tinderbox4

tinderbox
User Guide

The Foundry Plug-in Visual Effects

The Foundry Tinder Box1

 ©2006 The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Tinderbox 4 User Guide
This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in
accordance with the terms of such license. This manual is provided for informational use only and is subject to change
without notice. The Foundry assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors of inaccuracies that may appear in this
book.

No part of this manual may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form without the prior
written permission of The Foundry.

The Foundry logo is a trademark of The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd. After Effects® is a registered trademark of
Adobe Systems, Inc. All other products or brands are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies or organisations.

Thanks to Artbeats for supplying some of the images.

Software engineering Andy Whitmore, Lucy Hallpike, Bruno Nicoletti, Ralph McEntagart, Phil Parsonage.

Product testing Jack Binks, Rob Elphick, Jonathan Barson.

Writing and layout design Jonathan Barson using Adobe FrameMaker.

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Contents

Introduction About this User Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Installation on Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Installation on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Activation via Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Activation by phone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Serial Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
lmhostid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Where does the license file go? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Error Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Background Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
About Tinderbox Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Other Foundry Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Tinderbox Controls About... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Options... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Aspect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Ignore Transparent Pixels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Blending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Matte Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

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Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Source Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Matte Layer Crops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Tinderbox 4 T_Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
T_BleachBypass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
T_Cartoon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
T_Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
T_Colourist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
T_Convolve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
T_Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
T_Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
T_InfiniteZoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
T_Kaleid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
T_LightWrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
T_LineDrawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
T_Median . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
T_MuzzleFlash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
T_Quantise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
T_Rain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
T_Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
T_Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
T_SoftGlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
T_Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Appendix A Release Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Index A-Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

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 INTRODUCTION 5
About this User Guide

Introduction

Welcome to Tinderbox 4 for After Effects. Our plug-ins

have been developed for the most demanding professionals
in the post production industry. Many of the software
engineers at The Foundry have worked in television or
film, and know only too well the exacting requirements of
this field. We are delighted to bring these tools to digital
artists using After Effects. We hope you enjoy using them
as much as we do.

About this User This User Guide tells you how to install the plug-ins and
Guide remove the watermark with a license key. It gives
information on each of the plug-ins in this set with hints
and tips at the end of most plug-ins to suggest creative or
practical uses of the effect.

Controls common to many of the Tinderbox plug-ins are

described in the chapter Tinderbox Controls and referenced
from the plug-ins.

System Tinderbox 4 plugs into Adobe After Effects 7 running on

Requirements Mac OS X or Windows XP. It does not work in After
Effects 6.5, 6.0 or earlier versions. It is not currently
supported on Combustion, Final Cut Pro or any other host.

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6 INTRODUCTION
Installation on Mac

Installation on Tinderbox is distributed on CD or as a software download

Mac from our web site. To install Tinderbox 4 on a Mac follow
these instructions:
1. Insert the Tinderbox 4 CD into your CD-ROM drive or double-click
on the dmg file downloaded from our web site.
2. Double-click on Tinderbox pkg icon and follow the on-screen
instructions.

Figure 1. Double-click on the package to install.

3. Tinderbox will be installed but not licensed. It will render the

effects with a watermark. If you have installed from a CD follow
“Activation via Internet” on page 7. If you have installed from a
download see “Where does the license file go?” on page 10.

Installation on Tinderbox is distributed on CD or as a software download

Windows from our web site. To install Tinderbox 4 on a computer
running Windows follow these instructions:
1. Insert the Tinderbox 4 CD into your CD-ROM drive.
2. The Tinderbox installer should start automatically. If it does not,
click on the Tinderbox Installer and follow the on-screen
instructions.
3. Tinderbox will be installed but not licensed. It will render the
effects with a watermark. If you have installed from a CD follow
“Activation via Internet” on page 7. If you have installed from a
download see “Where does the license file go?” on page 10.

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 INTRODUCTION 7
Activation via Internet

Activation via Once you have installed Tinderbox from the CD you will
Internet need to activate the product. Successful activation gives
you a license key that unlocks the software. Activation can
be done automatically via the internet or by telephone.
1. Start After Effects.
2. Apply a Tinderbox plug-in to a layer in a composition.
3. Press the About button (Figure 2) and make a note of your

Figure 2. About.

lmhostid. This number is unique to your machine and your license

key will be locked to it. Click the dialog that appears to make it go
away.

Figure 3. lmhostid. Click dialog to make it go away.

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8 INTRODUCTION
Activation via Internet

4. Press the Options... button at the top of the plug-in. (Figure 4)

Figure 4. Options...

5. This launches a web browser. Check that the lmhostid shown on the
web page is correct. If it is not, or you wish to activate for a
different computer, follow the on-screen instructions.
6. Type your serial number into the box provided. You can find your
serial number on a sticker in the DVD case. Make sure you type it
in exactly as shown.
7. If successful, you will be given a license key. It’ll look a bit like
this:
INCREMENT tinderbox4_ae_i foundry 2.1 permanent \
uncounted HOSTID=000b957bfdf4 START=13-aug-2006 \
SIGN="0170 13D4 3659 2FC0 CCA4 1B88 0799 5D27 \
A73A ECE0 DE03 EAA3 1AF8 D98C EC7A 972A 19E3 \
7E20 AE1F 4D3B 3623"
8. The license key is put in a text file for you. Save this file in the same
directory as your plug-ins. On Mac this is usually /Applications/
Adobe After Effects 7.0/Plug-ins/Tinderbox4-2.1/ and on Windows
it is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 7.0\Support
Files\Plug-ins\Tinderbox4-2.1\
Note There are other places you can put your license file. See “Alternative
license directories” on page 12.

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 INTRODUCTION 9
Activation by phone

9. That’s it!

Start After Effects and check you’re plug-ins are licensed.

If they are not:
1. Check you have a foundry.lic license file in the correct directory.
See “Where does the license file go?” on page 10.

Activation by Call us on 020 7434 0449 from the UK or +44 20 7434

phone 0449 for international dialling. You will need your serial
number (“Serial Number” on page 9), lmhostid
(“lmhostid” on page 9) and an email address for us to send
the license key and instructions.

Serial Number The serial number is printed on a sticker inside the

Tinderbox DVD box. The number will look a little like
this:
C334-D2B8-E3A6-9A75-315E-E37E-B5FB-311A

lmhostid The lmhostid is a unique number that identifies your

computer. We use this number to generate a license key for
that, and only that, computer.

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10 INTRODUCTION
Where does the license file go?

The lmhostid is shown at the bottom of the help dialogs.

Figure 5. Help.

Click on any Tinderbox About button to display this

number. See Figure 2 if you can’t find it.

Where does the A Tinderbox 4 license key that unlocks the plug-ins on a
license file go? machine with lmhostid = 000b957bfdf4 will look a lot like
this:
INCREMENT tinderbox4_ae_i foundry 2.1 permanent \
uncounted HOSTID=000b957bfdf4 START=13-aug-2006 \
SIGN="0170 13D4 3659 2FC0 CCA4 1B88 0799 5D27 \
A73A ECE0 DE03 EAA3 1AF8 D98C EC7A 972A 19E3 \
7E20 AE1F 4D3B 3623"

This license key should be put in a text file. You can type
the key into a blank file using TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad
(Windows). If you have been emailed a license key you can
cut & paste it into a text file or you may have downloaded
your license key file from the web site after activation. Any
of these methods will work. The really important bit is that
it should be called foundry.lic and saved in the same
directory as your Tinderbox plug-ins as a plain text file (not
rich text).

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 INTRODUCTION 11
Where does the license file go?

Mac
If you’re on a Mac this is where the license file should go.
/Applications/Adobe After Effects 7.0/Plug-ins/
Tinderbox4-2.1/foundry.lic

Figure 6. Location of the license file on Macs.

Windows
If you’re on Windows this is where the license file should
go.
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects 7.0\Support
Files\Plug-ins\Tinderbox4-2.1\foundry.lic

If you have any problems installing the license key please

see “Common license problems” on page 13.

The easiest place to put the foundry.lic license file is in the

same directory as the Tinderbox plug-ins, but there are
other places you can use. See “Alternative license
directories” on page 12.

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Where does the license file go?

Alternative license There are other directories that are scanned for license
directories files. This can be useful for large post houses that have
centrally managed license servers but will not be necessary
for most customers. These directories are:

On Mac OS X, Linux and Irix:

/usr/local/foundry/FLEXlm

On Windows:
C:\Program Files\The Foundry\FLEXlm

You can also put them in an arbitrary directory and point to

them with the environment variable:
FOUNDRY_LICENSE_FILE

See “Further Reading” on page 18.

Can I install Tinderbox You can install Tinderbox on as many machines as you
on more than one like, but a watermark will be drawn over the image if there
computer? isn’t a valid license key for that machine.

If you wish to render Tinderbox plug-ins on a network of

render-only versions of After Effects you will need to
purchase Tinderbox render licenses.

See “Background Rendering” on page 16.

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 INTRODUCTION 13
Where does the license file go?

Watermark If you don’t have a valid license key a dialog (Figure 7)

will warn you and the image will render scattered with
coloured dots (Figure 8).

Figure 7. Warning Dialog. Figure 8. Close-up of dots.

Common license Licensing Tinderbox is very simple. However, there are a

problems few operating system quirks that tend to trip people up.

Hidden File Types

One of the most common problems is using Notepad on
Windows to create a text file called foundry.lic into which
you put your license key. Saving the file often adds a .txt
file extension which stops the license from working.
What’s worse is that if “Hide extensions for known file
types” is switched on in the Folder Options, when you look

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Where does the license file go?

at the file in a file browser it says foundry.lic even though

the file is called foundry.lic.txt.

Figure 9. Folder Options Dialog.

On Macs, when typing license keys into text files using

TextEdit (Figure 10) make sure you are writing to plain
text files and not rich text files (Figure 11).

Figure 10. TextEdit. Figure 11. Use Plain Text.

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 INTRODUCTION 15
Where does the license file go?

Check the License Directory

Make sure the license file is in the correct directory.

Figure 12. Don’t put the foundry.lic license file in the After
Effects Plug-in Directory.

Figure 13. Do put the foundry.lic license file next to the

Tinderbox plug-ins.

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Error Log Files

Error Log Files If a plug-in fails to get a license the incident is recorded in
an error log file. The time, date and nature of the problem
are appended to the end of the file. The error file on Mac
OS X is:
/usr/local/foundry/FLEXlm/license.log

and on Windows is:

C:\Program Files\The Foundry\FLEXlm\license.log

Tip On a Mac you can’t use the file browser to directly navigate to the log
file. Instead use a Terminal or the Go to Folder... (Shift-Apple-G)
button.

Background In After Effects Pro you can render on a network of

Rendering computers using watch folders. If you want to do this for
compositions that use Tinderbox plug-ins you will need:
1. The Tinderbox plug-ins installed on the networked computers.
2. A valid Tinderbox license key for each networked computer.

You may need to purchase additional license keys from

The Foundry. Without these the After Effects Render
Engine will render tinderbox plug-ins with dots scattered
on the image.

There are several ways of licensing a network of machines

but the most common and flexible would be to purchase a
number of floating render licenses and have a license
server manage these licenses. Render license keys will
allow you to render Tinderbox using After Effects Render
Engine, but not the full After Effects program. Render
licenses are much cheaper than full licenses.

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 INTRODUCTION 17
Background Rendering

Here is an overview of the processes needed to set up a

floating license network to render Tinderbox 1 plug-ins on
up to 5 After Effects render engines using a Mac as the
license server.

Buy a License Key Contact The Foundry and buy a Tinderbox 4 floating
license for 5 machines that will run on a server with
lmhostid = 000EA641D7A1.

Configure the Server On the server (whose machine name is Red), download and
install the Foundry FLEXlm Tools.

Take the license key you bought and put it in a text file
called foundry.lic in the directory /usr/local/foundry/
FLEXlm. Here’s that license key.
SERVER Red 000EA641D7A1 300001
VENDOR foundry

INCREMENT tinderbox4_ae_r foundry 2.1 permanent 5 \

START=8-feb-2006 SIGN="00FF 6A1B 735B A476 2069 \ 0A10
6894 4903 E2CF A238 7A01 1A15 1808 7BCF 346C \ F59E 8899
F53C 2B13 E204 C7FD"

Reread the license file with the command:

cd /usr/local/foundry/FLEXlm
./lmutil lmreread -c foundry.lic

Configure the Clients On each of the 5 render engines, install the Tinderbox 4
plug-ins. Then create a license file called foundry.lic in the
directory /usr/local/foundry/FLEXlm that has the first 2

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18 INTRODUCTION
Further Reading

lines of the server license file followed by the line

USE_SERVER. here’s what it looks like.
SERVER Red 000EA641D7A1 300001
VENDOR foundry
USE_SERVER

Repeat this on each of the client machines.

Further information on setting up a machine to manage

these licenses across a network, including how to set up a
Windows render network, is beyond the scope of this user
guide. See “Further Reading” on page 18. If you wish to
discuss your particular requirements, please call us.

Further Reading Tinderbox plug-ins are licensed using FLEXlm from

Macrovision. FLEXlm license keys can be locked to a
particular machine (which is common for Tinderbox) or
configured to manage licenses for multiple computers on a
network. These floating licenses can be more cost effective
if you have lots of machines which only need occasional
access to plug-ins.

Systems Administrators may wish to find out more about

licensing our plug-ins with FLEXlm. We recommend
reading the Foundry FLEXlm Tools (FFT) User Guide
available to download from our web site
(www.thefoundry.co.uk). In addition there are general
FLEXlm licensing guides on Macrovision’s web site
(www.macrovision.com).

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About Tinderbox Plug-ins

About Tinderbox All Tinderbox plug-ins integrate seamlessly into After

Plug-ins Effects. They are applied to your clips as you would any
other filter and they can all be animated using the standard
After Effects animation tools from simple keyframing to
full blown expressions.

For users with the Adobe After Effects Professional, the

Motion Tracker can be used to input data into any
positional controls of the Tinderbox plug-ins.

Other Foundry The Foundry is a leading developer of plug-in visual

Products effects for film and video post production. Its products
include Furnace, Tinder, Tinderbox, Keylight and Anvil
and run on a variety of compositing platforms including
Discreet Flame from Autodesk, Avid|DS and Apple’s
Shake. For the full list of products and supported platforms
see www.thefoundry.co.uk

Furnace is a collection of film tools. Many of the

algorithms utilize motion estimation technology to speed
up common compositing tasks. Plug-ins include wire
removal, rig removal, steadiness, deflicker, degrain and
regrain, retiming, and texture tools.

Tinder and Tinderbox are collections of image processing

effects including blurs, distortion effects, background
generators, colour tools, wipes, matte tools, painterly
effects, lens flares and much more.

Anvil is a collection of colour correction and colour

manipulation tools.

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Other Foundry Products

Keylight is an award winning blue/green screen keyer

giving results that look photographed not composited. The
Keylight algorithm was developed by the Computer Film
Company who were honoured with a technical
achievement award for digital compositing from the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Visit The Foundry’s web site at www.thefoundry.co.uk for

further details.

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About...

Tinderbox Controls

This chapter describes the controls that are common to

many Tinderbox plug-ins.

About... To display the on-line help either click on “About...”, or

the picture, as shown in Figure 14. To hide the help dialog,

Figure 14. About.

just click on it after it has appeared. The help gives a short

description of the plug-in, the exact version number of
Tinderbox (Figure 16) and the lmhostid (Figure 17). This
online help is designed to give you a brief description of

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Reset

the plug-in and a quick start if required. More detailed

information on the plug-in is contained in this User Guide.

Figure 15. Help.

Figure 16. Version. Figure 17. lmhostid.

Reset Reset reverts all parameters in the plug-in to their default

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 TINDERBOX CONTROLS 23
Options...

values.

Figure 18. Reset.

Options... Options will launch a web browser to get a license key for
the plug-ins. See “Activation via Internet” on page 7.

Figure 19. Options.

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Type

Type Each of the plug-ins listed in the next chapter has a type
description of blur, effect, tool, generator or warper. This is
to help you quickly understand the general nature of the
filter.

If there are any optional layers that can be used in the

effect, these are also declared.

Some Tinderbox plug-ins can use a composition’s camera

and lights. These are labelled as 3D in the Type definition
and the plug-ins themselves appear with a cube symbol
(Figure 20) in the Effect Controls panel.

Figure 20. T_Droplet can use the composition’s lights.

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 TINDERBOX CONTROLS 25
Aspect

Aspect Controls the proportion of the effect in x, horizontal, and y,

vertical. The default value of 0 will apply the effect equally
in x and y. A value of 100 will only apply the effect in x. A
value of -100 will only apply the effect in y. Figure 21 and

Figure 21. T_Blur Aspect = 100. Figure 22. T_Blur Aspect = -100.

Figure 22 shows the output of T_Blur on a checker pattern

with two values for the Aspect. The Aspect controls can be
used to fake perspective. Figure 23 shows Aspect in

Figure 23. T_Droplet.

T_Droplet being used to sit the ripples on the water.

Pixel Aspect Ratio Tinderbox plug-ins will automatically compensate for the
Pixel Aspect Ratio set under Composition Settings and in
the Viewer Options.

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Process

Process Controls which of the colour channels will be affected by

the effect. The options can be a subset or all of the
following. The most common are at the top of the list.
Figure 24 shows a two layer composite of a polar bear with
triangular alpha channel composited over a flower. T_Blur
has then been applied with the most common processing
options shown in Figure 25 to Figure 27.
• RGBA - the red, green, blue and alpha channels are
processed. Figure 25.

Figure 24. Two layer composite. Figure 25. RGBA.

• RGB - only the red, green and blue channels are

processed. Figure 26.
• Alpha - only the alpha channel is processed. Figure 27.

Figure 26. RGB. Figure 27. Alpha.

• Grey - this affects the result of (R+G+B)/3.

• Red - only the red channel will be affected.

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Process

• Green - only the green channel will be affected.

• Blue - only the blue channel will be affected.
• Luminance - the luminance of the image will be
affected.
• U - only the U video signal will be affected.
• V - only the V video signal will be affected.
• Chroma - the U and V channels will be affected.

You should note that some plug-ins operate on the alpha

channel of the source image, like T_Blur in the example
above, and other plug-ins generate their own alpha
replacing any alpha that was part of the source image. You
can see this in Figure 28 where T_Caustic has been applied
to the polar bear layer and the triangular alpha channel is
ignored.

Figure 28. RGBA processing with T_Caustic.

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Ignore Transparent Pixels

Ignore Transparent If you’re wondering what this handy switch does then read
Pixels on.

Figure 29. RGB Straight. Figure 30. Alpha.

Consider this picture of a polar bear with a triangular

matte. Figure 29 shows the RGB Straight pixels. Figure 30
shows the triangular matte. Compositing this picture over a
background will only show the polar bear and the
background. You’re never going to see the green pixels.

If we apply T_Blur to the polar bear, let’s consider what

happens to pixels at the edge of the triangular matte.

Figure 31. Ignore Transparent Figure 32. Ignore Transparent

Pixels Off. Pixels On.

Figure 31 shows green pixels being dragged into the

picture as a result of the blur. This is usually unwanted.
switching Ignore Transparent Pixels on will means that the
source image will be composited on transparent black

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Ignore Transparent Pixels

before the effect is applied. Figure 32 shows the result

you’re after.

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Gradient

Gradient Several of the Tinderbox plug-ins require the colours to be

set in a gradient or ramp. These plug-ins will have a
Gradient control. The coloured area at the top is used to
create, delete and position the individual colours in the
gradient by manipulating the small triangular colour tags.
Note The tags on the extreme left and right cannot be moved or deleted but
their colours can be modified.

Figure 33. Gradient Controls.

Changing a Colour Select a tag by clicking on it. Click on the colour box
(labelled Edit in Figure 33) to launch the After Effects
colour dialog.

Moving a Colour Select a tag and drag it left or right.

Note The tags on the extreme left and right cannot be moved.

Adding a Colour Click in the colour gradient to add a colour.

Deleting a Colour Click and drag a tag into the colour gradient.

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Lighting

Lighting Some plug-ins include controls for adding lighting. There

are two types of lighting models that can be used in these
plug-ins:
1. The Foundry lighting models.
2. After Effects lighting models.

Foundry Model Has two light types, local and infinite.

After Effects Model Has four light types, parallel, point, spot, ambient.

Ambient, diffuse and specular lighting models are included

for some plug-ins and point, infinite or After Effects lights
can be used.

Figure 34. Lighting Off. Figure 35. Lighting On.

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Lighting

Light Host Light - this checkbox appears only when there is a

host light available in the current composition. If the
control is switched on, the internal lighting model will be
disabled.

Light Layer - the host light to use in the calculations. This

is specified by a number. The host lights are numbered
from the bottom light in the composition (Light Layer =1),
upwards to the top light (Light Layer = 2)

Figure 36. To pick the Red Light set Light Layer to 2.

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Lighting

Type
• None - no lights are used. Lighting parameters are
switched off.

Figure 37. None.

• Infinite - simulates the parallel rays from a distant light

source, like the sun.

Figure 38. Infinite.

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Lighting

• Local - simulates the light rays from a light source close

to the surface of the image.

Figure 39. Local.

• Host - uses the After Effects light. If more than one light
is in the composition, the top layer light is used.

Direction - the direction of the light source. If set to 90 the

light appears to come from the right. If set to 180 the light
appears to come from the bottom of the screen.

Figure 40. Direction = 90. Figure 41. Direction = 270.

Elevation - effectively controls the height of the light

source above the image plane. Elevation changes the angle

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Lighting

between the image plane and a line from light source to the
image centre.

Figure 42. Elevation = 5. Figure 43. Elevation = 30.

