™
Avid® DS Nitris
Compositing and Effects Guide
Version 7.6
make manage move | media
™
Avid
®
Copyright and Disclaimer
Product specifications are subject to change without notice and do not represent a commitment on the part
of Avid Technology, Inc.
The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement. You can obtain a copy of
that license by visiting Avid's Web site at www.avid.com. The terms of that license are also available in the
product in the same directory as the software. The software may not be reverse assembled and may be
used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the license agreement. It is against the law to copy the
software on any medium except as specifically allowed in the license agreement.
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose without the express written permission
of Avid Technology, Inc.
Copyright © 2004 Avid Technology, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Printed in USA.
The Avid DS Nitris application uses JScript and Visual Basic Scripting Edition from Microsoft Corporation.
Attn. Government User(s). Restricted Rights Legend
U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS. This Software and its documentation are “commercial
computer software” or “commercial computer software documentation.” In the event that such Software or
documentation is acquired by or on behalf of a unit or agency of the U.S. Government, all rights with
respect to this Software and documentation are subject to the terms of the License Agreement, pursuant to
FAR §12.212(a) and/or DFARS §227.7202-1(a), as applicable.
Trademarks
888 I/O, Adrenaline, AirPlay, AirSPACE, AirSPACE HD, AniMatte, AudioSuite, AudioVision, AutoSync, Avid,
Avid DNA, AVIDdrive, AVIDdrive Towers, Avid DNxHD, Avid Mojo, AvidNet, AvidNetwork, AVIDstripe,
Avid Unity, Avid Xpress, AVoption, AVX, CamCutter, ChromaCurve, ChromaWheel, DAE, D-Fi, D-fx,
Digidesign, Digidesign Audio Engine, Digidesign Intelligent Noise Reduction, DigiDrive,
Digital Nonlinear Accelerator, DigiTranslator, DINR, D-Verb, Equinox, ExpertRender, FieldPak,
Film Composer, FilmScribe, FluidMotion, HIIP, HyperSPACE, HyperSPACE HDCAM, IllusionFX,
Image Independence, Intraframe, iS9, iS18, iS23, iS36, Lo-Fi, Magic Mask, make manage move | media,
Marquee, Matador, Maxim, MCXpress, Media Composer, MediaDock, MediaDock Shuttle, Media Fusion,
Media Illusion, MediaLog, Media Reader, Media Recorder, MEDIArray, MediaShare, Meridien, MetaSync,
NaturalMatch, Nearchive, NetReview, NewsCutter, Nitris, OMF, OMF Interchange, OMM,
Open Media Framework, Open Media Management, ProEncode, Pro Tools, QuietDrive, Recti-Fi,
RetroLoop, rS9, rS18, Sci-Fi, Softimage, Sound Designer II, SPACE, SPACEShift, Symphony, the Avid|DS
logo, Trilligent, UnityRAID, Vari-Fi, Video Slave Driver, VideoSPACE, and Xdeck are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
iNEWS, iNEWS ControlAir, and Media Browse are trademarks of iNews, LLC.
Adobe, Acrobat, and Acrobat Reader are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems
Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows XP are
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of
their respective owners.
Footage
Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications.
GOT FOOTAGE?
Editors — Filmmakers — Special Effects Artists — Game Developers — Animators — Educators —
Broadcasters — Content creators of every genre — Just finished an incredible project and want to
share it with the world?
Send us your reels and we may use your footage in our show reel or demo!*
For a copy of our release and Avid’s mailing address, go to www.avid.com/footage.
*Note: Avid cannot guarantee the use of materials submitted.
