Opacity and Global Keystone Problem

Hello All,

One of the things that has always frustrated me when working with the Axon/DL2/DL3 servers is that when you have visible layers anywhere between zero and full opacity, the entire overall brightness of the image decreases for the duration that those layers are between said values. What this means is if I do a dissolve from one layer to another, there is a hugely noticeable dip in output, to the point that I find those servers unusable for most of my applications.

As it turns out, Catalyst now does the same thing much to my dismay. If I use the global keystone adjustment, in other words, use the screen mix types, I start to see this problem. If I go back to the normal output mode that I have traditionally used, the problem goes away and performs as I would expect Catalyst to transition between layers. This is extremely frustrating and I suppose I will have to keystone the old fashion way on all the layers while lose the visual effects option for anything else.

Best regards,

Scott Riley

Oh wow Scott,

I forgot all about this. I noticed this same thing in a theater recently where the intensity dipping during crossfading looked significant. I was crossfading intro clips into looping clips of the exact same images and then back out again. I though it was the content until I put the same image on 2 layers and tried again.

It's almost the whole range from 30% up to 80% and it looks like almost a 10%-15% drop. It doesn't happen in a Mix when "Flat Constant Aspect Ratio" is selected but for any other mid type it does.

What I actually just noticed when I opened the show file is that the whole mix actually goes slightly transparent for a moment.

What I mean is that if for example:
Mix 1 and 2 stacked.
L1 is full with a test patter on mix 1.
L2 & L3 on mix 2 at full
When I crossfade L2 to zero, I can actually see the test pattern in mix 1 coming through.

I actually forgot all about this until now. It's actually a very big deal for me too since one of my clients is constantly putting me in the position of crossfading identical content.

I dont know if this is the same thing but i also noticed this when mixing layers. Because i needed transparent blacks,... i've used, on layer 8, a black.png and got the intensities back up. I havent compared it in the flat settings because i started working in the keystone settings and never used the layer keystone.

Hey Peter,

I am not sure I am following what you are saying. Could you explain a little more what you mean. Thanks

Re dipless x-fades...

theres a setting I learnt about today - which i was un-aware of...

You can change the way x-fades work in mix windows by selecting either 'Glitch A' or 'Glitch B'.

X-Fading works slightly differently in a mix window due to 'double transparency' - so theres a 'B' setting to compensate for this.

Try selecting 'Glitch B' from the 'Mix Type' options and see if this helps.

Cant take credit for this nugget of information - thanks goes to RB...

Simon

Wow! I feel like an idiot. I had never actually tried clicking that button before. Sure enough, it works for crossfading keystone and circular mixes. Even works in stacked mixes (not mentioning the scale invert).

This just eliminated so much headache.

GREAT!

I have access to the cat system over the weekend. I will still let you know how i've done it. Need to check a couple of things.

As far as crossfading layers goes....are you fading one up at exactly the same time as you are fading the other down?

Try delaying one layer a bit and you should see better results....or if the layer you are fading up is "behind" the other....fade it up first before fading out the one in front of it, and vice-versa if the layer is coming up "in front".

Simple, but effective with almost any server I've found.

Hope this helps:)

Hey Marty,

Catalyst 101 would indicate that at the midpoint of a crossfade with one layer going from 0 to 100 and the other going from 100 to 0 at the same time with the same delay time, you would have a value of 50% opacity for both layers. This would most definitely cause a dip in intensity but this is not what I am doing although the result of what I am getting while using the global keystoning looks just like that type of result.

When I changed over to keystoning on every layer like in the old days:), the problem went away entirely without changing anything to the cue timing.

Thanks for the suggestion.

-scott

Submix = keystone.

I've noticed that when i put L1 at 80% with RGB layerblend 10 and L2 with RGB layerblend 10 with a black.pct on it, full intensity the image at layer 1 becomes brighter.

L1 = image with text on black background with RGB arb, L2 as above, L3 as above. The text on L1 becomes crisper.

Working with this principle i've put the black.pct on the last layer (L8) and programmed the crossfades on the lightingdesk. It's always looking for good balance.

Perhaps there's a better way but i worked for me.