Position - the position of the light.

Distance - sets the distance between the local light source

and the image plane. As distance increases more of the
image is illuminated.

Ambient Lighting Ambient light produces a constant illumination on all

surfaces regardless of their orientation. Ambient light is an
approximation of the light generated from the multiple
reflections from every surface in a scene.

Ambient Method - controls how to apply the ambient

lighting.
• None - switches off ambient lighting.
• Colour - switches on ambient lighting and uses the
ambient colour in the ambient colour calculations.
• Source - switches on ambient lighting and uses the
source image colours in the ambient colour calculations.

Colour - the colour used in the ambient light calculations.

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Lighting

Strength - the amount of ambient light.

Diffuse Lighting Dull surfaces scatter light equally in all directions so that
the surfaces appear to have the same brightness from all
viewing angles. These surfaces exhibit diffuse reflection.

Lighting - controls how to apply the diffuse lighting.

• None - switches off diffuse lighting.
• Colour - switches on diffuse lighting and uses the
diffuse colour in the diffuse colour calculations,
Figure 44 on page 36.
• Source - switches on diffuse lighting and uses the
source image colours in the diffuse colour calculations,
Figure 45.

Figure 44. Diffuse Colour.

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Lighting

Figure 45. Diffuse Source.

Colour - the colour used in the diffuse light calculations.

Strength - the amount of reflected diffuse light.

Specular Lighting Specular or highlight reflection is observed on any shiny

surface. Illuminate a shiny metal sphere and the highlight
is caused by specular reflection while the light reflected
from the rest of the sphere is caused by diffuse reflection.

Lighting - how to apply the specular lighting.

• None - switches off specular lighting.
• Colour - switches on specular lighting and uses the
colour in the specular colour calculations, Figure 46.

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Lighting

• Source - switches on specular lighting and uses the

source image colours in the specular colour
calculations, Figure 47 on page 38.

Figure 46. Specular Colour.

Figure 47. Specular Source.

Colour - the colour of the specular highlights.

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Lighting

Strength - the amount of reflected specular light.

Fall-off - controls how tight (Figure 49) or diffuse

(Figure 48) the highlights are on the surface. This equates
to the apparent shininess of the surface.

Figure 48. Low Fall-off.

Figure 49. High Fall-off.

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Camera

Camera Some plug-ins include camera controls allowing you to

move around the generated effect. To ease animation
synchronisation these can also be slaved to an After Effects
camera (if one is present) in the same manner as the lights.
The camera model used depends on the plug-in. For
example, Tinderbox 1 T_Sky employs a camera which only
allows for rotations in 3 degrees of freedom, since the sky
is of a sufficient distance from the camera in question that
no parallax should be observed in any kind of tracking
movement. However, in a plug-in such as Tinderbox 3
T_Particles, the camera model allows for movement as
well as rotation in 3 planes.

In our internal camera parameters, (“Controls” on

page 40), only the controls relevant to the current plug-in
are enabled and displayed, whilst, if host camera slaving is
selected, only the relevant parameters from the host camera
are employed.

Our plug-ins employ a two point camera model with an

origin target point, and the coordinate system mimics the
left handed camera model employed natively by After
Effects.

Controls Host Camera - this checkbox appears only when there is a

host camera available in the composition you are working
in, so if you want to slave to the host camera first of all
ensure that you have created one in the current comp. If the
control is switched on, the internal camera controls
described subsequently will be disabled.

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Camera

Angle of View - equivalent to the After Effects camera

parameter of the same name this governs the width (as a
degree) of the scene visible.

X Rotation - the rotation around the X axis of the camera

head

Y Rotation - the rotation around the Y axis of the camera

head

Z Rotation - the rotation around the Z axis of the camera

head

X Position - the translation along the x axis

Y Position - the translation along the y axis

Z Position - the translation along the z axis

Clip Near & Clip Far - to aid rendering on generator plug-

ins we employ a pair of planes which specify the limits of
interest in terms of an axis through the camera and lens.
Objects moving in front of the Clip Near or behind the Clip
Far are determined as out of the area of interest and are
thus not rendered.

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Filtering

Filtering Filtering is used to control the quality of your processed

images by reducing the jagged lines characteristic of pixel
devices. For high quality images you should switch
filtering on. As with all image processing you have a trade
off between quality and time. Filtering will increase the
quality of your image but will also increase the time it
takes to process the image.

Filtering quality is chosen from a popup menu. The options

given in the popup menu are:
• Low - highly distorted images may show jaggies. This
is the fastest option.
• Medium - uses a bilinear filter.
• High - uses a MIP bilinear filter. This is the slowest
option.
• Global Default - this uses the quality setting in After
Effects to determine the filtering method used in the
plug-in.

Figure 50. Low, Medium and High Filtering.

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Filtering

Depending on the effect being filtered, the High filtering

option may over-soften the image. To combat this, the
Filter Sharpness control can be used to compensate. The
default value of 100% is normal sharpness, increasing it
will sharpen up the result, decreasing it will soften further.
Note Filter Sharpness only has an effect when using the High filtering
option.

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Blending

Blending Many of the Tinderbox plug-ins have blending controls

which allow you to specify how to mix between the output
image and the source image. Controls are also available to
affect the gain on the output image and source image. In
our examples, we have applied T_Grad to a source image
(Figure 51) to get the output image as shown in Figure 52.

Figure 51. Source Image. Figure 52. Output Image.

Although the same results could be achieved using the

layer modes and Adjust processes provided in After
Effects, it would require the use of many more layers and
effects in the composition.

Method - sets how to blend the output image effect with its
original source image by the amount set in the blend
control.
• None - no blending is applied, only the output image is
returned as in Figure 52. Blend, Effect Gain and Source
Gain have no affect when in this mode.
• Mix - blends the source and output images.
• Add - adds the source and output image pixel values.
• Difference - the absolute value of the source image
minus the output image. Similar colours will return
black pixels.

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Blending

• Subtract Source - output image minus the source

image. Negative values are set to black.

Figure 53. None, Mix, Add, Difference, Subtract Source.

• Subtract Effect - source image minus the output image.

Negative values are set to black.
• Darken - returns the darker of either the output image
or the source image.
• Lighten - returns the brighter of either the output image
or the source image.
• Colour - returns the hue and saturation of the output
image and the luminance of the source image.
• Luminosity - returns the hue and saturation of the
source image and the luminance of the output image.

Figure 54. Subtract Effect, Darken, Lighten, Colour,

Luminosity.

• Hue - returns the hue of the output image and the

saturation and luminance of the source image.
• Saturation - returns the hue and luminance of the
source image and the saturation of the output image.

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Blending

• Screen - is a soft add making everything brighter but

ramping off the whites. Light colours have more of an
effect than dark colours. The result is always a lighter
colour. Blending with black leaves the pixel unchanged,
blending with white always returns white. The result is
similar to projecting multiple slides on top of each other.
• Multiply - source image multiplied by the output
image. The result is always darker. Blending with black
gives black and with white returns the colour
unchanged.
• Overlay - mixes colours while preserving the highlights
and shadows.

Figure 55. Hue, Saturation, Screen, Multiply, Overlay.

• Exclusion - creates a result similar to the Difference

mode but lower in contrast. Blending with white inverts
the colour, blending with black produces no change.
• ColourBurn - darkens the underlying colour to reflect
the blend colour by increasing the contrast.
• ColourDodge - brightens the underlying colour to
reflect the blend colour by decreasing the contrast.
• HardLight - lightens highlights and darkens shadows.
If the pixel value in the source image is lighter than 50%
grey, the result lightens as if it were screened. If the
pixel value in the source image is darker than 50% grey,
the result is darkened as if it were multiplied.

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Blending

• LinearBurn - darkens the underlying color to reflect the

Figure 56. Exclusion, ColourBurn, ColourDodge, HardLight,

LinearBurn.

blend color by decreasing the brightness. Blending with

white produces no change.
• LinearDodge - same as Add.
• LinearLight - is a mix in which the brightness depends
on the output image. If the output image pixel is brighter
than mid grey, the source image is lightened by mixing
in a brighter output image. If the output image is darker
than mid grey the source image is darkened by mixing
in a darker output image. If blending with a mid grey
output image, the source image is returned.
• SoftLight - similar to LinearLight but more subtle.
Unlike LinearLight, blending with white will lighten the
source image but not return white.
• Composite Effect - if the plug-in generates an alpha
then this will composite the plug-in effect over the
source image. This saves you having to set Blending to
none and add another layer to your composition.

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Blending

• Composite Source - layers the source image over the

Figure 57. Linear Dodge, Linear Light, SoftLight, Composite

Effect, Composite Source.

output image taking into account any alpha channel on

the source image.

Blend - when blending, sets the percentage mix between

the output image and the source image. A value of 100%
will show just the output image effect. A value of 0% will
show just the source image. The inputs to this Blend are
affected by the values set for Effect Gain and Source Gain.

Effect Gain - when blending, sets the gain of the image

effect. The result of this is used in the Blend. The Effect
Gain also affects the alpha of the image. Setting Effect
Gain to 50% will half the brightness of the effect image
and will also half the value of its alpha. This will result in
the underlying layers, or black if there are none, appearing
through the effect image.

Source Gain - when blending, sets the gain of the original

source. The result of this is used in the Blend. The Source
Gain also affects the alpha of the image. Setting Source
Gain to 50% will half the brightness of the original source
and will also half the value of its alpha. This will result in
the underlying layers, or black if there are none, appearing
through the original source.

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Blending

Clamp 0-1 (32bpc) - switch this on to clamp out-of-range

pixels so that the blending methods give expected results.
Many blending operations (like screen) rely on the pixels
to be in the range 0 to 1 to get a sensible result. In 32 bpc
projects some images may have pixel values much greater
than 1. These over-range values are called over-whites or
superwhites and will give incorrect and unexpected results
for these blending methods. Switching this clamp on will
cut off any pixel values greater than 1 (and less than 0) so
that the blend looks right. Without clamping you will get
unexpected results, for example, negative pixels when you
ought to be getting very bright pixels.

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Matte

Matte The way the Matte and Matte Layer parameters work are
common to many plug-ins and are described here.

Matte - the image and channels used to control the effect.

• None - no matte is used.
• Source Luminance - the luminance of the current layer,
with any effects applied to it, is used.
• Source Inverse Luminance - the inverted luminance of
the current layer, with any effects applied to it, is used.
• Source Alpha - the alpha of the current layer, with any
effects applied to it, is used.
• Source Inverse Alpha - the inverted alpha of the
current layer, with any effects applied to it, is used.
• Matte Layer Luminance - the luminance of the raw
image specified in the Matte Layer parameter below is
used.
• Matte Layer Inverse Luminance - the inverted
luminance of the raw image specified in the Matte Layer
parameter below is used.
• Matte Layer Alpha - the alpha of the raw image
specified in the Matte Layer parameter below is used.
• Matte Layer Inverse Alpha - the inverted alpha of the
raw image specified in the Matte Layer parameter below
is used.

