Guide to using Synapse Plug-ins for Quantel

Transcription

1 Guide to using Synapse Plug-ins for Quantel Barry Hicks, Video Design Software V9.0 for Quantel 64 Bit (5.3 and later versions) V for Quantel 4.2, 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2 V for Quantel 4.0 and 4.1 V for Quantel 3.6 and 3.7 February 7, 2013 Video Design Software has developed Synapse to support a wide variety of popular imaging plug-ins within the Quantel user interface. Our Neuron bundles offer the Quantel operator direct, interactive use of any of the following sets of plug-ins, via Synapse: Neuron Bundle 1: Boris Continuum Complete Neuron Bundle 2: RE:Vision Neuron Bundle 3: Tinderbox (legacy, 32 bit only) Neuron Bundle 4: Eye Candy (no longer available from developer) Neuron Bundle 5: Knoll Light Factory Neuron Bundle 6: Genarts Sapphire Neuron Bundle 7: DigiEffects Delirium Neuron Bundle 8: Final Effects Complete Neuron Bundle 9: Panopticum (legacy, 32 bit only) Neuron Bundle 10: Conoa Neuron Bundle 11: Film Fix (no longer available from developer) Neuron Bundle 12: Digital Film Tools Neuron Bundle 13: Tiffen DFX Neuron Bundle 14: Text Anarchy Neuron Bundle 15: ToonIt Neuron Bundle 16: Trapcode Shine, Starglow & 3D Stroke Neuron Bundle 17: DigiEffects Damage (plus DigiEffects Simulate: Camera) Neuron Bundle 18: DigiEffects Simulate Illuma (legacy, 32 bit only) Neuron Bundle 21: Red Giant Warp & Radium Glow Neuron Bundle 22: Psunami Neuron Bundle 23: Red Giant Key Correct Neuron Bundle 24: DigiEffects Aurorix (legacy, 32 bit only) Neuron Bundle 25: DigiEffects Berserk (legacy, 32 bit only) Neuron Bundle 26: Monsters GT New: Individual plug-ins, including Beauty Box, DFT Photo Copy, Neat Video, and Particle Illusion. Also Dark Energy for Quantel 64 bit.

2 These provide an incredible variety of blurs, particle systems, imaging effects, distortions, displacement mapping, color correction/keying, and customizable natural and time based effects. This document describes the user interface for the plug-ins within the Quantel environment, including how to select plug-ins, and how to use the various general controls for adjusting and key-framing plug-in parameters. When you install Synapse, specific documentation for the individual plugins gets installed into the Plugin_Manuals folder: For Quantel v5.0, v5.1, and v5.2: C:\Program Files (x86)\quantel\genq Plugins 4.2\DLL_Data\VDS\Plugin_Manuals For Quantel v4.2 and Quantell 64 bit (v5.3): C:\Program Files\Quantel\GenQ Plugins 4.2\DLL_Data\VDS\Plugin_Manuals For Quantel v3.6, 3.7, 4.0, and 4.1: C:\Program Files\Quantel\GenQ Plugins 3.6\DLL_Data\VDS\Plugin_Manuals For Quantel v3.5 and previous versions: C:\Data\Static\DLL_Data\VDS\Plugin_Manuals Please consult this documentation for details on each individual plug-in, and its specific usage and controls (for example, this directory contains a subdirectory Neuron Bundle 1, containing the Boris Continuum Complete documentation). A separate document, Synapse_Installation_Guide.pdf, describes installation and licensing procedures for the plug-ins. Read on to see how to use these exciting plug-ins on Quantel systems.

3 Contents 1. User Interface Controls... 4 a. Number Box (numeric) Control... 8 b. Toggle Box (on/off) Control... 9 c. Drop-down List Control d. Point (x, y) Control e. Color (r, g, b) Control f. Input Selector Control g. Key-frame Groups h. Field Rendering i. Low Resolution Proxy/Preview j. Aspect Ratios k. Image Resolutions l. Reset Button m. Setup Menu: Deep Colors, Transparency, and Render Quality n. How to render with a Key (alpha) channel o. Using alpha channel with Eye Candy plug-ins p. Special User Interface Controls for Sapphire plug-ins q. Special User Interface Controls for Text Anarchy plug-ins r. Display of On-Screen Vector Controls (widgets) s. Color Gradient Controls in T_Grad and T_PseudoColour plug-ins t. Custom UI Controls for Plug-in Presets u. Plug-ins with popup dialog menus... 48

4 1. User Interface Controls This document describes user interface controls for the Synapse plug-ins within the Quantel software. You can run time-based plug-ins (for example, time-based motion blurs over multiple frames) in the QUtility application. You can run all other plug-ins in the QEffects application (in Quantel software previous to version 2.0, use the QPlugin application instead, for all plug-ins). The Quantel user interface is shown in Figure 1. below. For overall info on using the Quantel software, please refer to the Quantel documentation. As you can see below, the Quantel application contains an image, representing the output of the current plug-in at the current frame. Below this is a timeline, and a menu area containing various user interface controls. Figure 1. Quantel User Interface, with image on top, timeline, and menus. To the far left of the menu area are several blue buttons. The top blue button selects the current plug-in set, while the next (second) one down selects the current plug-in within that plug-in set. A close up of these blue buttons is

5 shown in Figure 2. below. In this figure, the current plug-in set is T Effects, and the current plug-in within that set is T Rays. Figure 2. Blue buttons to select plug-in set and current plug-in. To select the current plug-in set, click on the top blue button, drag up or down, and release. This process is shown in Figure 3. below Figure 3. Selecting the current Plug-in Set (here, selecting T_Effects). Selecting the current plug-in is a similar process (shown in Figure 4. below). Click on the second blue button, drag up or down, and release to select a plug-in in the list (for example, in the image below, the list of plug-ins includes Clamp Chroma, Duotone, and Gamma).