Avid DS Nitris Compositing and Effects Guide • 0130-05576-02A • February 2005
2
Contents
Using This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Mouse, Pen, and Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Customizing the Pen or Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Avid DS Customer Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
E-mail Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Web Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Upload Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Avid Community Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
How to Order Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Avid Educational Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Chapter 1 Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Quick Recap: Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Using the Effects Tree to Composite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Relationship within the Compositing Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Working with the Layers View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Adding Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Reordering Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Renaming Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Scrolling Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Navigating Through Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Loading a Layer Effect in the Layers View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Animating Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Animating the Order of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Adjusting the Opacity of a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Animating the Transparency of a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Removing Layers and External Mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Working with Mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Using Clips with Internal Mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Using Clips without Mattes in the Alpha Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Creating a Matte by Using a Keyer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Using the Shapes Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Creating a Matte on the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Creating a Matte on a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Viewing Mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using External Mattes in the Timeline and Layers View . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using Matte Containers on the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using External Mattes on Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Combining Mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Working with Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Applying Channel or Pixel Masking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Using Alpha and Luma as Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Applying Blending Operations in the Layers View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Compositing with Premultiplied Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Science behind Premultiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Importing Source Files with an Alpha Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Setting the Premultiplication Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Changing the Premultiplication Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Applying the Premultiplication Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Automatic Changes to the Premultiplication Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Compositing Clips over a Black Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Unpremultiplying with Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Working with Layered Photoshop Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4
Photoshop Layer Notes and Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Using Photoshop Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Deleting Imported Photoshop Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Processing Composites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Processing Layered Clips on the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Processing Effect Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Chapter 2 Using Effects Trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Applying Effects Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Applying an Effects Tree on a Clip or Track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Applying an Effects Tree as a Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Converting a Stack of Effects to an Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Applying an Effects Tree on a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Opening the Effects Tree View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Working with the Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Adding Effect Nodes to a Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Adding Clips to the Effects Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Adding or Removing Inputs To and From an Effect Node . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Connecting Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Disconnecting Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Selecting Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Collapsing and Expanding Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Removing Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Editing an Effect Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Viewing and Bypassing Nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Folding Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Attracting or Repelling Nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Organizing Nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Renaming Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Renaming Input Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Displaying Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5
Zooming the Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Using the Birds Eye View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Saving and Loading Trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Saving an Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Loading an Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Using the Effects Tree to Composite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Using External Mattes in the Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Compositing Two Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Compositing Multiple Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Uncompositing Foreground from the Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Combining Separate RGB and Alpha Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Unpremultiplying with Color in the Effects Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Compositing Multiple Mattes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Applying Blending Operations in the Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Mapping Luminance Variations between Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Chapter 3 Keying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
About Keying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Using the Blue-Green Keyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Creating a Basic Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Fine-tuning the Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Creating a Spill Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Spill Subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Applying a Spill Subtract on the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Applying a Spill Subtract in the Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Using the Chroma Keyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Creating a Basic Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Fine-tuning the Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Creating a Spill Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Using the Difference Keyer Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Applying the Difference Keyer on Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6
Applying the Difference Keyer to an Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Fine-tuning the Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Using the HSL Keyer Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Creating a Basic Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Fine-tuning the Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Using the Linear Luma Keyer Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Creating a Basic Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Fine-tuning the Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Using the Luma Keyer Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Creating a Basic Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Fine-tuning the Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Chapter 4 Color Correcting Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Setting Up the Color Correction Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Workflow: Color Correcting Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Color Correction in Avid DS Nitris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Working with Source Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Applying and Editing Tape Source Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Using the Tape Tool to Apply Source Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Using the Avid Explorer to Apply Source Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Applying Tape Source Effects on the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Applying Tape Source Effects in the Effects Layout . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Editing Masterclip and Subclip Source Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Editing Masterclip Source Effects in the Effects Layout . . . . . . . . 162
Removing Source Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Loading Source Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Applying a Color Correction Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Setting the Color Correction Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Analyzing Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Analyzing Images using Histograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Setting Black and White Points of an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7
Displaying Pixel Information in the Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Setting the Black and White Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Color Correcting Tonal Ranges in Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Working with the HSL Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Hue and Saturation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Gain, Brightness, Setup, and Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Gamma Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Using Levels to Correct Tonal Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Input and Output Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Working with the Composite and Luma Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Linearizing Film-Based Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Working with LUTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Exporting LUTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Loading LUTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Linearizing Log-based Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
About Softclipping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Color Correcting a Dark Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Color Correction by Matching Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Using the Match Color Chip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
The Natural Match Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Correcting Inaccurate or Deficient Color Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Channel Blending Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Adjusting Curves to Color Correct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Setting Legal Luma, Chroma, and RGB Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Returning to Default Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Animating with the Color Correction Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Chapter 5 Transforming Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Applying a DVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Applying a DVE to a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Locking DVEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
