What's the best way to fake VersaTUBEs?

[Dan Valcich]

I have a indoor music festival coming up that uses a massive amount of LED. The production designer wants a motion background with a pipe-work of VersaTUBE on top. The production doesn't have the budget for all the custom framework it would take to do the VersaTUBEs.

So, my question, if the whole set is a 30 mm LED wall, what is the best way to make it look as if their is VersaTUBE-like piping on top of the background?

I was thinking perhaps a 3d model of the TUBE layout, or video with an alpha channel. Any suggestions or advice?

Rendering the content with the piping is not an option, as there will be need to treat the background and TUBEs as independant systems.

[Marty Postma]

Create a "mask" PNG file that has negative space (black) where there would normally be no tubes, and clear/transparent where you want the tubes to actually be. You could make softer or feathered edge to the black areas to make the whole thing look more rounded.

Make this the "top" layer.

If it needs to look more "pixelated".....on the layer/layers behind simply Scale them up till it looks "pixelated" enough.

Hope this helps.

[Dan Valcich]

Marty,

Thanks for the response. That would work except, I need to have different content play in the negative space. Is there an effect in Catalyst where the mask can be applied to a layer and the negative space transparent?

- Dan

[Mr_P]

Just think about where you use your mask in the 'stack' of layers. If you need to see other content 'above' the mask - dont put the mask at the very 'top', put it on a lower layer to allow higher layers to be used on top.

Alternatively - use a mix window positioned above the masked area.

Simon

[Marty Postma]

Marty,

Thanks for the response. That would work except, I need to have different content play in the negative space. Is there an effect in Catalyst where the mask can be applied to a layer and the negative space transparent?

- Dan

I'm not sure I quite understand.....if you use a PNG file there will be some transparency already built in, and whatever you play on a layer "behind" this will only show through in those transparent spaces.....when you build the PNG your "positive" space will actually be black to simulate the spaces you would have between tubes with a real Versa-Tube rig.

Another option woudl be to build a B&W JPEG and use the "Transparent Whites" or "Transparent Blacks" color FX to create a transparent area.

[jasonrudolph]

I think what he is trying to achieve is basically a travel matte, its something the catalyst can't do (as far as I know) and has been asked for many times. You can do it on a hippo.

Essentially, you use three layers, one lower for content, one upper for content, and a black and white image in the middle, where whatever is black in the image shows one layer, and whatever is white is replaced by the other layer.

[Marty Postma]

OK.....but that's not what a VersaTube rig would look like......unless you had another display behind the tubes......

[SourceChild]

Create a 3D object and save it as an object in your visual effects.

Make the 3d object the shape of your versatubes. Just do a 2d linear map onto the object.

Now make bottom layers your background. Make a middle layer the black media file on the new object and create all versatube content on layers above the black using the new object.

[SourceChild]

How big (pixel count) is your LED wall? I know of another trick if the wall is something where you can use PixelMad instead of Catalyst as video.