So the important bit is that if you pick Source you get the
current layer with any effects applied, and if you pick
Matte Layer you get the image specified below with no
effects applied.

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Matte Layer

Matte Layer Matte Layer - the layer used if Matte is set to Matte Layer
Luminance, Matte Layer Inverse Luminance, Matte Layer
Alpha or Matte Layer Inverse Alpha.
• None - no layer is specified and none used.
• 1. Layer - this layer is used as the Matte Layer.
• 2. Layer - his layer is used as the Matte Layer.

The Matte Layer is the layer without any effects applied.

Attenuation Often the matte is used to attenuate the strength of the

effect. By this we mean that pixel values in a matte are
used to vary a parameter in the plug-in. You should note
that this is not the same as applying the effect to only a
portion of the image using masks or a track matte.

Let’s consider the plug-in T_Tile that takes an image like

Figure 58 and scales and repeats it as shown in Figure 59.

If we attenuate this effect with the matte should in

Figure 60 then where the matte is black on the left, none of
the effect will be applied. Where the matte is white the full
scaling factor in T_Tile will be applied. Values inbetween

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Attenuation

are scaled accordingly as shown in Figure 61.

Figure 58. Source Image. Figure 59. Tile.

Figure 60. Matte. Figure 61. Attenuating Scale.

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Source Crops

Source Crops Many Tinderbox plug-ins require access to pixels that lie
off the edge of the source image. For example, T_Blur
needs to use pixels off the sides when blurring at the edges.
Figure 62 shows black pixels being dragged in from the

Figure 62. Look at the border. Here the Edge Method = Colour.

Figure 63. Edge Methods = Reflect.

sides which happens if the edge methods are set to

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Source Crops

“Colour”. By setting the edge method to “Reflect” you can

overcome this problem, as shown in Figure 66.

In addition, there are controls to crop the image.

Edge Methods The edge methods control the behaviour of the image at the
crop boundaries. This is usually at the edge of the
composition but can be brought into the picture with the
Left, Right, Top and Bottom crop tools. The left and right
edges can have a different edge method from the top and
bottom.

X Method - how to treat the left and right edges.

• Colour - see Figure 64.
• Repeat - repeats the last line of pixels. Figure 65.

Figure 64. Colour. Figure 65. Repeat.

• Reflect - mirrors the image at the crop line. Figure 66

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Matte Layer Crops

• Wrap - tiles the image at the crop line. Figure 67.

Figure 66. Reflect. Figure 67. Wrap.

Y Method - how to treat the top and bottom edges.

Edge Colour - the colour used at the crop boundary if the

edge method is set to Colour. In Figure 64 the edge colour
is black.

Edge Colour Alpha - the transparency of this colour is set

using the Edge Colour Alpha.

Left - the left crop position.

Right - the right crop position.

Bottom - the bottom crop position.

Top - the top crop line.

Matte Layer Crops This is only available where there is the option of selecting
a Matte within a Tinderbox plug-in. Matte Crops work in

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Matte Layer Crops

exactly the same way as Source Crops but apply to the

Matte.

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T_Bars

Tinderbox 4

T_Bars

Description T_Bars generates colour bars and colour ramps.

Figure 68. SMPTE Bars. Figure 69. Grey Ramp.

Type Generator.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process. Selecting RGBA

will render full screen alpha writing over any alpha channel
in the source image.

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T_Bars

Pattern - the pattern to generate.

• EBU Bars
• 75% Colour Bars
• 100% Colour Bars
• EIA Colour Bars
• SMPTE Colour Bars
• RGB Ramp
• Grey Ramp
• RGB Crossed Ramp
• Grey Crossed Ramp

Direction - applicable to ramps.

• Horizontal - left to right ramps.
• Vertical - top to bottom ramps.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

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T_BleachBypass

T_BleachBypass

Description T_BleachBypass exactly mimics a film lab bleach bypass

process where the silver in the negative is retained giving a
very stylized look.

Figure 70. Source Image. Figure 71. Bleach Bypass.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Strength - the amount of bleach bypassing.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

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T_BleachBypass

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Examples Here are two more images showing the look you get with
T_BleachBypass.

Figure 72. Source Image. Figure 73. Bleach Bypass.

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T_Cartoon

T_Cartoon

Description T_Cartoon flattens colour and adds edge lines to give a

hand drawn cartoon-look to images. The algorithm takes

Figure 74. Source Image. Figure 75. T_Cartoon.

each pixel, looks in the region around this and gathers

together similarly coloured pixels. These regions are then
further combined together using the Segment Merge
parameter.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

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T_Cartoon

Min Region Size - removes spots of colour. Increase this

value to remove isolated spots as shown in Figure 77.

Figure 76. Min. Region Size = 1. Figure 77. Min. Region Size = 10.

Search Radius - the size of the circular area searched for

similar pixels.

Colour Range - the range of colours that are considered to

be the same. Increase this parameter to flatten out the
image.

Search Type - the shape of the search area.

• Box - uses a rectangular search area.
• Circular - uses a circular search area.
• Gaussian - uses a weighted circular region where the
central pixels are more likely to be included in the
amalgamated region that outlying pixels.

Segment Merge - takes adjacent regions calculated from

the first pass and merges them together. Increase this value

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T_Cartoon

to merge more regions as shown in Figure 78 and

Figure 78. Segment Merge=10. Figure 79. Segment Merge=35.

Figure 79.

Saturation - the colour strength (saturation) of the image.

Brightness - the luminance (brightness) of the image.

Softening - blurs the image before applying the effect.

Lines This group controls the drawing of lines around the

segmented areas.

Draw Lines - switch this on to draw the lines.

Line Probability - increase this to make it more likely

that a line is drawn.

Line Strength - increase this for stronger more visible

lines.

Line Width - the thickness of the lines.

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T_Cartoon

Line Colour - the colour of the lines.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips Applying cartooning algorithms to sequences will give

flickery results, although T_Cartoon is better than many. If
you’ve ever seen a motion picture with this effect applied,
like A Scanner Darkly, the smooth results achieved there
will be due to an awful lot of rotoscoping to isolate, paint
and then interpolate rotoshapes and colour.

However, you can eliminate some of the flicker by post

processing the sequence with a motion interpolation plug-
in like The Foundry’s F_Kronos.

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T_Channels

T_Channels

Description T_Channels is a versatile tool for floating point channel

and image manipulation. It provides a range of
functionality including image based arithmetic, clamping,
clipping, channel rewiring and colour space conversion. It
replaces and improves upon a number of AE native effects
which as yet are not floating point compliant.

Type Tool.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Note that many of the parameters described only appear for

certain combinations of parameter settings.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Function - the operation applied to the clips.

• Arithmetic - allows you to perform a range of common
mathematical functions on the source image, using
either a second layer, a set colour or a set value as the
secondary function input, as defined by the Mode drop
down menu. Notable on the Operation menu is the

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Divide function, which is not achieveable elsewhere in

After Effects.
• Clamp - allows you to clamp the source image, limiting
information outside of the range specified to the limits
of the range.
• Clip - clamps the image and then rescales the resultant
range to fit the full range.
• Colour Space - converts the image from one colour
space to another, where the colour space can be RGB,
HLS, HSV or YUV.
• Rewire Channels - allows you to simultaneously swap
the source image's channels (including both the standard
R G & B and derivative options such as luminance) into
the output image's RGBA channels.
• Set Channels - similar to rewire channels, but allows
you to use channels from separate input images.

Arithmetic Controls Mode - allows you to choose whether to apply the

mathematical operations on a layer, a colour or a number.
• Layer - uses pixel values in the composition layer in the
calculations.
• Colour - uses a colour in the calculations.
• Constant - uses a number in the calculations.

Operation - this menu allows you to select an arithmetic

operation. Choose from...
• Copy
• Add
• Subtract

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• Multiply
• Divide
• Difference
• And
• Or
• Xor
• Lighter
• Darker
• Minimum
• Maximum
• Screen
• Overlay
• Hard Light

Second Source - the layer used when the arithmetic

operator is applied to a layer. This option is only available
when Function is set to Arithmetic and Mode is Layer.

Colour - colour picker revealed when colour is picked for

the arithmetic mode. An alpha slider will also be present,
however, will only be unlocked when the plug-in is set to
RGBA processing.

Value - numerical input revealed when constant is picked

for the arithmetic mode.

Clamp Controls Channels - allows you to specify which channels of the

image you wish to clamp.

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Min - the lower bound of the channel range to which all

image data should be clamped.

Max - the upper bound of the channel range to which all

image data should be clamped.

Clip Controls Channels - allows you to specify which channels of the

image you wish to clip.

Min - the lower bound of the channel range to which all

image data should be clipped.

Max - the upper bound of the channel range to which all

image data should be clipped.

Scale - by default the plug-in normalises the clipped image

to sit between 0 and 100% white. If you wish to scale it
otherwise, use this setting.

Colour Space It’s worth noting that After Effects always displays the
Controls three channels natively as RGB, so the immediate look of
your image may be somewhat odd. But it allows you to
operate on the image in a particular colour space, then
return back to RGB. For example, to desaturate an image
you could apply T_Channels to convert from RGB to HSV,
then decrease the value of the second (green) channel, then
convert from HSV back to RGB. T_Channels can be used
to decrease the value of a single channel and clamp the
result. One workflow for operating in a comp of a different
colour space is to apply a guide adjustment layer to the top

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of the comp with a colour space converter acting as a look

up, bringing the image back to something understandable
by the human eye!

From - drop down menu which allows you to specify

which colourspace to read the data from and which to
convert it to.
• RGB to HLS
• HLS to RGB
• RGB to YUV
• YUV to RGB
• RGB to HSV
• HSV to RGB

Rewire Channels Set Red to Source’s - drop down menu which allows you
Controls to specify what should go into the output image's red
channel from a list of prime and derivative channels taken
from the input image.

Set Green to Source’s - drop down menu which allows

you to specify what should go into the output image's green
channel from a list of prime and derivative channels taken
from the input image.

Set Blue to Source’s - drop down menu which allows you

to specify what should go into the output image's blue
channel from a list of prime and derivative channels taken
from the input image.

Set Alpha to Source’s - drop down menu which allows

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you to specify what should go into the output image's

alpha. channel from a list of prime and derivative channels
taken from the input image.

Set Channels Layer 1 - drop down menu to select the source for the
Controls: output image's red channel.

Set Red to Layer 1's - drop down menu to select the

source channel from the source image specified in the
above layer menu.

Layer 2 - drop down menu to select the source for the

output image's green channel.

Set Green to Layer 2's - drop down menu to select the

source channel from the source image specified in the
above layer menu.

Layer 3 - drop down menu to select the source for the

output image's blue channel.

Set Blue to Layer 3's - drop down menu to select the

source channel from the source image specified in the
above layer menu.

Layer 4 - drop down menu to select the source for the

output image's alpha channel.

