User Manual

Delirium User Manual MacOS

publisher DigiEffects
Austin Texas Republic [78746] United States
digits +(512) 306-0779 Voice
+(512) 306-1310 Fax

e-mail [email protected]
tech suppor t [email protected]
website www.digieffects.com

©1999-2000 DigiEffects & Chris Athanas.All rights reserved.

Version 1.0 for MacOS

written Dan Prochazka, Chris Athanas

hand sketches Kendall Anders
special thanks Jeff Taylor, Texas Day
edited Kendall Anders, JoAnne Milette
created San Francisco, California, Austin, Texas

Delirium, Fog Factory, Hyper Harmonizer, Visual Harmonizer,

Nexus, Schematic Grids, AutoAnimation, AutoAnimation Logo,
DigiEffects, and DigiEffects Logo are trademarks of DigiEffect
and Chris Athanas. CineLook is a registered trademark of
DigiEffects and Chris Athanas. All rights reserved.

The DigiEffects sotfware is furnished under a license agreement which can be print-
ed when the software is first installed. This manual as well as the software
described in it, is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accor-
dance with the terms of such license. The information in this manual is furnished for
informational use only, and is subject to change without notice, and should not be
construed as a commitment, guarantee, or contract by Chris Athanas or DigiEffects.
DigiEffects and Chris Athanas assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or
inaccuracies that may appear in this document, or the software it describes.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. No part of this

document may be reproduced or transmited in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, for any purpose,without the express writtin permission of
DigiEffects.

After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc.
Apple, MacOS, Macintosh, Apple, and Quicktime are trademarks of Apple Computer,
Inc. All other trademarks are the property of thier respective owners.

ii
CONTENTS

GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
USING THE PLUG-INS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
PLUG-IN DESCRIPTIONS
Bubbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Camera Shake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Channel Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
COP Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Day for Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
Electrical Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Fairy Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Film Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
FireWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Flicker And Strobe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86
Flow Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
Fog Factory™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96
Framing Gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Glower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
Grayscaler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
This symbol means the plug-in is a AutoAnimation™ plug-in.
CONTENTS CONT ’D…

HLS Displace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112

Hyper Harmonizer™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116
Lens Flares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
LooseSprockets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
Muzzle Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136
Nexus™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Puffy Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144
Rain Fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
Retinal Bloom™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154
Schematic Grids™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158
ShowChannels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162
Sketchist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164
Smoke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172
Snow Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
Solarize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182
Sparks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .184
Specular Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192
Thermograph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198
TILT — 3D Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222
Turbulent Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202
Video Malfunction™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204
Visual Harmonizer™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210
Wave Displace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216
TIPS, H INTS AND SUPPORT

Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . .257

Jeff’s Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .259
Trouble-Shooting/Support . . . . . . . . . . . .266
GETTING STARTED

1
 Introduction
Welcome to Delirium™, the amazing package of special effects plug-ins for
After Effects and compatibles. With the Delirium plug-in effects you can create
an amazing range of animated imagery through the use of a wide range of pos-
sible effects including color manipulation, distortion, particle and 3D tools.

Many of the effects are set up to get you started with a certain effect in mind.
For example, Fire will look great as soon as you apply it. It will also
AutoAnimate™ — meaning that it will automatically animate and look great
without setting key-frames. Many of the particle effects need no lengthy
adjustment of parameters to get excellent results immediately.

All of our plug-ins have many presets, it’s a great way to get started quickly.
On the CD, you will also find a folder called “Delirium Projects” that will give
you at least one project for each effect, so if you’re unsure of how an effect
works, just open the project file on the CD and explore.

We will be adding more sample projects to our web site, and as a registered
user you will gain access to that area. You will be informed via e-mail when
new sample projects and presets are available for download.

When you register, you will receive a password via e-mail for the secret
bonus plug-in already included on the Delirium CD-ROM. You will need this
password in order to unlock this special bonus plug-in. To register, please look
for the registration form on the CD in the same folder as the Delirium installer.

2
System Requirements
Delirium was designed to be easy to use and easy to learn without reducing the
power and flexibility of the effects. You can use it immediately out of the box
by selecting a preset or starting with a sample project. After you have become
familiar with how the Delirium effects work, you can customize the presets for
future use.

Delirium can be used on any digital image footage, including computer generat-
ed footage, DV, Hi-8, Regular 8mm, Beta, Digital Betacam and others. You can
even use it to create GIF animations for the web. It’s great for animated logos.

Delirium requires a Macintosh, An Adobe After Effects plug-in compatible appli-

cation such as Apple®’s Final Cut™ Pro, Videonics™ Effeto™/Pronto™, Puffin™
Commotion™, ICE™ IceBlast™ and others, at least 64mb of RAM, a fast processor
is recommended (minimum of 80mhz PowerPC) and enough disk space to store
your footage and the rendered effect.

Obviously, the faster the processor, the faster the effect, but there are tech-
niques that will allow you to get faster previews. See the “Trouble Shooting”
and “Frequently Asked Questions” section for information on how this works.

Delirium will work on network render modules as per After Effects 4.1. You will
need the original Delirium Master CD the first time a Delirium plug-in is used to
render a composition.

3
 Installation
To install CineLook follow these instructions:

1 Insert the Delirium CD into your CD-ROM drive. Find the

“Delirium Installer” on the “Delirium” CD. Double-Click it.
2 Click through the splash screen to the installation dialog.
3 Click the “Install” button.
4 Locate the the After Effects (or compatible) application
folder. Inside that folder there is the “Plug-ins” folder.
5 Double-Click the “Plug-ins” folder, and then click
“Install into Plug-ins.”
6 This will install the Delirium plug-ins along with
all the presets.
7 If After Effects is running, quit it and restart the After
Effects application.
8 After Effects will ask you to serialize the plug-ins. Click
“Serialize All” to accept this.
9 Delirium is now installed and ready for use. Continue to the
tutorial for a sample session.
10 IMPORTANT! You will need to keep the Delirium CD in your
CD-ROM drive the first time you use a Delirium plug-in. The Delirium
Master CD acts as a software key and is required to completely
install the plug-ins.

About this Manual

This manual assumes that you have basic knowledge of the Macintosh Operating
System, and a good understanding of After Effects (or compatible application.)
If you get confused about terminology, please refer to the Macintosh or After
Effects user manuals.

4
Tutorial
This tutorial section will take you through a typical Delirium rendering operation.
This section will show you how to do the following: Import Footage, Apply a
Delirium Effect to a Layer, Choose a Preset, Save a Preset and Render a Movie
with a Delirium effect.

At the end of this tutorial, you will know how to use Delirium to apply a Delirium
effect to your footage and how to modify the Delirium settings to achieve the
look you want.

1 To begin, Launch After Effects and create a new project (Command-N).

2 Now, create a new composition. Set the composition size that is appropriate
for your video card (in this case 640 x 480). Set the duration to the length of
your clip.

30/29.97

5
 Tutorial

Importing Footage

3 Import your footage (command-I) as you normally would. In this example we

are using the file “DE Logo Alpha=0”, found in the “Delirium Projects” folder
on the Delirium CD.

Importing Footage is an important step and requires that you have some infor-
mation about the particular video hardware (Avid, Media 100, etc.) that was
used to digitize your footage. You will need to know which field the clip starts
on (Upper/Lower or Odd/Even).

4 Drag and drop your footage into the composition (Comp 1). The Composition
should now be the top-most window. Locate the footage in the “Time Layout”
window.

5 Resize the “DE Logo Alpha=0” layer by clicking on the layer in the composi-
tion window and selecting “Scale…” from the submenu “Geometrics” from the
menu “Layer”.

6
Applying a Delirium Effect to a Layer

6 Choose “DE Fire” from the “Filters” Menu under the “DigiEffects Delirium”
sub-menu. The Delirium Fire effect will then be applied to that layer. Allow it to
render the initial effect.

Choosing a Preset

7 Pick a preset by clicking on the “Preset Pop-up” from the Presets swatch. For
this example, choose the “Burn From Bottom” preset. We will then modify this
preset to burn the logo.

Modifying a Preset with the Delirium User Interface

We will now modify this preset to change it from burning at the bottom of the
layer to burning the logo based on it’s alpha channel.

7
 Tutorial

8 Change the “Generate From” to “Generate Layer Alpha > Threshold”. This
will cause the flame particle system to be generated wherever the alpha of the
image is opaque. In other words, the flames will burn from the logo.

9 The flames should now be growing from the DigiEffects Logo. You can
replace the DigiEffects logo with your own logo by using the “Replace Footage”
command from the “File” menu. See the After Effects manual for details.

8
Saving a Preset

Once your settings are “dialed-in” and you are happy with them you will want to
save it as a preset. A Preset contains all the parameters of the Delirium Fire plug-
in. Saving a preset is very easy to do with Delirium.

10 From the After Effects user interface, click on “save” in the “Preset”
swatch.

Tutorial Preset

11 Name it “Tutorial Preset” and press “OK”. This has saved the current state of
the parameters as a preset.

Rendering a Movie

Now that you have modified the CineLook parameters to your liking and saved
your preset, you will want to render out a movie to see how it looks.

12 Choose “Make Movie” from the “Composition“ menu in After Effects.

9
 Tutorial

13 Name the new movie “Delirium Tutorial Movie”. Click save.

14 The “Render Queue” will now be the top most window. Click on the
“Render Settings” option.

15 Set the render settings to the following:

Quality : Current Settings
Frame Blending : Current Settings
Field Render : Depends on your video card
(Upper = Odd, Lower = Even)
3:2 Pulldown : Off
Frame Rate : 29.97 or 30 (depends on video card)

16 Set the “Output Module” to be appropriate for your digital video card.
Check the “Output Module” section of the After Effects user manual for more
information on what each parameter does, and how to execute a test to find
out which frame your video system renders first (Upper or Lower field first.)

17 Now that all settings have been entered, click “Render” to create the
movie.

18 Since After Effects is not optimized for playback of hardware assisted video
systems, you should play back the footage in the video system that is appropri-
ate for your card.

Congratulations! This concludes the Delirium tutorial.

10
11
12
USING THE PLUG-INS

13
 Using the Plug-ins
We think it would be helpful to tell you the basic idea behind how these plug-
ins together, how they work in a general way and a discussion of the terminolo-
gy. This section is a general explanation of many underlying concepts that drive
Delirium.

Particle Systems

Delirium has a number of different effect plug-ins including a collection of par-

ticle systems. These particle systems simulate or create certain specific
effects. Most other companies particle systems are general purpose and users
have a hard time creating the desired effect. Delirium addresses the root of
this problem by creating plug-ins that are specific to one effect. For example,
the Fire plug-in makes a great looking fire effect as soon as it’s applied to a
layer.

Delirium delivers a set of particle based effects that are designed to handle
specific tasks extremely well while continuing to be easy to use. It used to be
that creating effects like realistic snow with particles that look like snow and
truly move like snow would take hours or days to get right. With the Delirium
Snow plug-in, the solution is immediate and simple. This AutoAnimation idea is
at the core of all of our particle systems that simulate natural phenomenon
(like bubbles, fire, smoke, rain, fireworks and others.) With a basic under-
standing of how the plug-in works, you can create a great looking effect in
record time.

It is apparent that plug-ins like Snow, Rain and Fire are specialized particle sys-
tems. But there are many other effects in Delirium that are also based on this
particle system idea and therefore the discussion of how these particle systems
work is also useful for these plug-ins. For example, plug-ins like Electrical Arcs,
Visual Harmonizer, HyperHarmonizer, Nexus, Sparks, Sketchist, Schematic
Grids, Retinal Bloom and Fireworks are all based on particle systems. While
they may not seem like particle systems, the effects are generated with
particles and many of the parameters are the same.

14
Each of the particle system plug-ins are broken into two or more sections. The
first section is always the Image Mode section. This section deals exclusively with
how the effect will mix into the source footage.

“Channel Operations” are the methods by which two images are mixed together.
The “Composite Modes” are Channel Operations that are used to blend the effect
with the source layer. The Particle Composite Mode handles how the particles
that make up the effect will blend with EACH OTHER before they are composited
with the source layer.

“Alpha Threshold” and “Alpha Weight” provide control over opacity of the parti-
cles. These two parameters change the luminance of the particle image into an
opacity / transparency information.

The second section is usually called the Effect System section (called Fairy
System, Electrical System, etc. depending on the plug-in) with a few of the
effects having several different particle systems in them. When there are several
effect sections we have grouped the controls that contribute to the same portion
of the effect.

These systems define the motion characteristics and overall look of the effect.
For example, in Electrical Arcs the “Electrical System” determines exactly how
the arcs will be subdivided, how long the branches and sub-branches will be, the
color of the lightning, etc. The Effect Systems, more than any other part of the
plug-in, define the characteristics of the effect and most of your time adjusting
the parameters should be spent in this area.

Many of the plug-ins have a “Glow” section. The controls for Glow are essentially
exactly the same and will give the same results. Once you get a feel for how this
section behaves for one plug-in, you will understand what it does in any plug-in
that includes Glow.

Generally, it provides a glow around the outer edge of the effect generated by
the Effect Systems. It will have a “Radius” and “Intensity.” The “Radius” deter-
mines how far the glow stretches from the effect and “Intensity” determines how
strongly it will glow.

15
 Using the Plug-ins

Animated Graphic Element Generation

Many of the plug-ins in Delirium generate graphic elements, or as Trish Meyer
of Cybermotion refers to it, “creating something from nothing.” Plug-ins that
fall into this catagory (often are also a part of the particle systems above)
include Nexus, Hyper Harmonizer, Visual Harmonizer and TILT. These plug-ins
are not trying to simulate real world events like fire or snow. Instead, they are
designed to generate interesting shapes and colors that give an engaging
appearance in a composition.

They are like textures in that they are not the main focal point in a composi-
tion, but they are more interesting and dynamic than any texture could be.
The best way to see what these effects can do is to load one of them up and
check out the presets. One of my favorites right now is the Nexus plug-in and
the Shelluloid preset. It is an interesting look and the effect auto-animates (in
After Effects 4, press the zero key on your numeric keypad to have it load the
effect into ram and play back in normal time).

TILT Plug-ins

One group of plug-ins that partially fits this catagory is the group of plug-ins
called TILT. The TILT plug-ins create 3D images within After Effects. TILT allows
you to add a 3D camera, lights and objects including the ability to import 3DMF
3D object files directly into the timeline.

You can interactively light the objects, place a textures, animate and render
3D scenes right within the After Effects standard composition. While TILT is
NOT designed to replace a full blown 3D application, it does an excellent job
when you need a few 3D objects placed into your composition. TILT does this
quickly and easily. Most importantly, it does it without having to go to a dedi-
cated 3D application. You no longer need to worry about changing anything in
your 3D work because a change is as quick as setting a new key-frame in After
Effects.

16
AutoAnimation™ Effects
One of the key features in Delirium is the ability to automatically animate an
effect without setting keyframes. Most other plug-ins require you to set several
keyframes before they do anything interesting. With Delirium, many of the plug-
ins create animated effects without setting keyframes. We call this feature
AutoAnimation.

For example, when you apply the SnowStorm effect to a composition, it will auto-
matically begin generating snow from the first frame. The effect actually begins
before the layer starts on the composition time-line. By default, the “Preroll
Frames” is set to 20, so you are seeing the results of the SnowStorm after 20
frames. In fact, we created plug-ins with default settings to be used without ANY
tweaking of the controls. This is a benefit that will make your job of animating
these effects much easier.

Control (or Parameter) Naming Conventions

In many cases the controls (also called “parameters”) in Delirium are named with
terms used in mathematics. We realize that this is in many cases not very user
friendly. But we also recognized that these terms are generally the most accurate
and applicable across many plug-ins.

The concepts are pretty simple but the words can be a little scary. In many cases
we could have used different terms (like height instead of amplitude in Visual
Harmonizer) but in many cases that would not have been an acceptable substitu-
tion.

For the sake of consistency we have kept the mathematical terms. At the same
time, we will use some images to help define some of those terms.

17
 Using the Plug-ins

Amplitude

Often height could be substituted for Amplitude. Generally, this determines

how extreme the swings are in the effect. For Visual Harmonizer, you can see
below what low and high Amplitude will create:

Amplitude Set to 40 Amplitude Set to 100

But in cases like Camera Shake the effect does not easily translate to height.
In this case, Amplitude really is more the distance that the shake causes the
image to travel. So in the case of Camera Shake, Amplitude is distance.

18
Frequency

Frequency is defined as how often (i.e., how frequent) something occurs. In the
case of Visual Harmonizer, frequency determines the number of waves in each
harmonizer.

Frequency Set to 5 Frequency Set to 20

In the case of Camera Shake, Shakiness Frequency determines how often the
camera will shake (i.e., frequency determines when, amplitude determines how
far).

19
 Using the Plug-ins

Phase

Phase determines where some portion of the effect will occur. The easiest way
to see this is to look at two examples.

Phase set to 35 Phase set to 0

Notice how the position of the wave has moved between the two phase values.
The position of the wave on the harmonizer is determined by Phase.

Some of the plug-ins have a begin and end value for each of these. The plug-in
will interpolate between these two values to give interesting results. So, by
setting all of these parameters to different beginning and ending values you
can create visually stunning imagery.

20
Composite Modes
Composite modes control how the colors of the Effect interact with the colors of
the source layer (also called image). There are at most two different composite
modes that can be used. The first is the “Image Composite Mode” which defines
how the entire effect will be mixed with the entire source image.

The second composite mode defines how the particles will be mixed with the
other particles when the particle system is rendered. The Particle Composite
Mode determines the manner in which the particles will combine with each other
if there is any overlap between particles.

Apply Mode
Use Source
Use source composites the effect over the layer that it is applied.

Effect Only
Effect Only will hide the layer that the plug-in is applied and show you
only the Effect. This is very useful for when you want to see only what is
happening with the effect. You can also apply the effect to a solid
(Command - Y) and use “Effect Only” to retain the effect’s alpha infor-
mation for use in a general composition.

Use Source Mode

Effect in Front
Effect in front places the Effect directly in front of the layer to which the
plug-in is applied.

Effect Behind
Effect behind places the Effect behind the layer to which the effect is
applied.

TIP This setting is most easily seen when applied to a layer that has an
alpha channel. The Effect will appear from behind the layer.

Composite Effect in Front

21
 Using the Plug-ins

Composite Effect in Front works exactly like “Effect in Front” except

that it enables the Composite Mode controls (below). Use this setting
when you want to use a composite mode other than Blend to compos-
ite the Effect with the source layer. (Like Add or Screen.)

Composite Effect Behind

Composite Effect Behind composites the Effect with the layer ONLY
when Subtract and Difference are selected in the Composite Mode pop-
up. Because of the subtractive nature of those two composite modes,
the results will be different than the results of “Composite Effect in
Front.”

Composite Modes
Composite Mode controls how the effect will combine with the source layer.
This is similar to the After Effects “Transfer Controls”, but we have built them
into the plug-in so that presets can be made with specific composite modes.

Add
Add combines the color values of the layers. The resulting color is
always brighter than the original.

Screen
Screen multiplies the inverse brightness values of the colors in the lay-
ers. The resulting color is never darker than the original.

Subtract
Subtract uses the Effect to reduce the brightness of the source layer
but does not roll over beyond zero like difference, so the extreme col-
ors do not occur. The resulting color is always darker.

Difference
Difference subtracts the color values of the Effect and Source Layer
displays the absolute value of the result. Colors can look psychedelic.

Blend
Performs a simple Blend.

22
Blend Using Alpha
Blend using Alpha uses the alpha of the effect as a weight to blend the
Effect with the Source Layer.

Multiply
Multiply mathematically combines the Source Layer and Effect color val-
ues in the layers and divides the result by 255. The resulting color is
never brighter than the original.

Lighter
Lighter compares the channel values of the underlying and layer colors
and displays the lighter of the two.

Darker
Darker compares the channel values of the underlying and layer colors
and displays the darker of the two.

Scales
This is a special case composite mode to be used on an experimental
basis. It causes extreme color distortions.

Overlay
Overlay Multiplies or Screens the colors depending on the base color.
Patterns or colors overlay the existing pixels while preserving the high-
lights and shadows of the base color.

Hard Light
Hard Light Multiplies or Screens the resulting color depending on the
original layer color. If the underlying color is lighter than 50% gray, the
layer lightens as if it were screened. If the underlying color is darker than
50% gray, the layer darkens as if it were multiplied.

23
 Using the Plug-ins

Soft Light
Soft light Darkens or Lightens the resulting colors, depending on the
layer color. If the underlying color is lighter than 50% gray, the layer
lightens. If the underlying color is darker than 50% gray, the layer dark-
ens.

Minimum
Minimum uses the mathematical minimum of the Effect and Source
Images color values to replace the original image. This is a modified
version of Lighter.

Maximum
Maximum uses the mathematical maximum color value to replace the
original footage. This is a modified version of Darker.

Bit-wise OR, Bit-wise AND, Bit-wise XOR

Each of these settings do similar but slightly different operations to the
color channels. Exactly what they do is hard to explain without using
mathematical formulas, and even then, they would not easily translate
into a few descriptive adjectives. We suggest that you just try them
out and see what they do. Generally, they will give very odd looks that
reshuffle the colors through different color bands.

Alpha Threshold
Alpha Threshold defines a transparency or “alpha” for the particles based on
the luminance value of the image used to define the particles. By increasing
this number, less of the particle will be visible. The opacity of the particle will
be clipped starting at the darker colors then transitioning to the lighter colors.
It effectively eats away at the darker areas first and works its way to the
lighter colors using this information to define the opacity/transparency of the
particle image.

Alpha Weight
Alpha Weight defines the overall opacity of the particles. Larger values will
make the particle will appear more opaque (harder to see through). The lower
the value, the more transparent the particle will become.

24
Random Seed
Random Seed is the seed value (think of it as a start point) for any random values
generated within the plug-in. Do not animate this as it will cause the effect to
jump or randomly change parameter values every frame and the animation will
not look smooth. It will look “buzzy” — which has it’s own aesthetic appeal when
the composition frame rate is reduced to around 3-6 frames per second.

TIP This is often used to reshuffle the overall look of the effect without changing
the parameters.

Blend Original (Also just “Blend”)

Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original source layer with the Effect.
The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in with the
affected footage.

Particle System Generators

Generate From
This sets the locations the particles of the particle system will be created from.
You can choose the particles to be generated from the Top or Bottom of the layer,
from a point, based on the brightness of an image, or based on the alpha channel
of an image.

Bottom/Top of Layer
Bottom of Layer will generate particles from the bottom of the layer to
which the effect has been applied. “Top” will generate from the top.

Generate Layer Alpha > Threshold

Generate Layer Alpha > Threshold is used to generate particles from an
image that has an alpha. When this is selected, the particles will be gen-
erated in areas that are inside the alpha mask. “Generate Threshold”
defines area inside the alpha mask that can generate particles. When the
“Generate Threshold” slider (below) is set to zero, all areas will generate
particles. As this number increases, the more transparent areas of the
alpha will no longer be able to produce particles.

25
 Using the Plug-ins

TIP This is the best way to generate particles from text or a company
logo that has an alpha channel.

Generate Layer Luminance > Threshold

“Generate Layer Luminance > Threshold” is used to generate particles
from the lighter areas of an image. The “Generate Threshold” slider
(below) controls which areas of the image can generate particles.
When this slider is set to zero, all area’s of an image can generate par-
ticles. As the “Generate Threshold” number gets higher, darker areas
of the image will no longer generate particles. The “Generate
Threshold” eliminates potential particle-producing areas from darker
areas up to the brighter areas. Larger threshold values mean only
bright areas will produce particles.

Generate Point (Also Bubble Point, Fire Point, etc)

“Generate Point” mode uses the generate point control (below) to
define a point in the layer where the particles will be created.

Integrate Over Time

Important Note Check this box if you plan on key-framing any of the controls.
If you are not keyframing any of the parameters, leave this box unchecked and
rendering time will decrease (go faster).

Generate Source
None
1. “Some layer”
“Generate Source” defines the layer that will be used to generate particles.
This may seem a bit confusing at first but it is a very powerful control. It
allows for the use of another layers’ image or alpha channel to control the
generation of particles.

NOTE The objects (mask or pixels) that the snow falls onto cannot be moving. If it is,
the particle generation information will become confused. The particles will not stick
to moving objects or be properly generated from the mask.
Generate Threshold
“Generate Threshold” becomes active when “Generate Layer Alpha >

26
Threshold” or “Generate Layer Luminance > Threshold” is selected in the
“Generate From” pop-up menu. When one of these generate methods is selected,
this slider controls the threshold level at which particles will be generated. When
this is set to zero, any luminance level or alpha level can generate particles.
When this is set high, only the brightest luminance levels or most-opaque alpha-
levels will generate particles (i.e., this will make it so that darker or more-trans-
parent areas cannot generate particles.)

Generate Point (Also Bubble Point, Fire Point, Snow Point, etc)
This control becomes enabled when the “Generate From” control is set to
“Generate from Point”. This control will set the point where the particles are
created.

Preroll Frames
This control allows you to start the effect before the first frame of the clip. This
control gives you the ability to make the effect begin generating particles before
the clip starts on the timeline.

If you did not have this ability, the effect would begin with zero particles.
By pre-rolling, you can have the effect generating particles in the first frame of
the composition. The value corresponds to the number of frames before the first
frame that the effect starts generating particles.

27
 Using the Plug-ins

Presets
The Presets user interface provides a way to load and save parameter settings
for this plug-in.

Preset Name Here

Included with the installation are over 100 presets designed by DigiEffects. It is
possible to save additional presets by setting the controls of the effect and
then clicking the Save button. The next time that the presets pop-up is select-
ed, that preset will be in the list.

To remove a preset, load the preset and click the Erase button. A dialog con-
firming the erase operation will appear, click “OK” to remove the preset per-
manently. You can also over-write (replace) an existing preset by saving it with
the same name. You will be asked to confirm the replacement as a safety mea-
sure.

TIP All presets are saved into the System Preferences folder. If you want to
pass them along to someone else, just pull out the preset file and put it into
thier presets folder. The exact path is:

Hard Disk:System Folder:Preferences:DE XXX:Presets

where XXX is the name of the plug-in.

We hope this information will help you as you work with the Delirium plug-ins.

28
29
30
PLUG-IN DESCRIPTIONS

31
 Bubbles

Bubbles will easily create any type of

bubble effect, from a fizzy drink to
bubbles trailing a shark. You can gen-
erate bubbles from a logo and the
bubbles can automatically create liq-
uid distortions.

Apply Mode determines how the bub-

bles will be blended into the footage
to which the bubbles are applied.

Use the bubble system to control

how the individual bubbles will
appear including speed, size and
amount. Use the bubble system to
control the motion of the bubbles.

The distortion controls give you the

ability to distort or give the footage
under the bubbles a warped look, as
if looking through a lens.

NOTE When the bubbles are generat-

ed on an image that has an alpha
channel (a logo with alpha or mask,
for example) the bubbles will gener-
ate particles inside the masked area
and the bubbles will drift outside to
the alpha.

32
Bubbles generated from Bottom of Layer. Bubbles generated fromsource layer alpha channel.

TIP Add, Screen and Lighten mode are often much better choices
than Blend for bubbles. Try using Composite Effect in front and
these three Composite Modes to see which results will be best.

Image Mode

Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite Mode
Particle Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Blend Original
Generate From
Integrate Over Time
Generate Source
Generate Threshold
Bubble Point
Preroll Frames
Controls in this section are described in the “Using the Plug-ins”
section at starting on page 13 of this manual. Refer to that sec-
tion for instructions on how to use these parameters.

TIP Reduce Alpha Weight to zero to only show the bubble distor-
tions.

33
 Bubbles

Bubble System

Bubble Type

Harsh Edge Droop Textured

Sphere High Contrast Sphere Low Contrast Dark Texture

Bubble Amount
This gives you control over the number of bubbles that the effect produces per
frame. The greater the number of bubbles, the slower the effect will render.

Vert Speed
Vertical Speed controls how fast the bubbles will rise. This is an average speed
with some bubbles moving faster than others in order to give the appearance of
depth.

Bubble Lifetime
Bubble Lifetime controls how long the bubbles can stay on the layer. At the end
of thier lifetime they will pop.

