Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 20 of 20

Thread: custom masks

  1. Custom Masks

    Pardon me if I am unaware of a feature that i should be using instead, but let's assume for the sake of argument that I have an image with a black background and contains 256 shades of grey to create the part of the image I want projected. Now I lay this image over a very colorful image and apply the [Transparent Blacks] FX. I believe that I will have varying levels of transparency from this effect. Is this correct?
    By creating an image with true transparency (TIFF or PSD, for instance) I can always be assured that my images will look the way I intend them to.
    Rodd McLaughlin
    Prelite NY, LLC

  2. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by RGMdddd
    Pardon me if I am unaware of a feature that i should be using instead, but let's assume for the sake of argument that I have an image with a black background and contains 256 shades of grey to create the part of the image I want projected. Now I lay this image over a very colorful image and apply the [Transparent Blacks] FX. I believe that I will have varying levels of transparency from this effect. Is this correct?
    By creating an image with true transparency (TIFF or PSD, for instance) I can always be assured that my images will look the way I intend them to.
    can you draw me an image of what you want?

    and how you want this to work?

    And the options you are thinking off?

    Can you mock me up an image in photoshop and post it here?

    Transparent black will turn the grey image into a transparent region - based on the luminosity of the grey.

  3. Quote Originally Posted by samsc
    can you draw me an image of what you want?

    and how you want this to work?

    And the options you are thinking off?

    Can you mock me up an image in photoshop and post it here?

    Transparent black will turn the grey image into a transparent region - based on the luminosity of the grey.
    Yep, this is exactly what I mean.
    I recently created an animation of blowing leaves. The leaves are full color and so run the gamut in terms of being able to "key" one color or another. Generally speaking, I am a firm believer in using the right tool for the job. In another thread regarding color, the poster asked for greater color control and the reply was that it would take a great deal of processing power to do this on the fly. After Effects does it quite well but rarely previews in real time. I would much rather the processing power of the Mac be used at playing back all videos at full speed rather than trying to apply effects best done elsewhere.
    Rodd McLaughlin
    Prelite NY, LLC

  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by RGMdddd
    Yep, this is exactly what I mean.
    After Effects does it quite well but rarely previews in real time. I would much rather the processing power of the Mac be used at playing back all videos at full speed rather than trying to apply effects best done elsewhere.
    Its not processing power thats the problem with greater colour control - its dmx control channels - and useability.
    It is actually possible to do these things - its just a colour lookup table or a colour matrix.

    If I were to start counting the number of dmx channels required to do what after effects can do - then it would very quickly exceed anything useable or controllable with ease from a current lighting desk.
    And the interfaces on lighting desks are not appropriate for doing complex colour correction.
    Once you start looking at the complexity of every function like this - I could add 10 parameters or more to almost every single fx - as you would in after effects - it becomes unusable.

  5. Thanks guys. This was the answer I was looking for.

    MB

  6. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by markbutts
    Thanks guys. This was the answer I was looking for.

    MB
    If you have some particular kindof of effect that you would like implemented that only requires a few parameters, then dont hesitate to tell me,

  7. #17

    Soft-edged masks

    Addendum to this recently concluded thread:

    I'm creating a series of custom masks in an attempt to do an edge blend - well, corner blend really - between two rasters. A combination of orbital heads, ever-changing scenery and amount of content to be generated makes this something I would like to achieve in Catalyst rather than in After Effects, by dedicating Layer 4 specifically for masks.

    What I've tried:
    Creating still images with a large, smooth gradient as TIFF files with various combinations of true alpha transparency, white-black gradients with additional alpha, and straight (no alpha) white-black gradients.

    What I've found:
    TIFF with alpha transparency - doesn't show up in the server at all - blank pane.
    TIFF white-black w additional alpha - shows up as black.
    TIFF white-black, straight - Comes up fine in server as white-black. Color effects applied to it (best: "invert mask 2") work to an extent.

    However: color effects drastically shorten and sharpen gradient. A gradient that takes 300 pixels in the orginal image to transition from full black to full white is condensed by the color effects to about 35-50 pixels, which is not sufficiently smooth or large for my corner blend.

    In previous versions I used to create a gobo "movie" with a true alpha for this sort of thing. I was hoping to avoid that this time. Any ideas for achieving a smooth gradient with a still image?
    __________________
    Jake Pinholster

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    163
    Try using a straight Photoshop file with transparency or PNG.

    I personally use as high a resolution as possible and then scale it using scale and aspect to get a smooth mask.

    I find with photoshop files that I need to put all colour to black so as to lose the white fringing on masks and drop shadows.

    PNG on the other hand has a smooth transition from black to transparent.

    I also turn on the black border in Visual FX so I am able to mask outside my created border.

    Hope this helps

    Cheers

    Toby

  9. #19
    somewhere in here is the problem of pre-multiplied alpha - or not....

    an extra complication. im not even sure about this issue myself - but it certainly affects compositing.

    http://www.td-grafik.de/ext/xfrog/alpha/
    http://www.gimp.org/docs/plug-in/appendix-alpha.html

  10. #20
    TIFF with alpha transparency - doesn't show up in the server at all - blank pane.
    TIFF white-black w additional alpha - shows up as black.
    TIFF white-black, straight - Comes up fine in server as white-black. Color effects applied to it (best: "invert mask 2") work to an extent.
    sound to me like you didnt successfully save transparency in your tiff file.

    there is a second tiff options dialog in photoshop cs when you save a tif.
    it has an option 'save transparency'.

    i just made a tif with 5 different vertical grads- some transparent some not.

    if you load this into a catalyst layer - you will be able to see some of the blocks are transparent.
    Attached Images Attached Images

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •