Virtual.ink light-painting software support

Our support is provided via the online documentation and videos. The following documents are currently available with a public access:

Getting started guide

1- Intro


Virtual.ink is a video light-painting software. This guide is aimed at getting you started in this fabulous journey of creation with light.


2- Equipment


Here's what you need to get started:


3- Installation

  •  Cables

    • Connect the USB cable from the computer to the capture card

    • Connect the HDMI cable from the capture card to the camera

  • Camera

    • Turn on the camera

    • Go on video mode and switch to manual settings

    • Make sure the camera is sending clean HDMI feed (consult your user manual)

    • Ideal settings are

      • fps 23.976

      • 1/25s shutter speed

      • Iso and f-stops to your taste :)

  • Computer

    • Download the latest version of Virtual.ink

    • Unzip the file on your desktop (or anywhere you wish, as long as it’s in a folder where you have admin role)

    • Run “Virtual.ink.exe”

    • On the first launch, you’ll be requested for your credentials. It is a simple login and password that we already sent you

    • At this point, you should be up and running!


4- Running Virtual.ink

Move between the different tabs on top of the software to go from the dashboard, the live view (your light-painting!), the replay, the gallery, etc. The earth icon on the top right corner is what's going to allow you to access various modules from your browser (thus, from another computer if you need to do so). The only part that can't be accessed through a web browser is the live-view


5- Dashboard

  • Camera selection

    • The selection is based on the list of available HDMI capture card / cameras you have on your computer. If the list is empty, make sure you connect at least one compatible capture card (see the list here: https://virtual.ink/capture-cards)

    • The first selection is the camera that is going to capture the light-painting. The second one is the one that is capturing the ambient scene. You can always switch the two by using the "inverse" icon. If you connect another capture card while the app is running, you'll need to use the "refresh" icon to see it.

  • Actions

    • Timer - record a specific duration. This is perfect for a video booth. All of your videos are going to be the exact same length.

    • These are the best settings for a light-painting video booth ("pro" version)

  • Input

    • This is the actual input from the HDMI capture card. This needs to be set manually. Go as low as possible with the framerate to ensure smoothness and no missing frames. 1080p is a good starting point, but go down to 720p if you're computer is lagging. The input framerate needs to match the one on your camera. The ideal value for the fps is 23.976 in both "Input" and in your camera settings

  • Playback

    • Boomerang: loop the final video back and forth

    • Rewind: play backwards

    • Speed-up / slow-down: change playback speed. You'll need to capture at 60fps to be able to get smooth slow-down footage

    • Rotate: use this slider to rotate your final video (mostly for instagram stories...)

  • Effect

    • Normal: accumulates the light as long as it's requested

    • Decay: fades out the light-painting following provided settings (decay speed and decay acceleration)

    • Hue shift: rainbow psychedelic mode! Don't abuse this one, I'm warning you! :)

  • Flip

    • Flip screen allows you to see yourself like in a mirror when you're facing the monitor

  • Mirror

    • Duplicates the feed left / right (or even more) for cool effects

  • Output

    • This is where you set your settings for the final rendered mp4 file. Ideally, try to use the same FPS as the one in the input, except if you're trying to slow down the footage (60fps for the input, 23.976 for the output in that case)

    • Aspect ratio is very likely to be 16:9 as it's the standard for DSLR cameras when shooting in video. You can also use 1:1 if you're looking for a square output

    • Repeat: the number of repeat is making your video longer by repeating the content for a specified number of times. This is needed for posting on instagram if you need to reach the 3 seconds limit

6- Liveview!

This is where you can see your light-painting! Use the full-screen icon at the bottom to get rid of the UI (or use the Tab key)

Shortcuts in Liveview:

  • Start/stop recording:

    • Keyboard: B or Enter

    • Powerpoint presenter: blackout

    • Gamepad: b

  • Reset light

    • Keyboard: Page-down or spacebar

    • Powerpoint presenter: Next

    • Gamepad: x

  • Start/stop light-painting:

    • Keyboard: page-up or p

    • Powerpoint presenter: Previous

    • Gamepad: y

  • Toggle full-screen: tab

  • Toggle ambient feed: d
     

7- Replay, gallery and sharing

  • Still from the setting panel, you’ll find the gallery and the replay links. These are opening a web browser (with a local url) that you can access from any device as long as you’re on the same network.