Min Size
Min Size controls the minimum or smallest size of any bubble on the layer.

NOTE Bubbles will start at a smaller size than the minimum size and grow to a
size somewhere between minimum and maximum. Because of this, you will
have some bubbles that are smaller than your minimum size while they are
growing to thier final size.

34
Max Size
Max Size controls the largest, or maximum size of your bubbles.

NOTE If your minimum size is greater than your maximum size, the minimum
and maximum controls will be reversed.

Min Opacity
Min Opacity controls the minimal amount of opacity or transparency of a bub-
ble.

NOTE Each Bubbles opacity will be randomly set between the minimum and
maximum amount. This also controls the amount of relative distortion.

Max Opacity
Max Opacity controls the maximum amount of opacity or translucency of a bub-
ble. The higher this is set, the harder it will be to see through a bubble.

Horiz Dispersion
Horiz Dispersion controls how much the bubbles will randomly
float horizontally. When this is set to zero, the bubbles will drift
straight up. The higher this number is set, the more the bubbles
will move with some horizontal direction.

Wind Horiz.
Wind Horizontal controls how much the bubbles can be pushed left or right by
the force of “wind”. When this is set to zero, the bubbles will float straight up
(other than when this is set high and positive, the bubbles will move from left
to right as they float up. When set high and negative, the bubbles will move
from right to left.

Wind Vert
Wind Vert increases or decreases the vertical speed of the bubbles. This can be
used to increase the initial speed which in many cases starts at zero.

35
 Bubbles

Distortion

Distortion determines how much the bub-

bles will distort the footage to which the
bubbles effect is applied to. This distor-
tion is based on the bubbles and so will
have the same shape and location as the
bubbles.

TIP Using effect behind and high distor-

tion levels, all that will be seen is the NOTE: With the Effect Behind setting, the default
bubble distortions, an interesting effect. settings will use the bubbles to distort the layer.
To control or remove this effect, go to the istor-
tion Controls (below). To remove this effect, set
Distortion H Distort H and Distor t
Distortion H determines the amount of hori-
zontal distortion will be created.

Distortion V
Distortion V determines the amount of vertical distortion will be created.

36
37
 Camera Shake
Camera Shake simulates a camera hit
by random forces and can be rendered
with exaggarated motion blur effects.

The idea behind Camera Shake is to

create the “Shaky Camera” effect
without setting numerous key-frames.
Camera Shake internally creates a
series of keyframes with the values of
the parameters that you define. It then
creates randomized motion from those
keyframes and applies motion blur
including exaggerated motion blur.

You can control the amount (ampli-

tude), speed (frequency) and “spuri-
ous” (random movement) for each
keyframe. You can control how many
frames the current keyframe will
be held by using the “Min Hold
Frames” (minimum number of frames
to “hold” the keyframe) and “Max Hold
Frames” (maximum number of frames
to “hold” the keyframe).

You can also control the overall

amount of horizontal, vertical, zoom-
ing and rotational movement within
the frame using the “Movement” para-
meters.

You can also over-exaggerate the

motion blur using the “Motion
Exaggerate” parameter, which extends
the motion blur in the current direc-
tion. You can also determine the num-

38
ber of blends used to create the motion blur using the “Blur
Smoothness” parameter.

To modify the overall effect, change the “Random Seed”.

This will cause the order and amount of parameter changes
to be altered, giving a slightly different version of the
effect.

This plug-in requires a little experimentation, as it is one of

the few plug-ins that creates key-frames internally. Most
plug-ins apply thier effect from keyframes, but this one cre-
ates them itself, internally and invisibly, from the parame-
ters you supply. The only parameters that you may want to
keyframe yourself are the “Movement” parameters.

Otherwise, you will probably want to have the plug-in create

keyframes for the motion.

Image Mode

Use Alpha
If you want the original source layer to show underneath,
check the “Use Alpha” parameter.

Motion Exaggerate
Set this to non-zero to exaggerate the amount of motion
blur. Higher values look more blurry but take longer to ren-
der.

39
 Camera Shake

Blur Smoothness
Increase this parameter to make “smoother” motion blurs. This pop-up controls
the smoothness of the blur applied to motion. Usually this does not need to be
set above 5. Numbers above that can begin to posterize solid colors, and ren-
der times become longer.

Speed Tip The higher this number, the slower the render.

Random Seed
Random Seed is the seed value (think of it as a start point) for any randomiza-
tion that occurs in the plug-in. Do not animate this as it will cause the effect
to jump or randomly change values causing the animation will not be smooth.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected
layer. The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in
with the affected footage.

Shakiness

Shakiness Amp
Shakiness Amp is the maximum “distance” of the Shakiness of any
keyframe value (horizontal, vertical, zoom, rotate).

Shakiness Freq
Shakiness Freq is the maximum “speed” of the Shakiness of any
keyframe value (horizontal, vertical, zoom, rotate).

40
TIP If you want the camera to look like it was bumped, keyframe Amplitude and
Frequency from zero to the amount that you want over two frames, then
keyframe it back down to zero over 10-30 frames.

Shakiness Spurious
Shakiness Spurious is the maximum amount of randomness of
any keyframe value (horizontal, vertical, zoom, rotate).

The controls that define Camera Shake settle into an arbitrary space between the
various minimum and maximum settings in the plug-in. Once this arbitrary place
has been defined by the plug-in, the effect holds that shaky camera look for a
certain number of frames. Then the plug-in will change to another point between
the various minimum and maximum settings and hold that shaky camera look for
another certain number of frames. Shakiness Spurious efines how often the plug-
in changes or “reshuffles” the controls (i.e., it defines that “certain number of
frames”).

Min Hold Frames

Min Hold Frames is the minimum number
of frames to hold any keyframe.

Max Hold Frames

Max Hold Frames is the maximum number
of frames to hold any keyframe.

41
 Camera Shake

Movement

Horizontal
Horizontal is the weight of keyframe to apply to the horizontal
movement. Lower values mean less movement, higher values
mean more movement.

Vertical
Vertical is the weight of keyframe to apply to the vertical move-
ment. Lower values mean less movement, higher values mean
more movement.

Zoom
Zoom is the weight of keyframe to apply to the zooming (in-and-
out) movement. Lower values mean less zooming, higher values
mean more zooming.

TIP If you see layers below showing around the edges of your shaking layer,
increase the zoom.

Rotate

Rotate is the weight of keyframe to apply to the rotational move-

ment. Lower values mean less rotation, higher values mean more
rotation.

42
43
 Channel Delay
Channel Delay offsets the position and
time-location of RGB channels of a
clip.

The Offset controls allow you to

change the relative position of the
channels.

Transparency allows you to change the

weight of each channel allowing you to
blend more or less of any given color
channel.

Delay allows you to change WHEN a

color channel appears in the footage.
In other words, you can give a time
shift to each of the color channels indi-
vidually.

Red Delay
Red Delay determines the frame being
used by the Channel Delay. For exam-
ple, if this is set to five, then the
Channel Delay will use the frame from
5 frames back (i.e. if you are on frame
25 in the timeline and the red delay is
set to 5, then Channel Delay will use
frame 20.)

44
Channel delay on a real image. Artistic effects with Channel Delay.

Red Trans
Red Trans controls the transparency of the red color channel of the frame that
Red Delay is introducing into the current frame.

Red Offset
Red Offset controls the amount that the channel will be offset from the original
layer position.

TIP This control is fast enough even on slower systems that you can click down
on the location selector, hold down the option key and drag your mouse across
the layer to see the effect. This will also show you how the numbers in the
plug-in relate to the location of the layer.

Green Delay
Green Delay determines the frame being used by the Channel Delay. For exam-
ple, if this is set to five, then the Channel Delay will use the frame from 5
frames previous to the current frame as the current frame (i.e. if you are on
frame 25 in the timeline and the green delay is set to 5, then Channel Delay
will use frame 20).

45
 Channel Delay

Green Trans
Green Trans controls the transparency of the Green color channel of the layer
to which the effect is applied. The higher the number, the more transparent
the Green colors in the layer. When this number is at 255, there is no Green
left in the layer.

Green Offset
Green Offset controls the amount that the channel will be offset from the orig-
inal layer position.

Blue Delay
Blue Delay determines the frame being used by the Channel Delay.

Blue Trans
Blue Trans controls the transparency of the Blue color channel of the layer to
which the effect is applied. The higher the number, the more transparent the
Blue colors in the layer. When this number is at 255, there is no Blue left in the
layer.

Blue Offset
Blue Offset controls the amount that the channel will be offset from the origi-
nal layer position.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected
layer. The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in
with the affected footage.

46
47
 COP Blur
COP Blur is a simple regional blur
designed for those occasions where
someone really shouldn’t be identified.
There are two choices for obliterating
the underlying region, either
a blur or a pixelization.

When Grid is selected in Blur Mode,

the blur strength is used to control
how large the pixels will be in the
obliteration grid.

Blur Mode

Blur
When selected, the effect will
use a blur as the method of
obscuring the underlying
image.

Grid
When selected, the effect will
use a pixelization as the
method of obscuring the
underlying image.

Blur Size
Blur Size controls the radius of the
effected region.

48
Need someone to be anonymous? Sample of Grid mode.

Blur Strength
Blur Strength controls the degree or intensity of the blur. When Grid is selected
in Blur Mode, this controls the size of the pixels or grids that are obscuring the
underlying image.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected layer.
The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in with
the affected footage.

49
 Day For Night
Day For Night emulates the standard
film industry method of shooting night
scenes. It uses a gradient tint over the
image to make a daylight scene look
moonlit.

Day for Night came to us after many

many requests from users who had
been using the CineLook day for night
preset. We had an overwhelming bun-
dle of requests to design a plug-in that
had some control over the effect and
was easy to use. Here it is. We think
the presets included will handle a
majority of the uses of Day for Night,
but like all of our presets, we suggest
that you use them as good starting
points for your own experiments.

TIP This plug-in is very fast and can

usually be used while the option key is
held down for immediate screen feed-
back. While tweaking the parameters,
you will definitely benefit from the
immediate feedback.

Preview Effect
When preview on is checked, the
affected layer is not shown. In its
place is the gradient that is being used
to create the effect. This can be very
useful in seeing where the position of
the colors in the gradient truly are
without having to see the affected
layer. Alpha transparency will show as
a checkered (black and white) region.
TIP When trying to learn how the con-

50
Night-time scenes are easy to create. Day for night is a specialized gradient tint.

trols effect an image, turn this on and hold down the option key. Seeing the
effect without the layer AND with immediate feedback makes it much clearer
what is taking place when the plug-in is creating the Day for Night look.

Composite Mode

Composite Mode determines how the gradient that is created with this effect
will be blended into the footage to which it is applied. By default, it is set to
multiply with the Start Color black and the End Color white. These colors and
composite mode makes the black darken the footage and the white transparent,
one way of making a day shot look like a night shot.

Add
Add combines the color values of the layer with the underlying colors.
The resulting color is lighter than the original.

Screen
Screen multiplies the inverse brightness values of the colors in all lay-
ers. The resulting color is never darker than the original.

Subtract
Subtract uses the effect layer to reduce the brightness of the original
layer but does not roll over beyond zero, so the extreme colors do not
occur.

Difference

51
 Day For Night

Difference subtracts the channel values of the layer and the underlying
colors and displays the absolute value of the result.

Blend Using Alpha

Blend using Alpha uses the alpha’s weight to blend the effect with the
original footage.

Multiply
Multiply multiplies the color values in the layers and divides the result
by 255. the resulting color is never brighter than the original.

Lighter
Lighter compares the channel values of the underlying and layer colors
and displays the lighter of the two.

Darker
Darker compares the channel values of the underlying and layer colors
and displays the darker of the two.

Overlay
Overlay multiplies or screens the colors depending on the base color.
Patterns or colors overlay the existing pixels while preserving the high-
lights and shadows of the base color.

Hard Light
Hard Light multiplies or screens the resulting color depending on the
original layer color. If the underlying color is lighter than 50% gray, the
layer lightens as if it were screened. If the underlying color is darker
than 50% gray, the layer darkens as if it were multiplied.

Soft Light
Soft light darkens or lightens the resulting colors, depending on the
layer color. If the underlying color is lighter than 50% gray, the layer
lightens. If the underlying color is darker than 50% gray, the layer dark-
ens.

52
 Minimum
Minimum uses the mathematical minimum color values to replace the
original image. This is a modified version of Lighter.

Maximum
Maximum uses the mathematical maximum color value to replace the
original footage. This is a modified version of Darker.

Bitwise OR, Bitwise AND, Bitwise XOR

Each of these settings do similar but slightly different operations to the
channels. Exactly what they do is hard to explain without using mathe-
matical formulas, and even then, they would not easily translate into a
few descriptive adjectives. We suggest that you just try them out from
time to time. Generally, they will give very odd looks that reshuffle the
colors through different color bands.

Start Color
Start Color is the first color of the gradient that is used to create the Day for
Night Effect. This color will begin at the top of the layer.

Start Alpha
Start Alpha defines the transparency of the Start Color. This can be used to scale
back or lessen the effect of the Start Color.

End Color
End Alpha defines the transparency of the End Color. This can be used to scale
back or lessen the effect of the End Color. End Color is the last or bottom color of
the gradient. This color will begin at the bottom of the layer.

End Alpha
Start Alpha defines the transparency of the Start Color. This can be used to scale
back or lessen the effect of the End Color.

53
 Day For Night

Bias
Bias defines the weight or distribution of the Start and End colors. The lower
this number is, the more dominant the Start Color.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected
layer. The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in
with the affected footage.

Filter Settings

Filter Colors
Filter Colors defines the number of additional colors that
will be used to create the gradient color for the Day for
Night effect. This pop-up allows for the addition of colors
between the Start and End Colors up to a maximum of 4
additional colors (6 total including the start and end col-
ors).

Filter 1 Color
This is the color for the Filter 1 parameter.

Alpha 1
Alpha 1 controls how transparent or opaque the color will
be that is selected under Filter 1 Color. The higher this
number, the more opaque the color.

Filter 1 Pos
Filter 1 Pos controls the position of color one in the gradient that is causing the
Day for Night Effect. It is similar to Bias for the start and end colors.

54
55
 Electrical Arcs
Electrical Arcs is designed to generate
arcs of electricity similar to what you
see with a “Jacobs Ladder.” While it
was designed to generate Arcs, it is
also quite good at generating lightning
bolts. Look at the preset “Bolt” to see
a quick example. You will find tips
below for creating lightning.

TIP This effect is very fast when there

is only a single arc. To test how the
controls work, set the number of arcs
to one, hold down the option key and
slide the sliders up and down. This will
give you very fast feedback and help
you understand what the controls.

For more information on Jacob’s

Ladder visit this web site:
http://www.spacesearch.com

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Image Composite Mode
Particle Composite Mode
Blend Original
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Controls in this section are described
in the “Using the Plug-ins” section
starting on page 13 of this manual.
Refer to that section for instructions
on how to use these parameters.

56
Electricity can be green. Glow is built-in.

Segment Shape

Soft & Bright Harsh Falloff Dot

Rounded Star Oval

Electrical System

Num Arcs
Num Arcs is the number of arcs that will be generated between the Start Point and End
Point (below).

TIP When trying to create a lightning bolt, usually 2 or 3 is all that is necessary.

Speed
Speed controls how frequently or how often the many controls below will be recalculat-
ed. The higher this number, the more that the electrical arcs will twitch and move.
Lower numbers will give a slower movement to the arcs.

57
 Electrical Arcs

TIP If you are trying to create lightning bolts, set this control to zero. Lightning
does not move, it occurs as a bolt, strikes and disappears.

Variation Seed
Same as Random Seed — see page 13 for details.

Start Point
Start Point is the left side point on the lightning at the default setting. It is
where the beginning of the arcs are generated. All controls that specify start
point vs. end point will use this point as the start point.

End Point
End Point is the right side point on the lightning at the default setting. All con-
trols that specify end point will use this point as the end point.

Segments
Segments determines how many times the electrical arcs will break or change
directions between the start point and the end point. There are major changes
between start and end points. Subsegments (below) can further break these
main segments.

58
Distortion
Distortion determines how far from the center
line (an imaginary line drawn directly between
the start point and end point) each of the seg-
ments can travel. The larger this number
becomes, the larger the length of each segment
and the further away from a straight line the arc
will become.

Sub-Segments
Sub-Segments determines the number of times
that the main segments will be subdivided. When this is set to one, each of the
Segments will be straight. When this goes above one, the segments will look more
broken.

NOTE Segments define the overall look of the arc, where it goes and how it
moves. Sub-segments give the arcs thier individual personality. Think of it this
way, Segments are like painting with a large paint brush and sub-segments are
like painting with small, detail brushes. Sub-segments give your arcs detail.

Sub-Distortion
Sub-Distortion controls how far the sub-segments will be bent. The higher this
number, the more crooked the lines between the segments.

NOTE Branches occur at the joints between segments or sub-segments only.

Branch Prob
Branch Prob controls the probability of a branch being generated at a sub-seg-
ment joint. This does not define how the branch will behave, only whether or not
it will appear. Higher percentages will give greater branch likelihood.

Branch Segments
Each of the segments generated from the Branch Probability control can be seg-
mented, or the direction of the branch can be changed. Branch Segments controls
how many times the branches will be segmented or the direction of the branch is
changed. Higher numbers will give the branches a more twisted appearance.

59
 Electrical Arcs

Branch Length
Branch Length determines the total length of the branch. This length will be
subdivided by the number of segments, so the greater number of branch seg-
ments, the closer the branch will stay to the main arc. If you increase the
branch length and decrease the number of segments, the branches will grow
directly out of the sub-distortions and away from the arc. How far away from
the arc is determined by branch angle (below).

Branch Angle
Branch Angle determines the direction of the branches as they come out of the
joints of the sub-segments. Branch angle only determines the direction of the
branch as it is leaving the arc. Sub Branch angle (below) will determine the
direction of each of the divisions of the branch after the initial direction is
determined.

Sub Branch Prob

Sub Branch Probability controls the likelihood of each of the branches dividing
into additional branches.

Sub Branch Segments

Sub Branch Segments determines how many times the sub branches will be
divided. The higher the number, the more twisted the sub branches will
appear.

Sub Branch Angle

Sub branch angle determines the angle of each of the sub branch divides AFTER
they have left the arc. The initial direction is determined by the Branch Angle.

Lightning Color
Lightning Color determines the color of the interior or arc (non-glowing por-
tion) of the lighting.

NOTE The color of the arc is typically defined as a combination of the

Lightning Color and the Glow. If the Glow Radius is set to zero, this will be the
only control that effects the color of the lightning.

60
Alpha
Alpha determines the transparency or opacity of the Electrical Arc.

Start Segment Width

Start Segment Width determines the width of the start segment, by default the
left side segment. If start segment width and end segment width are of different
sizes, the arcs will taper between the wider and narrower sizes.

End Segment Width

End Segment Width determines the width of the end segment, by default the
right side segment.

TIP These controls are very important if you want to create a lightning bolt. Use
the Start Segment as the beginning of your bolt. Use Start Segment width to
make it wider than the end segment. If you load up the preset “Bolt” you will see
that the start segment is significantly wider than the end segment.

Segment Size Variation

Segment Size Variation allows you to control how uniform or non-uniform the
sizes are for each segment. The higher this number, the more random and less
uniform the segments.

Begin Draw
Begin Draw controls where the beginning of the arc will be drawn in relation to
the start point. This control will remove segments starting at the Start Point and
moving towards the End Point.

End Draw
End Draw controls where the ending of the arc will be drawn in relation to the
end point. This control will remove segments starting at the End Point and moving
towards the Start Point.

TIP If you want your arc or bolt to look like it is reaching out from the beginning
or the end and moving towards the opposite point, keyframe either the Begin
Draw or End Draw controls.

61
 Electrical Arcs

Glow

Glow Radius
Glow Radius controls the distance from the arcs edge on both sides of the arc
that the glow colors will travel away from the electrical arcs. The glow also
covers over the interior of the arc, so when this is turned completely off, the
electrical arcs look much thinner.

Glow Intensity
Glow Intensity controls the brightness level of the glow. Since the glow radius
covers both the interior and exterior of the arc, when you increase the glow
intensity it affects the interior of the arc more than the outside of the arc.

Glow Colors are defined by two colors, the color that is closest to the electri-
cal arc and another layer of color that lies just outside of the arc.

Glow Inner Color

This color defines the glow color closest to the arc.

Glow Outer Color

This color defines the glow color that is outside the electrical arc and the Glow
Inner Color.

Color Bias
Color Bias defines the balance of the Glow Inner Color and Glow Outer Color.
Lower numbers will increase the value of the Glow Inner Color in the overall
appearance of the glow. Larger numbers tip the balance towards the outer
color.

TIP Electrical Arcs typically look best with a lighter and whiter color for the
Glow Inner Color and a darker, more vibrant color for the Glow Outer Color.

62
Glow Mode
Screen
Screen multiplies the inverse brightness values of the colors in all layers.
The resulting color is never darker than the original.

Add
Add combines the color values of the layer and the underlying colors. The
resulting color is lighter than the original.

63
 Fairy Dust
Fairy Dust is a fun plug-in that can be
used to follow a magic wand or zip
around the screen like a comet.

You can even generate particles from a

logo to create scintilating animated
images.

Image Mode

Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite Mode
Particle Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Blend Original
Generate From
Integrate Over Time
Generate Source
Generate Threshold
Dust Point
Preroll Frames
Controls in this section are described
in the “Using the Plug-ins” section
starting on page 13 of this manual.
Refer to that section for instructions
on how to use these parameters.

64
Fairy dust can follow a point, leaving a trail. Fairy dust from the alpha channel of a logo.

Fairy System

Dust Type

Soft Glow Hexagonal Sparky Quad Highlight

Quad Solar Random Hex

Dust Amount
Dust Amount determines the quantity of dust that is generated per frame.
NOTE This is not an average for each frame, this is an amount generated per frame.

Max Speed
As the particles move, Max Speed will control how fast the fastest of the particles will move. This
is an average from zero to max speed, some move very slowly so that there is always a trail left
behind. NOTE Not all particles will move at this speed, only the fastest ones.

65
 Fairy Dust

Dust Lifetime
Dust Lifetime determines how long TIP For a more three dimensional look
the particles will stay on the layer when tracking a wand or other object
before they disappear. that you want to generate Fairy Dust,
keyframe and increase these numbers
NOTE The longer the particles last, as the generator gets closer and
the more that will be on the layer. decrease the numbers as the genera-
tor gets further away.
Dust Color
This determines the color of the dust Min Opacity
on your layer when it is generated. Each of the particles is to some
This can be a great control to degree transparent and to some
keyframe. degree opaque. Min Opacity controls
the minimum amount of opacity for
Bright Variance each particle.
Bright Variance controls the amount
of flicker that the various particles Max Opacity
will have over time. Max Opacity defines the maximum
amount that a particle will be
NOTE This is a temporal effect and opaque. Note that with Min and Max
may be difficult to see when adjusted Opacity these are the extremes. Most
on a single frame. of the particles will be distributed
between these levels of opacity.
Min Size
All of the dust particles will be Max Dispersion
between a minimum and maximum Max Dispersion controls
size. Min Size determines the smallest the size of the emitter
size of particle that will be generat- point when Generate
ed. From is set to Dust
Point. When Generate
Max Size From is set to any
Max Size will determine the largest other generate type, Max Dispersion
particle size generated. increases the area in which the parti-
cles will be generated.

66
TIP by keyframing this setting you can have particles
start in a small area and grow to a much larger area.
This will work better than Generate Threshold since that
requires certain values to be in the image before it will
be a valid area to generate particles. Dispersion uni-
formly grows the area in which it will generate parti-
cles.

Wind Horiz
Wind Horizontal controls how much the dust can be
pushed left or right by the force of “wind”. This direc-
tional force will interact with the dusts tendency to go
in different directions.

The wind will be an averaging force in the given direc-

tion, but individual dust particles will still move in all
directions. Positive numbers will make the particles drift
right, negative numbers will make the particles drift to
the left.

Wind Vert
Wind Vertical controls a force that can make the dust
particles drift up or down. As above, this is an average
and will affect the whole, but the individual particles
are able to drift in any direction.

TIP Use high negative numbers for Wind Vert and

Generate From Bottom of Layer to give an appearance
of a curtain of dust rising up from the ground.

67
 Film Flash
Film Flash simulates the look of a film
camera slowing down and allowing
each frame be exposed to greater and
greater amounts of light.

The Film Flash effect will eventually

overwhelm the footage to which it is
applied to by increasing the glow until
it reaches solid white.

Start the Flash

To create a slash effect that begins
later than the first frame, set an “Off”
keyframe with Start the Flash at the
beginning of the time line.

When it is time for the flash to begin,

set another keyframe in the on posi-
tion(option-click the word Start Flash
in the plug-in to set a keyframe).

Intensity Speed
Intensity speed determines how quickly
the film flash will become bright. The
higher this is set, the sooner the flash
will overwhelm the underlying footage.

Softness Speed
Softness Speed determines how soft
the flash will appear. When this is set
to a large value, it blurs the flash (but
not the underlying footage) and it
takes longer for the flash to blow out
the underlying footage.

68
TIP Setting Intensity Speed to twice Softness
Speed gives a smooth flash that develops quickly,
depending on how high the numbers are set.

Glow Mode
Determines the compositing mode for mixing the
Film Flash effect with the source image. Check out
“Using the Plug-ins” section for more information
on the modes and how they are used.

TIP While many channel modes are available here,

usually only add and screen achieve the intended
effect. Experiment with the other Modes to see
some interesting effects.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original
layer with the affected layer. The higher this num-
ber, the more of the original layer will be blended
in with the affected footage.

TIP If the parameters for softness speed and inten-

sity speed are set too low, the image may never
completely flash to white. If the flash never hap-
pens, increase the values of these parameters.

69
 Fire
Fire has to be one of our most request-
ed plug-ins of all time. This is probably
why there are so many fire plug-ins
available and even more tutorials on
how to create fire with general pur-
pose particle systems.

The fire style is a “raging inferno” type

of fire with flames flicking upwards
from the burning object. This can
make a nice torch burning effect.

The Delirium Fire effect is a particle

based algorithm in contrast to other
fire effects with are procedural-noise
based. Delirium’s Fire will have a much
more organic and realistic appearance
due to the particle system simulation.

“Organic Levels” is an important

control — it adds additional layers of
fire with all of the same control set-
tings, but it creates slightly different
values. Each additional Level will slow
the render times, so use sparingly.

This will give you additional levels of

fire with the same general look, but
the various layers of fire will each
have individual characteristics.

70
Fire from a logo. Burn from the bottom.

TIP Add additional Organic Layers to

increase realism, but balance that with
the additional render times.

TIP Sometimes blending both an organic

particle based fire like this one with a
procedural fire plug-in (there are sever-
al available) can make an even more
realistic fire effect.

Image Mode

Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite Mode
Particle Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Blend Original
Generate From
Integrate Over Time
Generate Source
Generate Threshold
Dust Point
Preroll Frames
Controls in this section are described in the “Using the Plug-ins” section starting
on page 13 of this manual. Refer to that section for instructions on how to use
these parameters.

71
 Fire

Fire System

TIP Fire System and Turbulence

together determine the character of
the flames. Use these controls togeth-
er to determine the overall look of
your fire.

Organic Level
Fire composites several slightly differ- Flame Lifetime
ent layers of the fire effect to give a Flame Lifetime controls how many
more natural and organic appearance frames the flames will last once they
to the fire. Organic Level also deter- are emitted.
mines the number of repetitions of
the effect that will be generated. Min Size
Min Size determines the smallest size
NOTE More Organic Layers will look flame that will be emitted.
more complex, but will also slow
down render times. Values between 3 Max Size
and 5 will look best for most uses. Max Size determines the largest size
flame that will be emitted.
TIP Using the “Generate from Layer
Alpha > Threshold” is the best way to NOTE Most flames will be of a size in
generate fire from text or a company between the Min and Max. Min and
logo that has an alpha channel. Max size only determine the outside
boundaries of the potential size of the
Fire Amount individual flames.
Fire Amount controls the total number
of flames that are generated per TIP Min size and Max size do not com-
organic layer per frame. pletely determine the size of the fire.
Mostly they determine the style of the
Vert Speed fire. Use fire amount to determine
Vert Speed controls the rate at which the size of the overall fire and size
the flames rise once they have been min and max to give the fire charac-
emitted. ter.