Set Alpha to Layer 4's - drop down menu to select the

source channel from the source image specified in the
above layer menu.

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T_Channels

Stretch Layers to Fit - checkbox to allow you to scale

secondary layers which do not match the resolution of the
primary.

Filtering - the quality of the anti-aliasing used when

processing the effect. See “Filtering” on page 42.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips T_Channels is essentially a multi-tool of floating point

goodies, which replace and enhance parts of the native AE
fx range. Plus you get a divide function!

HSV Colour Space The H(ue) S(aturation) V(alue) model was described by
Alvy Ray Smith in 1978 to represent colours more
intuitively than by the selection of red, green and blue. It is
sometimes known as HSB (Hue, Saturation and
Brightness).

The hue is that quality by which we distinguish one colour

family from another, as red from yellow or green from blue
or purple.

The saturation (or chroma) is that quality of colour by

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which we distinguish a strong colour from a weak one. It’s

the purity of the colour.

The value is that quality by which we distinguish a light

colour from a dark colour. You can think of it as the
brightness of the colour. Strictly speaking it is defined to be
the maximum of the red, green or blue values.

HLS Colour Space This is the H(ue) L(uminance) S(aturation) model. You
should note that HLS is symmetrical to lightness and
darkness which is not the case with HSV.

HLS is often referred to as HSL.

YUV Colour Space The YUV model defines a colour space using a luminance
channel (Y) and two chrominance channels (UV). The
luminance is formed from a weighted average of the red,
green and blue components as shown in Equation 1.
Y = 0.299 R + 0.587 G + 0.114 B (EQ 1)

The U component is created by subtracting the luminance

from the blue channel and scaling. V is calculated by
subtracting the Y from the red channel and scaling by a
different value.
U = -0.147 R - 0.289 G + 0.436 B (EQ 2)

V = 0.615 R - 0.515 G - 0.1 B (EQ 3)

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T_Colourist

T_Colourist

Description T_Colourist uses statistical analysis of the image to

provide various forms of automated colour correction. It is
designed to replicate the skills of a colourist for normal
colour balancing. The software applies controlled
statistical corrections and as such does not require the
subjective input from the artist or a perfectly balanced
computer monitor.

You may need to fix an image whose black levels are not
neutral or white levels that are slightly tinted. This plug-in
has been designed to help with these kinds of problems.

Several controls are included to balance your image,

although the defaults should give good results in most
cases. Figure 80 is of a bridge in Rome. The blacks are

Figure 80. Source Image. Figure 81. Colourist.

milky and there is a colour tint in the whites. The defaults

in T_Colourist give the result in Figure 81.

Before the picture is corrected it is first analysed. The set of

analysis controls determine which pixels are considered in

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the calculations. You can choose to analyse just one frame

and use that as the basis for the corrections on all frames of
the clip, or you can choose to analyse each frame of a clip.
You can also restrict the pixels used to part of the full
image - this is particularly useful if you have colours that
would bias the calculations in a way that you don’t want.

Type Tool.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Show On-Screen Tools - switch this on to display the

Analysis Box on the image.

Analysis Mode
• Always - this will consider the pixels of each frame
before applying corrections. This will smooth out
(deflicker) luminance fluctuations in a clip.
• Specified - this will colour balance frames but preserve
any luma variations in the clip.

Reference Frame - sets the frame number of the sequence

that is analysed and used as the basis for the corrections.

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T_Colourist

Lowlight Grade - colour balances the shadows. In the

Figure 82. Source Image. Figure 83. Lowlight Grade.

example shown (Figure 82) there is no tint in the shadows

so the lowlight grade does not affect the image.

Highlight Grade - colour balances the highlights.

Figure 84. Source Image. Figure 85. Highlight Grade.

Figure 85 shows the correction of the pink tint in the

highlights.

Auto Dark Grade - colour balances the shadows and

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clamps them to black (as set by the Black Level). In

Figure 86. Source Image. Figure 87. Auto Dark Grade.

Figure 87 we can see that the shadows have been corrected

and the highlights have been left unaffected.

Auto White Grade - colour balances the highlights and

clamps them to white (as set by the White Level). In

Figure 88. Source Image. Figure 89. Auto White Grade.

Figure 89 we can see that the highlights have been fixed

but the shadows remain milky. Switch both the Auto Black
Grade and Auto White Grade on (the default) we get the

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picture shown in Figure 91.

Figure 90. Source Image. Figure 91. Auto White Grade and
Auto Dark Grade.

Low Threshold - sets the range of shadows affected in the

colour balancing.

High Threshold - sets the range of highlights affected in

the colour balancing.

Black Level - the luminance of pure black.

White Level - the luminance of pure white.

Use Analysis Box - switch this on to use only the pixels

within the analysis region in the calculations. The analysis
box can be used to crop out unwanted pixels that would
adversely bias the calculations.

Box Position - the centre of the sample rectangle.

Box X Size - the horizontal size of the sample area.

Box Y Size - the vertical size of the sample area.

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Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips T_Colourist can also be used to deflicker a sequence.

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T_Convolve

T_Convolve

Description T_Convolve is a general purpose spatial filter that uses a

weighted average of sampled pixels to determine each new
pixel value. A number of pre-defined kernel shapes are
supplied together with the ability to use your own kernels.

Figure 92. Star Shaped Kernel applied to T_Snow.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

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Show
• Result - renders the convolution.
• Kernel - displays the kernel used.

Mode - choose between one or three kernels.

• Single Kernel - the same kernel is used for each colour
channel.
• Kernel Per Channel - different kernels can be selected
for each colour channel.

Gain - the brightness of the effect. If the result is too faint,

increase this value.

Kernel Defines how the pixels will be weighted. Choose from

some polygon presets or use your own picture. Figure 93

Figure 93. Falling Snow (T_Snow).

shows some computer generated falling snow. If

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T_Convolve is applied to this clip and the Kernel is set to

Triangle, you get the result show in Figure 94 on page 81.

Figure 94. Triangle Kernel applied to Snow.

Kernel - use one of the built-in kernels or supply your

own.
• Triangle - we all know what a triangle is...
• Square - ...and we all know this shape too.
• Pentagon - a 5 sided polygon.
• Heptagon - a 7 sided polygon.
• Hexadecagon - a 16 sided polygon.
• 5 Pointed Star
• Kernel Layer RGBA - uses the layer set below to
determine the kernel.
• Kernel Layer Red - uses the red channel of the
Kernel Layer.

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• Kernel Layer Green

• Kernel Layer Blue
• Kernel Layer Alpha
• Kernel Layer Luminance

Kernel Layer - user defined kernel. If you want to

convolve with your own shape, then use this layer to do
it. Figure 95 shows a smiley face I drew myself. It’s 100

Figure 95. I drew this myself. Figure 96. Applied to T_Snow.

pixels by 100 pixels. If you use this as the Kernel Layer

and apply it to some falling snow then you get Figure 96.

Rotation - the rotation of the kernel.

Scale - the size of the kernel. For your own pictures keep
the image small. Switch Show to Kernel so you can see
what you’re doing.

X Scale - the horizontal scale of the kernel.

Y Scale - the vertical scale of the kernel.

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T_Convolve

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips See Tinderbox 4 T_Snow if you want to try the examples
above. Small kernels will give sharper results.

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T_Fire

T_Fire

Description T_Fire generates animating flames as an alternative to

using stock footage.

Figure 97. T_Fire. Figure 98. T_Fire.

Type Generator.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Presets - choose one of these to get you started.

• Candle - Figure 99.
• Oil - Figure 100.
• Gas - Figure 101.
• Inferno - Figure 102.

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Figure 99. Preset = Candle. Figure 100. Preset = Oil.

Figure 101. Preset = Gas. Figure 102. Preset = Inferno.

Flame Type - the type of flame generated.

• Candle
• Torch
• Campfire
• Nozzle Flame

Source Position - the screen position of the source of the

flame.

Components - the flames are built along a spline that

animates. This parameter is the number of points used in
this spline. Higher values allow for more detail in the line.
Switch on Render Splines and change this parameter to see

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the underlying effect.

Flame Width - the width of the flame.

Flame Height - the maximum height of the flame.

Flame Direction - the default (+90) is up. Zero renders a

flame pointing right.

Flame Activity - the amount the flame flickers.

Flame Buoyancy - the speed at which the flames rise.

Fire Temperature - the amount the flames flicker and rise.

Increase this for a more active fire.

Particle Size - the size of the particles that form the flames.

Flames - the number of flames rendered.

Glow Size - the size of the bright glow around the flame.

Glow Strength - the brightness of the glow.

Separation - the distance between multiple flames.

Pre-roll - the number of frames elapsed before rendering

the first flame.

Render Splines - switch this on to render a line rather than

a flame. Since this is quick to render, use it to visualise the
animation.

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Seed - this number generates a number sequence that is

used to randomly vary the flames.

Intensity - the brightness of the particles that form the

flames.

Gain - the overall brightness of the flames.

Gamma - the brightness of the mid-tone particles.

Use Mask - switch this on to use a mask layer to position

the source of the flames. The algorithm searches for a
white area which it uses as the Source Position.

Mask - the layer used to animate the Source Position.

Wind Two wind fields are supplied that interact with the flames.

Wind Type - four types of wind generator are supplied.

• None - switches the wind off.
• Uniform - blows air in a particular direction.
• Vortex - swirls air around it.
• Source - blows air away from it.
• Sink - sucks air towards it.

Strength - the force of the wind.

Source Position - the location of the wind.

Direction - where the wind blows from if wind type is set

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to uniform.

Fall-off - the amount the strength of the wind decreases

with distance from the source position.

Noise Noise is added to the flames to simulate burning particles

within the flames.

Noise Speed - the rate of movement of these particles.

Noise Amount - the amount of noise in x and y.

Noise Depth - the amount of noise along the z axis.

Noise Variation X - the horizontal variation in the noise.

Noise Variation Y - the vertical variation in the noise.

Fractal Scale - the detail in the noise.

Breaking Allows for smaller flames to break away from the main
flame.

Breaking - switch this on to allow smaller flames to

break away.

Break Frequency - the rate at which small flames

escape.

Min Break Life - the minimum lifespan of these flames

(in seconds).

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Max Break Life - the maximum lifespan of these flames

(in seconds).

Break Frames - the time taken to separate from the main

flame (in frames).

Average Break Height - the height at which the flames

break free. This is an average height and is measured as a
percentage of the Flame Height.

Break Height Range - the height range over which they

separate, as a percentage of the Flame Height.

Colours Controls for the flame colours. The flames are coloured
with a colour gradient made from three colours (bright,
mid and dark) as well as a glow colour.

Glow Colour/Alpha

Bright Colour/Alpha

Mid Colour/Alpha

Dark Colour/Alpha

Mid Point - the position of the mid colour in the colour

gradient.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

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Hints & Tips Have a look at Tinderbox 4 T_Rain if this fire gets out of
hand.

Here are some flames used in a composite.