8
Transforming an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Translating an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Scaling an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Rotating an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Cropping an Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Transformation in Layers View and Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Applying a Global DVE in the Layers View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Transform Trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
What are Transform Nodes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
What are Rasterization Effect Nodes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
What is the Difference between Local and Global Inputs? . . . . . . 213
Working with Transform Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Visualization of Sequential DVE Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Globally Transforming Multiple Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Multi-Level Global DVE in the Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Common Transformation Around a Local Axis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Corner Pinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Working with Motion Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Creating a Motion Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Editing a Motion Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Changing the Speed of the Motion Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Previewing an Animated DVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Chapter 6 Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Motion Tracking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Choosing a Tracking Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Stabilizing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Using the Trackers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Using Multiple Trackers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Selecting a Suitable Reference Point for Tracking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
9
Setting the Search Region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Tracking Composited Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Using the Tracker in the Layers View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Using the Tracker in an Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Positioning the Reference Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Positioning the Layer Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Starting the Tracking Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Cropping Unwanted Parts of Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Combining Tracking with Other DVEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Tracking Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Using the Shape Tracker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Tracking a Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Tracking Control Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Setting an Offset for the Tracker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Correcting Tracker Errors when Tracking Shapes Objects . . . . . . . . . 257
Stabilizing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Using the Stabilizer in the Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
10
Using the Stabilizer in the Layers View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
4-Point Corner Pinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Tracking Difficult Shots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Offsetting the Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Correcting Tracker Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Chapter 7 Painting and 2D Titling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Workflow: Painting and 2D Titling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Applying Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Setting the Working Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Applying Graphics on the Video or Background Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Applying Graphics as a Source-Generated Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Applying Graphics on the Timeline Effect Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Applying Graphics on a Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Applying Graphics in an Effects Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Using Presets in Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Loading and Saving Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Using Stroke, Text, or Group Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Setting Drawing Tool Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Setting the Paint Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Setting Brush Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Creating Custom Brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Setting the Titling Style. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Setting the Font Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Setting the Masks Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Setting the Time Span Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Defining Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Working with Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Checking the Premultiplication Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Wireframe Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Wireframe Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Drawing Polylines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Drawing Freehand Strokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Using the Express Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Drawing Rectangles and Ellipses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Filling Shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Using the Magic Wand Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Selecting Graphics Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Grouping Graphics Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Regrouping Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Selecting Objects in a Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Cutting and Pasting Objects in a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Locking Graphics Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Hiding Graphics Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
11
Hiding Bounding Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Creating Clusters of Graphics Objects and Vertices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Aligning Graphics Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Editing the Shape of a Stroke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Selecting Control Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Breaking and Unifying Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Combining and Separating Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Morphing Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Changing the Slope of a Curve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Changing the Direction of a Stroke. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Reshaping a Stroke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Chopping Control Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Moving a Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Scaling, Rotating, and Skewing a Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Stretching a Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Changing the Opacity of a Stroke. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Working with Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
12
Using Text from Other Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Importing HTML Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Selecting and Editing Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Aligning Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Converting Text to Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Searching for Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Creating Rolls and Crawls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Creating a Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Creating Handwritten and Type-On Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Manipulating Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Editing Graphics Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Copying and Pasting Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Duplicating Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Deleting Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Changing the Order of Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Transforming Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Moving Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Scaling Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Rotating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Skewing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Setting the Transformation Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Tracking Graphics Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Transformation Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Tracking Vertices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Working in Raster Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Raster Mode Caches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Using the GOV in Raster Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Creating Mattes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Creating a Travelling Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Scratch Removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Blending Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Blending Graphics Objects or Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Importing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Importing Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Importing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Importing Subtitles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
The DS Subtitles File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
The Header Section of the DS Subtitles File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
The Subtitles Section of the DS Subtitles File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Examples of DS Subtitles Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Processing Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
13
Chapter 8 Paint Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Clone Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Color Blend Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Setting the Opacity of a Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Defining Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Picking a Color from an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Loading and Saving a Color Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Cutout Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Using the Cutout Effect in a Stack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Comparing the Cutout and Clone Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Dodge and Burn Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Noise Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Paper Grain Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Reveal Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Stack Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Chapter 9 3D DVE and 3D Titling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Workflow: Creating 3D DVEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
14
Workflow: 3D Titling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Working in the 3D World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Three-Dimensional Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
XYZ Axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
XYZ Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
