|
|
SEPTEMBER 04, 2003 Alpha Channels in Synthetik Studio Artist 2.0
Second, you can also use Studio Artist to rotoscope a video source automatically. This too has been discussed previously at great length, and I won't go into it here. You'll find two articles on this topic here (warp effects) and here (automated strokes used in rotoscoping). And third, you can also create movies within the canvas window and paint your animations frame by frame. This is a fairly simple process technically, and I'll give you a quick rundown here.[an error occurred while processing this directive]1. Once you've opened Studio Artist and set all of the proper alpha options, choose File > New Canvas Movie. A new list of options will appear at the top of the Canvas window.  2. Draw your image, and then record your frame by pressing the "R" button up in the set of options that appeared following the previous step. Erase the frame (or portions of it), and then draw the next frame. To record this as a new frame in your canvas movie, hold down the Shift key, and then press the "R" button. This stores your frame as a new frame and automatically advances you by one frame.  3. Repeat these steps until you're done, and then be sure to choose File > Save Canvas Movie. Note that Studio Artist also provides onionskinning for manual animation techniques. You can toggle onionskinning on and off using Command-T (or by selecting Canvas > Onionskin Toggle). And you can set the opacity of your onionskin by going to File > Preferences > Layer and adjusting the onionskin alpha value there.  Whichever method you use, you now have a video file with an alpha channel (assuming all went according to plan), which you can then bring into a third-party application like Adobe After Effects. Most After Effects users (or users of other motion graphics, compositing or editing programs) know how to deal with alpha channels, so this is more for the beginner. Normally, when you import a file into After Effects, the program asks you how you want to interpret the alpha as a part of the import process.  However, it doesn't always get it right. And it doesn't try to interpret the alpha from some files (including all output I've produced in Studio Artist) if you import your video using the drag and drop method. If either of these is the case, right-click (or Control-click) on your footage in the After Effects project window, and choose Interpret Footage > Main.  You'll then be presented with the options seen before, as well as others. For Studio Artist, always use the "Straight - Unmatted" option.  If you're using Apple Final Cut Pro, alpha interpretation should happen automatically no matter which import method you use. Other programs will do the same, and, if not, will offer methods similar to After Effects' for setting alpha channel interpretation. If you have any further question on this or other Studio Artist topics, visit me at the Studio Artist forum here or drop me a line at the address below. Contact the author: 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, Mac OS, 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 4 Related sites: • Animation Artist • AV Video • Creative Mac • Digital Animators • Digital Media Designer • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Film and Video Magazine • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
|