A friend approached me recently with a problem on their Windows Vista laptop. It had acquired a problem whereby all executable files were failing to open, but instead were launching Windows Media Centre. Irritating for sure! The most annoying part is when you try to get into regedit to fix it – you can’t do it, as regedit is an executable. Another issue is that every time you’ve tried to open an exe file, the icon for that file suddenly switches to the Media Centre Icon.

The simplest fix is as follows:

1. Run the registry file downloadable here. Do not use the automation program, I have not been able to get it to work.
2. Open a Command Prompt and navigate to c:\Users\username\AppData\Local\
3. Enter “attrib -h iconcache.db” into the command and run it
4. Kill Explorer.exe in the Task Manager.
5. Delete the iconcache.db file
6. Re-open Explorer.exe

All should be fine now. Hope this helps someone!

The DigiBlue Camera

Whilst investigating how to migrate various aspects of my employer’s network to Linux based machines, instead of Windows, I came across the lovely device that is the ‘DigiBlue’, a small still and video camera that is often used for stop motion animation with its own, custom, horrendous editing software.

Considering we have around 30 of these devices, it isn’t really possible for me to add it to the ‘throw them away, it’ll cost too much in time and resources to get them working’ pile. So, I have instead been working through ways of allowing the kids to do stop motion animation with them with existing open source and free software packages.

This post will hopefully show that it is possible, and isn’t all that complicated – just don’t expect KS1 and KS2 kids to understand everything.

Understanding the device

The DigiBlue cameras we have here are the version 2 models (DMC2 32MB printed inside them). When checking lsusb to find out and make sure they were accepted I discovered that they are actually a rebadged device as listed below:

ID 04fc:504b Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd Aiptek, 1.3 mega PockerCam

So, a quick check that gspca supports the device:

its@00820:~$ lsmod | grep gspca
gspca_sunplus          13780  0
gspca_main             21199  1 gspca_sunplus
videodev               34361  1 gspca_main

turns up the gspca has indeed loaded, and also loaded the gspca_sunplus module, meaning that the camera should work properly.

Using the camera and retrieving the photos

On a Windows PC, the stop motion is usually done with the camera plugged into the computer permanently and the shots taken by the software. This isn’t possible in Linux, so instead, the device needs to be unplugged from the computer. You can still have it in the dock, just so long as the USB lead is unplugged. Note that this introduces the need for all the cameras to have a full set of working batteries in them. This shouldn’t be a massive issue though, as a set of batteries lasts an age in these cameras, due to them not having a LCD display.

Once a child has snapped a sequence of shots that they wish to use, they should then plug the camera into the machine to import the photos.

Using gthumb

The easiest way of importing the photos that I found was using a nice piece of software in the Software Centre called ‘gthumb’. This program allows you to import and see the photos that have been taken.

To import photos:

1. Click File
2. Select Import Photos
3. The photos will now list themselves in the window.
4. Choose a destination directory to import them to, and give the ‘film’ a name (this is the name of the directory which the photos will be imported to).
5. Click Import

Note: Ticking ‘Delete the imported images from the camera’ will do nothing.

The software now imports the images to the computer, and then displays them in the gthumb window.

Choosing the editing software

You now have a choice as to which program you wish to use for editing.

Stopmotion

This is a nice little application for stop motion editing, but is limited in its functionality. It does not seem to allow a whole movie soundtrack, instead allowing individual sounds to be attached to frames (you are also limited to ogg files). Importing the files in this software should simply be a case of using the import tool in the file menu. You can also edit frames directly within the program by selecting them and clicking on the ‘Launch Gimp’ button.

Luciole

Another little application for stop motion editing, but again with limited functionality. It doesn’t allow sounds at all. Importing files is again, quite simple. In a new project, you simply choose file and import again.

Cinelerra

This program is a full featured video editor (installation instructions are available here), rather than a stop motion editor, and as such you have to create a file first to be able to import the images you want. Basically, you need to create a table of contents for the images, stating the file order and the framerate for the images. To do this, I used Img2List a python/glade script.

Once you’ve created the file needed, you can import it into Cinelerra as if it is a movie file.

As this is a full featured video editor, it is considerably more complex than the stop motion packages, and this is plainly visible from the interface. However, on the plus side you now have the ability to add transitions, sound effects, special effects, labels etc… at any point in your movie.

Conclusion

So, there you have it, how to use a digiblue camera for stop motion in Ubuntu Linux. Not as simple as using the Windows software, I admit, however it allows far more flexibility.

I’m sure a few people have come across this issue by now but I thought I’d post it and how to fix it, as it may help someone!

When installing the CS3 suite, the installer stops at the Acrobat 8 stage asking for ‘AdobePDF.dll’ file from the Windows Vista CD-ROM. This is a slight red herring, as the file that it actually wants is ‘AdobePDF.dll_64′ and is stored within the cab file used for installing Acrobat 8.

So, the plan of action is as follows:

1. Navigate to the CS3 DVD (open it in my computer)
2. Navigate to the following: D:\Adobe CS3\payloads\AdobeAcrobat8en_US
3. Open the Data1.cab file
4. Copy the AdobePDF.dll_64 file to your desktop
5. Rename that file to AdobePDF.dll
6. Go back to the CS3 installer, and locate that file in the prompt window.
7. The software will now finish installing.

lzPingLaunch v1.2 released.

Version 1.2 is now available. It now includes SSH, SFTP, Telnet, ‘Run’ and customisable choice of VNC Viewer.

Available for download from here.