XZ, XY, YZ Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Global and Local Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Setting Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Using a Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Working in Direct View Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Suspending Output to the Output Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Displaying Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Showing the Safe Action/Title Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Showing Construction Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Showing the Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Showing Objects Viewable Within the Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Working in Wireframe Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Rendering Objects as a Wireframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Setting the Viewer Quality Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Working with the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Viewing Through the Alternate Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Snapping the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Viewing a Scene from Different Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Manipulating the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Resetting the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Setting the Camera Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Defining the Camera Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Setting the Clipping Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Selecting a Projection Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Setting the Field of View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
About Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
About Drawing Tool Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Manipulating Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Selecting and Deselecting Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Moving Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Locking and Unlocking Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Reordering Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Positioning Objects at Specific Locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Aligning Objects Relative to Each Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Grouping and Ungrouping Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
15
Showing and Hiding Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Changing the Visibility of Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Modifying Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Adjusting the Anchor Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Scaling Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Resizing Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Rotating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Renaming Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Setting the Time Span . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Working with 3D DVEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Creating DVEs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Simulating a Textured Surface Using a Displacement Map . . . . . . . . 424
Applying Profile Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Extruding an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Blurring Moving Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Working with Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Creating Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
16
Creating Squares and Rectangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Creating Circles and Ovals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Creating Polylines and Curved Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Editing Shapes and Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Selecting and Deselecting Control Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Editing a Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Opening and Closing Shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Filling Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Removing Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Working with Compound Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Creating and Separating Compound Shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Combining Shapes within a Compound Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Reversing the Direction of a Shape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Creating a Text Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Using Special or Unicode Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Determining a Character’s Unicode Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Entering Special and Unicode Characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Importing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Text Overflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Placing the Insertion Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Resizing a Text Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Selecting and Deselecting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Changing Fonts and Font Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Changing the Direction of Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Aligning Text into Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Adding a Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Removing a Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Changing a Column’s Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Setting All Columns to the Same Width. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Changing a Column’s Text Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Adjusting the Kerning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Adjusting the Leading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Adjusting the Paragraph Spacing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Adjusting the Text Margins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Controlling Rolling, Crawling, and Path Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Creating Rolling or Crawling Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Controlling Crawling Speed and Direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Clipping Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Placing and Moving Text on a Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Creating and Deleting a Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
17
Adding Text to a Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Removing Text from a Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Positioning Text on a Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Orienting Text on a Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Controlling Object Properties Based on Path Position . . . . . . . . . 461
Working with Surfaces and Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Applying Materials to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Using a Custom Material for an Object’s Surface. . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Skipping the Drawing of the Back Faces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Editing Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Changing the Type of Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Changing a Material’s Base Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Changing a Material’s Opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Allowing Material to be Affected by Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Adjusting the Specular Highlight Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Adjusting the Emissive Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Adjusting the Shininess of a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
18
Simulating a Reflective Surface Using an Environment Map . . . . 469
Controlling the Appearance of Overlapping Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Positioning and Tiling a Texture on a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Scaling a Texture on a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Cropping a Texture on a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Rotating a Texture on a Surface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Controlling How a Texture is Mapped onto a Surface . . . . . . . . . 474
Tinting a Texture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Working with Lights and Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Adding, Moving, and Deleting Light Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
Editing Light Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Turning Light Sources On or Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Changing the Light Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Using Colored Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Changing the Intensity of a Light Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Positioning a Light Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Adjusting Spot Light Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Identifying Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Adding Shadows to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Showing and Hiding Object Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Changing a Shadow’s Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Changing a Shadow’s Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Using Shadows to Simulate Glows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Importing and Exporting Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Working with Decks and Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Deleting Decks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Moving between Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Adding Objects to a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Editing Objects within a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Resizing a Deck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Setting the Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Dampening Jittery Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Chapter 10 Image Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
3D Warp Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Generating a 3D Warp Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Loading a New 3D Warp Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Creating 3D Warp Effects in SOFTIMAGE|3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Template-grid.1-0.dsc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Template-lights.1-0.dsc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
Tutorial-grid.1-0.dsc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Linking the Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Using the Grid Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Using the Light Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
19
Editing the Model Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Saving Your 3D Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
AVX Host Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Channel Switcher Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Color Space Adjustment Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Defield Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Deflicker Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Depth of Field Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Drop Shadow Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Field Invert Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Fog Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Frame Average Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Graphics Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Creating Rolls and Crawls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Creating a Fade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Optical Glow Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Outsource Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
20
Source Generator Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Warp Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Creating Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
Joining Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
Creating Barrier Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Animating Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Tracking Warped Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Setting the Rendering Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Using This Guide
Congratulations on your purchase of an Avid DS Nitris system. You can use
your system to create broadcast-quality output incorporating every possible
production element from full-speed, high-resolution footage, to multimedia
artwork and animation, to computer-generated effects and titling.
