Using the Control Room Character Generator

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Using the Control Room Character Generator

• Samuel Edsall

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2 Main Jobs of the CG

• The CG operator does two things
• Edit
• Update old pages and make new ones (if necessary)
  using the CG software
  
• Present
• Put the pages on the air at the right time using
  the CG controller

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Editing Pages

• Before you start editing pages load your
  controller to the right show
  
• Type in the number and press Load
• Show numbers
• Tuesday news 51
• Wednesday news 52
• Thursday news 53

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Pages within Pages

• The confusing thing about these CG pages is that
  each Page contains more than one page or
  window of CG information
  
• For example
• One ENG button can show all the names of an ENG
  package one at a time

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Editing Pages

• Some pages almost never need changing
• Anchor names
• We use the same anchors for your night so the CG
  controller unit has those ready to use at any time

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Editing Pages

• Other pages are templates that need updating
• ENG pages
• Credits
• Sports score pages

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Presenting Pages

• Selecting a page
• Press the button for the CG page you need on the
  CG controller
  
• Anchor name
• ENG (Reporter package name page)
• Credits

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Presenting Pages

• Stepping the page
• Press the step button
• Puts the page on the air
• Press step again
• Takes page off the air
• What stepping does
• Each CG page actually starts with a blank page,
  then CG, then another blank page
  
• Stepping allows you to step into the CG page and
  then step out to a blank page

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The Play List and Stepping

• Notice how the first window is empty
• This is the page that goes on the air when you
  first load the page so nothing is seen
  
• When you press the step button the second page
  appears
  
• The first name is revealed
• Step again
• The third page appears, which is empty, making
  the name disappear
  
• And so on

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Keeping Up With The Show

• Timing is everything
• You need to show the right page at the right
  time
  
• Using the Run-down sheet
• Use this to guide when you load and present
  pages for the show
  
• Not a bad idea to mark on the run-down what pages
  should be on for each segment of the show
  
• Anchor names
• ENGs
• Score pages
• Credits

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Keeping Up With The Show

• Anchors
• Name them when they are seen by themselves for
  the first time
  
• They are only named once

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Naming an Anchor

• When you see the anchor by themselves for the
  first time in the show
  
• Press their name
• Press the step button to put their name on the
  air
  
• Wait 2-3 seconds
• Press the step button again to take their name
  off the air

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Keeping Up With The Show

• ENGs
• Each news or sports package get its own ENG
  button
  
• Say you typed in names for the Mayor story in
  ENG 2
  
• 2 names the Mayor and the reporter
• Mark on the run-down ENG 2 where the Mayor
  story is listed

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Naming ENG Names

• When the Mayor package starts
• Press ENG 2
• When the first person is talking in the package
  (Mayor)
  
• Press step to put Mayors name on the air
• Wait a 2-3 seconds
• Press step to take name off the air
• When the second person is talking in the package
  (reporter)
  
• Press step to put reporters name on the air
• Wait 2-3 seconds
• Press step to take name off the air

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Keeping Up With The Show

• Credits
• Each show will have a different crew so the
  credits page needs to be updated
  
• Take a sheet of paper and find out who is working
  what position and update that information on the
  credits page
  
• Credits are usually at the end of the show

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Rolling the Credits Page

• When the director says, Standby to roll
  credits
  
• Press the Credits button
• When the director says, Roll Credits
• Press the step button
• Credit start to roll after about 2 seconds
• Credits stop automatically at the bottom of the
  credit list
  
• When the director says, Lose credits
• Press the step button
• Last credit dissolves away

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How the CG Works Two Modes

• Sequence mode
• How the CG cycles through the pages when they are
  on the air
  
• This what you see on the editing screen when you
  press any button on the CG controller
  
• Edit mode
• Allows you to edit the CG page

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Sequence and Edit Mode

• Changing modes
• Sequence
• Click on the sequence button
• Looks like a bunch of lines
• Edit
• Click on the edit button
• Big letter A
• A for Edit, go figure

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Updating a Page

• Select the page that needs updating with the CG
  controller
  
• The page loads in sequence mode
• Change the mode to Edit
• Make your changes
• Save the page

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Edit Mode Layout

• Left side
• Play list
• These are the pages that will show from top to
  bottom when you press the step button
  
• Current page in the editing window is highlighted

Play list
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Edit Mode Layout

• Right side
• CG editing window
• This is where you make the changes to the page

CG Edit Window
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Editing a Page

• CG editing window
• Select which frame from the play list you wish to
  edit
  
• That page appears in the CG edit window
• In the edit window click on the row or rows that
  need editing and make your changes
  
• In this case the position row for Terry Wrestler
  is being edited

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Editing a Page

• ENG pages
• When there is more than one name in a package,
  click on the second name in the play list and
  edit that one
  
• Scroll down the play list and update as many
  names as necessary for the reporting package

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Editing Palettes

• In the edit mode there are tabs on the bottom
  that allow you to create and modify how the text
  and graphic elements look on your page

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The View Palette

• Placement box
• Baseline
• Up and down
• Left edge
• Left and right
• Layer
• Move up and down page layers if used

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The View Palette

• Markers Box
• Video safe
• Area to keep your information in
• Tabs
• If you want to see where they are set
• Screen Vert / Horz
• Shows center points

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Size Attributes Palette

• Allows you to choose
• Font
• Size
• Height and width
• Row rotation
• Slant
• Like italics, except it can be forward or backward

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Color Texture Palette

• Applies color or texture to the
• Face
• Character front
• Edge
• Character outline
• Shadow
• Character shadow
• Also set edge and shadow attributes
• Size, style

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Style Palette

• Keeps track of any changes you make to the
  attributes of a character
  
• Loads default styles if you load a new page

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Background Palette

• Changes the page background
• Type of background
• Black
• Video
• Color
• Texture
• Color attributes
• Hue, saturation, brightness
• Transparency
• Gradient
• Texture selection

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Using the Control Room Character Generator

• Samuel Edsall