear Maniial nndatad hil 2007 A nf 246 3 2 The Workshop administration interface Once you have logged in to UpStage you arrive at the Workshop from where you can either proceed directly to the Stages to rehearse or perform or choose from a range of administrative options These options allow you to upload and manage Stages Players Avatars Props and Backdrops 60600 Upstage Workshop oO d Y e 4 http upstage org nz 8084 admin vd Google Q Foyer Stages Avatar B Collision UpStage Log out Welcome to the UpStage Workshop Stages Swaray Stage where walk throughs and other open public sessions are From here you can go use the links to the right to go to a stage for rehearsals and performances or you can use the Workshop links below to create and manage stages players avatars props video and backdrops held Download the UpStage Manual we are upda
17. and Managing Backdrops Uploading a new backdrop Backdrops can be still images in jpg gif png or swf format See Section 4 5 for recommendations about creating backdrops for UpStage From the Add a new backdrop link in the Workshop navigate to the appropriate file hard drive Name it and click OK to upload Manage backdrops This screen shows a list of available backdrops you can change the backdrop name delete unwanted backdrops and see which stages a backdrop has been assigned to 3 3 On Stage The stages look slightly different for players and audience chatters The audience see the stage area and the text chat window see the screengrab in Section 2 different backdrops as the players change them and the props and avatars that the playersmove around the stage They will also see and hear the avatars speech and can input text into the chat window in the future we hope to have other interactive functios for the audience What the audience don t see but the players do is the stage tools TInStanea V2 lear Manal tindatad Lih 2007 11 nf 24 000 swaray Co S Y e 4 http upstage org nz 8084 stages swaray Y gt Google Q Mirror H A deadfish Stage Wardrobe 4 an Tools gt E m pcs E om cer P 01 A 00 to watch and chat lt helen_mf gt Staurday 7 July Text chat PS nelen mt Saturday 7 July lt helen_mf gt check the web site for performance ti
18. anea V2 Ilear Manal iinelatan hil 2007 22 nf 24 Stage area eg height 500px width 800 px of which 560px for stage and 240 px for chat background 6 25 Note that in the Player view of the stage an strip along the bottom of the backdrop will be obscured by the Backdrop and Prop Image Galleries but as these tools are not seen by the audience it is recommended that your backdrop extend below that strip Backdrops can be created as png swf gif or jpeg as with avatars and props png or Swf will give the best quality results Note that png files should NOT be interlaced when saving If you are using gif or jpeg upload a test backdrop to see if it s going to be good enough and remember to delete unwanted images When creating a series of backdrops for a particular show it s a good idea to give them filenames that begin with the show name so that when it comes to assigning them to the stage they are displayed together in the list This applies to props and avatars as well 4 6 File Sizes There is currently no limit to the size of graphics files that can be uploaded to UpStage however this doesn t mean you shouldn t try to keep your files small The larger your original files and the more graphics assigned to your stage the slower the stage will load Performance after loading may also be affected especially for anyone on dial up What is a reasonable file size for your original graphic This is ver
19. ation click on Add a new avatar in the Workshop give it a name every avatar must have a unique name and browse to the file s on your hard drive Click ok and the file s will be uploaded to UpStage and you will see the avatar s edit screen This is where you can select a voice for your avatar If you are creating a new web cam avatar you will first need to set up your web cam with FTP access to your UpStage server see Section 5 4 for details and recommended software Once your image or video stream is ready follow the link from the Workshop to Add a new avatar and find your filename in the drop down list of available video streams Choose a name for the avatar then click OK Go back to the Workshop and follow the link to Manage Avatars and you will see the name of your avatar in this list It will also appear in the list of avatars when you are in the Manage Stages section allowing you to assign it to a particular stage TInStanea V2 Ilear Manal tindatad hil 2007 A nf 25 Manage Avatars This screen shows the list of available avatars you can change the avatar name and the voice it will speak with and delete unwanted avatars It also shows you which stages each avatar is currently assigned to Click on the name of the avatar you want to edit You will see a thumbnail image of the avatar and information about the file and you can choose from the drop down list of available voices and test voices to see what the