This guide contains all the task-oriented instructions, conceptual information,
and reference material you need to use the effects and compositing features of
your system.
This guide is intended for all Avid DS Nitris users, from beginning to
advanced.
n
The documentation describes the features and hardware of all models.
Therefore, your system might not contain certain features and hardware that
are covered in the documentation.
Symbols and Conventions
Avid documentation uses the following symbols and conventions:
Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action
n
c
w
A note provides important related information,
reminders, recommendations, and strong suggestions.
A caution means that a specific action you take could
cause harm to your computer or cause you to lose data.
A warning describes an action that could cause you
physical harm. Follow the guidelines in this document
or on the unit itself when handling electrical
equipment.
Using This Guide
Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action
> This symbol indicates menu commands (and
subcommands) in the order you select them. For
example, File > Import means to open the File menu
and then select the Import command.
t
Margin tips
Italic font Italic font is used to emphasize certain words and to
Courier Bold font
Bold font Bold indicates a user interaction.
Ctrl+key or mouse action Press and hold the first key while you press the last
Mouse, Pen, and Keyboard
You can use a two-button mouse (with wheel) or a pen and tablet. The left and
right mouse buttons perform different operations. Unless otherwise stated, use
the left mouse button.
The mouse and pen operate slightly differently. All the procedures in this
guide are documented for the mouse. You can, however, easily use a pen or
the keyboard. The following table shows the terms relating to the mouse, pen,
and keyboard.
This symbol indicates a single-step procedure.
Multiple arrows in a list indicate that you perform one
of the actions listed.
In the margin, you will find tips that help you perform
tasks more easily and efficiently.
indicate variables.
Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.
key or perform the mouse action. For example,
Shift+Alt+C or Ctrl+drag.
22
This Term Means This with a Mouse Means This with a Pen
Click Quickly click and release the
left mouse button. Always use
the left mouse button unless
otherwise stated.
Tap the tablet once with the tip of
the pen, or touch the pen to the tablet
with enough pressure to click.
If You Need Help
This Term Means This with a Mouse Means This with a Pen
Double-click Click the left mouse button
twice rapidly.
Right-click Quickly click and release the
right mouse button.
Drag Click and hold the left mouse
button or the wheel while you
move the mouse.
Alt+key,
Ctrl+key,
Shift+key, etc.
Press and hold the first key while you press the second key. For
example, “Press Alt+F1” means to press and hold the Alt key while
you press the F1 key.
Customizing the Pen or Mouse
By customizing the pen, you can adjust the click pressure, switch functions,
and other features. For information on customizing the pen, refer to the
documentation provided with your Avid DS Nitris system.
You can also customize the mouse. For example, you can select left-handed
configuration or change the double-click speed. For information on
customizing the mouse, refer to the Windows online Help.
Quickly tap the tablet twice in the
same screen pixel or press the F5
key to go from single to doubleclick.
Press the top portion of the switch
on the side of the pen or press the F6
key to go from left to right-click.
Press the pen to the tablet while
moving the pen.
