Home

Layers - Parent Directory

1. I coe F e an w e Tom a eee Ee CE Fi Chew e Invert Stencil When you turn a layer into a stencil Aura disre gards its position with respect to the stenciling opera tion The Stencil acts as a mask and therefore on any other layer in the project you can paint only where there is paint in the Stencil layer You can have multiple stencil layers which are aggregated together You also can use animated layers as stencil layers which allows you to create moving masks When you turn on Stencil you also activate the global stencil option on the menu panel You can use this option to globally turn the stenciling function on or off If you click the S at the top of the Stencil column a pop up menu appears where you can turn off Stencil for all layers Clear all stencil or toggle the invert state for any stencil layers Invert all stencil Creating a stencil You can create a stencil from any tool or shape in Aura and you can use special effects such as opaci ty mapping paper or filters for interesting results You must first create the shape that you want as your stencil on a new layer along with any special effects that you want to include After you ve made all of your adjustments you convert the layer to a stencil Once you have converted a layer to a stencil you cannot make any changes to the stencil image unless you turn off Stencil tus O F The Stencil shapes restric
2. PRINT hello instead of PRINT hello George which can start with the character and Aura command lines which all start with tv_ Lines to be used by George form the program structure loops tests calculations etc whereas lines that contain Aura commands affect Aura panels and screens Ka NOTE Do not confuse lines to be used by Remarks Two slashes will remark out whatever follows This allows you to add comments to your code PRINT hello will not write anything PRINT hello actually writes hello Arithmetic operators negative k i exponent z multiplication division addition 7 subtraction Relational operators equal to l not equal to gt greater than gt greater than or equal to lt less than lt less than or equal to NOTE Do not confuse the assignment opera K4 tor and the comparison operator The former is used to assign a new value to a vari able like a a 1 whereas the second is used to compare two expressions like a b during tests NOTE You must use the CMP instruction to find out if two character strings are identical Do not use the equality operator Logical operators amp amp and II or Character Strings and Tables of Variable Character strings All character text strings must be written between double quotation marks or between single quota tion marks When you want to use either of these 6 aura
3. The Stroke Recorder records the movement of your brush across the screen This is useful when you want to animate something like a handwritten signa ture See Lesson Seven in the Aura Tutorial directory to learn techniques for using the Stroke Recorder NOTE It is not necessary to click the New button first The recorded stroke will be added automatically as Stroke 6 Aura VT 8 26 You click the Record button to begin recording your brush strokes Now in the project window draw out the stroke you want to record When you are done Click the OK button To cancel the recording operation and return to the KeyFramer panel click Cancel If you select frames before you click Record Aura will stretch the recorder path to the selected length To apply the stroke select the Custom Brush button from the main panel then drag out an empty layer the desired number of frames Right click the layer icon and select Make Anim Then select all of your frames and click on Apply Filter in the Stroke Recorder panel Aura draws your stroke across the frames Stroke Recorder Parameters The X and Y fields allow you to enable or disable the X or Y axis The P or pressure field offers you a value that responds to the pressure of your stroke if you are using a Wacom tablet and pen The value that you define indicates the minimum pressure required for a stroke to be recorded The T field represents a value for Azimuth that ranges between O a
4. To return to the default palettes choose File gt Default Palettes Note that this will delete any user defined palettes you may have created So you may want to save them first Picking the A and B Colors As discussed in Chapter 1 Aura has two colors available at any one time and they are displayed on the color selector button on the Main panel The cen ter color is the A Color and the surrounding color is the B Color The A Color is the main drawing color The B Color is used only when a particular function requires a second color mapped to the n key to swap the two colors HINT Use the Color Invert A B command gt You can change either color using the eye Aura VT 5 4 Main Panel dropper method which allows you to select any color used on any pixel visible on the interface To choose the A or B Color 1 Click on the A B Color button Your mouse pointer changes to an arrow with a question mark Main Fanel As ANOO Senn ae aa 3 ry si k Cursor changes to question mark 2 If you want to set the A Color drag your LMB For the B Color drag your RMB As you drag around the screen several things happen First the A or B Color changes based on the color of the pixel beneath your mouse pointer Second if you ve selected the Slider tab on the Color Picker panel the RGB and HSL values will also reflect the values for the color of the pixel beneath your mouse pointer 3 Release your
5. G aura VT 8 46 Chapter 9 George Macros WHAT IS GEORGE George is a macro scripting language that you can use to control Aura It is an automatic pilot that sends instructions such as select this function use this color draw this etc to Aura Each instruction corre sponds to an Aura function or icon Everything takes place as though George was clicking the icon in the interface for you Rather than clicking ten or twenty times on the same button yourself simply ask George to do it for you You can use existing George scripts or you can create your own With George you can create an infi nite number of custom drawing functions and auto mate the use of Aura Many example scripts are included with Aura these are stored in the George subdirectory You can read descriptions for each of the example George scripts by double clicking the script name A dialog appears that asks you if you would like to read instructions select Yes and the instructions appear on a panel The George language is documented in the Software Developers Kit SDK on the Aura CD The SDK contains the complete list of current George commands and examples for how to use them Suppose that you wanted to draw a glass ball To do this you would need to cutout a custom brush for the reflective surface set the parameters to apply this brush in a circle draw a filled circle which will be filled with the brush adjust opacity mapping parame ters to o
6. you must make each change separately via the Modify Project panel Ka NOTE If you need to stretch the resolution 1 5 Aura VT 6 Resolution Changes When modifying the project resolution click on the Keep Project button if you wish to retain the con tents of the current project without stretching to fit the resized page In this case Aura will crop the proj ect images at the bottom and right margins when the new project size is smaller than the existing project Aura leaves an empty area at the bottom and right if the new size is larger Clicking the Stretch Project button instead scales the contents of the current project to fit the resized page Aura enlarges or reduces project images to occupy the entire new working page Modify Project a 1280 Eu 1024 EI 0 000 Eu 1 000 EI 30 000 EI The Modify Project Panel Frame Rate Changes When you change the Frame Rate clicking Keep Project retains the existing number of frames but OARS VT 1 6 the project duration changes based on the new frame rate If the new rate is lower project duration increas es and Aura displays fewer frames per second If the new rate is higher project duration decreases and Aura displays more frames per second For example if you change from 25 fps to 50 fps you decrease project duration by half You need two seconds to display 50 images at 25 fos whereas you need only one second at 50 fos When you click Stretch Project the
7. Aura fills shape with gradient When you release your mouse button the gradient colors will fill the shape Beneath the gradient bar on the Filling Shape Filling Shape Smooth e Opacity Le AALiasing Gradient Opacity Mapping _ Gradient options buttons on the Filling Shape panel panel are some option buttons that determine how a gradient fills a shape Untitled 100 10 Gradient fills from Left to Right for linear radial mir ror Surround and square radial Aura Offers five different types of gradient fills lin ear radial mirror Surround and square radial Global Gradient Controls If you click on the gradient display with your RMB Color mode RMB gradient panel the Gradient panel appears Here you can edit the existing gradient as well as create custom gradients The top three rows of buttons control global gradi ent operations The pop up menu at the top left lets you select from default presets and any gradients you have created This menu also determines the active gradient to which edits are applied With the File pop up menu you can save a gradi ent to a file as well as load one you previously saved You also can choose Default Gradients to reset the available gradients to the default presets however be careful because resetting erases any new gradients and adjustments you ve made To create a new gradient from scratch click the New button then e
8. Chapter 1 Introduction An Introduction to Aura Aura is a powerful painting animation and video layering system that supports most major still image and animation file formats including NewTek s D1 RTV and FLYER CLIP as well as QuickTime AVI Photoshop BMP GIF JPEG PNG TIFF and many more Aura includes an arsenal of industry standard video and image processing tools natural media brushes and fully animated video brush operations you can literally paint with and onto video Aura enhances any non linear editing system paint sys tem character generation program or even 3D ani mation application With Aura s system of unlimited layering and sup port for multiple projects you can easily position keys 3D animations video elements painted layers and effects Aura can manage layer transparency at a pixel level Aura can be used as a powerful composit ing tool and the time line based layers feature is per fect for rotoscoping When playing back animations video you have absolute control over playback rates Keyframe tools can position and rotate any element in 3D space Time stretching interpolation options make elements fit into defined time slots Animators will love the light table onion skin fea ture that allows you to see action in preceding and subsequent frames The light table makes Aura ideal as a pencil test system for traditional animators Aura even supports Wacom compatible pressure sensitiv
9. Other Merging Options The Merge button contains some other merging options 2eeeah HEN EL aS ea B SSS a Sass poni The Merge pop up button on the Layer panel If you have multiple layers selected you can choose Merge Selected They will be merged top to bottom so you may want to re order them before using this function Merge Visible will merge all of the layers that are not hidden Merge All flattens the contents of all layers into a single layer The duration of the resulting layers is equal to the total duration of the project This means that if you apply this function to two layers one of which contains frame O to frame 10 and the other contains frame 8 to frame 20 the resultant image will go from frame O to frame 20 Only the first layer will be present from frame O to frame 8 both layers will be overlaid from frame 8 to frame 10 and only the second layer will be present from frame 10 to frame 20 FRAME EDITING In addition to globally adjusting the position and size of layers you also can move individual frames around in time as well as insert new frames in a layer or delete existing ones Selecting and Unselecting Frames You can reorganize layers and you also can cut and paste frames within the same layer or between Countdn1 1 0 14 15 100 mr LULL DEREN Drag on the layer s timeline to select one or more frames layers To use these commands you must first select one or more fram
10. 4 Panning panel The Panning filter works like the Panning tool Main panel It moves the contents of the image in a given direction and distance The image is tiled while pan ning so as parts of the image go off one side of the screen they reappear on the opposite side Use the Panning filter instead of the Move tool when you need to move a range of selected frames in a layer when you need to shift things a very precise amount or when you want to animate the effect ers that contain brushes or anim brushes with alpha Use it to move a keyed element or logo brush K4 NOTE The panning tool works well with lay The Mode menu lets you choose how to apply the panning operation Wrap repeats the image so that you create a tiling effect Shift offsets the image from its original position You can set exact panning parameters by entering the desired pixel values in the Pan X and Pan Y input fields You also can set these values graphically by clicking the Set panning button A large crosshair will appear beneath the pointer when you are over the project window Drag your mouse button and an elastic line will follow your pointer This line shows the direction and distance of the shift The Pan X and Pan Y values automatically update as you move the pointer and the preview window will also change accordingly Release the mouse button when you are satisfied with the applied shift NOTE For information on the Path menu see t
11. Bs a igi 237 60 KO 248 50 __ KO B Wrapping panel The Wrapping Grid filter warps imagery on the X amp Y axes in the fashion of the proverbial funhouse mir ror It may be thought of as a simple morphing appli cation as well Pixels are translated spatially and stretched as necessary to provide the desired effect Control for the effect is provided by the use of control points at the intersections of vectors subdivid ing the project window Where the vectors intersect control nodes are found Each of these nodes can be dragged from its Origin to a new Destination point warping the imagery in its area of influence as required The density of the mesh is set using the Num Grid X and Num Grid Y fields Changing the values does not automatically update the mesh however To effect the change after modifying the settings click Resize To see the mesh and corresponding nodes click Edit Clicking on Origin permits you to move or group nodes closer to important details in the source image by dragging with the LMB Then clicking on Destination allows you to drag nodes to desired end positions Try it on a buff body view the results of your Destination node edit Y HINT If Preview is checkmarked you can ing as you drag 8 37 Aura VT 6 The Current X and Current Y fields display the exact position of the currently selected control node If you wish to restore currently selected nodes to their original pos
12. Click the 1 One to one Zoom Factor button to quickly display the image at 100 Click the F Fit to Project Window button to adjust magnification so that you can view the entire image in the project win dow Right click on F to resize the project panel Click the V Video Input to display the VT 3 video input in the project window RMB opens the Video Device settings panel allowing you to select between available sources NOTE See the previous discussion on K4 Working With Video for information on the Aspect Ratio Display button When the image is larger than the project window you can use the scroll controls to navigate around Dragging directly on the Pan Project button pans the image inside the window You can also pan by hold ing the Att key and dragging with the LMB directly in the window The numeric keypad also allows you to move around the screen The 2 and 8 keys move vertically the 4 and 6 keys move horizontally and the 1 3 7 and 9 keys move diagonally The 5 key centers your image NOTE You can access some of the project window controls from the View menu Navigating Choose Windows gt Navigator Panel or click the Navigator button on the menu panel and a small panel appears DHH e aeee Navigating the Aura interface In this small panel a red bounding box indicates the area displayed on the current project window You can drag this box around with your LMB to pan the contents of the window
13. layer to a separate PSD layer The import and export menus give you an option for Alpha which defines how you import and export an aloha channel Your choices are PreMultiply Non PreMultiply Ignore no alpha 24 bit image and Alpha Only which loads only the alpha channel use this when you would like to import or export the mask of an image only The Blend Alpha with Stencil mode in the Export menu lets you export an image or a sequence with an aloha channel that comes from a Stencil When you select one of the file formats a dialog Sera v wise Available formats for export and import box usually appears that allows you to set prefer ences for the selected format These are options include color depth dithering method number of col ors compression method etc Please see the Appendix for a detailed discussion on the individual file format settings Exporting an Image When you export an image you save only the cur rent image as it appears in the project window Any file format can be used including those usually reserved for animations RTV AVI FLC etc K4 NOTE Aura saves the background e g Color or Check mode in the image as well However the effects of the light table will not be saved If the background is set to None the background will be transparent if the file format sup ports an alpha channel otherwise it will be black Exporting a Sequence When you export a sequence Aura saves yo
14. the In and Out fields located to the right of the Mark In and Mark Out buttons reflect the first and last frames in the sequence If you want to trim the head or tail of the sequence adjust the appropriate fields You can visually set the In and Out points by dragging the slider to the desired frame and clicking the Mark In or Mark Out button The Duration field displays the frame selected by the slider and the duration of the sequence in frames separated by a slash The duration is a result of the In and Out point settings Video Options Full Frame simply means that each frame in the sequence is treated as a complete frame in Aura The other two options are special treatments for loading interlaced video files With the Load Fields Even first option Aura obtains the first displayed image by interpolating information between the lines of the even field of the first image in the sequence The second image shown in Aura s layer panel is the result of interpolat ing the odd field of the first source image and so on This option gives a stable image by interpolating each loaded field to create a complete image Load Fields Odd first is the complementary option plac ing the interpolated odd field first You normally use these options when you intend to use the animation sequence as video again determines which field comes first However it should be very apparent if the wrong option is used when you view the imported
15. the program receives a character string con taining the word Continue a pair of coordinates x y and the code identifying which button you pressed Each parameter in this string is separated from the previous parameter by a space The program can store the coordinates as it receives them and for example may execute them when it detects that you released the button BE Line mode You draw a straight line in the image to run the program The program receives a charac ter string containing the word Line two pairs of x and y coordinates the start and end of the straight line and the code for the button that you pressed Each parameter in this string is separated from the previ ous parameter by a space IE Rectangle mode You draw a rectangle in the image to run the program The program receives a character string containing the word Rectangle two pairs of x and y coordinates the opposite corners of the rectangle and the code for the button that you pressed Each parameter in this string is separated from the previous parameter by a space BE Circle mode You draw a circle in the image to run the program The program receives a character string containing the word Circle a pair of x and y coordinates the center of the circle the radius and the code for the button that you pressed Each parameter in this string is separated from the previ ous parameter by a space USING A GEORGE SCRIPT Choose Windows gt George panel from
16. 1 00 With higher values 1 8 is a typical value for CMYK printing the image looks lighter and with lower values it looks darker The gamma settings are used to recalibrate your monitor only They never change the actual col ors of the image saved on the disk Gre VT 2 10 Offset lets you shift the colors in the monitor dis play Essentially you change the hue when you set a specific value in the offset field Gain can be equated to the saturation or intensity of your colors in the display Normally you keep the default value of 1 00 Higher values add more satura tion and lower values decrease saturation Apply Gamma Settings to enable the LUT values that you entered Lock links the primary colors RGB together LUT Example situations include a poorly adjusted monitor with internal controls or no controls at all standardizing the display of images using different videocard and monitor combi nations etc WARNING Use great caution if you adjust The DirectDraw option gives you support for graphics cards that do not allow YUV display If your graphics card does not allow YUV display select the RGB setting beside DirectDraw You can then see your video in the project background Settings Panel Interface Tab From the Color Scheme pop up menu you can select from several preset color schemes for the Aura interface You can modify individual settings by first choosing one in the pop up menu above the Color Scheme
17. 6 aura VT 9 6 Appendix FILE FORMATS Select a save format for your files using the Mode pop up list in the Aura File menu You can read a description of how to use this menu in Chapter 2 This appendix describes the different file formats and the options available for each of these formats Indexed Color Palettes and Dithering Some file formats use indexed color palettes exclusively or offer this option This means that every pixel in the image points to a color in a defined set of colors The total number of colors can be 256 8 bit or less If you could change a color on the palette all of the pixels that pointed to it would change This differs from a true color format where the color for each pixel is determined independently usually using 24 bits of information allowing over 16 million differ ent possible colors There can be up to four indexed color options available on the Palette pop up menu that appears on many file format mode panels Preset uses a pre defined palette containing different shades of red green and blue User defined uses the 256 color palette that is currently on the Bin tab of the Color Picker panel Global quantized com putes an optimum palette that it uses for all images in a sequence When you save using this option it may take a little longer since the program has to examine Xx N Dithering option on the GIF panel all the images in the sequence to determine this palette With the L
18. Blur represents the power of the blurring which increases as this value increases animbrushes you can create a soft edge or Y HINT If you blur the opacity of brushes and remove jagged edges Center Blur SS 199 50 D 152 23 g 74 93 4 gt 100 00 D Center blur panel with preview The Center Blur filter creates a zooming affect by sweeping a motion blur over areas outside of a defined focal point The Center X and Center Y fields let you set the coordinates in pixels for the center of the blur The Radius determines the image area that remains unaf fected by the blur Power sets the amount of motion blur in percent ChromaBlur Without Chroma Blur With Chroma Blur This filter is provided to assist with difficult chro makeying tasks associated with some digital video sources Blur represents the radius of the blur applied 8 7 Aura VT 6 Video recorded in certain DV formats 25 Mbps variants like miniDV DVCAM and DVCPro runs into some issues when chromakeyed The problem stems from the 4 1 1 NTSC or 4 2 0 PAL digital sampling used by these formats Simply stated the black and white tonal values in DV imagery are much better resolved than the corre sponding color values are The eye is relatively forgiv ing of this compromise Reasonable sharpness in the luminance channel suffices to convince us that the image is sharp even though the color channels are heavily pixilated due to t
19. D whose file extension started with the letter T So files like Doug txt Des tif etc will be listed To select a file double click on it in the listing sin gle click on it and then click OK or enter its name in 2 11 Aura VT 6 the File input field and press the Enter key To cancel the operation click on the Cancel button the Aura file requester however it is highly recommended that you use it because of the additional information that it provides HINT It may take a little time to get used to NOTE You must use the Windows File requester to access files on a network Settings Panel Memory amp Cache Tab Here you can set the amount of memory to set aside for undos and data caches to your hard drive Select Automatic to let Aura automatically manage the cache size Settings Memory amp Cache Er The Settings panel Memory and Cache tab on the General tab using the Temp location Ka NOTE The location of the Cache data is set setting VIDEO GRABBER You access the Video Device panel by choosing Windows gt Video Grabber This panel lets you choose a video source that you can grab for your Aura projects and a video output to which you can send an Aura project You can also use the RMB on the V button of the project window to open this panel Gaus VT 2 12 63MB D Video Input Video Grabber 0 Eu seian Video Grabber panel Input for Aura VT You will normally select your
20. Dragging in the window with your RMB will scale the size of the bounding box Clicking the N button launches another project window this procedure is the same as choosing View gt New zoom window The buttons on the zoom window have the same effect as the identical buttons on the project window 1 9 Aura VT 6 GENERAL OPERATION FUNCTIONS The Kill Function The Kill function erases the current frame or select ed frames of the current layer respecting any select ed areas If you use the LMB the image becomes transparent However if you use the RMB the image fills with the B Color You can also choose Edit gt Clear to clear these lected area es ZNO Blog Saleis MAARE The Kill or Clear function button The Undo Redo Functions The Undo function undoes the last modification you made This may be a drawn line a filter applica tion merging of two layers a change in the duration or position of a layer etc The number of undo levels is limited only by your memory resources You set the amount of memory allocated to undo on the Settings panel discussed in the next chapter tions and each project has its own undo Some actions are not undoable such as Modify Project K4 NOTE Undo works mostly on drawing opera Main Panel LZA PO CS Falls iS ES VETER Undo and Redo buttons The Redo function redoes operations that were undone As long as you have made no editing changes you can redo all the
21. Edit gt Settings panel to launch the Settings panel Settings Panel General Tab On the General tab you can set the default directo ry location for the listed types of files Aura stores the current project partly in memory and partly on your hard disk Storage on the hard disk is done in a file which is located in the Temp location By default Aura uses your system temporary directory however you should select your drive with the most free space Your project can use quite a bit of data particularly if you edit video files If you have more than one physical hard drive for maximum performance set your Temp location to a drive other than that used for your system temporary directory The temp file should also be on a drive separate from the drive Windows uses for virtual memory You should also use your fastest drive if possible Keyboard Mapping Click the Configure button beside Keyboard Shorts to display the Configure Keyboard Shorts panel Here you can map Aura functions to specific keys or key combinations Edit Keyboard Mapping The Keyboard Shorts panel the left list shows current assignments while the right list shows available functions The list in the left window displays the current key board assignments Keys are indicated in white and assigned functions are indicated in black The list on the right displays all assignable Aura functions Functions currently mapped to a key are ghosted while unassigned
22. Edit Brush panel Notice that the Load Animbrush panel includes an additional option beneath the Video options Use Fix Motion to mix the even and odd fields of each image in the sequence This is sometimes called deinterlac ing This option uses the same technique as the Filters gt Video gt Fix Motion filter You typically use Fix Motion to load video sequences for computer display File Requester Preview When you import files into Aura you can right click on the icon in the file requester to launch a preview panel The preview panel lets you play pause stop and loop the file if it is an animation You can also show a block of timecode over the preview by acti vating the Show Number option The preview shows the animation at its native resolution so if the file has a resolution of 640 x 480 then the preview will expand to that size ANNANN i UUU ti The preview panel from the file requester EXPORTING GRAPHICS When you Export you save the Aura project or a single frame using a file format other than the native Aura format aur You should first select the desired format from the File gt Mode submenu The top section of the File gt Mode submenu lists the file formats capable of storing animations as one file i e AVI DEEP RTV etc The formats listed on the lower portion of the menu store individual images only i e BMP ILBM etc When you export an image as a Photoshop PSD file Aura saves each
23. Main Panel BZA POSS Fats ie OS VIBE The Crop button on the Main panel On the Crop tool panel you enter the coordinates where your selection marquee begins in the Begin X and Begin Y fields You specify the size of the selec tion marquee in the Width and Height fields The Lock Aspect button is selected by default when you select this tool With Lock Aspect selected Aura constrains the proportions of the selection area to a fixed ratio With Lock Aspect unselected you can independently adjust the height and width of your selection area To crop your selection and create a new project window hit the ENTER key or the Crop button on the Crop tool panel Once you crop out an area Aura creates a new window that uses the origi nal filename preceded by crop C Program FilesiAuraiCcontentiimagesiEmpireStateBldg tg Tool Crop k 29297 121 17 gt B 360 a N 240 Selecting the crop area with the Crop tool and the Tool settings panel THE ZOOM TOOL The Zoom tool lets you zoom into or out of areas of your project from a range of 1 percent up to 10 000 percent With the Zoom tool selected you zoom in or magnify an area by clicking with your LMB To zoom out of an area click with your RMB When you use this tool you zoom in or out of the area in the image that is beneath the magnifying glass Main Panel ASANO 2 EO cs 3 Fal ts oe 1S ESE be The Zoom button on the Main panel Y HINT Whil
24. Preserve is the equivalent of painting in Behind mode and prevents the new pattern from affecting existing pixels based on their opacity Invert reverses the pattern created ate values in the Perlin noise filter you can easily create realistic caustic patterns like those caused by sunlight beneath the surface of a swimming pool or wispy tendrils of smoke o HINT By using the Invert button with appropri Click Preview to see the effect of your current set tings and Apply to render the effect NOTE Most settings for Perlin noise can be keyframed allowing you to animate the appear ance or positioning of the texture over time Plasma This tool also creates a procedural pattern in the current image The effect can be quite complex Basically it is comprised of one or more sets of con centric rings and their interference patterns It may help to think of these as ripples each emanating from a Generator The uppermost section of the control panel offers the Circles pop up menu which permits you to desig nate how many Generators are used You can choose from one to four Circles Choosing 1 Circle the pat tern formed will be a single set of concentric rings The ripples from two or more generators will interfere with one another creating more diverse effects paN Plasma Example Unlike the similarly named control elsewhere in Aura the Mode pop up does not designate how the pattern will be
25. VT 3 as the active device using the Device setting The Input selection lets you choose the input from the VT 3 source such as Program DSK and so on Format will automati cally correspond to your VT 3 project preferences The Mix field lets you mix the value between the video background and the current Aura project When mix equals O your project sits over video and when mix equals 100 the video sits over your project Mix affects your Project window only when you set Video Background to enable Use the Apply on menu to specify where to store your grabbed images With the New Layer you place the image on a new layer of your project With Current Layer you place the grabbed image on the layer where you are currently working If no frame is selected Aura pastes the image after the current frame in the current layer if a frame is selected Aura replaces the current frame with the grabbed image The Length field defines the length of your grabbed image in frames The default length of your grabbed image is 5 The Field menu has options to set how Aura han dles fields Double grabs fields as they are it does not change them Odd mixes fields with odd first for NTSC sources Even mixes fields with even first for PAL sources Mix blends the fields together Click on Grab to grab frames from your video input All functions for Grab can be accessed by shortcuts for example you can set Grab to respond to a footpedal or an externa
26. VT 9 4 two quotation characters in a string you must use the other quotation character to surround it for example It s finished or The program name is Aura You can process numeric values like string values in operations such as concatenation joining several strings together For example PRINT The result is value Use the CONCAT instruction or the empty charac ter string if you want to concatenate two strings in other words join them together one behind the other The following two lines CONCAT string1 string2 and string1 string2 produce the same result If you want to concatenate these two strings and separate them by a space you can write string1 string2 If you want to increment the numeric part of a character string for example a file name you can write FOR i 1 TO 10 name base i base is the base name PRINT name base1 base2 etc END Arrays You can create variable arrays in George in the form var i or var i where i is a numeric value indicat ing the position of the required element in the table and var is the generic name of the variables in the array There is no need to make a prior declaration for the dimension the number of elements in these tables because they are created dynamically These arrays may contain several dimensions for example var i j or var i j for a table with two dimensions Example day 1 Monday
27. ascends to the top middle of the graph and then ends in the lower right You can redefine the curves by dragging any of the four white triangles This not only allows you to reposition the curves but also to change their shape The shape and position of the curve determines how the adjusted color parameter is applied to the select ed region Where the curve is high a greater amount of change will occur Where the curve is low less change will occur Above Left Shadow curve Above Right Highlights curve Left Midtones curve Let s move back to the second row of tabs The Gamma Contrast Gain and Brightness tabs deter mine how the color component affects the pixels in the selected region Drag the white triangles on the Color Correction graph to rede fine curves Using the Gamma or Brightness of the pixels will achieve similar results The difference will occur at the ends of the region Brightness uniformly increases decreases the color component over the entire region Gamma tends to keep upper and lower val ues undisturbed Using the Contrast of the pixels increases the color component for brighter pixels and decreases it Color Correction Gamma Contrast Gain and Brightness tabs for darker ones Gain is similar but fades the effect off at the ends This will minimize the pixels that get pegged at the maximum and minimum possible val ues Below is a comparison of Gamma dotted black line and
28. buttons on the Edit Brush panel 2000 tif 100 10 Fl SES Res e mman Custom brush after Rotation clockwise lower button As with resizing you also have the option of entering a precise rotation value in the Angle field To graphically rotate the brush 1 Click the Angle M button A bounding box will appear 2 Drag your LMB to rotate the bounding box You can achieve more precise adjustments by moving the mouse pointer away from the center of rotation 3 The rotated brush will be displayed temporarily after you release the mouse button Flipping the Brush The fifth buttons from the left will flip the brush horizontally top button or vertically lower button Edit Brush 4 17 Aura VT G Other Brush Editing Options You can apply a border around the non transpar ent perimeter of the brush by setting the Border value in pixels to the desired thickness Untitled 100 00 Custom brush after applying border The right most button on the top is an Optimize function While this option is active it crops out all transparent areas around the perimeter of the brush This differs from the Optimize function on the Tool panel in that it does not change the underlying brush data Edit Brush belleas ABRERA The Optimize button on the Edit Brush panel The right most button on the lower row takes the B color and fills in the transparent areas Areas that are 100 percent
29. click in a curve edit area a pop up menu Opacity Mapping appears The menu gives you a short cut to the curve E types and to invert options The Invert X flips the curve horizontally and the Invert Y flips it vertically Invert X a MEn P Mes Opacity Mapping with Spline curves for X a Mw NB and Y axes F ONN Curve edit area RMB pop up menu Bates VT 510 Opacity Mapping D eo EI yin X axis curve after Invert X If you click your mouse button directly in the Opacity Mapping Display you will get mountain curves for the Linear option or bell shaped curves for the Spline option If you continue to drag your mouse you will move the position of the tip points which correspond to the densest area Opacity Mapping OUST 45 Meo Ss Linear curves after clicking in the Opacity Mapping display area Global Edit Functions Using the File pop up menu you can save and load Opacity Mapping curves You can also reset the panel to its default settings from this menu The FlipX and FlipY buttons will flip both curves horizontally and vertically The Copy to button will copy the active curve to the other curve The active curve is the one with the highlighted point only one point can be highlighted The Swap button will simply swap both curves Preset Curves In the lower left corner you will find the presets func tion You can cycle through the available presets by clicking the up and down
30. determine the file for mat For example Aura will automatically rec ognize and load a JPEG format file called Picture gif Of course such naming will likely cause confusion if you plan to use the image in other applications From the Volumes pop up menu you can select the hard drive partition CD Rom drive removable device etc You select a subdirectory folder in the current directory with the Directories pop up menu Clicking on the button takes you to the parent directory if you are not in the root directory You can manually input a full path in the Path input field using the form Drive subdir subdir If you click in the Path input field you can use your Up Arrowkey and Down Arrowkey to cycle through previously used paths tain amount Aura replaces the pop up menu with a scrollable window Simply select the desired item and click OK K4 NOTE If the number of items exceeds a cer The Pattern input field contains by default It uses the standard MS DOS filename pattern match ing conventions so an asterisk is a multiple charac ter wildcard As such lists all files that have a period in their name An asterisk by itself will list all files even ones without a period tga will display only files with the file extension tga A ques tion mark is a single character wildcard d t will list all files four characters or less starting with the letter
