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OCTOBER 12, 2001 Varying Effects over Time in Studio Artist
Phase out If you want to fade out the same way, the process is similar. First, you're going to need to know the total length of the piece you're going to process. If you're creating your PASeq with the footage that you plan to use for your final render, then Studio Artist has already given you an appropriate number of frames in your PASeq timeline. If you're not using your footage for this, you're going to have to do some calculating. Multiply the length of your movie (in seconds) by 10 to get a frame count that correlates in Studio Artist. If you are working with a 10-second piece, that's 100 frames. By default, Studio Artist's PASeq window only gives you 20 frames to work with. You can change this number in the Timeline Animation palette. [an error occurred while processing this directive] Note: Extending the bar in the Timeline Animation palette gives you a maximum of 100 frame. You can manually enter a longer number in the frame filed. So let's say you're dealing with 100 frames, and you want a 25-frame fade out. The first thing you want to do is Option-click on frame 76. This will let Studio Artist know that you want to maintain maximum strokes until frame 76, at which point it will start decreasing strokes to whatever number you set at frame 100, which is your final frame. To set the value to 0 at frame 100, click on frame 100 in your PASeq timeline. Then go back into the Paint Synthesizer and enter 0 in the Max Strokes field, and then Option-click on frame 100. You now have a complete phase in and phase out. So now let's say you want to add in a second set of strokes that phases in at a different rate from the first set. It's almost exactly the same process, but with one exception. First, check the Record button in your PASeq window again; select your preset; and click Action. When you stop it, this new action will appear in your PASeq window right underneath your first one. Set the first frame to zero strokes using the method outlined above. Now I want this second set of strokes to begin phasing in just as the first set finishes (frame 25). So after I've set my first keyframe at zero strokes, I'm going to add another keyframe at frame 24 just by Option-clicking on that frame in the PASeq timeline. This tells Studio Artist to draw zero strokes from frame 1 to frame 24. I want my second set of strokes to phase in after about two seconds, or 20 frames. This means I'll set my next keyframe at frame 44, using the method explained above. To fade this out, we'll also just use the method described above. Additional effects I mentioned earlier that I'm using two additional effects in my example for this tutorial–Image Compressor and Geodesic Watershed. These are my two favorite Image Operations in Studio Artist. They're called Image Operations because, unlike Paint Patches, they do not use individual strokes. Rather they process an image much like a Photoshop filter does. Image Compressor is to an image what a compressor/limiter is to audio. That is, it restricts your image's colors to a certain range based on the color on your Canvas. The effect is similar to saturating an image. In fact, the Image Compressor I used for this footage was set only to affect saturation. The image was a bit muddy without it, so I thought it would help. 
Before (top) and after using the Image Compressor. Geodesic Watershed is another Image Operation, but this one makes your image look kind of soggy. You can see the before and after images below. 
Before (top) and after using the Geodesic Watershed effect. Processing your movie with PASeq One final note: I mentioned earlier that Studio Artist animations look their best at about 10 frames per second. But what if the footage you're processing has a higher frame rate than 10, which it almost certainly does? Studio Artist gives you the option of processing movies at their native frame rate or at Studio Artist's frame rate. To make sure you're processing at the frame rate you want, open up the Process File Settings dialog (located under the Movie menu), and select "Timeline Animation FPS." 
That's it. Save you PASeq for future use by selecting Action > Export Paint Action Sequence. To test out your animation (or do the final processing), select Movie > Process Movie File with PASeq > To Movie. Remember, this will not overwrite your original footage. It will create a completely new uncompressed QuickTime file. After you name your new file, you'll see each frame of this great technique rendered right before your eyes. Dave Nagel is the producer of Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; host of several World Wide User Groups, including Synthetik Studio Artist, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe LiveMotion, Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; and executive producer of the Digital Media Net family of publications. You can reach him at dnagel@digitalmedianet.com. Prev 1 2 3 Related sites: • Creative Mac • Digital Media Designer Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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