20. avatar to jump to where you 4 deadfish click and slow causing it to glide there The button shows the Debbie action that the avatar will change to when next clicked for douglas example if your avatar is gliding the button will show fast Click on it to change to fast and the button will become orange and say slow P 01 A 00 Stop When your avatar is gliding in slow mode click on stop to stop it at any point in its trajectory Drop The drop button will remove your avatar from the stage and put it back in the Wardrobe so that you are no longer holding it If you want to leave your avatar on the stage while you operate another avatar select the new avatar from the Wardrobe without first clicking on drop Clear Use clear to remove all unheld avatars and props from the stage Name This button will hide or show your avatar s name when it is on the stage particularly useful when working with invisible avatars When you first hold an avatar the default state is for the name to be showing so click on name before you place the avatar on the stage if you don t want the name to show Draw Act This button changes the function from acting to drawing and back again See Section 3 10 for more information about how to draw Player Audience counter Below the control buttons a counter keeps a live tally of the number of players P and audience A present on stage at any time Typing details will list the us
21. can also extend behind the text chat Chatters the online audience are often referred to as chatters as they contribute to the performance via a text chat function Mirror the square on a stage that shows a Player which avatar they are currently holding Player a logged in participant in a performance Players have access to on stage tools which allow them to manipulate avatars backdrops and props Prop a graphic which can be held by an avatar or placed on the stage Stage a dynamic web page where you can place and move avatars props and backdrops to create a performance Text chat an input field and text chat window where avatars speech and audience text appears and is visible to everyone the text chat window can be scrolled up and down to read text that has been entered previously Tools the buttons sliders and icons that allow logged in players to manipulate media Wardrobe the interface through which players can select avatars on a stage an alphabeticised and scrollable list of the icons and names of the avatars assigned to that particular stage Whispering silent text communication between logged in players that is not visible to the audience Workshop the back stage interface where logged in Players can upload graphics view existing graphics create and manage stages and manage players TInStanea V2 Ilear Manal tindatad hil 2007 2 nf 2 2 Audience Audience members enter UpStage by follo
22. created using standard graphics applications such as PhotoShop Fireworks Gimp and Flash The recommended formats for original graphics files are swf or png Vector based images will appear much cleaner than pixel images such as gif and jpeg as they are resized to match the dimensions of individual screens and browsers You can use gif and jpg but your images will lose quality Avatars and props will appear on stage approximately two to three times larger than the original file This is because the stage is not in a fixed size window it allows for different screen resolutions and sizes and different sizes of browser window The aspect ratio is 7 3 see the backdrop diagram in section 4 5 The recommended size for the original file for a standard sized avatar is approximately 100x100 pixels obviously you will want bigger and smaller ones but this gives you somewhere to start In order to test the size of a graphic you must upload it assign it to a stage then look at it on that stage the same applies to props It can be a time consuming process getting your graphics to the size you want so it s a good idea to make a couple of samples first and then base the rest of your graphics on those once you have got them the size you want this applies to both props and avatars 4 2 Creating pngs The png file format is recommended for avatars and props rather than gif or jpg as it allows for transparency and gives a good q
23. e image will reload 24 times a second regardless whether anything else is changing on the screen Making your still flash pictures run at for example 1 fps and or switching off looping will ease the load on everyone s browser Very slow animation for example tweened over 40 or so frames and looping will cause the least strain and can create some very effective movement Once again this manual does not pretend to provide a comprehensive Flash tutorial Please look on the web for more detailed information on using Flash 4 5 Backdrops As long as the original image is 380x240pp or larger a backdrop will fill the UpStage screen including going behind the text chat window The text chat window has a white background in order to ensure that text is always readable even over busy backdrops but this means that the area at the right of your backdrop will not be visible You may wish to create a backdrop that has a blank area on the right where the text chat window will cover it to ensure that important parts of your backdrop are not hidden behind the chat window The proportions of the whole image are total width total height 10 6 2 width of stage area width of chat area 7 3 minimum width height 380 240 pixels This diagram illustrates the proportions of the stage and chat areas bear in mind that everyone s screen size and browser window size can be different your backdrop will stretch to fill the space TInSt
