Help with some settings for my chyrons

General
,
21

Can you please confirm a few things so I can look look at some detail when I have access to a server - hopefully tomorrow.

  1. Which version of server are you using?
  2. Are you using the scanner executable that is part of the Server distribution?
  3. Which version of the client are you using?
  4. Do you manually start the scanner, or are you using the autorestart batch file that is part of server distributions since server v2.2.
  5. Do your template files have a file extension and, if so, what is that extension?

There have been past occasions when it is necesssary to delete the database files in both the server folder and the client. The detail of that delete varies with the version of the server and client.

There are a couple of example templates that I have tested in server V2.1.12_NRK, V2.2, V2.3.3_LTS, V2.4.0. If you want to test if these show in your client template list and can be loaded and run the example templates are available here. Use only Example 1 and Example 2. They are set for a fixed resolution of 1920 by 1080, and keys f0 and f1 for their instrance data.

22

I’m using version 2.4.0 of the server.
I’m using version 2.3.0 of the client.
And I’m using the server and scanner launcher from (Releases · rrebuffo/CasparLauncher · GitHub).

I also tested it with the templates you provided (Example 1 and Example 2).

23

I’ve run a simple test using my Windows 11 NUC sytstem.

I downloaded server 2.4.0 stable from Github and unpacked it into a folder. I edited the casparcg.config to set the paths to the media store, template store, log path and data path. I added two screen consumers. Note the font directory in your config is not needed for server 2.3 or 2.4.

I edited file casparcg_auto_restart.bat to remove a reference to leveldown.node The edited version is:

@Echo off
IF EXIST scanner.exe (
    start scanner.exe
)
:Start
SET ERRORLEVEL 0
casparcg.exe

if ERRORLEVEL 5 goto :Start

When I ran this batch file the scanner was started followed by the CasparCG server. I could see reports in the scanner window as it created the thumbnails for the video and still clips.

You can test the link to the scanner system by typing some commands in the CasparCG server window, pressing return after each command.
TLS displays a list of templates
CLS displays a list of media files

These are the commands issued by the client when it starts up.

I downloaded Client 2.3.0, and unpacked it to a folder. I ran the client and it created a base or default configuration that includes a server on IP 127.0.0.1 port 5250. As soon as the client loaded it contacted the server and retreived the number of media files, data files, template files and stills image files. The client then requested all of the thumbnail images. My client has full control of the output channels.

I suggest you try running the CasparCG system as per my test to check it’s operation.

If the casparcg system does not operate from the client, it is worth forcing new scanner and client databases. Exit the client, exit the server, exit the scanner. Use Windows finder to look at the folder with the CasparCG files. Locate folder _media and delete this folder. Restart the scanner and casparcg, the scanner rebuilds the library database.

Use Windows finder to locate the client database. If you are logged in as user graphics1 the client database file is:
c:/Users/graphics1/.CasparCG/Client/Database.sdb
This holds any client configurations you have made as well as local copies of the thumbnail pictures copied from the server.

There is a slightly newer version of server V2.4.1 which was released yesterday. This includes the edits to the auto start batch files.

The author of of the launch tool has suggested in a recent post that you should use the BETA version of the launcher with server V2.4.

24

Thank you very much for your advice. I have reinstalled both the client and the server, and now everything works perfectly.

However, I would like to know if there is an option to export my animation from After Effects as a template. Considering that the rectangle size changes depending on the length of the text, I would like to start with the composition “1Titular.”
I’m attaching my After Effects 2023 file here.

Thank you very much for your patience.

25

There is a tool, that I am developing since a few years, that does exactly this. It’s called Blueprint.

26

The “Help-File” appears blank; could you try working with this data.json?

27

Okay, I found the alternative PDF, but it doesn’t work for me. I don’t know if I’m doing the export wrong in After Effects or if I’m doing it wrong in the Blueprint.

28

Ok, I’ve managed to export and make it work in CasparCG, but it’s not using the text font I want. Do you know how I could fix that?
Another question I have is whether in CasparCG there’s a way to automatically name the object in my rundown as (“Template name”++“Text value1”++“Text value2”).

Thank you so much

29

Hi Petitney,

Regarding the font:
I think you need the actual font-file to be inside your htmlproject and referenced locally.

30

That does sometimes work, but not reliably.

In Blueprint (and so in all of my templates) I have two ways to handle fonts. The standard way is install the used fonts on the target machine under Windows. But some fonts still fallback to Times New Roman. In that case I use the BodyMovin export setting “Glyphs” to include all characters as shapes inside the animation.
Blueprint supports this, but that part of it needs a redesign, as it is very counter intuitively designed. So for now I explain the way to do that without Blueprint: You add a layer to your animation and put a text there with all characters you want your animation to support, Like so:

!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~¡¢£¤¥¦§¨©ª«¬®¯°±²³

Some languages also need the accents like äöü or éèà etc. Feel free to add whatever you may need. You need one layer for every font (not size) you have, for instance one for regular and one for bold.

Then you move these layers out of the display area (do not hide the layer as it will not be exported when hidden). Then export with “Glyphs” checked in the export settings. That will take a while to export, but afterwards you have a template that shows all texts in the correct font, even without installing the font in Windows.

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