31. empty system clipboard image data can be shared Ka NOTE Since these operations work with the between other applications as well 2 Aura VT 6 24 color bits and 8 alpha channel bits of images present in the clipboard This type of data may cause problems with some pro grams when you ask them to recover the contents of the clipboard usually using their Paste command However you can force Aura to store only 24 color bits of the images in the clipboard This can solve compatibility problems with other programs See the discussion on the Aura25 ini file in the Appendix K4 NOTE By default Aura writes the 32 data bits MANAGING THE SPARE IMAGE The spare image is a storage space in which you can place an image in order to use it with certain draw ing modes filters or simply for temporary storage Choose Edit gt Spare gt Swap spare to switch the contents of the current frame for the current layer with the contents of the spare image or use the J key Choose Edit gt Spare gt Copy to spare to copy the contents of the current frame and place it into the spare image The former contents of the spare image are deleted Choose Edit gt Spare gt Delete spare to delete the spare image The Settings panel General tab 6 Aura VT 2 8 PREFERENCES Aura offers various options that allow you to cus tomize the operations of its interface tools and func tions These options are found on the Edit menu Choose
32. first and then all odd lines are displayed This is called interlacing Under normal circumstances this interlacing of even and odd lines is unnoticeable because it is com pensated by image smoothing But when there are strong contrasts in images with sudden changes from black to white interlacing can cause a scintilla tion effect characteristic of the video signal Computer images which are usually sharper tend to scintillate when they are displayed on a video monitor Similarly digitized video images are often chopped horizontally when they are displayed on a computer monitor This filter solves these two problems It does this by interpolating data for image fields which gener fAuralPixigirl ty 150 00 girl rtv 150 00 Erz De EB 00s Above Before Below After Mix ates smoothing of the image in the vertical direction only A computer image is then more stable when it is displayed in video and a digitized video image becomes coherent once again sometimes at the expense of more marked smoothing The Duplicate Even field option will interpolate the data for even lines in a field Duplicate Odd field is the opposite and interpolates data between odd lines in a field You also can choose the Mix mode to combine the fields Pattern Patterns Pattern panel with Bars 100 option Use the Pattern filter to generate video test pat terns to the current or selected frames Use the Pattern pop up menu t
33. functions remain in black If you click on an assigned function in the right window the keyboard assignment is displayed in the informational field at the bottom of the panel Aura updates key board shortcuts dynamically when you change assignments or load a keyboard map discussed next NOTE When applicable Aura displays key K4 board shortcuts on the main menu To assign a function to a keystroke 1 Highlight a keystroke in the list in the left window 2 Highlight a function from the right window list The Assign button to the right of the windows becomes active 3 Click on the Assign button to map the key to your chosen function If the keystroke already has an assignment and you wish to add to it instead of replacing it hold the Ctrl key as you click Assign This way you can assign multiple actions to one key For example you could map Layer make anim and Layer select all to the a key If two commands are mapped to one key you can see the commands joined by a plus sign in the information field at the bottom of the panel To unassign a keystroke 1 Highlight a keystroke in the list in the left window 2 Click on the Unassign button You can save all of your settings for keyboard map ping to a file from the File pop up menu and you can load previously saved settings Different users can 2 9 Aura VT 6 access personalized shortcuts Or if you re feeling wild you can challenge yourself by loading a different keyb
34. image hold the Ctrl key and drag your LMB NOTE Rotation occurs only on the bank angle with the Transform tool D DataigraphicsiPersonaliDougsCartif 52 Rotating and scaling an image with the Transform Tool The Tool panel displays settings for the Transform tool 0 00 gt 0 00 Kg Center _ 100 00 D 0 00 gt Reset Settings for Transform on the Tool panel If you set the top pop up menu to Fill instead of Once you can tile the image that is you repeat the image horizontally and vertically across the work area have transparency try placing a large logo in the center of the screen and then scale down the logo so it repeats HINT The fill mode works well with layers that Using the Fill option to tile an image with the Transform tool You can independently set whether you move the image and or selection area using options on this panel The Panning X and Panning Y values reflect the amount of horizontal and vertical movement respec tively Scale sets the amount of sizing and Angle sets the amount of rotation You can edit these fields man ually if you desire The Center button will center the image retaining any scaling and rotation Click Reset to reset the panel to its default values Click the Apply button to apply the settings to the image If you select another function tool without applying first you will discard all settings current frame of the current layer
35. left button If you select Checked Aura creates a checkerboard pattern with both colors for the background Checkerboard pattern for background well when it is critical to be able to see the transparency between layers and the back ground Y HINT A Checkerboard background works NOTE When exporting an image or K4 sequence the background is included as part of the saved image However if the None option is used with a 32 bit export file mode like TGA 32 Aura saves the transparency of the various layers as an 8 bit aloha channel VIEWING AN ANIMATION To view your animation you can use the VCR con trols near the top of the panel or you can scrub the timeline The play button in the middle of the VCR mt mit 3 ll cum wl tee 1 cc ef Deus po sel 9 f As wz P ill ae as E SE aa a rer SS Nege i 0 010 Prr me Jo Preview controls on the Layer panel controls launches a remote control From the remote control you choose the options for running your ani mation in the work area Preview Settings Aura offers three types of previews that work with the remote control RealTime Proxy and Render You select a preview setting by clicking your RMB on the play button or choosing Windows gt Preview Settings You also can launch this panel by clicking on the Proxy bar in the main menu The RealTime preview creates an animation on the fly and always reflects the current state of your pr
36. monitor or a vectorscope The pop up menu in the top left corner sets the type This filter interprets the combined layers for the current frame so it is unnecessary to merge layers You can choose different display options for the Waveform monitor For Composite WF choose to display the full YC signal luminance and chromi nance respectively or just the Y or C portion For Component WF choose between RGB and YUV When you set the panel to VectorScope you must set the Scale to match the input Usually the input is 75 color bars so scale should be 75 also The default Luminosity values for Composite WF Vectorscope Waveform 200 Composite waveform e Component WF and VectorScope are 50 100 and 100 respectively This basically allows you to adjust the intensity of the display The Reticule toggle lets you choose whether or not to render the reticule in your project if you apply the waveform The reticule is the graph that measures the signal which uses an area chart when you work with the Waveform and a circular chart when you work with a Vectorscope The Transparent toggle lets you render the wave form over a transparent background when you select this option When you deactivate Transparent you render the waveform over a black background The Apply button at the bottom of the screen lets you render the WaveForm monitor in your current project 200 Component waveform 8 45 Aura VT 6 Notes
37. mouse button The chosen menu item usually appears on the but ton To avoid selecting an item move the mouse pointer off the menu before releasing the mouse but ton Ts E 640 480 IE 1 000 Eu 30 000 Eu EEE NTSC gt Flyer uug dal 30 000 nme Example of Pop up menu 1 3Aura VT 6 Text and Numeric Input Fields You enter text or a value in the text and numeric input fields Click in a field to modify its contents A cursor appears and then you can type the new con tents using the standard edit functions for your com puter All input fields offer a pop up menu which is avail able when you click the RMB over the field The avail able commands are Undo CTRL Z Cut CTRL X Copy CTRL C Paste CTRL V and Delete These operations work on the entire field You can also press SHIFT DEL to delete everything in front of the cursor or SHIFT BACKSPACE to delete everything behind the cursor Iman Copy Right click the input field for pop up menu Mini slider Buttons Numeric fields feature a mini slider button to the right of the field Dragging your mouse to the right increases the value while dragging to the left reduces it Releasing the mouse button accepts the new value The mini slider button beside the Angle field displays a compass to help you visualize the result of a numeric selection Above mini slider buttons Below Angle compass Aira VT 1 4 Sliders You can use
38. nates for your origin based on the project dimen sions The Scale tab allows you to widen and or height en your motion path You choose options from the Units pop up to specify the unit of measure that defines the size of the motion path When you acti vate the Image ratio option you force the motion path to maintain the aspect ratio of the project dimensions The Channels tab lets you choose which channels to use to export motion paths Aura exports a sepa rate motion file for each of these channels with the channel name appended to the root motion filename All options except the speed option apply only to paths created with a Wacom compatible tablet and stylus The Up Down channel refers to the Up or Down option for your drawing button see this option in the section on the Stroke Recorder You can create keys for a motion path based on this setting The Pressure Altitude Azimuth and Fingerwheel options work with the Stroke Recorder You create keys for these paths only if you record your motion path with a tablet or if you edit these fields in the stroke recorder panel Speed information occurs with either a mouse or a stylus the options vary between O and 1 Path Manager The Path Manager filter lets you manage multiple motion paths From the Manage tab you can access buttons to rename invert copy and delete paths Simply select the path and choose the appropriate button Remember that once you delete a path that y
39. of the spare image from the current image You can use the spare image like a mask with this option SPECIAL FX FILTERS Sr Bevel The Bevel filter creates an image that appears to be stamped raised or embossed on the background The Mode menu lets you choose the type of bevel that you want to apply The Inner bevel makes the image look stamped into the background The Outer bevel raises the image over the background it works only with an alpha channel Both applies Inner and Outer which looks like a pillow emboss On the Channel menu you choose which channel you use to apply the mask for your bevel Red 15 00 ar 15 00 ar 135 00 The Bevel filter with preview Green Blue Alpha or Luma Red Green and Blue are the color channels of the image Alpha refers to the density of those color channels and Luma refers to the black and white portions of the image The Bevel Width and Bevel Height fields let you set the size of the bevel in pixels Essentially you use these settings to adjust the depth of the bevel The Direction field sets the angle of light Softness determines the percentage of blur to apply to the edge of the bevel with a value of O you get a hard edge and with a value of 100 you get a very soft edge The Power field lets you set the intensity of the bevel in percentage Power and Softness can work together to make a more concentrated or diffuse bevel Blend The Blend filter mixes colors in the curre
40. of the mouse pointer in the screen X Y and the color values underneath the pointer RGB If your pointer moves off the image the appropriate values are highlighted in yellow If you use the Shift key to lock axes discussed in the next chapter the locked axis is highlighted in yellow A small preview area pro vides a magnification of the area surrounding the pointer F NewTekPresents2 rty 41 11 Coordinates ef O C Error The Coordinates panel The two rows at the bottom show context related info like length and angle for lines and splines width and height for rectangles A and B two radii for the ellioses etc SS Ke2 NES 100 0090 py 2 17 Aura VT 6 Notes Gruss VT 2 18 Chapter 3 Drawing and Selection Functions DRAWING FUNCTIONS The drawing functions determine the shape of what you draw with the various drawing tools dis cussed in the next chapter For example when you draw freehand lines rectangles or other shapes Aura s selection function lets you define areas to work on and define restricted areas Some of the drawing function buttons have multi ple states Successive clicks will cycle through the available functions For the drawing functions this is usually an outline and a filled option You can apply the current shape with the Enter key you select the shape color and drawing mode you want and Aura applies it in the current layer You can change layers and eve
41. opaque i e non transparent will not be affected You can toggle this option on or off Edit Brush kellele elz al The B color fill button on the Edit Brush panel Gaus VT 4 18 Custom brush after B color added OPACITY MAPPING You can use opacity mapping to define degrees of transparency for different areas of the brush When this option is not selected which is the default sta tus your brush applies the image with the image s original opacity levels AAlIasing Opacity Mapping Apply Changes Opacity mapping area on the Edit Brush panel To edit the Opacity Mapping click on its preview window in the Edit Brush panel The Opacity Mapping panel launches this panel offers the same options as the Opacity Mapping panel available for the Colors tools which is discussed in depth in Chapter 5 You can apply Opacity Mapping to any custom brush whether you created it from an image or from text Opacity Mapping E o maso gt n MaN Custom Brush with text using Opacity Mapping BRUSH BINS All of the drawing tools airbrush penbrush etc have a brush bin accessed on the Bin tab on the AirBrush Default brushes in the brush bin Tool panel Each tool s bin will have some predefined default brushes you can use but you can also save brushes you create for later use A brush in this case is essentially the result of all of the settings on the Options tab The number in
42. or field You may also use the Depth button to toggle an overlapped panel to the front or back This button is located on the right side of a panel s titlebar to the left of the close panel X button Some panels are resizable They have a drag han dle in their right bottom corner but can be sized by dragging any edge or corner L ef O Il 100008 Ka EZ o ia cS Aura interface panels 6 Aura VT 1 8 The Project Window Background You draw and perform your image editing chores in the project window By default the background appears black though it is actually transparent until you paint on it You can change the default color from black if you wish as discussed in Chapter 7 The Project Window Controls You can adjust the overall size of the project win dow by dragging any of the edges or corners The frame of the project window contains a number of controls along the bottom and right edges Vertical Scroll controls Aspect Ratio Display One to one Zoom Factor Fit to Project Window Current Video input Pan Project Horizontal Scroll controls Zoom controls The project window s lower border displays the magnification ratio You can change the magnification using the various zoom controls Use the and but tons to increase and decrease the magnification respectively You can also use the gt and lt keys or Att RMB You can enter a magnification value directly into the field
43. or timecode Start Frame Starting frame time code setting Working with Video A single video frame normally consists of two inter laced fields called the odd and even fields Aura lets you work independently with either field preserving valuable detail that is usually lost if the fields are merged into a single image If you work with video you should understand the Field and Aspect Ratio settings The Field setting determines whether the Even field or the Odd field comes first If you are not working with video fields set this parameter to None You also want to set Start to Time Code The even field is indicated on the global timeline by a 0 appended to the time code The odd field uses 1 e g 00 00 00 15 0 00 00 00 15 1 00 00 00 16 0 etc When you select Even or Odd Aura displays an even and an odd field for each frame along its time line If you choose Even Aura creates the field of even numbered lines first O 2 4 etc then it creates the odd field lines 1 3 5 etc for each frame If you use Odd First Aura reverses the order in which fields are created fields when imagery is exported for use in a video project If you find exported sequences flicker badly on your VT 3 video output it s very likely the field order setting you are using in Aura is incorrect Ka NOTE The field setting affects the order of the Video projects are usually fielded when the project calls for the addition of
44. painted into the current image If Plasma is applied to existing imagery that imagery will always be completely overwritten by the filter s output Rather the Mode options Add Average and so on control how values from different generators are combined mathematically where they interfere with one another Hence this setting has no effect on the pattern created by a single generator but can have a dramatic impact when there are several In the next part of the menu there are settings for each Generator The pop up menu named for each Generator permits you to select Smooth Linear1 or Linear2 The settings modify the way the waveform is calculated The X and Y settings designate the center point for each generator Changing the location of the generators impacts the interference patterns created HINT Since the Generator positions can be keyframed using the X and Y values dramati cally shifting plasma patterns can be created The individual Scale settings control the density or wavelength of the ripple s Scale values also can be keyframed along the Aura timeline enabling you to create constantly changing patterns create the appearance that the ripples are spreading outward from the Generator loca tion Increasing this setting effectively length ens the wavelength of the ripple causing the size of the ripples generated to appear to grow and spread with less rings being created oo HINT Animating the Scale value is one way
45. red is the size of the brush To use a brush in the bin simply left click on it It will become the active brush If you right click on the empty part of the bin a menu will appear allowing you to add your current brush to the bin Put Brush or reset the bin to the default brushes Default Brush Put Brush by default you can simply click your RMB on the empty part of the bin to add the current brush to the bin K4 NOTE When you open the menu it selects For custom brushes an Import Brush menu item appears If you select it a file requester will appear where you can load an image file into the bin If you right click directly on a brush you will have some additional options Add Brush Adds the current brush to the bin Get Brush Uses that brush Same as clicking with LMB Swap Brush Swaps the active brush with the brush in the bin Delete Brush Deletes the brush in the bin Default Brush Resets the bin with the default brushes Be careful with this one there is no way to undo ones can use a lot of disk space if stored in a bin To free disk space delete them if they will not be used again K4 NOTE Custom brushes particularly animated For custom brushes Export Brush and Mode menu items appear These are shortcuts to the File gt Export gt Brush and File gt Mode menu items 4 19 Aura VT 6 Notes G aura VT 4 20 Chapter 5 Working With Colors You have many ways to choose the
46. speed You would need to move the mouse faster to obtain the same effect on the line The Reset button adjacent to each curve restores the curve to its default appearance diagonal The speed Limit value sets the maximum pixels per 1 100th of a second For example you can con nect size to speed Then the higher the limit you set the faster you must move the cursor to approach the normal size setting The Fade setting determines the distance where the parameter is totally faded in pixels The higher the fade value the longer it takes the brush stroke to fade NOTE If used with the line tool the fade is always evenly distributed along the length of the line The Orientation angle sets the narrow direction A value of O makes horizontal strokes narrow and 90 makes vertical strokes narrow Left Orientation at 90 degrees Right Orienation at O degrees The Direction angle sets the direction your mouse must travel to get the base setting on the Tool panel essentially the no effect angle 4 5 Aura VT 6 THE AIRBRUSH TOOL The Airbrush tool sprays paint on the screen The more paint you spray at a specific location the denser the color you obtain On most tablets you can apply the airbrush by using the Finger Wheel Untitled 100 00 Line drawn with the Airbrush tool THE PEN BRUSH TOOL The Pen brush tool draws a solid stroke Untitled 100 00 Line drawn with the Pen Brush tool MECHANICAL P
47. tab The left window gives you a preview of the brush The right window gives you a profile preview of the brush This is essentially a cross section of one half of the brush On the next page are some examples 4 1 Aura VT 6 Tool AirBrush ZAZE Brush shapes for the Airbrush with the cross section superimposed over the brush preview to show you the relationship PPRT om Examples of available Brush shapes Double clicking the profile preview window brings up the brush profile editing panel To add a point to the profile curve click and drag your LMB in the graph area When the point is in the desired position release your mouse button Profile AirBrush Adding a point in the Profile curve To move an existing point click on the point with your LMB to select it and then drag it Note that you can drag only the two default points along their respective edges You can flio the entire curve hori zontally or vertically by clicking Flip X or Flip Y button 6 Aura VT 4 2 To delete a point select it by clicking on it and then click the Delete button You can save and load files for the profile curves from the Files pop up menu You also have a reset option on this menu The Profile Editor offers three options for editing your curve Linear Spline and Polynomial When you activate the Linear option the curve changes direc tion abruptly from point to point With Spline the curve travels smoothly thr
48. the RMB pop up menu To delete a point from a curve Place your mouse pointer over a point and select Delete Point from the RMB pop up menu To add a point to a curve Place your mouse pointer over the curve and select Add Point from the RMB pop up menu DRAWING FILLED SPLINE CURVES You can draw a filled shape with spline curves using the same techniques described above However when you apply the curve Aura fills the shape If the curve is not closed Aura fills the shape as if it were closed using the two end points Untitled 100 00 Untitled 100 00 Drawing a filled Spline Curve DRAWING RECTANGLES The Rectangle function draws a rectangle outline with the current brush and current drawing tool i e Pen Mechanical pencil Brush tool etc Untitled 100 00 Main Panel BET O o Ee Drawing a Rectangle When you first select the Rectangle tool your mouse pointer changes to large crosshairs The initial drag point is the first corner of your rectangle As you drag your mouse an elastic box follows the pointer movements giving a preview the final rectangle Release the mouse button when the pointer reaches the location you want for the opposite corner of the rectangle The rectangle is then drawn DRAWING FILLED RECTANGLES The Filled Rectangle function draws a filled rectan gle You use this function just like the regular Rectangle function except the rectangle is f
49. the Shift mode With the AirBrush the link between the moved parts and the rest of the image remains stronger Don t hesitate to adjust the Opacity of the AirBrush tool to 100 with a very high envelope so that the lightness of the effect is sensitive only on the edges of your stroke Otherwise shifted areas may appear blurred or trans parent Mixer Mode The Mixer mode is very similar to the Shift mode except your A Color is mixed in with the colors The Impress Mode The Impress mode uses one of the colors in the spare image to draw on the current image It can cre ate an effect similar to an impressionist painting hence its name If there is no spare image this mode is ghosted i e unavailable on the pop up menu Using Impress You can use this drawing mode in two different ways 6 Aura VT 4 8 1 In the first approach load an image choose Edit gt Spare gt Copy to Spare Or press Shift j to copy the image to the spare buffer 2 Clear the screen or fill it with white black or gray 3 Select Impress mode and draw a series of very short strokes or small dots adjacent to each other with a round brush The contents of the spare image appear gradually in an impressionist style Impress for the Special Brush used with a clear work area and a Spare image HINT You usually get the best results if your paint spots are small In the second approach to using Impress you use the same image for the
50. the discus sion on the optimize function on the Edit Brush panel discussed later The Handle setting determines where the brush is 415 Aura VT 6 attached to the mouse pointer If you choose Custom crosshairs will appear on the brush Note You must place your mousepointer in the project win dow Drag your LMB to position the handle wherever you wish If you have an animbrush the Anim pop up menu determines how the individual frames are cycled after each is pasted None applies only the first frame in the animbrush as you move your mouse Once cycles through all of the animbrush frames once when you apply the brush After the brush applies all images it applies nothing to the work area until you release the mouse button and apply the brush again Start amp Once cycles through all frames of the anim brush once then the repeats the final frame When you apply the brush again you apply only that final frame of the animbrush You can return to the begin ning of the animbrush by using the slider beneath Anim menu discussed below Loop cycles continuously through the animbrush until you release the LMB Ping Pong cycles through the animbrush until it reaches the end and then it cycles back to the begin ning The brush continues to ping pong through the animbrush frames until you release the LMB Random cycles randomly through the various frames of the animation Pressure uses the amount of pressure applied by your sty
51. the text interior The value defines the border thickness in pixels You can change the border color by clicking the color selection button Border and Outline are mutually exclusive Border 5 The Glow setting creates a glow from 1 to 48 pix els around the characters The value defines the glow thickness in pixels You can change the glow color by clicking the color selection button Glow 15 To activate a text parameter click on its button The button then becomes highlighted You also can activate a parameter by changing its value either by entering a new value or using its mini slider Aura applies only active parameters to the text brush you create To deactivate a parameter simply click on its highlighted button If you edit an input field and then press the Enter key your cursor will automatically jump to the next input field Click the Reset button to reset all parameters to their default values The Text Input Field Using the text input field at the bottom of the panel you can enter a single line of text for your text brush All standard editing operations specific to Aura text fields apply to this text line When the cursor is in the text field you can automatically create the brush using the current settings by pressing the Enter key The B button beside the input field launches a panel that you can resize to enter a longer string of text Aura still allows you to enter only a single line HOW L Jp Le T
52. the titlebar for the Layer panel you will see a heading for Project and one for Layer and beside each heading there are three numbers For the Project heading the first two numbers indicate the location of the project s first and last frames and the third number is the length of the project That is the last frame in time for any layer For the Layer head ing the first two numbers state the location of the selected layer s first and last frames while the third number shows the last frame for that selected layer You can change the time format to a timecode format HH MM SS FF field by clicking on the Layer Project Untitled 0 6 7 Layer Tut06 3 0 1 2 IOI Tx m Mr a Cigala d Delete Layer title bar with time references in Frames column heading Here you can choose between Time i e frames the default Timecode or Fields if you use a project with fielded data Project Untitled 0 6 7 Layer Tut06 3 0 1 2 EA E paaa pelea A mat Click on the Layer heading to change the time format i e FF will increment to seconds based on the project s Frame Rate setting If you use Fields the field value will be O or 1 The time code displayed for NTSC projects using a Frame Rate of 29 97 will be in dropframe format whereas a Frame Rate of 30 invokes a non dropframe timecode display K4 NOTE When you use Timecode the frames 7 3 Aura VT 6 THE CURRENT LAYER Aura carries ou
53. to 829 Aura VT 6 The lower section of the setting panel contains various controls with mini sliders Direct numeric entry of values also is possible The uppermost setting is the global Phase control This effectively alters the pitch of the spreading waveform Increasing it may be thought of as equivalent to causing the ripples to roll outward Unlike the effect of increasing Scale the apparent wavelength and frequency of the pattern are not altered The ripples merely seem to continue to propagate outward without change in proportion Next in order are Red Phase Green Phase Blue Phase and Alpha Phase settings These control the colors and opacity used to paint the pattern Each color phase control cycles through values of its corre sponding channel affecting both the primary color and its complement So for example Blue Phase adjusts both the blue and yellow hues used in the pattern Modifying the phase alters the contribution of these two hues to the pattern controlling both their values and locations on the ripple pattern Likewise Alpha Phase controls the level breadth and placement of transparency in concentric bands along the waveform ripples Hence all else being equal a global Phase setting of 1 00 will produce the exact same pattern as 0 00 Likewise a setting of 351 will be identical in appearance to the result of a phase setting of 2 351 and so on This enables you to easily create looping patterns suc
54. top of the panel NOTE It is not necessary to click the New Ka button first The tracked path will be added automatically as Track You can choose a specific layer that contains the pixels that you want to track Available layers appear in the Layer menu and when you choose the layer you want to track it appears in the preview area When you select Current Pixel Tracker tracks the selected layer If you select Display it tracks the proj Filter Pixel Tracker ETE 00 00 00 00_ 00 00 19 13 D 316 00 ar 235 00 lt gt 25 00 g Pixel Tracker panel ect display A red layer is a video layer When you set a layer in the menu it automatically updates the M In and M Out point The M In and M Out buttons give you control over where tracking begins in the timecode of the anima tion So you can offset pixel tracking from the actual beginning or end of the animation You drag the arrows beside the field to change the timecode and then click the M In button to set the start or in frame for tracking Follow the same procedure and click the M Out button to set the end or out frame Visually setting the pixel to track RefX and RefY define the center position of the pixels you want to track RefW and RefH define the width and height of the tracked pixels TrackW and TrackH define the tracking area i e the area in which tracked pixels can be found Note that this is a mov ing area so the pixels need onl
55. unless you select other frames To move an entire layer you can also use the Panning filter see Chapter 8 Ka NOTE When you use layers you affect only the Transforming a Layer Select all frames in your layer then turn on the Transform Tool Move scale or rotate the image Hit Enter to reapply your transformation to the entire layer 3 9 Aura VT 6 THE WRAP TOOL The Wrap tool lets you stretch and scale an image by adjusting the position of its four corners To move the entire area click and drag with your LMB To size the entire area hold the Ctrl key as you drag your RMB Ls AIO Alocicee ARREZE g r LF Po fe fo J Lo Stretching and scaling with the Wrap tool The Tool panel displays settings relating to the Wrap tool Tool Wrap fil 191 00 ES 141 00 ES 614 00 lt gt 17 00 EI 668 00 EI 287 00 EI 11 00 EI 348 00 g Settings for Wrap on the Tool panel Gaus VT 3 10 If you set the top pop up menu to Fill instead of Once the image is tiled that is it is repeated hori zontally and vertically I EKE AAE 52 27 KO Using the Fill option to tile an image with the Wrap tool You can independently set whether you move the image and or selection area with options on this panel The four pairs of XY settings define the position of the four corners 1 top left 2 top right 3 bot tom right and 4 bottom left You can edit these fields manually i
56. up menu pencil for smearing and smudging like a tradi gt HINT This is great for using with the Charcoal tional artist THE SPECIAL BRUSH TOOL The Special Brush tool smears and smudges the underlying pixels D Data graphicsiPersonalinm_proposalsite JPG 65 Options in the Special Brush pop up menu Smear Mode The Smear mode leaves smeared color behind the brush as if you passed your finger over fresh paint It can give a pencil or pastel appearance if used with a medium sized brush and the FreeHandLine function Furthermore parallel brush strokes in a certain direc tion can create an effect similar to brush strokes on a canvas or photographic motion blur Smear Mode distortion of the Special Brush Tool 4 7 Aura VT 6 to take advantage of the smoothness of this tool powerful at the center and soft around the outlines if you keep the default setting HINT Use the Smear mode with the AirBrush Shift Mode With the Shift mode the brush smudges every thing over which it passes as if these elements were blown away by the wind You will get a completely different effect than with Smear mode which leaves some essence of the original color The Shift mode moves portions of the image while more or less main taining their link with the rest of the image as a al Distortion using Shift mode for the Special Brush tool As with the Smear mode use the AirBrush to soften the effect of
57. video since you will have essentially swapped the time position of every other Aura doubled frame resulting in severe interlace flicker Note VT 3 video clips are Odd first for NTSC and Even first for PAL Ka NOTE There is no universal standard that NOTE Using one of the Load Fields options will double the number of total images dis played within Aura The Import Sequence panel provides two added functions for dealing with video clips The 480 lines Even to 486 lines and 480 lines Odd to 486 lines switches adjust the vertical position of the fields within Aura These options are for use when you work with 480 line file formats like DV AVI files within a 486 line high project such as one suited to VT 3 s RTV file format Selecting the correct option for the file format you are working with is important to pre vent field positioning errors on Export For NTSC DV files imported into a 486 Odd D1 NTSC Aura project select 480 lines Odd to 486 lines Aura offsets the imported sequence by 2 lines down to maintain correct fielding while centering the sequence If dealing with 480 line even first files such as the RTV format created by the version 1 VideoToasterNT you should select 480 lines Even to 486 lines In this case Aura offsets the sequence 3 lines to correct field order and center the sequence The PreLoad Option When active the Preload option loads the entire animation into memory When you deac
58. while the direction or other parameters continue on Note that this is a tog gle setting Once an Up or Down key is hit that state continues until the next Up or Down Applying KeyFramer Use the Source pop up menu to select the image you want to keyframe If you select the Brush apply mode you stamp a brush down once in each frame using the current path Using Brush will use the cur rent custom brush Using Layer Aura acts as if you cut out the selected frames as an animbrush and applied the path with that animbrush Pop up menus on the KeyFramer panel Using the Once setting for the Apply pop up menu the brush is applied only once as you would normally expect Once mode with a rotated brush Setting the Apply pop up menu to Fill will tile the brush to fill each frame this includes respect for perspective and size if the brush is rotated or stretched 8 23 Aura VT 6 The Mode pop up allows you to apply various Drawing modes to your keyframe options You can learn about the different drawing modes in Chapter 6 Drawing Modes and Paper The Preview button shows a preview in the work area of the motion path you create To adjust your frames visually rather than numerically you select the Preview option When you select a motion path that you previously created you must activate Preview to see the path in your work area The AAliasing option on the KeyFramer panel lets you choose whether or not Aura applies a
59. with Expand of 1 FILLING SHAPE OPTIONS See Chapter 5 for information on filling shape options THE SELECTION FUNCTIONS The selection functions allow you to create masks in various ways All painting operations affect only the selection area From left to right the five buttons allow you to define a selection area using a rectan gle ellipse circle freehand shape spline and flood fill magic wand Main Panel ASIA O 2 Ol S Fae ice LEKNE Selection buttons on the Main panel The selection functions work just like the related drawing functions discussed earlier in the chapter except that they define a selection area When a selection function is active the Tool panel contains settings for selection operations The top pop up menu sets the action that occurs when you use the LMB Generally you will leave this set to Add because you can always use the RMB to subtract from an existing selection area The Sub option lets you subtract areas from the existing selec tion each time you use it Replace completely Settings for Selection on the Tool panel replaces the current selection with the new selection that you make The Smooth setting will feather the outside edges of selection areas that you draw If you change the smooth setting your change affects only new selec tions that you make It will not affect existing selec tions ESE ER ES S00 10096 KTS Left Smooth gt 0 Right Smoo
60. you want you can write your own scripts or modify the provided scripts to suit specific needs George is a very rich programming language and even borrows many features from higher level pro gramming languages like C including loops condi tional tests and calculations Language Conventions Variables George manages numeric and character string variables transparently You do not need to declare variable types before using them Thus you can write a 3 MyVariable Monday Additionally variable names are not case sensitive Thus George interprets PRINT Print PRint and PriNt as all the same Reserved Variables Some variable names are reserved for George These variable names may be modified at any time without warning You can read these variables to see what they contain but it is strongly recommended that you do not write into them An example is the George Result variable that is used in particular to store the results of Aura commands Program Line You can include only one instruction on any one line For example the following is an example of what you cannot write PRINT Hello PRINT see you tomorrow Like variable names instruction and command names are not case sensitive Thus George inter prets Tv_AliasOn tv_aliason and TV_aliasON as all the same 9 3 Aura VT 6 George Instructions For better readability George instruction lines can start with the character Thus you can write
61. 30 e By telephone 210 341 8444 Technicians are available to answer questions from 10 00 AM to 5 00 PM Central Time Monday through Friday Please supply in your communication or have the following information handy when calling e Your computer s operating system and version e g Windows 2000 XP Pro etc e The version of AuraVT you are using e The amount of RAM in your computer e Any relevant specifics about your system dis play card type memory managers accelerator type etc e Your product serial number NOTE Your product must be registered before you can receive support 6 Aura VT Appendix 6
