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Creating your first video generator

This section explains the process of creating a video generator via our web UI. The example video generator will produce a single video from a single input channel found in a robolog. You need to substitute your own valid channel name if working through this example using your own robologs.

1. Accessing the video generator dashboard​

You can do the following from the Video Generator Dashboard:

  • Create, edit, and manage video generators
  • Enable or disable video generators to run whenever a new robolog is ingested
  • Run your own test and backfill invocations
  • View the status of invocations from a video generator's details page
  • Access the results of invocations

2. Creating a new video generator​

Creating a new generator involves choosing a name and optional description for the video generator.

  • Click "+ Create video generator".
  • Enter a name and description.
  • Click "Continue".

3. Editing your draft​

While creating or editing a video generator definition, you will be guided through each step of the process one section at a time. If editing an existing definition, you can skip to the section you want to modify by clicking on the section's name in the section navigation toolbar.

The creation and editing UI allows you to customize a video generator, save a version draft, validate the video generator's definition to catch common configuration errors, and publish the video generator version.

The UI's split screen composer allows you to either customize your definition using graphical components or modify the YAML directly in the provided text editor. Both remain synchronized as you work.

Tip: Use the text editor to copy a section's YAML definition from an existing video generator as a starting point for a similar video generator.

Outputs​

  1. Enter a descriptive output name (ex. front_camera)
  2. Optionally select the frame height from the list of valid options. If none is selected, a default frame height of 480 pixels will be applied to the frame in the case where the input channel's frame height exceeds this default height.
  3. Select the input channel from the dropdown (ex. /robot/front_camera_images)
  4. Optionally select a rotation angle from the list of valid options if you need the channel frame to be rotated in the generated output.

The following YAML shows the output section resulting from carrying out the steps above in the UI:

outputs:
  front_camera:
    frame_height: 480
    inputs:
      - channel_name: "/robot/front_camera_images"
        rotate: 180

4. Publishing the draft​

  1. Review the sections summary before publishing your draft.
  2. Click "Publish".

After publishing, the next step is to successfully test the video generator version so that it may be enabled to process your robologs at ingest, or used for backfill invocations. Proceed to the next section to learn more about video generator test invocations.