6 Figure 4. Selecting the current plug-in (Clamp Chroma, Duotone, etc). To the right of the blue plug-in selection buttons is a large panel of buttons for the current plug-in. An example is shown below in Figure 5. Figure 5. Controls for the current plug-in (T_Rays, in this case). At the top of this panel are the Page Selector buttons (Page 1, P2, P3, etc). One of these is selected at a time (the selected one is colored pink, the rest are gray). Since most of the plug-ins contain many more controls than can be

7 shown at once, the controls are separated into pages. The Page Selector buttons allow you to tab through these pages (in the above figure, Page 1 is selected, and its selector button is pink (on)). There is also a selector button for Setup, allowing you to toggle to a separate page with general set-up controls on it (this is further described in the section on Setup Controls later in this document). And, there is also a selector button for Palette, allowing you to toggle to a separate page with a color palette on it (this is further described in the section on Color Controls later in this document). Also, in the top row of buttons, to the far right, is a progress indicator (in the above image, labeled 41.6% ). When the plug-in starts rendering a frame, the progress indicator will display the Synapse version number. As the plugin renders, you should see the percentage complete update on this button. Once the plug-in finishes rendering the current frame, the progress indicator will display 100%. Also, if you have not yet licensed synapse, no rendering will occur, and this button will display the string Need License! (see the installation guide for more info on licensing). Below the Page Selector buttons are the controls for the currently selected page (Page 1 in the above example). These consist of two columns, each containing five individual controls. The individual controls allow you to select numeric values, toggle parameters on and off, pick colors, and so on. In general, the first control on Page 1 allows you to select the main input image for the plug-in. The second control contains the name of the plug-in ( T_Rays in the example above). The sections below describe the individual types of controls, and how to adjust them.

8 a. Number Box (numeric) Control Number Box controls allow you to set a numeric value. An example Number Box control is shown in Figure 6. below. Figure 6. Number Box control. As you can see, Number Box controls are green in color. They consist of a label (to the left) and a numeric value (to the right). You can drag on the numeric value to increase (drag right) or decrease (drag left) its value. You can also click on the numeric value to bring up the calculator control, allowing you to set a precise value (click on the control again to select the value and exit the calculator). Also note that Number Box controls can be key-framed (when you adjust a Number Box control, a new key-frame will be created at the current timecode (if there isn t one there already)).

9 b. Toggle Box (on/off) Control Toggle Box controls allow you to turn a setting on or off. Toggle Box controls have a label (name of the control), and are gray when Off. Pressing the control turns it On (changing its color to pink). Pressing the control again turns it back off. An example Toggle Box control in the Off position is sown in Figure 7. below. An example Toggle Box control control in the On position is sown in Figure 8. below. Figure 7. Toggle Box control (Off) Figure 8. Toggle Box control (On) By default, the value of a toggle box is effective over the entire length of the timeline. Changing the toggle box changes the corresponding value everywhere. If you need to key-frame the value of a toggle box, press the Kf button. From then on, changing the toggle box creates a key-frame at the current timecode. Moving to another timecode and changing the toggle box again creates another key-frame, and so on. Such key-frames are effective from their timecode up until the next key-frame (or to the end of the timeline, whichever comes first). Once you have set key-frames for a toggle box in the above manner, moving the timeline pointer will not update the menu (the toggle box on the menu displays the last value you have set). However, you should see the effect of the key-frames you have set in your output clip. Turning the Kf button back off sets the entire timeline to the last value you have set (in other words, any previously set key-frames are disabled). Key-framing toggle boxes is an advanced feature, and you will often be able to get by leaving the Kf button turned off.

10 c. Drop-down List Control A Drop-down List control allows you to pick from a set of values. An example Drop-down List control appears in Figure 9. below. Figure 9. Drop-down List control Drop-down List controls contain a label ( Shape in the example above). To the right of that is the control s current value (in this case, Inside Rectangle ). To select a new value, just press on the current one and a list of Choices appears. While pressing down, you can select from among the choices by dragging the cursor up and down. When the choice you want is highlighted, pulling the pen up (or releasing the mouse button) selects that choice as the current one. This process is shown in Figure 10. below, which shows the same Drop-down List control with its list of choices displayed. Figure 10. Drop-down List control with list of choices displayed. On the right side of each Drop-down List control is the key-frame ( Kf ) button. This button can normally be left off (its default value). You can turn it on if you would like to create key-frames for the list control, so that its value can change over time (rather than being constant over the length of the timeline). Key-framed List controls work in a similar manner to key-framed Toggle Box controls, as discussed on the previous page.

