Dynamic video content programming

One of the hardest things i seem to come across when talking to people about dynamic video is actually understanding what is “Dynamic video”.

So i decided once and for all to create a Demo to show what dynamic video really is, and for that i created this small demo/tutorial to show what i think is the core of dynamic video.

Step 1: The video application

A video application is a collection of data points that in the end get embedded or has some part in the creation of the final video, and by that i mean the data can be used inside the video or be used to determine if a part of the video is shown or not.

One other thing to take into consideration is the amount of data can sometimes be contained to a set of bound data points and sometimes cannot, i personally think a real dynamic video can and must handle any type of data type or amount.

The demo ill be making is a video calculator:
You enter any simple math equation and the the result will be outputted out as video, just like your simple windows calculator but in a video :).

Step 2: The building blocks

Video is mainly created using scenes, a set of parts that together create the full length video, scenes like: into, main subject and ending.

For my demo ill be using only 1 scenes
1: full screen text + image background

i will be duplicating that scene several times and changing it depending on the input data i get.

Creating the scenes using idomoo scene tools is very straightforward , the idomoo scene tools is an after effects plugin that allows me to very fast create the art i want, define dynamic placeholders and then export the final result to be uploaded to idomoo servers.
I am not an artist but i can create any type of animation or style i choose.
for this demo ill do a simple zoom out effect

I’m using just 2 dynamic layers in this scene, a text layer where ill be showing the current part of the math problem and a background layer to change color each time i show the scene to add extra dynamic elements.

All that’s left is just exporting and uploading the final scene to the idomoo PV cloud.

Step 3: The basic code

I will be using the idomoo Scene API for this project, that scene API allows me to add any amount of scenes to a video timeline, populate each scene with the relevant dynamic data, and then select the final output format for the final video.

The app flow works like this:

Because the length of the math problem is dynamic the video can be very short or very long, that’s one thing any dynamic video should know how to handle, the scene i create is 2 sec’s long so the final video will be 2*segments.

Step 4: putting it all together

I created a small webpage where anyone can enter a simple math problem, click “generate” and get a real-time video with the answer.

The demo is very small and really has no real use, but its a way to get the point over, make people understand that video is no longer a static thing.
It can change or evolve over time be short or long depending on the viewer or any other data you may have, can change its text,image or audio, and can be generated in real time.

If you have any ideas or questions, please feel free to send them over :) ill be happy to talk about dynamic video and how i see it changing the way we watch videos online in the years to come.

dan@idomoo.com

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