If You Need Help
If you are having trouble using Avid DS Nitris:
1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in
this guide. It is especially important to check each step of your workflow.
2. Check for the latest information that might have become available after
the documentation was published in one of two locations:
- If release notes are available, they ship with your application.
- If ReadMe files are available, they are supplied in your Avid
application folder. ReadMe files are also available from Help.
23
Using This Guide
3. Check the documentation that came with your Avid application or your
hardware for maintenance or hardware-related issues.
4. See “Avid DS Customer Support” on page 24.
5. For Technical Support, please call 800-800-AVID (800-800-2843).
Avid DS Customer Support
The following sections describe various Avid DS Customer Support options.
E-mail Support
The e-mail address for Avid DS Customer Support is: dssupport@avid.com.
You can use it for sending bug reports, usability questions, and avidds.cab
audit reports for system analysis. All e-mails are logged in the support
database and assigned a case number. Send one support request per e-mail.
n
Web Support
Upload Utility
It is mandatory that you include your SID number in the body of your e-mail
message for verification of your maintenance contract and case logging.
Otherwise, response will be delayed.
The Avid DS Support Center at http://www.softimage.com/avidds provides
quick access to a wide range of resources from the Avid DS teams and user
community. Downloads, including presets, drivers, and Quick Fix Engineering
(QFE), provide the latest solutions for use with your Avid DS system. Online
documentation, tutorials, and Knowledge Base articles ensure that you get the
most out of your work with Avid DS. It's like having a dedicated Avid DS
Customer Support engineer sitting at your desk!
For troubleshooting purposes, you can upload your files for Avid DS
Customer Support personnel to examine. You can upload a project's archive,
media files, or other necessary data. Simply zip the files that you need to
upload and use a short name (for easy retrieval), such as archive.zip or
Case274877.zip.
24
To upload your files:
1. Go to the Avid web site at http://www.softimage.com/avidds.
2. Select Contact > Upload Tool.
3. Once the file upload is complete, send an e-mail to dssupport@avid.com
to inform Avid DS Customer Support as there is no automatic notification
when a file is uploaded on the FTP server. Please provide the complete
and exact file name (case sensitive) to retrieve.
Avid Community Forum
Although the Avid DS community forum is frequently monitored by Avid
employees, it is not part of the official support channels. You are invited to
send your support requests to any of the above channels when required.
If you have an e-mail account, you can join the worldwide network of Avid DS
users exchanging ideas. The mailing list has proven to be quite useful for
users, and there is a constant stream of new subscribers.
To subscribe, send an e-mail to majordomo@softimage.com with the
following text in the body of your message: subscribe ds. You can get further
information on using the automated list server by e-mailing
majordomo@softimage.com with “help” as your message.
How to Order Documentation
You can also join other Avid forums on the Avid web site at
http://www.avid.com. Select Support > Forums.
How to Order Documentation
To order additional copies of this documentation from within the
United States, call Avid Sales at 800-949-AVID (800-949-2843). If you are
placing an order from outside the United States, contact your local
Avid representative.
25
Using This Guide
Avid Educational Services
For information on courses/schedules, training centers, certifications,
courseware, and books, please visit www.avid.com/training or call Avid Sales
at 800-949-AVID (800-949-2843).
26
Chapter 1
Compositing
The Compositing chapter of the Avid DS Nitris Getting Started Guide
introduces you to the basics of compositing, compositing methods, and the
compositing layout. It also covers basic compositing concepts such as the
composite container clip and layer effects. It is important that you read and
understand the Compositing chapter of the Avid DS Nitris Getting Started
Guide and complete the provided tutorials before working on the procedures
in this chapter.
This chapter introduces the Effects Tree as a compositing method and covers
advanced compositing topics such as premultiplication, working with
Photoshop files, and processing.
Chapter 1 Compositing
Quick Recap: Compositing
Here is a quick recapitulation of the Compositing chapter of the Avid DS Nitris
Getting Started Guide. Below are answers to basic questions, which you
should know by now, that will help you understand the material presented in
this chapter.