72
Min Opacity
Min Opacity controls the minimal amount of how opaque
the flames can be. When this number is set low, many of
the flames will be transparent. When set high, you will not
be able to see through the flames much at all.

Max Opacity
Max Opacity controls the maximum amount of how opaque
the flames can be. When this is set low, you will be able to
see through the fire to the layer to which Fire is applied.

Horiz Dispersion
Horiz Dispersion controls how much the
flames will be dispersed along the horizontal
axis from thier generation location.

Wind Horiz.
Wind Horizontal controls how much sideways force there is
on the fire.

TIP Use this with keyframes to make the fire sway back and
forth.

Wind Vert
Wind Vert gives you control over how fast the flames rise.
This can be used in conjunction with Vert Speed to deter-
mine the overall flame speed.

TIP Use Vert Speed when you want the overall speed of the
fire to stay constant but you need to keyframe vertically
accelerated bursts of fire.

73
 Fire

Turbulence
Turbulence is the wispy appearance that is seen
in the flames. Turbulence stretches the flames
to create realism and cohesion in the flames.

Turb Amount
Turb Amount determines how much of an effect
turbulence will have on the fire.

TIP The higher the Turb Amount, the slower the render. For Example, if this is
set at 12, it will take approximately 20% longer than if it was set at 5.

Turb V Speed
Turbulence moves faster then the flames, that is what stretches it and gives it
a wispy appearance. Turb V Speed determines the speed of the displacement
field.

Turb Size
Turb Size determines the detail that is generated with the turbulence. The
higher the number, the greater the details visible from the turbulence in the
fire.

NOTE We create the Fire plug-in to do one thing really well - create flames.
But in exchange for simplicity, we left out the ability to change the flame
color. To change the color of flames, use the built-in After Effects color correc-
tion tools (like HLS Balance), or use Thermograph.

74
75
 Fireworks
Fireworks simulates big fireworks dis-
plays that occur about every six
months across the United States (and
more often in other parts of the
world.)

Fireworks is particle-system effect that

creates pyrotechnic displays. These
kinds of physics simulations are diffi-
cult to handle with a general purpose
particle system. The Fireworks effect
is broken down into 3 stages: Launch
System, Explosion System and Sparkler
System.

The Launch System controls how the

firework shell rockets will fly up: how
quickly, how many, at what speed and
at what point they will explode into
the main firework. It handles every-
thing up to the fireworks actual explo-
sion.

The Explosion system and everything

below it handle what happens after
the firework explodes. The colors,
speed and direction of the exploded
parts, how long the explosion lasts and
how fast it drops is all handled here
and in the other control sections like
Environment and Glow.

The Sparkle System adds small

“sparkle” particles from the Explosion
system particles. This creates a realis-

76
Here is a spherical burst. Geometricla bursts can look very interesting.

tic sparkling effect.

Image Mode

Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite Mode
Particle Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Blend Original
Generate From
Integrate Over Time
Generate Source
Generate Threshold
Dust Point
Preroll Frames
Controls in this section are described in the
“Using the Plug-ins” section starting on page
13 of this manual. Refer to that section for
instructions on how to use these parameters.

TIP You may want to use several instances of the Fireworks plug-ins with dif-
ferent heights and different types of explosions.

Keyframing the various colors will help prevent all of the fireworks from
looking the same, but make sure that “Integrate Params Over Time” is
checked. “Streak Level” and “Streak Decay” together determine the amount
of trailing behind the individual parts of the firework explosions that occur.
Level determines the longest streak length and Decay determines how fast it
fades from the source.

77
 Fireworks

Streak Level
Streak Level determines how far behind the firework par-
ticle a streak will travel.

Streak Decay
Streak Decay determines how quickly the streak will fade
out.

Launch System

Integrate Over Time

Check this box if you plan on keyframing any of the con-
trols. If you are not keyframing any of the parameters,
leave this box unchecked and rendering time will signifi-
cantly decrease.

Generate From

Bottom of Layer
When Bottom of Layer is selected in the Generate
From pop-up, the fireworks will be sent up from
any point on the bottom of the layer. The launch
location will be determined randomly.

Point
When Point is selected in the “Generate From”
pop-up the fireworks will be launched according
to whatever point is selected in the “Launch
Point” control (below).

TIP When this parameter is animated, the Integrate

Parameters Over Time box needs to be checked.

78
Launch Point
Point must be selected in the Generate From control (above.) Launch Point deter-
mines the point from which the fireworks will be Launched.

Launch Angle
Launch Angle determines the direction that the fire-
works will be launched. 0 degrees will launch the
fireworks straight up. Negative numbers will launch
it to the left and positive numbers to the right.

Launch Spread
Launch Spread determines how far from the launch
angle the fireworks may shoot. When this is set low,
the fireworks will go straight up from the launch
point, when this is set high, the fireworks will shoot
to the left and right of the launch point.

Launch Prob
Launch Probability determines how often fireworks will be launched. The higher
this number, the greater the likelihood of fireworks being launched per frame.

If you want the fireworks to launch on a specific frame, keyframe the previous
frame to zero and the frame at which you want the launch to occur at 100%. If
you do not want a constant and heavy stream of fireworks, you will need to lower
the launch probability.

Launch Burst
Launch Burst determines how many fireworks will be launched per launch event
as determined by Launch Probability.

TIP Launch Probability and Launch Burst determine together the total number of
fireworks.

79
 Fireworks

Min Thrust
Min Thrust determines the speed of
the slowest fireworks on thier way up
(pre-explosion).

Max Thrust
Max Thrust determines the speed of
the fastest fireworks on thier way up. Explode at Speed
When this is selected, the
NOTE The speed of the fireworks will rockets will explode when
fall in between these two speeds. they reach the speed that is
Some fireworks will go faster than selected in the Explode Speed
others, but none of them will go slider (below).
faster or slower than these numbers.
Explode Height
Explode Mode Explode Height determines the alti-
tude or how high up the screen the
fireworks will explode when Explode
at Height is selected in the Explode
Mode pop-up.

Explode Speed
When Explode at Speed is selected in
the Explode Mode pop-up, Explode
Explode at Height Speed will determine the rate at
Explode at Height determines which rockets must be moving before
the vertical location of the they will explode into Fireworks.
explosions in conjunction with
the Explode Height selector NOTE If this is a negative number, the
(below). Whatever vertical rocket must be moving down to
height this is set to will explode. The rocket will hit the peak
determine at what height all of how high it can go according to
rockets will explode. thrust and speed and then start to
fall. When it falls at a speed equal to
the number in the slider, it will
explode. Note that this is only if it is
a negative number.

80
Rocket Opacity
Rocket Opacity controls how transparent or opaque the rockets are on thier way
up to deliver the fireworks explosion. The higher this number rises, the more that
the rocket will be visible.

Explosion System

Explosion Shape
Explosion shape defines the general direction of the particles.

Explosive Geometrical

Oval Spherical

Explosive, Oval and Spherical look like naturally occurring firework effects. The
Geometrical shape can create some unusual looking fireworks.

81
 Fireworks

Rotation Variation
Rotation Variation can allow the particles to rotate around the explosion point
after they have been pushed from the explosion. This could be described as a
pinwheel effect.

None
When selected no rotation or pinwheel effect occurs.

Constant
When selected there is a random but uniform amount of rotation
applied to the particles. The effect looks like a pin-wheel.

Varying
When selected, there is a non-uniform amount of rotation applied to
the particles within the explosion. The particles seem to fly every
which way.

Squiggle
When this is checked on, the post explosion particles will waver back
and forth as they explode.

82
Min Generate Mid Color
Min Generate determines the minimum Mid Color determines the color of the
amount of particles that will be a part firework in the middle of its life.
of the Firework (i.e., how many parti-
cles will launch out of the explosion). Death Color
Death Color determines the final color
Max Generate of the firework before it completely
Max Generate determines the maxi- fades away.
mum amount of particles that will be a
part of the Firework explosion. NOTE The colors will fade from one
color to the next.
Min Velocity
Min Velocity controls the slowest rate Min Lifetime
at which the particles will move away Min Lifetime determines the shortest
from the fireworks explosion point. amount of time that any individual par-
ticles that make up a firework will last.
Max Velocity
Max Velocity controls the fastest rate Max Lifetime
at which the particles will move away Max Lifetime determines the longes
from the fireworks explosion point. amount of time(frames) that any indi-
vidual particles that make up a fire-
Min Opacity work will last.
Min opacity determines the minimal
amount of transparency or opacity in Min Mass
the firework explosion. Min Mass determines the least amount
of mass that can be assigned to each of
Max Opacity the fireworks particles. Mass is the fac-
Max Opacity determines the maximum tor that defines how much gravity, air-
amount of transparency or opacity in resistance and wind affect the particle.
the firework explosion.
Max Mass
Birth Color Max Mass determines the greatest
Birth Color determines the color of the amount of mass that can be assigned to
firework when it initially explodes. each of the fireworks particles. Mass is
the factor that defines how much grav-
ity, air-resistance and wind affect the
particle.

83
 Fireworks

Sparkler System Environment

The Sparkler System will add a sparkly
effect to the end of the explosion Gravity
particles as they fall. Gravity controls how quickly the fire-
work particles will fall once it has
NOTE This can cause rendering times exploded. This will have the same
to become slower. effect on each of the particles
depending on its mass. Air resistance
Generate can make different particles slow
Generate determines how many down at different rates, depending on
sparkle particles will be generated the mass of the particles.
per frame.
Wind Horiz
Velocity Wind Horizontal controls the ability to
Velocity controls maximum speed of make the fireworks drift to the right
the sparkler particles. or left. This will interact with the
firework to give it a “pushed” look. If
Opacity you set this very high the firework
Opacity determines the transparency will be blown in this direction.
of the sparkle particles.
Wind Vert
Color Wind Vertical increases or decreases
Color determines the color of the the vertical speed of the fireworks.
Sparkler System particles. This can be used to simulate wind
blowing from the ground.
Lifetime
Lifetime determines maximum life- Air Resist
time for each of the Sparkler parti- Air Resistance decelerates the parti-
cles. cles as they are traveling. This is
equivalent to setting brakes on the
Mass particles.
Mass is the factor that defines how
much gravity, air-resistance and wind
affect the particle.

84
Glow
Color Bias
Glow Radius Color Bias allows for control over which
Glow Radius determines how far glow color between Glow Inner Color and
that is set in Glow Intensity will Glow Outer Color will be dominant.
spread. If this is set high, the glow will
extend for a large distance around the Glow Mode
particles. If it is set low, the glow will
be concentrated closely around the Screen
particle. Screen multiplies the inverse
brightness values of the colors
TIP When Glow Radius is set low, it in all layers. The resulting
makes the particles glow more brightly. color is never darker than the
To turn that down, work with glow original.
intensity.
Add
Glow Intensity Add combines the color values
Glow Intensity determines how brightly of the layer and the underlying
the particles will glow. colors. The resulting color is
lighter than the original.
Glow Own Colors
When this box is checked, the glow will
be the same as the color of the parti-
cles. When this in not checked, the
Glow Inner Color and Glow Outer Color
determine the color of the glow.

Glow Inner Color

When Glow Own Colors is unchecked,
this determines the interior color of
the glow.

Glow Outer Color

When Glow Own Colors is unchecked,
this determines the color of the exteri-
or glow.

85
 Flicker and Strobe
The “Flicker and Strobe” plug-in caus-
es an image to vary it’s luminance
(brightness) and contrast levels over
time.

This plug-in automatically sets internal

keyframes and animates the effect via
those key-frames. Most of the parame-
ters are used to define the behavior of
the keyframes (min/max number of
frames or intensity). This makes in
mostly unnecessary to set keyframes
for this effect. Simply adjust the para-
meters, and allow the plug-in to ani-
mate through them.

There are three methods to control the

brightness and contrast over time.
These three methods can be used
simultaneously.

The first method uses amplitudes of

two sine-waves to control the amount
of brightness and contrast to use. The
two waves amplitudes are added
together to create a master wave,
which can both brighten and darken
the image.

86
The second method is to add “Intermittent” brightness and contrast that will
make the scene appear to flicker, as if lit by a waving candlelight. Use this plug-
in to simulate arc welding, fireworks, or explosions.

The third method is to add “strobe” effects that will create the stroboscopic
effect that repeats over time. This is the common “disco” effect that you’ve
probably seen.

For Intermittent and Strobe, you can “hold” the brightness level for a number
of frames, and you can also set the number of frames to “skip” after a “hold”.
These parameters are denoted in frames, and the value of the parameter (skip
or hold) is the maximum number of frames to be held/skipped. The maximum
amount of brightness to apply is denoted by the “Max Amp” parameter.

For Intermittent, when the effect is in the “hold” state, a random amount of
brightness or contrast is applied to the scene (which causes it to flicker). For
Strobe, the effect applies the “Strobe Amp” amount of brightness or contrast to
the scene.

87
 Flicker and Strobe

Brightness Controls

Use Bright
This will turn on/off the processing of brightness in the
effect. Checked means modify the brightness of the image
using the Brightness parameters.

Bri Freq A
Frequency of the first wave “A”. The frequency
defines how fast the wave changes over time.
Higher numbers mean faster flickering.

Bri Freq B

Frequency of the second wave “B”. Wave A

and B are added together to create the
frequency of the wave. By doing this, the
effect remain organic and semi-periodic.

Bri Amp A
Amplitude (size) of the first wave “A”. This
controls how much brightness to add or
remove. Higher numbers mean the scene will
be more bright and more dark.

Bri Amp B
Amplitude of the second wave “B”. Higher
numbers mean the scene will be more bright
and more dark.

Bri Use Intermittent

This controls whether the “intermittent” parameters are
used.

88
Bri Int Max Skip Bri Strobe Amp
This controls the maximum number of This is the amount of brightness to
frames that will be skipped (no bright- apply during a “Strobe” period. Higher
ness effect applied). The larger the numbers mean brighter scenes.
value the longer the time between
flickers. Contrast Control
Bri Int Max Hold Use Contrast
This controls the maximum number of This will turn on/off the processing of
frames that the brightness will be contrast in the effect. If checked
applied. The larger the value, the means modify the brightness of the
longer the flickeriness will be applied. image is set using the brightness set of
parameters.
Bri Int Max Amp
This is the maximum amount of bright- Con Freq A
ness to apply. Higher numbers mean Frequency of the first wave “A”. The
brighter scenes. frequency defines how fast the wave
changes over time. Higher numbers
Bri Use Strobe mean faster contrast flickering.
This controls whether the “strobe”
parameters are used. Con Freq B
Frequency of the second wave “B”.
Bri Strobe Skip Wave A and B are added together to
This controls the maximum number of create the frequency of the wave. By
frames that will be skipped (no effect doing this, the effect remains organic
applied). The larger the value the and semi-periodic.
longer the time between strobes.
Con Amp A
Bri Strobe Hold Amplitude (size) of the first wave “A”.
This controls the maximum number of This controls how much contrast to add
frames that the strobe will be applied. or remove. Higher numbers mean the
The larger the value, the longer the scene will be more and less contrasty.
strobe will be applied.

89
 Flicker and Strobe

Con Amp B
Amplitude of the second wave “B”. Higher numbers mean the scene will be
more and less contrasty.

Con Use Intermittent

This controls whether the “intermittent” parameters are used.

Con Int Max Skip

This controls the maximum number of frames that the contrast will be applied.
The larger the value, the longer the contrast flickeriness will be applied.

Con Int Max Hold

This is the maximum amount of contrast to apply. Higher numbers mean con-
trast scenes.

Con Int Max Amp

This controls whether the “strobe” parameters are used.

90
Con Use Strobe
This controls the maximum number of frames that will be skipped (no contrast
effect applied). The larger the value the longer the time between strobes.

Con Strob Skip

This controls the maximum number of frames that the contrast will be applied.
The larger the value, the longer the strobe will be applied.

Con Strobe Hold

This the amount of contrast to apply during a “Contrast” period. Higher numbers
mean more contrasty scenes.

Con Strobe Amp

Amount of the original scene to blend in.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected layer.
The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in with the
affected footage.

91
 Flow Motion
Flow Motion creates an organic transi-
tion effect that works well with any
footage.

Flow Motion is an effect that uses the

two source layers as displacement
maps between. The effect blends
between each other as it fades
between the source layers. A distortion
is applied to the layers as the transi-
tion animates.

Transition To
The Transition To pop-up determines
the layer to which you want the flow
motion transition to end. In other
words, the second half of the transi-
tion.

Transition Complete
Transition Complete determines how
both when and how far the transition
is executed.

TIP To start with no effect and then go

into the transition later in the layer,
keyframe this setting to zero at the
beginning of the layer. Keyframe it at
zero again at the point where you want
the transition to start. Keyframe it to
100 where you want the transition to
end.

92
Distortion Mode

Outward and Inward

Outward and Inward creates the direction of the flow distortion
based on the pixel values in the footage that is being distorted.
The source footage is displaced by the target footage in the
first half of the distortion from zero to the maximum amount of
distortion and then it switches and the target footage is dis-
placed by the source image down to zero. Darker colors will
move relatively little and lighter colors will move further.

Horiz and Vert

Horizontal and Vertical distorts with the same sort of distortion
as Outward and Inward, but it does this distortion transition
along a 45 degree angle.

Direction Mode

The Direction Mode pop-up is only applicable if the Distortion Mode is

set to Horizontal and Vertical.

Horiz & Vert Distort Independent

Horiz & Vert Independent allows for control over the Horizontal
and Vertical distortion amounts individually with the controls
below.

Horiz & Vert Distort Linked

Horiz & Vert Linked will link the Vertical Distortion to the
Horizontal Distortion slider.

93
 Flow Motion

Edge Mode
Edge mode determines how the pixels will be filled along the edges of the
image when the distortion moves the footage such that the footage below or
background color can be viewed. By using one of these methods, the footage
below will not show through.

Repeat Edge Pixels

Repeat Edge Pixels will repeat the pixel closest to the uncovered area.
This will give a stretched look from the edge of the distorted footage
to the edge of the comp.

Wrap Around
Wrap Around will use pixels from the opposite side of the footage that
have been distorted and use it to replace the empty areas.

Reflect Edge Pixels

Reflect Edge Pixels will use a reflection of the closest pixels
to the edge of the areas that are uncovered due to the Wave Displace
Effect. This is the most commonly used setting.

Smoothness
Smoothness blurs the footage that is used as a displacement map.

NOTE The higher this is set, the slower the transition.

94
Horiz Distort
Horiz Distort determines the amount of horizontal distortion that occurs in the
transition if Horiz & Vert is selected in the Distortion Mode pop-up (above). If
Horiz & Vert is selected in the Distortion Mode pop-up and Horiz & Vert Distortion
Linked is selected in the Direction Mode pop-up, then this controls the distortion
of both horizontal and vertical distortion (Vert Distort disabled). If Outward and
Inward is selected, this controls the total distortion (Vert Distort disabled).

Vert Distort
Vert Distort determines the amount of vertical distortion that occurs in the transi-
tion if Horiz & Vert is selected in the Distortion Mode pop-up AND if Horiz & Vert
Distortion Independent is selected in the Direction Mode pop-up

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected layer.
The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in with the
affected footage.

95
 Fog Factory
Fog Factory creates a flowing fog
effect that offers depth of field simu-
lation and automatically moves without
keyframing.

Fog Factory automates all of the

motion of the fog effect. This is done
by selecting the number of banks of
fog that will be generated with Num
Layers and then selecting the direction
of the fog.

All of the controls that have a close

and far control will scale the results
between the closest (or first) and the
furthest (or last) layer. Large differ-
ences in these values will give a large
depth-of-field effect to the motion.

Effect Only
When checked, only the Fog Factory
effect will be seen, the original source
footage will be removed.

Num Layers
Num Layers determines the number of
fog layers that are placed onto the
footage.

Move Direction
Move Direction determines the direc-
tion that the fog will pass by.

96
Notice the wisps. Flowing banks can be colored.

NOTE While most of the values generated with

the min and max controls in Delirium are ran-
dom(i.e., the value will be some random num-
ber between the min and max values) for Fog
Factory this is not the case.

“Close” and “Far” will be the closest and fur-

thest layer of fog. If there are more than 2 lay-
ers of fog, those layer values will be deter-
mined with a linear interpolation between the close and far values.

For example, assume that you have 3 layers and that speed close is set to 10
and speed far is set to 30. Layer one will move at the speed close of 10, layer
three will move at the speed far of 30 and layer two (the middle layer) will
move at a speed of 20. All of the control values will be distributed between the
close and far layers in this manner in FogFactory.

Speed Close
Speed Close determines the speed of the closest away layer of fog.

Speed Far
Speed Far determines the speed of the fog that is furthest.

NOTE Speed is handled in this way to create the illusion of depth. When a bank
of fog is viewed, perspective will make the fog that is closest appear to be mov-
ing faster than fog that is furthest away.

97
 Fog Factory

Fog Color
Fog Color determines the color of the fog.

Fog Wispiness
Wispiness provides curls and whirlpool motion into the banks of fog. Fog
Wispiness determines the quantity of wispiness.

Wispiness Strength
Wispiness Strength determines how extreme the wisps will affect the fog.

Blend Top
Blend Top determines the opacity of the fog bank in the upper half of the
layer. The lower this number, the less fog there will be along the top of the
layer.

Blend Bottom
Blend Bottom determines the opacity of the fog bank in the lower half of the
layer. The lower this number, the less fog there will be along the top of the
Bottom.

Blend Bias
Blend Bias allows for further weighting of the top and bottom opacities. This is
the only way to completely remove fog from the top or bottom halves of the
footage.

NOTE If Blend Top and Blend Bottom are both set to 255, this control will not
have any effect.

Detail Close
Detail Close determines the level of detail of the closest fog bank. The smaller
this number, the closer the bank will appear. TIP Think of detail as zoom.

Detail Far
Detail Far determines the detail level of the furthest fog bank. The higher this
number, the further away the bank will appear.

98
TIP If you want the fog to appear to Opacity Far
cover a great distance, increase the Opacity Far determines the transparen-
difference between Detail Close and cy or opacity of the furthest fog layer.
Detail Far. You may also need to
increase the number of layers to Bright Close
complete in-between areas. Bright Close determines the brightness
value of the closest layer of fog.
Stretch H Close
Stretch H Close stretches, or makes the Bright Far
closest bank longer along the horizon- Bright Far determines the brightness
tal axis. value of the farthest layer of fog.

Stretch H Far Contrast Close

Stretch H Far stretches or makes the Contrast Close determines the contrast
furthest fog bank longer along the hori- value of the closest layer of fog.
zontal Axis.
Contrast Far
TIP For a good graveyard type fog, Contrast Far determines the contrast
stretch horizontally, and do so more value of the farthest layer of fog.
with the close than with the far banks.
Random Seed
Stretch V Close Random Seed is the seed value (think
Stretch V Close stretches the closest of it as a start point) for any random-
fog layer along the vertical axis, mak- ization that occurs in the plug-in. Do
ing the fog look tall and thin. not animate this as it will cause the
effect to jump or randomly change val-
Stretch V Far ues and the animation will not be
Stretch V Far stretches the farthest fog smooth.
layer along the vertical axis.
Blend Original
Opacity Close Blend Original will blend in the unaf-
Opacity Close determines the trans- fected original layer with the affected
parency or opacity of the closest fog layer. The higher this number, the more
layer. of the original layer will be blended in
with the affected footage.

99
 Framing Gradients
Framing Gradients simulates the
appearance of adding a dark border
around footage. This is often done in a
telecine transfer. By using a subtle and
gradual gradient around the outside of
footage, the eye is drawn into the cen-
ter of the footage and attention is
focused on the subject matter.

Often you will want to keep the effect

subtle so that it does not draw atten-
tion from the subject itself. Load the
preset Simple Frame to see the use of
a mid-gray start color and a high num-
ber for the start alpha. This is the
style of application that we had in
mind for the Framing Gradients effect,
but with the insertion of color and var-
ious Composite Modes, many other
looks can be created.

Preview Gradients
When this box is checked, the Comp
window will show the gradient that is
being used to create the effect. This
gives you the opportunity to see what
the components of the effect are with-
out having to see it in the context of
your footage.

100
Soft Edges. Gradient Color borders.

Soft Edges Blend Original will blend in the unaf-

When this is on the four corners will fected original layer with the affected
be soft edged. When this is off, hard layer. The higher this number, the
transition lines will be visible in each more of the original layer will be
of the corners. blended in with the affected footage.

Color Mode Basic Gradient

Defines how the colors are interpolat-
ed. RGB Modes interpolate along a Inset Distance
straight line using the Red, Green and Inset Distance determines how far in
Blue channels. HSB modes interpolate from the edges to end the gradient.
through the colors as if they were a
rainbow. Start Color
Start Color determines the first color,
Composite Mode or the color closest to the outer edge
Composite Modes are described in the of your gradient.
“Using the Plug-ins” section at start-
ing on page 13 of this manual. Refer Start Alpha
to that section for instructions on how Start Alpha determines the trans-
to use these parameters. parency or opacity of the start color
in the gradient. This is used to give a
TIP Multiply and Darker are usually softer, more transparent appearance
the best options for a basic darkened to the framing gradient.
edge frame.

Blend Original

101
 Framing Gradients

TIP If you set the inset distance to 3%, Start Color to black and Start Alpha to
255, you will see a black ring around the entire layer. Lower the inset distance
and lower the start alpha to see a much softer edge.

End Color
End Color is the interior color of the gradient. In most cases you will want this
to be white. If it is any other color, it will tint the entire interior (the area
where the end color affects in the gradient) of your layer.

End Alpha
End Alpha determines the transparency of the end color of the gradient.

Bias
Bias controls the balance of color or the quantity of color between the start
and end colors in the gradient. When this is shifted to the right, the end color
will be more dominant in the gradient, when it is shifted to the left, the start
color will be more dominant.

TIP A great basic framing gradient look can easily be created with just the 6
controls above.

Multi-Gradient

Multi-Gradient
This pop-up determines how many colors will be in the gradient. The colors
will always fall in between the start and end colors. For Example, S ->1 ->E,
will provide for a 3 color gradient starting with the Start Color, transitioning to
the Grad 1 Color and ending with the End Color.

Grad 1 Color
When a Multi-Gradient is selected in the Multi-Gradient pop-up, this will deter-
mine the color of the “Grad 1” gradient.

102
Grad 1 Alpha
Grad 1 Alpha determines the transparency of the Grad 1 color.

Grad 1 Position
Grad 1 Position determines the position of the Grad 1 color on the gradient rela-
tive to the Start Color and End Color. A good way to see the results of this is to
set this to red and slide the control left and right. You should be able to do this
with the option key held down and receive near real-time feedback.

Notice that as you approach 100% that the interior of the gradient gives a very
hard red line. This is because it is squeezing most of the End Color out. As you
get to 100%, the entire interior of the layer turns red. This is because you have
completely removed the End Color.

103
 Glower
Glower provides a glow effect that has
some interesting built in channel oper-
ations, a minimum and maximum
threshold to help you more closely
specify the glow region and of course,
presets for the plug-in so that it is easy
to replicate a specific set of parame-
ters at any time.

Glow Radius
Glow Radius determines how many pix-
els away from the source pixel (which
is every pixel that falls within thresh-
old Min and Threshold Max) that the
glow will extend.

Threshold determines which pixels will

glow based on luminance and the min
and max controls below.

Threshold Min
Threshold Min is the minimal lumi-
nance threshold from which the glow
will be generated. Zero is equal to
black.

Threshold Max
Threshold Max is the maximum lumi-
nance threshold from which the glow
will be generated. 255 is equal to
white.

TIP If you want the dark areas to glow,

set the min to zero and the max to
somewhere around 75 (depending on
the image). This can give a slightly car-

104
Glower creates a nice glowing effect. Artistic effects with Glower.

toonish look to the footage and will

often bring detail out of the darker
areas.

If you want to use this effect to

increase and soften highlights, set the
controls to only affect the light col-
ors. Set the min to somewhere around
200 and the max to 255 and only the
lighter shades in the footage will
glow.