Figure 103. Blue Screen. Figure 104. T_Fire.

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T_Flow

T_Flow

Description T_Flow is a flood fill along a path defined by a matte. It

can be used to write on text and generate animating mattes
as transition effects. Here’s a sequence of four frames
taken from an animation to write on text using T_Flow.

Figure 105. Frame = 10. Figure 106. Frame = 20.

Figure 107. Frame = 30. Figure 108. Frame = 40.

Type Effect.

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Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Colour - the flood fill colour if processing RGB.

Path - the image and channels used to control the flow.

Path Layer - the layer used if Path is set to Path Layer

Luminance/Alpha.

Flow Speed - how quickly the effect animates.

Drips Mode - the method of animating along the path.

• Drips Layer - the drips are sourced from the
Drips layer input.
• Random Drips - the drips are randomly
positioned.
• One Drip - one dot grows from the Position.

Number of Drips - the number of drips if Mode is set to

Random Drips.

Position - the position of the start of the animation. It is

very important to get this right, or you won’t see
anything.

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Seed - this number generates a number sequence that is

used to randomly vary the drips.

Drips - specifies the layer used as a source for the drips.

Filtering - the quality of the anti-aliasing used when

processing the effect. See “Filtering” on page 42.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Path Layer Crops Cropping tools and edge methods.

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T_InfiniteZoom

T_InfiniteZoom

Description Zoom transition effect from one image to another. As the

pixels in the first layer are scaled up, the whole image of
the second layer is revealed in those pixels. In the example

Figure 109. Source Image. Figure 110. Zooming in...

here the Mercedes SLK in Figure 109 is zoomed to form

the Bentley in Figure 112. Figure 110 and Figure 111 are
two of the inbetween frames showing the Bentley
appearing out of the pixels of the Mercedes.

Figure 111. ...more zoom... Figure 112. ...Second Layer

Revealed.

Quick Start Apply T_InfiniteZoom to layer 1. Set the Background to

layer 2. Animate the Zoom parameter from 0 to 100.
Render a sequence.

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T_InfiniteZoom

Type Transition Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Second Layer - the picture that will be revealed in the

zoom. If None then the source image will be used.

Zoom - the scale factor applied to the source layer. A value

of 0 produces no scaling. A value of 100 completely
reveals the next image. To create a transition effect you
should keyframe this zoom parameter from 0 to 100.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips See also Tinderbox 1 T_Pattern for more conventional
transition effects.

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T_Kaleid

T_Kaleid

Description T_Kaleid produces a classic triangular prism kaleidoscope

effect on an image. This is achieved by simulating the
inter-reflections of a triangular prism over the picture.

Figure 113. Source Image. Figure 114. T_Kaleid.

Use the prism group controls to position the prism for the
final output, then from the Image group, switch on Show
Source Image and move the image under the prism until
you’re looking at the bit you want. Switch off the Show
Source Image.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

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T_Kaleid

Show On-Screen Tools - switch this on to display the

triangular prism over the image.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Prism Controls for the triangular prism.

Position - the position of the triangular prism.

Size - the size of the triangular prism.

Rotation - the rotation of the prism.

Image Controls for the image under the prism.

Position X - the horizontal position of the image.

Position Y - the vertical position of the image.

Size - scales the image.

Rotation - rotates the image.

Show Source Image - switch this on to view the source

image under the on-screen prism tool.

Filtering - the quality of the anti-aliasing used when

processing the effect. (See “Filtering” on page 42.)

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Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hint & Tips It’s worth repeating this. Use the prism group controls to
position the prism for the final output, then from the Image
group, switch on Show Source Image and move the image
under the prism until you’re looking at the bit you want.
Switch off the Show Source Image.

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T_LightWrap

T_LightWrap

Description You may have noticed that objects filmed in front of very
bright backgrounds have the appearance of softened edges
as the light spills round from the background. When adding
foreground layers onto a background plate, introducing
light wrap can dramatically improve the quality of your
composite.

T_LightWrap makes this easy. Figure 115 shows a straight

composite of a woman over a background (the stained
glass window in York Minster). It’s a bit hard to see but
note the hard edges around the trailing hand and the bottom
of the skirt. After T_LightWrap has been applied
(Figure 116 on page 100) you’ll see light spilling around
the hand and through the skirt.

Figure 115. Close-up of the original Composite.

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Figure 116. Close-up showing Light Wrap.

Here’s the wide shot of the same composite. Note how it

Figure 117. Composite. Figure 118. T_LightWrap.

fits better into the background.

Type Effect.

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T_LightWrap

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Background - select the layer which will bleed light into

the foreground image.

Output
• Wrap Only - renders just the light wrap.
• Wrap On Black - renders the light wrap composited on
black. This can be a useful tool to see what’s going on
before switching to Blend with Source. See Figure 119.
• Blend with Source - composites the light wrap over the
foreground.

Figure 119. Wrap on Black (for the Polar Bear composite as

shown in Figure 121).

Radius - the distance the background wraps around onto

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the foreground. Consider the composite in Figure 120

Figure 120. Radius = 0. Figure 121. Radius = 25.

where a polar bear with triangular alpha is composited over

a bright background. Note the hard edges around the
triangle. In Figure 121 see how the light has spilled onto
the foreground at the top and left of the triangle as a result
of increasing the Radius to 25.

Brightness - the brightness of the light wrap.

Figure 122. Brightness = 0. Figure 123. Brightness = 100.

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T_LightWrap

Background Blur - the softness of the light wrap.

Figure 124. Blur = 3. Figure 125. Blur = 15.

Increasing this blurs the background spilling over into the

foreground.

Blending Mode - the algorithm to use to blend the light

wrap onto the foreground.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. You
can use this to further boost the brightness of the light spill.

Figure 126. Overcranked Spill.

See “Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

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T_LightWrap

Background Crops Cropping tools and edge methods.

Hints & Tips If you find that the light wrap does not line up with the
foreground as expected, then you should pre-compose the
foreground and/or background layers.

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T_LineDrawing

T_LineDrawing

Description Creates line drawings from images. Edges are detected and
splines drawn along them.

Figure 127. Source Image. Figure 128. T_LineDrawing.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

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Process - sets which channels to process.

Figure 129. Process = RGB. Figure 130. Process = RGBA.

Line Colour - the colour of the lines over the background.

Line Colour Alpha - the transparency of the lines when

processing RGBA.

Figure 131. White lines on grey. Figure 132. Red lines on blue.

Back Colour - the colour behind the lines. The

background colour.

Back Colour Alpha - the transparency of the background.

Output - the type of edges to draw.

• Edges - single pixel edge detection.
• Smooth Edges - splined lines. This is the default option.

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Line Thickness - the width of the lines.

Figure 133. Thin. Figure 134. Thick.

Pen Aspect - simulates even tipped or square brushes to

give different line widths depending on the direction of the
line stroke.

Figure 135. Aspect = 0. Figure 136. Aspect = -75.

Line Smoothness - reduces the number of points in the

Figure 137. Low Smoothness. Figure 138. High Smoothness.

lines.

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Tapered Length - the narrowing of the lines at the end of

the strokes.

Figure 139. No Tapering. Figure 140. High Tapering.

Spline Type - two methods are supplied to define the

curved line between vertices.
• Cardinal - this is a cubic hermite spline.
• B Spline - this is a uniform b spline. B splines tend to
give slightly rounder, smoother lines and this is the
default.

Number of Lines - the number of sets of lines drawn. The

line positions are offset by the Max Line Separation
parameter.

Figure 141. Two Lines. Figure 142. Three Lines.

Max Line Separation - the maximum distance between

line sets. Increase this for more widely spaced lines.

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Line Uniformity - the evenness of the line set positions.

Zigzag The lines can be made to turn alternately from right to left.

Zigzag Amount - how much the lines are allowed to

Figure 143. Low. Figure 144. Extreme.

deviate from their path. Figure 143 has a Zigzag Amount

of 10 and Figure 144 a rather extreme value of 100.

Zigzag Uniformity - the evenness of the turns. Increase

Figure 145. Uniformity = 0. Figure 146. Uniformity = 100.

this value for balanced, regular zigzags.

Seed - this number generates a number sequence that is

used to randomly vary the zigzags and line positions if
Number of Lines > 1.

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Edges T_LineDrawing uses the Canny edge detector to find edges

and draw along them. You can view the edge matte using
the Output parameter. The threshold controls are the same
as those for the Canny mode in Tinderbox 3
T_EdgeDetect. They are used in the last stage of the Canny
edge detection algorithm, after it has identified a set of
pixels which have steep gradients across them and are
therefore likely to belong to an edge. Pixels whose gradient
is above the upper threshold are automatically classified as
edge pixels, and pixels with gradients below the lower
threshold are classified as non-edge pixels. Those whose
gradients fall between the two thresholds will be classified
as edge pixels only if they are connected to a definite edge
pixel by a path through the pixels remaining in the set. The
idea is to avoid the breaking up of edges that can occur if
you just apply a single threshold and say that everything
above it must be a edge, and everything below must not be,
because it is likely that along a single edge there will be
some pixels that dip below that threshold.

Image Softness - blurs the image before edges are

detected.

Figure 147. Softness = 0. Figure 148. Softness = 50.

Lower Threshold - used to define the edges.

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Upper Threshold - used to define the edges.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips See also Tinderbox 1 Etch and Tinderbox 2 T_Contour.

Figure 149. T_Etch. Figure 150. T_Contour.

Both of these give similar but different results to

T_LineDrawing and are shown here in Figure 149 and
Figure 150 on the flower for comparison.

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T_Median

T_Median

Description T_Median is an NxN median filter. It is faster than the

median filter in After Effects and can also be used on
32bpc images. Median filters are useful for cleaning up
isolated spots and noise. For each pixel an array of

Figure 151. Close up of a matte Figure 152. After T_Median has

showing noise in the black and been applied with Radius= 1. Note
white areas. the single pixel noise has gone.

surrounding pixels is considered, sorted by brightness and

the middle value, regardless of screen position, is picked to
replace the central pixel.

Type Tool.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Ignore Transparent Pixels - switch this on to remove

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unwanted pixels creeping into your image at the edges of

the alpha.

Channels Sets which colours channels to process. If the noise is only

in the blue channel then processing just the blue channel
will cleanup the image while retaining image detail in the
other channels.

Process Red - switch this on to process the red channel.

Process Green - switch this on to process the green

channel.

Process Blue - switch this on to process the blue channel.

Process Alpha - switch this on to process the alpha

channel.

Radius - the size in pixels of the NxN filter. Increase this to

remove more noise at the expense of image detail. A value
of 1 will consider a block of 9 pixels centered on the pixel
to be adjusted.

Aspect - the horizontal and vertical weighting of the effect.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

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Hints & Tips Large radius values in T_Median remove detail giving a
smooth painterly look. It’s a bit hard to see but Figure 153

Figure 153. Source Image. Figure 154. T_Median.

and Figure 154 show the effect. Figure 155 shows the

Figure 155. Tinderbox 2 Paint.

results of applying T_Paint (Tinderbox 2) as a comparison.

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T_MuzzleFlash

T_MuzzleFlash

Description T_MuzzleFlash generates the burst of light seen at the end

of a gun barrel when fired.

Figure 156. The name’s Bond, James Bond.

Quick Start Switch your project settings to frames. It’ll be easier if you
do. Shuttle through your clip until the point at which the
gun is supposed to fire. Select the Muzzle Position tool and
click on the end of the gun. Set the Trigger Frame to the
frame you’re on. Choose a Gun Type that most closely
matches the gun fired. Tune the look with the Flash group
parameters. Now use the Muzzle Elevation and Rotation
parameters and align the flash along the gun barrel. Render
the sequence.

Type Generator. Effect.

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Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Show On-Screen Tools - switch this on to display the

rotation widget.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Muzzle Position - the screen position of the muzzle flash.

Muzzle Elevation - the elevation of the flash.

Muzzle Rotation - the direction of the bullet.

Muzzle Flash Offset - moves the flash away from the end
of the gun in the direction of the muzzle flash.

Gun Type - a range of muzzle flashes have been modelled

for you.
• M16 - US made lightweight assault rifle firing standard
5.56mm ammunition and favoured by the US infantry.
• AK-47 - Russian made assault rifle designed by Mikhail
Kalashnikov.
• Beretta - Italian made low powered pistol. The Beretta
418 was James Bond’s main gun in From Russia With
Love but later superceded by the Walther PPK.

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• Colt 45 - US made single action revolver holding six

rounds of ammunition and widely associated with
spaghetti westerns. Also known as the Peacemaker.
• 12 Gauge - pump action shotgun. The 12 gauge refers
to the bore diameter.

Flash Variant - a number of subtly varying looks are

provided. Choose Flash 1, 2 or 3 or select Random if you
want us to choose for you.

Flash Controls for the shape and colour of the muzzle flash.

Flash Width - the width of the muzzle flash.

Flash Length - the length of the muzzle flash.

Flash Intensity - the brightness of the muzzle flash.

Flash Noise - the image noise in the flash (not the sound
of the gun firing). This breaks up the edges giving a more
smoky look. This essentially scales the Noise Detail
parameter.

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Suppressor Flashes Some rifles, like the M16, have angled flashes from the
barrel. These suppressor flashes are controlled here.

Figure 157. M16 with Suppressor Flashes.

Suppressor Flashes - the number of angled flashes.

Suppressor Flash Width - the width of these flashes.

Suppressor Flash Length - the length of these flashes.

Suppressor Flash Intensity - the brightness of these

flashes.

Suppressor Flash Noise - the breakup of the edges. This

essentially scales the Noise Detail parameter.

Suppressor Flash Rotation - the rotation around the gun

direction.

Trigger Controls for firing the gun. All gun types, except the M16,
are single fire guns controlled by the Trigger Frame
parameter. The M16, which fires a burst of bullets, is
controlled by the Rapid Fire parameters.

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To fire one round at frame N, set the Trigger Frame to N. If

you want to fire two rounds at frames N and M, then switch
on keyframing go to frame N and set Trigger Frame to N
then advance to frame M and set Trigger Frame to M. Now
make sure that the graph for these keyframes is set to Hold
as shown in Figure 158.

Figure 158. For Multiple Shots set Keyframes to Hold.

Trigger Frame - the frame at which the muzzle flash

appears. This can be keyframed but make sure you set the
animation graph to Hold otherwise you’ll get a
continuous flash between keyframes.

Rapid Fire Start - the frame at which the M16 starts

firing.

Rapid Fire Frequency - the gap between bursts of fire.

This value is in frames. For example, if set to 10, then 10
frames will elapse between bursts of fire, assuming we’re
still between the start and end period.

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Rapid Fire End - cease fire.

Mid Colour - the colour at the edges of the flash.

Mid Colour Alpha - the transparency of the flash.

Noise Detail - the base level noise that breaks up the light
flash. You do not normally need to adjust this.

Softness - the softness of the muzzle flash. You do not

normally need to adjust this.

Seed - this number generates a number sequence that is

used to randomly vary

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

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Hints & Tips Here’s a picture of the engineering team doing some
“research”.

Figure 159. He shouldn’t be allowed guns.

See also Tinderbox 2 T_PseudoColour for thermal camera

looks and Tinderbox 4 T_Security to make your clips look
like night vision cameras.

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T_Quantise

Description Reduces the colour information in an image to produce

bands while preserving the quality of the original colours.

Figure 160. Source Image. Figure 161. T_Quantise.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Levels - the number of quantise bands.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

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Hints & Tips T_Quantise is similar to After Effects Posterize filter but
more faithfully replicates the source image’s colours at low
level values. T_Quantise also works on 32bpc images.

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T_Rain

T_Rain

Description Renders 2D rain over an image. It’s quick to render and

gives very plausible results for many shots. It’s worth
noting that it does not create splashes on surfaces and nor
is it 3D rain.

Figure 162. Dry. Figure 163. Wet.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Presets - a number of presets are supplied increasing in

intensity.

Drop Length - the apparent length of the droplets due to

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Rain Direction - the angle of the rainfall. The default

value of -90 is vertically down.

Rain Intensity - the brightness or visibility of the rain.

Rain Density - the amount of rain falling. Low values give

sparse rain and high values the need for a brolly.

If you look at rain falling at night through a bright light,

like a street lamp or cars headlights you will have noticed a
blooming of the light as it is refracted through the water
droplets. The diffusion parameters simulate this. The
diffusion is ramped in between the Min and Max values. To
switch off the diffusion set both the Min and Max to 100.

Diffusion Min - the luminance value at which point the

diffusion starts.

Diffusion Max - the luminance value at which point the

diffusion is at a maximum.

Figure 164. Diffusion Min = 100. Figure 165. Diffusion Min = 80.
Note the blown highlights.

Matte - the image and channels used to control the rain

intensity.

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Matte Layer - the layer used if Matte is set to Matte Layer

Luminance/Alpha.

Figure 166. Matte. Figure 167. Attenuated Rain.

Seed - this number generates a number sequence that is

used to randomly vary the rain.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Matte Layer Crop Cropping tools and edge methods.

Hints & Tips See also T_Snow.

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T_Security

T_Security

Description Changes images to make them look as though they were

shot on low cost surveillance cameras.

Figure 168. Expensive Camera. Figure 169. Security Camera.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

TV Type - sets the type of output.

• Colour - colour pictures.
• B and W - black and white pictures.

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• Tint - colour tinted pictures to simulate radar screens.

Figure 170. Colour. Figure 171. Tint.

Tint Colour - the tint colour used when TV Type is set to

Tint.

Contrast - the ratio of the brightest tones to the darkest

tones. Increase this value to make the shadows darker and
the highlights brighter.

Brightness - the picture luminance.

Quantise - switch this on to reduce the colour information

or shades of grey in the image.

Quantise Levels - the number of bands of colour, or

shades of grey.

Play Speed - the speed of the clip. 0 is paused, 100 is play

at normal speed, greater than 100 is fast forward and less
than 0 is rewind.

Frame Rate - this sticks the image during playback. For

the default value of 5 the image is frozen for 5 frames
before jumping forward again.

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Fisheye Lens Controls for the distortion of the image due to the very
wide angle lenses used on security cameras.

Figure 172. No Distortion. Figure 173. Fisheye Distortion.

Lens Effect - switch this on to activate the distortion.

Lens Radius - the size of the circular distortion.

Lens Strength - the amount of distortion.

Shash Shash is the electronic noise that affects picture quality.

Shash Type - the type of noise produced. Just pick one

that you like.
• Random - automatically selects any of the types.
• Type N - 5 different noise types.

Figure 174. Type 1. Figure 175. Type 2.

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Figure 176. Type 3. Figure 177. Type 4.

Figure 178. Type 5.

Seed - this number generates a number sequence that is

used to randomly vary the shash.

Shash Period - the number of seconds each type of shash

is rendered when the Shash Type is Random.

Shash Max - the amount of electronic noise. Increase

this to make it more obvious.

EM Interference - the dark horizontal bands on the picture

to simulate electromagnetic interference on the cheap

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cables they use.

Figure 179. EM Interference.

White Dot - the scaling and distortion of the image to

simulate power loss to the security monitor. Figure 180 and
Figure 181 show the animation of the picture as the power
is lost.

Figure 180. Going... Figure 181. ...going...

Scanline Width - the emphasis of the horizontal scan lines.

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Increase this value for chunkier lines.

Figure 182. Exaggerated Scanlines.

Blur - defocuses the image.

Filtering - the quality of the anti-aliasing used when

processing the effect. (See “Filtering” on page 42.)

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips See also Tinderbox 3 T_BadTV.

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T_Snow

T_Snow

Description Renders swirling, falling snow as shown in Figure 183.

Figure 183. Simulated Snow.

Type Generator.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Flake Size - the size of the snowflakes.

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Flakes/Sec - the amount of snow falling. Increase this for

heavy snowfall.

Flakes/Sec Variance (%) - how much the flakes/Sec

parameter is allowed to change. Rather than keyframing
the Flakes/Sec, just set the variance to a constant to get
random changes in amount of snowfall.

Lifetime (Secs) - how long snowflakes live before melting.

Lifetime Variance (%) - how much the Lifetime

parameter is allowed to change. Rather than keyframing
the Lifetime, just set the variance to a constant to get
random changes in the snow’s lifespan.

Start Creating (Frame) - the frame when snow starts to

fall.

Stop Creating (Frame) - the frame when the snow stops

falling.

Falling Speed - how fast the snow falls.

Flake Colour - default is white for snow but hey, you

might have some strange requirements to change this.

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Settle Controls to allow the snow to stick to objects. To get the

snow to settle on something you need a matte defining the
object. White areas should define the object.

Figure 184. Snow settling on Skier. Figure 185. On Text.

Show Settle - switch this on to show the matte you’re

using.

Settle - the matte layer used to allow the snow to settle.

Component - the channel used.

Threshold - hard edged mattes are used to define where

the snow settles. This threshold value alters the luminance
point at which grey areas are considered black or white.

Figure 186. Soft Matte. Figure 187. Hard edged matte used
with high Threshold value.

Air Resistance - the simulated force acting against the

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movement of the snow.

Gravity - the simulated force pulling the snow in a

particular direction, usually down.

Wind Controls to blow the snow in a particular direction with

uniform force.

Wind X - blows the snow horizontally.

Wind Y - blows the snow vertically.

Wind Z - blows the snow towards you, or with negative

values away from you into the distance.

Turbulence Controls for swirling the snow around.

Strength - the amount of turbulence.

Rate of Change - how quickly the turbulence changes.

Complexity - simulates multiple interacting forces gives

complex movement of the snow.

Samples - the number of frames that are rendered and

blended together to simulate motion blur.