11 d. Point (x, y) Control An example Point (x, y) Control is shown in Figure 11. below. Point controls consist of a label (in this case with the name Position XY ) and numeric controls for X and Y. There are also controls to the right to utilize motion tracking points, and to display a movable marker on the screen. Figure 11. Point (x, y) Control There are several ways to use a Point control like the one above. First you can use the individual numeric controls for X and Y. For example, by pressing on the X value (360 in the example above), you can enter a new X value. The second way to use a Point control is to pick position values from the image displayed above the timeline. To do this, press on the label button ( Position XY in the example above). The button turns pink indicating that it has been pressed. Next, press on the image displayed above the timeline. This will set the Point control s X and Y values based on where you picked on the image. This is a handy way of selecting point values (for example, to position the center of the Sphere in the Sphere plug-in). To the right of the numeric XY controls is a list box, allowing you to input points from Quantel s motion tracker. This control defaults to Off, as shown above. To use tracking points, first press the Settings button at the bottom of the Quantel menus. Use the Settings menu to recall a previously rendered tracking points file by dragging it to the desktop (refer to the figure below).

12 Once you have recalled a tracking points file as specified above, each position control s listbox will contain a choice for each track available in the file (for example, Off, T1, and T2 for a file with two tracks). Selecting one of the tracks (eg, T1 ) imports the tracking points as key-frames for the position control. The position will move with the tracking points over time, and you can adjust the points using the key-frame graph. To the right of the tracking list box are two controls for displaying a wire frame marker on the screen for this potion control. To enable display of the marker, turn on the button labeled +. A marker will appear on the screen showing the current position for this point control. You can change the global color of all such markers using the Setup menu (see Section M below). You can also specify a local color for this marker only. Use the > button, which toggles to the Palette tab. The color you choose will then be assigned to this marker, regardless of the global color setting in the Setup menu.

13 Note also that Point controls can be key-framed (when you adjust a Point control, a new key-frame will be created at the current time-code (if there isn t one there already)).

14 e. Color (r, g, b) Control An example Color (r, g, b) Control is shown in Figure 12. below. Color controls consist of a label (in this case with the name Light Color ), a color swatch (displaying the currently selected color), numeric controls for Red, Green, and Blue, and also a Palette Selector button (labeled > ). Figure 12. Color (r, g, b) Control There are three ways to use Color controls such as the one pictured above. First, you can numerically enter values for R, G, and B using the numeric controls. For example, you can click on the G value (72 in the above example), to enter a new value for Green. Another way to select a color is to pick the color from the image displayed above the timeline. To do this, press once on the color control s label ( Light Color in the example above). The label will turn pink indicating that you have pressed it. Next, press once on the image above the timeline. This will pick the color from the pixel where you pressed on the image, and set the color control s RGB values accordingly (the label button will also turn off, turning its color back to gray). This method provides a quick way of selecting colors for plug-ins such as Chroma Key. Note that the above picking method actually picks from the current frame of the Main Input Clip. Depending on the current plug-in and its settings, this might not be what is displayed above the timeline, as that is the result (output) of the plug-in. For plug-ins such as Chroma Key, however, this is should not be a problem. For such plug-ins, we recommend using the source blue screen or green screen clip as the main input clip. If you set up the plugin to display its input, you can then pick colors from the input image in the manner described above.

15 A third method of selecting colors is to use the Color Palette. To do this, press on a color control s Palette Selector button (labeled > ). This toggles the plug-in user interface to the Palette page, pictured in Figure 13. below: Figure 13. Color Palette Menu On the Color Palette Menu (pictured above), note that the name of your Color Control (in this case Light Color ) appears in the center of the menu (to the right of the Color to Pick: label). To the right of the Color Control name ( Light Color in the above example), you can move the red marker (cross) over the color ramp to select a Hue and Saturation. You can also use the slider to the right of that to select Brightness. In addition, the numeric controls to the far right display the current color value, in this case in YUV (just click on the YUV label to change the numeric controls to another color space such as RGB). You can of course use the numeric controls to enter color values, but you will probably find using the color ramp and slider easier. When you are done using the Palette Menu to select a color, use the < button (to the far left of the menu) to close the Palette Menu and toggle back to the page with your color control on it. While in the Palette Menu, you also can set values for multiple color controls. Just press on the current control name ( Light Color in the example above), and a drop-down list of all color controls appears (of course, some plug-ins may only have one color control). Use the list to select other color controls and then set their colors using the palette.

16 To make the palette more interactive, the plug-in effect (preview) only updates when you leave the Palette Menu, or when you select a different color control using the drop-down list. Also note that Color controls can be key-framed (when you adjust a Color control, a new key-frame will be created at the current time-code (if there isn t one there already)).

17 f. Input Selector Control Input Selector controls allow you to select an input clip. For example, for the Cube plug-in, the control in Figure 14. below allows you to select the input clip to be rendered on the Front face of the Cube. As shown below, Input Selector controls have a label (control name) to the left, and a clip name ( No Clip Selected in the figure below). Input Selectors also have a selector list to the far right of the control (labeled Main below). Figure 14. Input Selector control. The selector list works like a drop-down list control, allowing you to select from among the following choices: - None no input is selected (eg, no front face on the cube). - Main use the Main input clip (selected on the desktop). - << use the input clip specified on the clip name button. Figure 15. below shows an Input Selector control, with the drop-down list expanded showing the choices (None, Main, and <<). Figure 15. Input Selector control with Drop-down list choices.

18 To select a new input clip, bring up the Clip List window (by pressing the clips button at the bottom of the Quantel menus). This displays your available input clips. Just drag one of the input clips over to the Input Selector Control s clip name button, then release. The clip name updates to the clip that you just dragged and dropped onto the button. Once you have selected the input clip, set the drop-down list to << to use that clip (rather than the main input clip or None ). Figure 16 below shows the Clip List window (toggled on and off using the clips button). Figure 17. below shows a clip being dragged and dropped onto a plug-in s Input Selector control. Figure 16. Clip List window with available input clips. Figure 17. Clip being dragged from Clip List onto an Input Selector control.