62. Aura VT 6 Falloff Fade Unaffected hues The Range expands the defined range by the number of degrees set As you adjust this value you will see the white outlined pie shape expand or con tract All of the hues within this area will be left alone The Fade settings set a falloff range outside of the Range to give you a smooth transition This setting is indicated by black lines You can adjust the Hue value by dragging the pie shaped outline with your mouse You may reverse the effect of your settings by acti vating the Invert option The Plot tab shows the color wheel with only the image s colors mapped on it This often will make it much easier to define your area particularly with pho tographs Plot tab with image colors only Gaus VT 8 12 Color Factory Color Factory panel Use the Color Factory filter to mathematically mod ify the red green blue and alpha color channels of the selected images To set this filter enter the formu la to be carried out on each component in the appro priate field The arithmetic operators addition subtrac tion multiplication and division are supported You also can use parentheses to define operational priority If you do not use parentheses operations are carried out from left to right The following variables which are case sensitive also may be used r value of the red pixel component g value of the green pixel component b value o
63. Brightness dotted white line both increased for different color components using the default Midtones curve solid gray Notice how both peak at the height of the Midtones curve The Brightness line is applied purely based on the Midtones curve The Gamma line however falls off at a different rate It is important to note that each color component can be set differently for Gamma Contrast Gain and Brightness Moreover each region can have its own combination of settings Comparison of Gamma and Brightness with the default Midtones curve NOTE All color corrections are in effect regardless of what is displayed on the current set of sliders On the Reset pop up menu choose Reset Ranges to return all of the region curves to their default state Reset Current will restore the default settings for only the currently displayed color compo nents Reset All resets all panel settings to their default state The Preview option will let you use the project window to preview your settings Color Eraser Use the Color Eraser filter to remove all but the defined color hues from an image The Hue color determines the base color that will be left in The eas iest way to set this is to use the color selection but ton on the panel and select the color from the image itself However you can set this value numerically as an angle in degrees around the displayed color wheel with zero degrees corresponding to three o clock 8 11
64. Drawing with a Straight Line DRAWING FILLED POLYGONS The Filled Polygon function draws a filled polygon by defining an outline with a series of straight lines The fill takes into account certain options such as color range opacity mapping as discussed later Untitled 100 00 Main Panel Io AH ol 2 IS HER EMAREEIK EES EES NSS ETS Drawing with a Filled Polygon Creating a Solid Polygon Your first click in the work area defines the starting point then an elastic line follows the movements of your pointer Each successive mouse click defines another vertex and a new elastic line begins from that point Use any of the following options to complete the polygon e Click on the starting point with your LMB e Click your RMB e Press the Enter key With the final two options above you draw a straight line between the first and last vertex of the polygon and Aura fills all areas delimited by the outline Erasing with a Solid Polygon You can erase with a shape by using the Filled Polygon which is similar to the cut brush function Begin with the RMB create your shape with succes sive LMB clicks and then choose one of the options above to close the shape Aura erases the area in the current layer with your shape DRAWING SPLINE CURVES With the Spline function you can draw a smooth curved line using bezier curves To draw splines 1 Begin by dragging out the initial tangent Normally you should d
65. ENCIL TOOL The Mechanical Pencil tool draws one pixel lines Untitled 100 00 Line drawn with the Mechanical Pencil tool Aura VT 4 6 SaaS SSS SES es 071 ry CO BG 1000 THE OIL BRUSH TOOL The Oil Brush tool lets you paint like you were squeezing oil paint out of a tube The lines you draw will seem raised Untitled 100 00 er rae es os Gls ooo cL Line drawn with the Oil Brush tool The Grain option defines the stiffness of the brush bristles The available options from softest to stiffest are Silk Soft Medium and Hard With stiffer set tings you will see more highlights in the brush strokes from the imaginary bristles Grain pop up menu for the Oil Brush THE CHARCOAL PENCIL TOOL The Charcoal Pencil tool leaves greasy particles under the pointer Larger Size settings create a chalk like effect Untitled 100 00 E E NIE 1 00 00 EN Line drawn with the Charcoal Pencil tool THE WET BRUSH TOOL The Wet Brush tool draws with a very diluted paint like watercolor When you paint with the Wet brush you produce a transparent stroke Untitled 100 00 EIS S Monk Line drawn with the Wet Brush tool THE WARP BRUSH TOOL The Warp Brush tool distorts the underlying pixels Use it on pictures to make a gooey mess Distortions to image created with Warp Brush tool Use the mode pop up menu to choose the direc tion of the warping far Cut Warp pop
66. S When you draw with the LMB you use the current drawing mode The RMB accesses the Erase draw ing mode However if the Dry option is off Tool panel you erase only the current stroke and do not erase other areas of the frame Otherwise you use the normal Erase mode If your tablet has an eraser tip you can use it to erase as well With these fea tures erasing is always available without having to formally select the Erase drawing mode COLOR MODE Aura uses the Color drawing mode by default when you select a drawing tool When you draw you apply the A color to the current image of the current layer Color Mode over image in current layer 6 1 Aura VT 6 BEHIND MODE The Behind mode paints only on areas that have little or no opacity that is transparent areas Behind Mode in transparent areas of layer For example Suppose you drew a pattern on a transparent background and now you want to draw on the background again without modifying the pat tern Using the Behind mode you can draw as you would normally on the transparent background but you can t draw anything on the opaque pattern Furthermore you retain the opacity variations that smooth edges of the drawing For the opposite effect see the discussion on Channel Preserving at the end of this chapter ERASE MODE The Erase mode removes opacity and color along with it Since this mode is always accessible using the RMB in most cases you will
67. Size increases screen updates Step Step indicates the number of pixels between each application of the brush as you draw If not active the step is automatically computed based on the brush size Ka NOTE Not all parameters are available with all tools Gradients See the next chapter for information on gradients Connection Buttons Many of the tool parameters have a green connec tion button to the left of the numeric input field ZZEE FAP IPN fed 15 50 gt LCJER Kg 00 Ko E 100 ar an o 1250 D WOO e Connection buttons on the Airbrush tool 6 Aura VT 4 4 Clicking on the connection button displays a pop up menu You can select from various input charac teristics that will vary the parameter dynamically Speed Speed changes based on the velocity at which you move your cursor Direction Direction uses a different value based on the direction you are drawing Size and Direction at 15 Orientation Orientation is similar to Direction but lines get thinner at two opposing points Use this parameter to mimic the effect of a calligraphy pen Size and Orientation at 15 Fade Fade will fade out your parameter over dis tance Random Random adjusts the selected parame ter randomly Tablet related Items Pressure Pressure connects pressure on a tablet to the tool parameter When you use minimum pres sure the intensity of your line is near zero As you press harder t
68. Sliders to pan an area scroll through a list and set values Sliders can be oriented vertically or horizontally The position of the slider indicates which section of a list area is visible or the set value Clicking on either side of the slider with your LMB moves it by some increment Using your RMB makes the slider jump to your mouse pointer position Some sliders also have two arrow buttons that allow you to move in small increments in the arrow s direction Examples of sliders Progress gauges Many Aura operations display a progress gauge so that you can monitor the status of the function When a progress gauge is displayed you can abort the cur rent operation by clicking the Stop button on the gauge or pressing the Esc key ji Stop Example of progress gauge done prior to the interruption will remain However in some cases you can then use Undo to reverse this partial result K4 NOTE If you abort an operation everything STARTING AURA Aura VT is launched from the main VT 3 J menu You may alternatively run Aura from the Windows Start menu for use without the VT 3 Unless you have previously saved a different startup configura tion Aura launches in D1 NTSC video mode ready for use with your VT S Default Configurations The Configuration defines the current work envi ronment including the position of panels tool set tings Project resolution and Frame Rate etc When you quit Aura you are offere
69. Use KeyFramer to create brush motion paths that can be repeated and edited You accomplish this by setting the position rotation and other settings of a brush at key points in time called keyframes The fil ter automatically computes the appropriate in between states for the settings as needed For example Suppose you want to move a brush from the middle of the screen to one of the corners and then return to the initial position You only need to create three keyframes one for the initial position of the brush one for the brush in the corner of the screen and the third for the final position of the brush To use a path select your drawing tool and related settings and just apply the path It will be as if you drew that exact path with your mouse or drawing tablet Use it on a custom brush to fly it around the screen including 3D like rotational changes You also have the ability to edit the path and tweak it as much as you want You can even add brush changes with your mouse normally only possi ble if you are using a tablet There are three ways to create the motion paths You can manually set your motion paths you can track a defined area through a sequence of frames and you can record your mouse movements Lesson Five in the Tutorials in the Aura content directory cov ers motion paths NOTE KeyFramer uses the same animated fil ter techniques discussed at the beginning of this chapter NOTE You can use KeyFramer curv
70. WING CONTINUOUS FREEHAND LINES The Freehand function lets you draw a free form line with the current brush and current drawing tool i e Pen Propelling pencil Brush tool etc Unlike the Dotted Freehand Line function Aura applies the brush continuously between each position of the mouse pointer as you drag Untitled 100 00 Drawing with a Continuous Freehand Line you may need to draw using slower mouse K4 NOTE When using complex or large brushes movements A ra VT 3 2 DRAWING FILLED FREEHAND SHAPES The Freehand Filled shape function is simply a filled version of the Freehand function When you release the mouse button the first and last points of the line are connected by a straight line and Aura fills all surfaces delimited by this outline The fill takes into account certain options such as color range opacity mapping and so on Untitled 100 00 Main Panel SVIALIOL 2 Holleke ICIS EET KSES Ke2 ENES i000 Drawing with a Filled Freehand shape DRAWING STRAIGHT LINES The Straight line function draws a straight line between two points using the current brush and cur rent drawing tool i e Pen Propelling pencil Brush tool etc To draw lines you drag your mouse point er The initial drag point is the starting point of your line As you drag an elastic line follows your pointer movement The line ends wherever you release the mouse button Untitled 100 00 Main Panel
71. a more precise adjust select Offset from the pop up menu In the pop up dialog enter the off set in seconds Activating Lock in the pop up menu prevents you from being able to drag the waveform with your mouse If you activate the Audio Jog option on the pop up menu you can hear the sound as you shuttle through your project by dragging your mouse pointer over the global timeline This option offers you a few menu items None if you prefer not to hear audio Scrub Only to hear audio only when you scrub the file and Always to hear audio when you scrub or jog To clear a loaded sound select Delete Sound from the pop up menu This will remove the sound from your project but not affect the actual file on your hard drive QuickTime file formats Aura also exports Ka NOTE Audio is exported with the AVI and audio with the RTV file format may prevent you from being able to load a sound file Also Aura may continue to use the audio device until you exit even after the sound file is deleted from the project K4 NOTE If your audio device is not free this 7 13 Aura vr6 Notes G aura VT 7 14 Chapter 8 Filters Filters carry out complex operations such as creat ing relief smoothing and transparency as a function of the color on one or more images There are two types of Aura filters integrated built in and external plug ins With the Aura plug in architecture you can add new filters new functions and new tool
72. affects only filled drawing functions You can change the alpha value for the active 6 aura VT 5 8 Gradient The Alpha component for gradients alpha key by setting a new value in the Alpha input field at the bottom of the panel A value of 100 rep resents a completely opaque color and a value of 0 creates a completely transparent color A color becomes less visible as its aloha value decreases Aura uses a checkerboard pattern as the back ground NOTE The available controls at the bottom of Ka the panel are different if the active key is an alpha key or if it is a color key If you right click an alpha key the pop up menu contains a shortcut to delete the key and set the alpha value Brush Wrapping The Brush Wrapping option lets you fill a shape using the current brush Aura gives several options for filling the shape horizontally Width and vertically Height The Stretch setting stretches or compress es the brush linearly so that it occupies the entire Width or Height of the shape to be filled The Tile setting duplicates the brush to fill the shape The Wrap setting distorts the brush to fill the shape ys Top Stretch for Width and Height Next Page Tile Wrap for Width and Height PiAuralPixidoug amp jac2000 tif 100 10 ts You cannot use Gradient and Brush Wrapping at the same time Any range application option is auto matically deactivated when you select Brush Wrapping Similarly all bru
73. ak Company for use with its line of film scanners and recorders DEEP format dip The DEEP format saves an animation or a single image in 32 bits 16 million colors with 8 bit alpha channel This is a fast and compact proprietary for mat specific to Aura There is no settings panel for this format FLC format flc This format is used to save an animation as a sin gle file or a single image in 8 bits 256 colors See the previous discussion on Indexed Color Palettes and Dithering for information on the Palette and Dithering pop up menu options FLYER CLIP format fly The Flyer Clip format is used to save an animation as a single file for use with NewTek s Video Toaster Flyer Generally your project size should be 752 x 480 GIF format gif The GIF format is used to save an animation as a single file or a single image in up to eight bits 256 colors See the previous discussion on Indexed Color Palettes and Dithering for information on the Palette and Dithering pop up menu options NOTE With this format Aura defines all trans Ka parent areas of the image as using the GIF transparent color This is not a variable trans parency but rather a transparency mask an area is either completely opaque or completely trans parent When you load a GIF file Aura will take into account the transparency color areas if they exist D1 RTV Options on the RTV panel The DI RTV format is used to save an animati
74. al col ors instead of using a single uniform color Some of the drawing tools like the AirBrush give you Ka an option to draw with gradient ink NOTE When you draw with a gradient Aura applies the gradient based on the density of the ink used Zero density corresponds to the left end of the gradient and 100 percent corresponds to the Filling Shape _ 100 00 O FI Gradient area on the Filling Shape panel Filling Shape Color v _ 200 G 100 00 EJ v APen to BPen LMB Gradient presets on the Filling Shape panel 5 5 Aura VT 6 right end When the Gradient option is active you can click your LMB on the gradient display and select from various presets Note that APen and BPen refer to the A and B Color You also can select any custom made gradients you create from this popup The Result display shows the combination of the Color and Alpha displays You can independently adjust the Color and Alpha settings Filling With a Gradient If you use a Gradient fill only an outline of your Untitled 100 10 C De CCD od EN En Making the fill shape outline shape appears when you first use your selected filled drawing function see Chapter 3 Next you need to drag out a vector Generally the direction and length of the vector will affect the gradi Untitled 100 10 Ber SES eS ES PT Dragging out the vector OARS VT 56 ent fill discussed later Untitled 100 10
75. algorithms codecs currently installed on your system This will vary from system to system Compression is essen tially the process of reorganizing and eliminating data to reduce the required data transfer rate and file size necessary to playback and store video animations NOTE The available options vary depending on the Compressor selected As such some options on the panel may be ghosted Compression Quality determines the final image quality A high value provides a better quality image with less compression but increases the resulting file size The Key Frame Every option sets the number of full images that will actually be saved in the file this 6 Aura VT Appendix 2 does not affect the animation playback rate This is available for codecs that support delta compression If you set the value to 10 every tenth frame is stored in its entirety Only the changes i e delta between frames are stored for other frames If you do not acti vate this option every frame is a key frame Data rate sets the maximum allowed data transfer rate The quality of the video is automatically adjusted to achieve the specified data rate Configure accesses another dialog box if any con taining settings specific to the chosen compressor Make the desired settings and then click on OK to save the AVI file Cineon cin The Cineon file format is a 10 bit per channel logorithmic image format originally designed by the Eastman Kod
76. alues In HSL color is described by hue pure color sat uration amount of color and luminosity brightness The value for hue is between O and 359 i e degrees and between O and 255 for the other two components The color bands beneath the color system sliders show you the colors available at different slider posi tions If you see a color you want in a slider bar sim ply drag the slider over the color Using the Picker Tab Left The picker area on the Picker tab Right RMB pop up menu for the picker area On the Picker tab you can vary a selected color parameter using the slider on the right edge Choose the Picker color mode with the pop up menu that appears when you click your RMB over the picker area To choose a color drag your LMB over the pick area and then release to pick a new color As you drag the corresponding RGB or HSL values will appear at the bottom of the panel click on this dis play to cycle between RGB and HSL Mixing It Up Color Picker Mixer area on the Mixer tab OARS VT 5 2 On the Mixer tab there is a mixer area where you can create your own hues by mixing the A Color with existing colors This allows you to act like a traditional painter and choose a color without using the sliders and without restricting yourself to the hues in the palette or an image Color Picker Using LMB to smear colors with the A color in the Mixer area Drawing in the window with you
77. and any excess gets cropped off Color Picker An image loaded into the mixer area To return to the default mixers choose File gt Default Mixers Note that this will delete any user defined mixers you may have created so you may want to save them first Color Palette Bin Selecting colors on the Bin tab is somewhat like choosing a color from the Picker tab except colors are displayed in an array of color squares To choose a color drag your LMB over the palette area and then release to pick a new color As you drag the corre sponding RGB or HSL values will appear at the bot tom of the panel Click on the display to toggle Calor Picker E BEERS ee DE i Color Palette bin between RGB and HSL You can add a color to the palette by scrolling down to the end and then clicking in the blank grey area This will add the current A Color Calor Picker Aural RMB pop up menu for the bin palette area If you right click the palette area a special pop up menu appears on which the top section lists some default palettes and any user defined palettes 5 3 Aura VT 6 NOTE Any change you make will affect the selected checked palette Don t worry about default palettes because you can easily revert back However you may want to save any custom palettes Selecting Replace Color will replace the color square beneath your mouse pointer with Color A when you open the menu Swap Colo
78. animated brushes This makes for smoother motions and reduced flicker Otherwise even when your project involves video but does not require the addition of animated objects you may be able to save considerable time and sys tem resources by not working in a fielded project mode NOTE VideoToaster 2 0 uses Odd field first K4 for NTSC while it uses Even first for PAL Video also does not use square pixels like most computers do Generally video pixels are vertically elongated Therefore a video image looks squashed when you view it on your square pixel PC monitor The Aspect Ratio settings let you view a video image correctly on your PC monitor The value is the height to the width ratio of a pixel An Aspect Ratio of 1 0 indicates square pixels A ratio of 1 1 indicates the pixel is 110 percent of the width i e vertically elon gated or tall e mI fl PS 1 1 KURI 7 Aspect Ratio display option active only the display of your project and does not impact underlying data It is not possible to actually modify the true aspect ratio of imagery using this setting EXITING AURA Select Quit from the File menu to exit from Aura A confirmation panel appears Activate Save this configuration to save update the current user con figuration This configuration will be used when you Ka NOTE The Aspect Ratio setting affects The Quit Panel for exiting Aura next start the program Deactivate this option if you
79. anted pixelization AA Before After Sharo mode allow more control over the amount of sharp o HINT Lower the Power of the drawing tool to ening EMBOSS MODE The Emboss mode makes an area appear raised or stamped Before After Emboss mode SOLARIZE MODE The Solarize mode blends an area with the nega tive of itself Before After Solarize mode SATURATE MODE The Saturate mode increases the amount of color saturation in an area You can use this mode to enhance the colors in a washed out image UNSATURATE MODE The Unsaturated mode decreases the amount of color saturation in an area Use this mode to help tone down an image with oversaturated areas of color that seem unnatural ADD MODE The Add mode takes the color information in each channel and adds your A color to the image colors The resulting color is usually lighter Drawing with black leaves the color unchanged Drawing with white produces white SUB MODE The Sub subtract mode subtracts the image col ors except for the A Color The resulting color is usu ally darker Drawing with black leaves the color unchanged Drawing with white produces black MULTIPLY MODE The Multiply mode takes the color information in each channel and multiplies the A color by the image colors The resulting color is usually darker Multiplying any color with black produces black Multiplying any color with white leaves the color unchanged When you re pai
80. aped curve called gauss ian Gaussian Blur tends to provide a softer blur than the Blur filter ing a blur because it uses floating point values K4 NOTE Gaussian Blur works best for keyfram for smoother transition over time gt Radial Blur Radial Blur a 360 00 Eu 240 00 Eu 50 00 D Radial Blur filter The Radial Blur filter creates an image blur similar to the effect of a camera banking or tilting around a focal point The Center X and Center Y fields let you specify the pixel coordinates for the blur these coordinates are the center around which the blur and rotation occurs The Power setting determines the percent age of radial blur to apply to the image A lower per centage applies a weaker blur and therefore tilts the image less and higher percentage will blur and tilt the image more Best Mode displays the blur using more system resources which gives you a better quality blur You can toggle this option on or off COLOR FILTERS Black and White Black and White When you choose the Black and White filter you convert a color image to a grayscale image You must set three parameters to achieve the effect based on the following equation Y R CoefR G CoefG B CoefB You enter values in the fields for Red Green Blue To see your changes as you make them click on the Preview button You can see your change to each channel in the project window Color Adjust Use the Color Adjust filter
81. ard shortcut to rename a layer Copying and Pasting Layers You can copy selected layers to an internal buffer by choosing Copy Selected Layers from the Layer column pop up menu You can copy layers to the buffer and delete them from the project in one step by choosing Cut Selected Layers Unless you select and highlight a layer the Copy Layer and Cut Layer options appear ghosted in the menu If you select a layer but do not highlight it a yellow border on the layer icon simply left click it again If you have no layers selected you can paste the layers in the buffer above the current layer by choos ing Paste Layers If you have layers selected the pasted layers replace the selected layers You can even cut copy and paste layers between different projects In the same menu you have an option to Duplicate Layers When you select this option you automatically copy and paste any selected layers Deleting Layers You can delete the current layer and other select ed layers by clicking the Delete button Alternatively you also can choose Delete Selected Layers from the Layer column pop up menu STENCIL OPTIONS To the left of the Layer column is the Stencil col umn The top button turns the layer into a stencil Yellow indicates an active stencil and gray means inactive The lower button inverts the stencil effect White represents the default stencil and black repre sents the inverted stencil Stencil On Off OR
82. arent and 255 will be completely opaque V creates a Vertical gradient You choose the Left and Right colors and define an alpha value in the field beside the color tile 6 Aura VT 8 28 4C creates a four corner gradient You choose col ors for the Top Left Top Right Bottom Left and Bottom Right Set an alpha value in the field beside the color tiles for each corner Perlin Noise This tool applies a procedural pattern to the cur rent image Perlin noise was developed to enhance the realism of computer generated graphics by dirty ing them up using pseudo random textures Addi tionally it can be used to simulate clouds smoke or a wide variety of natural textures such as marble wood or flames Perlin noise as KG 1 00 IO 1 57 Lel 0 00 e 0 00 e 8 40 e 20000 _ Perlin Noise example The controls in the upper part of the settings panel define the texture to be generated The SizeX and SizeY fields adjust the scale of the pattern along the X and Y axes while the PosX PosY and PosZ set tings vary its location ate the impression of flying past or even T HINT Animating the Pos parameters can cre through clouds Raising the Octave setting increases the level of detail in the texture The filter uses the Seed setting to provide a pseudo random result For all practical purposes the number you choose does not really matter The settings in the lower section of the panel determine ho
83. arrow buttons If you find one you like just click on the little preview window Application Modes The buttons at the bottom of the panel control how the opacity map fills the shape You use the X and Y buttons to select the application mode of the Opacity range for each curve ro DO a MAN Application mode buttons for Opacity range 5 11 Aura VT NOTE You can deactivate a curve by clicking K4 once on the active mode button Then no button is highlighted m With the uniform mode Aura applies the curve uniformly over the entire shape to be filled as a function of the largest dimension width for the X curve or height for the Y curve of the shape Untitled 1 0 Ge XMS a MAN Uniform mode With the elastic mode the opacity range follows the outline of the filled shape The curve is stretched or compressed so that its width or height is equal to the width or height of the shape to be filled ENa mAN Elastic mode irregularities in the range when used on com plex shapes that have sudden changes The linear mode is similar to the uniform mode except you can define the direction and extent After you draw your shape drag your mouse to define K4 NOTE The elastic mode may generate some l m No ey N Dragging the vector for Linear mode 6 Aus VT 5 12 Untitled 100 10 LISS LIS DE ZI Linear mode results a vector an elastic line When the vector is pointing in the desir
84. ble in other words recognized only within the procedure Example LOCAL day1 day2 INCLUDE Syntax INCLUDE file Declares a file to be inserted in the current George program Example INCLUDE include basic grg When the George command interpreter meets a line containing this command it replaces it by the contents of the specified file This allows you to cre ate function libraries and include them in your George programs To access the specified file George gives priority to two search directories the Aura home directory mentioned in the HomeDir line in the Aura2 ini file and the directory containing the George program in which the INCLUDE instruction was given From these base directories you can specify an access path for the file to be included for example INCLUDE library strfunct strlib grg If the file to be included contains procedures see the FUNCTION instruction above you must place the INCLUDE line after the end of the main program You will find two examples of function libraries for the processing of character strings Basic grg and Advanced grg in the George lnclude directory of Aura GEORGE INSTRUCTIONS AND AURA COMMANDS George nstructions are special functions like Rnd and Tan Aura commands are the command lines you use to execute Aura operations These are listed and explained in HTML format on the Aura CD ROM 6 9 5 Aura VT 6 Notes
85. btain a reflection select white and redraw the circle The George panel with scripts and associat ed launching modes If you had to create only one of these balls you could execute the operations manually However what if you needed 10 or 20 glass balls It would like ly get pretty tedious this is where George comes in With the proper program all you have to do is to draw a circle to define the contours of the ball and George will do the rest for you What a guy NOTE George programs are basically plain ASCIl text files You can use any text editing program e g Microsoft Notepad to create and edit them 9 1 Aura VT 6 LAUNCHING MODES Each George program uses a launching mode indicated by a small icon adjacent to the correspon ding line on the George panel Essentially the icon indicates the drawing actions from which the script derives information IE None mode You do not need to draw anything before using this type of George program The pro gram does not receive any parameters Ei Single mode You draw a dot in the image to run the program which receives a character string containing the word Single a pair of coordinates x y and a code identifying which mouse button you pressed 0 for left and 1 for right Each parameter in this string is separated from the previous parameter by a space BEI Continue mode You draw a freehand line in the image to run the program Each time you move the mouse
86. ces the current CustomBrush Tool Cut Brush Settings for the CutBrush on the Tool panel Animbrushes In addition to static custom brushes you can also use a series of images creating an animated brush or animbrush These animbrushes are used in the same way as any other brush To create an animbrush 1 Start Aura with the standard configuration To create an animbrush you need to cut it out from an animated layer we ll use one from the Aura content directory For more information on animated layers see the chapter on Layers 2 From the File menu choose Import gt Sequence and select an anim file 3 After you load the animation you will see it dis played as a layer on the Layers control panel Project Untitled 0 105 106 Layer x 0 105 106 Animation layer created after importing sequence Gauss VT 4 14 4 Double click on the layer bar to select all frames or right click and choose Select All A solid yellow bar will appear beneath the layer bar indicating that all frames have been selected Project Untitled 0 105 106 Layer x 0 105 106 100 _ O LLLE Select All to select animation layer 5 Select the Rectangle CutBrush function and drag out a rectangle over the project window Untitled 100 00 Drag out rectangle and cut out animbrush 6 Because you have selected more than one frame Aura asks if you want to cut out an Animbrush Click Yes If you
87. ching or contracting Beginning Handle Ending Handle twlf d 3 el Ee er Drag the handles on either side of the layer to adjust the layer duration Image vs Anim Layers When you adjust an image layer you simply modify the duration of the still image display in the project For example if you move the start tab to the left the image display starts earlier in the project If you move it to the right the image display starts later in the project When you adjust the duration of an anim layer you must decide how you want Aura to interpret the change Increasing a Layer s Length When you release the mouse button after increas ing a layer a special panel appears Increase Layer Length panel with Stretch and Interpolate activated If you accept the default settings which use Stretch with Interpolate Aura modifies the duration of the layer and attempts to keep the data relatively intact It does this by interpolating missing images when you increase the duration of the layer or it superimposes a number of images by degrees of transparency from the original layer into the same image if you reduce duration If you choose not to Interpolate Aura changes the layer duration by duplicating frames Instead of the Stretch mode you can use the Repeat mode which has several options The Loop option fills the added frames by repeat ing the existing layer starting with its first frame It continues to loop through
88. colors with which you draw With gradients you have the power to paint with a rainbow of colors THE COLOR PALETTE PANEL AMTERNE OTENE The Color Palette visibility button on the Menu panel You can use the Color Palette panel to adjust the A or B color using RBG or HSL color models There also are several special color picking features There are two buttons at the top of the Color Palette panel no matter which tab you select The active button determines whether changes affect the Color Picker A color on the left and B color on the right A Color left or B Color right on the Color Palette panel Click the desired color button to activate it places you in the color picking mode dis Ka NOTE Clicking the button already selected cussed later COLOR SYSTEMS All colors can be described using a set of basic components and there are several color systems each with its own color theory The systems are dis tinguished by the components that each uses to describe colors On the Slider tab you can adjust colors using the RGB and HSL color systems Modifying the color settings in one system automati cally modifies the color settings of the other The Slider tab showing RGB and HSL sliders 5 1 Aura VT 6 In RGB color is described by red green and blue components The value of each component is between O and 255 This mode is considered additive because the three components create white at their maximum v
89. ct all frames 6 Aura VT 8 20 6 Select the Apply Filter button and Aura applies the keys to your layer You can use Auto Key to create keys anywhere in a layer you do not need to start at the first frame However notice that you must use the Create key to define the initial key if you do not start at the first frame 1 Verify that AutoKey is active then choose your initial frame on the global timeline 2 Make your adjustments such as position and rotation on the KeyFramer panel or visually in the work area and click the Create key This defines the initial frame for your new keys 3 Select the target frame and then adjust your key parameters again 4 Select the entire layer and click Apply Filter Aura applies your changes only between your initial and target frames To manually create keys without Auto Key 1 Select the target frame on the global timeline and make sure Auto Key is inactive 2 Edit the desired parameters on the KeyFramer panel or visually adjust the key 3 Click the Create button Keys will be created for all parameters NOTE Make sure you don t start dragging while right on top of an existing key because you will select it instead of creating a new key Manually Editing Keys To manually edit existing keys 1 Choose the path on the KeyFramer panel 2 Place your mouse pointer directly over an exist ing key and click to select it An unselected key looks like a plus sign and a selected
90. current image and the spare image rather than clearing or filling the screen The effect looks something like what you obtain with the Impress for the Special Brush used with image on work and a Spare image Smear mode but whereas Smear mode degrades the image until it eventually becomes completely blurred Impress mode enables you to retain as much precision as you want by adjusting the size of the brush THE TEXTBRUSH TOOL The TextBrush tool lets you create a brush using one line of text and any TrueType font in your Windows font directory You can set the text size and give it special attributes like rotation outlines glows borders and so on Once you set your options you can paint with your text one letter at a time you can apply the entire string as its own brush or you can create a custom brush of the string When you create a custom brush you can access all of the options available to custom brushes which are discussed later You can learn methods for creating text effects from the tutorial in the Aura content directory Lesson Three You enter your text in the input field near the bot tom of the TextBrush panel You can enter as much text as you like however Aura creates only one line for your brush Notice the arrow button beside the text input field You can click on this arrow to access a history of the text strings you ve entered Aura saves this history with your configuration when you elect to save
91. d Green and Blue fields with Monochrome you create a random offset for later in the grain process Halftone The Halftone filter emulates the screened appear ance common to printed artwork Unlike the less elaborate Print filter Halftone varies the size of the mesh according to the source value of the pixels being processed The Horiz Cells and Vert Cells values set the global resolution of the mesh pattern while Angle rotates it 20 00 EG 20 00 _ EG 46 00 0 00 K 0 00 __ Ta o 100 00 _ fT Halftone filter panel with preview Horiz Jitter and Vert Jitter introduce some ran domness in the resulting pattern and the Cell Type pop up menu allows you to choose from several dif ferent styles including Dot CrossHatch Line and the like The Opacity setting provides control over the intensity of the effect with higher percentages being more pronounced Finally Color Mode offers 5 differ ent ways to apply the halftone mesh with different painting methods e Print The Print filter applies a print half tone to an image The Apply in pop up menu determines how the filter is applied Color applies the effect using colored dots Black amp White applies the effect using black and white dots Opacity applies the effect by changing the opac ity in the dot pattern Size sets the dot size in the half tone Image details are increasingly altered as dot size increases therefore it is usually preferable t
92. d on brightness regions There are three regions Highlights Midtones and Shadows These are selected using the tabs at the top of the panel Master is a global setting encompassing all regions You might think of these as defining where the adjust ments will be made The middle portion of the panel contains a series of sliders These add or subtract the corresponding color component Temperature Magenta Luminosity Red Green Blue and Alpha channel As you adjust any of the color components you will see corresponding color curves appear that reflect your settings Note that there is only a red green blue and alpha adjustment curve Temperature Magenta Luminosity use the appropri ate combination of these when adjusted Let s jump down to the graph The horizontal axis of the graph corresponds to the original brightness values of the pixels and the vertical corresponds to the new brightness values The default diagonal line means no pixels have been changed to new values Also on the graph there are three distinct curves that correspond to the three regions Essentially the curves define what area is affected when you select one of the regions The Shadow region corresponds to the curve that starts in the top left corner and descends to the bottom middle of the graph The Highlights region starts at the bottom middle and ascends up to the top right of the graph The Midtone curve is overlayed on top and begins in the lower left