24. ernames of the players and the number of audience in the chat window TInStanea V2 IIcar Maniial tindatad lih 2007 123 nf 2 3 4 2 Operating Multi frame or Animated Avatars Avatars that have been created as swf animations or uploaded as multiframe avatars allow you to change the avatar while it is on stage Animated Avatars Created as swf files these avatars will animate in the Workshop Wardrobe and Mirror When placed on stage animated squences will appear as a still image in the first frame of the animation Type a 0 to start the looped animation and to display a different still frame type a 1 the default a 2 a 3 etc Flash Movieclips will animate on loop without typed in commands You need to create these as movies in Flash see Section 4 4 for more information Multi frame Avatars These work in a similar way to the animated avatars but are created by uploading a series of still images in png or jpg format rather than using Flash 3 4 3 Changing Your Avatar s Name To change the name of the avatar you are holding type nick newname in the text input field You will see the name underneath your mirror change and when the avatar is on stage the new name will appear below it unless you have used the name button to turn off the name When using invisible avatars you can make words float around the stage 3 4 4 Avatar Layers The layering of avatars which ones appear in front of or behind others
25. h a firewall These ports are open by default in most private internet connections but some organisational networks will close any unnecessary ports 5 3 Downloading and Installing the Server Software UpStage is an opensource project registered with SourceForge and licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 2 5 License and Gnu Public Licence GPL To download the latest version go to https sourceforge net projects upstage You will need to install additional packages including python twisted festival festvox voices netpbm gif2png timeout lame swftools rsynth and mbrola Some of these are not availavle as official Debian packages Please read the INSTALL file for more information and join the developers list if you wish to communicate with other UpStage users on technical matters http lists sourceforge net lists listinfo upstage list Upstage runs as its own web server which runs by default on ports 8081 you will be asked to chose a port when you install it If you have Apache on your machine you can use ProxyPassReverse or mod rewrite to treat it as a vitrual host Otherwise you can map port 80 to 8081 with iptables or similar or just include 8081 in the urls Upstage should be run as an unprivileged user Please note that technical documentation of UpStage is ongoing If you are installing UpStage yourself you may wish to comment on and contribute to this please join the
26. ie The circle and slider below the transparency slider control the size of your pencil Move the slider to the right and the circle will increase in size indicating how big it will appear on stage Move it to the left to make it smaller Currently it is not possible to erase other than to clear everything in a particular layer If you are trying to draw a curved line and finding that it appears as sections of straight lines you are moving your mouse faster than UpStage can keep up with try drawing slower for smoother curves Hin St ana V2 lear Maniial iineatan hil 2007 18 nf 25 3 11 Audio UpStage V2 has not addressed the addition of audio tools this is a feature request for the future However it is possible to create Flash avatars that contain audio and can be manipulated on stage The two ways that have so far been experimented with are using ActionScript to create a button that allows control of the sound and embedding a sound in a specific frame of an animated avatar Both methods have disadvantages with the first method it is necessary for each audience member to click on the button at the required time in order to hear the sound with the second method it is controlled by the player s but the audience will hear the sound once when the stage loads TInStanea V2 Ilear Manal tindatad hil 2007 10 nf 2 4 Graphics Recommendations 4 1 General comments Avatars backdrops and props for UpStage can be
