Script mode
The same pipeline as the window, without the window — for batch jobs, long renders over SSH and your own scripts. Start the app with an option and it works in Terminal instead of opening a window.
Starting it
The command is the program inside the app. Give it any of the options below; without one, the app opens its window as usual.
"/Applications/Stage Is Yours.app/Contents/MacOS/Stage Is Yours" --help
A short name saves typing. Put this line in your ~/.zshrc and the command is simply stageisyours:
alias stageisyours='"/Applications/Stage Is Yours.app/Contents/MacOS/Stage Is Yours"'
Progress is printed line by line. The last line of a render names the finished movie. On success the command exits with 0; on failure it prints a line starting with "error:" and exits with 1 — easy to check in a script. Ctrl-C stops a render cleanly; every finished step is kept, so the next run continues where it stopped.
Your files and the sandbox
The app is sandboxed, in Terminal too. It reads and writes only its own container — Terminal's access to your folders does not carry over. A picture on the Desktop or in Downloads cannot be read, and a file that cannot be read is left out without an error. So copy the pictures, photos and script into the container first:
INBOX=~/Library/Containers/de.ausdertechnik.stageisyours/Data/Documents/Inbox
mkdir -p "$INBOX"
cp wide.jpg side.jpg mira.jpg talk.txt "$INBOX"
The first time, macOS may ask whether Terminal may access data from other apps. Allow it. After creating a project, --list shows how many camera angles it has — a quick check that every picture made it in.
Projects live where the window keeps them, in Documents/Stage Is Yours inside the container. What you make in Terminal appears in the app, and the other way round.
Three examples
Create a project from two camera angles, a photo and a script, and render a Draft right away:
stageisyours --new "Q3 Keynote" \
--scene "$INBOX/wide.jpg" --scene "$INBOX/side.jpg" \
--presenter "$INBOX/mira.jpg" --script "$INBOX/talk.txt" \
--voice "A warm, confident keynote voice, moderate pace" \
--language english --quality draft --i-have-consent \
--render "Q3 Keynote"
Check the composition before hours of filming — stop after the stills:
stageisyours --render "Q3 Keynote" --scope stills
Film shot 3 of the last movie again, and leave every other clip as it is:
stageisyours --render "Q3 Keynote" --scope take --shot 3
What it can do
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
--list | The projects in the library, each with its number of camera angles and words. |
--new "Name" | Creates a project from files — see the options below. |
--render "Name" | Makes the movie of that project. Steps already done are not repeated. |
--models | Which models are installed, and where the models folder is. |
--fetch-models | Downloads every missing model, with progress in percent. |
--help | Lists every option. |
Creating a project
With --new, these options fill in the project. Only --scene is required; everything else can be added later in the window.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
--scene FILE | A picture of the scene. Repeat it for more camera angles. |
--presenter FILE | A photo of the presenter. Repeat it for more photos. |
--script FILE | The words to speak, as a plain text file. |
--voice "TEXT" | Describes the voice. Without it, a voice is suggested from the photo. |
--voice-sample FILE | Clones this recording instead of designing a voice. |
--voice-transcript "TEXT" | What is said in the recording — use it with --voice-sample. |
--language NAME | english, german, french, spanish, italian, portuguese, russian, japanese, korean or chinese. Default: auto. |
--quality NAME | draft, standard or high. Default: standard. |
--max-clip SECONDS | The longest clip of speech. Default: 8. |
--packing NAME | balanced or greedy. Default: balanced - clips of about even length, the fastest to film. |
--scene-clothes | Dresses the presenter like the person in the scene, not as in the photos. |
--i-have-consent | Confirms you may use this person's likeness and voice. Without it, nothing is spoken or filmed. |
--render "Name" | Renders the new project straight away. Give the same name as with --new. |
Rendering part of the way
--render makes the whole movie unless --scope says where to stop or what to do instead.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
--scope look | Only reads the pictures and writes their descriptions. |
--scope voice | Stops after the voice sample — listen before you commit. |
--scope speech | Speaks every sentence and plans the shots. No pictures yet. |
--scope stills | Stops after placing the presenter into each camera angle. |
--scope movie | Everything, ending with the movie. This is the default. |
--scope join | Only joins the filmed clips again — after changing a slide, say. Needs no models. |
--scope take --shot N | A new take of shot N of the last movie. The other clips are kept. |
--scope redraw | The movie, with every still and clip an earlier version of the app made drawn and filmed again with this one. |
--scope scene | Draws a scene from the last description in Generate a Scene, or a news studio. |
--scope presenter | Draws a presenter from the last description in Generate a Presenter. |
--resolution 720p | 720p or 1080p. Sets the movie's size for this and every later render. |
--quality high | Draft, standard or high. Sets the quality for this and every later render, with the two extra passes as on the Movie page. |
Changing the quality films every shot again; shots already filmed in that quality are kept.
Another library
The environment variable STAGE_IS_YOURS_LIBRARY points the app at another library folder — a separate set of test projects, for example. Because of the sandbox, it has to be a folder inside the container.
STAGE_IS_YOURS_LIBRARY=~/Library/Containers/de.ausdertechnik.stageisyours/Data/Documents/Tests \
stageisyours --list
Checks and tests
A few options exist to test the app itself. They write their results to a folder you name with --out — inside the container, too.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
--find-screens FILE | The screens and displays found in a scene picture, as corner points. |
--quality-test | Films one line in every quality and writes a report.html. Needs --out FOLDER, --scene FILE and --presenter FILE; --line, --voice, --variants and --seed are optional. |
--screen-selftest | Checks slides drawn onto screens seen from the side. |
--screen-test FILE | Fits, paints and follows the screens of one scene picture. Needs --out FOLDER. |