  • The replay screen is always displaying the latest video

  • The gallery is listing the latest videos on top

  • From the gallery, you can share your videos as long as you have a valid smtp server (details to come)

8- Saving files

Videos (mp4)

To internally record your light-painting work, press the "b" key from the live view. Depending on the specs of your computer, you'll be able to record from a few seconds to a few minutes. For longer performances or to offload your computer, it is better to save from an hdmi recorder (Atomos) or from a second computer. Tip: the lower the resolution, and the longer you'll be able to save internally

Internal saving means that you'll get the mp4 from the software and it is going to be available in the gallery.

For specific duration recording, use the corresponding box in the "Action" menu from the dashboard.

Pictures (.jpg)

Single frames can be saved at any time. When you are in record mode, the files are saved within your actual session. However, if you are not recording, each file is creating a new session (a new element in the gallery). Tip: use the "e" (export) key from the keyboard or the export button from the live-view / web-remote.

9- 4k resolution

4k video light-painting is quite tricky, but it is possible. This guide is going to help you to achieve the highest possible resolution do to 4k with Virtual.ink. At the moment of writing this article, 4k works only on Windows 10 with ffdshow64.

Instructions

  1. Download FFDSHOW 64bits here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout/files/Official%20releases/64-bit/ffdshow_rev4531_20140628_x64.exe/download

  2. Install FFDSHOW, and make sure you check "RAW Video" on the second steps where you see options

  3. On your camera, make sure you can output 4k.

  4. Use a 4k hdmi to usb converter or a 4k webcam


Samples

1- Canon EOS-R + Inogeni 4k

2- Logitech Brio 4k (directly connected to the computer)



10- Using Virtual.ink with two cameras (DUAL)

The idea of using two cameras is to capture the ambient light and the light-painting at the same time, making it possible to produce beautiful videos even if you're not in pitch black 

  • You don’t have to configure anything to run the dual version. You simply need to connect the second capture card to the computer with a second camera, and the software is going to detect it. To make it simple, I usually have the exact same settings on both cameras except the ISO. The camera doing the light-painting is set to ISO 100 while the one capturing the ambiance is at ISO 800. 

  • Install your two cameras as close as possible, and aim at the same point (it's easy if you place a tripod in the middle of the framing)

  • To fine-tune the alignment, go in the live view, hit the "o" (offset) key, and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the light-painting over the ambient feed

11- Optimization

  • On a PC, here are a couple of things you can do to make sure you’re not losing any frames:

    • Always make sure that the Virtual.ink box is connected to a USB3 port. USB2 is not fast enough for 1080p video

    • Run everything at a slow frame rate.

      • On the camera, set the fps to either 23.976fps, 24fps or 25fps.

      • Still on the camera, use a shutter speed of 1/25

      • Then in the app, set the fps to 23.976, 24 or 25 (match with what you set on camera).
        I'm currently having my best results at 25fps on the camera and in Virtual.ink + 1/25s shutter speed (PAL mode)

    • Run at full performance mode (right click on the battery icon located at the bottom-right of the screen)

    • In your display settings (right click on the background) set the resolution to 1920x1080 -> this is making a huge difference on slower machines

    • Turn off Adobe Creative Cloud

    • Turn off One Drive

    • Turn off Google Drive (this one is by far the worse)

    • Optimize Windows for best performances

    • Go in Airplane Mode

    • Give full priority to the virtual.ink process


If you still have missing frames, check out if the problem comes from the PC or the camera. The trick for this is to hit the “f” key on the keyboard. This is going to activate the framerate debug info. From there, you'll see the number of missed frames. If the value starts to increment, then the PC might not able to handle that many frames. Double check for the guidelines above. Try to go at 720p if necessary. If you're visually losing frames without having the missed-frames counter going up, then it can be one of these two things

  1. mismatch in the framerate between the selected one in Virtual.ink and the one on your camera

  2. improper shutter speed from your camera (this one is easy to detect as it will always show up super large / constant gaps

In summary, aim for a low fps at 1080p and make sure your framerate always matches from the software to the camera

 

12- Troubleshooting

  • No device found?
    Make sure you see your device from the Device Manager

  • No live feed available?
    Close virtual.ink and open the Camera app (Photobooth on a Mac). Select the capture card you want to use in Virtual.ink. If you see the live feed in the Camera app, then it is also going to be be available in Virtual.ink. If you don’t see it, then you need to figure out what’s causing this issue (not related to Virtual.ink). It can be your cables, your capture card or your camera.

  • If you find any bug, please send us the logs (toggle console from the top-right menu)

 

13- External resources

 

14- Recommended accessories