Glow Mode

Use Original Colors

When this box is checked, the glow
colors will be determined by the col-
ors in the footage. When this is not
checked, the glow will be based on
the Dark Color and Bright color NOTE Color Bias, Dark Color and
controls. Bright Color controls only modify the
effect if the Use Original Color is not
Glow Intensity checked.
Glow Intensity determines how bright-
ly the effect will glow on the pixels Color Bias
that the threshold will let the effect Color Bias determines the dominance
occur on. between Dark Color and Bright Color.

105
 Glower

Dark Color
This is the color of the darkest part of the glow when “Use Original Colors” is
NOT checked.

Bright Color
This is the color of the brightest part of the glow when “Use Original Colors” is
NOT checked.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected
layer. The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in
with the affected footage.

TIP Glower can benefit greatly from Blend Original. Since the Glower Effect
can give a blurred effect to the footage, blend original is an excellent way to
bring back some of the sharpness and detail back into the footage.

106
107
 GrayScaler
GrayScaler converts color images into
grayscale images with a customizable
luminance control. You can get some
amazing looks by blending different
amounts of the Red, Green and Blue
color channels together.

Grayscaler gives control over the

process of going from Color to
Grayscale. The key here is that it
allows for adding varying amounts of
each of the red, green and blue
color channels. Plus, for each of these
channels brightness and contrast may
be worked with independently.

TIP When first looking at footage that

you are going to change into grayscale,
it can be helpful to look at each of the
color channels independently and with-
out any changes made to the contrast
or brightness of the channels.

To do this, load each of the following

presets sequentially so that you can
see the channels: Red Neutral, Green
Neutral and Blue Neutral.

108
Grayscaler allows for different grayscale images based on the Red, Green and Blue color channels.

Weight is the amount of color that is contributed

from each channel. The sum total of all three
channels should equal 100 as this is the standard
amount of channel contribution in a normal
image. (i.e., it would be the same amount of
luminance as a standard “Convert to Gray” would
be in an application like Adobe Photoshop.) If the
sum total is greater than 100, it will brighten or
“blow out” the footage.

Red Weight
Red Weight determines the contribution of the
red channel to the final grayscale image.

Green Weight
Green Weight determines the contribution of the
green channel to the final grayscale image.

Blue Weight
Blue Weight determines the contribution of the blue channel to the final
grayscale image.

Red Contrast
Red Contrast controls the amount of contrast in the red channel. This allows for
increasing or decreasing the contrast levels in the channel before it is used in
the blending of the red, green and blue channel to create the grayscale
footage.

109
 GrayScaler

Green Contrast
Green Contrast controls the amount of contrast in the green channel. This
allows for increasing or decreasing the contrast levels in the channel before it
is used in the blending of the red. green and blue channel to create the
grayscale footage.

Blue Contrast
Blue Contrast controls the amount of contrast in the blue channel. This allows
for increasing or decreasing the contrast levels in the channel before it is used
in the blending of the red. green and blue channel to create the grayscale
footage.

Red Brightness
Red Brightness controls the amount of brightness in the red channel. This
allows for increasing or decreasing the brightness levels in the channel before
it is used in the blending of the red, green and blue channel to create the
grayscale footage.

Green Brightness
Green Brightness controls the amount of brightness in the green channel. This
allows for increasing or decreasing the brightness levels in the channel before
it is used in the blending of the red, green and blue channel to create the
grayscale footage.

Blue Brightness
Blue Brightness controls the amount of brightness in the blue channel. This
allows for increasing or decreasing the brightness levels in the channel before
it is used in the blending of the red, green and blue channel to create the
grayscale footage.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected
layer. The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in
with the affected footage.

110
111
 HLS Displace
HLS Displace uses Hue, Lightness and
Saturation create a displacement map
that will warp to the source image.

The hue of the Displace Source deter-

mines the direction of the displace-
ment. The Hue starts and ends with
red, and travels clockwise around the
hue wheel (red -> green -> blue ->
red).

The strength of the warp depends on

the “Light Displace” and “Saturation
Displace” parameters. These values
define how much warp is applied.
These parameters are interesting to
animate.

When using the HLS Displace effect and

the Displace Source is set to the image
itself, the footage will tend to get a
very fractured and melty appearance.
Try working this way to get a feel for
how the effect will generate a look.

You can also use other sources like sim-

ple gradients to have more control
over the effect.

TIP You may want to use the

MultiGradients plug-in on a solid layer
as a source for this effect and use
Turbulent Noise or a particle system as
a displacement map.

112
Create water effects in conjunction with Turbulent You can also do “heat wave” effects.
Noise.

Displace Source
Displace Source allows for a choice as to which layer will be used as the source
of the displacement. It is possible to use one image to displace another.

TIP When an image is applied to itself (Displace Source set to None) HLS
Displace gives a fractured, melty absinthe laden appearance to your footage.

Edge Mode
Edge mode determines how the pixels will be filled along the edges of the
image when the distortion moves the image such that the underlying footage
below or background color can be viewed. By using one of these methods, the
footage below will not show through.

Repeat Edge pixels

Repeat Edge Pixels will repeat the pixel closest to the uncovered area.
This will give a stretched look from the edge of the distorted footage to
the edge of the comp.

Wrap Around
Wrap Around will use pixels from the opposite side of the footage to
replace the empty areas.

Reflect Edge Pixels

Reflect Edge Pixels will use a reflection of the closest pixels to the edge
of the areas that are uncovered. This is the most commonly used set-
ting.

113
 HLS Displace

Softness
Softness applies a blur to the Displace Source. This is done to soften harshness
in a displacement map. If you find that the results look jagged, increase this
parameter.

Angle
Angle determines the direction of the distortion based on the hue of the pixel
that is being used to distort on the displacement map. The Hue starts with red
and cycles back to red after traveling through orange, yellow, green, blue and
violet.

Hue Min Angle

Hue Min Angle determines the direction of the pixels that are on the yellow
side of red in the displacement map.

Hue Max Angle

Hue Max Angle determines the direction of the pixels that are on the violet
side of red in the displacement map.

The distance that the displacement travels is based on the Lightness and
Saturation in the Displace Source. The Light Displace and Saturation Displace
are added together to determine that distance.

Light Displace
Light Displace is the strength or magnitude of the contribution of lightness to
the total displacement distance.

Saturation Displace
Saturation Displace is the strength or magnitude of the contribution of satura-
tion to the total displacement distance.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected
layer. The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in
with the affected footage.

114
115
 HyperHarmonizer
Hyper Harmonizer creates incredibly
mesmerizing geometric images. These
are useful for animated logo designs or
just animated elements in a larger
piece.

HyperHarmonizer is a visual element

generating plug-ins designed using
sine-wave curves and other mathemati-
cal constructs. A line is drawn by a
point that loops around circles that
loop around circles. This also happens
to be the way that early astronomers
explained the rotation of the planets
around the sun.

This plug-in creates beautiful and

interesting patterns from geometrical
constructions. When there are 2 har-
monizers, the B Shape will control the
second harmonizer.

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Image Composite Mode
Particle Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Controls in this section are described
in the “Using the Plug-ins” section
starting on page 13 of this manual.
Refer to that section for instructions
on how to use these parameters.

116
2 Layes of Hyper Harmonizers, one using “Spacing”. Another interesting shape.

Num Harmonizers
This controls the number of harmonizer generators. Each one will create a sin-
gle, possibly very complicated curve.

Particle Shape
Use this to define the particle shape that makes up the line for the Harmonizer.
Select “Line” for a faster render.

Soft & Bright Harsh Falloff Dot Rounded

Star Oval Line

Use Spacing
Allows you to set a distance between drawing points. You will be able to create
space between the segments. If “Line” is used as a particle shape, this control
will make the line jagged (which is a cool effect.)

Spacing Distance
Use this to control the amount of space between segments when “use Spacing”
is checked.

117
 HyperHarmonizer

Spacing Phase A Color

This is the phase of the spacing seg- This controls the color of the
ments. Animate this to “Move” the Harmonizer.
particles along thier paths. A
smoother method is to use the A Alpha
“Phase” parameters. This controls the opacity of the har-
monizer.
A Shape
This section defines the hyperharmo- A Particle Size
nizer graphic element using 3 sets of This controls the size of the particles
sine-wave generators. when “Particle Shape” is other than
“Line.”
When there is greater than 2 harmo-
nizers, B Shape will control the last
harmonizer and all other harmonizer
shapes will be calculated as the val-
ues between A Shape and B Shape
(i.e., in a 3 harmonizer setup, the
color of the second harmonizer would
be the middle color between harmo-
nizers 1 and 3).

A Begin Draw
This is the starting phase of the draw-
ing. Animate this to get a “Drawing it
now” animated look.

A End Draw
This is the end drawing point. Use this
in conjunction with “Begin Draw” to
animate the actual drawing of the
A Center Point path.
This defines the center of the harmo-
nizer.

118
The harmonizer is created using 3 sine-wave generators. By
defining different values to this bank of parameter, you can get
all kinds of interesting effects.

A Radius 1-3 (amplitude)

This controls the maximum radius of this part of the
harmonizer function.

A Freq 1-3
This controls the frequency of this part of the harmo-
nizer function.

A Phase 1-3
This controls the phase of this part of the harmonizer
function.

B Shape
The “B Shape” parameters are identical to the “A Shape”. The B
shape is the “Bottom” shape when interpolating between more
than 1 harmonizer.

Glow

Glow Radius
Glow Radius determines how far the glow will spread. If this is
set high, the glow will extend for a large distance around the
image. If it is set low, the glow will be concentrated closely
around the image.

TIP When Glow Radius is set low, it makes particles glow more
brightly. To reduce that effect adjust the Glow Intensity.

Glow Intensity
Glow Intensity determines how brightly the image will glow.

119
 HyperHarmonizer

Glow Own Colors

When this box is checked, the glow will be the same as the color of the parti-
cles. When this in not checked, the Glow Inner Color and Glow Outer Color
determine the color of the glow.

Glow Inner Color

When Glow Own Colors is unchecked, this determines the interior color of the
glow.

Glow Outer Color

When Glow Own Colors is unchecked, this determines the exterior, or further
from the image, color of the glow.

Color Bias
Color Bias allows for control the weighting of the ramp between Glow Inner
Color and Glow Outer Color.

120
Glow Mode

Screen
Screen multiplies the inverse brightness values of the colors in all layers.
The resulting color is never darker than the original.

Add
Add combines the color values of the layer and the underlying colors. The
resulting color is lighter than the original.

121
 Lens Flares
Lens Flares creates a full lens-flare
simulation with lots of flexibility in
creating custom looks for your flares.
You can also obscure and tint the Lens
Flare based on color and alpha infor-
mation within the source image.

Lens Flares are created using 3 differ-

ent elements. The different elements
are composited together within the
plug-in to simulate flare effects that
occur within camera lenses.

The individual parts of the lens flare

(glow, rays and flares) are made using
a series of component color gradients
swept around a circle. The gradients
are used to describe the different com-
ponents of the part.

The component gradients are called

“Radial Color”, “Angular Color” and
“Angular Size” and are all defined
using gradients. The gradients are
built-in and are not editable. You have
a choice of over 30 different gradients
that describe the different elements.
All gradients are usable in any compo-
nent (even if they may not look cor-
rect).

The first set of gradients have labels

that describe thier intended use.
“Glow” means that they should be
used in the Glow part. “Ray” means

122
Lens flare is tinted from the source image. Cool “inner Reflection” effects are easy.

that it is intended for use in the ray rotates as the lens center point is
part. “Flare” means that it’s intended moved.
for use in the flare part. The second
word tells you what component of the
part it is intended to be used with. TIP This effect can be slow, so while
testing the results of the effect, you
For Example, the gradient named may want to run at half or quarter
“Glow+Ray Radial Dark Blue” is resolution.
intended to be used in the glow or
ray part, and with the radial compo- Flare Point
nent of that part. This is the point where the flare origi-
nates.
The Glow part is used to create a
soft, bright sphere of light that simu- Center Point
lates the main light source of the lens This is the center where the “cam-
flare. era” is pointing, it may not necessari-
ly coincide with the center of the
The Ray part is used to create the frame.
shiny, spiked tendrils that usually
extend further outward than the glow Size
part. This is the overall size of the flare.

The Flares part is used to create the Auto Rotation

smaller, geometrically shaped compo- Check this to have the rotation and
nents that often spread outward much scale of the flare elements to auto-
further than the rays, and can often matically rotate around the center
extend past the edge of the scene. point. This is the default behavior of
The line which they extend on also most lens flare simulations.

123
 Lens Flares

Lens Rotation
If “Auto Rotation” is not checked (off), you may manually rotate the entire
lens flare effect with this parameter.

Obscuration
With this checked (on), the lens effect will be “hidden” or “obscured” behind
the alpha channel of this layer.

Colorization Mode
This allows you to tint the lens flare effect with a color. The color can be
based on the original colors within the lens flare gradients (that make up the
different elements of the lens flare), a tint color or color within the source
image.

Original Lens Color

Original Lens Color uses the color within the built-in gradients to control the
lens coloration.

Tint from Source Image

Tint From Source Image uses the color of the source image to control the color
of the flare.

Tint Using Color Below

Tint using Color Below uses the “Tint Color” parameter to control the overall
coloration of the flare.

Tint Color
Tint Color is used to colorize the lens flare, when “Colorization Mode” is “Tint
using Color Below”

Bright Glow
When checked, this adds a standard brighter glow to the center of the lens
flare. The effect is more realistic, but renders slightly slower.

124
Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected layer.
The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in with the
affected footage.

Glow Settings

Glow Opacity
Glow Opacity controls the transparency of the glow effect. Set Glow Opacity to
zero to turn off the glow component.

Glow Composite
Glow Composite is the composite mode to use when compositing this element
(glow) with the other elements (flare and ray). See the “Image Settings” for
descriptions of these composite modes.

Glow Radial
Glow Radial selects the gradient to use to define the “Radial” color of the glow
ring. This describes the colors of the “rings” radiating as circles out from the cen-
ter of the glow.

Glow Angle
Glow Angle selects the gradient to use to define the “Rotational” color of the
glow ring. This describes the colors of the angular “rays” that sweep around the
center of the glow.

Glow Angle Size

Glow Angle Size selects the gradient to use to define the “Angular Radius” dis-
tance of the glow ring. This essentially controls the shape of the overall glow.

Glow Size
Glow Size controls the overall size of the Glow. Larger numbers make the glow
larger.

Glow Rotate
Glow Rotate controls the rotation of the Glow.

125
 Lens Flares

Glow Hue
Glow Hue allows for the shift of the hue of the glow gradient used to describe
the overall color of the glow.

Ray Settings

Ray Opacity
Ray Opacity controls the transparency of the ray. Set this to zero to turn off
the ray component.

Ray Composite
Ray Composite is the composite mode to use when compositing this element
(ray) with the other elements (flare and glow). See the “Image Settings” for
description of these composite modes.

Ray Radial
Ray Radial selects the gradient to use to define the “Radial” color of the ray
ring. This describes the colors of the “rings” radiating as circles out from the
center of the rays.

Ray Angle
Ray Angle selects the gradient to use to define the “Rotational” color of the
ray ring. This describes the colors of the angular “rays” that sweep around the
center of the rays.

Ray Angle Size

Ray Angle Size selects the gradient to use to define the “Angular Radius” dis-
tance of the ray ring. This essentially controls the shape of the overall rays.

Ray Size
Ray Size controls the overall size of the Rays. Larger numbers make the rays
larger.

Ray Rotate
Ray Rotate controls the rotation of the Rays.

126
Ray Hue
Ray Hue allows for the shift of the hue of the rays gradient used to describe the
overall color of the ray.

Ray Num Spikes

Ray Num Spikes is the number of spikey rays that are built-in to the ray compo-
nents. Larger numbers means more rays.

Ray Thickness
Ray Thickness is the thickness of the Ray spikes. Large numbers means thicker
rays.

Flare Settings

Flare Opacity
Flare Opacity controls the transparency of the flare. Set this to zero to turn off
the flare component.

Flare Composite
Flare Composite is the composite mode to use when compositing this element
(flare) with the other elements (ray and glow). See the “Image Settings” for
description of these composite modes.

Flare Color
Flare Color selects the gradient to use to define the “Radial” color of the flare
element rings. This describes the colors of the “rings” radiating as out from the
center of the flare elements.

Flare Sizes
Flare Size selects the gradient to use to control the maximum size of the individ-
ual flare elements. The actual size of the flare elements will not exceed the
brightness value of the gradient. Use the “Flare Size” to control the overall size
of the flare elements.

127
 Lens Flares

Flare Probability
Flare Probability selects the gradient to use to define the probability of a flare
appearing along the spread. The brighter the gradient color at that point, the
greater the probability that a flare element will appear there.

Flare Size
Flare Size controls the largest potential radius of the flares.

Flare Element Angle

Flare Element Angle controls the angle of the individual flare elements. This
allows for the twisting of the flare elements.

Flare Hue
Flare Hue allows for the tinting of the flare by rotating the hue of the flare
elements.

Flare Num Flares

Flare Num Flares is the number of flare elements to create.

Flare Shape
Flare Shape defines the shape of the flare elements, either spherical or polygo-
nal. If in “Polygon” mode, you can define the number of sides of the polygon
with the “Flare Num Sides” parameter.

Flare Num Sides

Flare Num Sides describes the number of sides the polygon should have. For
triangles, this number is 3. For squares, 4. For Pentagons, 5. For Hexagons, 6.

128
Flare Seed
Flare Seed is the random number seed for the flare elements. Change this to
alter the overall look and arrangement of the flare elements randomly selected
components (like distribution of the flare elements on the line and sizes of the
individual elements.)

Flare Spread
Flare Spread defines how far apart the flare elements are from each other.
Smaller numbers means tighter spacing.

Flare Spread Angle

The Flare elements are lined up using Flare Spread Angle in relation to the center
point.

129
 Loose Sprockets
This plug-in simulates a “loose gate”
on a projector or film-camera. The
basic idea is to create a semi-periodic
“organic” waviness motion, and also
simulate the occasional “harsh” bump.

The effect uses two sine waves of dif-

ferent amplitude and frequency to
define the horizontal and vertical off-
set. This creates a semi-periodic and
natural “wavy” motion.

The spurious amount controls the

“jagged” or “Jarring” motion.

The effect is subpixel accurate if the

layer in the After Effects timeline is
set to high-quality mode.

H Amp 1
H Amp 1 is the amplitude of
the first horizontal displace-
ment wave. The higher this
number is, the faster the
movement.

H Frq 1
H Frq 1 is the frequency of
the first horizontal displace-
ment wave. The higher this
number is, the faster the
movement.

130
H Amp 2 V Amp 2
H Amp 2 - Amplitude of the V Amp 2 Is the amplitude of
second horizontal displace- the second vertical dis-
ment wave. The higher this placement wave. The high-
number is, the greater the er this number is, the
movement. greater the movement.

H Frq 2 V Frq 2
H Frq 2 - Frequency of the V Frq 2 Is the frequency of
second horizontal displace- the second vertical dis -
ment wave. . The higher placement wave. . The
this number is, the faster higher this number is, the
the movement. faster the movement.

H Spurious V Spurious
H Spurious - Amount of ran- V Spurious Is the amount of
dom horizontal movement random vertical movement
per frame. The higher this per frame. The higher this
number is, the greater the number is, the greater the
movement. movement.

V Amp 1 Blend Original

V Amp 1 Is the amplitude of Blend in the original source
the first vertical displace - image.
ment wave. The higher this
number is, the greater the
movement.

V Frq 1
V Frq 1 Is the frequency of
the first vertical displace-
ment wave. The higher this
number is, the faster the
movement.

131
 MultiGradient
MultiGradient provides you the ulti-
mate tool for creating and animating
color gradients.

You can control the type of gradient,

how you want it blended into your
footage and the number of colors
including alpha.

You can use MultiGradient to create

many different effects including sunset
skies, alpha masks, border and back-
grounds. Use the Sketchist, HLS
Displace and other plug-ins to distort
and modify the gradient image.

You can use the bias controls and Grad

Position controls to locate exactly
where in the gradient your colors will
be located.

Preview Gradient
When this box is checked, the Comp
window will show the basic gradient
that is being used to create the effect.

This gives you the opportunity to see

what the components of the effect are
without having to see it composited
with your footage.

132
Nice artistic effects and backgrounds. All kionds of cool animation choices.

Gradient Type

Linear Linear Mirrored Square

Radial Cone One - Way Cone Matchup

Pixel Mode
Pixel Mode allows for the rendering of only the red, green or blue parts of the
gradients.

Color Mode
Defines how the colors are interpolated. RGB Modes interpolate linearly using
the Red, Green and Blue channels. HSB modes interpolate through the colors of
the rainbow.

133
 MultiGradient

Repeat Mode blended, more transparent appear-

Defines how the gradient ramp will ance to the gradient.
repeat. S=Start, E=End
End Point
End Point defines the location of the
end of the gradient.

End Color
End Color defines the color that will
be used by the End Point in the gradi-
ent.

End Alpha
End Alpha determines the transparen-
cy or opacity of the End Color in the
gradient.

Bias
Composite Modes Bias defines the weight or distribution
See “Using Plug-ins” Composite Mode of the Start and End colors. The lower
Section (page 13) this number is, the more dominant
the Start Color.
Basic Gradient
Cycle
Start Point Cycle allows you to shift the
Start Point defines the location of the location of the start and end
beginning of the gradient. colors in the gradient. The
best way to see this is to
Start Color check on the Preview
Start Color defines the color that will Gradients option, hold down
be used by the Start Point in the gra- the option key and rotate
dient. the Cycle control.

Start Alpha Keyframing this control is an

Start Alpha determines the trans- excellent way to create a
parency or opacity of the Start Color dreamy effect.
in the gradient. This is used to give a

134
Multi-Gradient

Multi-Gradient
This pop-up determines how many colors will be in the gradient. The colors will
always fall in between the start and end colors. For Example, S ->1 ->E, will pro-
vide for a 3 color gradient starting with the start color, transitioning to the Grad
1 Color and ending with the End Color.

Grad 1 Color
When a multi-Gradient is selected in the Multi-
Gradient pop-up, this will determine the color of the
Grad 1. As additional colors are added to the gradi-
ent with the Multi-gradient pop-up, will begin to col-
orize the gradient at thier respective positions.

Grad 1 Alpha
Grad 1 Alpha determines the transparency of the
Grad 1 color.

Grad 1 Pos
Grad 1 Position determines the position of the Grad 1
color on the gradient relative to the Start Color and
End Color.

A good way to see the results of this is to set this to red

and slide the control left and right. You should be able to
do this with the option key held down and receive near
real-time feedback. Notice that as you approach 100% that
the interior of the gradient gives a very hard red line. This
is because it is squeezing most of the End Color out. As
you get to 100%, the entire interior of the layer turns red.
This is because the End Color has been completely
removed.

135
 Muzzle Flash
Muzzle Flash simulates the gun-flashes
that occur when guns are fired. You
can control the start of the flash by
keyframing the Pull Trigger control and
determining the number of flashes.
Track the tip of the gun with the Flash
Point.

NOTE This effect is designed to work

from a side angle of the gun only. It
cannot simulate head-on gunfire.

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Blend Original
Controls in this section are described
in the “Using the Plug-ins” section at
starting on page 13 of this manual.
Refer to that section for instructions
on how to use these parameters.

136
Firing System

Muzzle Type
Each muzzle type will create a different type of muzzle flash.

357 HandGun M16 Rifle 12 Ga. Shotgun

Flash Point
Flash point determines where the beginning of the flash will
occur. This is where the muzzle tip should align.

TIP It is also possible to track the muzzle and assign the tracking
information to this control.

Gun Butt
Gun Butt only functions when Auto Angle is checked “on”. When it
is checked on, the angle of the flash point will be determined by
this control. A straight line passing through the gun butt and flash
point will determine the flash angle.

Automatic Angle
When this is checked on, the angle of the muzzle flash is deter-
mined by a straight line passing through the flash point and gun
butt. When this is unchecked, the flash angle is determined by the
flash angle control (below).

Flash Angle
Flash Angle only works when Auto Angle is unchecked. When Auto
Angle is unchecked, Flash Angle determines the angle of the flash.

137
 Muzzle Flash

Pull Trigger
Pull trigger determines when the flash begins. Keyframe this control if you
want the flash to begin after the first frame. Start with it keyframed off and
then keyframe it on at the frame where you want the firing to begin. If
AutoFire is not checked, Pull Trigger will simply turn the flash on and off.
Auto-Fire
When this is checked, Muzzle Flash will keep firing based on the Burst Count,
Flash Lifetime and Firing Space without having to keyframe Pull Trigger. When
this is checked, Pull Trigger will control the display of the flash.

Burst Count
Burst count will determine how many times the muzzle flash will occur.

Flash Lifetime
Flash Lifetime determines the number of frames that a flash will last.

138
Firing Space
Firing spacing determines the number of frames between each of the bursts. This
control only applies if the Burst Count is greater than 1.

Flash Color
Flash Color determines the color of the muzzle flash.

Flash Size
Flash Size determines how large or small the muzzle flash will be. The larger this
number gets, the larger the flash size.

Min Opacity
Min Opacity determines how transparent the thinnest part or most transparent
parts of the flash will be.

Max Opacity
Max Opacity determines how opaque or non-see through the thickest parts of the
flash will be.

139
 Nexus
Nexus means connection. Nexus will
generate animated graphic elements
from geometrical constructions. It cre-
ates bars of light that move in a rhyth-
mic fashion and fade away.

The effect is generated by creating a

bar that rotates around two circles and
fades out over time (Num Echos).

Rendering a line along the rotation of

the circles (Speed 1 & 2) gives the bars
motion.

The Radius (1 & 2) determines the dis-

tance of the ring from the centers of
each bar.

TIP Use the “Preview Path” to see the

path and speed of the two circles. This
will make it easier to visualize the
motion of the system.

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Image Composite Mode
Particle Composite Mode
Blend Original
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Controls in this section are described
in the “Using the Plug-ins” section
starting on page 13 of this manual.
Refer to that section for instructions
on how to use these parameters.

140
Nexus creates great motion graphics elements. Use as a mezmerizer to attract attention.

Bar Shape

Soft Thin Round

Soft Square Medium Square Hard Square

Bar System

Preview Paths
When this box is checked, the motion path circles that
form the basis of the effect can be seen. This is an excel-
lent way to pre-visualize how the bars will move.

Num Echoes
Num Echoes determines how many bars will appear in your
footage.

Center 1
Center 1 determines the location of the center of the first
circle. When preview paths is on it is the red circle.

Center 2

141
 Nexus

Center 2 determines the location of Phase 2

the center of the second circle. When Phase 2 determines the point on
preview paths is on it is the green cir- Circle 2 (the green circle) where it is
cle. touched by the first bar.

Radius 1 TIP By making Phase 1 and Phase 2

Radius 1 determines the opposites you can have the bar spin-
radius of the first or red cir- ning around itself.
cle that determines one end
of the bars. Bar 1 Size
Bar 1 size determines the size of the
Radius 2 side of the bar that touches Circle
Radius 2 determines the One (the red circle).
radius of the second or
green circle that determines Bar 2 Size
one end of the bars. Bar 2 Size determines the size of the
side of the bar that touches Circle
Speed 1 Two (the green circle).
Speed 1 determines the rate
at which one end of the bars TIP By animating the bar size, it is
will move around the circum- possible to create the illusion that the
ference of the first circle. bars are moving towards you. The side
that is larger should look as if it is
Speed 2 closer.
Speed 2 determines the rate
at which one end of the bars
will move around the circum-
ference of the second (green)
circle.

Phase 1
Phase 1 determines the point
on Circle 1 (the red circle)
where it is touched by the
first bar.

142
Start Color Glow Intensity
Start Color determines the color of the Glow intensity determines how strongly
first or lead bar. the bars will glow.

Start Alpha Glow Inner Color

Start Alpha determines the transparen- Glow Inner Color determines the color
cy of the first or lead bar. of the glow closest to the bars.

End Color Glow Outer Color

End Bar Color determines the color of Glow Outer Color determines the color
the last bar. of the glow at the glows edges.