93. d the option to save the current configuration If you do so the configuration used at the next start up will conform to the new saved settings saved configuration To access a different pre set configuration you must either open a new project using File gt New Project or use Project gt Modify Project to adjust the settings of the current project Ka NOTE AuraVT always opens using the last The pop up menu in the sections mentioned above contains a list of pre defined user configura tions If you use Aura frequently or different users have different preferences you may want to set up various configurations You might create a configura tion for drawing and another for touching up photos NOTE The manual assumes you are using the default settings Aura VT requires you to modify a text file found in the AURA DATAS folder The file PAGESIZE CONF defines the preset configu rations available for ready use in the New and Modify Project menu panels It would be prudent to back up the original file under another name before modifying it Be sure to save the modified file as a plain ASCII text file Ka NOTE Creating a new user configuration in Configuring Project Properties You can set various basic parameters Width Height etc for new projects or modify them for open ones To save these settings as the start up default settings select Save this configuration when you Exit Aura When opening new projects or modi f
94. data transfer rate and file size necessary to playback and store video animations NOTE The available options vary depending Ka on the Compressor selected As such some options on the panel may be ghosted Best Depth specifies the number of colors to use in the final image Your options range between Black and White up to Millions of Colors Quality determines the final image quality Best provides a high quality image with less compression but increases the resulting file size While Least gives a low quality image with high compression and therefore a smaller file size Under the Motion options you can set the number of Frames Per Second which determines the speed at which your final animation plays The Key Frame Every option sets the number of full images that will actually be saved in the file this does not affect the animation playback rate This is available for codecs that support delta compression If you set the value to 10 every tenth frame is stored in its entirety Only the changes i e delta between frames are stored for other frames If you do not acti vate this option every frame is a key frame 6 Aura VT Appendix 4 Data rate sets the maximum allowed data transfer rate The quality of the video is automatically adjusted to achieve the specified data rate Choose your settings and then click on OK to save the QuickTime file SGI Image format rgb SGI Image options Panel for SGI options T
95. day 2 Tuesday day 3 Wednesday FORi 1T03 PRINT day i displays Monday Tuesday Wednesday END PROCEDURES A procedure is an independent part of a program that is called from the main program and that carries out some processing on the data in the program A procedure can repeat a set of operations without the need for you to duplicate the corresponding lines in the program Simply create a procedure and then call it from the main program Procedures are recur sive SO a procedure can call itself There is no need to know exactly how a procedure works All you need to know is the type of data that it needs and the type of data that it will return to the main program All procedures must be placed after the end of the main program although their order is not particularly important You can use any George instructions and any Aura commands in a procedure Procedure Declaration and Call Use the FUNCTION instruction to declare a proce dure You must state the name of the procedure and the names of the variables transferred to the proce dure after the FUNCTION instruction The procedure must end with an END instruction Therefore the gen eral form of a procedure is FUNCTION name var1 var2 varN instructions in the procedure END The procedure can access any of the variables declared in the main program at the time that the procedure is called The main program will recognize any new
96. dinates for the TimeCode position in the X and Y fields Font Color applies a color to the TimeCode num bers you can set an aloha value in the adjacent text field A value of O is transparent and 255 is opaque Back Color sets the TimeCode background color and again you can set an alpha value as explained above Video Legalizer 50 IRE Lae 110 IRE a Video Legalizer panel The Video Legalizer filter scans for pixels with unsafe values of chrominance signal or composite signal amplitude when encoded into a color video signal Such illegal pixels can be corrected by reduc ing their Luminance or Saturation Reduce pop up menu The Composite and Chroma values set the maximum composite signal and chroma amplitudes respectively The default values 110 IRE Composite and 50 IRE Chroma are the RS 170A video specifi cations You can see what effect the filter will have on the current frame by activating the Preview button If you also activate Mark pixels the affected pixels will be shown with O opacity and thus you will be able to see the background layers underneath This effect is only for preview purposes and the option has no effect when the filter is actually applied Video Legalizer filters only the current or selected frames in the current layer when applied so you should use it only as the final step after you have merged all layers Waveform The Waveform filter simulates a composite or com ponent waveform
97. do not want to save update the configuration If you 1 7 Aura VT 6 don t save your configuration all user settings are lost including keyboard shortcuts temp directory settings Photoshop plug in settings and window positions The Leave and Stay buttons at the bottom of the panel let you exit the program or abort the operation respectively THE AURA INTERFACE Your project window is the large floating window where you draw The pull down menu at the top of the screen offers save and load options edit func tions system settings filters and your help settings The Menu panel just below the menus contains shortcuts to common functions panel display con trols and editing state options The Main panel con tains icons that access the main functions You can move any panel including the Menu panel around the screen by dragging its title bar When you move a panel near the edges of other pan els panels will dock i e tend to align themselves docking can help you keep your work area neat and tidy Menu Panel Main Panel Tools Panel os IeZELEBEBErFr NIST Dock Es REER J top of the screen the icons are arranged hor izontally You can reposition the panel by dragging the handle on the left edge K4 NOTE When the Menu panel is docked at the If you have overlapping panels you can bring a panel to the front by clicking on its titlebar or on any inactive area a section that does not contain an icon button
98. don t blink you will see a progress gauge flash by Aura cuts all of your select ed frames and attaches them to the cursor for paint ing 7 Click the CLR function button to clear the screen 8 Slowly drag your LMB over the project window You re drawing with video as the brush cycles through each frame of the anim you cut out Untitled 100 00 Kuren F EAEE 1000 Kkd py Drawing video with the animbrush 9 Clear the window again then click your LMB and paste each image on individual frames Notice that at the bottom of the CustomBrush panel there is a slider that lets you scrub through the animbrush You can see a preview in the project win dow Wherever you leave the slider is where the ani mbrush begins in the sequence as you paint Beneath the slider and the Reset button Aura also lists the frame number and total frames for the anim brush El Eg AAAAZ PAZIN FERNER a Tool CustomBrush fy 100 ES v 250 D ml Right Using slider to scrub the animation NIGEL Tele IDEE nona Left and Right Example frames from animation You can use animbrushes in all operations that use custom brushes drawing perspective filters etc If you drag an animbrush your brush will cycle through each image If you apply a function that uses a custom brush to a series of frames in an animation layer one of the images of the animbrush will be applied in each selected frame Animbrus
99. e drawing tablets Web graphic artists have waited for a tool like Aura to come along With Aura s animation abilities you can create stunning animated graphics and save them directly as Web standard animated GIFs Aura s plug in architecture enables users to add new filters and features as external modules You can even apply the effects of most filters over time with different settings at different frames Aura is also compatible with many Adobe Photoshop plug in filters Aura features George a rich macro programming language that can automate many tasks normally handled through the interface Aura provides direct access to TWAIN devices such as scanners Aura is multi threaded and automatically senses multiple processors in a system Many operations particularly filters will function much faster in a multi processor system 1 1 Aura VT 6 TYPOGRAPHIC CONVENTIONS The folllowing conventions are used throughout this manual Directory Structure Except for a few system files all of the software is installed in a subdirectory called Aura found inside your main VT 3 folder Unless otherwise specified subdirectories referred to in this manual are found in the main Aura folder For example if the discussion refers to the Images folder the actual path might be C VT 3 AuRA IMAGES Typefaces ALL CAPS Computer keys directories device names e g Enter C Aura Control P etc Names of menus comma
100. e layer can occupy more than one frame just like an animation layer However that layer uses the same picture for every frame This is the default layer type when you first create a layer it is an image layer Image layer An animation layer contains a sequence of frames represented by a series of thumbnail images For this kind of layer the picture can vary in each frame You create an anim layer by clicking the RMB on the layer itself and selecting Make Anim Te aaa a ae J Animation layer 6 Aura VT 7 2 A video layer is similar to an animation layer except you can apply only limited changes to this layer You create a video layer by importing an anima tion image sequence or video clip without checking the PreLoad box in the import requestor as dis cussed in Chapter 2 Video layers cannot be sized or affected by filters however they have a built in alpha channel and can be moved in time and looped Use video layers to bring in loopable elements or back ground video Video layer NOTE Non PreLoaded layers load instantly no matter how large the file THE CURRENT FRAME You can identify the position of the current frame by a white rectangle on the global timeline Two verti cal red lines border the left and right sides these lines indicate which images in the various layers are included in the current frame To change the current frame simply click on a frame on the global time line You also can scrub
101. e Alt LMB RMB Remote Control an e m rea a o gt er Ds 1 6110112 M EEEE 00 00 00 00 D 00 00 00 00 D Remote control to play previews Interfaces Two interfaces are available on the Remote panel The L or layer mode plays the entire project or a selected sequence The R or range mode plays the range that you define by using the M in and M out Mark In and Out buttons which are available only in Range mode The speaker button enables or disables sound during the preview The clockwise button enables or disables Loop mode So if you want the preview to repeat when it reaches the end activate Loop mode Scrubbing the Project You can scrub along the project by using the slider The default position of the slider represents the cur rent frame e Use the RMB to scrub and keep the current frame when your release the slider e Use the LMB to scrub and change the cur rent frame to cursor position when you release the slider 7 11 Aura VT 6 VCR Buttons The VCR buttons should be familiar The upper row contains the basic controls Previous Frame Play Next Frame and Stop The lower row lets you jump to the beginning rewind fast forward and jump to the end Also you can RMB over the VCR buttons to open the Preview Settings panel Keyboard Shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts let you override the remote panel Esc stops playback and Aura returns to the current frame position Space Enter stops p
102. e any tool is selected you can use the gt key to zoom in and the lt key to zoom out of your images You can also zoom in and out graphically if you hold the ALT key and drag with your RMB 3 11 Aura VT 6 Notes G aura VT 3 12 Chapter 4 Drawing Tools Aura provides several drawing tools for your use These tools work in conjunction with the drawing functions freehand straight line rectangle ellipse etc discussed in the previous chapter THE TOOL PANEL When you choose a drawing function the Tool panel displays the tools the brush shape and related options ool Airbrush jx PAZA PIAS Options gini y m 30 00 EI FT 30 EI _ 100 e 100 g Eo KO m Example of the Tool panel using the Airbrush The Tool panel should be visible by default howev er if it isn t click the Tool panel button on the menu panel DETE BSC NE mE a je The Tool panel button on the menu panel The ten buttons at the top of the Tool panel acti vate drawing tools The settings on the Options tab change based on the active tool Beneath the ten buttons is the drawing mode pop up discussed in Chapter 6 NOTE The Tool panel will change its appear ance based on the active function COMMON SETTINGS Many of the tools offer settings that are common to multiple drawing tools like power and size Brush Shape When available the brush shape controls appear at the top of the Options
103. e interlaced with RGB data in the file With the RGB A option aloha channel data is stored separately From the Compression pop up menu choose LZW or PackBits to compress the file Select None for no compression You can enter optional text in the Artist input field THE AURA VT INITIALIZATION FILE A number of default parameters are defined in the Aura VT configuration file This file is called AuraVT ini and it is located in your main system directory e g Windows Winnt etc It is a plain ASCII text file that can be edited with any word processor or text editor such as the WindowsTM Notepad NOTE When you save the configuration file Ka make sure that it is an ASCII text file Otherwise Aura will not be able to read it All values that you can modify in this file are locat ed in the STARTUP section In the following descrip tion terms between square brackets indicate the type of values expected for each parameter the brackets do not appear in the file If one of these lines is missing in the ini file Aura will use the default value for the corresponding parameter You may comment out lines by placing a semi colon at the beginning of the line allowing you to leave settings for future use NOTE To enable tablet subpixel input add Ka this line Nosubtablet 0 This option does not work on all computers it will depend of your system DDrawEmulationOnly 1 This line disables the DirectDraw hardware accel e
104. e of each pixel using a curve on HINT You can get effects like sepia tone Standard Lut Standard LUT panel The curves map the conversion of one set of val ues to another Any point along the curve can be defined by an x and y coordinate A point s coordi nate along the horizontal x axis indicates the original value Its coordinate along the vertical y axis indi cates the converted value A straight diagonal line from the bottom left corner to the top right would indicate no change Using the LMB you can literally draw the curve by clicking on the graph and then dragging the pointer The RMB is used to modify the curve in a smoother fashion As you drag the pointer the curve becomes a bendable spline curve that follows the pointer location Left Editing curve using LMB Right Editing curve using RMB The example curve below illustrates how a value of 100 can be converted into 200 All other old val ues are converted similarly based on the curve and corresponding new values Ma new value Max Here are some example curves When applied to luminosity the curve below makes the image lighter while maintaining the purity of blacks and whites Applied to saturation it rein forces colors Stronger curve When applied to luminosity the curve below rein forces image contrasts Very dark colors become black step at bottom left and very light colors become white step at top right Other color
105. ed direction release your mouse button a With the centrifugal mode available only for the X curve Aura applies the opacity range around a center that you define After you draw your shape drag your mouse to define a vector an elastic line Your initial dragging point will be the center When the vector is the desired length release your mouse button a XW E TT ooo S Nee gt Ze Untitled 100 10 EI Lo ND EI molN Centrifugal mode results NOTE The modes for the X and Y curves can be set independently Chapter 6 Drawing Modes and Paper DRAWING MODE SELECTION Generally you apply color with the drawing tools air brush pen etc using drawing functions freehand line lines etc However you also can lighten blur colorize and apply other effects as you draw Aura always shows the current Drawing Mode in plain text on the pop up menu button at the top of the Tool panel The default mode is Color Use this pop up menu to select a differ ent mode Tool AirBrush Opacity naja AALiasing V i Gradient _ Size 8 LI Tale Power Opacity o Lo Width napa ECTS _ Howe Angle T tal Opacity Mapping _ Step v Drying __ Gradient __ Left Color pop up menu button on Tool panel Right Color pop up menu button on Filling Shape panel NOTE The available modes will vary depend K4 ing on the current drawing tool SPECIAL ERASING FEATURE
106. ee also the previously discussed Display Options The Snap option enables the grid s influence Aura automatically activates both of these options when you activate the Grid button on the Menu panel GUIDES Guides similar to grid lines force drawing func tions to occur along defined lines This is great for aligning text and graphics To use guides activate the Guides button on the Menu panel doae Eee LALLA Clicking on the Guides button with your RMB will open its settings panel Grid settings panel To create a guide click the Set button When you drag your mouse over the image you automatically create vertical and horizontal guides that intersect at your mousepointer Project with Guides activated To create just a vertical or horizontal guide keep your mouse pointer on the grey area bordering the image F NewTekPresents ry 40 42 Moving the guides K4 NOTE You can create multiple guides Click the Reset button to clear all guides The Show option controls the display of the guides See also the previously discussed Display Options The Snap option enables the guides influ ence Aura automatically activates both of these options when you activate the Guide button on the Menu panel 2 rtv 100 00 Example using guides to place text DISPLAYING COORDINATES When you choose Windows gt Coordinate Panel a small panel appears In the panel you can read the position
107. eed Mouse and Graphic Tablet You perform all drawing operations with the mouse or a digitizing tablet stylus These two tools comple ment each other You should typically use the mouse to draw rectangles or straight lines However for sketching the digitizing tablet offers incomparable flexibility Furthermore the mouse is like an On Off switch either you draw something or you don t The tablet is sensitive to the pressure exerted on the sty lus allowing you to control the amount of digital ink applied to your work of art NOTE The term mouse in the text can apply to either the mouse or digitizing tablet stylus if in use NOTE If you are using a Wacom Intuos Ka tablet its Tools ID feature allows Aura to remember the drawing tool and mode last used for each pen Left and Right Buttons The left mouse button is equivalent to the stylus tip while the right mouse button is equivalent to the stylus tip with its button pressed If the stylus you use has no button you can press the SHIFT key instead This method also works for a stylus that has a but ton Often when you right click a tool or icon Aura shows its available options so you should try right clicking your tools to find shortcuts Brushes You create images in Aura using brushes and drawing functions freehand lines straight lines cir cles etc Aura offers two basic types of brushes built in brushes and custom brushes Custom brush es are basically
108. efault To convert it into an anima tion layer choose Make Anim from the Layer column pop up menu Alternatively you can also choose Make Anim from the pop up menu that appears when you right click over the layer bar Untitled 0 0 1 100 14 NOEs LT mT The Make Anim option in the Layer column pop up menu NOTE The Make Anim menu item will not Ka appear if the layer is already an anim layer Also if the layer was not preloaded i e it is uneditable a Change to PreLoad Layer menu item appears which allows you to convert the layer to a regular anim layer Adjusting the Starting Frame and Duration Both image and anim layers have a starting frame and duration The position of the left edge of the layer bar relative to the global timeline indicates the start ing frame and the length of the bar indicates its dura tion You change the starting position of a layer by sim ply dragging the layer bar left or right with your mouse To move the entire layer in time just drag it left or right with your mouse but don t drag on the begin ning or ending handles described below Generally you cannot make a layer begin before frame O how ever if you hold the Shift key down you can position a layer to begin in a frame preceding O To change the duration of a layer you must drag the handles located on either side of a layer The layer Aura VT 7 6 bar will follow the movement of the pointer by stret
109. el Adding and moving a key to the Color display 5 7 Aura VT 6 You can add a key by simply clicking your LMB beneath the Color display You can move interior keys i e not the two end keys by simply dragging This changes the place ment of where the gradient actually reaches the color HINT If an interior key is active it will jump to Y your mousepointer position if you click your RMB but it will not jump past any other keys You can also change the transition between two keys by moving the small triangle that appears between two keys above the display By default Aura Top Default transition position Bottom Transition close to next key If you place the transition point right on top of a key you create a sharp jump to the next key Sharp transition created by placing arrow over key places the triangles equidistant from each key You can center a transition point by clicking your RMB over it and selecting Center from the pop up menu If you move keys the transition points also will move relative to the keys HINT Two identically colored neighboring keys will create a solid color between them NOTE You cannot delete or move the starting and ending keys Customizing the Alpha Component Editing the Aloha display works just like editing the Color display discussed previously The only differ ence is that instead of picking colors for each key you set a specific aloha value NOTE The Alpha component
110. ent directory is identified by the Path input field When the Icon button is active certain file types like Aura project DEEP ILBM and TIFF format files may auto matically display a thumbnail image as the file icon To the right of the icon are the filename creation date and time file size and if applicable file resolution and number of frames for animations Deactivate the Icon button to show only filenames in the list Load Project 65 Files 1 Dir view tif 20 55 36 19 01 2000 704 566 bytes 756 x 581 DiDataigraphicsiPersonal viewtit Oe The Settings panel Display tab a When the icon is an exclamation point Aura rec ognizes the file format but no thumbnail is available You can display a temporary thumbnail and preview the image by clicking on the item with your RMB For animations you can play a preview by right clicking the icon If the icon is a black question mark Aura does not recognize the file format NOTE For information on the preview window K4 that appears when you right click on an item please see chapter 7 Click the Scan button to update create the icons for all recognized files in the list This does not re read the directory however To do that click in the Pattern input field and press the Enter key Aura temporarily retains scanned thumbnails during your Aura session NOTE Aura is more advanced than most Ka paint programs in that it does not rely on the filename extension to
111. er Burnp Pop up menu for Apply With option Br Extrude The Extrude filter uses the same parameters as the Bump filter however it uses the brightness values of the spare image to displace areas of the current Left Original Middle Spare image Right After Extrude image Light areas have more displacement power than dark areas Lumix Lumix uses the spare image to modify the lumi nosity of pixels in the current image If the brightness of a pixel in the spare image is greater than 128 the median luminosity value the corresponding pixel in the current image is made lighter If less than this value the corresponding pixel in the current image is made darker There are no settings for this filter You can intensify the effect with multiple apply operations Spare Mixer The Spare mixer filter uses the spare image to per form a number of different options on the current image Add Front pastes the contents of the spare image on top of the current image The spare image must have some level of transparency or you will no longer be able to see any of the existing current image Add Behind pastes the contents of the spare image behind the current image The existing current image must have some level of transparency or you will not see any part of the pasted spare image Add Alpha adds the opacity of the spare image to the opacity of the current image Subtract Alpha does the opposite by subtracting the opacity
112. er like method Instead of using color hues it uses pixel RGB color ranges to alter the transparency of aure VT 8 14 Colork ColorKeyer panel parts of an image Pixel opacity is determined by its distance from a selected reference color To choose the reference color click the Color but ton This operates just like any other Aura color selector operation If the red green or blue value of a color differs from the RGB value of the reference color by no more than the Range value it is considered completely transparent So if the reference RGB Color was 200 100 100 and the Range was 10 RGB 190 105 95 RGB 209 105 102 etc would be transparent Fade defines a transition area between fully trans parent and fully opaque colors This avoids abrupt changes in transparency Totally transparent pixel RGB values that are within the Fade value are pro portionately transparent A pixel is opaque when the difference between its color and the reference color exceeds Range plus Fade r CrossKeyer CrossKeyer panel The CrossKeyer is similar to the ColorKeyer but it allows you to pick which color to keep or drop NOTE Setting up the CrossKeyer in VT 3 is different from the Aura procedure To use CrossKeyer 1 First click on the Keep button and then use the mouse to drag around an area you want to keep Select an area to keep 2 Then click on the Drop button to drag around the colors you want to dro
113. erall reference in determining the length of a proj ect Timelines on the Layer panel Local timelines appear beneath their correspon ding layer bars These will not necessarily match the global timeline if for example the layer starts at a frame other than O LAYER LIST Aura lists layers beneath the global timeline The order of the layers determines how Aura composites 7 1 Aura VT 6 them to form the resulting image Each layer can have independent transparent properties which are interpreted from top to bottom The top layer in the list forms the foreground and is placed in front of all other layers If any part of the top layer is transparent the contents of the next layer in order can be seen behind it and so on through the stack of layers Each subsequent layer appears behind the layer above it but in front of all others until you reach the last layer Untitled 0 3 4 ole p lt Eu Tma a _ oo A Four layers in the layer list Untitled TutO6 1 Tuto6 2 Tut06 3 You use the slider to the right of your layers to scroll the list vertically and the slider beneath the lay ers list to scroll horizontally background discussed later may be visible K4 NOTE Although not technically a layer the beneath all layers LAYER TYPES Aura offers three types of layers image anim and video layer An image layer contains a single still image represented by a blue bar Note that an imag
114. ers installed for Aura When you select a list item you launch a panel that displays various information About Aura The About Aura menu selection opens the Aura information panel The information on the panel includes the program version your registration infor mation and credits Click OK to close the panel Chapter 2 File Management and User Preferences LOADING PROJECTS Aura is a multi document application making it possible to load and work on multiple projects at the same time You select the active project by clicking in its project window or by choosing it from the Windows menu NOTE You ll need to click on the actual draw ing area not the title bar or window frame When you first run Aura a blank project appears using the last saved default configuration as dis cussed in the prior chapter If you wish to begin a completely new project choose File gt New Project or choose the New Project icon on the menu bar New Project VGA Medres x 640 Le 480 Lo 1 000 Le 30 000 The new Project panel near the top left of the screen the icon looks like a blank paper with a folded corner A panel appears where you can set the new project s properties If you wish to work on a previously saved project choose File gt Load or choose the Open Project icon on the menu bar near the top left of the screen this icon looks like two file folders In addition to loading Aura project files aur you ca
115. es Do this by simply dragging on any layer s local timeline You also can select the current image and subse quent images in the layer by pressing on the Shift Right Arrow keys or you can select the current image and previous images in the layer by pressing on the Shift Left Arrow keys To deselect this selection click nearly anywhere in the layer list area To select all images in a layer choose the Select All from the Layer column pop up menu or double click on the layer itself To select a specific frame choose Select Image from the menu in Chapter 1 on selected frames they will all K4 NOTE If you use the CLR function discussed be cleared Cut and Paste Operations After you select your frames right click over the layer bar Choose Copy Selected Images to store the contents of the selection in a temporary memory buffer If you d like to also delete the frames choose Cut Selected Images Project Untitled 0 3 4 Layer Untitled 0 3 4 Shitty MER j t H Ctrl a 100 IE ges c LS Ctrl v ee LLL LLL Right click over layer bar to copy or cut selected images Once you ve copied or cut your frames the Paste Images menu item becomes available Choose it to insert frames before the current frame Note that if part of the current layer is selected the pasted frames will replace those selected frames You also can choose Duplicate Selected Images from the menu to add one or more copi
116. es for some filters See the discussion of the Path menu earlier in the chapter Motion Path Data Before you manually create a path you need to give it a name so you can refer to it later Click the New button to do this The name you enter is added to the current path pop up menu at the top of the panel Aura creates default keys at frame O that are Filter KeyFramer 160 00 ET 100 00 gt 0 00 ET a The New button and current path pop up menu on the KeyFramer panel positioned in the top left corner As soon as you enter anew name KeyFramer automatically shows a pre view of your brush in the Aura work area If you want to copy the current path so you can make changes to it without changing the original you must choose Motion gt Path Manager and click the Copy button Then you enter a name for the clone In the Path Manager you can change the name of the current path by clicking the Rename button Give the path a new name in the dialog that appears and hit OK If you need to reset your path simply choose File gt Reset from the top of the panel To delete the current path click the Delete button The other options avail able on the Path Manager dialog are discussed later Manually Creating Keys You can create keys manually or you can use the other motion filters to create your keys When you create keys manually you can position rotate stretch and apply special effects We discuss how to create keys w
117. es of the cur rent frame Aura inserts the duplicate frames after the current frame in the layer When you use this com mand a dialog box appears that lets you set the number of frames to add If you want to add only blank frames you can choose Insert Images You can reverse the order of selected frames in one step by choosing Reverse Selected Images from the pop up menu 7 9 Aura VT 6 USING THE LIGHT TABLE Aura includes a light table also called onion skin ning that can simultaneously display up to seven frames before and after the current frame of an anim layer If the current layer is a still image layer this option is not available The before after frames are for reference only and are ghosted displayed with variable opacity depending on their distance from the current frame Each layer can have its own inde pendent light table settings You can set the opacity of the light table for each layer the default value is 50 To adjust the opacity RMB on an anim layer and choose Light Table Parameters Or RMB on the light table s toggle button the middle button to launch the Light Table Opacity panel m a ee sa an ar Er a EA NR are A TO IG hc A m n aaa The Light Table option activated on the Layer panel You specify the number of frames to show by clicking in the light table cells to the left or right of the center button You also can drag your pointer over the cells The selected cells turn
118. ess built in filters You can apply Adobe Photoshop plug in filters like any other Aura filter to the current image or selected frames in a layer Baira VT 8 18 MISCELLANEOUS FILTERS Calculator The Aura Calculator The Calculator plug in displays a small calculator in the Aura interface You can use it by clicking on the buttons in its menu or by pressing the keys in the numeric keypad Clock M The Aura Clock The Clock plug in displays a small analog clock in the Aura interface The time shown on the clockface is determined by your system settings George George efx f Aura Georgelcycloide grg m The dialog box with path to a George program The George plug in lets you execute George pro grams that use the None launching mode Specify the George program by either typing its path and filename in the input field or use the Select option from the dialog box s pop up menu Clicking Execute Image will run the program on the current image Execute sequence will run the program on selected frames in a layer Wallpaper When you apply the Wallpaper filter and toggle to your system interface you will see that you have plopped the current Aura image in the middle of your screen This wallpaper is temporary and when you reboot your system your original wallpaper reap pears You also can remove the Aura wallpaper through your system control panel without rebooting MOTION FILTERS r KeyFramer
119. ext input field on the Tool panel Using Your Text When you select Letter and drag your mouse Aura adds the text one character at a time using your active drawing function When you select Word Aura attaches the entire string of text to your mouse pointer like a brush When you drag your mouse Aura paints with the entire string Untitled 100 00 Text brush using Word If you apply your text by Letter you can select animation options from the Anim pop up menu near the bottom of the Text tool panel Choose Once and Aura applies your string of text once while you hold down the LMB Choose Loop and Aura continuously applies your text until you release the LMB When you choose Ping Aura continuously applies your text and when it reaches the end of the string it applies the text from the reverse direction Aura con tinues cycling back and forth until you release the LMB If you select Rnd Aura applies random letters from your text until you release the LMB For all of these options when you release the mouse button and begin again Aura applies the text string from the beginning except as you might expect random to animate the TextBrush when you apply your text with the Letter option See Chapter 8 Filters for information on using the Stroke Recorder T HINT You can use the Stroke Recorder filter ArialBlack v4 Letter j EEword c 0 Me fe 50 0 ME fel 25 i fe 50 0 a o o lt 0 i fa
120. f the blue pixel component a value of the alpha pixel component x x pixel coordinate y y pixel coordinate I image width h image height Color Histogram Color Histogram panel The Color Histogram modifies an image by chang ing the distribution of color luminosity or opacity in the image This filter can affect different components of the image red green blue luminosity or opacity For example you can use this filter to reduce the global opacity of an image to make it more transpar ent or you can increase its global luminosity to make it lighter posn sjaxid jo Pixels used oO Channel value Max The five tabs on the panel determine which chan nel will be modified Luminosity Alpha i e opacity Red Green or Blue The distribution graph shows two different pieces of information on the black column graph you see the relative number of pixels with all the possible val ues of the selected channel while on the blue line graph you see the cumulative percentage of pixels using the channel Channel values e g red 0 to 255 are shown along the horizontal axis The relative number of pixels matching that channel value black column graph and percent used blue line graph is shown on the vertical axis of the graph A red vertical line marks the position of the highest concentration The Log option increases the amplitude of the black graph for non zero values These graphs will give you inf
121. f you desire When the Preview button is active which is the default you can graphically adjust the bounding box around your image with handles at each corner With Preview off the bounding box disappears and you use only the fields on the Wrap tool panel to input numerical changes Click Reset to reset the panel to its default values Click the Apply button to apply the settings to the image If you select another function tool without applying first you will discard all settings current frame of the current layer unless you select other frames To wrap an entire layer you can also use the Wrapper filter see Chapter 8 K4 NOTE When you use layers you affect only the Vanishing Point When you use this tool the image eventually dis appears off in the horizon at two points called the vanishing points This may be outside the borders of your project window and thus not visible If a vanish ing point is within your project s borders it appears as a small square You can drag these points to alter the perspective shape Top Fill mode Below Once mode THE CROP TOOL The Crop tool lets you select a portion of your image to cut out as a new project When you select the Crop tool Aura places a rectangular selection area in your image that you can move with your LMB You can adjust the size of the selection area by drag ging the lower right corner with your RMB or you can specify values in the Crop tool panel
122. ffect This mode has no effect on totally trans parent areas Darkening the current image LIGHT MODE The Light mode is the opposite of the Shade mode The brush lightens all colors Several passes over the same location will increase the effect This mode has no effect on totally transparent areas Lightening the current image COLORIZE MODE The Colorize mode colors everything with the brush using the foreground color Colors are modi fied during this operation but their luminosity bright ness remains the same you get the same effect using light grey or dark grey However since satura tion may also be effected sometimes you get colors that are more intense than the original colors NOTE The effect of this mode is not cumula tive So painting the same area repeatedly will not change your initial result TINT MODE The Tint mode is similar to the Colorize mode except Colorize maintains only the luminosity of col ors in the original image whereas Tint maintains the color luminosity and saturation The Colorize mode will color grays in red green etc but the Tint mode will have no effect on grays The Tint mode is some times more efficient than Colorize particularly because it respects gray levels NOTE The effect of this mode is not cumula Ka tive Several passes over the same location with the same color will not change your initial results GRAIN MODE The Grain mode adds a subtle random g