27. lata uane The Workshop screen is an HTML page and can therefore be updated to include direct links to the stages you are currently working on and notices for other players using this UpStage server TInStanea V2 Ilear Maniial nndatad hil 2007 R nf 246 3 2 1 Creating and Managing Players This is where you can set up the log in and permissions for a new player or change those for an existing player Add a new player Create a log in for a new player and set their permissions i e whether they have access to the Workshop or just to the Stages and whether they can add and delete players Manage players Here you can change a player s log in name and permissions delete players if you have the rights to do so From the Workshop click on the link Manage Players and select the Player you wish to manage from the list of Players eoo A Qe ky fat Adding a player http upstage org nz Pick a username and password Username Password Password again Player permissions This player can v Act you want this v Administer Change stages avatars etc Add or Remove Players including you _ok Home Stages Workshop Log out 3 2 2 Creating and Managing Stages Set up a new Stage To create a new stage click on the link Set up a new stage and give your stage a name This name will appear in the list of existing stages It won t be accessible to audience members
28. mes lt helen_mf gt www upstage org nz helen mf hi lt helen_mf gt welcome to upstage Chat input lt hencemtest gt so are we Backdrops Props Transferring data from upstage org nz lt hencamtest gt thnks The Wardrobe top right hand corner is a scrollable list of the avatars assigned to this stage The Mirror the square beside the Wardrobe shows the avatar you are holding with its name in the rectangle under the mirror There tools below the Mirror and image galleries for backdrops and props along the bottom of the stage area Players see a smaller text chat window 3 4 Holding and Moving an Avatar The avatars assigned to a stage appear as small icons in the Wardrobe To hold a particular avatar click on its icon in the Wardrobe use the arrows to scroll up and down the Wardrobe The icon will disappear from your Wardrobe and appear in your Mirror the square area to the left of the Wardrobe This shows you which avatar you are currently holding A greyed out icon in your Wardrobe means that another player is holding that avatar Once you have an avatar in your Mirror click on the stage area and your full size avatar will appear there Click in another place and it will move there TInStanea V2 Ilear Maniial nndatad hil 2007 19 nf 26 3 4 1 Tools The Player tools are the set of buttons below the mirror Fast Slow This button controls the avatar 7 beccacam movement fast causing the
29. ms that you have selected as checked Once you have assigned avatars backdrops and props to a stage they will appear in the Wardrobe and Image Gallery of that stage see Section 3 3 Le 600 Editing an UpStage stage Co lt A v e 4 http upstage org nz 8084 admin edit stage swa Y gt Y Googe Q Stage Properties D Stage name Full name waray ss Splash Message land other open events Media used with this stage Home Stages Workshop Log out save changes Avatars Props Backdrops M e 100 hel f angel M Bios iv rl 6cam E 5 beer E beach ra T beer2 m MB beach comstock Li adam M bite v Bec Dance E L an extension c t teapot i C Bec_DanceBG NE e andrea E c 2 teapot E 7 bedroom r Q am E 3 teapot Li E bg B Swan r c esp Iv E bg border digg bagwoman v c espB E be fantasy r bec bonest Iv c esperance Bl be mitfora r bec bones10 r c esperancew E be mitforat 7 bec bones2 M 7 c espere OE be mitforaz E bec bones3 2 e maskbox BE ou mitoras 1 I bec bones4 C l e stones 1 C ES be napier I o o a a TInStanea V2 lear Manal tindatad lii 2007 Raf a5 At the bottom of the Manage an existing stage screen you can reset the stage This clears all the text from the text chat window and returns the stage to its default state If you need to re
30. onship with Auckland University of Technology www aut ac nz which has seen final year software development students working on UpStage as their major project In 2006 Beau Hardy Francis Palmer Lucy Chu and Wise Wang contributed considerable enhancements to the software thank you And at the time of writing the 2007 team of Endre Bernhardt Lauren Kilduff amp Philip Quinlan have just begun work Many other people have contributed to the development of UpStage through encouragement advice testing feedback and simply believing that it was possible The project team thanks every one of you If you are interested in being a part of the development of UpStage you can join the developer list https lists sourceforge net lists listinfo upstage list If you would like to be kept informed about events in UpStage you can join the announcements list https lists sourceforge net lists listinfo upstage announce TInStanea V2 lear Maniial tindatad hil 2007 2 nf 24 1 3 Glossary Here are definitions for some terms that are used in this manual Audience people present online at a performance but not logged in The audience can participate via the text chat but do not have access to the same tools as the players Avatar a graphical icon that can be held and moved around the stage by a player and that can speak Backdrop a graphic which fills the stage behind any avatars and props that are placed on it A backdrop