19 g. Key-frame Groups Most of the plug-ins have many different parameters, and these are divided into key-frame groups (for example, a Shape plug-in might have Geometry controls and Lighting controls in two separate key-frame groups). In the Quantel menus, the key-frame groups button appears to the far left of the menus, just below the button where you select the current plug-in (see Figure 18 below). Press on this button, drag, and release to select the current key-frame group (for example, Blending in the figure below). Figure 18. Key-frame Group button (labeled Blending in this case). Once you have selected a key-frame group, key-frames for parameters in that group will be displayed on the timeline (as white vertical markers). Also, parameters within that group will be displayed in the key-frame graph. To view the key-frame graph, drag up on the gray box to the upper left of the timeline. The figure below shows the timeline, with three key-frames, and the key-frame graph with a blur input parameter (in magenta) shown. Also note the gray box (above the height parameter) used to expand or shrink the key-frame graph display.

20 Figure 18a. Timeline, key-frames, and key-frame graph menu.

21 h. Field Rendering In the Quantel software, you can render in either Frame mode or Field mode. This is dependent on how your source material was imported, and is also dependent on settings in the Quantel and Synapse menus. First, check your Configuration Page in the Quantel software (you can bring this page up by pressing the F1 keyboard key). On this page, be sure that settings such as Dominance and Fps are set correctly based on the type of video you are working with. Press the F1 key again to exit this menu. Second, when importing clips in QIO, ensure fps and interlaced / progressive are set correctly. Material imported as progressive will always render as full frames in Synapse. With material imported as interlaced, you can either render as full frames, or as separate fields. The remaining discussion in this section refers to interlaced source clips. With frame rendering, the plug-in processes the entire frame (whether or not it is interlaced if it is interlaced the interlacing is not normally taken into account by the plug-in). With field rendering, Synapse splits each frame into two fields. The plug-in processes each field separately at the correct time-code, and then Synapse re-interlaces the two fields prior to outputting them. This is preferable for plug-ins that do spatial processing, positioning, or transformations (DVE moves). For example, when processing Fields, if a plug-in is rotating the source image to the right, the second field will be rotated more than the first (see Figure 19a below). When processing Frames, the entire frame will be rotated at one angle (see Figure 19b below). When the clip is played back, motion will be less smooth in the latter case. In addition, the rotated source material may look choppy since the original interlaced fields will still be present and will have been rotated by the plug-in. Thus, Field processing may be preferable in this case.

22 Figure 19a. Rotation plug-in processed as fields, with interlaced output.

23 Figure 19b. Rotation plug-in processed as frames, output NOT interlaced.

24 When using interlaced source clips, you should turn on the field button (directly under the timeline to the left of the Render button). In addition, in the Plugin s Setup Page, you can enable or disable the Render Fields button. When this button is ON, Synapse will render the plug-in as separate fields. When this button is OFF, Synapse will render the plug-in as full frames. See Figure 19c. below. Figure 19c Plugin Setup page with Render Fields button. Note also that certain plug-ins may do their own de-interlacing. In this case, it is better to render with the Render Fields button turned OFF, since such plug-ins do their own field processing on each full frame of data. If you re unsure whether to render in fields or frames for your material, render some test frames and play them back. If the playback appears smooth, you probably have the right setting. If it appears jittery, try the opposite setting.

25 i. Low Resolution Proxy/Preview In the Quantel software you can preview and render plug-ins at Full Resolution, or at lower preview resolutions such as Half and Quarter. This is controlled by a button to the left of Synapse s menus, just below the Keyframe Groups button (see the Full Res button in Figure 20 below). Figure 20. Resolution button (labeled Full Res ). When you select a lower resolution (such as Half Res.), Synapse scales its parameters accordingly, and your results will look similar to full resolution (only coarser). For example, width of ripples in the Wave plug-in should stay consistent, regardless of whether you are rendering in Full or Half Res. j. Aspect Ratios The Synapse plug-ins are aware of aspect rations, and symmetric shapes generated (such as spheres) should appear correct on your video output. k. Image Resolutions The Synapse plug-ins are resolution independent, and will work on images of whatever size (dimensions) you have selected. Also note that Synapse crops all input clips to the current output resolution for render. l. Reset Button The Quantel menus plug-ins have a global Reset button, under the timeline and to the far left. Press the Reset button, followed by all, to reset all parameters of the current plug-in to their defaults.

26 m. Setup Menu: Deep Colors, Transparency, and Render Quality The top row of buttons in the plug-in interface contains a Setup tab. You can select this tab to see a number of general parameters that are common to all plug-ins (see Figure 21 below). Figure 21. Setup controls tab This menu contains the following controls:

27 - Pixel format: Use this to select from the following pixel formats for the plug-in s input and output: RGB 8 Bit RGBA 8 Bit RGB 16 Bit R, G, and B are each 8 bits. There is no transparency, and any transparent pixels generated by the plug-in are composited against solid black during output. R, G, and B are each 8 bits. There is also 8 bits of Alpha (transparency). The R, G, and B channels will be output as un-pre-multiplied (for example, red pixels will be output as solid (255, 0, 0) regardless of transparency). R, G, and B are each 16 bits. There is no transparency, and any transparent pixels generated by the plug-in are composited against solid black during output. This mode is useful when working with Film imagery, or with 10 bit YUV data. RGBA 16 Bit Same as the above, but adds a 16 bit Alpha (transparency) component. The R, G, and B channels will be output as un-pre-multiplied (for example, red pixels will be output as solid (65535, 0, 0) regardless of transparency). Note that not all plug-ins support 16 Bit depth. Among those that don t are Delirium, Eye Candy, Final Effects, Panopticum, and REVision Shade Shape and Video Gogh.

