Digital Play

Emerging Media Lab Project Documentation Template

Use this template structure when creating documentation for EML projects.

Introduction

• A set of OBS Studio documentation as well as some predefined scene setups
• It allows people without a technical background to make use of OBS Studio, an open source piece of software with a variety of applications related to video and audio streaming
• Live collaboration in plays and other performing arts are hindered by the need to physically distance. With this project, this limitation is lessened by applying greenscreens and backdrops.

If you have a case study video, include it here.

Primary Features

Streamlined instruction set for creating online theater using "free" software - the cost is only in the equipment that you choose to buy

• The instruction sets developed:
  • How To: Basic Scene set up using Elgato Stream Deck (Mac OS): This guide basically entails how to set up a scene using Elegato Stream Deck.
  • How to: Icon customization on Elgato Stream Deck: This guide walks you through customizing icons and the different ways to make your keys stand out on Elegato Stream Deck.
  • How to: Elgato Stream Deck Initial Set up and Navigation (Mac OS): This guide basically entails how to set up Elegato Stream Deck and navigate around it.
  • OBS Overview: Sources and Filters, and How to Use Them: This guide gives an overview of how to use sources and filters in OBS Studio.
  • How to: Installing and opening OBS Studio for the first time: This guide basically entails how to set up OBS Studio and start it up.
  • How to: Importing on OBS Studio: This guide gives an overview on how to imiport scenes into OBS Studio.
  • How to: Editing & Exporting OBS Scenes: This guide gives an overview on how to alter and export scenes from OBS Studio.
  • How to: Apply Browser Source Video Feed from OBS Ninja to OBS Studio: This guide entails how to apply browser source video feeds from OBS Ninja to OBS Studio.
  • How to: Snap Camera set up and linking to OBS Studio: This guide entails how to set up Snap Camera and the process of linking.
  • Quick Video: How to add and edit assets ~1min: This guide gives an overview of adding and editing assets in OBS Studio.
  • Quick Video: Import Scenes into OBS ~2min: This guide entails importing scenes into OBS Studio.

Methods

Asset creation related to stage design in the sense of translating text descriptions of settings in scenes into visual animated backgrounds and assets, with various tools like Clip Studio Paint, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Premiere.

Findings

An iterative approach was useful to figuring out how to apply the technology. Focusing on the Stage Manager stakeholder allowed the team to make a workflow that worked well with existing theater conventions.

The documentation and experience that came out of this project is flexible to different plays, and creating plays with actors distributed is now a clear possibility.

While creating backgrounds and assets, using other videos or gifs in the file, amount of edits done, chosen frame rate and time duration all affect the file size and how smoothly the final gifs export. Gifs with small file sizes are recommended, so optimize them accordingly. Also, some gifs are better as boomerangs.

Challenges

Communication between all parties was very important to developing a technical setup. There are certain limitations to an OBS setup like described in the project's documentation that need to be understood by all parties before an artistic vision can be pursued.

• Camera Movement - If the camera that is capturing an actor moves, the backdrop that the actor is on will move too. In order to keep this from happening, you must either not move the camera, or instead use an animated backdrop that will be able to
• Lighting
• Set Design
• Virtual Set Design
• File transfer for testing vs. development
• Making edits to scenes on the fly
  • Always keep assets in the right folder for show files. This was a process that we haven't documented, but there are some tricks that can be used to make this process smoother.
  • When developing assets, it is important to make sure that resolution, framerate, and other file properties are kept consistent

Code

• After the first term of development, the code for this project is sparse; the majority of development was focused on documentation for usage of OBS Studio.
• For future development of OBS Studio plugins, scripts and other files will be stored in the Github Repository: https://github.com/ubcemergingmedialab/DigitalMuse

Art Assets

For a 2021 UBC Theatre and Film virtual production of August Strindberg's The Dream Play, both static and animated gif art assets were created (e.g. backgrounds):

• Cave: A foggy dark cave with an earth globe above.
• Classroom: A classroom with a chalkboard that has moving writing.
• Fairhaven: Folding chairs near a stream under moving clouds.
• Stream: A flowing stream.
• Burning castle: A burning castle on a hill.
• Foulstrand: Buildings near a flowing stream.

Software used for development of these assets were:

• Clip Studio Paint,
• Adobe Illustrator,
• Photoshop
• Premiere

Assets for this project were made by sourcing suitable non-copyright photos, gifs and videos, then merging and editing them in layers before exporting the files as single gifs.

Libraries

Section Not Applicable.

First Time Setup Guide

• How To: Basic Scene set up using Elgato Stream Deck (Mac OS): This guide basically entails how to set up a scene using Elegato Stream Deck.
• How to: Icon customization on Elgato Stream Deck: This guide walks you through customizing icons and the different ways to make your keys stand out on Elegato Stream Deck.
• How to: Elgato Stream Deck Initial Set up and Navigation (Mac OS): This guide basically entails how to set up Elegato Stream Deck and navigate around it.
• OBS Overview: Sources and Filters, and How to Use Them: This guide gives an overview of how to use sources and filters in OBS Studio.
• How to: Installing and opening OBS Studio for the first time: This guide basically entails how to set up OBS Studio and start it up.
• How to: Importing on OBS Studio: This guide gives an overview on how to imiport scenes into OBS Studio.
• How to: Editing & Exporting OBS Scenes: This guide gives an overview on how to alter and export scenes from OBS Studio.
• How to: Apply Browser Source Video Feed from OBS Ninja to OBS Studio: This guide entails how to apply browser source video feeds from OBS Ninja to OBS Studio.
• How to: Snap Camera set up and linking to OBS Studio: This guide entails how to set up Snap Camera and the process of linking.
• Quick Video: How to add and edit assets ~1min: This guide gives an overview of adding and editing assets in OBS Studio.
• Quick Video: Import Scenes into OBS ~2min: This guide entails importing scenes into OBS Studio.
• Known Issues affecting functionality or stability of the program

Poster

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZH-ZvQqwrVA3TXv2CS2nBLYeVOIhVfcNW4AIAc0hKlY/edit?usp=sharing

Development Team

Principal Investigator

• Patrick Pennefather

THTR 339 Student Team

• Zac Labrie

• Nikko Dumrique

• Elyse Wall

• Sepand Dyanatkar

• Ralph Hao

• Roshni Kashyap

THTR 339 TA

• Patrick de Moss

Worklearn Graphic Designer | Illustrator

• Jane Diokpo

Staff Developers

• Dante Cerron
• Daniel Lindenberger

FAQ

As the title suggests

Bibliography

Provide enough information for a first time user to get up and running.

License

Last edit: May 6, 2019 by Jin Li