31. op you want Click once on the icon to place the backdrop onto the stage click the icon a second time to remove it 3 7 Speech and Text Chat es i ve got To make your avatar speak type into the text input field something to say below the Chat window bottom right of your screen and Se hit enter if there isn t a blinking cursor line there already you may need to click the mouse there Your text will appear with your avatar s name in the text chat window as well as on the stage beside your avatar unless you have not put your avatar onto the stage It will also be spoken in the voice selected for that avatar m The audience can also type i think therefore iam into the text chat but their text a up won t be spoken out loud and only appears in the text chat window not on the stage As the audience don t log in there are no names connected to the audience chat If you aren t holding an avatar your text will appear as audience text You can also make your avatar think by typing a colon before the text Your text appear in a thought bubble over the avatar but not be spoken aloud It will appear in the text chat window in blue and with curly brackets around it Note it is possible to play prerecorded audio loops but only by creating an avatar that uses actionscript in a swf file to stop and start the audio otherwise it will loop continuously TInStanea V2 Ilear Maniial nndatad
32. or a different web site The way to do this is to create a swf image with an ActionScript button containing the following code on release getURL http desired url self j This could be an avatar or a prop that is placed on the stage at the time that you want the audience to follow the link TInStanea V2 IIcar Manal iinelatan hil 2007 24 nf 25 5 Technical Upstage is written in Python using the Twisted framework for event driven asynchronous networking twistedmatrix com It doesn t require Apache or MYSQL or anything else The client is written in pure Actionscript and is compiled using Mtasc http www mtasc org so there is no requirement for Macromedia software other than the Flash player plug in on the client computer We are investigating Gnash an open source equivalent to the Flash player to see if UpStage is compatible with it Words typed in by the players are converted into speech using the Fesitval speech library festvox org festival eSpeak http espeak sourceforge net and MBROLA http tcts fpms ac be synthesis mbrola html and streamed to the clients as MP3s The server runs on Debian Linux but should easily convert to other platforms Python and Twisted are cross platform but there is a line or two of shell scripts that tie in the speech synthesis The software has been worked on since June 2003 and contains some 8000 lines 5 1 Client Hardware amp Software Requirements 5 1
33. pefilt usr local mbrola preproc usr local mbrola Hadifix abk usr local mbrola Rules st usr local mbrola txt2pho p usr local mbrola data usr local mbrola mbrola usr local mbrola de1 del fest I know it looks awful but this is only because the command is an awful chain consisting of four commands with a couple of options each and the relevant path pipefilt preproc txt2pho mbrola TInStanea V2 IlIcar Maniial iineatan Lih 2007 20 nf 2 It does some preprocessing like exchanging all appearances of z B with zum Beispiel then hands the resulting text over to txt2pho and to mbrola As long as your command or command chain takes text input from the standard input and outputs the result as sound in raw format on the standard output chain Unix stuff ask me if you haven t heard about it you can put whatever you like in between the and the The above mentioned awful command chain will work when one has installed the txt2pho frontend it uses the del female mbrola voice and you can choose it in the web interface using the name del The only problem with this kind of reconfiguration is As config py isn t a nice configuration file but a python script one needs to know at least that python is very picky about vertical alignment It s extremely important that your new voice entries have the same amount of whitespaces at the beginning of the line as the other voice entries
34. r a0 animates a multiframe or animated avatar asize asize followed by a number will adjust the size of the audience text in your chat window note this only affects your own screen the text size will not adjust for the audience or other players the default size is 4 details lists the usernames of all players and the number of audience members who are present on that particular stage help gives you a list of some of these commands info shows information about UpStage including which version of the software you are using nick allows you to change the name of the avatar you are holding type nick newname license provides information about the dual GPL and Creative Commons license psize psize followed by a number will adjust the size of the player text in your chat window note this only affects your own screen the text size will not adjust for the audience or other players the default size is 4 whisper or wh allows you to communicate with other players without the audience being aware the whisper command is explained in Section 1 5 3 10 Drawing Clicking on the draw button in the control panel reveals a different set of player tools the Drawing Palette You can be still holding an avatar while you are drawing and can speak but you won t be able to move your avatar Clicking on the act button will return the Wardobe Mirror and Controls so that you can operate
35. re you can from and click on the link to the stage again If this doesn t work you may need to remove a rogue image from the stage If you had just assigned a new image to the stage before you encountered this problem then it s likely to be that one that s causing the problem Try unassigning that image from the stage and see if it will load If you don t know which image it is you may need to take everything off the stage and reassign them one by one or alternatively delete the stage and make a new one 5 6 3 Fonts look bad If an swf file has been saved as low quality in the original file it can force the whole stage to appear low quality This can be changed by right clicking on a Mac control click on the stage and selecting Quality from the menu that appears If Low is selected change it to High and you will see that the fonts now display properly However this will only correct the problem on your machine your audience may not know how to change the quality A better solution is to work out which image is causing the problem delete it and resave the original file as high quality TInStanea V2 Ilear Manal tindatad hil 2007 21 nf 24 5 6 4 Linux Fonts If you are using UpStage on Linux you may find that fonts are not appearing on stage This problem is fixed by installing additional packages apt get install gsfonts gsfonts x11 and http www macromedia com shockwave download download cgi Pl Prod Versi on
36. s This will create a frame for each image Going to each frame in turn click on the image to select it a border appears around it in the Insert menu choose Convert to symbol the border will change to a thin blue line then resize Modify gt Transform remembering that avatars and props will increase in size by about 2 3 times when uploaded into UpStage TInStanea V2 lear Manal tindatad hil 2007 241 nf 25 Once the images are all reduced to the requred size adjust the document size to match if your images are not all exactly the same size make sure you have made the document size as big as the largest image From the first frame and with the image selected the blue line should appear around it go to the Insert menu and select Create motion tween e To check that the tweening has happened go to the Control menu and hit play your sequence of images should play From the File menu choose Export Movie Uncheck the compress movie option Put the jpeg quality up to 100 Sounds can be embedded into Flash movie clips but currently there is no way to start or stop them so the sound will be heard all the time even when the graphic is not visible on stage An audio feature is in development during the second half of 2007 When using Flash to create animated avatars and props be sure to check the the frame rate and whether it is set up to loop If the frame rate is for example 24 fps and it is set to loop th
37. set the stage during a rehearsal for some reason everyone should leave the stage and reload it in a couple of minutes otherwise it will throw them off and automatically reload Currently UpStage can t create a thumbnail from a swf file so you will notice that images uploaded as swfs have a question mark graphic as a placeholder To see one of these images click on its name to go to the edit screen Note that if you wish your avatars to appear in a particular order front to back on stage i e layering then you need to assign them to the stage one by one saving the stage between each avatar The first one will appear furtherest back and the last one at the front 3 2 3 Uploading and Managing Avatars In the Avatar section of the Workshop you can upload new avatar images and video streams delete unwanted avatars listen to available voices and change an avatar s voice Uploading a new avatar Avatars can be still images in jpg png or swf format multi frame avatars animated swf files or motion jpegs from a web cam A single avatar can be composed of all png files or all jpg files or a single possibly animated swf file Multi frame avatars can have a maximum of 10 frames images all of which must be the same format either png or jpg There are a number of tricks that will help to achieve the best avatars see Section 4 for how to create graphics for UpStage Once you have created your avatar in a graphics applic
38. t enable them to manipulate media for a performance 3 1 Logging in Once a player has been given a username and password they can log in to UpStage from the foyer The foyer is the default home page for an UpStage server it is an HTML page and can therefore be easily customised with your own information and direct links to stages for the audience 660 UpStage Foyer E e 4 http upstage org nz 8084 dp eM Google Q Welcome to the Open UpStage Foyer Open UpStage is for artists and interested groups and individuals to learn about UpStage and create and present your own hosted by performances For more information email UpStage 070707 UpStage Festival The 070707 UpStage Festival of online performances begins at 2 30pm New Zealand time on Saturday 7 July 2007 The Serious Broadband full list of performances and performance times including links to convert to your local time is available on the UpStage web site There will be live links to each stage 15 minutes before the performance begins We recommend that you load the stage 10 15 minutes before the performance time Please wait until the stage has finished loading before attempting to chat the splash screen will disappear when the stage has fully loaded If you are on dial up you should allow the full 15 minutes for loading once the stage has loaded it will works almost as well as on broadband Player Log in Open Sessions Login Open sessions are norm