28 - Render Quality: allows the user to select either High or Fast rendering quality. High is recommended in most cases, although Fast is preferable for a few of the Tinderbox plug-ins such as T_Radial_Blur, since these plug-ins are quite slow in High quality mode. - Render Fields : When this button is ON, Synapse will render the plug-in as separate fields. When this button is OFF, Synapse will render the plugin as full frames. See Section H on field rendering above. - Color of XY Position Markers: This RGB color control sets the global color of wire frame XY position markers on the screen. Each XY position marker will use this color, unless a local color has been set for it (See Section d on Point (XY) Controls above). - Display On-Screen Controls (for Quantel V4.0 and later versions only): When enabled, on-screen vector controls (widgets) are displayed for plug-ins (where applicable). When disabled, on-screen vector controls are not displayed. Please refer to section r below. - INPUT CLIP parameters (bottom three rows of buttons on the left half of the Setup menu): these buttons display various data for the main Input clip. These parameters are not changeable here, since they are determined by your settings when you import the clip, and also by the Dominance setting in Quantel s main Setup menu (access using the F1 keyboard key). The data displayed is as follows: - fps: Frames per second of the main input clip. - Dropframe/Non-Drop: indicates whether the input clip uses Dropframe timecode. - Length: length in frames of the main input clip. - Dimensions of a frame in the main input clip (eg, 720 x 486). - Aspect Ratio of a frame in the main input clip (eg, 160:177). - Interlaced/Progressive: indicates whether the input clip is interlaced.

29 - F1 First / F2 First: For interlaced clips, indicates which field comes first in time in the main input clip. - F2 is Upper / F2 is Lower: For interlaced clips, indicates whether Field 2 contains the upper most scan-line. - OUTPUT CLIP parameters (bottom three rows of buttons on the right half of the Setup menu): these buttons display various data for the Output clip. These normally default to the same values as those of the INPUT clip. You can adjust these buttons, however, to change the timing of the Output clip. This may be useful for certain types of time-based plug-ins. For example, with RE:Vision s Twixtor, which does slow motion effects on an input clip, you may want to increase the length of the output clip. Or with RE:Vision s FieldsKit plug-ins, you can change interlacing and do 3:2 pulldown. In this case, you may want to change the interlacing and fps settings of the output clip. Note that OUTPUT CLIP parameters are currently only displayed in QUtility (for time-based plug-ins). They are not currently supported for QEffects.

30 n. How to render with a Key (alpha) channel As shown in the above section, you can tell the plug-ins to render with Transparency (key or alpha) using the Pixel format control in Synapse s Setup tab. You will also need to use a clip that you imported with a key channel (for example, you can do this by importing an RGBA (32 Bit) Targa sequence). Once you drag a clip with alpha onto the desktop, its alpha channel will be available to Synapse, and will be processed as long as you have selected an RGBA pixel format in Synapse s Setup tab. You can also output either the Fill (RGB) channel or the Key (alpha) channel when rendering the plug-ins. To output RGB, select the video button below the timeline (above Synpase s progress indicator button). To output Key, select the key button to the right of the video button. Figure 22. video and key buttons below timeline.

31 o. Using alpha channel with Eye Candy plug-ins Many of the Eye Candy plug-ins in Neuron bundle IV require an alpha channel to have the most useful effects (in fact, you may see little or no effect when these plug-ins are applied to a solid background with no alpha). There are two ways to define an alpha channel for these plug-ins: - Select a clip with key channel as your main input (as described in section n above), and select your input type as RGBA 8 Bit (as described in section m above). In this case, Eye Candy will use the key channel as alpha. This works well, for example, when applying plug-ins to cut-out images. - Most of the plug-ins have Alpha Layer as their second parameter. Assign a mask or image/clip with alpha to this parameter (as described in section f above). Eye Candy will then use this input as alpha. This works well when applying plug-ins to full-screen images, when applying emboss type effects through a key channel (eg, through a key channel of text). The following Eye Candy plug-ins work best with an alpha channel as described above: Carve, Chrome, Cutout, Fire, Glow, Inner Bevel, Outer Bevel, Perspective Shadow, and Smoke. The following Eye Candy plug-ins do not require an alpha channel, and work fine on full-screen images with no key: Animatter, Fur, Gaussian Blur, Glass, HSB Noise, Jiggle, Squint, Star, Swirl, and Weave. Motion Trail requires an alpha channel when Just Smear Edges is on. Otherwise, it works fine on full-screen images with no key.

32 p. Special User Interface Controls for Sapphire plug-ins The Sapphire plug-ins from Genarts (in Neuron Bundle VI) feature several special user interface controls, described as follows: About Box Page: The Sapphire plug-ins feature an About page that displays information on the currently selected plug-in. To display this page, press on the About button in the top row of the plug-in interface (just to the right of the Setup button). The About page appears as follows: Error Message Display: For the Sapphire plug-ins, error messages specific to the plug-in are displayed on the About page mentioned above. These messages appear as follows: These error messages should not appear during normal operation, but may appear if your Sapphire Serial Number has expired, or if a configuration file is missing or corrupted.