End Alpha Color Bias

End Alpha determines the transparency Color Bias determines the position or
of the last bar. balance of the inner and outer colors in
the glow. The further to the left (or
TIP By setting End Alpha low, the bars lower numbers) that this is set, the
will look as though they are fading more the inner glow color will
away over time. dominate the glow.

Glow Glow Mode

Screen
NOTE Glow Radius and Glow Intensity Screen multiplies the inverse
work together. If either of them is set brightness values of the colors
to zero, you will not generate any in all layers. The resulting
glow. color is never darker than the
original.
Glow Radius
Glow Radius determines how far any Add
glow that the bars have will extend Add combines the color values
from the bars. of the layer and the underlying
colors. The resulting color is
NOTE The glows blend and add to each lighter than the original.
other where they overlap and can
quickly become pure white.

143
 Puffy Clouds

Puffy Clouds creates moving colored

puffy clouds. It will automatically ani-
mate and you can control the speed,
direction color and opacity of the
cloud.

By working with more than one layer

and adjusting Speed Closest and Speed
Furthest the effect will simulate the
appearance of depth.

Num Layers
Num Layers determines how many
cloud layers will be placed with the
Puffy Clouds effect.

Move Direction
Move Direction determines the general
or average direction of the clouds.
There will be a degree of chaotic
motion in the clouds.

Speed Closest
Speed Closest determines the speed of
the slowest layer of clouds.

Speed Furthest
Speed Furthest determines the speed
of the fastest layer of clouds.

144
Clouds over an image. You can define the colors within the cloud.

Bright Color
Bright Color determines the color of the lightest
parts of the clouds (as determined by Bright
Closest and Bright Furthest below).

Dark Color
Dark Color determines the color of the darkest
parts of the clouds.

Detail Closest
Detail Closest controls the minimum amount of detail in the clouds. When this is
set high, the clouds will have a great deal of detail.

Detail Furthest
Detail Furthest determines the maximum amount of detail in the clouds possi-
ble. When this is set high, the clouds will seem smaller and further away.

NOTE Detail Closest and Detail Furthest are the outer limits of what the clouds
will look like. Individual Cloud Layers will lie between these values.

Opacity Closest
Opacity Closest determines the maximum opacity of any of the clouds.

Opacity Furthest
Max Opacity determines the maximum opacity of any of the clouds.

145
 Puffy Clouds

Bright Closest
Bright Closest determines how bright or light the closest
clouds will be.

Bright Furthest
Bright Furthest determines how bright or light the fur-
thest clouds will be.

Contrast Closest
Contrast Closest determines how much contrast the clos-
est clouds will have.

Contrast Furthest
Contrast Furthest determines how much contrast the fur-
thest clouds will have.

Random Seed
Random Seed is the seed value (think of it as a start
point) for any randomization that occurs in the plug-in.
Do not animate this as it will cause the effect to jump or
randomly change values causing animation to be rough.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer
with the affected layer. The higher this number, the
more of the original layer will be blended in with the
affected footage.

146
147
 RainFall
RainFall simulates a summer rainstorm.
It automatically animates and the rain
drops can fall on the edges of the
source image.

Rainfall is a particle system that easily

and elegantly handles rain effects
through a realistic rain simulation.You
can bounce and splash rain off objects.

The Rain System generates the rain.

You can determine where the rain will
fall from (Generate From) and whether
or not it will splash off of anything
using “Splash Via.”

You can also control the amount, size

and opacity.Wind, Gravity and Gusts
control the rains behavior from the
time it falls until the time it hits some-
thing or disappears from the composi-
tion. Gravity, Wind and Gusts can all
have an impact on the path of the
raindrops.

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Blend Original
Preroll Frames
Generate From
Generate Layer

148
Rain falling and splashing on a logo. Rain is falling only from the cloud.

Generate Threshold
Generate Point
Controls in this section are described in
the “Using the Plug-ins” section starting on
page 13 of this manual. Refer to that sec-
tion for instructions on how to use these
parameters.

Rain System

Splash Mode

Splash Mode determines if and how the

rain drops will splash in the footage.

Don’t Splash
When selected, there will be no splashing of the rain drops anywhere in
the footage.

Splash On Bottom
When selected, Splash on Bottom will make the rain drops splash as
they hit the bottom of the layer to which the effect is applied.

Splash on Alpha > Threshold via Vert Height

Splash on Alpha > Threshold via Vert Height will cause the rain to splash
on the first vertical pixel IN THE ALPHA CHANNEL detected. The thresh-
old control will determine which pixels in the alpha channel will be

149
 RainFall

detected as the first pixel to pile up on. α

means alpha. α means alpha.

Splash on RBG > Threshold via Vert Height

Splash on RBG > Threshold via Vert Height will
cause the rain to splash on the first vertical
pixel in the image detected. The threshold con-
trol will determine which pixels in the image
will be detected as the first pixel to splash on.

Splash on Alpha > Threshold via 2D

Splash on RGB > Threshold via 2D creates a mask
that works in all directions to define areas of
the layer where the rain will splash.

Splash via Layer

None
Layer “X”
This defines the layer that controls if a rain drop will
splash at a specific location.

Splash Threshold
This defines the minimum value for a pixel in order for a
droplet to splash on the source image or “Splash Via
Layer” image.

Rain Generate
Rain Generate determines how much rain will fall per
frame. This could be considered the volume control.

150
Min Size
Min Size determines the smallest possible size for a rain drop.

Max Size
Max Size determines the largest possible size for a rain drop.

NOTE Min Size and Max size are the outer limits for the size of the rain drops.
The drops will be a size in between these extremes.

Min Opacity
Min Opacity determines the amount of transparency that the drops can have. The
lower this number, the more transparent or see through.

Max Opacity
Max Opacity determines how opaque (non-see through) that the rain drops can
be.

Wind, Gravity, Gusts

Gravity
Gravity determines how fast the rain will fall. The higher this number, the faster
the raindrops will fall and become longer due to a motion blur applied to the rain
drops.

Wind Horiz
Wind Horiz determines the speed at which the rain drops will move to the sides.
When this number is positive, the rain will fall from left to right. when the num-
bers are negative, the rain will fall from right to left.

Wind Vert
Wind Vert increases or decreases the vertical speed of the rainfall. This can be
used to increase the initial speed which in many cases starts at zero.

NOTE Gusts are blasts of wind that move the rain horizontally for short periods of
time.

151
 RainFall

Gust Probability
Gust Probability determines the likelihood of a gust occurring at any given
time.

Gust Max Duration

Gust Max Duration determines how long the gusts will last once they do occur.

Gust Max Speed

Gust Max Speed determines how far the gust will move the raindrops horizon-
tally.

152
153
 Retinal Bloom
Retinal Bloom simulates a special type
of in-camera lens flare effect that
“blooms” or causes a lens flare at spe-
cific points in an image. You can define
the lens-flare aperature shape, size,
transparency and color. You can define
the dark and bright areas that will
bloom.

Preview Mode
When this box is checked, colored pix-
els will be placed over any area that
will bloom. This makes it much easier
to see the affected area in areas of
the footage where the bloom effect
may be too subtle to see, and it is very
interactive for setting the threshold
min/max values.

Effect Only
When this box is checked, only the
effect that is created with Retinal
Bloom will be seen. None of the origi-
nal image will show through. This
makes it possible to see exactly what
the effect is without seeing the origi-
nal unaffected footage.

Quality
The three quality levels significantly
vary the effect. Each higher level will
give a more blossomed look and have a
slightly softer appearance to the look
of the bloom. There is also a signifi-
cant slow-down for each higher level
of quality.

154
Retinal Bloom is useful when used with MultiGradients. Simulate psychometric camera and eye effects.

NOTE Since the effect is very different depending on these quality levels, pre-
viewing in low quality and final rendering in high quality will not work. The final
render will look nothing like the preview.

NOTE You may see a grid pattern when the effect quality is set to low. When
you change the quality to normal or high, this will occur less or not at all.

Bloom Shape

Soft & Bright Harsh Falloff Dot Rounded

Star Oval Brighter Star Wide

Hexagonal Thin Rounded

155
 Retinal Bloom

Threshold Min
Threshold Min determines the lightest
pixels that will have the Retinal
Bloom effect applied.

Threshold Max
Threshold Max determines the darkest
pixels that will have the Retinal
Bloom effect applied.

NOTE Once the minimum and maxi-

mum sizes have been determined with
the size controls, the placement of
the various blooms will be based on
the threshold levels. The largest
blooms will be placed on the pixels
that are closest to the threshold max.
The smallest will be placed on the
pixels that are closest to the thresh- Size Max
old min. Size Max determines the largest
bloom size that will be placed on the
All other blooms will be placed on the footage.
pixels whose threshold value match
the associated size. The simplest way NOTE Only non-round Bloom Shapes
to think of it is this: Bright pixels, big will be affected by the Angle Min and
blooms. Dark pixels, small blooms. Angle Max controls. This is due to the
Medium pixels, medium blooms. fact that perfectly round particles will
Bright and dark are determined by the not look different at different rota-
threshold settings. tion angles.

Size Min Angle Min

Size Min controls the size of the Angle Min determines the minimal
smallest blooms that will be placed on angle at which the bloom particles
the footage. will be placed on the footage.

156
Angle Max
Angle Min determines the minimal angle at which the
bloom particles will be placed on the footage.

NOTE Angle distribution is based on luminance where dark-

est pixels are minimum and brightest are max.

Trans Min
Bloom Object Minimum transparency (also Opacity)

Trans Max
Bloom Object Maximum transparency (also Opacity)

Use Single Color

When this box is checked, the blooms color will be deter-
mined by the “Single Color Control.” When this box is
unchecked, the bloom will be determined by the pixel col-
ors of where the bloom is placed on the footage.

TIP This coloring of the blooms by the footage color can be

easily seen if the Retinal Bloom effect is applied and then
the effect only box is checked. Then slide the Threshold
minimum slider down and the underlying colors will begin
to show (as more colors in the footage are allowed to be
affected by the Retinal Bloom plug-in).

Single Color
When the Use Preset Color box is checked, this control will
determine the color of the blooms that are put on the
footage.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer
with the affected layer. The higher this number, the more
of the original layer will be blended in with the affected
footage.

157
 Schematic Grids
Schematic Grids creates a dual-resolu-
tion grid that you can scroll around,
and also includes the ability to “break”
the segments of the grid. You can also
place items at the corners of the inter-
sections on the grid.

This is another of the graphic element

generators that are a part of Delirium.
We have to give a special thanks to
Jeff Taylor of Alloy Wrecking Crew, the
designers who designed all of the art
that comes with Delirium including the
UI elements, the box, manual cover
and sales literature. His persistence
forced us to include this plug-in in the
set. Thanks Jeff!

Schematic Grids creates grid patterns

that can be subdivided, have broken
lines and have objects placed on its
intersections.

This plug-in also works well with TILT

VMesh for creating distortions to the
grid pattern when used in Effect Only
in the Apply Mode pop-up.

158
Great for creating “scanner” systems. Cool for space-battle scenes.

Image Mode
Apply Mode Main Broken
Use Source Mode Main Broken gives a probability that
Image Composite Mode any given segment in the main grid
Blend Original pattern will be missing making the
Random Seed overall grid “broken”.
Controls in this section are described
in the “Using the Plug-ins” section Main Color
starting on page 13 of this manual. Main Color determines the color of
Refer to that section for instructions the main grid pattern.
on how to use these parameters.
Main Alpha
Grid Parameters Main Alpha determines the trans-
parency of the lines that make up the
Offset main grid.
Offset determines the location of the
grid in the composition. Animating # Subdivisions
this parameter allows for moving the # Subdivisions determines the number
position of the grid across the layer. of lines that will be generated
between each line in the main grid.
Main Spacing These lines are referred to as subdivi-
Main Spacing determines the space sions or subdivision lines. This number
between the lines in the grid. The is always a whole number. Do not ani-
higher the number, the greater mate this value, as it will cause pop-
amount of space between the lines in ping. Animate the Main Spacing
the grid. It does NOT increase the instead.
size of the grid, the subdivisions or
the intersections.

159
 Schematic Grids

Subdiv Color
Subdiv Color determines the color of the subdivision lines.

Subdiv Alpha
Subdiv Alpha determines the transparency of the subdivision lines.

Intersections

Intersections are objects that are placed on the points on the grid where main
grid lines intersect.

Intersect Prob
Intersect Prob determines the likelihood of the intersect shape appearing on
any given intersection.

Intersect Shape
Intersect Shape are the various objects or shapes that can appear on the inter-
sections. The following are the types of shapes available.

Hollow Square X Circle Cross

Triangle Diamond Rounded Rectangle

Intersect Size
Intersect Size determines the size of the intersect shapes that appear on the
intersections.

160
Intersect Color
Intersect Color determines the color of the intersect shapes.

Intersect Alpha
Intersect Alpha determines the transparency of the intersect shapes. Smaller
numbers give a more transparent Intersect Shape.

Intersect Composite
This defines how the intersect image blends with the grid. See page 13 for infor-
mation on composite mode.

Glow
Glow Radius and Glow Intensity work together to determine the size of the glow.
These controls apply to both the Main Grid and the Grid Subdivisions.

Glow Radius
Glow Radius determines the distance from the lines in the grid that the glow will
extend.

Glow Intensity
Glow Intensity determines how brightly the grid will glow.

Glow Mode

Add
Add combines the color values of the layer and the underlying colors. The
resulting color is lighter than the original.

Screen
Screen multiplies the inverse brightness values of the colors in all layers.
The resulting color is never darker than the original.

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 Show Channels
This plug-in was created to view each of
the channels on an layer individually.

After Effects has controls that allow for the

viewing of the channels of the entire com-
position (red, green and blue channels).
After Effects shows the channels of a com-
plete composite.

Show Channels will let you view the individ-

ual layers channels for the layer to which
the effect is applied.

This is more of a utility than an artistic

effect.

Channels

Red will show the red channel only.

Green will show the green channel only.

Blue will show the blue channel only.

Alpha will show the alpha only.

RGB No Alpha shows the Red, Green and Blue

channels without the alpha.

162
Showing each of the four modes for the channels.

Blend Original

Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected layer.
The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in with
the affected footage.

163
 Sketchist
The underlying idea of Sketchist is
based on the concept of human paint-
ing. Sketchist creates it’s effect by
applying thousands of curved brush-
strokes that each follow the contours
of the source image. This mimics the
way humans see objects, and the
results are simply stunning.

We must note that Sketchist is a rather

slow effect because it’s doing a
tremendous amount of work. It’s apply-
ing tens of thousands of individual
brush-strokes over the image. This
takes time to process. So, we will give
you a few tips on getting faster pre-
views so you can get the exact effect
you want with the least trouble.

Sketchist generates a placement grid

based on the perceptual differences in
the image structure. Sketchist uses a
human vision perceptual model to
define where the brush strokes will be
placed. You can control the overall
density of the grid, the perceptual
threshold and the total number of
strokes applied to the grid.

It then begins to render each brush,

following the contours of the image
(the “path of the stroke”) until it finds
a pixel in the source image that is too
far out of color range from the point
where the stroke was first started. You
can control the maximum number of

164
use sketchist to create animated backgrounds. Great for interstitials, openers and bumpers.

steps each stroke takes

along it’s path using the
Stroke Length” parameters.
You can control how fast
each stroke moves (which
can give a more precise or
more sketchy look) using
the “Stroke Speed” parame -
ters. You can control how
“curvy” the stroke is with the “Curviness” parameter. You can also control the
maximum size of the stroke, from which a random size is selected.

Some sets of parameters have a “Var” parameter, which sets the maximum
amount of randomness for that parameter. The higher this value the more scat-
tered and organic the effect will be. A smaller value will look more uniform and
precise.

You control the overall opacity of the strokes with the “Brush Opacity” controls.
You can modify the color of the stroke with the Color controls. You can modify
the red, green, blue, hue, brightness and saturation variability with these con-
trols.This will give a more organic look with larger variations.

Sketchist can paint over a solid color, or the source image. Sketchist allows you
to select a background color as a canvas.

Sketchist paints in “layers”, from the bottom to the top. If there is only one
layer, only the top layer is used. For more than two layers, Sketchist will linear-
ly interpolate the values between the “Top” and “Bottom” layer sets of parame-
ters. For example, if the Top Brush Size was 100 and the Bottom Brush Size was
50, the middle layers’ brush size would be 75.

165
 Sketchist

Rendering and Artistic Tips

• Render only with “Num Strokes” at .1% (or less) to

speed up rendering, for checking out the size and color
of brush strokes.

• Turn on “Preview Grid”, and modify the “Num

Strokes”, “Grid Size”, and “Threshold” values to
achieve an even and not-too populated grid.

• Set the size of the brush strokes lower in order to

speed rendering.

• The trick is to get the fewest number of strokes ren-

dered while creating enough coverage in order to have
enough brush strokes to cover the entire image.

• Start with 1 layer, and experiment only with the

“Top” parameters.

• When rendering 2 layers, in order to see the results of

the second layer, turn the “Top Num Strokes” parameter
to zero, and adjust only the “Bot” parameters.

Image Mode
Image Composite Mode
Brush Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Blend Original
Randomize Per Frame
Controls in this section are described in the “Using the
Plug-ins” section starting on page 13 of this manual.
Refer to that section for instructions on how to use
these parameters.

166
Painting System
The parameters below control the overall painting system.

Brush Shape
Brush Shape is the shape of the brush used to make the stroke. Here are images
of the strokes:

Soft Marker Softer Marker Fat Sharpie Oval Tip Fuzzy Edges

Angles Oval Tip Wet Brush Very Wet Brush Dry Brush

Num Layers
Num Layers controls the total number of layers to paint (bottom to top).

Preview Grid
Preview Grid will preview the grid so that where the brush strokes will be placed
can be seen. This is useful for measuring density of strokes. The green dots are
the top stroke placement and red dots are the bottom stroke placement indica-
tors.

Top Num Strokes

Top Num Strokes defines the total number of strokes to apply to the grid, as a
percentage of a “full” grid for the top layer of painting.

Bot Num Strokes

Bottom Num Strokes defines the total number of strokes to apply to the grid, as a
percentage of a “full” grid for the bottom layer of painting.

167
 Sketchist

Top Grid Size

Top Grid Size defines the spacing (in pixels) between each grid point for the
top layer of painting.

Bot Grid Size

Bottom Grid Size defines the spacing (in pixels) between each grid point for
the bottom layer of painting.

Top Threshold
Top Threshold defines the perceptual threshold to restrict the placement of
brush strokes. Experiment with this parameter, the Grid Size, and the Num
Strokes parameters with Preview Grid turned on to get a feel of where strokes
will be placed for the top layer of painting.

Bot Threshold
Bottom Threshold defines the perceptual threshold to restrict the placement of
brush strokes. Experiment with this parameter, the Grid Size, and the Num
Strokes parameters with Preview Grid turned on to get a feel of where strokes
will be placed for the bottom layer of painting.

Top Brush Size

Top Brush Size controls the maximum size of the brush strokes (in pixels) to be
placed for the top layer of painting.

Bot Brush Size

Bottom Brush Size controls the maximum size of the brush strokes (in pixels) to
be placed for the bottom layer of painting.

Var Brush Size

Var Brush Size allows for variations in the sizes of the brushes used (as defined
in Top Brush Size and Bottom Brush Size). The higher this number, the greater
the variation in the brush size.
Top Stroke Length

Top Stroke Length determines the length of the stroke as a number of “steps”,
and the distance of each step being controlled by the “Stroke Speed”. The
higher this number, the longer the potential path of the brush stroke.

168
Bot Stroke Length
Bottom Stroke Length determines the Bot Curviness
length of the stroke as a number of Bottom Curviness controls the maxi-
“steps”, and the distance of each step mum amount of curviness in the stroke
being controlled by the “Stroke path. Higher values mean curvier
Speed”. The higher this number, the strokes.
longer the potential path of the brush
stroke. Var Curviness
Var Curviness allows for variations in
Var Stroke Length the curviness of the brushes The higher
Var Stroke Length allows for variations this number, the greater the variation
in the length of the brushes The higher in the Curviness.
this number, the greater the variation
in the Stroke Length. Top Brush Opacity
Top Brush Opacity determines how
Top Stroke Speed opaque the brush stroke is. Higher
Top Stroke Speed controls how fast numbers provide greater opacity.
each stroke travels for each step.
Speed is defined in #/pixels per frame Bot Brush Opacity
divided by 100. Bot Brush Opacity determines how
opaque the brush stroke is. Higher
Bot Stroke Speed numbers provide greater opacity.
Bottom Stroke Speed controls how fast
each stroke travels for each step.Speed Var Stroke Opacity
is defined in #/pixels per frame divided Var Stroke Opacity allows for variations
by 100. in the opacity of the brushes. The high-
er this number, the greater the varia-
Var Stroke Speed tion in the opacity.
Var Stroke Speed allows for variations
in the speed of the brush strokes The Color
higher this number, the greater the The various Color controls manage the
variation in the Stroke Speed. color variation in the image. These val-
ues are not dependent on the painting
Top Curviness layer.
Top Curviness controls the maximum
amount of curviness in the stroke path.
Higher values mean curvier strokes.

169
 Sketchist

Red Randomize Background Mode

Red Randomize determines the
amount of randomization of the red Use Original Image
color of the stroke. Higher numbers This uses the source image as
mean more change. the canvas surface. Strokes
are applied over the source
Green Randomize image.
Green Randomize determines the
amount of randomization of the green Use Background Color
color of the stroke. Higher numbers This uses a solid color as the
mean more change. canvas surface. Strokes are
applied over the color speci-
Blue Randomize fied.
Blue Randomize determines the
amount of randomization of the blue
color of the stroke. Higher numbers
mean more change.

Hue Randomize
Hue Randomize determines the
amount of randomization of the hue
of the stroke. Higher numbers mean
more change.

Sat Randomize
Sat Randomize determines the
amount of randomization of the satu-
ration color of the stroke. Higher
numbers mean more change.

Bri Randomize
Bri Randomize determines the amount
of randomization of the brightness
color of the stroke. Higher numbers
mean more change.

170
171
 Smoke
Smoke creates a realistic, billowing
colored smoke effect. You can control
the amount of smoke, and it can be
generated from a logo.

This plug-in is complementary to the

“Fire” plug-in.

The smoke will always be growing in

size from the time it is born until it
fades out, this includes from before
the fade up stage all the way through
the fade out stage of the smoke.

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Blend With Original
Generate From
Integrate Params Over Time
Generate Source
Generate Threshold
Smoke Point
Preroll Frames
Controls in this section are described
in the “Using the Plug-ins” section
starting on page 13 of this manual.
Refer to that section for instructions
on how to use these parameters.

172
Smoke from the Smoke Point. Smoke emitting from a logo.

Smoke System number (whether positive or negative)

the faster the speed of the smoke.
TIP This is the best way to generate Negative numbers will make the
smoke from text or a company logo smoke rise and positive numbers will
that has an alpha channel. make the smoke fall.

Smoke Color Min Grow Speed

Smoke Color determines the color of Min Grow Speed determines the slow-
the smoke. est speed at which the smoke can
grow.
Color Variation
Color Variation varies the brightness Max Grow Speed
of the color of the smoke. Max Grow Speed determines the
fastest speed at which any of the
NOTE This will not change the tint or smoke can grow.
hue color (i.e., you will not get yel-
low smoke in the midst of gray NOTE The Smoke always grows from
smoke). It only varies the brightness, the time it is born to the time it
making some smoke brighter and fades out it is
some darker. growing.

Smoke Amount NOTE The smoke will start out semi-

Smoke Amount determines how much transparent and move towards being
smoke will be generated per frame. more opaque. Once it gets to its max-
imum opacity, it will travel towards
Vert. Speed transparency again. (It starts trans-
Vert Speed determines the rate at parent, goes solid, then goes trans-
which the smoke rises. The higher the parent again.)

173
 Smoke

Fade Up Speed
Fade up speed determines the rate at which the
smoke changes from completely transparent to its
maximum opacity (below).

Fade Out Speed

Fade Out Speed determines the rate at which the
smoke changes from its maximum opacity to com-
pletely transparent.

TIP The smokes life is determined by the sum of Fade

Up Speed and Fade Out Speed.

The Smoke will roll or rotate over time. The rotate

speeds determine to what degree this will take place.

Min Rotate Speed

Min Rotate Speed determines the slowest rate at
which the smoke will rotate.

Max Rotate Speed

Max Rotate Speed determines the fastest rate at
which the smoke will rotate.

Min Opacity
Min Opacity determines the most transparent or see
through that the smoke can appear.

Max Opacity
Max Opacity determines the maximum amount of how
solid or opaque the smoke can appear.

174
 Horiz Dispersion
Horiz Dispersion controls how much the smoke will randomly drift
horizontally. When this is set to zero, the smoke will drift straight
up. The higher this number is set, the more the smoke will move
with some horizontal direction.

Wind Horiz
Wind Horiz provides the capability of allowing air flow to interact with the
smoke. This determines the degree of horizontal movement in a particular direc-
tion (as opposed to Horiz Dispersion which moves the smoke horizontally random-
ly and not all in one direction).

Wind Vert
Wind Vert increases or decreases the vertical speed of the smoke. This can be
used to increase the initial speed which in many cases starts at zero.

175
 SnowStorm
SnowStorm creates a realistic simula-
tion of a winter storm with complete
control. It also simulates gusts of wind
and you can have the flakes land and
stick to a logo.

SnowStorm is another of the particle

systems that handles a single task very
well and very easily. If you just let the
default settings render (with After
Effects 4 you can just press the Zero
key on the numeric keypad) with
Effect Only selected in Apply Mode,
you will see a beautiful example of
what the snow plug-in can do.

The snow plug-in has been designed so

that the snow drifts in a particular
direction, but also includes a great
deal of chaotic motion.

The Snow System determines the quan-

tity, size, distribution and other behav-
iors for the individual snow flakes. The
Wind, Gravity, Lilt area controls the
characteristics of the overall direction
and fall pattern of the snow flakes.

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite Mode
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Random Seed
Blend With Original
Generate From

176
Snow falls on the alpha channel of the logo. Snow can pile up on the bottom.

Integrate Over Time

Generate Layer
Generate Threshold
Snow Point
Controls in this section are described in
the “Using the Plug-ins” section starting
on page 13 of this manual. Refer to that
section for instructions on how to use
these parameters.

Snow System

Pile Up Mode
Don’t Pile Up
When selected, Don’t Pile Up will allow the snow to disappear as it hits
the bottom of the layer.

Pile Up On Bottom
When selected, Pile Up On Bottom will stick and pile up as it hits the
bottom of the layer.

Pile Up on Alpha > Threshold via Vert Height

Pile Up on Alpha > Threshold via Vert Height will cause the snow to pile
up on the first vertical pixel IN THE ALPHA CHANNEL detected. The
threshold control will determine the minimum opacity of a pixel in the
alpha channel to pile up on. α means alpha.

177
 SnowStorm

Pile on RBG > Threshold via Vert Height

Pile on RBG > Threshold via Vert Height will cause the snow to pileup
on the first vertical pixel in the image detected. The threshold control
will determine the minimum brightness level of the pixels in the image
as the first pixel to pile up on.

Pile on Alpha > Threshold via 2D

Pile on RGB > Threshold via 2D creates a mask that works in all direc-
tions to define areas of the layer that snow will stick and pile-up over.

Pile Up Threshold
Threshold cuts off the darker parts as areas that the snow can pile upon. The
higher this number is set, the lighter the pixels must be to allow the snow to
pile up.

NOTE The objects (mask or pixels) that the snow falls onto cannot be moving.
If it is, the snow buildup information will become confused. The snow will not
stick to moving objects.

Preroll Frames
This control allows for the start of the effect before the first frame of the clip.
This control is designed to give you the ability to have the effect already gen-
erating snow before the clip shows. If you did not have this ability, the effect
would have to start with no snow. By pre-rolling, you can have the effect
already generating snow from the first frame in the layer. The value corre-
sponds to the number of frames before the first frame that the effect starts
generating the snow.

Snow Generate
Snow Generate determines how much snow will be created per frame.

Min Size
Min Size determines the size of the smallest flakes created by the Snow plug-
in.

Max Size
Max Size determines the size of the largest flakes created by the Snow plug-in.

178
Min Opacity
Min Opacity determines the most transparent any part of any
flake can be.

Max Opacity
Max Opacity determines the most opaque any part of any
flake can be.

Lilt, Gravity, Wind, Gusts

Lilt is the random motion that individual snow flakes have.
While snow tends to fall all in a single direction, the individ-
ual flakes have a chaotic motion that allows them to move
randomly - sometime with the general direction of the snow,
sometimes against it. This individual flake motion is defined
as lilt. While this is a global setting, it is applied to each
flake individually. A random number between the min and
max amounts will be picked and applied to each flake.

Min Lilt Amount

Min Lilt Amount determines the minimal distance
that the lilt will move the flake.

Max Lilt Amount

Max Lilt Amount determines the maximum dis-
tance that the lilt will move the flake.

Min Lilt Frequency

Min Lilt Frequency determines the minimum
speed at which the snow flake will move due to
the lilt.

Max Lilt Frequency

Max Lilt Frequency determines the maximum
speed at which the snow flake will move due to
the lilt.

179
 SnowStorm

NOTE Amount determines how far, frequency determines how fast.

Gravity
Gravity determines how quickly the snow will fall. The higher this is set, the
faster that the snow will fall.

Wind Horiz.
Wind Horiz determines how much horizontal push can be applied to the snow
to give the appearance of horizontal wind.

Wind Vert
Wind Vert increases or decreases the vertical speed of the snow. This can be
used to increase the initial speed which in many cases starts at zero.

Gust: A gust is a sudden brief rushing or driving of wind.

Gust Probability
Gust Probability defines the likelihood that a gust of wind will occur at any
given time in the composition.

Gust Max Duration

Gust Max Duration determines the greatest number of frames that a gust can
last.

NOTE This does not dictate a fixed number of frames that all gusts will last. It
only determines the maximum amount of time that it can last.

Gust Max Speed

Gust Max Speed determines the maximum amount that the gust can push the
snow when a gust does occur.

180
181
 Solarize
Solarize is a photographic process sim-
ulation for creating the look of double
exposed photographic paper that
forces the silver salts to gather around
areas that have contrast. This gives a
“solarized” or “Sabbatier” look.

Slide the Contrast and Rotate sliders

(Especially Rotate) back and forth and
you will find an area that works well
with your footage.

TIP This effect is fast enough that you

can usually do it with the Option key
held down for real-time updates.

Invert
Invert applies the Solarize effect to the
layer after the layer to which the
effect has been applied has been
inverted (i.e., dark pixels become light

182
Great organic photographic effect. Interesting artistic implementation.

and light pixels become dark in the

inversion process - then the solarize
effect is applied).
Tint Color Solar Grain
Tint Color allows for color tinting of Solar Grain adds a grain pattern to
this grayscale effect. When this is set the footage.
to white, the effect will be a strictly
grayscale effect. NOTE If you have a portion of the
image that appears to be posterizing
Contrast after applying the Solarize effect, it
Contrast adjusts the tonal range of is probably from the grain settings.
the image before the Solarize Effect Try turning the grain to zero and see
is applied. When these numbers are if the posterization is still visibile
high, the difference between light
and dark becomes exaggerated. Small Blend Original
(between 5 and 35) amounts of con- Blend Original will blend in the unaf-
trast will often enhance the solarize fected original layer with the affected
effect. layer. The higher this number, the
more of the original layer will be
Rotate blended in with the affected footage.
Rotate controls the appearance of the
solarize effect.

Solarize can have drastically different

appearances that are defined by the
subject matter. Work with this control
to define the basic look that is being
created.

183
 Sparks
This effect performs a complete
physics simulation of sparks. You can
control the color, the gravity, wind and
other parameters. You can also have
the spark particles bounce off a logo.

Sparks was designed to simulate the

sparks that occur with some cutting
tools, but users of the plug-in have
shown us that there are many other
tricks that can be done with it.

Some of the most interesting uses of

Sparks are as a fountain style firework,
keyframed as a volcano tossing out its
white hot magma, and in conjunction
with Electrical Arcs as the results of
the Arcs cutting through metal.

The Spark System determines how the

sparks will be cast and from where,
and what the sparks will look like when
they are cast. We suggest that you
make a special note of the Bounce
Mode controls. Creating a separate
layer and loading it as the Bounce via
Layer controls is an excellent way of
enhancing the realism of the sparks.

184
Sparks from a point, spun around animating Jet angle. Cool sparkler effects.

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Composite Mode
Random Seed
Blend Original
Generate From
Generate Layer
Generate Threshold
Generate Point
Controls in this section are described in the “Using
the Plug-ins” section starting on page 13 of this man-
ual. Refer to that section for instructions on how to
use these parameters.

Spark System

Bounce Mode
The Bounce Mode pop-up provides the capability to
give the appearance that the particles can bounce
off of other objects. This pop-up provides several
methods for bouncing the particles.

Don’t Bounce
When selected, the particles will fall
through the bottom of the layer.

185
 Sparks

Bounce on Bottom
When selected, if the sparks
reach the bottom they will
bounce off of it.

Bounce on Alpha > Threshold

via Vert Height
This is used to bounce the
sparks from an image that has
an alpha. When this is select-
ed, the sparks will be
bounced in areas that are inside the alpha or mask. Threshold defines
the capability to lower the amount of area inside the mask that can
bounce sparks. When the Generate Threshold slider (below) is set to
zero, all areas will bounce sparks. As this number increases, more
transparent areas of the alpha will no longer be able to bounce sparks.

Bounce on RGB > Threshold via Vert Height

Bounce on RGB > Threshold via Vert Height is used to bounce the sparks
from an images threshold. When this is selected, the sparks will be
bounced in areas that are brighter than the threshold setting. When
the Generate Threshold slider (below) is set to zero, all areas will
bounce sparks. As this number increases, darker areas of the image will
no longer be able to bounce sparks.

Bounce on Alpha > Threshold via 2D

Bounce on Alpha > Threshold via 2D bases where it bounces up based
on the mask values dependent on where it hits the bounce area.

Bounce on RGB > Threshold via 2D

Bounce on RGB > Threshold via 2D bases where it bounces up based on
the rgb values dependent on where it hits the bounce area.

Bounce Via Layer

Bounce Via layer can be used to assign a different image for the bounce con-
trols values.

186
TIP This is a VERY useful way to determine where the sparks will bounce. For
example, if you want the sparks to bounce off of a wall that is in the footage,
mask the wall on a separate layer, load it into the timeline with its visibility off
and use that layer as the bounce layer with Bounce on Alpha > Threshold via 2D
as the Bounce Mode.

Bounce Threshold
When one of the bounce methods is selected, this slider controls the threshold
level at which sparks will be bounce. When this is set low, any luminance level or
alpha level can bounce sparks. When this is set high, only the brightest luminance
levels or alpha levels bounce sparks (i.e., this will make it so transparent/darker
areas cannot bounce sparks).

Preroll Frames
This control allows for the effect to start before the first frame of the clip. This
control gives you the ability to have the effect already generating sparks before
the first frame of the clip. If you did not have this ability, the effect would
always start with no sparks. By pre-rolling, you can have the effect already gen-
erating sparks before the first frame in the layer. This value corresponds to the
number of frames before the first frame of the clip to start generating the
sparks. Please NOTE Pre-roll will not generate sparks before the first frame of
the layer to which the sparks plug-in has been applied.

Spark Generate
Spark Generate determines number of sparks that to be generated per frame.

Min Thrust
Min Thrust determines the speed of the slowest sparks that are generated.

Max Thrust
Max Thrust determines the speed of the fastest sparks.

NOTE Thrust Min and Max determine the extremes of speed of the sparks. Any
individual spark will move at a speed between these values.

187
 Sparks

Min Opacity
Min Opacity determines the least opaque (most transparent) that a spark can
be.

Max Opacity
Max Opacity determines the most opaque that a spark can be.

Birth Color
Birth Color determines the color of the spark when it is first created.

Death Color
Death Color determines the color of the sparks just before they disappear (end
of lifetime). The spark colors will transition from birth to death color.

Min Lifetime
Min Lifetime determines the shortest amount of time that a spark can exist.

Max Lifetime
Max Lifetime determines the longest time that a spark will exist.

Jet Angle
Jet Angle determines the general direction of the flow of sparks.

NOTE This will determine the direction of the flow of the sparks for any of the
choices in the generate from pop-up.

Jet Width
Jet Width determines how far from the Jet Angle
that the particles can be projected. When this is
set to a low number, the stream of sparks will be
tightly focused. When this is set to a high number,
the sparks will flow out in numerous directions.

188
Wind Gravity Air Resistance

Gravity
Gravity pulls the particles down towards the bottom of the layer.

NOTE Gravity combines with thrust , wind and air resistance to determine the
distance and speed that a particle will travel.

Wind Horiz
Wind Horiz determines the amount of horizontal push that the wind can give to
the sparks.

Wind Vert
Wind Vert increases or decreases the vertical speed of the sparks. This can be
used to increase the initial speed which in many cases starts at zero.

Air Resistance
Air Resistance determines the amount of deceleration that the air will drag on
the sparks. The greater this number, the shorter the distance that the sparks will
travel.

Glow

Glow Radius
Glow radius determines the maximum distance that a glow will extend from the
spark particles.

Glow Intensity
Glow Intensity controls the brightness level of the glow.

Glow Colors can be defined by two colors: the color that is closest to the spark
and the color at the outer edge of the glow.

Glow Inner Color

This color defines the glow color closest to the arc.

189
 Sparks

Glow Outer Color

This color defines the glow color that is outside edge of the glow.

Color Bias
Color Bias defines the balance of the Glow Inner Color and Glow Outer Color.
Lower numbers will increase the value of the Glow Inner Color in the overall
appearance of the glow. Larger numbers tip the balance towards the outer
color.

Glow Mode
Screen
Screen multiplies the inverse brightness values of the colors in all lay-
ers. The resulting color is never darker than the original.

Add
Add combines the color values of the layer and the underlying colors.
The resulting color is lighter than the original.

190
191
 Specular Lighting
This effect simulates a single colored
light source shining on the image as if
it were a piece of plastic. The light
source can simply shine on the surface,
or you can automatically create a
bump-map of the source image, and
the plug-in will simulate hills and val-
leys over the image. You can control
the smoothness and depth of the
“bumpiness”.

You can control the surface look via

the Materials sliders. These will deter-
mine the Ambient, Specular, Highlight
and Diffuse Lighting parameters. These
control how the surface material inter-
acts with the light source. You can
make the surface look glossy, flat or
something in-between.

Light Source

Light Type
Light Type determines the Light model-
ing mode:

Point Light
Light emanates from a point
close to the surface.

Directional Light
Light is reflected at an angle
from a light source infinitely
far away.

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Create a glossy bump-mapped effect from any image. Create wild color effects with the “Environment” mapping.

Light Color
Light Color determines the color of the light source.

Light Intensity
Light Intensity controls the overall brightness level of the light source.

Light Pos. X
Light Position X determines the horizontal light location.

Light Pos. Y
Light Position Y determines the vertical light location.

Light Pos Z
Light Position Z determines the height of the light source above the surface of
the image.

Light Dir X
Light Direction X determines the horizontal direction of the light source.

Light Dir. Y
Light Direction Y determines the vertical direction of the light source.

Light Dir. Z
Light Direction Z determines the outward direction of the light source.

Material
The material parameters define the kind of material the surface is made of so
the effect can determine the reflective properties of the surface.

193
 Specular Lighting

Mater Amb Norm.

Material Amb Norm determines the Ambient light reflection amount. This con-
trols the ambient lighting.

Mater Diff Norm

Material Diff Norm determines the Diffuse light reflection amount. This con-
trols the diffuse lighting.

Mater Diff Env

Material Diff Env. determines the Diffuse light envelope. This controls the
amount of diffuse light in the image.

Mater Spec Env

Material Spec Env determines the Specular reflection envelope amount. This
controls the amount of bright “specks” in the high parts of the image.

Mater High Env

Material High Env determines the Highlight envelope amount. This controls the
reflectiveness of the highlight areas just below the specular areas.

Bump Map

Bumpmap Type
To apply a bumpy-looking surface to the image, select a bump map type other
than “None”. The different shapes curve the surface differently.

None
No bump map applied.

Logarithmic
A plateau look.

Sine
Smoothly curving, straight in the middle.

194
 Spherical
Completely smoothly curved, no straight lines.

Linear
Slanted.

NOTE These settings must be experimented with, as they are difficult to

describe succinctly with words.

Bumpmap Layer
None
Layer “X”

Bump Map Layer allows for the use of the bump-map height of another layer in
the current composition. That layer can be chosen here.

Bumpmap Depth
Bumpmap Depth determines the “deepness” of the bump-map effect.

Bumpmap Smooth
Bumpmap Smoothness determines the “softness” of the bump-map effect.

BumpMap Stretch
The source bumpmap image can be stretched if the size of the source image and
the bumpmap image are different.

Don’t Stretch
Don’t Stretch will clip the Bumpmap layer to the upper-right of its image
to match the size of the source image.

Stretch
Stretch will squish the Bumpmap layer to fit the size of the source image.

195
 Specular Lighting

Environment Map

Environment Map
It is possible to use another image as a color look-up table for an environment-
mapping effect and it can be chosen here. Use the Bumpmap smoothness and
Bumpmap depth to control the mapping effect. The environment is created
using an inverse-spherical model.

None
Use Environment Map

TIP Essentially, you are looking at the inside a reflective ball that has a texture
map derived from the “Environment Layer.”

Environment Layer
The layer selected here is used as a 2 dimensional spherical color lookup table
for the environment mapping effect.

None
Layer “X”

196
197
 Thermograph
Thermograph is an extremely flexible
color remapping effect. The basic idea
is that you can take any color in the
image and replace it with a color
based on a color gradient.

When in Preview Mode, the gradients

on the left are the source colors. The
gradient on the right are the colors
that will be replaced.

In other words, the colors in the source

layer are represented by the gradients
on the left, and these colors are all
replaced by the colors in the gradients
on the right.

Preview LUT
Preview LUT (Look Up Table) provides
the ability to look at the colors that
will be used to replace the existing
colors in the image.

When this is checked on, the colors

will be shown along with Red, Green,
Blue and Gray color ramps so that it is
possible to judge what color will be
replaced with the LUT.

198
 Thermograph reinterprets the colors in the image to Recolorize flames and other particle systems.
another set of colors defined by a gradient.

Grayscale Image
Grayscale Image will turn the source footage gray before it applies the thermo-
graph effect.

Pixel Mode
The Pixel Mode pop-up allows for the application of the thermograph effect to a
single channel only or to all three at once.

Color Mode
Defines how the colors are interpolated. RGB Modes interpolate along a straight
line using the Red, Green and Blue channels. HSB modes interpolate through the
colors as if they were a rainbow.

Softness
Softness blurs the underlying image to create smoother transitions between col-
ors.

Start Color
Start Color defines the color that will replace the darkest colors in the footage.

End Color
End Color defines the color that will replace the brightest colors in the footage.

Bias
Bias controls the balance of color or the quantity of color between the start and
end colors in the gradient. When this is shifted to the right, the end color will
be more dominant in the gradient, when it is shifted to the left, the start color
will be more dominant.

199
 Thermograph

Cycle
Cycle allows for rotating the LUT (look up table) that is used to
replace colors in the footage. This makes it possible to cycle a few
colors through your footage repeatedly.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the
affected layer. The higher this number, the more of the original
layer will be blended in with the affected footage.

MultiGradient

Multi-Gradient
This pop-up determines how many colors will be in the gradient. The colors
will always fall in between the start and end colors. For Example, S ->1 ->E,
will provide for a 3 color gradient starting with the start color, transitioning to
the Grad 1 Color and ending with the End Color.

Grad 1 Color
When a multi-Gradient is selected in the Multi-Gradient pop-up, this will deter-
mine the color of the Grad 1 position.

Grad 1 Mode
Controls the interpolation method used between the gradient color positions.

200
Grad 1 Position
Grad 1 Position determines the position of the Grad 1 color on the gradient rela-
tive to the Start Color and End Color.

A good way to see the results of this is to set this to red and slide the control left
and right. You should be able to do this with the option key held down and
receive near real-time feedback. Notice that as you approach 100% that bottom
or end color of the gradient gives a very hard red line. This is because it is
squeezing most of the End Color out. As you get to 100%, the entire interior of
the layer turns red. This is because you have completely removed the End Color.

As additional gradient colors are selected in the Multigradient pop-up, the Grad 2
to Grad 10 controls are made functional. Each of these works in the same manner
as the Grad 1 controls with each additional color being added at thier respective
positions in the gradient.

201
 Turbulent Noise
This effect creates a “turbulent” noise
pattern that is useful for creating tex-
ture and distortion effects. See the
sample projects for an example of this.

Dark Color
Dark Color Defines the darkest shade
that can occur within the turbulent
noise. This defines the areas that look
deepest. If this is set to a lighter
shade, there will be less color differen-
tial to work with when adjusting
Contrast and Brightness.

Mid Color
Mid Color is the median color between
the dark and light colors.

TIP If Dark Color is left to black and

light color is left to white, then giving
Mid Color a color tone will tint the tur-
bulent noise (i.e., this will work like a
tint control).

Bright Color
Bright Color is the lightest color in the
Turbulent Noise.

Use Turbulence
When checked, Use Turbulence will
make the noise look more complex, a
more “gnarled” appearance.

202
The water was created using Turbulent Noise and HLS Skin/blood texture is created with Turbulent Noise.
Displace.

Contrast Offset X
Contrast increases or decreases the Offset X allows for motion of the field
contrast levels in the noise. The lower of turbulent noise along the X axis. By
the number, the less the contrast end- increasing this number the turbulent
ing in solid black. noise will drift from right to left.

Brightness Offset Y
Brightness controls the total level of Offset Y allows for motion of the field
how dark or light the noise is. of turbulent noise along the Y axis. by
increasing this number the turbulent
Detail noise will drift from bottom to top.
Detail controls the amount of fine
turbulence that can be seen. The Seed
higher this is set the rougher the tur- Seed controls the overall look of the
bulence will appear. This also increas- noise pattern.
es render time when set high.
Animate Seed
Stretch X When Animate Seed is checked on,
Stretch X warps the turbulence verti- the noise will generate a new, random
cally (along the X axis) as this number pattern with each new frame.
increases.
Make Tileable
Stretch Y Make Tileable creates a noise pattern
Stretch Y warps the turbulence hori- that will repeat upon itself seamlessly
zontally (along the y axis) as this when it is offset extensively.
number increases.
Blend Original
TIP Stretch behaves like a zoom Blend Original will blend in the unaf-
where the turbulence looks farther fected original layer with the affected
away as these numbers layer. The higher this number, the
increase. more of the original layer will be
blended in with the affected footage.
203
 Video Malfunction
This effect uses a unique combination
of different effects with built-in ran-
domization to create a true simulation
of television electromagnetic interfer-
ence patterns. There are seven sec-
tions that control different aspects of
the effect.

By modifying the various parameters

you can easily simulate all kinds of
abnormal effects including video noise,
ghosting, intermittent static, vertical
hold problems, tinting and horizontal
tracking distortions.

Random Seed
Random Seed is the seed value (think
of it as a start point) for any random-
ization that occurs in the plug-in. Do
not animate this as it will cause the
effect to jump or randomly change val-
ues and the animation will not be
smooth.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaf-
fected original layer with the affected
layer. The higher this number, the
more of the original layer will be
blended in with the affected footage.

204
Creating video distruptions could not be easier! The text/date at the bottom has the effect applied.

Color Correction Video Noise

Tint Color Noise Maximum

This is the color to tint the video This is the maximum amount of noise
image. allowed in the image. Larger values
will create more bright and dark
Bright “grainy” areas.
This controls the overal brightness in
the image. Noise Variance
This is the allowed variability in the
Bright Var noise over time. Larger values cause
This controls the maximum variability more intense “noise bands” vertically.
of the brightness in the image. The
larger this value the more “bright and Micro Noise
dark banding” in the luminosity of the This controls the amount of basic
image. noise. This is another way to add
noise to the image that will not be
Contrast modified over time.
This controls the overall contrast
level in the image. Noise Width
This is the maximum length of the
Contrast Var “noise runs”. Larger values mean
This controls the maximum variability longer noise runs.
of the brightness in the image. The
larger this value the more “contrasty” Noise Tempo
the image may become. This is how often the noise will
change. Larger numbers will cause
the noise patterning to change LESS

205
 Video Malfunction

often (more frames between noise randomly selected number of frames

changes) between “Min Tempo” and “Max
Tempo”. Larger values hold the distor-
Distortion tion for a longer amount of time.
There are 2 components to the distor-
tion which are combined together to Amplitude 1
give a single horizontal displacement This controls the amplitude of the
value. The first component is defined first sine-wave generator.
by “Max Distortion” and the Tempo
parameters. The second component is Amplitude 2
defined using 2 sine waves added This controls the amplitude of the
together with a random value added second sine-wave generator.
in. These second components are con-
trolled by the Amplitude, Frequency, Frequency 1
Speed and Offset Variance parame- This controls the frequency of the
ters. first sine-wave generator.

Max Distortion Frequency 2

This defines the maximum amount of This controls the frequency of the
horizontal distortion allowed. Larger second sine-wave generator.
number create more left-right distor-
tions. Speed 1
This controls the speed of the first
Min Tempo sine-wave generator.
This is the minimum number of frames
to hold a distortion phase. The distor- Speed 2
tion changes its value after a random- This controls the speed of the second
ly selected number of frames between sine-wave generator.
“Min Tempo” and “Max Tempo”.
Larger values hold the distortion for a Offset Variance
longer amount of time. This adds a random value to the sine
wave amplitude.
Max Tempo
This is the maximum number of
frames to hold a distortion phase. The Glow
distortion changes its value after a Glow is intended to create a glow pat-

206
tern around the video noise after it has been distorted
which often occurs on older television receivers.

Size
This defines the radius of the glow.

Intensity
This conrols the brightness of the glow.

Threshold
This controls the minimum luminance value a pixel must
have before it will begin to glow. Higher values prevent
the darker portions of the image from glowing.

Ghosting
Ghosting creates a horizontal “echo” that simulates
reflections and interference patterns of electromagnetic
energy as it is transmitted through space to its reception
point. There are at most 3 ghost patterns, and you can
define the maximum “sway” with the Ghost Offset para-
meters.

The Weight parameters define the opacity of the particu-

lar ghost image. It is possible to over-weight the ghost
images, which will make the image brighter than the
original.

Ghost Offset 1
Defines the maximum horizontal movement per frame of
this ghost image.

Ghost Offset 2
Defines the maximum horizontal movement per frame of
this ghost image.

Ghost Offset 3
Defines the maximum horizontal movement per frame of
this ghost image.
207
 Video Malfunction

Primary Weight
This is the opacity of the source (un-ghosted) signal.

Ghost 1 Weight
Controls the opacity of this ghost image.

Ghost 2 Weight
Controls the opacity of this ghost image.

Ghost 3 Weight
Controls the opacity of this ghost image.

Rolling Bar
This creates a dark bar that runs vertically on an image when it’s refresh phase
is slightly different than the video capture device recording its screen. It’s a
bit technical, but you can see the real-world effect easily yourself by recording
a computer video monitor with a video camera.

Bar Height
This defines the height of the bar as a percentage of the source image size.
Larger values make a larger bar.

Bar Speed
This controls how fast the bar rolls up or down the screen. Larger values move
it faster.

Bar Darkness
This controls how dark the bar is. Larger values make a darker bar.

208
Vertical Hold
This simulates a malfunctioning vertical hold mechanism, or the loss of a vertical
sync due to electromagnetic interfrence.

Roll Probability
This defines the chance per frame that a vertical hold malfunction “roll” will
occur. If it occurs, Roll Length defines the maximum number of frames that the
vertical hold malfunction will last.

Roll Length
Defines the maximum duration of a vertical hold malfunction, expressed in
frames.

Roll Speed
This defines the maximum speed that a the verical hold will“roll.”

209
 Visual Harmonizer
Visual Harmonizer creates stunning ani-
mated images based on a series of sine
waves which are rendered as a series
of particles or as simple lines.

Each of these harmonizer shapes are

controlled by the frequency (how close
together the waves occur), amplitude
(how high each wave will go) and
phase (determines the position of the
peaks and valleys of the waves in the
Harmonizers.)

Keyframe the start and end controls

for each of these settings to determine
moving wave patterns and experiment
with differing numbers for the start
and end values.

Image Mode
Apply Mode
Use Source Mode
Image Composite Mode
Particle Composite Mode
Blend Original
Alpha Threshold
Alpha Weight
Controls in this section are described
in the “Using the Plug-ins” section
starting on page 13 of this manual.
Refer to that section for instructions
on how to use these parameters.

210
Visual Harmonizer images are vibrant. Smooth swooping effects for backgrounds.

Harmonizer System

Number of Harmonizers
Number of Harmonizers defines how many bars are created with the Visual
Harmonizer. The more Harmonizers created, the slower the render.

Particle Shape
Particle Shape defines the basic look or appearance of the bars created with
Visual Harmonizer. Each of these particle shapes gives a significantly different
look, especially when Use Spacing (below) is checked on.

Soft & Bright Harsh Falloff Dot Rounded

Star Oval Lines Only

Start Point / End Point

These points define the left side and right side of the effect.

TIP If you want the Harmonizer to run top to bottom instead of side to side, use
Effect Only in the Apply Mode pop up. Then rotate the Rotation control under
the Layer->Transform menu.

211
 Visual Harmonizer

NOTE The Transform controls are After Effects controls and are
available on the After Effects Time Line. Select the layer that
has Visual Harmonizer applied and press the R key to access
the rotation controls easily.

Start Color
Start Color is the color of the first frequency or wave.

End Color
End Color is the color of the last frequency.

Start Size
Start Size is the thickness of the first or start frequency.

End Size
End Size is the thickness of the last frequency. Each of the fre-
quencies in between will vary in width in a linear manner
between the start and end size.

Start Opacity
Start Opacity determines the transparency or opacity of the
first frequency.

End Opacity
End Opacity determines the transparency or opacity of the
first frequency.

Start Amplitude
Start Amplitude determines the height of the first
frequency.

End Amplitude
End Amplitude determines the height of the last
frequency.

212
NOTE Load the preset Simple Waves. cies, lose that alignment and come
Notice that the start and end ampli- back to it again at the end of the 360
tudes are different and that that is degree loop.
generating variations on the height of
the frequencies. Also note that while Use Spacing
start amplitude is set to zero, there When this is checked, Use Spacing
are still waves in the harmonizer. breaks the frequencies from solid lines
into individual dots (depending on the
Start Frequency Particle Shape).
Start Frequency determines
how often the start fre- Spacing Distance
quency goes up and down in Spacing Distance is only valid when the
a wave form. The higher Use Spacing box is checked. When it is
this number, the greater checked, this determines the amount
the number of wave forms. of space between the individual parti-
cles that make up the frequencies.
End Frequency
End Frequency determines Spacing Phase
how often the end frequen- Spacing Phase determines the location
cy goes up and down in a of the particles that make
wave form. up the frequencies.

Start Phase TIP By animating this parameter, it is

Start Phase determines the possible to make the particles crawl
alignment of the waves of along the frequencies.
the first frequency.
Glow
End Phase
End Phase determines the Glow Radius
alignment of the waves of Glow Radius controls the distance from
the last frequency. the harmonizers edge on both sides of
the harmonizers that the glow colors
TIP If you animate one of the phases will travel away from the harmonizers.
360 degrees while leaving the other at The glow also covers over the interior
the start point of the animated phase, of the harmonizers, so when this is
the waves of the animated phase will turned completely off, the harmonizers
line up with all of the other frequen- look much thinner.

213
 Visual Harmonizer

Glow Intensity
Glow Intensity controls the brightness level of the glow. Since the glow radius
covers both the interior and exterior of the harmonizers, when the glows inten-
sity is increased it affects the interior of the harmonizers more than the out-
side of the harmonizers.

Glow Colors are defined by two colors, the color that is closest to the harmo-
nizers and another layer of color that lies just outside of the harmonizers.

Glow Inner Color

This color defines the glow color closest to the harmonizers.

Glow Outer Color

This color defines the glow color that is outside the harmonizers and the Glow
Inner Color.

Color Bias
Color Bias defines the balance of the Glow Inner Color and Glow Outer Color.
Lower numbers will increase the value of the Glow Inner Color in the overall
appearance of the glow. Larger numbers tip the balance towards the outer
color.

Glow Mode

Screen
Screen multiplies the inverse brightness values of the colors in all lay-
ers. The resulting color is never darker than the original.

Add
Add combines the color values of the layer and the underlying colors.
The resulting color is lighter than the original.

214
215
 Wave Displace
Wave Displace is a seemingly simple
distortion effect that gives complete
control over all of the details of a
wave distortion. While this is true and
it is a very flexible wave distortion
plug-in, the really interesting stuff
starts when you check on Repeat
Wave.

Turn “Repeat Wave” on and you will

see some very extreme flowing distor-
tions that are very interesting.

Number of Generators
Number of Generators determines the
number of distortions that are used in
the wave patterns. This basically is a
degree of effect control. The higher
the number, the greater the distortion.

Edge Mode
Edge mode determines how the pixels
will be filled along the edges of the
image when the distortion moves the
footage such that the footage below or
background color can be viewed. By
using one of these methods, the
footage below will not show through.

216
Repeated wave distortions create liquid effects. Strange distorted patterns.

Repeat Edge pixels

Repeat Edge Pixels will repeat the pixel closest to the uncovered area.
This will give a stretched look from the edge of the distorted footage to
the edge of the comp.

Wrap Around
Wrap Around will use pixels from the opposite side of the footage that
have been distorted and use it to replace the empty areas.

Reflect Edge Pixels

Reflect Edge Pixels will use a reflection of the closest pixels to the edge
of the areas that are uncovered due to the Wave Displace Effect. This is
the most often used setting.

Link H to V
Link H to V will disable the horizontal controls and base the horizontal values
off of the vertical controls.

Repeat Wave
Repeat Wave uses a wave shape to distort an image multiple times. It takes the
wave that is defined in the controls below and applies it multiple times to the
footage. For example, the wave effect will be applied once to the first frame,
twice to the second frame, three to the third frame and on and on.

TIP If you think about what that means, you will realize that frame 10 will take
10 times longer to render than frame one. Long movies will take a long time to
render.

217
 Wave Displace

TIP Used on a logo it can generate very interesting

smoky looks.

NOTE Quality should be set for final render in order to

use Anti-aliasing and smooth distortions. When using
“Repeat Wave”, you MUST set the quality to High.

Repeat Amount
Repeat Amount determines the strength of the wave
that is applied when Repeat Wave is checked on. This
control is disabled when Repeat Wave is unchecked.

Random Seed
Random Seed is the seed value (think of it as a start
point) for any randomization that occurs in the plug-in.
Do not animate this as it will cause the effect to jump
or randomly change values and the animation will not
be smooth.

H Wave Type
This defines the wave shape for the distortion.

Sine
Uses a sine wave as a distortion shape.

Square
A box wave distortion shape.

Triangle
A tent-shaped wave distortion shape.

H Min Amp
H Min Amp is the minimum amplitude (think
of amplitude as wave height or as the
strength of the distortion) of the horizontal
waves.

218
 H Max Amp
H Max Amp is the maximum amplitude of the
horizontal waves used in the distortion.

H Min Frq
H Min Frq determines the minimal number of
times of how often the waves of distortion
occur. When this number is set high, the
waves occur with greater frequency.

H Max Frq
H Max Frq determines the maximum number of times that waves will
occur along the horizontal axis.

TIP By using minimums and maximums for frequency and amplitude, you can cre-
ate non-uniform patterns of distortion. If you want your distortion to be uniform,
just set the minimum and maximum numbers to the same value.

H Phase
H Phase determines the position of the waves highs and lows (generat-
ed by amplitude) along the lines of the waves (generated by
frequency).

V Wave Type

V Min Amp
V Min Amp is the minimum amplitude of the vertical waves

V Max Amp
V Max Amp is the maximum amplitude of the vertical waves used in the distor-
tion.

V Min Frq
V Min Frq determines the minimal number of times of how often the waves of dis-
tortion occur. When this number is set high, the waves occur with greater fre-
quency.

219
 Wave Displace

V Max Frq
V Max Frq determines the maximum number of times that waves will occur
along the horizontal axis.

V Phase
V Phase determines the position of the waves highs and lows (generated by
amplitude) along the lines of the waves (generated by frequency).

H Scale
H Scale zooms into or out of the wave distortion effect along the horizontal (
or “X”) axis.

V Scale
V Scale zooms into or out of the wave distortion effect along the Vertical ( or
“Y”) axis.

TIP H Scale and V Scale allow for global changes to the look of the distortion
without having to change each of the parameters the same percentage.

Blend Original
Blend Original will blend in the unaffected original layer with the affected
layer. The higher this number, the more of the original layer will be blended in
with the affected footage.

220
221
 TILT 3D Tools
TILT is a set of plug-ins that
allow you to manipulate 3D
objects directly within After
Effects.

You add cameras, lights,

textures and objects into
the composition. You then
animate and render the 3D
objects using the normal
After Effects controls.

TILT also allows you to cre-

ate 3D Displacement images
from your movies. You can
fly around these objects in
3D using the VMesh object.

TILT consists of seven plug-ins:

1 TILT Camera Must be present to view the 3D world.

2 TILT Far Light A light-source effect.
3 TILT Spot Light A light-source effect.
4 TILT Point Light A light-source effect.
5 TILT Simple Object A basic 3D object.
6 TILT File Object A model 3D object.
7 TILT VMesh Object Makes a 3D object from a layer.

Most After Effects plug-ins (other than TILT) immediately apply thier effect to
the image and is updated in the Composition window. For example, when you
apply a blur plug-in the image becomes blurred as soon as the plug-in is
applied.

TILT works a little differently. There must be at least 3 TILT plug-ins applied
together to the same layer before any results will be rendered. These three
plug-ins must include a camera (to see the scene), a light source and a 3D
object.

222
The TILT Camera plug-in receives 3D World information from
the other TILT plug-ins. The other TILT plug-ins prepare data
for rendering by the TILT Camera. Thus the TILT Camera plug-in
plays a unique role: it provides the visual interface to the other
TILT plug-ins. So when you work with TILT, you must always
include a TILT Camera plug-in.

If a Camera is not included, the TILT plug-ins will still operate,

but the effects will not be seen until the TILT Camera is applied
to the layer.

World Space Coordinate System

TILT defines a system of coordinates for

describing the locations and orientations
of 3D objects. This system is referred to
as the World Space Coordinate System
or WCS. TILT uses a “Left Handed”
system.

All the TILT plug-ins feature mini-windows called “manipulator

controls”. In these manipulator windows, space is displayed so
that positive x is to the right, positive y is up, and positive z
comes out of the screen toward you.

World Space Units

TILT uses absolute, world-space coordi-

nates to describe locations in 3-D space.
When the TILT File Object reads in a 3-D
model, it first scales the model so that its
maximum dimension is 1 world space unit.
TILT also centers the model at the origin
of world space. Models may then be
scaled, rotated, and positioned using the
TILT File Object plug-in controls.

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 TILT 3D Tools

TILT Camera

An After Effects composition is composed of

one or more layers. Each layer can have its
own TILT effects and its own TILT camera.

A TILT Camera renders an image using the

properties of a virtual world that is defined
by the attributes supplied by the other TILT
plug-ins. (Whew!)

KEY CONCEPT he Camera is a “super” or

“meta” plug-in effect. You must invoke a
TILT Camera to see the results of any other
TILT plugin in the composition window.

A layer may have multiple TILT cameras. As

many Camera instances may be included as
re needed to get the desired effect. Use the
Blend With Original control to adjust the
amount of each camera image that is used.

Invoke TILT
Select “TILT Camera” from the Effects menu. The TILT Camera is necessary to
see any objects or lights in your 3D scene.

Manipulator
In the Manipulator mini-window you can interactively set values for Orbit
Left/Right, Orbit Up/Down, Tilt, X Position, Y Position, and Z Position. Note the
buttons located along the left edge of the Manipulator mini-window.

If these buttons are clicked on, and then the mouse is clicked and dragged, it
is possible to quickly — and interactively — control the view of world space
rendered in the Manipulator window. Control the view of world space by con-
trolling TILT’s virtual camera parameters.

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The buttons have the following functions:

“Orbit Camera” — causes mouse

movements to change the location and tilt
of the virtual camera. Movement in the x
direction modifies the value of the Orbit
Left/Right control. Movement in the y
direction modifies the value of the Orbit
Up/Down control. Movement in the x and y
directions with the shift key held down
modifies the value of the Tilt control.

Change the look at point — causes mouse movements to move the

point at which the camera is looking.

Dolly Camera — causes mouse movements to move the camera

closer to or further away from the scene.

Reset to Home State —causes the camera to be reset so that it is

looking directly down the z world space axis in a minus-z direction at a
set distance from the world space origin.

Orbit Left/Right
Sets the left/right orientation angle of the camera. The Orbit Left/Right value
specifies the number of degrees of rotation about the Y world coordinate axis
where 0 degrees points in the positive Z direction. Rotation is centered on the
Look At Point. Selecting the button in the Manipulator window and moving the
mouse automatically sets values for this parameter.

Selecting the buttons in the Manipulator window and moving the

mouse automatically sets values for this parameter.

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 TILT 3D Tools

Orbit Up/Down
Sets the up/down orientation angle of the camera. The Orbit Up/Down value
specifies the number of degrees of rotation away from the x/z plane. A value
of 0 indicates that the object coordinate system is parallel to the x/z plane.
Rotation is centered on the Look At Point.

Selecting this button in the Manipulator window and moving the

mouse automatically sets values for this parameter.

Camera Distance
Set the distance in world space units from the camera to the Look At Point.

Selecting this button in the Manipulator window and moving the

mouse automatically sets values for this parameter.

Tilt
Set the rotation angle of a camera. The Tilt value specifies a rotation about
the z axis of the camera with respect to the positive y axis of world space.

Holding the shift key down, selecting this button, and moving
the mouse in the Manipulator window automatically sets values for this
parameter.

Field of View
Field of view angle is a common camera setting. It varies inversely with anoth-
er common parameter, focal length, for a particular film size. Changing the
focal length (the distance between the lens and the film), and thereby chang-
ing the field of view angle, can create subtle visual effects, making objects
appear subtly wider and flatter (narrow field of view) or taller and narrower
(wide field of view). TILT allows for the control of these effects by moving the
slider shown here:

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The focal length is the distance from the lens to the film. So objects are made to
appear closer by increasing the focal length. Note in Figure 4 how as the focal
length increases, the field of view angle decreases.

Figure 4. Narrow shot

A narrower shot (photo with a narrow field of view) implies a narrower field of
view angle means each pictured thing looks bigger and wider.

If we get the narrowest shot by physically moving the lens away from the film
plane, we therefore get the widest shot by keeping the lens as close as possible
to the film plane, i.e., we maximize the field of view angle by decreasing the
focal length, as shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5. Wide shot

A wide shot (photo with large field of view) implies a large field of view angle,
and that means more things in the picture, so each pictured thing looks smaller
(and taller and narrower)!

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 TILT 3D Tools

Now, we can’t really say that TILT adjusts “focal length” (the physical distance
between the lens and the film), since TILT doesn’t have any lenses or film. TILT
does, however, simulate the identical visual effect by using 3-D geometry to
calculate the change in the appearance of 3-D objects given different field of
view angles.

Experiment with field of view angle to get an idea of the changes it makes.
Look closely; they’re subtle.

Look At Point (X, Y, Z)

The Look At Point specifies the location, in world space units, of the point at
which the camera is looking. This is also the point about which the camera
rotates when the Orbit Left/Right and Orbit Up/Down controls are changed.

Selecting the button in the Manipulator window and moving the

mouse automatically sets values for these parameter.

Near Clip
Portions of 3D objects that are closer to the camera than the Near Clip dis-
tance in world space units are not displayed.

Camera Far Clip

Portions of 3D objects that are further from the camera than the Far Clip dis-
tance in world space units are not displayed.

Blend With Original

The image in the TILT camera can blend with the original image in the
Composition window. Use this effect for fading in and out of different scenes.
The numbers represent the percentage of blend between the two images.
Values between 0 and 100 blend the images more or less.

At the extremes (0% and 100%), there is no blending. If you specify 0% (or set
the slider to 0%), you see only the TILT camera image. If you specify 100% (or
set the slider to 100%), you see only the original image.

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Ambient Intensity
The Ambient Intensity control sets the intensity of the ambient light. If you set
Ambient Intensity to 0, and no other lighting effects are set, no objects are visi-
ble. If you set Ambient Intensity to 1.00 (the maximum), the ambient light is as
bright as possible.

Ambient Color
The Ambient Color control sets the color of the ambient light. Choose the color of
the ambient light by clicking on the empty box to get a standard color dialog. Or
poke the eye dropper and select any color currently being displayed anywhere on
the screen.

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 TILT 3D Tools

TILT Far Light

The TILT plug-in Far Light defines a light that is at an infinite distance away.
The sun is an example of a “far” light. Even though the sun is a sphere that
radiates light in all directions, it doesn’t appear to us that way. Since the sun
is so far away, its rays appear parallel.

“Far Light” simulates a faraway light, like the sun. Only its direction (not its
location) matters, since Far Light rays go straight and undimmed in only one
direction (unlike, say, a bare light bulb, which radiates in all directions).

Thus TILT doesn’t care about the location of the source of a Far Light. But,
TILT does need to establish its direction. We can modify and thereby animate
its direction to simulate a moving faraway light.

Note that Far Light does not make any visible changes to the Composition win-
dow directly; instead, it provides information used by TILT Camera effects. So
to see the effects of modifications to Far Light, you must include and enable at
least one TILT Camera.

Manipulator
In the Manipulator mini-window the values for Left/Right and Up/Down can be
set interactively. Because Far Light rays go straight and undimmed in only one
direction, these values control the direction of the Far Light.
Note the buttons along the left edge of the Far Light Manipulator mini-window.

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These control the location of the Far Light, plus
the movement of the Manipulator Window virtual
camera, so you can move around in the scene.
These buttons do not move the virtual camera con-
trolling the Composition window. To move that
camera, use the TILT Camera plug-in.

Orbit the virtual camera in the

Manipulator Window only

Move the Look At Point in the

Manipulator Window only

Dolly the camera — i.e., move it closer to / further from the scene
— in the Manipulator window.

Causes the Manipulator window camera to be reset so that it is

looking directly down the z world space axis in a minus-z direction at a
set distance from the world space origin.

If these buttons are clicked on, and then the mouse is clicked and dragged, it is
possible to quickly — and interactively — control the view of world space ren-
dered in the Manipulator window.

The top button causes mouse movements to control the Left/Right

and Up/Down control values. Click on the button and move the mouse to
see the changes.

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 TILT 3D Tools

Left/Right
Set the angle of the light rays with respect to the world coordinate system.
The Left/Right value specifies the number of degrees of rotation about the y
axis. A value of 0 indicates that the rays are directed in the positive z direc-
tion.

Up/Down
Set the angle of the light rays with respect to the world coordinate system.
The Up/Down value specifies the number of degrees of rotation away from the
x/z plane. A value of 0 indicates that the rays lie parallel to the x/z plane.

Intensity
Adjust the brightness of the Far Light by manipulating the slider for Intensity.
The value 0 turns off the Far Light; the value 1 is as bright as possible.

NOTE Unchecking the title line box ( i.e., turning off Far Light) has the same
visual effect as reducing the Intensity to 0, but without modifying the Intensity
(or any) parameter. For more information on items in the top line of the Far
Light display, see Top Line Controls.

Color
Change the Color of the Far Light by clicking on the empty box in the Color
line, or by clicking on the eye dropper. Poking the empty box, you get a stan-
dard color dialog from which to choose the desired color. If the eye dropper is
poked, any color currently being displayed anywhere on the screen can be
selected.

Visible
If Visible is checked, TILT displays a model of an arrow pointing in the direction
of the light. Use the arrow to check the direction of the light rays on the
scene. Note that the arrow is visible only if at least one TILT Camera is includ-
ed and enabled.

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TILT File Object

The TILT plug-in File Object loads and sets the

position, scale, and orientation of a 3D model.
Note that File Object does not make any visible
changes to the Composition window directly;
instead, it provides model information which can
be rendered using one or more TILT Camera
effects.

As many File Object instances may be included as you need to get the desired.
They will interact together in the 3D space.

Model
The Model control imports a 3D model in Apple 3DMF format. There are many
sample models on the CD for your use.

To import a scene, click on Import to get a standard file dialog. Move around as
usual until you find the wanted file. Only files and directories containing 3DMF
format files will be shown. When you import a scene, TILT calculates its size,
position, and orientation as follows:

1 TILT calculates a “bounding box” that encloses

all objects in the 3DMF file.

2 TILT scales the objects being imported so that the longest

dimension of the bounding box equals 1 world space unit.
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 TILT 3D Tools

of the Manipulator mini-window.

For example, suppose a 3DMF These control the movement of the
file contains a box whose Manipulator Window virtual camera,
faces are aligned with the so you can move around in the
coordinate axes. The box is 4 imported scene. These buttons do not
units wide, 1 unit high, and 2 move the virtual camera controlling
units deep. The longest the Composition window. To move
dimension is the width (4). that camera, use the TILT Camera
Thus when this scene is plug-in.
brought into TILT, TILT scales
it so that it is 1 world space
unit wide. The height is now Orbit the virtual cam-
.25 and the depth is now .5. era in the Manipulator
Window only

Move the Look At Point

in the Manipulator Window
only

3 TILT positions the objects in Dolly the camera in the

world space so that the cen- Manipulator window only
ter of the bounding box is at
the origin of world space.
Reset to home state in
4 TILT does not modify the the Manipulator window only
orientation of the objects.
If these buttons are clicked on, and
Manipulator then the mouse is clicked and
In the Manipulator mini-window values dragged, it is possible to quickly —
can be interactively set for and interactively — control the view
Left/Right, Up/Down, X Position, Y of world space rendered in the
Position, and Z Position. Manipulator window.

Note the buttons along the left edge The second column of Manipulator

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buttons contains controls for the posi- Up/Down
tion and orientation in world space of Set the orientation angle of a File
the imported 3-D model: Object. The Up/Down value specifies
the number of degrees of rotation away
from the x/z plane. A value of 0 indi-
Causes mouse movement cates that the object coordinate sys-
to control the Left/Right, tem is parallel to the x/z plane.
Up/Down, and Tilt control val-
ues. Tilt
Set the orientation angle of a File
Object. The Tilt values specifies a rota-
Causes mouse move- tion about the z axis of the shape with
ments to control the X respect to the positive y axis of world
Position, Y Position, and Z space.
Position control values.
Translation (X, Y, and Z)
Set a File Object’s position. Controls
Causes mouse move- for X Position, Y Position, and Z
ments to control the X Scale, Y Position accept values in absolute
Scale, and Z Scale control val- world space units.
ues.
Scale (X, Y, and Z)
Set a File Object’s scale by using con-
Resets default values for trols for X Scale, Y Scale, and Z Scale.
Left/Right, Up/Down, Tilt, X Values are multipliers of the size of the
Position, Y Position, Z Position, object.
X Scale, Y Scale, and Z Scale .

Left/Right
Set the orientation angle of a File
Object. The Left/Right value specifies
the number of degrees of rotation
about the y axis where 0 degrees points
in the positive Z direction.

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 TILT 3D Tools

TILT Point Light

The TILT plug-in Point Light defines a

“point” type light. This type of light is
similar to a bare light bulb: light rays emanate in all directions from a point in
world coordinate space. Thus, to create realistic effects, the location of the
source as well as the intensity of the Point Light is needed.

Note that Point Light does not make any visible changes to the Composition
window directly. Rather, it provides information which is used by the TILT
Camera plug-in.

To begin working with TILT Point Light effect types, go back to the Delirium
pop-up menu (shown in Figure 1) that lists the TILT plug-ins. Select TILT Point
Light. You may include as many Point Light instances as After Effects allows.

Manipulator
Use the manipulator control mini-window to set the X Position, Y Position, and
Z Position control values interactively.

Note the buttons along the left edge of the Point Light Manipulator mini-win-
dow, shown in Figure 8. These control the location of the Point Light, plus the
movement of the Manipulator Window virtual camera, so you can move around
in the scene. These buttons do not move the virtual camera controlling the
Composition window. To move that camera, use the TILT Camera plug-in.

236
If you click on these buttons, and then click and drag the
mouse, you can quickly — and interactively — control the view
of world space rendered in the Manipulator window.

Orbit the virtual camera in the Manipulator

Window only

Move the Look At Point in the Manipulator

Window only

Dolly the camera — i.e., move it closer to / further from the scene
— in the Manipulator window.

The top button causes mouse movements to control the X Position,

Y Position, and Z Position control values. Click on the button and move
the mouse to see the changes.

Resets the location of the light point to the home position.

Causes the Manipulator window camera to be reset so that it is

looking directly down the z world space axis in a minus-z direction at a
set distance from the world space origin.

Position (X, Y, and Z)

A Point Light’s position matters because in the real world, the intensity of a Point
Light is reduced as you get farther away from it. Thus to simulate a realistic
point light — and get graduations of color on farther-away items in the scene —
its location needs to be known. The position might want to be known for a par-
ticular effect. Therefore, TILT provides the current position of the Point Light,

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 TILT 3D Tools

and lets it be moved in X, Y, and Z, Point Light; the value 1 is as bright as

using the controls for X Position, Y possible.
Position, and Z Position. The values
are in absolute world space units. Note that unchecking the title line
box ( i.e., turning off Far Light) has
Attenuation the same visual effect as reducing the
The parameter Attenuation refers to Intensity to 0, but without modifying
the way intensity is reduced as you the Intensity (or any) parameter. For
get farther from the Point Light. more information on items in the top
Three values are possible: line of the Far Light display, see Top
Line Controls.

Color
None
The Color of the Point Light can be
The intensity is the same at
changed by clicking on the empty box
any distance from the Point
in the Color line, or by clicking on the
Light.
eye dropper. Poke the empty box to
get a standard Mac color dialog from
which to choose the desired color.
Inv Dist
Poke the eye dropper to select any
The intensity varies inversely
color currently being displayed any-
with the distance from the
where on the screen.
Point Light.
Visible
TILT displays a model of an arrow
Inv Dist Sq pointing in the direction of the light If
The intensity varies inversely Visible is checked. Use the arrow to
with the square of the dis- check the direction of the light rays
tance from the Point Light on the scene. Note that the arrow is
(i.e., gets dimmer much visible only if at least one TILT
faster than by using Inv Dist). Camera is included and enabled.

Intensity
The brightness of the Point Light can
be adjusted by manipulating the slider
for Intensity. The value 0 turns off the

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TILT Simple Object

The TILT plug-in Simple Object creates a basic 3-D

shape. Note that Simple Object does not make any
visible changes to the Composition window directly;
it provides model information which can be ren-
dered using one or more TILT Camera effects.

To begin working with TILT Simple Object, go to the

Delirium pop-up menu (shown in Figure 1) that lists
the TILT effects. Select TILT Simple Object.

Manipulator
In the Simple Object Manipulator mini-window — shown in Figure 9 — Values for
Left/Right, Up/Down, X Position, Y Position, and Z Position can be interactively
set.

Note the buttons in a column along the left edge of the Manipulator mini-window.
These control the movement of the Manipulator Window virtual camera, so you
can move around in the scene. These buttons do not move the virtual camera
controlling the Composition window. To move that camera, use the TILT Camera
plug-in.

Orbit the virtual camera in the Manipulator Window only

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 TILT 3D Tools

Move the Look At Point in the Manipulator Window only

Dolly the camera in the Manipulator window only

Causes the Manipulator mini-window camera to be reset so that

it is looking directly down the z world space axis in a minus-z direction
at a set distance from the world space
origin.

If these buttons are clicked on, and then the mouse is clicked and dragged, it
is possible to quickly — and interactively — control the view of world space
rendered in the Manipulator window.

The second column of Manipulator buttons contains controls for the position
and orientation in world space of the simple 3-D model:

Causes mouse movement to control the Left/Right, Up/Down,

and Tilt control values.

Causes mouse movements to control the X Position, Y Position,

and Z Position control values.

Causes mouse movements to control the X Scale, Y Scale, and Z

Scale control values.

Resets default values for Left/Right, Up/Down, Tilt, X Position, Y

Position, Z Position, X Scale, Y Scale, and Z Scale .

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Left/Right Object Type
Set the orientation angle of a Simple The following Simple Object types are
Object. The Left/Right value specifies available:
the number of degrees of rotation
about the y axis, where 0 degrees
Box
points in the positive Z direction..
By default, a cube whose edges
are each 1 world space unit.
Up/Down
Set the orientation angle of a Simple
Object. The Up/Down value specifies
the number of degrees of rotation away Sphere
from the x/z plane. A value of 0 indi- By default, a sphere whose
cates that the object coordinate sys- diameter is 1 world space unit.
tem is parallel to the x/z plane.

Tilt Cone
Set the orientation angle of a Simple A Cylinder with a tiny top and
Object. The Tilt values specifies a rota- a wide bottom.
tion about the z axis of the shape with
respect to the positive y axis of world
space.
Cylinder
Translation (X, Y, and Z) A sphere that is only round
A Simple Object’s position can be set along one axis.
using the controls for X Position, Y
Position, and Z Position. The values are
in absolute world space units. XZ Grid
By default, a flat XZ “floor”. If
Scale (X, Y, and Z) XZ Grid is chosen, Na is the
A Simple Object’s scale can be set number of segments in X. Nb is
using the controls for X Scale, Y Scale, the number of segments in Z.
and Z Scale. The slider values are mul- Default is 4 for both Na and
tipliers of the original size in world Nb.
space units.

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 TILT 3D Tools

Checker Board
Caps
Just like XZ Grid, but boxes alternate
If the Object Type is either cone or
in color between white and the color
cylinder the checking this box causes
specified in Color. Choose the other
end caps to be included in the geome-
color by clicking on the empty box to
try.
get a standard Mac color dialog. Or
poke the eye dropper and select any
Color
color currently being displayed any-
The Color of a Simple Object can be
where on the screen. Na is the num-
changed by clicking on the empty box
ber of checkerboard segments in X.
in the Color line, or by clicking on the
Nb is the number of segments in Z.
eye dropper. If the empty box is
Default is 4 for both Na and Nb.
poked, a standard Mac color dialog
from which to choose the color want-
Ngon ed appears. If the eye dropper is
A plate with the number of sides set poked, any color currently being dis-
by Na. For example, if Na is 4, N-gon played anywhere on the screen may
produces a square plate. The larger be selected.
the value of Na, the closer the N-gon
approximates a circle. Texture
A Texture can be applied
to all surfaces of any sim-
Floor ple object. The desired
A flat grid lying on the x/z plane with texture to apply must
Na cells in the x direction and Nb exist as a regular After Effects layer.
cells in the z direction. This object is A texture can be any footage item,
useful for making a floor on which including a movie, for a “movie-with-
other object can rest. If the interac- in-a-movie” effect. Choose the
tive renderer is used, the increasing desired layer to use as texture from
the number of mesh cells in the x and the list of layers displayed. The
z direction causes spot lights to show default texture is None.
up better when they point at the
object. Na, Nb
The values of these controls are para-
meters used to define the shape of
the object. See Object Type.

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TILT Spot Light

The TILT plug-in Spot Light defines a “spot” type

light. This type of light has both location and
direction.

Spot Light prepares rendering information for

the TILT Camera. Note that Spot Light does not
make any visible changes to the Composition window directly; rather, it provides
information which is used by TILT Camera effects.

Manipulator
Use the manipulator control mini-window to set the X Position, Y Position, and Z
Position control values interactively.

Note the first column of buttons along the left edge of the Spot Light Manipulator
mini-window. These control the movement of the Manipulator Window virtual
camera, so you can move around in the scene. These buttons do not move the
virtual camera controlling the Composition window. To move that camera, use the
TILT Camera plug-in.

Orbit the virtual camera in the Manipulator Window only

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 TILT 3D Tools

Move the Look At Point in the

Manipulator Window only

Dolly the camera — i.e., move it closer

to / further from the scene — in the
Manipulator window.

Causes the Manipulator window camera to be reset so that it is

looking directly down the z world space axis in a minus-z direction at a
set distance from the world space origin.

If these buttons are clicked on, and then the mouse is clicked and dragged, it
is possible to quickly — and interactively — control the view of world space
rendered in the Manipulator window.

The Buttons , , and control the position and orientation of

the Spot Light in world space as follows:

Causes mouse movement to control the Left/Right and Up/Down

control values.

Causes mouse movements to control the X Position, Y Position,

and Z Position control values.

Causes the Left/Right, Up/Down, X Position, Y Position, and Z

Position control values to be reset.

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Left/Right
Set the angle of the spotlight rays with respect to the world coordinate system.
The Left/Right value specifies the number of degrees of rotation about the y axis.
A value of 0 indicates that the rays go in the positive z direction.

Up/Down
Set the angle of the light rays with respect to the world coordinate system. The
Up/Down value specifies the number of degrees of rotation away from the x/z
plane. A value of 0 indicates that the rays lie parallel to the x/z plane.

Position (X, Y, and Z)

A Spot Light’s position matters because in the real world, the intensity of a Spot
Light is reduced as it gets farther away. Thus to simulate a realistic point light —
and get graduations of color on farther-away items in the scene — it is necessary
to know where it is. It may be necessary to be positioned for a particular effect.
Therefore, TILT provides the current position of the Spot Light, and lets you move
it in X, Y, and Z, using the controls for X Position, Y Position, and Z Position. The
values are in absolute world space units.

Fall Off
Spot Light creates a cone-shaped light. The cone of light is brighter at its center.
Fall Off controls how fast the intensity of the light decreases with distance from
the center of the spot.

You can also specify various Fall Off curves:

None
There is no Fall Off area at all, i.e., no degradation of intensity of the
cone of light throughout the cone — in other words, no Hot
Area/Outer Area distinction.

Linear
The gradation of light goes from the Hot Angle value to zero in a linear
fashion over the Outer Area.

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 TILT 3D Tools

possible.

Note that unchecking the title line

Exp box (i.e., turning off Spot Light) has
The light drops off in an expo- the same visual effect as reducing the
nential fashion from the Hot Intensity to 0, but without modifying
Area; i.e., it drops a lot right the Intensity (or any) parameter. For
away. more information on items in the top
line of the Spot Light display, see Top
Line Controls.
Cos
The light drops off according Color
to a cosine curve, i.e., less at The Color of a Spot Light can be
first, more later (the opposite changed by clicking on the empty box
of an exponential curve). in the Color line, or by clicking on the
eye dropper. If the empty box is
Hot Angle poked, a standard Mac color dialog
Hot Angle controls the size of the from which to choose the color want-
central bright cone of light thrown by ed appears. If the eye dropper is
a Spot Light. This control specifies the poked, any color currently being dis-
angle that the bright central cone played anywhere on the screen may
subtends. The value can be from 0 to be selected.
90 degrees. the screen.

Outer Angle Visible

Outer Angle controls the size of the If Visible is checked, TILT displays a
outer cone of light thrown by a Spot model of an arrow pointing in the
Light. This control specifies the angle direction of the light. Use the arrow
that the cone subtends. The value can to check the direction of the light
be from 0 to 90 degrees. rays on the scene. Note that the
arrow is visible only if at least one
Intensity TILT Camera is included and enabled.
Adjust the brightness of the Spot Light
by manipulating the slider for
Intensity. The value 0 turns off the
Far Light; the value 1 is as bright as

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TILT VMesh Object

TILT VMesh Object plug-in is a general-pur-

pose tool that builds and manipulates tex-
ture-mapped 3-D objects from 2-D images.
The “V” stands for “Video.”

VMesh creates an interpolated 3-D mesh

“landscape” of the original picture. The mesh
contains peaks and valleys. The peaks by default correspond to the places where
the Height From selection (red, green, blue, or luminance) is highest; the low
points correspond to the places where the Height From selection is lowest. You
can also reverse the high and low values by selecting Invert.

Using simple sliders and dials, you can manipulate the 3-D mesh object in all the
usual ways (move in any direction, tilt, translate, scale), and also move the
Manipulator window camera.

To begin working with the TILT VMesh Object effect, go to the DigiEffects
Delirium pop-up menu that lists the TILT plug-ins. Select TILT VMesh Object.

Manipulator
In the VMesh Manipulator mini-window — shown in Figure 11 — can be interactive-
ly set values for Left/Right, Up/Down, X Position, Y Position, and Z Position .

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 TILT 3D Tools

The buttons in the column along the left edge of the Manipulator mini-window
control the movement of the Manipulator Window virtual camera, so it is possi-
ble to move around in the scene. The second column of Manipulator buttons
controls the position and orientation of the mesh object you create. (Note that
none of these buttons moves the virtual camera controlling the Composition
window. To move that camera, use the TILT Camera plug-in.)

Orbit the virtual camera in the Manipulator Window only

Move the Look At Point in the Manipulator Window only

Dolly the camera in the Manipulator window only

Causes the Manipulator mini-window camera to be reset so that

it is looking directly down the z world space axis in a minus-z direction
at a set distance from the world space origin.

If these buttons are clicked on, and then the mouse is clicked and dragged, it
is possible to quickly — and interactively — control the view of world space
rendered in the Manipulator window.

The second column of Manipulator buttons contains controls for the position
and orientation of the mesh object you create:

Causes mouse movement to control the Left/Right, Up/Down,

and Tilt control values.

Causes mouse movements to control the X Position, Y Position,

and Z Position control values.

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 Causes mouse movements to control the X Scale, Y Scale, and Z
Scale control values.

Resets default values for Left/Right, Up/Down, Tilt, X Position, Y

Position, Z Position, X Scale, Y Scale, and Z Scale .

Left/Right
Set the orientation angle of the mesh object you create. The Left/Right value
specifies the number of degrees of rotation about the y axis, where 0 degrees
points in the positive Z direction.

Up/Down
Set the orientation angle of the mesh object. The Up/Down value specifies the
number of degrees of rotation away from the x/z plane. A value of 0 indicates
that the object coordinate system is parallel to the x/z plane.

Tilt
Set the orientation angle of the mesh object. The Tilt value specifies a rotation
about the z axis of the shape with respect to the positive y axis of world space.

Translation (X, Y, and Z)

It is possible to set the position of the mesh using the controls for X Position, Y
Position, and Z Position. The values are in absolute world space units.

Scale (X, Y, and Z)

You can set the scale of the mesh using the controls for X Scale, Y Scale, and Z
Scale. The slider values are multipliers of the original size in world space units.

TIP Adjust the Y-Scale to .1 when first using an image as a displacement map.

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 TILT 3D Tools

Height Field
Use Height Field to select a 2-D picture as input.

Height From
VMesh creates an interpolated “landscape” of the Height Field image. VMesh
creates its mesh by mapping each pixel of the Height Field selection to a point
in world space. The x and z coordinates of each point in the mesh are simply
linear interpolations of x and z, while the y coordinate at each point reflects
the value of the selected Height From element. The mesh is a collection of tri-
angular solid plates joining all the vertices.

VMesh first interpolates the original x and z values to a square plane one world
space unit on a side. You input the y value (height) as Height From. There are
five possible Height From values: Luminance, Red, Green, Blue, or Alpha.

Here’s how it works if you want to map Red, Green, Blue, or Alpha. As you
know, the color of each pixel in an After Effects image consists of a combina-
tion of four elements: Red, Green, Blue, and transparency (“alpha channel”).
Each of these elements has a numerical value from 0 to 255, where 0 is lowest
and 255 is highest.

Suppose you select Red as the Height From value. VMesh finds the Red value
for every pixel of the original image (Height Field). Then Vmesh interpolates a
y value for each vertex of the mesh by multiplying the original value of
Red/255 times the original transparency/255, and subtracting the constant .5
from the product.

The result is that a pixel that is completely red (Red is 255) and completely
opaque (transparency is 255) in the Height Field will produce a y value of .5,
the maximum height. That y value becomes one of the coordinates of a vertex
of one of the triangular plates that comprise the mesh. A pixel that has no red
at all (Red is 0) or is completely transparent (alpha is 0) will produce a vertex
of the minimum height (minus .5). A pixel with some red and some opacity will
produce a vertex of a height between minus .5 and .5 world space units.

250
The result of VMesh is a landscape of Texture
peaks and valleys contained within an It is possible to apply Texture to all sur-
imaginary “cube” 1 world space unit on faces of any mesh object. The texture
a side. That size is not fixed: once desired must xist as a regular After
you’ve created the mesh, you can, of Effects layer or comp. A texture can be
course, stretch and shrink it any way any footage item, including a movie,
you like. for a “movie-within-a-movie” effect.
Choose the layer or comp desired as
The peaks by default map to the places texture from the list of layers or comps
where the Height From selection — displayed. The default texture is None.
red, green, blue — is highest; the low
points to the places where the Height Color
From selection is lowest. It is possible to change the Color of a
VMesh Object by clicking on the empty
Luminance is just a little different; it box in the Color line, or by clicking on
mixes all the colors in every pixel for a the eye dropper. If the empty box is
gray-scale effect. VMesh computes poked, a standard Mac color dialog
Luminance according to the standard from which to choose the color wanted
formula, as follows: appears. If the eye dropper is poked,
any color currently being displayed
{ (A/255) * [(.3*(R/255)) + anywhere on the screen may be select-
(.59*(G/255)) + (.11*(B/255)] } - .5 ed.

The result is a mesh in which the high- Smooth

est points correspond to the whitest It is possible to Smooth any mesh
pixels, and the lowest points to the object by checking the Smooth box.
darkest pixels. The mesh edges appear somewhat less
jagged. For a dramatic smoothing
Invert effect, try invoking a blurring filter on
By default, more of a color or lumi- the Height Field image! Render times
nance or opacity makes the y value will also be slower.
higher, and less makes the y values
lower. By clicking the Invert box, you
can invert all these defaults.

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 TILT 3D Tools

Rendering Options

Clicking Options in the top line of the TILT Camera menu brings up a standard
Quick Draw 3D type options menu, as shown in Figure 12 below.

Figure 12. Options Menu

Choose a set of options for either Draft or Best rendering quality.

NOTE that “options” are not “effects”: That is, options are fixed for each
movie. Unlike effects, options are not key-framable within a movie.

Quality
Two rendering Qualities are available: Draft or Best. The Quality control deter-
mines the whole set of other parameters: that is, changing from Draft to Best
or vice-versa automatically changes all the other parameters in the option list.

Most ordinary composition work is done in Draft mode because it’s faster. Turn
on Best quality for rendering the movie (in the layer.)

It is possible to set the options for Best or Draft mode at any time regardless of
the current setting within the After Effects layer.

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Fill Style
When TILT renders a model of a 3-D object, it makes a geometric approximation
of its shape. The geometric approximation is a collection of discrete flat plates.

When the image is rendered, it is possible to fill these plates more or less com-
pletely with color. Three fill styles are available: Filled, Edges, and Points.

Filled
means all plates are filled with color.

Edges
means only the edges of the plates are rendered.

Points
means only corners of each plate are rendered. This setting can be useful
if an impressionistic idea of how the depicted objects will move with
respect to one another is desired.

The TILT default is Filled for both Draft and Best modes.

Backface
Remove
Both
Flip

Backface controls whether or not all surfaces of all objects are rendered. If you
would like TILT to render all surfaces of all 3-D objects in the scene — front and
back, visible and invisible — choose Both.

TIP If, for increased speed, you would like to render only visible surfaces, choose
Remove.

As a vestige of older 3-D modelers, some modeled objects show inside and out-
side, or back and front reversed. Use Flip to correct this.

The TILT default is Remove for both Draft and Best modes.

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 TILT 3D Tools

Render

Anti-Aliasing
Anti-aliasing refers to a process of smoothing lines whereby each pixel is divid-
ed into smaller segments and the areas around the divisions are deliberately
smudged. You can choose anti-aliasing from one of <none>, 4, 8, 15 or 24. Anti-
aliasing of 4 means that the scene is rendered 4 times with the viewpoint jit-
tered slightly and then the resultant images are averaged.

There are a number of tradeoffs with anti-aliasing. More anti-aliasing produces

smoother-looking lines. On the other hand, details may be lost, and anti-alias-
ing is time-consuming. The greater the degree of anti-aliasing, the slower the
rendering.

Another point to keep in mind is that some QuickDraw 3D plug-in renderers do

thier own anti-aliasing. When one of these renderers is being used then <none>
should be selected..

Interpolation

Vertex
Pixel
None

As stated above, when you model a 3-D object, you make a geometric approxi-
mation of its shape. The geometric approximation is a collection of discrete
plates. When you render the object, you must determine what color to render
each pixel in each plate.

Interpolation refers to the calculation of the color of each pixel in a plate.

If, for each plate, you would like all pixels in that plate the same color, choose
None. TILT then picks one pixel in the center of each plate, calculates the
lighting effects, and sets all pixels in that plate to that color.

If you’d like more variation of color within the panel, you can choose Vertex.

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Choosing Vertex instructs TILT to calculate the color at each corner of each
panel, and interpolate the colors of the pixels in between. This gives more exact
coloring, but is slower.

If you’d like the most precise color mapping, choose Pixel. Choosing Pixel
instructs TILT to calculate the color of every pixel in every panel individually.
Pixel is best-looking but slowest.

Defaults are None for Draft, Vertex for Best.

Renderer
Two renderers are currently available: Interactive Renderer and Wireframe. We
expect that in time other renderers will become available, and will then be spec-
ified for selection in this list. Additional renderers may have thier own set-up
parameters, which you will be able to specify by clicking the Setup... button.

Subdivision

Method, C1, C2

Subdivision refers to a method of interpolation for achieving curve fidelity.

When TILT renders a curved object, it breaks it up into a geometric approxima-

tion consisting solely of plates or panels. No individual panel is curved, but it can
achieve a curved effect if it uses a lot of panels and angles them appropriately.
The more panels you use, the more smooth the curve appears, but the slower the
rendering.

When Constant is selected as Method, C1 specifies the number of segments into

which the curved object is divided up and down. C2 specifies the number of seg-
ments into which the curved object is divided cross-wise. The more segments,
the smaller each panel and the better the curve fidelity.

When World Space is selected, C2 isn’t used. C1 specifies a number of world

space units than which no panel edge can be greater; i.e., C1 is the upper limit
on the length of any edge, in world space units.

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 TILT 3D Tools

When Screen Space is selected, C2 is not used. C1 specifies a number of pixels

than which no panel edge can be greater when the edge is projected on to the
screen. That is, C1 is the upper limit on the length of any projected segment.

Default is for Draft mode is Constant, C1 = 15, C2 = 15.

Default for Best mode is Constant, C1 = 25, C2 = 25.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Bubbles
Q: Why do my bubbles stay even with the generator point when the point
is animated?
A: Turn on “Integrate Params Over Time” control and key-frame the
Generator point.

Muzzle Flash
Q: If pull trigger is set to on (i.e., not being keyframed) the firing will
begin at the beginning of the LAYER not the composition.
A: To compensate for that, you will want keyframe pull trigger or nest
the composition into another composition and apply the muzzleflash to
the new composition.

TILT
Q: I need higher resolution images from TILT. What can I do?
A: TILT uses QuickDraw 3D’s interactive render, which is designed to work
quickly, but not render pristine images. It can cause distortions for tex-
ture mapped images along slanted edges. To compensate for this, we rec-
ommend the following workaround:

Here are the steps to create a hgher resolution TILT 3D image:

1. Create a composition and layer 2 times larger than you need.
2. Apply the TILT camera, light and object to a Solid Layer (cmd-Y)
3. Create a new composition the size you need.
4. Import the first composition (with the TILT effects) into the second
composition.
5. Scale the TILT composition down to 50% (shift-command-S).
6. Set the quality of the TILT compositon layer to “High”.

You have performed an effective “poor-mans” antialiasing, and should

see a substantial improvement in image quality.

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 Frequently Asked Questions

Film Flash
Q: My Film Flash never seems to get flashing. What’s wrong?
A: You probably set the “Softness Speed” to be larger than the
“Intensity Speed”. Adjust the Smoothness to be half of the intensity
and it should work fine.

SnowFall
Pileup Mode 2D vs Vert Height
Be sure to always use the “Pileup Mode 2D” for Rain and Snowfall par-
ticle systems. The “Vert Height” option is reserved for special cases.

Particle Systems
Use the Time Echo Effect (bundled with After Effects) for cool time-
streak effects.

Sparks/FireWorks
Q: My Sparks/Fireworks are moving too fast. How do I slow them down?
A: Reduce the following parameters in half: Gravity, Wind, Thrust,
Speed. Use the Air Resistance parameter as brakes.

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Jeff’s Tips
Check out the sample projects that accompany Jeff’s Tips on the Delirium CD in
the “Delirium Projects” folder.

General Tips

Here are some general guidelines to getting better results from

DigiEffects particle systems:

1. Always use multiple instances of particle plug-ins with varying size par-
ticles and behaviors to create the illusion of depth and extend the com-
plexity of behavior and control you have over the particle.

2. Using multiple instances of plug-ins on separate layers with the "effect

only" feature checked allows you create interesting relationships between
layers using transfer functions.

3. Try using a layer as a displacement map created with the same plug-in
and slightly different parameters and random seed to create interesting
and dynamic displacement effects which have similar behavior to the par-
ticle system you are displacing.

Bubbles

1. For more contrast and a realistic sense of depth, use SCREEN or ADD
selection in the Particle composite mode. When you vary the number of
instances of Bubbles and the type of transfer functions, you can create a
real sense of depth and variety.

This can be very useful when your bubbles need to have a different densi-
ty when composting on soft drinks or filling letterforms which need to
have more bubble activity in the bottom of the glass or emission space.

I really like the way one instance of bubbles can be used as a displace-
ment source for different instance of bubbles. The nice thing about this
technique is the behavior of the displacement is similar to what is being
displaced which gives a more natural displacement source.

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 Jeff’s Tips

Nexus

1. It is really useful to activate the PREVIEW PATHS feature. Activating

this feature helps you to understand what the relationships that the
two circles have with one another and also gives you a great perspec-
tive when visualizing the results of the size and position of the circles.

For me, the magic with this plug-in is creating a cross plotting effect
that looks like a grid. When the grid slides and moves inside the rela-
tionships between the circles, this plug-in really comes to life.

2. Try using geometric relationships between the two CIRCLES. I like

concentric radials. When the two circles are inside one another the
plotting looks real interesting because you get a lot of the 'grid' look
that this plug-in makes so well. I like scaling and rotating each circle
independently. For you MTV type artists, you'll appreciate what this
generative plug-in can do for logo treatments and bugs.

I also like how this plug-in looks as a fill for letter-forms. Its nice
because it can suggest the shape of the letters with out too much defi-
nition. Keep the pattern wide and you'll see some interesting 'sugges-
tive' letters. If you keyframe the complexity up you can increase the
fill density for a transitional effect.

** A side note: I had a lot of fun using the GLOWER plug-in on top of
filled letters/logos. See sample project: Nexus ETV w/ Glow.aep for an
example of how I used these two plug-ins together.

3. Animating the RADIUS 1 & 2 parameters looks great too. If you are
into Motion Math, try modulating these parameters from audio files.
See example project: Nexus Concentric w/ Audio. I'm particularly
excited about the discovery of larger RADIUS numbers. If you have a
lot of ECHOs and one large radius, try scaling the radius in and out;
this looks real nice.

4. Try contrasting PHASE to create a nice overlapping effect. +/-

260
 speeds together creates a nice twisting effect. This works particularly
well on geometries which are really spread out off of large/small radius
combos. The opposing twist looks real nice. Try modulating the PHASE
with audio.

5. Animating the PHASE looks real cool. Try rotating them opposite of one
another with a SPEED that is a little slower.

Visual Harmonizer

1. First tip is this, animating the PHASE controls is essential to getting

this plug-in going. Moving the sine waves OUT OF PHASE means having the
START PHASE and END PHASE moving in opposite directions and I think
this can look very dynamic.

2. One of my favorite features of this plug-in is the ability to animate a

particle over the sine waves. Pick PARTICLE SHAPE: DOT and check the
box labeled USE SPACING. You VH-1 types will undoubtedly love this fea-
ture as it will make nice layers in your motion graphics work. Try using
*huge* STARTING SIZE and ENDING SIZE and varying the PARTICLE COMPOS-
ITE MODES. (I like Screen & Blend)

Then you'll see SPACING PHASE and SPACING DISTANCE parameters. These
are the main controls for making these DOTS move. Leaving the PHASE of
the sine waves fairly slow, try animating the SPACING PHASE parameters
to get the dots rolling. I

3. I was really excited when I found large particles look really cool with
the right spacing and composite mode. Try using only 3-6 waves with
large particles moving slow. If you set the frequency and amplitude just
right you can create something which resembles a winding dna strand.
The plug-in can create interesting 3D like twisting images which wave and
twist like landscapes from dreams.

4. Some particle composite modes can really give the illusion of 3 dimen-
sionality. I found that the Rings particle and Multiply particle composites

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 Jeff’s Tips

look very 3d. When you animate with these settings the results can
have a beautiful feel with 3d textural flavor.

5. Audio modulation of this plug-in seems like a natural idea to gravi-

tate towards. It does after all create sine waves that look like music.
So the question is, how does someone make this plug-in dance to
audio? Well since there is so far no way of extracting the frequency
(tone/pitch) information from audio inside AE's Motion Math, you are
left with Amplitude (loudness).

Although it won't quite look as you might imagine, you can assign the
amplitude from Motion Math (see included script file "Jeffs
Audio.motionmath") and create keyframes for the AMPLITUDE. AE4.1
also includes an excellent script (see file: layer audio remap.mm inside
the AE folder Motion Math Scripts) for mapping audio to your effects
parameters.

The difference between our script and the standard Adobe script is
that ours is a peak averaging tool. Instead of having very tight frame
by frame tracking our script looks at the previous frame and the next
frame (3 frames total) and averages the loudness so that the resulting
effects bounces smooth and tracks soft. This is good if you want a
more smooth looking response curve.

I use the Adobe script when I want the audio tracking to be real tight
and to sample a different value on every frame. This is great when you
have the awesome good luck to know someone who can (or now how to
yourself) create a piece of music in a professional recording studio.

If you had a composite song (the final mix as we call it) and all of the
individual tracks (the kick, the snare, the bass, the guitar, the synth
etc..) split into separate audio files you could essentially import all the
individual tracks into AE and modulate the KICK to one parameter (or
two or which ever) and the SNARE to another, the bass to another and
so on and so forth.

262
 Once you've generated the keyframes using motionmath, you turn off
(mute) those individual tracks and turn on the COMPOSITE track (this is
the song that has all of the pieces mixed together to form a proper lis-
tening version) render your timeline and all of the elements of this and
other plug-ins will dance to the music.

If you are into Electronic music, I highly recommend a Steinberg product

called ReBirth RB338. This product is an easy way to generate the individ-
ual tracks needed to create this type of visual orchestration.

*** One more thing about using MM to create frames from audio tracks.
I've found that there are problems with latency and it seems the best
cure is to move the resulting keyframes forward in time by two frames.
(opt-right arrow twice after selecting the keyframes generated by
MotionMath w/ audio)

This will insure a nice synchronization with the audio. I'm not sure why
there is latency, but one thing is for sure- it CAN be fixed in the MM
script but I've not gotten around to it. (you do it by using laying down
keyframes that fall two frames in the future, if that makes sense..)

Smoke

1. Generally speaking smoke is a very layered phenomenon and I've said

it before so I'll say it again: using multiple layers and instances of plug-ins
give you the most realism. Since smoke in nature is a dynamic turbulent
system, its important for those who want natural looking smoke to
approach creating it this way.

Although the DigiEffects Smoke plug-in is one of the best plug-ins avail-
able for creating smoke effects, you should try to use at least two
instances of it to create the illusion of nature.

2. In addition to using multiple layers, I've found that the most natural
looking smoke also has a kind of edge density phenomenon which can be
approximated by employing the AE plug-in Find Edges combined with

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 Jeff’s Tips

gaussian Blur. If you use blur then find edges(check invert box in Find
Edges) in duplicates of a layer and use transfer functions and layer
opacity you will find that the smoke takes on a new type of look.

Something a bit more like the long tendrils of a smoldering cigarette.

Be sure that within the smoke plug-in that "EFFECT ONLY" is activated
as the APPLY MODE. (see first parameter) This will make multiple
instances composite a little better when using certain transfer modes.

3. Another trick I like to use involves duplicating a layer multiple times

and then editing the smoke on each layer using different RANDOM
SEEDS. When you change the random seed number, the way the smoke
is generated varies in that instance of the plug-in. What I like about
this feature is that you can basically start with all of the parameters
exactly matching. When you vary a small amount in each layer and use
transfer modes to blend the layers together, you get a very nice inter-
action between the individual layers. Check out the example project
and movie Layered Smoke

Schematic Grids

1. To get the grid to zoom in and out, make the layer considerably big-
ger than the comp and animate the layer property: scale. Although it
won't always display correctly as it grows smaller, you can hit the grid
with a lot of glow to emphasize the clarity of the grid.

2. Animating the Intersection Probability and MainBroken% parameters

has a certain sweet charm. Try starting with nothing but broken frag-
ments and animate it to completion.

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HyperHarmonizer

1. In my example file: HyperHarmonizer 1, I've shown an example of how

you might modulate this plug-in to have a rhythm which you can sync up
with audio. I found that the RADIUS 1 parameter looks very interesting
when animated up and down in values.

In the example project, I've animated the beats to be the 'zero' value and
then in between the beats, I've keyed in varying values oscillating
between a positive value and an inverse negative value. If you edit the
velocity curves for the keyframes you can smooth out the rhythm of the
object but in my opinion it serves only to soften the way it moves to the
point where the animation loses rhythmic definition.

265
 Trouble Shooting

Trouble Shooting
• How can I make Delirium render faster?
1) Reduce any “Smoothness” parameter to the lowest possible setting.
2) Test render at low quality.
3) Test render at lowered resolution.

• I can't find Delirium in the Effects menu.

Be sure that you installed the filter into the correct plug-ins folder. It should be in
the same folder as your copy of the After Effects application.

• I can't apply a Delirium effect to a layer .

Be sure Delirium is installed, and you have the layer selected before applying the
filter. If it asks for your Master CD, insert it in your CD-ROM drive.

• I keep getting out of memory messages.

Increase the memory partition for After Effects, or reduce the size of the images
you are using, or reduce the quality draft mode.

• I'd like to see a faster preview .

You can drop the resolution by clicking on the white area in the Comp window.
By doing this you can increase preview speeds by up to 800%. This is useful to
see to overall effect quickly, or to try out animated parameter settings. Grain will
look different, but all other aspects are previewable.

• I'd like to see real-time previews of the effect.

Hold down the option key while moving any slider.

• I can't run the filter on my computer .

You will need a PowerPC with at least 32mb of RAM applied to After Effects.

• Delirium is asking for the Master CD!

You must keep the master CD in the drive the first time you use a Delirium
plug-in. After that you do not need to use the Delirium Master CD. The Master
CD acts like a hardware key and authorizes you to use the software.

266
Support
Most questions we receive are easily found in the documentation.
Please read it all the way through and your question will
probably be answered .

But, if we’ve over-looked something, or you have found a repro-

ducible crashing error, the fastest way to find out is to check the
web site for a possible updated version or workaround (FAQ).

After that please feel free to contact us at the following addresses... ; )

Please have this information available for us when you send the message:
1 Machine Model
2 Processor speed (Mhz)
3 Processor Type
4 Operating System (Mac/Windows)
5 Operating system version
6 Amount of installed RAM
7 Application you’re using
(After Effects, Final Cut, Illuminaire, etc)
8 Amount Mem. applied to Application
(if applicable),
9 Amount of hard disk space
10 Digital video system name
(Media 100, Avid, etc)
11 Your Name, Company & Phone Num.

e-Mail [This is the best way to get a thorough answer]

[email protected]

world wide web [BEST CHOICE]

www.digieffects.com

fax • phone
512.306.1310 fax • 512.306.0779

267