123. ffects around objects See Hint below Opacity determines the intensity of the shadow A value of 50 means that the shadow is half transpar ent That is half of what you see will be the shadow and half will be the underlying imagery Smooth blurs the outlines of the shadow The shadow becomes smoother as its value increases Use this to avoid a hard edged shadow This may tend to weaken the intensity of the shadow so you may want to adjust the shadow Opacity You also can reinforce the shadow intensity by applying this filter several times consecutively glow effects phosphorescence neon lights etc Choose white as the shadow color set Opacity to 100 Distance to 0 and Smooth to 4 or 5 The shadow will then be generated just under the contents of the image but the smoothing will spread it slightly This creates a white glow around objects You can apply the same filter again to intensify the glow reducing Smooth if you wish Y HINT You also can use this filter to create r Speed f Aura Pixinm_bluedoor JPG 100 10 alr Eg 4 Lo EEK BE a6 EEF eI Speed panel with preview The Speed filter applies a sliding blur effect to an image This effect gives the impression that the image is moving in a given direction at a speed that varies depending on the power of the applied effect Use the Direction pop up menu to change the direction of the effect The Power setting adjusts the intensity of the effec
124. fication to the length of the current layer Fit to Image is the maximum magnification Fit to Selection will adjust the magnification to the length of the selected frames Fit to Keys will adjust aora VT 7 12 The Auto Fit pop up menu on the Layer panel the magnification to show the first and last filter keys Fit to Sound will adjust magnification to the length of any sound clip that you ve loaded You also can change the layer magnification by placing your mousepointer over the Z button located beside the Auto Fit button and dragging left zoom out or right zoom in If you zoom out you will see more of your layers at one time and the interval corre sponding to a frame will become narrower However since the size of the frame thumbnails remains con stant not all of them will appear USING AUDIO You can load the audio from AVI WAV and MOV Quicktime formats into an Aura project Simply click on the pop up menu button downward facing arrow and select Load Sound The audio will play when you play your project Aura also lets you load audio from RTV formats Once the file is loaded a waveform graph will fill the layer bar area You can use this as a reference for events occurring in the audio file retd imit d E3 one O oe Tess 7 77 7 ates The Audio pop up menu on the Layer panel If you need to offset the start of a loaded sound you can simply drag the waveform graph with your mouse For
125. field you essentially erode a larger border around the image Ber Glow Glow applies a gaussian blur around the border of your object to create the look of a glow The glow surrounds the entire object and you can set its color 6 Aura VT 8 34 and size You can choose the glow Color and enter an alpha value in the adjacent text field The alpha value gives you transparency O is completely transparent and 255 is completely opaque The GlowX GlowY fields represent the glow size on each axis defined in pixels Br Grain The Grain filter adds film like grain to the selected image A little grain can ease the unrealistic smooth ness of computer images or you can use more grain for an artistic effect like stippling or pointillism The grain Size sets the cluster of pixels for each grain A smaller size uses fewer pixels and gives you a more subtle effect The Range option lets you enter the amount of grain variation to apply Smaller numbers yield less variation between grains so that the effect is more uniform across the image Larger numbers give a more random appearance to the grain The Red Green and Blue fields let you control red green and blue grain noise That is you can add noise to the image that uses a particular RGB color For example if you wanted to add white noise you would set the fields to 255 255 255 The Monochrome button lets you choose mono chrome coloring for the noise When you use the Re
126. frame or filter requesters However Aura does save the follow ing items in a project opacity maps keyframed motion paths stroke recorded paths filter settings custom brushes and text brushes IMPORTING GRAPHICS Importing means you want to add graphics to the active project To do this select the file type Image Sequence Brush or AnimBrush from the File gt Import submenu Generally you should use Image to import still images If you import an animation as an image only its first frame is imported If you import a Photoshop PSD file Aura loads the entire image as one layer If you want to load each layer of a PSD file into a separate Aura layer load the file using File gt Load instead of importing it NOTE See the Appendix for a discussion of supported file formats Importing Different Resolutions If the size of the image that you are importing is not the same as the current project size Aura asks if you want to stretch the image to the current page size Stretch The Stretch dialog box 6 Aura VT 2 2 If you choose the Stretch option Aura enlarges or reduces the image depending on the project page size Stretching your image can change its propor tions If you do not choose Stretch Aura places the image in the upper left corner and crops off any part of the image that falls outside the project window If you want to open a project that equals the size of a certain image load the image instead of
127. g you to set the location on your system of the LightWave configuration file Aura must be able to locate this file for the plug in to function The file is named Ix3 cfg and is normally located in your personal user folder within C Documents and Settings You can also set the Color used for LightWave UV map overlays under this tab Video Output Enable makes Aura s imagery available to your VT 3 device With Refresh enabled you get realtime output on your display device When you deactivate Video Grabber Video Input 2 13 Aura VT 6 Refresh Aura updates the output only when you release the mouse You can access shortcuts for Video Grabber by clicking the RMB over the V button from the project window see Aura output on the VT 3 Program output when you select AuraVT as a source in the Switcher panel or DSK Ka NOTE This option is mandatory if you are to DISPLAY OPTIONS The Display Options panel which appears when you choose Windows gt Display Settings sets the visibility attributes for certain drawing features The Display Options panel You can make the Grid and or Guides visible from this panel You can also change the line color and intensity from this panel These options discussed later in the chapter affect only the display of these features and don t enable them A Stencil discussed in Chapter Seven is used to mask out drawing areas You can make the stencil visible as well as adjust i
128. h as spreading ripples by keyframing starting and ending values which though incremented correspond to one another K4 NOTE Phase settings cycle at integer values SPARE RELATED FILTERS These filters generally require that an image be copied to the spare image buffer This is discussed in Chapter 2 Bump The Bump filter uses the brightness values of the spare image to emboss areas of the current image Light areas appear raised and dark areas appear lower Embossing will also be less pronounced where the opacity is less in the spare image This filter can produce stamped metal effects or simulate the grain of paper and fabric As an alternative to using the spare image for the bump you also can use the current paper as the Source if that option is active If you set the Apply With option to Center the CenterX and CenterY values indicate the position of the light source that highlights the relief You can enter these values manually or you can click the Center Set button and then click on a position 6 Aura VT 8 30 Filter Bump The Bump filter with preview Depth determines the depth or power of the filter The relief created in the image intensifies at higher depth values The Smooth setting smoothes the edges of areas in relief The amount of smoothing increases for higher values of this setting If you set the Apply With option to Direction you can choose the angle that the light is coming from Filt
129. han lower points The default setting has 100 opacity on the right side and 0 on the left On the Y axis curve points on the left have more opacity than points toward the right The default setting has 100 opacity on the bottom and 0 on the top The combination of both curves yields opaque areas in the bottom right and less opaque areas in the top left 59 Aura VT 6 Editing Opacity Curves The pop up menu between the curve displays lets you choose the type of curve you want to use for Opacity Mapping When you select the Linear option the curves abruptly change direction from point to point For smoother transitions you can select Spline while Polynomial creates a curve based on an algebraic equation You can set the type of curve differently for each axis For example you can use Linear for the X axis and use Polynomial for the Y axis The Opacity Mapping Display contains a represen tation of the opacity mapping It continuously shows the changes made to either curve You can drag existing points on either curve with your LMB to adjust the opacity mapping However the end points can be moved only along the edges You can add new points by clicking your LMB in the curve edit areas and dragging your mouse Release your mouse button when the point is correctly positioned Opacity Mapping mwN T MSs Opacity Mapping with Linear Y axis and Opacity Mapping with Linear curves for X Polynomial X axis Bu If you right
130. handle Independent control over one side of tangent line You can reunite a broken tangent by holding the Shift key and clicking on either handle Moving Keys Dragging your LMB left or right changes the selected key s horizontal X position Dragging your LMB up or down changes the vertical Y position Dragging your RMB up or down changes the depth Z position which affects only brushes Remember when dragging a key grab the brush by a corner grabbing a brush in the middle may select a current key and snap the timeline to that keyframe K 100 00 e Mm Untitled 151 Moving a key visually in the work area You can numerically set the position using the X Y and Z fields on the KeyFramer panel The C or cen ter button will compute and enter the position of the center of your project window Note that the C button works only for the axis buttons that are active that is if you activate only the X button when you choose C only the X axis will be centered EEGs o 59 86 Lo Ra oo F E E Numeric settings for X Y Z fields 8 21 Aura vr6 Rotating Keys You can rotate keys by adjusting the H P or B fields which represent Heading Pitch and Bank respectively To adjust rotation visually you must have the Preview option selected Hold Ctrl while dragging your LMB left or right to change the key s heading left to right rotation Hold Ctrl and drag your LMB up or down to change p
131. he Motion filter KeyFramer 8 5 Aura VT 6 Posterize Posterize panel with preview The Posterize filter lets you set the number of tonal levels for each color channel in an image and then maps pixels to the closest matching level A setting of 2 for example yields six colors two for each of the RGB color channels Solarize Solarize panel with preview The Solarize filter takes a negative and a positive of the image and blends them together 6 Aura VT 8 6 r Wrapper The Wrapper filter allows you to change the per spective of the current CustomBrush or Layer essentially pivoting it in 83D When you select the Layer mode you affect the current image in the cur rent layer For the CustomBrush mode you must first either cut out or import an image to serve as the Left Side Setting the XYcoordinates visually Right Side Wrapper panel with preview custom brush Then when you apply the Wrapper fil ter the brush is pasted down into the image You can numerically set the four corners of the new perspective area using the four XY coordinate pairs but it is simpler to set them visually by clicking the Set button You also might want to choose Reset from the File menu to make sure the shape begins with each point in one of the four corners Then you simply drag each point from the corner to form the new perspective shape Points can even be dragged off the image area You can reposition the entire out li
132. he SGI Image format can save a single image or a sequence of numbered images in 32 bits RGBA mode 16 million colors with alpha channel or 24 bits RGB mode 16 million colors without alpha channel Set the Compression pop up menu to RLE to use compression when saving the file Use None for no compression You can enter optional text in the Comment input field like the author s name Softlmage format pic The Softlmage format saves a single image or a sequence of numbered images in 32 bits 16 million colors with alpha channel There is no settings panel for this format Sun Raster format ras x Z4bits 32bits Panel for Sun Raster options The Sun Raster format saves a single image or a sequence of images numbered in 32 bits 16 million colors with alpha channel or 24 bits 16 million col ors without alpha channel Targa format tga Panel for TGA options The Targa format saves a single image or a sequence of digitized images in 32 bits 16 million colors with alpha channel Images may or may not be compressed TIFF format tif Tiff 6 0 options Panel for TIFF options The TIFF format saves a single image or a sequence of images digitized in 32 bits 16 million colors with aloha channel or 24 bits 16 million colors without alpha channel From the Format pop up menu choose RGB to save in 24 bits or RGBA or RGB A to save in 32 bits With the RGBA option the alpha channel data ar
133. he edge including the border when set above 0 Transition Wipe2 Filter Wipes Transition on Wipe 2 tab with preview The Transition Wipe 2 filter simply wipes the layer on or off from multiple sides You can set a Border color and its width in pixels The Soft setting will soft en the edge including the border when set above 0 The PositionX and PositionY fields define the center of the effect You can define the center with your mouse by clicking Set or you can instantly center by clicking Center 8 39 Aura VT 6 r Transition Turn Filter Wipe Page Transition on Turn tab with preview Turn transitions using the classic page turn effect Activating Gradient uses a gradient of the A and B colors to fill the underside of the page If Gradient is not active the pixels of the turning page will show through 6 Aura VT 8 40 Transition Blind Crop type Blind transitions using a window blind effect Set the number of slats using the 3 available Blind fields Crop wipes the image on off without moving the visi ble pixels Slide moves the entire image on off and Stretch squeezes expands the image during the transition 35 71 Stretch type Slide type r Transition Block Transition Slide Filter Wipe Block Filter Wipe Slide Transition on Slide tab with preview Slide simply wipes the layer on or off using a rec u tangular shape This is similar to the Wipe1 transitio
134. he intensity becomes closer to the Power setting and becomes equal to it when you reach maximum pressure Altitude The Altitude changes depending on the vertical angle of the stylus if supported by your tablet Azimuth The Azimuth changes depending on the rotational heading of the stylus if supported by your tablet Altitude Finger Wheel The Finger Wheel lets you adjust the parameter interactively with the FingerWheel if that option is available on your mouse or stylus NOTE The parameter s e g Size Rotate Ka etc normal value on the Tool panel is usually used as a base value for changes made by the connection settings The Reset button returns all connection to none and all values to their defaults The Options menu item brings up the Connection Settings panel Here you can set options for some of the above input parameters x Connection Settings The Connection Settings panel Speed uses a sensitivity curve By default the curve is a straight diagonal line Therefore any action on the line increasing the pen size pencil opacity etc will increase in proportion to the cursor displace ment speed You can modify these curves by dragging your pointer on them Bowing the curve upward for exam ple will increase the effect on the line proportionately more than the increase in applied speed Conversely if you bowed the curve downward the effect on the line will work less quickly than the applied
135. he lower sampling used Chromakeying however depends on chrominance values in determining transparency and DV s chromi nance values are decidedly blocky A slight blur applied solely to the chrominance channels reduces the apparent blockiness of the color values while retaining the sharpness of the underlying luminance values This can produce a much better key r Crazy Blur Crazy Blur panel with Impress option previewed The Crazy Blur filter combines blurring with special processing effects Use the Mode pop up menu to choose the desired effect Below the Mode menu you enter the range in pixels for the radius of the Crazy Blur effect in the Radius field A lower radius produces a less pronounced affect 6 Aura VT 8 8 r Directional Blur 50 00 ar 135 00 D Directional Blur filter The Direction Blur filter adds a motion blur to an image which makes the blur effect dynamic The Power field sets the length of the motion blur in pixels The higher the number in this field the more blur is applied to the image The Direction field sets the angle of the motion blur which is the direction of the blur gt Gaussian Blur Gaussian Blur panel with preview The Gaussian Blur filter blurs the image using a dif ferent algorithm than the Blur filter With Gaussian Blur the pixels are weighted unevenly in each processed sample and decrease from the center to edges according to a bell sh
136. hes also use the same settings as normal custom brushes Custom Brush Options Once you have a custom anim brush you can use it to draw with any drawing function You can draw with the brush in the same way as with any other tool Lesson Two in the Aura content directory shows various approaches to working with custom brushes Six Tool CustomBrush P 100 4 gt 12 50 D Tool panel for Custom Brush If the Brush mode button is activated the brush retains its color However if Stamp is active the brush s color is entirely replaced by the A color If there is no variation in opacity in the brush the entire brush shape will appear as a solid color with the Stamp mode Also notice that more options appear in the drawing modes menu when you choose Stamp The pop up menu for drawing modes appears when you select the Color button under the various drawing tools For more about drawing modes see Chapter 6 E E CES BE mors Left Brush mode for the Custom Brush tool Right Stamp mode for the Custom Brush tool When cutting out a brush you often will select superfluous transparent areas surrounding the part of the image you are actually interested in These trans parent areas are useless when drawing since you are essentially drawing with nothing The Optimize but ton crops out all transparent areas around the perimeter of the brush and therefore reduces the memory required by the brush See also
137. hese file formats and these panels see the Appendix ideo Compression x Compressor Full Frames Uncompressed Cancel Configure Compression Quality 65 m Hd About T Key Frame Every fo frames Re fo KB sec Data Rate Video Compression panel for AVI format The RTV panel lets you choose Normal settings save an Alpha Channel to maintain transparency or activate Super Black Super Black gives you an effect similar to an aloha channel so you can export hard edges cleanly Super Black does not work on partial transparencies On the GIF panel or the FLC panel you choose options for dithering and the palette and number of colors to export For more information about these file formats see the Appendix Above The RTV panel Below The Top portion of the GIF panel bottom pre view area not shown 6 Aura VT 2 6 Exporting a Brush You can save a brush in any format If the current brush is animated you save only the current brush image Exporting an Animbrush Exporting an animbrush is similar to exporting a sequence except there are no video interlacing options If you use one of the animation file formats all of the brush images are stored in a single file The DEEP format is recommended for its compactness TWAIN MANAGEMENT You can access functions of the TWAIN system directly from Aura This is a common interface used by digitizing hardware like scanners WARNING In o
138. illed when you release the mouse button Untitled 100 00 Main Panel LANTO man Drawing a Filled Rectangle DRAWING ELLIPSES The Ellipse function draws an ellipse outline with the current brush and current drawing tool i e Pen Mechanical pencil Brush tool etc You can set two different ways to define a circle with the Circle setting on the Shape Settings panel This panel appears if you right click on the Ellipse button Shape Settings Circle ne 5 points Range F Usually you want to use the Center setting which defines the initial drag point as the center of your circle As you drag your mouse an elastic circle follows the pointer movements it shows you the appearance of the final circle Release the mouse button when the cir cle is the desired size Aura then draws the circle Untitled 100 00 KAKAA mooka Drawing an Ellipse When you draw a circle based on an existing circle in your image e g a wheel it is often difficult to find its precise center and radius In such cases you may want to use the 3 points setting which allows you to define a circle using three points on a circumference Click once to establish the first point on the circle s circumference Then as you move your mouse an elastic circle follows your pointer movements One side of the circle is locked to the initial point Click again to set the second point The elastic circle con tinues to follow your pointer m
139. image Printer Options on the Printer panel for printing a single frame If you select the Anim tab you can print a story board sequence of images The Rows setting sets up a matrix with the same number of columns Thus a setting of 2 creates a 2x2 matrix The Step setting controls how many frames to increment Activate the Image nbr option to include the frame number beside each image The control at the bottom of the panel lets you scan through the pages that will be printed out Click on the Print button to print with the current settings CLIPBOARD COMMANDS To store the current custom brush or your current image in the system clipboard select Edit gt Clipboard gt Copy Brush to Clipboard or Copy Image to Clipboard respectively When used with an animbrush only the first frame is copied Aura dis plays an error message if you select this function when there is no custom brush To use the contents of the system clipboard as a custom brush or new layer select Edit gt Clipboard Printer Config Options on the Printer panel for printing a storyboard gt Get Brush from Clipboard or New Layer from Clipboard respectively The contents of the clip board will replace the current custom brush or the image will be placed in a new layer depending on the option you select You cannot use this function unless you have an image in the clipboard i e no text etc Aura displays an error message if the clipboard is
140. images you can draw with these can be as simple as a small oval or they can be large full color images including video and animations A and B Colors Two colors are always displayed on the color selector button on the Main panel The center color is the A Color and the surrounding color is the B Color The A Color is your main drawing color The B Color is used only when a particular function requires a second color Main Panel ZAA Hodene Clos JENS Iba A and B Colors Picker HINT Use the Color Invert A B command mapped to the n key to swap the two colors See the Working With Colors chapter for informa tion on selecting colors Selecting Functions When you click an icon generally you select that function however somicons have multiple functions Main Panel Main Panel FreehandLine Filled FreehandLine e g the filled and non filled drawing functions In such cases click on the icon once to access the first function and again to access the next function The icon changes after each click Some functions have a settings panel that you access by clicking the icon with the right mouse but ton Pop up Menus You can identify pop up menus by a button that contains a small arrow pointing downwards Sometimes you see just a button with an arrow when you click on this type of button Aura displays a list of options Drag the mouse pointer to highlight the desired option and then release the
141. importing it Importing Sequences Select File gt Import gt Sequence to import an animation file e g RTV AVI FLC Flyer GIF anim brush etc or a series of images The Load requester you see will vary depending on the project settings For a project set to full frames the requester reads Full frames and Fix Motion For fielded projects the requester offers Full Frames Even and Odd options Image or Sequence Aura loads the entire K4 NOTE You can load an Aura project using project including its various layers NOTE Aura will import SWF files Macromedia Ka Flash files but you cannot export in this file format If the file you select in the file requester is an ani mation or part of a series of images the Load sequence panel appears If you want to load a series of images select the first image in the series Aura automatically recognizes a sequence of images by its Load Sequence AmericanFlag rty OKO QUE The Load Sequence panel sequenced filenames like Pic001 bmp Pic002 bmp etc The Load Sequence panel provides file informa tion and a preview window Clicking the preview win dow launches the preview player discussed in the Layers chapter You can also shuttle through the frames by dragging the slider beneath the preview window If you hold the Ctrl key as you drag the pre view will update in realtime as you drag Otherwise it won t update until you release your mouse button By default
142. in different frames by holding your Shift key To Keyframe a Filter 1 Select the desired filter from the Filters menu Here we selected the Mosaic filter Notice that the fil ter name appears in the layers list beneath the cur rent layer and at frame O there is a keyframe bar that looks like a plus sign between two white handles 6 Aura VT 8 2 Layer Untitled 0 4 5 ole yx u u gt gt ei Creste Delete s Mosaic filter with a keyframe bar in the Layers panel 2 Click on the plus sign to the left of the filter name Mosaic to expand the keyframe bars Initially keys short for keyframes are created at frame O using the filters default values for each of the filter s animatable parameters Layer Untitled 0 3 4 IO sTx en create Delete Auto Key rere Mosaic filter with expanded keyframe bars for default values 3 By selecting a different current frame and then adjusting any of the filter s parameters you create additional keys but for only the changed parameters Note that Auto Key is active Here we created a new key for only the Mosaic Width parameter Note how the top keyframe bar indicates where a key exists for any of the filter s parameters Filter Mosaic palate ie eel ee Ls eal Mosaic filter with a key for Width parameter 4 Like a regular image layer bar you can move a
143. ir neighboring arrows Slide the arrows by dragging them with the mouse pointer You also can click on an arrow with your RMB and a question mark appears beside the pointer Drag your mouse around the image The value of the pixel under the pointer as it relates to the selected channel determines the arrow s position A green line appears in the graph indicating the pixel channel value Release the mouse button to position the arrow r Chroma Keyer The Chroma Keyer filter uses pixel chrominance i e color values to alter the transparency of parts of an image This is often called chroma keying That is certain color hues are keyed out of the picture such as when a weatherman appears over computer graphics Aura s filter modifies an image s opacity by determining the difference between each pixel and a chosen reference color hue This type of operation is often used with a blue background called a blue screen The easiest way to set the Hue to be keyed out is to use the color selection button on the panel and select the color from the image itself However you also can set this value numerically as an angle in degrees around the displayed color wheel with zero degrees corresponding to three o clock Chroma Keyer with Hue keyed out of door 8 13 Aura VT The Range expands the defined range by the number of degrees set As you adjust this value you will see the width of the white outlined pie shape expand o
144. is appear HINT Use the airbrush to help make the copied area as smooth as possible MERGE MODE The Merge mode lets you rub through one image into another Merge is similar to Panto except that the source area is on a separate image It is sort of like stripping off paint from an old dresser to reveal the underlying wood grain The source image must be stored on Aura s spare image an internal scratch image buffer If you do not have a spare image Merge mode is ghosted i e unavailable on the pop up menu Merging a spare image with the current image To use the merge mode 1 Load an image and choose Edit gt Spare gt Copy to Spare or press Shift j This copies your image to the spare image buffer 2 Clear the image then select a drawing function and a medium size brush The AirBrush is ideal for this work 3 Select the Merge mode and draw a few strokes You ll see the contents of the spare image appear under your brush You can use the Merge mode to limit the effects of filters to specific areas of an image If you copy an image to the spare image buffer before applying a fil ter you can subsequently merge parts of the unal tered original image into the filtered one Use Merge with text and generate texture in your characters SHADE MODE As its name suggests the Shade mode shades i e darkens colors wherever the brush passes Several passes over the same location will intensify the e
145. itch up and down rotation Hold Ctrl and drag your RMB around the key to change bank clockwise and counterclockwise rotation Visually rotating a key in the work area You can numerically set the rotation using their adjacent fields Clicking the R button resets fields to O Filter KeyFramer File Motion Egon gt EE io R400 IE Spiine _ Above left Heading rotation Middle right Pitch rotation Below right Bank rotation Gaus VT 8 22 The A buttons activate the align to path mode independently for heading pitch and bank This is a non keyable parameter The KeyFramer will attempt to align the brush to the path for the selected rota tion s Scaling Keys You can scale your brush or layer image with keyframes Use the Width and Height fields to numer ically adjust the dimensions for both brushes and lay ers Clicking the R button resets fields to 100 If you have Lock Aspect active Aura scales the image so that the aspect ratio of your settings remains con stant Visually scaling a key in the work area Filter KeyFramer File Motion E eo72 ES Basose ES en Spline ER ooo O coo o En u Cov 100 00 ED EE ooo IE LR Lock aspect Scaling a key with numeric settings Special Effects Aura offers several options for applying special effects to your keys Special effects on the KeyFramer panel N for noise will add some randomness to the brush position MB for motio
146. ith the other motion filters later in this chapter To manually create keys using the Auto Key and Brush source For this procedure we ll use a custom brush You should load or create a custom brush to follow along However you can create keys with Auto Key and Layer source as well 1 Drag an empty layer to about 10 frames dura tion Right click the layer and choose Make Anim On the Layer panel verify that the Auto Key button is active so that Aura will automatically create your keys Layer Untitled 0 9 10 SeA A aria Drag an empty Layer 2 Verify that your source is Brush Select the New button on the KeyFramer panel and name the path Aura shows a preview of your brush 8 19 Aura VT 6 3 Select the first frame in your layer and drag your mouse to move your key to the bottom right of your work area Project Untitled 0 9 10 rn H E21 First frame drag key to bottom right always grab it by the corner not the center Grabbing the center will select the keyframe which can cause the frame to jump on the timeline after you adjust it Ka NOTE When you grab a brush in KeyFramer 4 Select the last frame in your layer and move your key to the upper left corner You should see an elastic vector line stretch from the bottom right key to your new position ayer Untitled 0 9 10 Last frame move key to upper left 5 Select all frames in the global timeline Sele
147. ither a 3x3 or 5x5 convolution matrix The time taken to apply the filter increases as the number of convolution coefficients increases Each value in the matrix is called a coefficient The convolution calculates a new value for each pixel in an image by taking the average of the values of the pixel and the pixels surrounding it Each coeffi cient is independent and can have a unique value The coefficients and the way in which they are distrib uted around the central pixel can give a wide variety of effects As such a 3x3 matrix takes into account only directly adjacent pixels A 5x5 matrix on the other hand considers more remote pixels With a 3x3 matrix the new central pixel value is obtained using a weighted average In other words the sum of the product of each coefficient and its corresponding value divided by the sum of the coeffi cients So much for the principle of the operation What really matters is the result The following examples will give you an idea of what can be done With the Blur convolution matrix each pixel is sim ply calculated as being the average of its neighboring pixels Note that the Smooth filter and Blur drawing mode are more efficient however this example is use ful to help you understand how convolutions work a Unaltered image The More Blur convolution matrix gives more weight to neighboring pixels than the central pixel which results in a more intense blur The Outline convol
148. ition click Default nodes simultaneously by first multi selecting them To do so drag out a box surrounding them with the LMB o HINT You can edit the position of several The options available using the Interpolation pop up menu include Spline Linear and Smooth These choices control the type of interpolation applied between adjacent nodes If you drag a single node to a new Destination point Linear mode warps pixels between the altered node and it s immediate neigh bors in straight line fashion Smooth mode provides a more rounded warp Spline mode provides the great est control over the interpolation using adjustable Bezier curves between nodes When Spline is select ed clicking on a node reveals spline control handles extending out from it along the mesh vectors Dragging these handles with the LMB gives you the ability to create very smooth warp effects It is important to note that the position of nodes can be keyframed during an animation With just a few seconds work adjusting the keyframes of two nodes you could animate the Leaning tower of Pisa hula dancing TRANSITION Transition Filter EELS 3 z 42 96 Example of direction icons for Transition Filters The Transition filter features several wipes and fades perfect for transitioning from one layer to another Essentially the contents of the current layer are removed in a definable way to reveal whatever is underneath Most of the transitio
149. jpg The JPEG format saves a single image or a sequence of numbered images in 24 bits 16 million colors Its settings panel contains a single setting the JPEG Ratio Quality This setting affects the quality of saved images As this value increases file size increases and image quality improves This can be set between 1 and 100 JPEG Ratio Qualiy Eg Options on the RTV panel PCX format pcx The ever popular PCX format can save a single image or a sequence of numbered images in 8 bits 256 colors See the previous discussion on Indexed Color Palettes and Dithering for information on the Palette and Dithering pop up menu options Portable Network Graphics for mat png Compression Compression Settings Compressor Animation Best BestDepth gt a lt High Best 30 m fi 0 frames K Second Least ela aan Motion Frames per second IV Key frame every 7 Limit data rate to Panel for compression settings for QuickTime The PNG format saves a single image or a sequence of numbered images in 8 24 or 32 bits 16 million colors with 8 bit alpha channel This format can give very attractive compression ratios and it is particularly suitable for images that will be transmitted by network or modem Internet remote update system etc See the previous discussion on Indexed Color Palettes and Dithering for information on the Palette and Dithering pop up menu options No di
150. k The image will still be an RGB image however Y HINT You can create a grayscale looking EXTERNAL FILTER Aura is compatible with most Adobe Photoshop 5 5 plug in filters Aura is not compati ble with Photoshop 6 filters To install Adobe Photoshop plug in filters 1 Make sure the plugin dll file is located in your system directory i e C Windows C Winnt etc If it isn t locate it it is part of Photoshop and copy it to your system directory 2 Run Aura using a configuration file other than the default The Photoshop plug in filter information must be saved to an Aura configuration file and since the default cannot be altered none of the Photoshop plug in information will be saved 3 Choose Filters gt External 4 Click Select Directory from the dialog box that appears 5 Use the file requester to navigate to your Photoshop Plugins subdirectory There should be sev eral files with a file extension of 8BF 6 Select one 8BF file It doesn t matter which 7 Click the OK button 8 Quit Aura and make sure the Save this configu ration option is active on the Quit panel 9 Restart Aura using the same configuration file All of the Adobe Photoshop plug in filters will be added to the Aura Filters menu under External Filters NOTE Some filters may not operate properly outside of the Photoshop environment NOTE Only Photoshop plug in filters will be Ka available You will not be able to acc
151. k your RMB directly on an item in the list a different menu appears Selecting Edit displays the Edit George Script panel discussed below Remove will remove the item from the list The File options operate as above RMB Pop up on the George panel The Edit George script panel contains the path and filename of the file currently associated with the script line To change the file simply edit the input field You also can click the Select button and choose another program using a file requester By default only files with the grg extension are shown RMB Pop up from the George item list If the file you chose is a George program the icon corresponding to its launching mode is automatically selected If it is a system program you can choose the appropriate launching mode or you can deselect all icons to start without a parameter Close the panel to return to the George panel The selected program name and start mode appear on the script line Edit George script GeorgeiLightia grg A Fell SZ O Se Panel to edit George script THE STARTUP SCRIPT Every time you run Aura it attempts to execute the startup grg program in the George directory if one exists This allows you to customize all working parameters using a George program e g load a background image or your personal color palette adjust color cycles the envelope and the power of the airbrush or the opacity curve etc THE GEORGE LANGUAGE If
152. key looks like a square The frame that corresponds to that key is automatically selected You can select multiple keys by holding the Shift key as you click 3 Numerically edit settings or use your mouse in the work area to change the image visually Numeric settings for X Y Z coordinates If you deactivate any of the buttons to the left of the fields you are precluded from interactively chang ing the related value with your mouse Also using your mouse you can alter only parameters that already have keys will all independently reflect changes you make to each field Thus if you change only the X field only the X data of the selected keys will change K4 NOTE If you have multiple keys selected they Linear and Spline Keys Every key can follow a linear or spline path You can change the path type by selecting the key s and toggling the Spline button on or off At first the change will seem to make no differ ence However if you then drag your mouse over the key a tangent line will appear Dragging the tangent handle at either end will change the length and angle of the tangent line which in turn affects the shape of the curve at that point Changing the shape of the curve NOTE If the curve appears to do a loop de loop drag either tangent handle to the other side of the key You can break the tangent line which allows you to control either side independently by holding the Ctrl key as you drag one