33 q. Special User Interface Controls for Text Anarchy plug-ins In Text Anarchy 2.4.1, a custom dialog menu replaces the controls described in this section. For this and later versions, please skip this section, and refer to section u. of this document for further details. By default, the Text Anarchy plug-ins use an Options popup menu to enter characters and select fonts and related parameters. For the Quantel environment, we have moved these controls into Synapse s menus, as described below. For the Text Anarchy plug-ins, we have added a special Text page. Use this page to enter up to five lines of Text as input to the plug-in. For example, press on the first button, type testing this string, and press the Enter keyboard key. The result of this is shown in the figure below. Repeat the process on the remaining four buttons to enter additional lines if desired. When using the plug-in, you can flip back to the text page any time to modify the text or enter new text. Figure 23. Text entry menu for Text Anarchy plug-ins.

34 In addition to the Text page, the Text Anarchy plug-ins feature a number of controls to select the current font, style, and related settings. These controls appear on the last page or two of parameters. The process of selecting a font is shown below. Note that the contents of the Style list control may change depending on what font you have selected. Also note that the Font list control lists Windows fonts currently installed into C:\Winnt\System32. Figure 24. Font and Style controls. Figure 25. Selecting a font.

35 Note also that the Cool Text plug-in has a very large number of parameters. Due to this, we have placed the last several parameters on the Palette page (which of course is shared with the palette controls).

36 r. Display of On-Screen Vector Controls (widgets). Starting with Quantel V4.0, a number of plug-ins feature on-screen vector controls (wire-frames or widgets) that you can directly manipulate by dragging their control points. This applies to certain plug-ins in the following bundles: - Sapphire V2 and later versions. - Boris Continuum Complete 5.0, 6.0, and 7.0 (more added in more recent versions). - Final Effects Complete 5.0, and many more added in FEC Red Giant Warp (all plug-ins). - Tinderbox V2 (Beam, Colourist, DeGrain, Grad, Kaleid, and Muzzle Flash plug-ins). For example, the on-screen controls for the Glint plug-in under Sapphire Lighting are shown below (in this case, colored concentric circles and red lines radiating from the center). You can drag these controls to change parameters such as directional streak size. As you drag, you will see the corresponding numeric parameters update on the plug-in menu. You can disable on-screen controls using the Setup menu (see section m. above).

37 Figure 26. On Screen Controls for Sapphire Glint plug-in.

38 s. Color Gradient Controls in T_Grad and T_PseudoColour plug-ins Several of the Tinderbox V2 plug-ins require the colors to be set in a gradient or ramp. These plug-ins will have a Gradient control. The colored area in the left half of the control is used to create, delete and position the individual colors in the gradient by manipulating small triangular color tags. There is also a color slider control to the right, used to edit the individual colors assigned to each tag. In the screen shot above, you can see the color gradient with five color tags. The middle tag is selected (its color is cyan). In addition you can see the color sliders to the right, with cyan in the current color box. The RGB/HSV selector button, when pressed, toggles the sliders between HSVA and RGBA. Changing a Color Select a tag by clicking on it. The tag becomes outlined in white showing that it is selected. In addition, the current color box updates with the color assigned to the tag. You can then use the color sliders to adjust the color. Moving a Color: Select a tag and drag it left or right. Adding a Color: Click in the color gradient to add a new color tag above. Deleting a Color: Click and drag a tag into the color gradient to delete it. Note: The color tags on the extreme left and right cannot be moved or deleted but their colors can be modified.

39 t. Custom UI Controls for Plug-in Presets Several plug-in bundles have Custom UI controls which allow you to access pre-sets. These presets, which automatically set plug-in parameters in various ways, allow you to quickly select different looks. The following bundles support these with Synapse: - BCC - DigiEffects Damage (presets supported in Quantel 32 bit versions only) - DigiEffects Simulate: Camera (presets supported in Quantel 32 bit versions only) - DigiEffects Simulate: Illuma (presets supported in Quantel 32 bit versions only) - FEC - Psunami (presets supported in Quantel 32 bit versions only) Example of Custom UI button in BCC plug-ins

40 For BCC, press on the preset box as shown below (on plug-in parameters Page 1), to bring up a popup menu of presets (this may appear to the upper left of your screen). Click on any of the presets to select it, as shown below. You can also use the up and down arrow buttons to scroll through the presets, or use the L and S buttons to load and save plug-in settings to a file: The BCC Custom UI control also allows you to bring up Help for the current plug-in using the button of the same name.

41 DigiEffects Damage, Simulate: Camera, and Simulate: Illuma each feature a Banner Custom UI with preset control, as shown and explained below (explanation taken from DigiEffects documentation): Using the capability of the DigiEffects Banner UI, you can store your preset information in XML files that can be accessed by all of your compatible host applications and shared with other users as well. The Blue Button is an especially fun feature we like to call the 'Randomizer', which oddly, randomizes all sliders and buttons, for showing some interesting possibilities. A great tool for brainstorming. Keep clicking...you'll find an extensive selection of starting points for your work. Buttons 1 4, and the Red Button: Often, users find that they tend to re-use 2-3 effect settings again and again as a starting point, but they don't require a full library system of presets, which are usually specific to each host application. Not to mention the actual preset files are in some binary, proprietary format such that it's impossible to view or edit the settings unless things are running. In our scheme, we show 4 buttons labeled '1' to '4', and each acts just like a reset switch, except that it lets you reset to a different starting point. So, think of this as having 4 reset buttons or having 4 preset starting points. The scheme is designed to work across all the compatible host applications on your machine (that have Digieffects installed of course). The Red Button is our record button. It takes a snapshot of the current parameter settings for later recall. We store all our preset data as XML files,

42 which can be viewed or edited as normal text files. There is no limit on the number of XML files you can store, but there is a naming convention you will want to follow to access them from the Digieffects Banner UI. To edit existing preset information, or create your own: The preset files are stored under: C:Program Files\Digieffects\presets You will see filenames that are formatted like this: preset_de_artifact_p0001.xml The number just before the '.xml' represents which button it corresponds to. If you open this file, you will see something like this: <!-- DEFX Param XML Configurator > <module> DE_Artifact </module> <Source_Blend> </Source_Blend> <Random_Seed> </Random_Seed> That is, some numerical value is sandwiched between a tag pair. Go ahead and modify these to your taste, even while the program is running. The next time you click on that numbered button, the effect updates with those values as contained in the xml file. Now, when you click on the record button while working in the Artifact plugin, there will be a new file called preset_de_artifact_p_mypreset.xml You can rename this to preset_de_artifact_p0003.xml so that it can be accessed by Button 3 in the Digieffects Banner UI inside the Artifact plugin in your host application. For Quantel s 64-bit versions (v5.3 and later), DigiEffects Custom UI with preset control is not supported.

43 For FEC, the controls work the same as those described for BCC above. These are shown below:

44 For Psunami, the Custom UI and preset controls are shown below (press where the cursor is shown below to bring up the list of presets): For Quantel s 64-bit versions (v5.3 and later), the Psunami Custom UI and preset controls are not supported. The following is from the Psunami manual: Presets section In the Psunami Presets section, there are presets and properties. Presets are Psunami scenes that have already been created and are available for you to load in as new scenes. Properties are the individual Psunami parameters that have been adjusted to construct these scenes. When you load in a preset, you load in all of the affiliated properties. This gets you quickly started with using Psunami. Presets are organized into descriptive categories like Underwater scenes and Night scenes. Properties are also organized into logical categories like Render Options and Air Optics. What presets & properties do The Presets section is divided into three panes: Load, Save and Reset. You use the controls in the Load pane to load and apply presets, and to choose whether to apply all the properties in the preset, or to apply selected groups of properties. You can do the following:

45 Open and apply presets or collections of property settings. Choose which properties will be affected when you apply a preset. Organize your presets into categories. Save, rename, and delete presets and categories. Reset selected groups of properties to the default settings. Working with presets Psunami ships with a number of premade compositions that you can use as starting points for your own experimentation. These projects are called Presets. Choose a preset To choose a preset, click on the Preset popup menu (labeled None Selected by default as shown below). You ll see a list of preset categories with side arrows. Drag down to a category to open the side arrow submenu, then drag over to a preset to select it. You can collapse each group to free up screen space and reduce clutter. Important: Your preset will not be applied until you click the Go! button. Apply the default scene When you first apply Psunami to a layer, the default Property settings are used. In the default scene, the camera is positioned at an elevation of 10 meters over the ocean surface, facing east toward the sun, and angled down toward the water slightly. As with all plugins, you can return to these default settings at any time by clicking the Reset button (see section l. of this manual). Where presets live When you first install Psunami, it creates a folder called PSunami in the following location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Red Giant\PSunami In that folder are subfolders of Preset categories containing the Preset files. Your own presets and categories will be saved here as well. Be careful not to move or rename these folders, or you may not be able to load your presets. Working with properties Once you ve chosen a preset, you can decide how many of its properties to actually use. Open each property group with the adjacent arrow to access the category s properties. You can collapse each group to free up screen space and reduce clutter. Apply all properties To apply all the properties in the preset to your Psunami layer, choose All from the Property pop-up menu, then click the Go! button. Apply specific properties only

46 To apply a single property group to your Psunami layer, choose the desired property group from the Property pop-up, then click Go!. This leaves all other properties at their current settings. You can choose other property groups to apply by simply selecting the groups and clicking Go! after each selection. Reset properties to their defaults The Presets control panel also lets you selectively reset Psunami property groups to their default settings. Once you ve loaded a complete preset or one or more property groups from a preset, you may find it necessary to reset one or more of the altered property groups. This will definitely happen if you re just trying out Presets and don t like the results of a selected preset property group you ve just loaded. In Quantel, you can always use the standard Reset button (as described in section l. of this manual). Unfortunately, this resets all effect properties to their default settings, which will wipe out other property group settings you may want to keep. The Reset pane lets you select individual property groups to reset. To reset a property group, select it from the Property popup menu in the Reset pane. All the properties in the property group will immediately be reset to their default values. Resetting a Property Group is undo-able. Anarchy Preset Manager Once you ve created your own Psunami settings that you d like to save for later use, you use the Anarchy Preset Manager to save and organize them. The Save pane in the Presets control panel lets you open the Preset Manager. In this control panel, you can save, copy, rename and delete your own Presets, as well as create, save and delete your own categories. You can also use the Preset Manager to rename and delete the default installed presets and categories, if you wish. Access the Preset Manager