Shutter - the length of time the virtual camera shutter is

open to give motion blur. Increase this value for more
motion blur. A value of zero will give no blur.

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Clip Near - the position along the z axis in front of which

snow is not drawn.

Clip Far - the position along the z axis behind which snow
is not drawn.

Filtering - the quality of the anti-aliasing used when

processing the effect. (See “Filtering” on page 42.)

Seed - this number generates a number sequence that is

used to randomly vary the snow.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Hints & Tips For higher temperatures, try T_Rain.

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T_SoftGlow

T_SoftGlow

Description Provides a subtle glow to images with the defaults. The

controls to use are Brightness to boost the effect, Clip Min
to increase the areas affected by the glow and Source Bleed
to introduce colours from the source image.

Figure 188. Source Image. Figure 189. T_SoftGlow.

Type Effect.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

Process - sets which channels to process.

Glow Edges - add glow only to the edges. To get this to

work you should switch Blending to None to view just the
glow. Then edit the Clip Min and Max values to define the
edge, then increase the Brightness. Switch Blending back

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to Screen to view the result.

Figure 190. Glow on the edges.

Spread - the blur on the glow.

Aspect - controls the horizontal and vertical weighting of

the blur.

Brightness - the intensity of the glow. Increase this if you

need more glow, or change the clip levels.

Glow Colour - the colour of the glow.

Glow Colour Alpha - the transparency of the glow if

processing RGBA.

Source Bleed - introduces colours from the source image

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into the glow. Figure 191 on page 140 shows just the white

Figure 191. Source Bleed = 0. Figure 192. Source Bleed = 100.

glow with none of the blues from the polar bear

reintroduced.

Breakup The breakup parameters scatter pixels in the image that are
then blurred. This can give a subtle shimmer to the glow.

Figure 193. Pixel Scattering effect using Breakup.

Time Constant Breakup - switch this on to freeze the

pixel scattering on all frames. Switch this off to give a
subtle shimmer to the glow.

Breakup - the amount of pixel scattering.

Aspect - the horizontal and vertical weighting of the

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effect.

Clip Levels Controls the extent of the glow. The glow is phased in
between the min and max values. Above the Max value
there is full glow.

Figure 194. Min = 0, Max = 100. Figure 195. Min = 50, Max = 75.

Clip Min - the luma threshold below which there is no

glow. Decrease this value for more glow in the shadows.

Clip Max - the luma threshold above which there is full

glow. Decreasing this value for more glow in the
highlights.

Mask - the image and channels used to control the mask.

Mask Layer - the layer used if Mask is set to Mask Layer

Luminance/Alpha.

Masking - what to do with the Mask Layer input.

• Before Glow - applies the mathematical operator AND
to the glow and Mask Layer and uses the result as the
glow source.

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• After Glow - cuts out the glow using the Mask Layer.
Only the parts of the glow that overlap with full alpha in
the mask input are displayed.
• Before & After - performs the Before Glow operation
followed by the after Glow.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44. The blending function controls
how the glow is added back onto the image. Screen is the
default but other methods give good results too.

Figure 196. Blending = SoftLight.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips See also Tinderbox 2 T_Glow.

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T_Water

T_Water

Description Renders multiple distorting droplets over an image. The

Figure 197. Water Ripples on a Koi Carp.

ripples can be sourced from a layer or drip randomly on the

image. The ripples can also bounce off objects defined by
mattes.

Type Effect. 3D.

Controls

About Click the picture to display the on-line help, Tinderbox

version number and lmhostid. See “About...” on page 21.

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Process - sets which channels to process.

View - choose what to render.

• Output - renders the distortion of the source image
using the ripples.
• Ripples - renders just the droplet distortions. This is
more than twice as fast to render as the output which
can be useful in setting up the animation.

Pre-roll - the default animation is to start dripping at frame

1. If you want it to have started raining before this set a pre-
roll.

Softness - softens the ripples as shown in Figure 199.

Figure 198. Softness = 1. Figure 199. Softness = 50.

Ripple Damping - the rate at which the ripples fade away

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over time.

Figure 200. Damping = 0. Figure 201. Damping = 10.

Ripple Wavelength - the distance between wave peaks.

Ripple Aspect - the horizontal and vertical weighting of

the effect.

Drips - rather than have random drops forming the ripples

you can use a matte to generate the ripple shape.

Figure 202. Drip Layer.

Figure 202 shows the “S” shaped drip layer over a grey
background and Figure 203 and Figure 204 shows two

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stages in the resulting animation.

Figure 203. Early in the Figure 204. Later in the

Simulation. Simulation.

Drip Layer - the layer used if Drips is set to Drip Layer

Luminance/Alpha.

Rain Frequency - the amount of rain. Increase this for

heavy rain and decrease for light shower.

Rain Width - the size of the rain drop when it hits the
water surface.

Rain Seed - this number generates a number sequence that

is used to randomly vary the pattern of rain drops.

Rain Power - the amount the drip bends the water surface
on impact corresponding to the amount of image distortion.

Rendering Controls for the lighting and look of the ripples.

Light See “Light” on page 32.

Host Light - switch this on to use the After Effects light.

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If more than one light is in the composition, the top layer

light is used.

Type
• None - no lights are used. Lighting parameters are
switched off.
• Infinite - simulates the parallel rays from a distant
light source, like the sun.
• Local - point light.

Direction - the direction of the light source.

Elevation - the height of the light source above the image

plane.

Position - the location of the Local light.

Distance - the distance of the Local light from the image

plane.

Specular Lighting See “Specular Lighting” on page 37.

Colour - the light colour.

Strength - the brightness of the light source.

Fall-off - controls how quickly the light fades away with

distance from the light source.

Glass Controls to make the distortions look like glass.

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Bump Amount - the amount the glass matte appears to

deform the image in the z axis. Positive values push out
from the screen. Negative values indent.

Distortion Scale - the amount light rays are refracted

(bent) when entering the glass. This is also known as the
refractive index of the glass. Changing this parameter
alters the amount of distortion of the source image in the
glass.

Aberration - introduces colour fringing in the

distortions.

Walls - the image and channels used to control the

reflection of the ripples as shown in Figure 205.

Figure 205. Bouncing off the Walls.

Walls Layer - the layer used if Walls is set to Walls Layer

Luminance/Alpha.

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Wall Clip Min - the luma value mapped to black.

Wall Clip Max - the luma value mapped to white.

Blending How to mix between the source image and the effect. See
“Blending” on page 44.

Source Crops Cropping tools and edge methods. See “Source Crops” on
page 53.

Hints & Tips See also Tinderbox 2 T_Ripple.

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Release Notes

Appendix A

Release Notes This section describes the requirements, new features,

improvements, fixed bugs and known bugs & workarounds
for each release of Tinderbox.

Tinderbox 4 (2.1v1) This is a maintenence release of Tinderbox 4 shipped on

CD and as a download.

Release Date
2 October 2006.

Requirements
After Effects 7.0 for Mac OS X or Windows XP. Previous
versions of After Effects, Combustion, Final Cut Pro and
other hosts implementing the After Effects API are not
supported.

New Features
There are no new features.

Improvements
1. Numerous improvements to this User Guide have been made in this
release.
2. All plug-ins using host lighting can now access any light in the
composition, rather than just the first light in the layer.
3. T_Kaleid - this is a free plug-in. No license key is required to use
this plug-in.

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Fixed Bugs
1. T_Flow - random drips option was broken. This has been fixed.

Known Bugs & Workarounds

1. Gradient colour picker on Windows XP. BugID 662. When select-
ing a colour using the Adobe colour picker instantiated from a
colour grad the colour picker will not close when 'Ok' is depressed.
As a workaround use the XP colour picker (go to Edit->Prefer-
ences->General and tick the 'Use System Color Picker' box).
2. Composition window Snapshot button on OSX. BugID 231. When
an effect is applied to the current comp, hitting the snapshot button
and attempting to show it again causes a momentary flash of the
snapshotted image, but it quickly flicks back to the current result.
As a workaround use the Shift+F5, F5 combo to take and show
snapshots.

Tinderbox 4 (2.0v1) This is the first release of Tinderbox 4.

This version is distributed as a download only.

Release Date
22 September 2006.

Requirements
After Effects 7.0 for Mac OS X or Windows XP. Previous
versions of After Effects, Combustion, Final Cut Pro and
other hosts implementing the After Effects API are not
supported.

New Features
1. All plug-ins support rendering in 32 bpc via the After Effects
SmartFX API.

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Release Notes

2. Support for native After Effects tools including cameras and lights
in plug-ins, including T_BumpShade, T_Condensation, T_Mosaic,
T_Particles and T_Starfield.
3. 20 plug-ins are included.

Improvements
Improvements to existing features will be documented here
in future releases.

Fixed Bugs
Fixed bugs will be documented here in future releases.

Known Bugs & Workarounds

1. Gradient colour picker on Windows XP. BugID 662. When select-
ing a colour using the Adobe colour picker instantiated from a
colour grad the colour picker will not close when 'Ok' is depressed.
As a workaround use the XP colour picker (go to Edit->Prefer-
ences->General and tick the 'Use System Color Picker' box).
2. Composition window Snapshot button on OSX. BugID 231. When
an effect is applied to the current comp, hitting the snapshot button
and attempting to show it again causes a momentary flash of the
snapshotted image, but it quickly flicks back to the current result.
As a workaround use the Shift+F5, F5 combo to take and show
snapshots.

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 INDEX 155
A-Z

Index

A-Z F M
FFT 18 Macrovision 18
A Filter Sharpness 43 Matte 50
Filtering 42 Attenuating an effect 51
About... 21
High 42 Matte Layer 51
Activation 7, 9
Ambient Lighting 35 Low 42 Matte Layer Crops 55
Aspect 25 Medium 42 Motion Tracker 19
Attenuation 51 Foundry FLEXlm Tools User
Guide 18 O
B Foundry, The 19 On-line Help 21
Web Site 20 Options... 23
Background Rendering 16
Blending 44
G P
Blend 48
Effect Gain 48 Gradient 30 Pixel Aspect Ratio 25
Method 44 Adding a Colour 30 Process 26
Source Gain 48 Changing a Colour 30
Bug Fixes Deleting a Colour 30 R
See Release Notes 151 Moving a Colour 30 Refractive index 148
Release Notes 151
C H Reset 22
Camera 40 Help 21
Clamp 0-1 (32bpc) 49 S
Crops I Serial Number 9
Colour 54 Ignore Transparent Pixels 28 Source Crops 53
Reflect 54 Installation on Mac 6 Specular Lighting 37
Repeat 54 Installation on Windows 6 System Requirements 5
Wrap 55
L T
D license file 10 T_BadTV 57, 91
Diffuse Lighting 36 Lighting 31 The Foundry 19
Ambient 35 Web Site 20
E Diffuse 36 Tinder 19
Edge Methods 54 Specular 37 Tracking 19
Error Log Files 16 lmhostid 9 Type 24

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A-Z

W
watch folders 16
Watermark 13

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