153. keyframe bar in its entirety by dragging it left or right If you drag the top keyframe bar all of the lower bars will move in unison You also can drag an individual parameter inde pendently Notice how the top keyframe bar updates to reflect the new key positions Moving the Mosaic filter keyframes 5 It is important to remember that all of this ani mates only the filter parameters To actually add the filter you must apply it To apply the filter only at a certain frame select it as the current frame and click the filters Apply Filter button To apply the filter over a range of frames select them as usual using the layer s local timeline The appropriate values at each processed frame will be used Subframe Moving You can drag an entire keyframe bar or individual key with subframe accuracy This allows you to have keys that don t reach the set value exactly at a frame but rather at some point in time between frames To do this press and hold the Ctrl key after you click your LMB to drag a keyframe bar or individual key Keyframe Pop up Menu If you right click over the keyframe bar area a spe cial pop up menu appears Selecting Create Key will create keys for all parameters at the current frame Delete Key will delete selected keys The Select All menu item will select all the keys for all frames Right click the keyframe bar for the pop up menu Copy Keys copies all of the selected keys to an internal memor
154. kground and you want to draw details in the red without modifying the background If you preserve transparency you can draw as you would normally on the opaque red but you will not be able to draw anything on the transparent background i e where opacity is zero Furthermore opacity variations that smooth edges are retained on the outlines of your red pattern If you preserve any of the RGB channels opera tions will not affect the preserved channel s no mat ter what color you may be drawing with 6 5 Aura VT 6 PAPER TEXTURES Aura can adjust the density of the ink you apply as if you were drawing on a textured surface You acti vate this feature by clicking the Paper button on the menu panel Bris poer sO The Paper button on the menu panel To select a paper texture right click the button The Paper panel will appear Untitled 100 20 Paper bozosmall Fl CSS ER LER A Paper panel examples of paper textures and paper settings Click on any icon to select that paper texture Use the scrolloar to see more icons You can adjust the Hardness setting to vary the overall effect of the paper texture The Invert option will invert the texture effect OARS VT 66 CUSTOM PAPER TEXTURES You can create custom paper textures since they are just image files whose brightness levels are used to apply the paper texture color information is ignored The files must be saved to the Papers subdi rectory of
155. l Subpixel antialiasing Aspect Aspect stretches or squashes the brush Aspect 30 Drying Drying controls the behavior of the paint when you pass over an existing line made with the tool in a previous brush stroke If activated the paint will dry between strokes Therefore the new line will cover the old line If deactivated the new and old lines will mix together which may modify the borders of the old line Left No drying Right Drying active Note the paint will never dry during the same brush stroke i e while you continue to hold your mouse button down However it dries automatically when you change the current color the gradient the frame the spare the paper the project the mode the stencil the channel preserve and the undo Opacity Opacity globally controls the transparen cy of the line drawn Lower values result in a trans parent less opaque brush stroke 4 3 Aura VT 6 Power Power is the maximum intensity of the stroke in percent It works with Opacity to control the density of the ink applied Reset Click this button to return parameters to their default values Size Size is the radius of the brush in pixels If you have a scrollwheel mouse you can adjust Size with it may occur more slowly Above a certain size which will vary depending on the power of your system you should choose the Dotted Freehand Line function for freehand tasks wr HINT As the
156. l appropriate parameters to the same path using the All Keys item 8 3 Aura VT 6 BASIC FILTERS Mirror The Mirror filter allows you to flip the image hori zontally vertically or both Filter Mirror Mirror panel with preview NOTE Although you also can flip the current image without using a filter with the hori zontal flip and vertical flip keys those func tion only on the current image The Mirror filter also can work on a range of selected frames in a layer gt Mirror Extended Set 151 00 D 147 00 D 00 lt gt 100 00 D Mirror Extended panel 6 Aura VT 8 4 IN The reflecting line for Mirror Extended The Mirror Extended filter produces a reflected image similar to when an object is reflected in a lake The Set button lets you graphically set the position of the reflecting line over which Aura generates the mirror image The Pivot X and Y fields let you numeri cally set the horizontal and vertical position of the reflecting line The Angle field indicates the angle of the reflecting line in relation to the picture To adjust the angle graphically hold the Ctrl key and rotate the line with your LMB You can change the opacity of the reflected image from the Opacity field re Mosaic The Mosaic filter produces a pixelized effect The image is replaced by a set of colored macro pixels of a definable size Each macro pixel color comprises the average of the origi
157. l 100 0 RA lei 75 Ich Kg _ ALC Ae EZ 1 Eu v i 20 Pop up menu of animation options for Text Brush You can create a custom brush discussed later from your text settings by clicking the Create Brush button The text string attaches to your mouse pointer just as it does when you select the Word option You can adjust aspects of the Custom Text brush as you would for any other custom brush and you can apply it just as you would apply any other drawing tool with the Letter option Aura automatically K4 NOTE You cannot create a Custom Brush applies the entire string as a brush 4 11 Aura VT 6 NOTE The numeric info to the left of the Create Brush button indicates the length of the brush in pixels Untitled 100 00 Le SE gt Of Bo Custom brush created for text using Create Brush option The Text Tool Connection When you paint with text you can apply it with any drawing tool such as the line tool or the circle tool You can use the connection options to produce text in a circle or on a spline or connect Fade to size so text starts out big and gets small Lesson Three of the tutorials will teach you how to work with text and connection you can find the tutorials in the Aura con tent directory The following images show some examples of how you can manipulate text with the connection options Untitled 100 00 fell Es Funtitied 100 10 Left Changing the Size based on the Directio
158. l keypad for a stopmotion animator The Video Grabber Device option also lets you select LW Viewer to access data from the LightWave Viewer plug in This enables you to use Aura to view and modify surface texture imagery for objects currently loaded in LightWave3D when the LightWave hub is enabled Video Grabber panel Inout for Aura VT When the LW Viewer is selected the Settings but ton opens a panel named LightWave Viewer offering a number of options The Objects menu is used to designate the LightWave object whose surfaces you wish to work with For an object which has UV maps assigned you can use the two options under the UVs tab to designate which UV map you wish to work with When a UV map is selected the Overlay option will become available in the Video Grabber panel enabling you to view the current UV map over your Aura project window where it can serve as a Quide to creating your texture maps The Surfaces tab permits you to specify an active Surface surface attribute Channel and image Texture of the selected object for editing in Aura The Load button loads existing surface images into a new Aura project scaled to fit them Save overwrites the original texture image LightWave s image Replace function to update HINT You may find it necessary to use the texture held in LightWave ESE Ee ees 100 0096 E03 Video Grabber panel Inout for Aura VT The Options tab reveals a panel allowin
159. layback and Aura jumps to the current slider position When you play a preview the Aura interface is locked so only the Remote Panel is active However you can use Alt LMB RMB during preview play back Frame Rate The buttons below the VCR controls let you change your frame rate while you play your preview Double click on a setting to change the frame rate value to the current project frame rate Click with the RMB to enter a specific frame rate in an input field Scrubbing the Timeline ora Layer Scrubbing the timeline means that you drag your cursor along the timeline and see the project play in the work area as you drag You can drag with your RMB and when you release it Aura returns to the original frame you selected before you scrubbed Drag and release with the LMB and Aura selects the last frame under your cursor You also can scrub a layer so that you see only the action of your selected layer in the display area Drag the mouse down and you change the current layer Move outside of the layer panel to return to the original layer Drag with the RMB and the preview shows only the action of the current layer Layer Display Magnification The Auto Fit pop up menu is in the top right cor ner of the Layer panel beneath the background color options The menu items allow you to quickly adjust the layer magnification Fit to Project will adjust the magnification to fit the entire project Fit to Layer will adjust the magni
160. lus if you use a tablet to determine how to apply the animbrush With a low amount of pressure you apply only the first frame as you increase pres sure you cycle through the animation Speed is similar to Pressure If you move your mouse slowly you apply only the first frame and as you increase speed you begin to cycle through the animation Direction uses the direction of your mouse pointer or stylus to determine which frames the brush applies If you travel in one direction then the brush applies the same frame but when you change direc tion the brush cycles to the next image The slider beneath the Anim pop up menu indi cates the current animbrush frame That is the frame that will be pasted upon the next use The informa tion display at the bottom will indicate the frame total frames The slider for current animbrush frame Gaus VT 4 16 Editing the Brush Clicking the Edit button at the top of the Options tab on the Tool panel will display the Edit Brush panel This is where you can make changes to the active custom brush Edit Brush seele 2 Al LL Mk Eu ME Eu mM En mio Eu The Edit Brush panel Applying Changes As you change variables on the panel Aura shows a realtime preview of your change in the project win dow Any changes you make to the brush on the panel need to be applied before you can use them This is done by clicking the Apply Changes button Resizing the Brush At
161. more elaborate means to remove the motion from a hand held sequence Two source pixels from the original image are used to provide the necessary information rather than merely one The fil ter can infer an angle of deviation from the baseline between them for each frame of the clip The angle derived can then be used to correct for rotational instability Likewise any variance of the distance between the two source pixels can be taken to indi cate zoom or movement on the Z axis This can be corrected by scaling As with Stabilization 1 Point there are two modes Panning and Shift Panning tiles the image to fill the screen Shift doesn t tile meaning you may see what ever is underneath the layer The two additional options Scale and Rotate permit the corrections mentioned above to be performed selectively You can choose to correct for Rotation only Scale only or both You can interactively set the two Origin points and their Destinations by dragging points on the project window To do so click the Set button The Origin and Dest fields update as you move the boxes Stabilization 2 points Ee 204 00 KT 182 00 _ ED 400 00 KO 200 00 KD 199 00 K 400 00 KT 201 00 KD Interactively setting points for Stabilization 2 Points 827 Aura VT 6 However it will often be more practical to use this filter in conjunction with motion paths derived using the Pixel Tracker filter Use the latter to track two prominent pi
162. mouse button when you find your desired color have clicked the A B Color button will P NOTE Simply clicking your mouse after you accomplish steps 2 and 3 in one motion Picking Other Colors Many panels throughout Aura allow you to select colors These settings will have color selector but tons These selectors work just like the A B Color button except you will set only one color and you can use either mouse button HINT Make sure the desired color is visible some where You may want to use the Picker Mixer or Bin tabs on the Color Picker panel Two color selector buttons at the top of the Layers panel FILLED SHAPE SETTINGS When you select a filled drawing function the Tool panel becomes the Filling Shape panel Here you can set how you want the shape to be filled __ 100 00 _ EG m HOOO Filling shape panel The pop up menu at the top of the panel lets you choose the drawing modes for your shape the draw ing modes are discussed in Chapter 6 The Smooth setting will smooth out the transition from the fill to the edge Higher settings will blur the edge Opacity controls the transparency of the fill Lower values will be more transparent AALiasing i e Antialiasing smoothes the edges of the fill This eliminates stairstep or jaggies Generally you will want this function active Gradients The Gradient option controls how paint is poured into filled shapes It allows you to fill with sever
163. n Transition on Block tab with preview but differs in the fact that it moves the image on off Block transitions using a building block like effect Block X and Block Y define the number of horizontal and vertical blocks used The center direction icon adds the blocks in random order 8 41 Aura vr6 Transition Rotary Filter Wipe Rotary Transition on Rotary tab with preview Rotary wipes the layer on or off in a rotating swipe Use the ClockWise option to reverse the direction of the swipe VT Wipe Builder Filter VT Wipe Builder can be used to create 2D DVEs that can be used in VT 8 With this transition compil er you can construct Wipes by controlling the trans 6 Aura VT 8 42 wipe Builder parency and the position of the incoming video source In addition you can overlay an uncom pressed video source as a mask For detailed instructions see the tutorial WipeBuilder pdf on the Content CD Vi FILTERS The VI filters are third party plug in filters for George Scripts Each filter has its own documenta tion that is supplied in its folder with Aura VIDEO FILTERS Fix Motion The Fix Motion filter performs two functions it applies a vertical smoothing effect on computer images for use in video and smoothes images digi tized from a video source It avoids scintillation effects that can occur when the image is displayed In video an image is displayed in two steps all even lines are displayed
164. n Right Changing Rotation based on Direction CUSTOM BRUSHES In addition to pre defined brushes Aura lets you cut out images and draw with them This type of brush is called a custom brush When you draw in the Color mode Aura applies all custom brush colors in the image The custom brush may either contain a Gruss VT 412 still image or it may be built up from a sequence of images cut out from an animation In the latter case the brush is called an animbrush Cutting out a Custom Brush Aura offers a number of CutBrush functions on the Main panel that you can use to create a custom brush From left to right the four buttons are Rectangle Polygon Freehand and Magic Wand NOTE Use the b key to toggle through the different Main Panel ISAAA 2 ella ia CutBrush buttons on the Main panel Ra custom brushes Aura always takes the brush cutout from Tool x HAHA Custombrush ALAA Options Bin Custom Brush tool on the Tool panel the current image in the current layer The Custom brush tool Tool panel is automatically selected after this operation choose a built in brush after cutting out a cus tom brush the new tool s brush replaces the custom brush However the custom brush will reappear when you select the Custom brush tool K4 NOTE If you select another drawing tool or The Rectangle CutBrush function cuts out every thing located within the rectangle that you define by dragging
165. n also load any of the supported file formats to start a new project When you load an image or anim Aura uses the image or anim s dimensions for the project size NOTE See the Appendix for a discussion of supported file formats SAVING AND CLOSING PROJECTS A project consists of all layers and their settings When you save a project Aura stores everything in a single file Aura maintains the order of the layers in the list and their position on the time line The Save and Save As functions are only for use with Aura project files The file format used is specific to Aura To share image data with other programs use the File gt Export function To save a project choose File gt Save or choose the Save Project icon on the menu bar near the top left of the screen this icon looks like a floppy disk 2 1 Aura vt Then use the file requester to locate a suitable subdi rectory and enter the project name or choose an existing project Choose File gt Save As to save using a new filename To close a project simply click the close window button on the project window it s the X button in the top right corner You can also close the current project by choosing File gt Close Project or choose the SaveProject icon which looks like a single folder NOTE Closing the last open project automati Ka cally creates a blank new project Projects do not save keyframes or filter settings You must save these individually from the key
166. n blur Brush mode only sets the amount of motion blur which can make moving objects appear to move more smoothly when played back in an animation Essentially this mimics the blur ring that occurs in the real world when something moves faster than a camera s lens or our eyes can freeze like a speeding racecar The default setting of 50 should work in most cases Before Motion Blur After Motion Blur Motion blur is accomplished by adding several semi transparent images to each brush position It places these additional images between the current brush position and its previous position slightly shift ing each relative to the others The distance between each additional image depends on the distance between two successive positions of the brush The number of additional images depends on the MS set ting below HINT To get a lot of blur try using a very high Y value like 300 on the first key for the MB and set MS to 42 MS for motion step Brush mode only is a non keyable parameter that works in conjunction with motion blur It sets the number of complied blurred images when there is some level of motion blur Values of 3 to 5 should work in most cases With the default value 0 no additional images are created O for opacity Brush mode only can vary the opacity of the brush over time Up and Down options refer to whether your draw ing button mouse or tablet is up or down This allows you to stop drawing
167. n change colors and drawing modes and apply the shape in multiple lay ers using the Enter key Holding your Shift key down will constrain your mousepointer direction in incre ments of 45 degrees based on the initial direction of movement If you click a drawing function with the RMB Aura brings up its settings panel Note that you can designate an RMB simulation where you access the RMB with a specific key You set the simulation as a keyboard shortcut see Chapter 2 Wacom tablet users may find this shortcut handy HINT Use the Shift key feature to help you create perfect circles and squares DRAWING DOTTED FREEHAND LINES Activate the Freehand dotted line function to make a dotted line with the current brush and current draw ing tool i e Pen Mechanical pencil Brush tool etc When you draw the line Aura applies the brush in the image at the location of the pointer As soon as you finish the operation Aura will apply the brush again at your new pointer position and so on The application speed of the brush varies depending on its size and selected options The spacing between the various brush applications varies depending on the time nec essary to draw the line and the pointer displacement speed Untitled 100 00 Drawing with a Dotted Freehand Line 3 1 Aura VT 6 The Freehand dot function makes a single instance of the brush when you first click Untitled 100 00 Drawing with a Freehand Dot DRA
168. n relative to the light The highlighting effect light or dark becomes stronger as the difference between the colors becomes more marked The orientation of the light is defined by the distribution of the positive and negative coefficients around the central coefficient In the example the light is coming from the top left Relief 2 is a more powerful variant with lighting from the bottom The few examples given above are not restrictive nor exhaustive You can make any variations you wish The Combined example will give an outline and a relief effect at the same time 5x5 matrices The only difference between 3x3 convolutions and 5x5 convolutions is that the 5x5 matrix takes into account of more pixels 25 instead of 9 and can therefore produce more subtle effects Sm lootmn ig Relief w smoathing 8 33 Aura VT 6 Convolutions filter sets You can load or save convolutions as files using Load and Save on the File menu Several convolution files should already exist in your Aura Convolve directory re Erode Erode filter with low settings The Erode filter erodes the edge or border of the selected image When you choose Erode you create an aloha channel that masks out the eroded areas The options for this filter let you set Erode X and Erode Y which represent the size of the erosion effect in pixels Erode X sets the horizontal size and Erode Y sets the vertical size If you enter a large number in this
169. nal pixel colors it covers You can pixelize an image with Smooth or without a smoothing Linear effect selected using the Mode pop up menu z B I Mosaic panel with preview The Width and Height fields set a specific size for the macro pixels These two values may be different resulting in rectangular pixels instead of typical squares As the macro pixel size increases the image becomes more undefined therefore if you want to retain the basic concept of your image keep the width and height values fairly low as if it were proportionately the project win dow As such the applied mosaic effect will often be smaller than it appeared in the pre view window Ka NOTE The preview window applies the effect Negative Negative panel with preview As its name implies the Negative filter transforms an image into its negative The color of each pixel is replaced by its complement black becomes white red becomes cyan blue becomes yellow etc There are no settings for this filter gt Noise Noise panel with preview The Noise filter adds randomly dispersed pixels in random directions and distances Shift defines the maximum distance of pixel shift All pixels are shifted at random by a distance between O and this value Intensity defines the percentage of pixels shifted in the image The amount of the effect increases as this number increases Panning Wrap v ga 350 00 D 147 00
170. namically by dragging your mouse pointer around the image When you are satisfied with the selection area simply release the mouse button NOTE This function shares the same fill set tings as the Flood Fill function Right click the button to open the Shape Settings panel Copying and Cutting the Brush Generally if you use the LMB to make the cutout Aura simply copies the selected image to form the custom brush However if you use the RMB Aura cuts out the selected area and the area in the image becomes transparent Top Magic Wand selection Center Magic Wand with LMB keeps the image Bottom Magic Wand with RMB cuts the image 4 13 Aura VT 6 When you have a CutBrush function active the Tool panel will display some options Here you can change the LMB operation and make it cut out the area The Smooth setting will blur the edges of your cutout based on the number of pixels you enter A larger number gives you more blurring AAliasing applies default smoothing to the edges of your cutout selection and eliminates stairstep for AAliasing you do not need to enter a Smooth value the default smooth action occurs automatically When AAliasing is not enabled and you do not use Smooth the outline of your cutout selection will not be smoothed Keep will keep your current CustomBrush set tings If you disable Keep the cutbrush settings are stored as a new CustomBrush when you enable Keep your settings repla
171. nction displays the entire project on your screen scaling the image down if necessary This is simply a preview mode you cannot draw in this mode Click your LMB to return to the original Aura display 2 15 Aura VT 6 THE GRID The grid constrains drawing to the intersections of a grid Your mouse pointer then tends to move from one intersection to the next rather than from pixel to pixel To activate the grid simply select the Grid but ton from the Menu panel SUE EP LAL ALA Untitl ole Tx FI pocan mwang Project with Grid option activated Clicking on the Grid button with your RMB will open its settings panel The Start X and Start Y set tings define the coordinates of the grid origin point This allows you to move the grid within an image without changing its size The Width and Height set tings represent the horizontal and vertical spacing in pixels between each grid line Grid settings panel Click the Set button to graphically define the above grid settings Simply drag your mouse pointer to determine the grid origin and size NOTE You may want to deactivate the Grid function before using the Set option Baura VT 2 16 Click the Use Brush Size option to use the dimensions of the current brush as the grid dimen sions Setting this option allows you to quickly fill in an image with several copies of a brush in a checker board pattern The Show option controls the display of the grid S
172. nd 100 The A or altitude field represents a value for the angle of your pen if you use a Wacom tablet to draw your stroke You can specify an altitude between O and 100 that tells Aura the minimum required for a stroke to be recorded The F1 field lets you enter a value between 0 00 and 100 that adjusts your fingerwheel The N field allows you to add noise to your stroke recording which gives the stroke a jittering effect A value of 0 00 adds no noise The Up and Down buttons specify whether your drawing button mouse or tablet is up or down This allows you to stop drawing while the direction or other parameters continue on Note that this is a tog gle setting Once an Up or Down key is hit that state continues until the next Up or Down Applying Stroke Recorder The next group of options affects how Aura applies the filter With the Normal option selected Aura applies the path over the selected frames just as if they were made using your mouse or drawing tablet Using the Normal option to apply a recorded stroke Using the Size option Aura erases the beginning of your brush stroke as the animation progresses The adjacent input field sets the number of frames to hold before erasing Using the Size option to apply a recorded stroke If you use the Stroke Recorder with the Text tool and Size Aura treats each text letter as an independ ent element Therefore these elements may get closer to each other or move away f
173. nds requesters fields buttons etc are set in bold type Bold Keystroke Combinations Key1 Key2 Simultaneous keystrokes Hold the first key and press the second key Mouse Operations LMB Left mouse button RMB Right mouse button Selecting To single click an item with the LMB to activate or select the item To single click an item with the LMB to deactivate or deselect the item Activate to select an option by click ing on its toggle button To deselect an option by clicking on its toggle button To place your mouse pointer over an Deselecting Deactivate Clicking item and then press a mouse button Clicking usually refers to the LMB Right click To click an item using your RMB Double clicking To rapidly click an item twice Dragging To select an item with your mouse pointer and continue holding the mouse button down as you move your mouse Dragging usually refers to the LMB OARS VT 1 2 ATTENTI CON discussion that warns the user about some thing Pay special attention to text marked with this symbol WARNING The warning symbol highlights a NOTE The note symbol highlights a discus sion that is particularly noteworthy HINT The tip symbol highlights time saving tips and suggestions SOME GENERAL CONCEPTS The reference manual offers a detailed description of the various icons tools menus and functions avail able in Aura It is designed to provide quick access to the information you n
174. ne by holding the Ctrl key and dragging with your LMB Holding the Ctrl key and dragging with your RMB will scale the outline As such you cannot drag a corner to where the image would in theory wrap over on itself If you attempt to do this a large red X will appear on the panel preview Changing the shape of your layer or custom brush will create the illusion of perspective If visible you also can drag the vanishing points to alter the per spective shape NOTE See also the discussion on vanishing Ka points for the Wrap tool in Chapter 3 If the Apply option is set to Once the default set ting Aura applies the layer or custom brush only once Setting this pop up menu to Fill will tile the image Apply set to Fill for the Wrapper Filter If you use the CustomBrush mode with an anim brush and you selected multiple frames each brush image is applied to one of the selected frames in the layer NOTE You can use the Wrapper tool to com Ka posite a picture in picture at perspective or use it in conjunction with the Pixel Tracker to paste brushes or video onto moving video See Lesson Ten in the Tutorials folder in the Aura content directory BLUR FILTERS Blur Blur panel with preview The Blur filter applies a smoothing blur effect to the image The amount of this smoothing is variable and you can apply it to the Image or just its Opacity When applied to the Opacity blurring mostly affects element outlines
175. ng the new one K4 NOTE With most filters you are allowed to your image use a selection function or use a Ka NOTE To apply a filter to only a portion of stencil layer to indicate a target area 8 1 Aura VT 6 ANIMATED FILTERS You can keyframe many of the filters That is you can set different values at different frames Aura will automatically compute any needed values between the keyed frames are keyframable if they have a variable If you select a keyframable filter it shows up in the local timeline of the currently selected layer Keyframable filters are marked with the icon or in this manual Ka NOTE Not all filters may be keyframed Filters There are several buttons you should be aware of on the Layer panel Tee asla Lede Le Create Delete ol esse The Create Delete and Auto Key buttons on the Layer panel Clicking the Create button creates a key at the cur rent frame for all of the parameters of the currently active filter Clicking the Delete button deletes all selected keys The Auto Key button controls the Auto create key mode Generally numerically changing a parameter will automatically create a key for that parameter only HINT We generally recommend that you keep the Auto Key active To select a key Click the plus sign on the keyframe bar If you click the top most plus sign all of the parameter keys for that frame will be selected You can select multiple keys
176. not have to select this drawing mode directly Erase Mode on current layer PANTO MODE The Panto mode short for pantograph lets you clone rubber stamp one area onto another When you select this mode a second offset crosshair point er will appear This marks the source area The two pointers will move in unison as you move your mouse When you draw Aura copies everything that is under the offset pointer to under the normal point er OARS VT 6 2 Second tree cloned in Panto Mode To adjust the offset 1 Right click the drawing function button e g AirBrush PenBrush etc to display the Shape Settings panel 2 Click the Set button Place your mouse pointer over the approximate source area Drag your LMB to the approximate target area an elastic line appears F Aura PixiElephant aur 100 10 Settings ex Color amp Density _v_ 26 e it e Ee e Jo Le gt ol l Flastic line source and target settings for Panto 3 Release your mouse button The X and Y settings indicate the horizontal and vertical offset between the two points in pixels You can edit these fields directly The Panto mode is extremely useful for touching up scanned images For example if you want to erase dust or scratches on a portrait simply move the second pointer to an intact area of skin and then draw with the normal pointer over the piece of dust Aura copies the intact skin and makes the dust d
177. not sliced in half between the two monitors Try adding these lines to the Aura2 ini or AuraVT ini file to adjust the position of the pop ups PopX 300 PopY 300 Changing the number changes the position of the pop ups HINT For dual monitor setup you can adjust ReqFileName No By default the name of the last loaded or saved file appears in the file selector when you save or load a file Add this line into the Aura2 ini file if you want the Name field in the selector to remain empty Appendix 5 Aura VT 6 INTERNET RESOURCES In addition to information about NewTek products upgrades and the latest releases of Aura software our World Wide Web and FTP sites have various sup port files and information you may find helpful Our web address is http www newtek com and our FTP address is ftp newtek com You can also find and exchange information with the Aura discussion group http vbulletin newtek com TECHNICAL SUPPORT The best source for help with installing or configur ing software or hardware is the retailer from whom you purchased your NewTek product While we have made every effort to keep your software and hard ware trouble free and easy to use you may occa sionally need help right from the source If you have problems with NewTek supplied hardware or Aura doesn t seem to be functioning as it should please contact technical support in one of the following ways e By email atech newtek com e By fax 210 370 80
178. ns have directional 6 Aura VT 8 38 options that you set by selecting one of the icons at the top of the panel Using the Transition Filters You can set up all of the transitions in basically the same manner To set up a transition 1 Go to the frame where you want the transition to start 2 Set the Position field to the amount of transition you want to start with Most of the time this will be 0 A setting of 0 means no change and 100 means total change 3 Go to the frame where you want the transition to end 4 Set the Position field to the amount of transition you want to end with Most of the time this will be 100 There may be other keyable parameters but the above sets the basic operation of the transition 5 Select all of the frames over which the transition occurs and click Apply Filter Transition filter share the same parameter keys So if you set it for one and switch to a different transition the keys will still be there Also not all parameters are keyable K4 NOTE All of the transition modes on the gt Transition Wipe Fade 28 57 KO Transition on Fade tab with preview The Transition Fade filter will dissolve the layer in or out Transition Wipe1 Filter Wipe Transition on Wipe 1 tab with preview The Transition Wipe filter simply wipes the layer on or off using a rectangular shape You can set a Border color and its width in pixels The Soft setting will soften t
179. nt image however all edges of the resulting image are continu ous This means that you can use the Panning tool 8 31 Aura VT Main panel to shift the image in any direction and you will never see a join line Therefore you can use these images to create bump maps for 3D programs Blend filter with preview K4 NOTE Application of this filter involves an a mount of randomness so you will never obtain the same result with two identical images Br Bloom 0 00 14 0 00 EG 20 00 20 00 ES 14 88 ES 100 00 D 100 00 E 100 00 D Bloom filter with preview Bloom applies a blooming effect to the pixels in the selected image You can vary the brightness of the bloom the saturation of color and the bloom color and the bloom size Use Brightness to adjust the lightness or dark ness of the bloom Use Saturation to adjust the intensity of the bloom s color 6 Aura VT 8 32 The fields for Glow X and Glow Y let you set the bloom size on each axis The size is measured in pix els The Blur Tune field lets you fine tune the bloom 0 5 is a fine blur and 20 is a rough blur Finally you can alter the actual color of the bloom by entering different values in the Red Green and Blue channels Convolutions Convolutions filter using 3x3 matrix A convolution is a mathematical formula that can make an image sharper more blurred embossed outlined and more This filter allows you to set up e
180. nter a name To remove the active gradient click the Delete button You can copy the active gradient by clicking the Copy button The copy or any other existing gradi ent can be renamed by clicking the Rename button You can reverse the gradient by clicking the Invert button The Noise value introduces a random grain in the gradient If you click or drag your mouse pointer over Gradient Noise at 53 in the Result display the color display it changes the random seed value and thus the random noise pattern Customizing the Color Component A gradient always has at least two keys one at the beginning and one at the end You cannot move these keys but you can alter them You can change an existing key by clicking on it If you Click with your LMB you are merely selecting it as the active key Each key independently uses one of the three Color modes indicated at the bottom of the panel The key can use a custom color left the A Color middle or B Color right You can change the cus Color mode Color swatches at the RMB gradient panel base tom color by clicking on the color swatch and select ing a color as you would normally If you click on a key with your RMB a pop up menu appears that provides shortcuts to the color mode settings to picking a color and to deleting You Gradient RMB pop up for color swatches also can delete the active key by clicking the Delete button at the bottom of the pan
181. nti aliasing to your motion path Anti aliasing smoothes pixels so that edges do not appear jagged With motion AAliasing will smooth the in between frames you cre ate in KeyFramer Exporting a Motion Path to LightWave The File menu has a special option that allows you to save KeyFramer data to a LightWave 3D motion file When you choose File gt Export to LW Motion the standard Aura Export panel appears You must enter a name for your motion file choose OK and then the Export to LightWave Motion panel appears From this panel you can adjust the origin scale and channel options for a motion path Note that when you export a motion path it maintains the frame duration of the project you export from Thus if you export from a project with a duration of 30 frames the motion path will cover 30 frames Exportto Lightwave motion file Eg Export to LightvYave motion file Export to Lightvyaye motion file Eg Channels X P lt On the Origin tab you specify the position for the origin of the motion path The OriginX and OriginY fields let you numerically set the position The initial values in these fields are based on the dimensions of your current Aura project the coordinates at the cen ter of your project set the default origin If you select 6 Aura VT 8 24 ReverseX and or Reverse you can reverse the origin coordinates which gives them a negative value The Set Origin pop up lets you choose standard coordi
182. nting with a color other than pure black or white successive strokes with a painting tool produce progressively darker colors if Drying is active The effect is similar to drawing on an image with magic markers SCREEN MODE The Screen mode takes each channel s color information and multiplies the inverse of the A color and the image colors The resulting color is usually lighter Screening with black leaves the color unchanged Screening with white produces white The effect is similar to projecting multiple photograph ic slides on top of each other CHANNEL PRESERVING You can independently preserve color channels which prevents operations from affecting them The channel buttons are located on the menu panel From left to right they are the transparency red green and blue channels When active the button will be high lighted De Seele Channel buttons on the menu panel If you preserve the transparency channel your paint will adhere only to places where is there is already paint This allows you to replace color but not opaci ty as you draw The transparency channel is similar to a stencil aloha mask but is effective only where there is already some color This works quite well with layered images Using the transparency channel is the opposite of the Behind drawing mode Replacing color by drawing with the transparency channel For example Suppose you drew a red pattern on a transparent bac
183. o keep dot size fairly small Filter Print Print filter panel with preview Se Shadow This filter creates a shadow for your image You choose the color the intensity and position of the shadow and its distance from the image This shad ow may be applied under the current contents of the image or in another layer placed under the image As such the shadow is only visible in transparent parts of the image If you create a shadow in a completely Opaque image you will not be able to see it Filter Shadow 53 00 K0 21 IE 50 o 1 Lel Shadow panel with preview ter to a new layer creates a new anim layer instead of an image layer if at least two images are selected Ka NOTE For an animation layer applying this fil Set the Apply on pop up menu to Current to apply this filter to the current image or current layer selection Choose New to create the shadow in its own underlying layer Click on the color button to change the color of the shadow The field just to the right of the button sets the angle of the light source When you adjust 8 35 Aura VT 6 the angle with the minislider a directional compass appears As you change the value Aura updates the compass for easy interactive selection The shadow in the preview window also updates in real time Distance sets the distance in pixels between the shadow and the image When this value is zero you can use the Smooth setting to create glow e
