1. Download this PDF for instructions on how to setup the ladybug.
2.If you are planning on using an Intel Macintosh, then you will need to install Boot Camp (free) and WindowsXP (not free). More information is here: Parallels is not good enough. You must use Boot Camp to utilize the Firewire ports under Windows XP.
3. You will most likely need to downgrade to XP Service Pack 1, as Service Pack 2 conflicts with the firewire ports. This utility from Point Grey should take care of everything.
4. Install the Ladybug software. Make sure you are install the most recent version (as of April 2007), as it will have the ladybugCapPro, which is MUCH more useful and stable than the previous ladybugCap.
CAPTURING
1. Launch ladybugCapPro. If you have a Firewire 800 port, then choose S800. If you have a standard (400) firewire port then choose S400.
You may need to choose a new camera.
2. Choose Camera Settings. You can adjust gain and color balance, but I would pretty much leave everything else alone. DEFINITELY turn off Auto JPEG compression. You should adjust the JPEG compression quality until you are getting a data rate that's acceptable for your drives. For a 5400 rpm laptop drive, I would put it at around 60%.
You can use this movie to check if your frame rate is consistent. Film the looping quicktime with the ladybug. If the numbers stay consistent then your data rate is good.
3. This is probably obvious, but hit record to record the clip, and stop to end the recording.
4. To output, choose "new stream file", and find the stream file that was just recorded.
5. your settings should be set to the following:
6. If you would like speed over quality, then you can choose "nearest neighbor" for the Color Processing Algorithm.
7. Choose "Begin converting"
8. Set your codec to PICVideo Lossless JPEG. If you don't have it and you know me, come find me and we can talk about your options. If you don't know me, go here. Of course, you can use any codec you like, but the picVideo JPEG (and probably the MJPEG) will import natively into quicktime and will take up a lot less space on the drive.
9. Now, it's time to move over to Mac OS X for the editorial and output. Unfortunately Final Cut Pro can only edit using predefined framerates, and for unknown reasons the ladybug wants to capture at 29fps. We can fix this by opening up the avi in Quicktime Pro and exporting it as a 24fps quicktime. Choose File -> Export, and select "Movie as Quicktime Movie" and "Options..." Set your settings to Photo-Jpeg compression, frame rate 24.
10. Create a FCP project and create sequences with the following settings:
11. Sync up your audio and edit as usual. Export the finished movie with the same dimensions and framerate as the sequence.
12. TO DO... Post AE project that will format your movie for the cyclorama and the Second Life Cyc.