47 To open the Preset Manager, click on the Options button in the Save pane of the Presets section. To exit the Preset Manager and return to the main Psunami controls, click Done. You ll notice three panes in the Preset Manager window: Save Preset, Manage Categories and Manage Presets. Save a preset To save your preset, type a name for the preset, up to 31 characters long, into the Preset Name field. Then choose a category into which to save the preset. To save the preset into the existing category you just chose, click the Save button in the Save Preset pane. To choose a different existing category, select that category from the...into Category popup menu. Erase a preset To erase a preset, select the preset in the Choose Preset pop-up menu, then click the Erase button in the Manage Presets pane. To copy a preset, select the preset in the Choose Preset pop-up menu, then click the Copy button. The preset will be duplicated into the same category where the original is located, with the default name PresetName1. Rename a preset To rename a preset, select the preset in the Choose Preset pop-up menu, then click the Rename button. You ll see a field pop up where you can type the new preset name. Click Save to change the preset name, or Cancel to cancel the name change. Create a new category To create a new category, type the category name, up to 31 characters long, into the New Category field in the Manage Categories pane, then click the corresponding Save button. To save your preset into the new category you just created, select the new category from the..into Category pop-up menu, then click the corresponding Save button. Erase a category To erase new or existing categories, choose the category from the Erase Category popup in the Manage Categories pane, then click the corresponding Erase button. You'll get a warning that erasing a category also erases all the Presets in the category. Think carefully before you click OK, because this operation is not undo-able.

48 u. Plug-ins with popup dialog menus Several new plug-ins bring up their own custom popup dialogs, allowing you to browse and select different settings and looks. Please refer to the documentation on the individual plug-ins for info on these custom dialogs and their controls. You can find the documentation on the individual plugins at: For Quantel v5.0, v5.1, and v5.2: C:\Program Files (x86)\quantel\genq Plugins 4.2\DLL_Data\VDS\Plugin_Manuals For Quantel v4.2 and Quantell 64 bit (v5.3): C:\Program Files\Quantel\GenQ Plugins 4.2\DLL_Data\VDS\Plugin_Manuals For Quantel v3.6, 3.7, 4.0, and 4.1: C:\Program Files\Quantel\GenQ Plugins 3.6\DLL_Data\VDS\Plugin_Manuals For Quantel v3.5 and previous versions: C:\Data\Static\DLL_Data\VDS\Plugin_Manuals The following discusses how to access these custom dialogs from within Synapse:

49 In DFT PhotoCopy, on Page 1 of parameters, use the Preset button and select Load in the drop down list box as shown below. This brings up a browse menu of presets as shown below. Select among the different categories (Movies, Paintings, etc), browse, and then select a preset. Press OK and this preset is applied to the plug-in (and the popup dialog disappears). Please refer to the PhotoCopy User Guide for further details.

50 Particle Illusion also brings up a popup dialog of presets (emitters), allowing you to browse, and search preview an animation of the selected emitter. In this case, the popup dialog appears once, when you first select the plug-in. Use the Load New Library button to select from among different libraries of emitters. In the browse menu, press on an emitter s thumbnail to preview it in the animated view to the right. When you ve selected an emitter you like, press OK to apply this emitter to the plug-in (and dismiss the popup dialog menu). On Windows 7, the emitter library files are found in the Users folder, for example: C:\Users\Quantel\Documents\wondertouch\Emitter Libraries On Windows XP, they are found under the Documents and Settings folder, for example: C:\Documents and Settings\Quantel\My Documents\wondertouch\Emitter Libraries Once you ve selected an emitter for the plug-in as shown, there is currently no way to change the emitter later on. Start over by de-selecting the plug-in from the current layer, then reselect it to bring the emitter dialog back up. Please refer to the Particle Illusion for AE documentation for further details.

51 In Tiffen Dfx v3, on Page 1 of parameters, use the Dfx Interface button to bring up a browse menu of presets and other controls: Please refer to the Tiffen Dfx documentation for further info on this custom dialog menu.

52 In Sapphire v6, on Page 1 of parameters, use the Load Preset button to bring up a browse menu of presets and other controls: You can also access Genarts FxCentral web site to download additional presets and looks that are posted each month (use the presets for Sapphire, not Sapphire Edge, as the latter is a different product that is incompatible with Sapphire). In addition, Synapse s Save Preset button brings up a custom dialog to save your current Sapphire settings (see image on next page). Please refer to the Sapphire documentation for more information on presets and the associated Sapphire menus.

53

54 In Knoll Light Factory v3, on Page 1 of parameters, use the Options button (to the upper right) to bring up the Knoll Light Factory Lens Flare Designer menu, as shown below: Please refer to the Knoll Light Factory documentation for more info on the use of this menu.

55 In Text Anarchy v2.4.1, on Page 1 of parameters, use the Options button (to the upper right) to bring the Text Anarchy menu for entering your text, as shown below: Note that sometimes you may need to use Alt + Tab to bring this menu from behind the Quantel menus. You can also select fonts using this menu. Please refer to the Text Anarchy documentation for further details. Note that this menu replaces earlier Synapse controls described in section q. above. For Text Anarchy versions prior to 2.4.1, please refer to section q. of this document rather than the current page.

56 In Neat Video, the Open Neat Video Plugin Window button brings up the Neat Video custom user interface, where you can build a Device Noise Profile, adjust filter settings, fine tune, and preview your results. Please refer to the Neat Video documentation for further info on the use of this menu. Neat Video plug-in menu in Quantel Neat Video Custom User Interface, for building Device Noise Profiles, tuning, and previewing