39. ting it right now it will be back online soon with new improved information for more detailed instructions 070707 shows From here you can Air Guitar Baba Yaga Stages don t panic Interface Set up a new stage 9 Isis Manage an existing stage select players avatars props and backdrops 9 Misflight that will be used on a particular stage rename a stage and edit its Ophelia machine description activate a stage so that it s publicly accessible for a Paraiso performance and delete old stages the old hotel The Rabbits Avatars Rejection Tuxedomoon Trubute Adda new avatar upload a new image or add a web cam stream Manage avatars create and edit groups of avatars that can be assigned to a stage and player as a group rename avatars and edit descriptions delete old avatars Complete list of stages Props Helpful tips Adda new prop upload an image Download the latest version of Manage props rename props edit descriptions and assign props to stages the manual March 2007 1 7MB delete old props PDF Backdrops Before you delete Adda new backdrop upload an image Is it yours to delete Manage backdrops rename backdrops edit descriptions and assign backdrops to stages delete old backdrops You must NOT delete something if it s assigned to a stage Make sure Players you uncheck it on the Manage Stage page before you delete it A Adda new player Y Rut nliasena da da
40. uality image Files can be saved in png format in most graphics applications In the File menu choose Save As and look for the png option Do NOT interlace the file when you save it 4 3 Creating swfs Although UpStage itself is open source and we ve done everything we can to make it cross everything it is accessed via the Flash Player plug in and so far it seems that the most successful graphics format is swf To create swf files you need the Flash application An open source equivalent plug in Gnash has recently become available but we have yet to fully test it with UpStage and it is a media player browser plug in not a graphics application Please note that the following information is by no means a comprehensive Flash tutorial If you do not know how to use Flash at all or if the following steps are not clear to you we recommend that you look on the web for a Flash tutorial TInStanea V2 Ilear Maniial tindatad hil 2007 DN nf 25 The basic steps for producing a single frame avatar or prop using Flash is as follows e Start with a png file in which you have clear cut your image and given it a transparent background Keep the png image at maximum size Open Flash and from the File menu choose Import navigate to your png file and import it into Flash Click on the image to select it a border appears around it In the Insert menu choose Convert to symbol the border will change to a thin blue line e
41. until you make it public in some way for example create a link to it from the Foyer or email the URL to your target audience but it will be visible to logged in players and can be accessed for rehearsals or closed performances The URL for a stage is http yourserverURL stages stagename You can create a link directly to a stage from the Foyer or from another web site by editing the HTML just as you would create a link to a web page Manage Stages This is where you can assign and unassign avatars props and backdrops for an existing stage edit the splash screen message for a stage rename the stage reset the stage delete old stages TInStanea V2 Ilear Maniial tindatad Lih 2007 7 nf 25 From the Workshop click on the link Manage an existing stage you will see a list of stages and if any players or audience are on a stage it will be shown here Select the stage you wish to manage from the list of stages by clicking on its name The Stage edit screen shows a list of all the available avatars props and backdrops You can also edit the splash screen message that will appear while the stage is loading This is a good place to put information about your show such as the title and who it s by Use the check boxes to select images for the stage then click the save changes button at the top or bottom of the screen The screen will refresh telling you that the stage has been updated and showing the ite
42. ures with or without border Make HTML page for it Stop camera putting an offline webpage To take a pics when you want if the daemon is running Upload pics by ftp on a remote server or create local file if a local web server is running Customise HTML templates easily Configure the programme easily with a small and simple configuration file http webcamd tuxfamily org index en html 5 4 5 Web Cam FTP Configuration Once you have chosen and installed the appropriate web cam software you will need to configure it to send the web cam images to your UpStage server Following are the settings you will need Host URL of your UpStage server username set by your UpStage administrator password set by your UpStage administrator filepath filename jpg Port 21 or other set by your UpStage administrator Hin St ana V2 lear Maniial iineatan hil 2007 28 nf 2 Before you begin to upload your web cam image to UpStage check the pixel size bearing in mind that images increase in size when they are uploaded as avatars to UpStage If it is 160 x 120 or larger it will take up half the stage or more and affect the speed and performance of UpStage for everyone We strongly recommend using a web cam FTP application that allows you to scale your image to any size You will need to set a trigger that tells the application how often to take a new image we recommend 2 3 seconds as any faster is likely to be faster than
43. wing a web link from an email or another web page and participate in the performance via the text chat Audience members do not log in and therefore do not have access to the same on stage tools as Players do 2 1 Getting to the stage Audience members can arrive at a stage a number of ways they may have clicked on a direct link to the stage in an email or on a web page Or they may have come to the UpStage foyer and selected the stage from a list of available stages A splash screen covers the stage while it loads preventing the audience from interacting until the stage is fully loaded Once the stage has loaded the audience will see any graphics that have already been placed on the stage they will see and hear the performance and they will be able to participate in the text chat are LL 2 2 Audience Chat Audience members are also known as chatters because they can interact with the performance by typing into the text input field at the bottom right of the screen This text appears in the text chat window amongst the Players text Player text is slightly darker and larger than audience text and identified with the avatar s name Audience text is grey silent and anonymous TInStanea V2 lear Maniial iineatan hil 2007 4 nf 25 3 Players Players log in to UpStage to create and present performances Once logged in they have access to the Workshop area where they can upload images and to a set of on stage tools tha
44. y hard to say as it s completely different for a small static flat graphic prop which may be only 1K and an animated flash backdrop or multiframe avatar which could be over 500K And a stage with a single large graphic may load faster than one with many medium sized graphics If your original files are larger than 500K check whether you can resize them and save them again to a smaller file size Remember that screen resolution is only 72dpi so there is no need for your originals to be at a higher resolution Hin St ana V2 IlIcar Maniial tindatad Lih 2007 22 nf 25 4 7 Deleting Graphics It is important to delete unwanted graphics in order to keep the workshop area manageable This is done through the Manage avatars Manage props and Manage backdrops screens Check the box beside any images that you want to delete then scroll up or down and click the delete selected button You can see on these screens whether an image is currently assigned to a stage if you try to delete an image that is assigned to a stage UpStage will ask if you are sure that you want to delete it If multiple groups are using the same server you should not delete anything unless you are sure no one else is using it for example your own test graphics that you no longer want 4 8 On stage Links Hyperlinks from the text chat are coming very soon but sometimes it s useful to have a graphic on stage that provides a hyperlink to another stage
45. y sound like 000 UpStage editing RW HutStill 3 4 E e A http upstage org nz 8084 admin edit avatar sH v gt CGl Q Editing RW HutStill Name RW HutsStill Voice jmk_nitech x test This is what i will say if you ask for a test test save type None medium file 5H3Trcb3 swf url media 5H3Trcb3 swf description height None width None web thumbnail missing png voice jmk nitech thumbnail name RW HutStill Home Stages Workshop Log out 3 2 4 Uploading and Managing Props Props function in a similar way to avatars but they can t speak and you must be holding an avatar in order to use a prop When an avatar is holding a prop it appears on stage at the top left corner of the avatar If another player clicks on the same prop it will appear to be passed to the other player s avatar Invisible avatars are useful for placing props on the stage Uploading a new prop Props are created in the same way as avatars and should be still images in png or swf format see Section 4 for recommendations about creating graphics for UpStage From the Workshop follow the link to Add a new prop and navigate to the appropriate file on your hard drive Choose a name for it and click OK to upload TInStanea V2 lear Maniial iineatan hil 2007 10 nf 25 Manage Props This screen shows a list of available props you can change the prop name and delete unwanted props 3 2 5 Uploading
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search