Using the Image Manager

The Image Manager enables you to store images as sources in Vivien, and then change the properties of saved sources instead of working with individual images. For example, by using the Image Wizard to assign textures to saved sources instead of to specific images, you can change or modify the texture of multiple objects at the same time.

The Image Manager also enables you to perform minor image modifications, such as flip horizontal or flip vertical to images without permanently changing the source file. This feature is useful in situations where the texture is flipped as a result of incorrect surface winding. For details, see “Drawing surfaces”.

Notes:

• The Image Manager window preview can be resized to accommodate images that have a higher or wider aspect then the default window size.
• The Image Manager window preview will display a grey checker pattern to identify the alpha levels that are defined in an image.
• The maximum resolution of an image that can be imported into the Image Manager is equivalent to 4,194,304 pixels (2048 x 2048). You can import into the Image Manager, images that are very wide and not tall, or vice versa.

To access the image manager

1. From the Managers menu, choose Image Manager.

Result: The Image Manager appears.

To create a new image source in the image manager

1. In the Image Manager, click New.
2. Browse to locate the image on your computer, and then click OK.

Result: The image is added as a source.

Source Properties

• Source Name: The image’s file name.
• Source Path: The path to the physical file. Click the file open icon to select a new file.
• Flip Horizontal: Select this option to flip the image source horizontally. For details, see “To flip an image source”. Note that you cannot flip image subsources.
• Flip Vertical: Select this option to flip the image source vertically. For details, see “To flip an image source”. Note that you cannot flip image subsources.
• Dimensions: The file’s dimensions in pixels.
• In Use: Informs you of whether the image source is in use. If the image source is currently in use, it cannot be deleted from the Image Manager.

Display Settings

• Show image at: Select the zoom level for the image. You can choose to "fit" the image in the display window, or show it at a percentage of its actual size: 100%, 200% or 300%.
• Display Borders: Select this option to show the subsource borders in the display.
• Display Selected Only: When you have selected a subsource in the table, select this checkbox to only show the subsource in the display area; if you do not select this checkbox when a subsource is selected, the entire source is shown (with the subsource borders highlighted in the display if you selected Display Borders).

To flip an image source

In situations where a surface was drawn in a clockwise direction (see “Drawing surfaces”), the texture may appear to be “flipped” either horizontally or vertically. To avoid this problem, flip the image source using the Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical checkboxes, as shown below. Note that you cannot flip image subsources; only the actual image source can be flipped.

1. Open the Image Manager.
2. In the table to the left, select the image source that you want to flip.
3. Based on the direction in which you want to flip the image, select either Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical.

Result: The image is flipped, as shown in the following sample graphic, which was flipped vertically.

To export an image source

After flipping the image, you may want to save your changes to a new image file as follows:

1. Open the Image Manager.
2. In the table to the left, select the image source that you want to export.
3. Click the Save icon in the top left of the window.
4. Type a name and select a file type for the new image, or accept the default file type of PNG.

Note: When exporting an image source the default file type is PNG, but you can choose a different file type, if desired; when exporting a subsource, you cannot choose the file type. The subsource is exported to the same file type as its source.

5. Click OK.

Missing images

When you move image files from their original location, they may not load from within Vivien. When this happens, the image source will be highlighted in red, as shown in the following graphic:

To address this issue, select the image source highlighted in red, click the folder icon beside the Source Path box, and browse to select a new image. When you are finished, click OK.

Image subsources

Just as with videos, you can create one subsource or multiple subsources from an image using the following procedures. Image subsources are useful in scenarios where you need to apply part of an image to one object and another. Normally, to do so you would need to open the image in a photo editing software program, make your edits, crop the image, and then import two images. However, with the image subsource creation feature, you can just import the source file, and create the necessary subsources within Vivien. For example, you could use this procedure if you have a photo that you want to break into quadrants (2 x 2), and then apply each quadrant to a separate surface, screen or LED wall, etc.

To create a single image subsource

1. In the left pane of the Image Manager, click to highlight the image which you want to create a subsource for.
2. In the bottom left corner of the window, click Single Subsource - create one.

3. Type the subsource name.
4. By default, the system uses the start and end coordinates of the selected source, but you can change these values as desired. When you change these values, the system automatically updates the dimensions.
5. Click the Border box to specify the color of the border that will appear around the subsource when displayed.
6. Click OK.

To create multiple image subsources

1. In the left pane of the Image Manager, click to highlight the image you want to create subsources for.
2. In the bottom left corner of the window, click Multiple Subsources - create many.

3. Type the subsource name.
4. Define the subsource matrix by specifying the number of columns and rows. The dimensions of the subsources are displayed for your reference.
5. By default, the subsources are created by taking the overall source area (height & width) and evenly dividing it by matrix provided. However, you can modify the total area by changing the start/end coordinates and, therefore, the overall dimensions used to create the subsources. To do so, select the Modify total area for subsources checkbox, and then type the new coordinates.

Notes:

• Subsources are always listed below the source from which they were created.
• The table in the Image Manager provides a convenient way of displaying source/subsource information; all sources and their subsources are grouped, and can be expanded/collapsed.
• You can rearrange the columns in the table by clicking the column header and dragging it to the new position.
• You can adjust the width of columns by clicking the column border and dragging the column to its new width.

To clone an existing subsource to a new image

1. In the left pane of the Image Manager, click to highlight the image you want to clone a subsource to.
2. In the bottom left corner of the window, click Clone From Existing Subsources.

3. Select the media type that contains the subsource you want to clone, either Image Sources or Video Sources.
4. Select the desired subsource from the corresponding source drop-down menu.
5. Enter a name for the cloned subsource in the Subsource Prefix field.
6. Click Apply.

Result: The selected subsource will be cloned and applied to the selected image.

Changing the properties of image sources

Note: If you change the source after the subsources were created, and the new source has different dimensions that do not match the subsources dimensions, the affected subsources are highlighted in yellow (and a dialog appears to notify you as such).

When you select a row in the Image Manager table, the properties of the image source are displayed in the Source Properties section of the window. You can change various properties of the image source as follows:

• To change the border color of image subsources, in the table, click the appropriate border color and then click on the drop-down box that appears to select the new color. Click Update.
• To change the name of the image source or subsource, in the table, click the appropriate row. Type the new name, and then click Update.
• If you have already applied an image to multiple objects, and then you want to replace the source file with something different, you can make the change once in the Image Manager and have it automatically applied to all related objects (i.e., you don’t have to individually apply the changes to each object's properties). To do so, you change the underlying source file to the Image name.
• You can define a subsource either by its start/end coordinates or by its dimensions:
• To resize the subsource, click the appropriate row in the table. Change the start/end coordinates as desired, and then click Update. Note that if you change the coordinates, the system updates the dimensions automatically.
• To change the dimensions of a subsource, click the appropriate row and then type the new dimensions. Note that when you change the dimensions, the system will automatically add to the start coordinate to determine a new end coordinate. Click Update.