184. o select from the available patterns for the selected standard Video test pat terns are used to maintain video quality the descrip tions below will briefly introduce you to each test pat tern and how it is used Bars 100 generates a test pattern of eight colors white yellow cyan green magenta red blue and black at 100 percent saturation the bars provide a color reference Bars 75 generates the same test pattern as Bars 100 except at 75 percent color saturation Bars Pluge generates the Bars 75 test pattern with a pluge pattern which is used to adjust bright ness and contrast in picture monitors Bars Red generates the Bars 75 pattern with a band of 100 percent red at the bottom the red signal is used to test videotapes for dropout and noise Bars SMPTE generates the Bars 75 pattern with the SMPTE pattern which is used to adjust VCRS and picture monitors Gray Step 5 and Gray Step 10 generate test pat terns of five or ten equal steps of grays these pat terns help test luminance Gray Ramp generates a ramp of gray values from O to 100 IRE that is used to test luminance IRE is a unit of measurement used to standardize video and broadcast signals 8 43 Aura VT 6 r TimeCode Writer 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 TimeCode Writer from left to right Current Free Run and User TimeCode writer inserts a rectangle with timecode over a layer The rectangle becomes a permanent piece of the layer so if you
185. oard map each day Select Default Keymap to change all assignments to their default settings Clear Keymap performs a global removal of all assignments from all keys and key combinations leaving you with a clean keyboard map to rebuild in whatever combinations suit you cuts mapped by default There are also many functions that are not mapped to specific keys You many want to spend a little time reviewing both windows on the Configure Keyboard Shorts panel O HINT Aura has many helpful keyboard short Settings Panel Display Tab Generally when you draw you will see the shape and color of your brush attached to your mouse pointer Activate Hide Tools Preview to show only the mouse pointer Settings Panel Display E 1 00 I 0o00 K 1 00 IKT 1 00 IK o0 IK 100 1 00 IKA 0 00 KA 1 00 The Settings panel Display tab If you use a 16 bit display mode on your system the Best display mode automatically dithers your dis play This may be helpful when viewing 24 bit images Choose Fast display if you don t want the dithering Best is the only option for 24 or 32 bit display modes The LUT area lets you to add a Look Up Table over the project display You use this feature primarily for calibration TV Gamma Cineon File Project data is not affected LUT affects only the display Gamma is a coefficient that determines the brightness of the colors in the monitor display The default value of this coefficient is
186. ocal quantized option animation file formats only Aura uses one palette for each frame which can be different The Dithering pop up menu gives you the option of using the Floyd Steinberg error diffusion or Standard available only with Preset Palette dithering techniques to give the illusion that there are more than 256 colors in the image Choose None to deactivate dithering Appendix 1 Aura vr6 NOTE As you change the Palette or Dithering settings the preview window will adjust accordingly Set Colors to the number of colors you want to use out of the 256 color palette It can vary between 16 and 256 Aura format aur The Aura format is specific to Aura and there are no settings for it It is used only by the project palette and mixer files AVI format avi Video for Windows Video Compression EI Cancel ongure Compressor Doug s SuperTiny v8 34az 3 Compression Quality 65 x u gt l About Key Frame Every 0 frames Abo p KB sec gt l Data Rate System dialog box for Video Compression The AVI format saves an animation as a single file or a single image that you can then display after wards for example using the Windows Multimedia player The number of colors saved depends on which compression method you use A system dialog box appears after you have entered the file name to be saved The Compressor pop up menu contains the names of the compression decompression
187. oject Frames are dropped if necessary to achieve the projects frame rate The Proxy preview is created while you work in Aura The preview file is stored in the temp directory and frames that are not yet rendered are built during the playback The Render preview is created before the play back and saved on disk The next time you play your project Aura re renders only frames that have changed since you saved the project Aura also offers the Format option which lets you choose the colorspace for your preview An RGBA The Preview settings panel ELAMA s The Proxy bar on the main menu preview is built in 4 4 4 RGB color space with an alpha channel A YUV preview is built in 4 2 2 YUV color space without an alpha channel A YUVA pre view is built in 4 2 2 YUV color space with an alpha channel To display timecode over your preview activate Show TC Enable Play All to play all frames in your project frame rate will be disregarded Disable this option to play the preview at the correct frame rate for the project the preview may drop some frames Remote Panel for Previews You can run a preview by clicking on the play but ton or choosing Windows gt Remote Panel The Remote Panel opens and here you can change set tings while your preview runs You also can change your project s navigation functions while a preview runs e g navigator panel Project windows buttons such as Pan Zoom Fit 1 1 and shortcuts lik
188. on as a single file for use with NewTek s VT S Generally your project size should be 720 x 486 for NTSC and 720 x 576 for PAL If you save RTV files with Save Alpha Channel you maintain masking or transparency Or you can save without the alpha channel using Normal If you save the file with Super Black it is similar to saving with an alpha channel Super Black provides good hard edges on video elements BMP format bmp The BMP format can save a single image or a sequence of numbered images in 24 bits 16 million colors or 8 bits 256 colors See the previous dis cussion on Indexed Color Palettes and Dithering for information on the Palette and Dithering pop up menu options You will have the additional choice of using the 24 bits option which saves images using over 16 million colors No dithering options are avail able with this mode and the number color is fixed at 16Miillion ILBM format iff The ILBM format standard for the Amiga comput er can save a single image or a sequence of num bered images in 24 bits 16 million colors or 8 bits 256 colors See the previous discussion on Indexed Color Palettes and Dithering for information on the Palette and Dithering pop up menu options You will have the additional choice of using the 24 bits option which saves images using over 16 million col ors No dithering options are available with this mode and the number color is fixed at 16Miillion JPEG format
189. or range and lighter pixels are assigned the colors on the right side of the range You also can limit the selection to the luminosity of just one of the three color channels Red Green or Blue Fed El Filter Luma Range Luma Range panel Setting Source to Alpha uses the opacity of the pixels in the image as a basis for assigning colors As a result images like scanned images will be a solid color because there is no variation in opacity Normally the filter respects transparent areas in the image Activating Replace overides this behavior and replaces all colors regardless of opacity Gaus VT 8 16 The color range used by the filter can be estab lished in two ways By default it uses your current A and B colors You can change these then click the range bar on the panel to update the range in the fil ter panel The left most color will be the A color and the right most will be the B color with a smooth gra dient in between Alternatively if you activate Aura s Gradient tool and set a gradient there clicking on the filters range bar will be updated to display the new gradient images by using a color range that goes dark to light using similar tones Negative effects result when the range goes from light to dark Standard LUT The Standard LUT look up table filter applies a transformation to a given component of each pixel in the image You can modify the Luminosity Saturation opacity D Red Green or Blu
190. ormation on the color luminosity and opacity that make up an image which can be difficult to determine by just looking at it For example the luminosity values for a bright image on the black graph would be skewed toward the right that is towards the maximum luminosity values A dark image would be skewed toward the left An image that had a lot of dark reds would have a black graph skewed towards the left for the Red component If an image had no blues the black graph for the Blue component would be flat and low The Source and Destination Arrows The source and destination arrows allow you to redistribute the component values In essence warp the values to a new shape Essentially the graph will Before and After adjusting Destination arrows on the Histogram maintain its peaks and valleys however you can reposition them by expanding and contracting ranges you specify The Arrow number pop up menu lets you set the number of arrows available for editing More arrows give you greater control over how the values are redistributed The upper set of arrows represent key positions in the graph that you define The lower set represent where you want those positions to migrate to Areas between are interpolated based on the relative neigh boring slider positions If matching top and bottom arrows are at the same position no change occurs at that point However their position will affect the inter polation that occurs between the
191. ou can not retrieve it again Filter Path Manager The Manage tab on Path Manager On the Average tab you can choose from differ ent paths that you ve made and Aura will average together the motion When you average paths together Aura prompts you for a new name To see the new path you must apply it to a layer from one of the motion filters Filter Path Manager The Average tab on Path Manager The Smooth function takes all keys in a motion path and smoothes the motion Pixel tracking often creates a jerky motion path Smooth improves the motion path Choose a path for smoothing from the pop up menu and then enter a value in the Smooth field The value you enter determines the radius of the smoothing effect in pixels Larger values will produce a smoother motion path Filter The Smooth tab You can access the other motion filters by select ing the Motion menu near the top of the panel Alternatively you always can access the Path Manager from the motion filters via the same route r Pixel Tracker As mentioned before you can create a path by tracking an area through an animation You start this process by selecting Motion gt Pixel Tracker which displays the Pixel Tracker panel See Lessons Nine and Ten in the Aura Tutorial directory to learn tech niques for using the Pixel Tracker from any motion filter panel by selecting the K4 NOTE You can access all of the motion filters Motion menu at the
192. ough the points If you choose Polynomial you produce a rounded curve based on an algebraic calculation Profile AirBrush Top Linear Center Spline Bottom Polynomial Use the up and down arrow buttons on the preset selector to cycle through built in profile curves which you can use as is or alter it Click the preview window to use the selected preset Profile AirBrush The preview window and arrow buttons for Built in profile curves over a point you can use the right click pop up menu as a shortcut to some of this panel s features K4 NOTE When your mouse pointer is directly Common Parameters Many of the tools share the same parameters The following list describes the available parameters Angle Angle rotates your brush Use in conjunc tion with Aspect values of less than 100 Angle 35 Aspect 30 AAliasing Antialiasing smoothes the edges of the paint and therefore eliminates stairstep or jaggies that can appear on the edges of objects Antialiasing is Le AEE Left Antialiased edge Right Non Antialiased edge accomplished by diminishing the opacity transparen cy of pixels along object outlines As the pixels become more and more transparent the colors cov ered by these pixels become more and more visible Generally you want this function active Aura features subpixel antialiasing As such antialiasing is actually based on the position of your pointer within a pixe
193. ovements but the cir cle is locked to the two established points Click a third time when the circle is the desired size Aura then draws the circle 3 5 Aura VT 6 DRAWING FILLED ELLIPSES The Filled Ellipse function draws a filled ellipse You use this function just like the regular Ellipse function except Aura fills the ellipse when you release the mouse button FLOOD FILL The Flood Fill function fills areas of the image with the foreground color To use this function select the function and then drag your mouse pointer in the area to be filled As you drag around you see the fill area displayed Release the mouse button to complete the operation Move your pointer off the image to abort The paint spreads pixel by pixel horizontally and verti Cally to the computed bordering edges of the area Figirl rty 50 00 1 1 s Lol Figirl rtv 50 00 Pe Mellel ETER 7 Using Flood Fill to select and fill an area Here the black clothing was selected and replaced with a lighter color 6 aura VT 3 6 Adjusting Fill Borders Access the Flood Fill settings panel by clicking on its icon with the RMB The Fill pop up menu lets you tailor how the fill border is defined Color amp Density the default stops the fill when the paint reaches a pixel with a color or opacity different from that of the start pixel Color only stops the fill when the paint reaches a pixel that is different only by color den
194. p Select colors to drop 3 Select the Apply button to apply the filter Here s the result After applying the CrossKeyer filter The Mix setting defines how much of the adjacent colors are selected using a range between 0 00 to 1 00 As you approach 1 00 the CrossKeyer cap tures more colors to add to the dropped region The Edge setting defines the softness of the selection area Higher values will give you more sharply defined edges between areas that are opaque or transparent while lower values will apply a softer transition between edges By clicking Learn you tell Aura to remember the co lors so it can apply the filter over a series of frames NOTE You must click Learn before you click Apply r LumaKeyer Another traditional method for keying out colors is luma keying instead of using color hues chroma key ing this filter uses the pixel luminosity i e bright ness to affect the transparency of parts of the image It modifies pixel opacity as a function of how close pixels are to a reference luminance that you choose k aur 100 00 Ki Al l El KES Ke EIEN 100 00 A LumaKeyer filter set to key out Luminance values of 255 with a low fade falloff On the Ramp tab the black to white gradient rep resents the luminosity spectrum The red line indi cates the keyed values The vertical position of the line is the amount of transparency If the line is at the bottom pixels with the co
195. plan to remove it later you should place it on its own layer not in a layer with paint Time Code writer offers three modes Current Free Run and User Current applies the timecode value from the current project this mode has no set tings The Free Run mode lets you choose specific proj ect settings The Grab option grabs the timecode settings from the project Then you set the display Mode which can be Frame or TimeCode Frame will display a count by frame 0 1 2 etc and TimeCode uses SMPTE display 00 00 00 24 1 When you check the Field option the display adds a 0 or 1 at the end of the current TimeCode to indicate the field number Start Frame defines the frame where the TimeCode starts Frame Rate is the speed of TimeCode measured in frames per second Check Reverse to view TimeCode as time remaining in project The User mode lets you set the frames where you want the TimeCode to begin and end The display Mode can be Frame or TimeCode Frame will display a count by frame 0 1 2 etc and TimeCode uses SMPTE display 00 00 00 24 1 The remaining options are the same as those for Free Run mode The options in the lower part of the panel are avail able in all three TimeCode modes When you ve made the changes you want click the Set button You can set the TimeCode Font using fonts 6 Aura VT 8 44 installed on your system Size changes the size of the rectangle and the font size You enter the screen coor
196. pop up menu and then selecting a new color with the color selection button directly to the right Click the Reset button to reset the colors to the defaults of the selected Color Scheme You must click the Apply button to apply any changes Settings The Settings panel Interface tab The Cursor Over Projects setting determines what your mouse pointer looks like when it is over a project window The Magnet windows option makes it easier to align floating panels with each other As you drag a panel near another its edge will snap or dock to the edge of the other panel The No border option hides the title bar and gives you just a little more space for your working page particularly if you undock the menu bar as well You load and save files using file requester dialogs These requesters provide access to the various drives on your computer hard disk CD Rom etc and allow you to navigate their directory structures The File Requester settings let you choose between your standard system file requester or Aura s custom file requester discussed below The Never Confirm option when active will sup press confirmation dialogs when erasing or overwrit ing files If you want to be able to place a project window in front of Aura panels deactivate the Always Behind Panels option Operating the Aura File Requester Files in the current directory appear in a scrollable list in the upper portion of the requester The curr
197. project dura tion remains the same The number of frames changes based on the new frame rate If the new rate is lower the number of frames in the project decreas es fewer frames are needed for each second in the project If the new rate is higher the number of frames in the project increases more frames are needed for each second of project For example if you change from 25 to 50 fps you double the num ber of images in the project you need 50 frames for one second of display at 50 fos but you need only 25 frames at 25 fps During time stretching operations Aura adds miss ing frames or removes excess ones as necessary in one of two ways The method used depends on the status of the Interpolation button Aura can provide a smooth change in frame rate when Interpolation is selected In this case added frames are interpolated between existing frames or neighboring frames may be merged when necessary by overlaying several frames with varying transparen cy When Interpolation is not employed layers are stretched or shortened as required simply by copying or deleting existing whole frames throughout the duration of the project NOTE Once you choose Keep Project or Stretch you cannot undo the change You can change the starting frame time code set ting and mode by choosing Project gt Start Frame from the main menu The drop down menu beside the entry field in the requester permits you to set the value using either frame
198. r LMB smears all colors together adding in the A Color as well If a color you want appears on the mixer window hold your Ctrl key and drag your LMB The corre sponding RGB or HSL values will appear at the bot tom of the panel click on this display to cycle between RGB and HSL Release your mouse button to choose a color If you right click the mixer area a special pop up menu appears Main Panel els AIO I A pop up menu for the Mixer area The top section lists some default mixers and any user defined mixers selected checked mixer Don t worry about default mixers because you can easily revert back However you may want to save any custom mixers K4 NOTE Any change you make will affect the If you select Pick Color you choose the color in the pixel beneath your mouse pointer when you open the menu Clear Mixer clears the mixer area to the B Color To start a new mixer select New Mixer Aura then prompts you for a name You can copy the currently active mixer using the Copy Mixer menu item Use Rename Mixer to rename the currently active mixer or Delete Mixer to delete it You can save the current mixer area as a file for later use by selecting File gt Export Mixer These files can be reloaded later by choosing File gt Import Mixer and you can actually import any Aura support ed image However the mixer window is only about 170 x 97 pixels Images are loaded starting in the top left corner
199. r contract All of the hues within this area will be keyed out The Hue Fade setting sets a falloff range outside of the Range to give you a smooth transition between keyed and non keyed areas This is indicated by black lines Saturation defines a saturation limit above which color hues become completely transparent Saturation is the amount of the color hue If the value is 100 only pure hues become transparent If the value is O all hues between the pure hue and the completely desaturated hue become transparent This setting is depicted in the color wheel by extend ing the white arc towards the center as the setting is decreased Saturation Fade defines a transition area i e fall off Saturation above this limit becomes partially or completely transparent This value is between O and the Saturation value This setting is depicted in the spectrum by moving the point of the pie piece out ward toward the edge of the spectrum You can adjust the Hue value with your mouse by dragging the pie shaped outline with your mouse You may reverse the effect of your settings by acti vating the Invert option Plot tab with image colors only The Plot tab shows the color wheel with only the image s colors mapped on it This will often make it much easier to define your area particularly with pho tographs ColorKeyer While the Chroma keyer filter mimics the traditional way colors are keyed out this filter uses a more com put
200. r lets you swap the colors of two palette squares To Swap Color first click on a palette color it becomes highlighted Next move your mouse pointer over the other color and right click Choose Swap Color and the two colors will swap positions Spread generates a continuous range of hues between two colors in the palette To Spread first click on a palette color it becomes highlighted Next move your mouse pointer over the other color and right click Choose Spread and the palette squares between these two colors will now contain a gradation of hues Note that both col ors must already exist on the working palette To remove a color from the palette right click over it and choose Remove Color To start a new palette select New Palette Aura prompts you for a name You can copy the currently active palette using the Copy Palette menu item Use Rename Palette to rename the currently active palette or Delete Palette to delete it You can save the current palette as a file for later use by selecting File gt Save Palette These files can be reloaded later by choosing File gt Load Palette Generally you will load a color palette file that you saved previously However you can actually load any file that Aura recognizes If the file is an indexed color format its color palette will be loaded If the file is not color indexed like an AVI or JPEG file Aura com putes the palette based on the image first frame if an animation
201. rag out the tangent in the direction of curve Untitled 100 00 Main Panel EHANA SosIStale s Dragging the initial tangent for a Spline Curve 2 Release your mouse button You can adjust the point s position by simply dragging it around You can also adjust the tangent by dragging either end of the tangent 3 Create the additional points by dragging out another tangent Untitled 100 00 Main Panel EAA 12 Ka Creating the additional points for a Spline Curve 4 You can break a unified tangent by holding the Ctrl key while dragging one end of a tangent Untitled 100 00 eeprom Lo Breaking a unified tangent on a Spline Curve 5 If you want a closed curve you can connect the two end points by selecting Close Spline from the RMB pop up menu 3 3 Aura VT 6 DElETE Point eer Pont New Spline Apply Spline Untitled 100 00 Main Panel H EAA a Meran Closing a Spline Curve Ka NOTE Splines do not have to be closed 6 You can apply the current Drawing tool along the curve by selecting Apply Spline from the RMB pop up menu or pressing the Enter key Untitled 100 00 Apply the current Drawing tool along a curve To move the entire curve Place your mouse pointer off the curve and hold the Ctrl key as you drag your LMB A ra VT 3 4 To clear the existing curve and start over Press the Esc key or select New Spline from
202. rain to your image as you draw It is ideal for creating granu lar texture in unnaturally perfect computer images Basically it adds random amounts of shaded pixels to an area The foreground color has no effect on this mode 6 3 Aura VT 6 E E E a Before Grain After Grain SMOOTH MODE The Smooth mode generates a slight blur with your brush Big brushes and or repeated passes over a location can increase the effect of this mode Smooth smoothes the pixels of an image smoothes the grain of a digitized image or creates field depth on 3D images which often seem to lack depth Line with Smooth mode blurs the edge of the curve NOISE MODE The Noise mode draws with the foreground color like the Color mode but adds random noise instead of varying opacity Thus if you use a brush with color at 100 opacity usually when Power is 100 Aura applies a solid color If that same brush has areas with lower opacity like along the edges Aura applies those areas as random noise instead of lower opacity Left AirBrush Color mode 100 Power Middle Noise mode 100 Power Right Noise mode 50 OARS VT 64 NEGATIVE MODE The Negative mode lets you paint using the nega tive of the underlying colors Areas of image painted with Negative mode SHARP MODE The Sharp mode sharpens an area by increasing the contrast of adjacent pixels Use this to bring out details in a blurry image This mode can cause unw
203. ration You must use this setting if your graphic card doesn t support all DirectDraw acceleration options DDrawRgbaOnly 1 This line sets DirectDraw to RGBA mode instead of YUVA mode You must use this setting if your graphic card doesn t support YUV DirectDraw accel eration This setting is equal to DirectDraw Use RGB on the Settings panel HomebDir directory This line indicates the location of the Aura home directory in other words the access path to the directory containing the executable program This line is automatically updated when Aura is installed on your system If you move the Aura directory after it is installed you will need to modify this line accordingly GeorgeDir directory This line indicates the default directory used to store George programs Aura displays the contents of this directory when you want to select a George pro gram The default directory is the George subdirecto ry in the Aura home directory Gauge 0 1 Setting this to O will suppress the display of progress gauges Last_Config configuration file This indicates the last configuration file used when Aura was last run This entry is updated each time you run Aura PopX value PopY value These two values define the position of the center of the menus and windows displayed by Aura By default these windows are centered in the center of the screen Use this for dual monitor systems where the popup menus appear so they are
204. rder to use the File gt TWAIN options Select and Acquire The TWAIN manager for your particular peripheral must already be installed in your system Consult the user manual for your equipment for more informa tion Additionally you must use a 32 bit version of the TWAIN manager Also multiple simultaneous scanning is not supported To select the peripheral choose File gt TWAIN gt Select and choose your desired peripheral from the list Choose File gt TWAIN gt Acquire to digitize an image The dialog box that appears will vary depend ing on the peripheral used For more information refer to its documentation After digitization the image appears on your Aura working page ready for modification PRINTING To print the current project select File gt Print The currently selected printer appears at the top of this panel If you click on the Setup button you launch the settings dialog box for your system printer Alternatively you can choose File gt Configure Printer If you select the Single tab Aura prints the current frame The preview window shows the placement of the image on the outout medium displayed in white usually the printed page Aura scales the image to fit the output size You can reduce the image size using the Scale setting If the image does not fill the entire area of the medium you can change its position by dragging it with your mouse pointer Click the Center button to re center the
205. rmal spac ing If you activate both options Aura averages together their effects Space 25 The Italic setting applies a slant to your charac ters Positive values slant to the right and negative to the left ALL Italic 99 49 Aura VT 6 The Rotate setting rotates the text by the given angle in degrees The rotation occurs around the center of the text line Positive values will rotate the text counter clockwise and negative values clock ur wise Rotate 25 The Track setting modifies spacing between char acters relative to the character size A value of 100 percent gives normal spacing and O places the char acters on top of each other Negative values reverse the order of characters Track 85 The Opacity setting sets the amount of trans parency to apply to the text A low value makes text barely visible and 100 gives totally opaque text Opacity 50 The Outline setting creates an outline of the text with a completely transparent interior The value defines the width of the outline in pixels uja The Smooth setting antialiases the edges of char acters The value indicates the power of the smooth ing applied High settings make the text blurry Outline 2 Smooth 10 Gaus VT 4 10 The Border setting draws a border of 1 to 16 pix els around characters using the color to the right of its button Essentially it is a filled version of Outline that retains the A color for
206. rom each other depending on the movement speed To prevent this from happening create the brush and then select the Custom Brush tool With the Full option Aura draws the entire path on each frame mon yyw w ww ww ww Using the Full option to apply a recorded stroke With the Last option Aura draws a single dot at the end of the last brush stroke on each frame drawn re Po Using the Last option to apply a recorded stroke NOTE To define the duration of the stroke select frames in a layer before recording r Stabilization 1 Point Use this filter when you want to remove the motion from a hand held sequence that has been filmed to stabilize the images There are two modes Panning and Shift Panning tiles the image to fill the screen While Shift does not tile you may see underneath the layer The OriginX and OriginY define a starting point on the frame The DestX and DestY define a target point on the frame The filter basically moves the image so that the points line up To interactively set these two points click the Set button You will see a small box in the upper left corner Drag it to your starting point location You will see the OriginX and OriginY fields update That point will be connected to another point still in the upper left corner Drag the second point to define the target point 4 Interactively setting points for Stabilization 1 Point Stabilization 2 Points This filter allows
207. rresponding luminosity val ues are fully transparent If the line is at the top the opposite is true You can choose the base reference luminosity by clicking the Lum color picker button A question mark appears adjacent to the pointer Choose a point on your image that represents the general area to be keyed You also can edit the value directly or drag your mouse over the spectrum The maximum possi ble Lum value is 255 The Range value sets a range of values around the Lum setting Depending on the Lum setting you 8 15 Aura VT 6 will be limited to possible values That is no part of the defined range can go past 255 or O luminosity The Low Fade sets up a falloff range on the low side of the range The High Fade sets up a falloff range on the high side of the range You will see this as an angling of the red line The Level value sets the intensity of the trans parency You may reverse the effect of your settings by acti vating the Invert option The Plot tab shows the luminosity with only the image s values mapped on it This will often make it much easier to define your area particularly with pho tographs Plot tab on the LumaKeyer shows luminance values in an image Luma Range The Luma Range filter applies a color in a defined color range to each pixel in the image When Source is set to Luma the luminosity alone determines the color applied Darker pixels are assigned the colors on the left side of the col
208. rs is trimmed off Frame Rate Mismatch Handling If the frame rate of the imported sequence does not match the project s frame rate activate Time Stretching This option automatically interpolates the frames in the sequence to match the timing of the project Otherwise the sequence will just be loaded frame by frame regardless of mismatched timing issues Importing a Brush Importing a brush File gt Import gt Brush is nearly the same as importing an image The big difference is that instead of appearing in a layer or layers the image will be attached to your pointer as a custom brush replacing any current brush If the image con sisted of layers it will be flattened NOTE When you import a brush it replaces the current brush Importing an Animbrush Importing an animbrush File gt Import gt AnimBrush is almost the same as importing a sequence except you cannot load an Aura project Load Anim Brush Bouquet dip LLL Options available on the Load Animbrush panel to import an Animbrush 6 Aura VT 2 4 Animations e g RTV AVI animated GIF animbrush etc or a series of images are acceptable Aura displays a panel that s very similar to the one that appears when you import a sequence However since your imported animation will act like a custom brush there is no option to scale the image to the project size when loading Nevertheless animbrush es can be scaled once loaded using the
209. s 5 o F m H BERBIBE moska Project with Field Chart activated VIEW OPTIONS You have several options on the View menu that affect how you work on a project Multiple Views Choose View gt New zoom window to open another project window for the current project You can open multiple windows for a single project Use this to view different zoom levels simultaneously You can edit the project from any of the windows Full Screen Mode The Full Screen mode is an alternative to working in a project window You have less control over how Aura displays the image in this mode You activate the Full Screen mode by clicking its button on the menu panel or by choosing View gt Full Screen Easela The menu panel with Full Screen icon indicated The image in the last active project window appears in the top left corner probably beneath some panels You can reposition it by holding the Alt key and dragging the image You can interactively zoom in or out by using Alt RMB lai Sols sie see rrr E EA NoSound Ce Preview v Project in Full Screen mode To switch between projects in Full Screen mode just select a project from the bottom of the Windows menu To switch back to the Windows mode deacti vate the Full Screen button or choose View gt Windows NOTE You can use the same keyboard short cuts menus used in a project window to zoom and pan The Full Page Display The View gt Show Full Page fu
210. s are dis tributed between these two extremes More Contrast curve When applied to luminosity the curve below maxi mizes image contrasts everything to the left of the vertical line becomes black and everything else becomes white This curve is an extreme case of the more contrast curve The image is composed of pure colors only namely white black red green blue cyan magenta yellow All grays and oranges have disappeared You can vary the effects by moving the vertical line towards the right or left All or Nothing curve When applied to luminosity the curve below reduces image contrasts Dark colors become lighter and light colors become darker while intermediate colors remain more or less intact This curve should be compared with the first example the stronger curve in which intermediate colors were modified a great deal whereas dark and light colors were not changed very much It is also symmetrical about the diagonal axis with the more contrast curve Less contrast curve When applied to luminosity the curve below pro duces a negative of the image Inversion curve When applied to luminosity the curve below trans forms the image into false colors Some of the colors become negative and for other colors the contrast is enhanced 8 17 Aura VT 6 Bizarre curve image by dragging the right mouse button past the bottom right corner essentially filling the saturation curve window with blac
211. s to your software A number of plug ins are supplied with Aura INSTALLING AND REMOVING PLUG INS All plug in files stored in the Aura Plugins directory are automatically installed when you start the pro gram Plug in files are grouped by type by placing them in subdirectories of the Plugins directory To add new plug ins simply copy them into a suitable subdi rectory To remove a plug in move the appropriate file out of the Plugins directory or delete it APPLYING FILTERS You access Aura filters from the Filters menu Initially you will see the groups of filter types Just navigate down from the group to select the desired filter Generally a new panel will appear when you select a filter You apply a filter to the current image or to select ed frames in the current layer by clicking the Apply 6 Aura 2 U5 File Edit Project Layer Image MAIGA View Windows Help Deren sas oc E n COHR Main Panel ls AAO EIOS SEAEI amp ENDEN Aura Filters menu Filter button on the filter panel Most filters include a preview window that previews the effect of the filter on a thumbnail image if the Preview option on the panel is active This display changes as you modify the filter settings If the preview doesn t update click the preview window A few filters use the project win dow for previewing have only one panel open at any one time Selecting a different filter will close the previ ous filter s panel before openi
212. sh wrapping options are automatically deactivated if you select Gradient Opacity mapping Usually when you fill a shape you use one or more opaque colors Opacity Mapping lets you vary the transparency of the color s used Shapes are no longer uniformly filled with opaque color but rather with color of varying opacity transparency through out the shape The Opacity Mapping Preview shows you what the current opacity map is White indicates opaque areas and black indicates transparent areas a m Anim Filling Shape smooth Lo Opacity PE fT Lo AALiasing The Opacity Mapping Preview on the Filling Shape panel Here is a simple filled rectangle using the default opacity map settings Note that a checked back ground has been used to make the effect stand out Untitled 100 10 Filled rectangle with default opacity map setting Notice how the rectangle s color is totally opaque at its bottom right corner and totally transparent at the opposite corner Opacity Mapping Panel Click on the Opacity Mapping Preview to open the Opacity Mapping panel Here you can customize the opacity map 4 X axis horizontal curve Y axis vertical curve Opacity Mapping display 4 Application buttons Presets The Opacity Mapping Display shows the current opacity map Opacity variations are defined using the X axis and Y axis curves On the X axis curve higher points have more opacity t
213. sity is ignored Density only stops the fill when the paint reaches a pixel with a different transparency level color is ignored Luma stops the fill when the paint reaches a pixel with a different luminosity level color is irrelevant B color stops the fill when the paint reaches a pixel using the B color v Color amp Density Left The Shape settings panel Right Fill pop up menu on the Shape settings panel when the filled shape has an antialiased edge because the pixels usually have identical col ors but different density Y HINT Color only may sometimes work better Border Tolerance Range When Range is set to O any deviation from the initial pixel color is considered a border Thus if the initial pixel has an RGB value of 255 O O a pixel with an RGB value of 254 O O is considered a border Setting Range to a higher value allows each of the RGB chan nels to vary by that amount before a pixel is considered a border As such if Range is 2 the colors 254 0 0 253 0 0 254 2 2 0 2 1 etc are not considered a border for an initial pixel color of 255 O O Range set at 25 on the Flood Fill settings panel NOTE A Range setting of 255 will result in no border detection With the Expand option you can set an amount of pixels to expand the fill You use this option to avoid artifacts from anti aliased edges by filling up to or over the border Left Fill without Expand Right Fill