Question Answer
What is Compositing? The layering of two or more images together to form one new integrated image.
What is a matte? A grayscale image that defines the transparency of an image when it is
composited over another. It lets you isolate and protect specific parts of the
image while compositing.
What is the difference between
an internal matte and an
external matte?
What is a composite container
clip?
What is the Layers view? The Layers view is part of the Compositing layout. It displays the content of the
What are the 4 effects that you
can apply to a layer?
What is the result area? The result area is the part of the Layers view that displays the final composite of
An internal matte is part of the image that is stored in the alpha channel. An
external matte can either be created from scratch by using an effect such as the
keyer, provided as a separate clip, or come from another image. For more
information, see “Working with Mattes” on page 39.
A clip on the timeline that lets you layer video clips. An opened container clip
displays the video clips on multiple tracks and the result is a single clip on the
top timeline of the Editing layout. You can apply effects on individual clips
inside the container or on the entire composite container clip.
Remember that when compositing with layers, you are working within a
composite container clip as soon as you switch to the Compositing layout.
composite container clip in a layer format and lets you reorder layers, animate,
add effects, and apply blending operations. For more information, see “Working
with the Layers View” on page 32.
• Color Correction
•DV
• Graphics
•Keyer
all layers both for RGB and alpha channels.
28
Using the Effects Tree to Composite
Using the Effects Tree to Composite
In the Avid DS Nitris Getting Started Guide you learned about two methods of
compositing.
• Simple track compositing which lets you composite in the Editing layout
by adding video tracks to the timeline and placing clips on the video
tracks. An advantage of using this method is that when compositing you
can see your clips in context of the timeline.
• Compositing using layers which lets you work in the Compositing layout
with composite container clips and the Layers view. The Layers view has
a great advantage in that it provides a visual interface when layering your
clips. It is also useful when importing Photoshop files as each
“Photoshop” layer occupies its own layer in the Layers view as a linked
image file in Avid DS Nitris. For more information, see “Working with
Layered Photoshop Images” on page 65 and “Working with the Layers
View” on page 32.
The third method is compositing with the Effects Tree. The Effects Tree in the
Compositing layout is a powerful tool that lets you create and manage
complex multi-layered effects and composites.
It shows the relationship between effects and images in a pictorial format. It is
made up of nodes: the graphical representation of the input images, and the
resulting output. Nodes are joined by connectors, which connect input and
output ports.
Port
Output nodeEffects nodesInput node Connector
• Input nodes represent the source image from a track in the Layers view or
from a clip and its effects on the timeline.
• Effects nodes represent each effect applied or added to the Effects Tree.
Each effect node reads an input image, processes the image, and gives a
specific output image as the result.
• Output nodes represent the output image of the Effects Tree. The result
of all the nodes is fed to the output node which is displayed in the viewer.
29
Chapter 1 Compositing
n
n
You can build and apply an Effects Tree to a clip, track, layer, or as a
transition. Each method has its advantages. For more information. see “Using
Effects Trees” on page 73.
There are a number of advantages for using the Effects Tree:
• You can have complex interactions between layers
• Ability to add multi-input effects. You can apply any combination of
image effects in the Effects Tree.
• You can reuse the treatment of an element repeatedly within a composite
• You can apply blending operations by using the Composite node—see
“Applying Blending Operations in the Effects Tree” on page 111.
Tip: To work more quickly in the Effects Tree, use the keyboard shortcuts.
Select Help > Keyboard Shortcuts. You can also set the default preferences for
your Effects Tree in the User Preferences dialog box. Select File > User
Preferences (Effects Tree property page).
For more information, see “Using Effects Trees” on page 73.
Relationship within the Compositing Layout
30
It is important that you understand the relationship between the different
elements of the Compositing layout in order to work efficiently without
getting lost within the layout.
It is made up of 3 significant parts that interact with each other:
• The composite container timeline
• The Layers view
•The Effects Tree
Loading...