Masks with Pixelan SpiceMaster Pro - tutorial

browj2 wrote on 1/30/2015, 12:34 PM

Hi,

I have prepared a tutorial for Pixelan SpiceMaster Pro that I will be submitting to this forum. Here is an advance copy for anyone who is interested. If you see any glaring errors or problems please let me know. Comments welcome. I don't know if I did a good thing or not if there are no comments.

Here is the Dropbox link for now.

As usual, there is too much to show in 15 minutes (my personal limit), so some of the effects are shown rather fast at the end. I actually slowed the speed down by almost 50% as I had not made the transitions long enough.

The program can be used to create special fades, transitions and PIPs using masks, with a lot of control over how they work and effects that can be added. The possibilities are endless.

I put this tutorial together because I was rather intimidated by it all. So, I broke it down to the basic masks by turning off the effects and then started looking at them one by one. The program comes with hundreds of black and white masks that animate so that a progressive transition can be made. When you stop the animation cycle at some point and turn off the softness and texture effects, you can really see the mask. Then you can just scroll slowly through the animation or completion cycle to see what it does. Then you can start adding in effects to see what they do. You can easily move the mask around and rotate it, and use keyframing within the program. Of course, there are many presets for the different effects to help out. It is quite amazing once you understand how it works.

Although there are hundreds of masks available in the program, you can also use your own masks and they can usually be animated and effects applied. For example, if you have a simple hard shaped mask, say a white circle on a black background, you can add a softness effect to it and the edge of the circle will be smoothed into a varying shade of gray so that you don't have a hard outline. Or you can add border effects, glow and shadow to make it look inset or outset. Etc.

Here is an example of a PIP (or part of a transition as the mask enlarges over the transition) with an odd-shaped mask, but with border (glow and shadow) effects to make it look outset a bit.

I will be doing another one or maybe two tutorials to show the PIP part and adding masks and effects to titles. Doing a PIP with SpiceMaster makes it easy to add a vignette or effect to the inserted image or to the edges of the inserted image, and it allows movement, including a zoom, of the inset image within the mask. Thus you don't have to use a combination of the program and keyframing in MEP; you do it all in the user interface of SpiceMaster.

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 2/2/2015, 1:19 PM

Hi John

Great tutorial - no obvious errors or omissions.

John

browj2 wrote on 2/2/2015, 1:53 PM

Hi John,

Thanks for taking a look. I had a comment that the last couple of minutes did not play smoothly because I used timestretching.

I redid this part, extending out my clips and the transitions. It's still fast, but should look smoother.

Here is the link to the last 2 minutes.

I'll be sending the tutorial in later today.

Thanks again,

terrypin wrote on 2/2/2015, 2:33 PM

Here is the link to the last 2 minutes.

That plays fine here John, although a bit too fast for me.

browj2 wrote on 2/2/2015, 2:42 PM

Hi Terry,

Thanks for taking a look. I agree, it's too fast. I'll go back and add a second on to each clip and transition.

Thanks,

wabu wrote on 2/2/2015, 3:21 PM

now I have to learn english

never heard about this - but animated masks can be very useful.

thanks for this!

hi hi I was on the website an changed to german language - very funny.

I think the english is better

terrypin wrote on 2/3/2015, 3:48 AM

now I have to learn english

Hi Walter,

I just wish my German was as good as your English!

browj2 wrote on 2/3/2015, 1:10 PM

@Walter,

Your English is better than that of many of the people who ask questions in this forum.

I find the Pixelan programs quite useful. I'm glad that you were able to learn something. I will mention the German site to Pixelan. It's an American program but their programmers are European, but maybe not German.

The revised tutorial should be in the Tutorials part by the end of the week.

@Terry,

I redid the last couple of minutes, for the third time. Quite time-consuming but I think that the result was well worth the effort. It still goes by quickly, but looks much, much better. I was going to add in screen shots of the parameters, but I decided that doing so would be overkill, would interrupt the flow, and would probably be too fast for anyone to use. I may put together a pdf of the parameter screens (and a screen shot of the transitions in mid-course) just for myself and anyone who may be interested.

I deleted the previous last part from Dropbox. Here is the revised last 2 minutes without sound.

I will get on to the next part next week - using the PIP part to move the 2nd video around to have the part that I want centred within the mask, and then kf'd to get back to full screen before the transition ends, plus PIP rather than transition, again with the background moved within the mask.

terrypin wrote on 2/3/2015, 4:46 PM

Hi John,

That slight slow-down makes a world of difference!

browj2 wrote on 2/4/2015, 9:16 AM

Hi Terry,

Thanks for taking a look.

The tutorial has now been posted so I will be removing the Dropbox links soon.

I hope some users find it useful.

browj2 wrote on 4/23/2015, 3:06 AM

My two other tutorials on SpiceMaster Pro have been posted in case anyone is interested. One is about using the PIP tools and mattes in SpiceMaster, mainly to manipulate the size and position of an incoming clip or PIP within the window and keyframing to get it back to normal by the end of the transition.

The other shows how to apply SpiceMaster effects to titles, including titles created with New Blue Titler EX.

terrypin wrote on 4/25/2015, 5:53 AM

Hi John,

I don't use either of those add-on programs but after viewing both videos I was highly impressed. As clearly and professionally presented as any tutorial I've seen.

browj2 wrote on 4/25/2015, 12:36 PM

Hi Terry,

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm getting better at it, I think.

We're in Paris right now and heading your way on Monday. Please turn up the heat a bit and clear the sky of clouds. The cameras are getting a good workout.

Regards,