214. sonaliDougsCar tif 52 2 Top Pan with Shift mode Below Pan with Wrap mode Aura VT 3 8 On the Tool panel you have options to independ ently move the image and or selection You can also choose to activate or deactivate antialiasing With AAliasing ON you can pan at a subpixel level which means you can pan at less than 1 pixel With AAliasing off subpixel panning is not available Tool Fanning Settings for Panning on the Tool panel the Transform and Wrap tools Changes are immediate If you release your mouse button you lose any part of your image that falls off the image area Use undo to get it back WARNING There is no Apply function like on Panning a Layer 1 Pan the single frame where you want it 2 Hit undo 3 Select the entire layer 4 Hit enter to re apply to entire layer THE TRANSFORM TOOL The Transform tool lets you manipulate your image or sequence interactively in the project This is some what like cutting the entire image or sequence out as a brush manipulating it and then pasting it back down This tool is great for sizing video for a picture in picture effect Main Panel ASANO z Pl 3 Pals ig Eee B Q el sel The Transform button on the Main panel Using the Transform Tool Import an image then select the transform tool the preview activates automatically To reposition the image drag with your LMB To scale the image drag with your RMB To rotate the
215. t The distance of the blur is controlled by the Begin setting Lower values result in less blurring and higher values result in more 6 Aura VT 8 36 Se StarField Create a starfield with any brush such as the air brush in the current layer 1000 ES 0 00 EI 0 00 EI 0 00 lt gt 0 00 14 276 00 232 31 EJ Startield filter Set the Number of stars in your starfield and the Angle of star rotation in degrees You set the speed that the stars fly by on each axis in the SpeedX SpeedY SpeedZ fields The CenterX and CenterY fields define the vanishing point for the starfield which is the center from which the stars emerge Se Tornado 188 00 D 314 00 D 284 4 360 00 IK Tornado panel with preview The Tornado filter rotates parts of an image locat ed within a circular area of influence creating a spiral or tornado effect Image areas at the edges of the effect are rotated less than areas near its center The Center X and Center Y values represent the coordinates for the center of the area of influence Radius represents the radius in pixels of the area of influence Angle determines the amount of rotation applied Positive values rotate the image in the count er clockwise direction and negative values rotate it clockwise To choose the area of influence graphically click the Set area button Move your pointer over the proj ect window A crosshair appears Click on the desired cen
216. t all operations drawing applying filters etc in the current layer This layer is light gray in the list Aura gives you several ways to select the current layer First you can simply click the layer icon You also can use your Up and Down Arrow keys to change the current layer Finally you can click any where in a layer s local timeline this also selects the current frame SELECTING LAYERS You can select layers for certain operations like deleting and moving Click on a layer icon to select it To add to the selection hold the Shift key and click You can also select a layer and Shift click to select a layer several layers away which also will select all lay ers in between To add certain layers to the selection without selecting layers in between Ctrl click the lay ers you want You can select all layers by choosing Select All from the Layer column pop up menu or by double clicking any layer icon Choosing Select Layer will select the current layer as well as the layer beneath your mouse pointer when you opened the menu You can deselect layers by clicking in the Layer column outside of the layer icon LAYER OPACITY In controlling opacity at a pixel level you also can set the overall opacity for each layer Do this by selecting the layer and then adjusting the Opacity setting Each layer can have its own independent set ting and Aura updates your changes to layer opacity in real time The Opacity field on
217. t you from painting outside of the shapes Note that on the Layer panel the two stencil layers are hidden NOTE You may want to hide stencil layers which is discussed next in Chapter 3 also allow you to limit the K4 NOTE Aura s selection functions discussed paintable area HIDING LAYERS To the left of the Stencil column is the Hide Layer column When a layer is visible the box in this col umn is green If you click the box the box turns red to indicate that the layer is hidden The Hide Layer box on the Layer panel NOTE You cannot hide the current layer If the Ka layer you want to hide is the current layer select a different layer as the current layer first You also can use the Layer Display mode to dis play just the current layer or all layers normally Clicking the Display button or pressing will toggle between All and Current E DSa mT Auto Kew The Display mode on the Layer panel If you click the H at the top of the Hide Layer col umn a pop up menu appears where you can unhide all layers Show all Layer or hide all layers except the current layer Hide all Layer 7 5 Aura VT 6 NOTE The display mode and hide layer Ka attributes affect which layers will be used when exporting an image or a sequence but not saving a project Hidden layers will not show up in an exported image or sequence CREATING ANIM LAYERS Creating a new layer using the New button creates an image layer by d
218. ter point and drag the mouse to set the radius With this filter you can give the image a bizarre twist with a fairly small angle less than or equal to 45 or you can roll it around itself in a wild tornado angle exceeding 360 Try it out on a pretty face Waves set 193 00 256 00 D 215 00 ID 100 00 D 360 00 D 5 00 ES Waves panel with preview The Waves filter generates concentric waves inside the area of influence These waves look something like the circular ripples formed when a pebble hits water You can enter the number of waves and their maxi mum amplitude The amplitude of the waves is maxi mum at the center of the area of influence Amplitude reduces as distance from the center increases and becomes zero at the boundary of the area The Center X and Center Y values represent the position of the center of the area of influence Radius represents the radius in pixels of the area of influ ence Amplitude defines the maximum amplitude height of waves Position sets the position of the ripples from the center animating this makes the ripples move out in from the center Wave which must be between O and 100 defines the number of waves created To choose the area of influence graphically click the Set area button Move your pointer over the proj ect window A crosshair will appear Click on the desired center point and drag the mouse to set the radius Wrapping Grid Wrapping Grid
219. th O Enable AAliasing to apply default smoothing to the edges of your selection and eliminate stairstep ping For AAliasing you do not need to enter a Smooth value the default smooth action occurs automatically When AAliasing is not enabled and you do not use Smooth the outline of your selection will not be smoothed To reverse the selection area click the Invert but ton To clear the selection click the Clear button Using the buttons at the bottom of the panel you can cut or copy the selection to a new layer or cus tom brush Use the Crop button to crop the project using the selection for a new project a bounding box surrounding the selection Ka NOTE If the selection area is not rectangular area is used 3 7 Aura VT 6 NOTE Aura s stencil function discussed in Ka Chapter 7 also allows you to limit the paintable area Remember that you can change the selection dis play to hide the crawling ants as discussed in Chapter 2 You can find a tutorial on the selection tools Lesson Eight in the Aura content directory THE PANNING TOOL The Panning tool is similar to the Transform tool When you drag your LMB you use the mode selected on the Tool panel Wrap tiles the image as you drag to fill in the spaces and Shift does not tile the image Dragging with your RMB will use the Shift mode Main Panel ASAAN Bose alels Eloi EIE D DataigraphicsiPersonaliDougsCartif 52 27 D Dataigraphics Per
220. that on exiting the program Tool TextBrush AA AAS ZA A AIS Options Nein Arial Black _ vjt v Letter Evora ec 50 0 jEI EEE 50 0 EA oo 40 EAS EA oo Lo mA 100 0 Ilc EE e ilce e cik 4 OF 4 gm Tool panel for the Text brush hello kitty B Text Options Select the desired font using the pop up menu at the top of the panel If you have a lot of fonts on your system a font selection window appears instead of a pop up menu Use the vertical slider to search for the name of the required font in the list Select it by dou ble clicking it or single click and then click OK You can cycle through your available fonts by clicking the up or down arrow buttons Aura previews the text in the project window with all its attributes Bring the mouse into the project window and the text attaches to the cursor The Script pop up menu is used with foreign character sets The Size value represents the character size in pixels and cannot be less than 4 Plain Text The XScale setting lets you change the character width as a percent A value of 100 percent is normal and 50 percent would make the characters half as wide The value can exceed 100 percent and can even be negative Negative values will reverse the characters horizontally XScale 50 The Space setting is similar to Track discussed below except that it is absolute and not relative to a character s width A value of O applies no
221. the Layer panel LAYER ORGANIZATION AND SIZING You can add new blank layers or create additional layers by importing existing image files Layers also can be graphically organized any way you want This includes changing a layer s position in time as well as its playback length duration Aura VT 7 4 Adding Layers There are two basic ways to add more layers add a new blank layer or import an image sequence To add a new blank layer just click the New button on the Layer panel or choose New Layer from the Layer column pop up menu The new layer automatically becomes the current layer For information on import ing a file see Chapter 2 Normally Aura places your new layer above the current layer in the list However if you hold the Shift key while you click the New button Aura places the new layer below the current layer of the New button will be named Untitled If the new layer was created by loading in an image or animation sequence instead the layer will be named for the file loaded Ka NOTE Initially new layers created by the use Naming Layers The very first item in the Layer column pop up menu indicates the name of the layer If you select this a dialog box appears that you can use to change the layer name Click on OK to set the new name or click on Cancel to keep the old name Naming layers is important when organizing your project you should name each layer as it is created You also can set up a keybo
222. the layer from start to fin ish until no additional frames are needed The Ping Pong option is similar to Loop except the repeating starts with the end of the existing layer works back to the front front to back etc back and forth like a ping pong ball The Hold Last option simply repeats the last frame to fill the increased duration position after you animate it for example a logo that flies in and stops Stretch the layer out for as long as you want to hold the logo in the project and select Hold Last or HINT Use Hold Last to get a brush to hold Decreasing a Layer s Length When you decrease a layer s length a special panel appears ase Layer Length Eg ED cutrrames I Doo IM cancel IM Decrease Layer Length panel with Stretch and Interpolate activated You can either use the same Stretch and Interpolate settings as discussed above or simply trim off the end frames using Cut Frames Layer Loop Mode The end of your project is the last visible frame that can be from any layer Layers that end before this normally just stop and are not considered for frames past their end You can change this using the layer Loop option This option in effect can auto matically fill the frames after the layer s end up to the length of the project The option has three settings Repeat mode will simply loop through the layer from start to finish over and over Ping Pong repeats by using the end of the exis
223. the layer by clicking the LMB and dragging in the global timeline Current Frame Input Field The current frame input field displays the number of the current frame You can enter a value here to jump to a specific frame is before the beginning or after the end of the Ka NOTE You cannot select a current frame that current layer discussed later THE LAYER COLUMN The Layer column holds the layer icon which usu ally shows a thumbnail of the image for the layer at the current frame Layer Icon aoao p a tt Peer Minimized Layer Above the layer icon is the layer name To the left of the layer name is the minimize maximize layer but ton When the layer icon is visible the layer is maxi mized and the button displays a minus sign Click this button to minimize maximize all selected layers The button changes to a plus sign for a minimized layer Click it again to maximize the layer The Layer column also has an associated pop up menu which you can bring up in a number of ways e Click the downward facing triangle button e Click the layer name or e Right click the layer icon Shift N 1 Ctrl a pam 100 K Loop Mode k Layer column pop up menu The functions of this menu are discussed later however generally they affect the layer beneath your mouse pointer when you open the menu and not the current layer Timecode Format By default Aura shows all time references in frames In
224. the main menu to bring up the George panel On the All tab a scrollable list appears of all of the provided George scripts in your George subdirectory Aura VT 9 2 Selecting a George script on the George panel NOTE This list is updated each time you start Ka Aura To use a script simply select it in the window with your mouse and it is highlighted The launching mode icon appears on the right side the icon indicates what you must draw to execute the script For exam ple if you select a script that shows the Line icon just draw a line on your project window The script continues executing once you release the mouse but ton Press the Esc key to pause or terminate an exe cuting script George Bin The Bin tab of the George window contains a cus tomizable list of George scripts You can add and delete scripts from the list as well as load and save user defined groups of scripts Click your RMB on the blank area at the bottom of the list to display a special pop up menu Choose Add to add a script using its filename Choose Script to add a script from the list on the All tab Choose File gt Save to save the group of scripts on the Bin tab Choose File gt Load to load a previ ously saved script group Use this feature to group programs by function or according to your prefer ences The Default option will load the default group of scripts called command agc stored in the Aura directory if it exists If you clic
225. the main Aura directory Tileable images those that can be placed side by side without a visi ble seam work best but this characteristic is not an absolute requirement Untitled 100 20 Paper bozosmall LE CARARE 002k A Spunky as a custom paper texture tures they are available only after you restart Ka NOTE When you create your own paper tex Aura Chapter 7 Layers The concept of layers in a paint program is com mon these days With layers you organize your work by placing various elements of your images in differ ent layers making it much simpler to modify elements without affecting others Layers are placed on top of each other and mixed in realtime taking into account the transparency of each element Aura however takes layers a giant step beyond the norm by allowing you to manipulate them in time Layers can be animated even holding moving video THE LAYER PANEL The Layer panel defines the beginning and dura tion of each layer in time and the order in which lay ers are overlaid If you are starting from a blank new working page you will see only a single layer If the Layer panel is not visible click its visibility icon on the menu panel DELELE The Layer button the menu panel TIMELINE ANATOMY The global timeline is the graduated scale at the top of the panel By default Aura lists frame numbers from O increasing to the right You can use this as an ov
226. the top of the panel the first three buttons in each row allow you to quickly change the size of the brush Edit Brush AANE EI 130 Eu Tes Eu MIR 0 Kg Resize buttons on the Edit Brush panel On the top row the X2 Xx2 and Yx2 buttons will double the size double the vertical size and double the horizontal size respectively On the lower row the 2 X 2 and Y 2 buttons will halve the size halve the vertical size and halve the horizontal size Brush after 2 You also have the option of entering precise pixel values in the Width and Height fields To graphically alter the brush size 1 Click the Width or Height M button A bound ing box will appear 2 Drag your LMB to resize the bounding box To constrain the resizing to your initial direction hold the Shift key 3 The resized brush will be displayed temporarily after you release the mouse button 4 Click Apply Changes to apply the new settings to the brush 5 Activate the Lock Aspect option to force the numerical and graphical changes to maintain the same aspect ratio You should be aware that in most cases enlarging and then reducing a brush will likely not result in a brush identical to the original However you can achieve some interesting effects by scaling down a brush and then scaling it back up Rotating the Brush The fourth buttons from the left will rotate the brush 90 degrees clockwise top button or counter Edit Brush Rotation
227. thering options are avail able for the 24 or 32 bit modes Appendix 3 Aura VT 6 Photoshop format psd The Photoshop format saves a single image or a sequence of numbered images in 32 bits 16 million colors with 8 bit aloha channel This is the file format native to Adobe Photoshop Layers are preserved as are their individual opacity settings if the file is loaded as a project otherwise the layers are merged There is no settings panel for this format Note that Aura s PSD format is compatible only with Photoshop 5 0 and 5 5 Quantel format vpb The VPB format can save a single image or a sequence of numbered images in 24 bits 16 million colors This file format is native to Quantel Video Paintbox Aura merges layers when you export as VPB however Aura supports VPB with a Stencil layer There is no settings panel for this format QuickTime format mov The QuickTime format saves an animation as a single file or a single image that you can then display afterwards using the QuickTime Player The number of colors saved depends on which compression method you use A system dialog box appears after you have entered the file name to be saved The Compressor drop menu contains the names of the compression decompression algorithms codecs currently installed on your system This will vary from system to system Compression is essen tially the process of reorganizing and eliminating data to reduce the required
228. ting layer then working back to the front front to back like a ping pong ball The Hold Last option simply repeats the last frame When you set a Loop mode other than None you will see a dark gray bar extend from the end of the layer bar E CT Loop modes for anim layers on the Layer panel treats the repeating frames as if they actually Ra NOTE For operations like merging Aura exist when you have multiple layers selected Aura applies your changes to all of the selected layers K4 NOTE You can increase or decrease layers Rearranging Layers As explained previously layer order determines how Aura interprets your final result As such layer order is extremely important You can easily rearrange layers by dragging layer icons To move a layer in the list 1 Place your mouse pointer over the layer icon and press and hold your LMB Place mouse pointer over the layer icon 2 Drag your mouse pointer up or down as desired As your pointer passes between layers a thick yellow line will appear This indicates a dropping point for your layer 7 7 Aura VT 6 Drag mouse pointer thick yellow line indicates a dropping point 3 Release your mouse button The layer is moved to the new position Your project window will be updated immediately to account for the new layer order Release mouse button to place layer in new position multiple layers selected Aura applies your Ka NOTE You can mo
229. tivate Preload Aura loads the sequence as a read only layer by reading frames from your hard drive on an as needed basis Therefore non Preloaded layers load instantly The sequence will appear red in the Layers panel and you cannot edit it though you can move it as you would any other layer To convert a non Preloaded layer to an editable layer simply click with your RMB and select Change to Preload layer option with video clips since they are often very large and you may not have enough memory WARNING Be careful using the Preload Deactivating Preload can save a lot of memory Aura supports multiple non Preloaded layers which are perfect for background layers that don t need to be edited However with large animation files this may cause your system to seem sluggish ed on or processed directly in Aura VT but their opacity can be set using the menu which appears when you click on them in the Layer panel with your RMB Ka NOTE Non preloaded layers cannot be paint Sizing Options If the height and width of the imported images do not match the project size the Stretch to option is available The Stretch to option scales the images to the project size Stretching your image can change its proportions If you do not choose this option Aura places the upper left corner of the images in the 2 3 Aura VT 6 upper left corner of the project window Any portion of the image extending outside the right and bottom borde
230. to adjust the Brightness Contrast Saturation and Gamma for an image With this filter Aura applies the preview feedback in your project window The Brightness field measures the amount of white in your image and will accept positive or nega tive values positive values add more white to your image while negative values will add more black Contrast refers to the difference in brightness between the lightest and darkest areas of your image as measured by levels of grey Positive values pro duce greater contrast by removing greys and inter mediate colors negative values produce less contrast by adding levels of grey Saturation refers to the intensity of color for each pixel Positive values produce greater color intensity by removing grey so that colors reaches their purest hues while negative values tend toward greyscale as more color is removed The Gamma setting adjusts the colors in the image based on a curve that ranges between 01 and 5 0 Values below 1 0 darken the dark and midtone areas of the image while increasing contrast Values above 1 0 lighten the light and midtone areas of the image while increasing contrast 8 9 Aura VT 6 Color Adjust Color Adjust from left to right Default Brightness 25 Brightness 50 Contrast 50 Contrast 75 Gamma 3 00 Gamma 0 30 Color Correction aure VT 8 10 The Color correction graph The Color Correction filter allows you to adjust col ors base
231. ts color and intensity Paper discussed in Chapter Six is like drawing on selectable surface If you want the paper surface visible on the background activate this option Paper is visible only if you can see some portion of the background 6 Aura VT 2 14 fiAuralPigirl ty 50 00 J N x f a D Ist 500 ees Project with Paper background If you want to see the crawling ants outline for selected areas activate the Selection option fiAuralPixigirl ty 50 00 Crawling ants selection outline If your animation will be viewed on a television be aware that viewers will not see the entire image Activate Safe Area to display outlines that indicate the safe text the inner border and safe action areas the outer border for television To allow for the differ ences in the display of different brands and designs of television sets you should use this guide to ensure that text and action elements of your animations remain on screen when it is important that they be seen Project with Safe Are display activated You can adjust the color and intensity of the lines as well as adjust the relative positioning of the two borders by adjusting the Out Area and In Area set tings from their default values of 5 and 10 respectively The Field Chart option activates a crosshair chart similar to a 12 field chart as used in the film industry It divides the camera view into quadrants and each quadrant has 12 segment
232. ur selected layers or if no layers are selected Aura saves the entire project All displayed layers are flat tened Depending on your chosen export mode you can export your sequence as a single animation file RTV AVI DEEP etc or as a series of image files BMP ILBM etc Filenames for Image Series When saving a series of images specify only a root name in the file requester Each saved image uses the root name followed by a number correspon ding to its position in the project For example if you input Image as your basic name Aura names your new files ImageO Image1 Image2 etc If the basic name contains a number for example Image10 file numbering starts with this number Image10 Image11 Image12 etc If a sequence contains at least 10 images you should specify a number in the basic name so that the alphabetical order of files is the same as the order of images in the sequence If the number of images in the sequence is more than 10 and less than 100 place two numbers behind the basic number like Image00 If it is greater than 100 and less than 1000 place three digits behind the basic name like Image000 and so on Video Mode Options When you choose a video mode other than DEEP or Flyer Clip an options panel appears For AVI or QuickTime it is a Windows panel that shows only 2 5 Aura VT 6 video codecs that are installed on your computer and available compression settings For more information on t
233. ution matrix can extract the out lines of the image Plain colors become black The limits between different colors become light The limit tends more towards white as the difference between the colors becomes more marked If you transform the image to its negative the effect obtained will be different To draw outlines the central coefficient must be the opposite of the sum of the adjacent coefficients In the example the sum of the adjacent coefficients is 4 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 Therefore the central coefficient is 4 Outline 2 shows a variant of this matrix The Sharpness convolution matrix increases the contrast between each pixel to sharpen an image Note These are essentially modified Outline convolu tions However note that as the image becomes sharper all its imperfections grain noise etc become visible The sharoness becomes more apparent as the central coefficient becomes closer to its pivot value the opposite of the sum of all adja cent values The sharpness becomes less apparent as the central coefficient moves away from this pivot value The Sharpness 2 matrix is a more powerful variant and Sharpness 3 less powerful Sharpness 3 2 I l6 2 2 The Relief convolution produces an effect similar to illuminating a textured image with a ray of light almost parallel to its surface Plain colors remain unchanged The limits between different colors become lighter or darker depending on their positio
234. variable declared in the procedure after returning from the procedure You can also create variables that will be recognized only in the proce dure by using the LOCAL instruction Use the RETURN instruction to return a value to the main pro gram Procedure name is called from the main program as follows name var1 var2 varN The number of variables transferred must be exactly the same as the number of variables expect ed by the procedure If the procedure returns a result you can store it in a variable or test it and so on Procedure Instructions FUNCTION Syntax FUNCTION Dothis vart var2 varN instructions END Declare a procedure named Dothis which expects variables var1 var2 varN Note that varl var2 varN are the names by which the received variables are known in the procedure Examples FUNCTION Counter number LOCAL IF i gt O FOR i number TO O STEP 1 END RETURN Countdown finished ELSE RETURN Countdown impossible END END Example calls to this procedure from the main pro gram PRINT Counter 100 or var 100 a Counter var PRINT a RETURN Syntax RETURN expression Returns the value expression to the main program This instruction is not compulsory in a procedure Examples RETURN O RETURN End of procedure RETURN var LOCAL Syntax LOCAL var1 var2 varN Declares one or several local variables in the pro cedure These variables are availa
235. ve layers when you have changes to all of the selected layers Merging Individual Layers You can merge layers using the drag and drop method When you work on a project you usually create several layers in which you will place various elements of your image or sequence Thus you can modify one part of your project without affecting the other parts When you finish working on some ele ments in your project you can collect them in the same layer Then you can act on several elements at the same time without constantly repeating the same operation NOTE Merging a layer over another is like Ka making the entire layer into a custom brush You can paste it down using many of the same drawing modes A ra VT 7 8 To merge a layer in the list 1 Place your mouse pointer over the layer icon and press and hold your LMB 3 Release your mouse button and a dialog box appears You can just use the default Color mode to paste the layer over the target layer or use the pop up menu to select a different drawing mode Drawing modes are discussed in Chapter 6 The Stamp option will stamp the layer using the A Color Activate the Erase Source option if you want to delete the source layer after it is pasted Above Merge Layer dialog box offers options for past ing the layer Below Tree and sun from Tut06 3 pasted into Tut06 2 NOTE Merging layers also takes into account preserved channels discussed in Chapter 6
236. w the texture will be painted into the current image The Source pop up menu presents Color Gradient and Layer options Selecting Color tells the filter to use the single color you set in the Color swatch below to paint the pattern The pattern will be created using this source color falling off either to black or to transparency depending on the state of the Opacity switch Consider an example with Source set to Color Color set to blue and Opacity off the Perlin pattern will appear as blue over black ignoring any previous content in the frame With Opacity on the blue pat tern is still painted into the frame but any existing imagery is preserved where black appeared in the previous example The Source Gradient option initially uses your cur rent A and B colors to generate the pattern Activating Aura s Gradient function permits more elaborate gradients to be used Click on the gradient bar in the filter panel to activate the new gradient Finally choosing Source Layer will create the pat tern using the color values of corresponding pixels from the current layer NOTE When Layer is selected as the active K4 Source the Opacity and Mode selections are not available The Mode setting designates the mode Aura uses to paint the Perlin pattern Blend mode paints the pattern down over any existing imagery while most other modes correspond to standard Aura paint and merge options by the same name The exception is Preserve mode
237. way back to the last operation Once you perform an operation however Gaua VT 1 10 you change the course of history in a fundamental way and will not be able to get it back You can also access Undo and Redo from the Edit menu The Re Apply Function The Re Apply function should not be confused with Redo Re Apply redoes the last drawing opera tion using the current settings This allows you to repeat a step using say a different color or different drawing tool Simply undo the operation change your drawing options e g select a new color and then press the EnTER key or choose Edit gt Re Apply The shape is redrawn using the new options You can also use Re Apply on layers HELP MENU Aura features a help balloon system When you let the mouse pointer hover over an icon button text field or pop up list a pale yellow box appears that provides information on the item s function You can use the Help menu at the top left of the screen to choose the type of help balloon that you want to see You can choose your preferred type of help bal Main Panel Unde SIGE ne ana ronr Blob Example of a Help balloon loons from the Help gt Inline Help submenu The Full option the default displays the full amount of help information and the Fast option displays an abbrevi ated version Select None to disable this feature About Filters The About Filters menu displays a list of the avail able plug in filt
238. with your mouse You can constrain the area to a square by holding the Ctrl key while you draw This works just like drawing rectangles Making a Rectangle CutBrush The Polygon CutBrush function cuts out everything located within the polygon that you define It works just like the Polygon Filled function Main panel You define the starting point with the first click in the working area An elastic line then follows the move ments of your pointer Each successive mouse click defines another vertex and a new elastic line begins from that point To complete the polygon click the RMB or press the Enter key Aura draws a straight line between the first and last vertex of the polygon Making a Polygon CutBrush The Freehand CutBrush function cuts out every thing located within the freeform shape you define by dragging your mouse It works just like the Freehand Filled function Main panel When you release the mouse button Aura connects the first and last points of the line by a straight line Making a Freehand CutBrush The Magic Wand CutBrush function is yet anoth er way to cut out a brush To use this function select the icon and then click in the area to be filled This works just like the Flood Fill function Main panel The fill area spreads pixel by pixel horizontally and verti Cally to the bordering edges of the area The border is determined on a pixel by pixel basis You change the selected cutout area dy
239. xels and save their motion paths sepa rately Also take careful note of the starting X and Y co ordinates for each Then in the Stabilization 2 Points filter set the Dest1 X and Y and the Dest2 X and Y values to those starting co ordinates Next use the filter s Path menu to set Origin1 to the path you saved for the first source pixel and Origin2 to the second path Click Apply to render the selected frames Afterward depending on your purpose you may find it neces sary to crop out unwanted margins and scale the entire layer to fill the frame paths which are themselves a bit jumpy You may find it practical to apply a little smoothing using the Path Manager before re saving the two paths and using them in the Stabilization 2 Points operation described above Y HINT The Pixel Tracker can produce motion RENDER Background Generator E E3 Background Generator Background Generator E El Background Generator Background generator panel from left to right Horizontal gradient Vertical gradient and 4Corner With the Background Generator you can apply a color gradient to the current layer The Background Generator accepts alpha values so your gradient can be semi transparent Choose from three modes when you work with the Background Generator H creates a horizontal gradient Choose the Top color and a Bottom color and specify an alpha value in the field beside the color tile O will be completely transp
240. y appear within this area from one frame to the next You ll want to keep this area as small as possible for accuracy and speed 8 25 Aura VT 6 Fortunately you can graphically set these parame ters by clicking the Set Tracker button The plus sign defines the center position which you can move by dragging your mouse The inner rec tangle is the tracked pixel area You can adjust this interactively by holding your Ctrl key and dragging your mouse Adjust the tracking area by changing the TrackW and TrackH parameter values When Reference is set to Static the first frame is used as a tracking reference during the whole track ing operation If the Dynamic setting is used the ref erence is updated at every frame The Channel pop up menu sets the channel that Aura looks for when tracking Depending on the image you may get better results if you narrow the tracked pixels to a single channel You can choose from the standard RGBA Red Green Blue or Alpha channels Aura also lets you specify a Luma channel and a Saturation channel so that you can track based on the brightness of saturation of an image area Use the Accuracy pop up menu to set how accu rate you want the tracking to be The Rev Track button lets you reverse the direc tion of the motion path as you track your image area r Stroke Recorder FGex20 O Ao m 100 00 4 gt 100 00 Eu 100 00 Eu 100 00 EG 0 00 ES E 3 00 Stroke Recorder panel
241. y buffer Cut Keys does the same thing but also deletes them You can paste the data starting at the current frame by choosing Paste Keys Clearing a Keyframed Filter Basically there is no need to clear a keyframed fil ter from the Layers panel It does nothing unless you formally apply it When you close the filter panel the filter keyframe bar will disappear You can however clear all of the keys by selecting Reset from the File menu on the filter s panel Note that this clears all keys including the initial frame O keys You also can use Ctrl R which is the keyboard shortcut for reset ting a filter To learn more about keyframing filters refer to Lesson Ten in the Aura content directory Keyframe Data You also can save and load the keyframe data to from a file from the File menu on the filter s panel Note that the last used filter keys will be retained in the project for future use Path Menu Using the KeyFramer filter you can create animat ed envelopes for certain types of parameters like position rotation etc If you have defined a KeyFramer path you can use that data to control some filters instead of creating the keys for the filter the normal way Such filters will have a Path menu Filter Panning Flying lono The Panning filter has a Path menu The filter s parameters that use the KeyFramer data will be listed in the Path menu Select the KeyFramer path you wish to use You can assign al
242. yellow When you select cells to the right Aura shows frames that fol low the current frame When you select cells to the left Aura shows preceding frames You even can select cells on both sides if desired Clicking on the center button toggles off the light table Clicking it again restores the selected cells To specify whether the Light Table displays in front or in back of the current frame go to the menu at the top of the screen and select Project gt Light Table then choose between Front or Back you can draw only on the current frame and Ka NOTE Ghosted frames are for reference only layer Gaus VT 7 10 NOTE To leave the Light Table active without Ka showing previous or future frames drag the previous or future cells in the Light Table dis play to the center You cannot turn off the preview cells by clicking the center cell THE PROJECT WINDOW BACKGROUND The project window is where you draw and per form your image editing chores The default is none which appears to be black but is actually complete transparency or no color You can change the back ground using the Color pop up menu located in the top left corner of the Layer panel The Color pop up menu on the Layer panel Two color settings on the Layers panel can affect the background They are indicated on the two color selection buttons to the right of the pop up menu If you select Color from the pop up menu Aura uses the color shown on the
243. ying open ones you can quickly choose settings for common resolutions ranging from VGA to film from the pop up menu You can also enter a name for your project in the input field to the right of the pop up menu This name will be the default filename when you save the project If you load a saved project Aura applies the settings from that project automati cally NOTE VT 3 users should normally use the D1 setting for their appropriate video stan dard i e NTSC or PAL The Width and Height values set the resolution of the project in pixels Project Frame Rate The Frame Rate setting determines how many frames per second your project should playback if it is a sequence Use the pop up menu to the right of the input field to select from commonly used settings or enter a value directly into the field Changing Project Properties You can alter these settings after your project is open by choosing Project gt Modify Project If you activate the Lock Aspect option changes to either the Width or Height fields will force a change of the complementary resolution setting maintaining a con stant width to height ratio You can also rotate your project In the Angle field you set the rotation in degrees The new page size indicates the new proj ect size after rotation Stretch buttons vary depending on the proj K4 NOTE The result of clicking the Keep and ect parameter being modified but keep a frame rate change or vice versa

Layers - Parent Directory

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents