BFX 5.0 User Manual

7/26/2019 BFX 5.0 User Manual

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USER MANUAL

v e r s i o n 5 . 0


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Boris FX Version 5.0 (Standard and Professional)

The material contained herein is protected by copyrights. Permission to use materialsmay be granted upon written request and proper credit.

Contact information:

Boris FX, Inc.

381 Congress Street

Boston, MA 02210

Phone: (617) 451-9900

Fax: (617) 451-9916

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.borisfx.com

For information on site licenses, please call (617) 451-9900 or e-mail

[email protected]

For technical support, visit the Boris FX Technical Forum at

http://www.borisfx.com/support. You can also contact technical support by calling (617)

451-9900 or e-mailing [email protected].

The information in this manual is believed to be accurate and reliable. However, Boris

FX, Inc. assumes no responsibility for its use; nor for any infringements of patents or

other rights of third parties which may result from its use. No part of this publication

may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any

means, electronic, mechanical, by photocopying recording or otherwise without the

prior written permission of Boris FX, Inc.

Boris FX, Boris FX PRO, and PixelChooser are trademarks of Boris FX. After Effects

and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Certain graphics used in the tutorials and illustrations in this book appear courtesy of

Emile Tobenfeld, an engineer for Boris FX, Inc. These images are Copyright 1998 by

Emile Tobenfeld (www.foryourhead.com).

Written by Victoria Merriman and Katherine Higgins.

Copyright 2000 by Boris FX, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the U. S. A.

Updated March 2000.


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ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Understanding Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Installing and Starting Boris FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Boris FX Keyframe Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Using the Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Overview of Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Filters Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Computer Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Host Application Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Release Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 1: Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

About Tutorial Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Exercise 1: Animating an Image Using Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Importing Still Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Naming Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Animating the Flat 3D Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Working with Bezier Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Saving Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Exercise 2: Creating a Multi Input Page Turn Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Creating a Page Turn Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Mapping Media to Front and Back Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Applying Upstream and Downstream Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Exercise 3: Animating Masked Tracks in a 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

About Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Applying a Mask to a Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Changing the Duration of an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Manipulating Tracks Within a 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Creating the 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Setting Static Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Animating Position Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using the 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Setting the Default Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41


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Adjusting the Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Exercise 4: Filtering Selectively with the PixelChooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Applying a Blur to Selected Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Creating a Wipe Between the Original and Blurred Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Using a PixelChooser Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Exercise 5: Creating a Chroma Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Creating the Garbage Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Creating and Adjusting the Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Adjusting the Foreground Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Exercise 6: Creating a Custom Scatter Wipe Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Importing a Movie File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Creating the Wipe Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Creating the Scatter Wipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Animating the Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Adding the Scatter Wipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Adjusting Particle Shape and Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Exercise 7: Creating a 3D Text Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Using the Text Window to Format Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Mapping Media to the Faces of the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Working with 3D Text Shape Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Working with Lighting Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Chapter 2: The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Installing Boris FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Starting Boris FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Controls Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Dial Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Color Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Position Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Locks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Interpolation Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Composite Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Playback Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Preview Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

On-screen Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Timeline Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Organizing Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81


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Contents 5

Creating a New Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Selecting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Renaming Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Deleting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Positioning Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Nesting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Expanding and Collapsing Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Track Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Shape Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Media Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Track Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Filter Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Motion Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Filter Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Timecode Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Timecode Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

KeyFrame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Timeline Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Local Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Global Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Current Time Indicator (CTI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Cancel and Apply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Creating Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Selecting Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Deleting Keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Snap CTI to Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Copying and Pasting Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Moving a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

The Preferences Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Resetting Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

General Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Default Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

View Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Render Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Render Fields as Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99


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Multi-Processor Enabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Generate Color-Safe Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Use Host Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Draft Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Project Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Width and Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

FPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Timeline Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Show Mask Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Show Transformations Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Keep Keyframe Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Preview Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Fast and Best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Force Update with Option/Alt Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Grid Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

User Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Use Tool Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Preview to RAM Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Cache Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

RAM to Disk Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Chapter 3: Working with Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Media Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Importing Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Relinking Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

The Media Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Media Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Movie File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Still Image File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Preparing Still Image Files for Import into Boris FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Editing the Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Adding and Deleting Color Stops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Selecting Color Stops and Midpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Setting the Location of Color Stops and Midpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Adjusting Color and Alpha Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120


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Setting the Shape and Direction of the Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Saving and Loading Gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Chapter 4: Creating Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Shape Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Transformations Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Face Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Mask and Media Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Applying a Shape Track to a Face Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Mask Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Upstream and Downstream Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Applying a Mask to a Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Filter Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Applying a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140Hiding a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Upstream and Downstream Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

3D Container Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Animating Shapes, Filters, and Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Setting In and Out Points of Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Creating Animated Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Setting Keyframe Values for a Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Setting the Interpolation Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Creating Static Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Resetting Tracks and Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Working with Value Curves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Viewing the Value Curve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Using the Value Curve Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Wheel Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Size to Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Ruler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Manipulating the Value Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Using Bzier Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

The Boris Library Browser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Opening the Library Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Previewing and Applying Effects in the Library Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Animate Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160


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8 Contents

Best Quality Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Previewing Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Playing the Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Preview to RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Preview to RAM on Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Preview Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Update Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Display on Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Refresh Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Toggle Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Toggle Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Image Sub-menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Mark Sub-menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Preview at 4:3 Aspect Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Saving Boris FX Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Saving Boris FX Settings to a Host Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Saving Boris FX Settings to Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Save Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Exporting Frames as Still Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Opening Saved Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Opening Settings with the Library Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Saving Selected Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Inserting Settings Into an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Rendering Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168Important Notes About Rendering Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

The Rendering Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Chapter 5: Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Mapping Media to the Faces of a Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Common Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Position Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Pivot Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Light Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Tips for Using Lighting Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Shadow Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Camera Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Crop Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187Mask Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189


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Composite Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Flat 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194Motion Blur Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Border Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Lights Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Common Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Diffuse Specular Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Spotlight Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Understanding Position and Target Controls in Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Cube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Cube Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Sphere Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Cylinder Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Page Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Light Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220Page Turn Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

3D Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

The Text Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Tabs and Rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Importing Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Previewing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Updating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225Style Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Margin Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Shape Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Position Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Lights Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Using Lighting Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

3D Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Chapter 6: 3D Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Using a 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Creating a 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Adding Tracks to a 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Using Track Controls Within a 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2403D Container Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241


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10 Contents

Position Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Pivot Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243Camera Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Motion Blur Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Shadows Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Appendix A: Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

The Boris FX Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Blur Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Color Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Distortion Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Keying Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Light Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Noise Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Particles Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Appendix B: Apply Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Boris FX Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289


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11

Introduction

Boris FX and Boris FX PRO are digital video effects (DVE) plug-ins for a variety of non-

linear digital video editing systems that combine 3D title animation and compositing

effects. Boris FX is a multi-channel DVE, complete with keyframe interpolation, motion

blur, and a number of blur, keying, color, and noise filters. Boris FX PRO contains all the

features of Boris FX, but adds realistic light and image shatter filters and provides apply

modes for compositing layers over one another.With both versions of Boris FX, you can simultaneously spin, tumble, rotate, and resize

any number of tracks of full motion video in 3D space. You can also map video onto a

flat plane, a sphere, a cube, a cylinder, three-dimensional extruded text, or create a page

turn. Use 3D containers to manipulate tracks in groups while independently controlling

their individual properties.

Boris FX and Boris FX PRO include a range of different compositing filters, including blur,

color, distortion, keying, lighting, and particles effects. The PixelChooser providesadditional control over many of these effects by allowing you to select the pixels to be

filtered using custom mattes.

Understanding Plug-ins

Boris FX is a plug-in. Plug-ins are software products which can be added to your host

application to enhance its functionality. A plug-in can be a small and simple addition or

a complex piece of software.

Plug-in files have to reside in a specific folder on your computer so that the host

program can find them. If a plug-in is misplaced or moved around, the host application

may loose track of it. As with any other file, a plug-in file can be renamed and the new

name will be used by the host application to identify the plug-in.

When the host program starts up, it looks in the plug-in folder for the available plug-ins.It loads all recognized plug-ins and makes them available to the user.

Plug-ins become an integral part of the host program sharing all of its resources

including memory. Plug-ins are not separate applications; they do not have to run in

the background and do not require additional memory.


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12 Introduction

Installing and Starting Boris FX

Installation instructions vary for each supported host application. For instructions on

installing and loading Boris FX into your host application, see the Installation Guide

located on the Boris FX CD-ROM.

Boris FX Keyframe Library

Boris FX automatically installs the Keyframe Library, which contains hundreds of preseteffect settings. The Keyframe Library is installed by default on your computers hard

drive, in the locations described below.

Windows Hosts

The Keyframe Library can be found in the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Artel Software Inc.\Boris FX\KeyFrame Library

Macintosh Hosts

The Keyframe Library is installed to the following location:

System Folder/Application Support/Boris FX/KeyFrame Library

To open any of the KeyFrame Library settings, choose File > Open Settings, and navigate

to the settings file you want to use. You can also modify any settings file and save it inthe Library for future use.

You can also preview and apply any settings in the KeyFrame Library in the Boris

Library Browser. For more information, see The Boris Library Browser on

page 158.

Using the ManualThis manual and has been designed to help you understand the many options offered

by Boris FX and Boris FX PRO so that you may use these complex programs to their fullest

potential.

This manual covers both Boris FX and Boris FX PRO. The tutorial exercises are designed

to work with both applications. However, certain features discussed in the manual are

only available in Boris FX PRO and not in Boris FX. These features are noted whereapplicable.

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Introduction 13

Overview of Manual

The manual is divided into the following sections:

Chapter 1 provides several short tutorial exercises to help familiarize you with thefeatures of Boris FX.

Chapter 2 provides descriptions of Boris FXs user interface. Chapter 3 describes how to import, create, and adjust various supported media

types.

Chapter 4 describes how to create, preview, and render animated and static effects. Chapter 5 discusses each of the 3D shapes available in Boris FX. Chapter 6 discusses the use of 3D Containers.

Filters Guide

Information on all Boris FX and Boris FX PRO filters is available in the Filters Guide, a

separate PDF document located on the Boris FX CD-ROM.

Icons

Throughout the manual, certain icons are used to denote sections of special interest.

Designates features that are not part of the standard feature package and are

available only in Boris FX PRO. All other features are available in both Boris FX and

Boris FX PRO.

Indicates warnings about procedures that might produce unwanted effects, are

very memory-intensive, or cannot be easily undone.

Accompanies useful notes about a parameter, filter, or procedure. These notes can

help you better understand how to use Boris FX.

Denotes a reference to another part of the manual in the text. Check the indicated

sections for further information.

Accompanies creative ideas for using Boris FX to produce specific effects.


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14 Introduction

Computer Experience

This manual assumes that you that you understand your computers operating systemat a fundamental level and are familiar with basic computer functions such as mouse-

pointing, clicking, dragging, scrolling, and choosing commands from menus. You

should also know how to select and edit text and how to create, open, and save

documents and folders. Consult the documentation provided with your computer if you

are not familiar with these terms and functions.

Host Application Experience

This manual assumes that you have installed the host video editing application software

on your system and that you are proficient enough in the host application to perform

basic-level program editing techniques, including custom transitions and rendering

effects.

You must also know how to apply effects to the timeline in your host application, edit

effects, and render effects in order to use Boris FX. If you are unfamiliar with theseoperations, consult the documentation provided with your host application.

Release Notes

The Release Notes contain valuable, up-to-date information on new features, supported

host applications and operating systems, and known limitations. The Release Notes are

located on the Boris FX CD-ROM.

Technical Support

If you encounter host-specific questions that are not covered in this manual, or have

difficulty installing or starting Boris FX, visit the Boris FX Technical Forum at

http://www.borisfx.com/support, and look for the link for your host application and

operating system. You can also contact Boris FX Technical Support by calling (617) 451-

9900 or e-mailing [email protected].


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TUTORIAL

c h a p t e r 1


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Chapter 1Tutorial

About Tutorial Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Exercise 1: Animating an Image Using Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Importing Still Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Naming Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Animating the Flat 3D Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Working with Bezier Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Saving Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Exercise 2: Creating a Multi Input Page Turn Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Creating a Page Turn Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Mapping Media to Front and Back Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Applying Upstream and Downstream Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Exercise 3: Animating Masked Tracks in a 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

About Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Applying a Mask to a Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Changing the Duration of an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Manipulating Tracks Within a 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Creating the 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Setting Static Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Animating Position Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using the 3D Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Setting the Default Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Adjusting the Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Exercise 4: Filtering Selectively with the PixelChooser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Applying a Blur to Selected Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Creating a Wipe Between the Original and Blurred Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Using a PixelChooser Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Exercise 5: Creating a Chroma Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Creating the Garbage Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Creating and Adjusting the Matte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Adjusting the Foreground Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Exercise 6: Creating a Custom Scatter Wipe Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53Importing a Movie File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

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18 Chapter 1

Creating the Wipe Gradient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Creating the Scatter Wipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Animating the Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Adding the Scatter Wipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Adjusting Particle Shape and Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Exercise 7: Creating a 3D Text Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Using the Text Window to Format Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Mapping Media to the Faces of the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Working with 3D Text Shape Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Working with Lighting Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

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About Tutorial Exercises

The following tutorial exercises provide step-by-step instructions for creating various

kinds of effects, while exploring many aspects of the Boris FX user interface and

functionality.

Each tutorial builds on the steps and techniques introduced in the tutorial that precedes

it. For this reason, new users should begin with the first tutorial and perform the

tutorials in order. More advanced users can look over the tutorial topics and sub-topics

and choose tutorials that are more applicable to their skill level.

These tutorials are designed to be used with the Keyframer, the stand-alone version of

Boris FX. You can perform the steps in these tutorials from within a host application, but

host-specific aspects of Boris FX (such as rendering) are not covered in these tutorials.

The Keyframer can be found on the Boris FX CD-ROM.

The tutorials use and refer to a number of media files, which can be found in the

Tutorial Files folder on the Boris FX CD-ROM.

These exercises assume you are using the KeyFramer applications default settings

and preferences. If you change a default setting in one exercise, you must change

the setting back before proceeding with the next exercise.

You can reset all preferences to the default settings by deleting your Boris

preferences file. For more information, see Resetting Preferences on page 97.

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Exercise 1: Animating an Image Using Keyframes

In this tutorial, you will use keyframes to animate a single video track in 3D space. This

tutorial also covers basic interpolation settings and file management.

Importing Still Image Files

1 Click Track 1 in the timeline to

select it. The track turns blue when

you select it.

2 Click the Media icon in the track,

and choose Still Image File from

the menu. A dialog box opens that

lets you navigate to the files

location. Open the columns.pct clip from the Tutorial Files folder on the Boris FX

CD-ROM.

3 The columns image is now visible in the Composite window.

4 Follow the same steps to import the still image file waves.pct into Track 2.

5 Click the View Track icon on Track

1 to hide that track. The waves

image is now visible in theComposite window.

6 Click the View Track icon again to restore Track 1s visibility. The columns image is

now visible in the Composite window.

Naming Tracks

1 Select Track 1, and choose Track > Rename Track.2 Type in the word Columns and

press Return (on Macintosh) or

Enter (on Windows). The track is

now named Columns.

Use the Keyboard shortcut to rename Track 2:

1 Select Track 2, and press Return or Enter.

Media icon

View Track icon

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2 Type in the word Waves and press

Return or Enter. The track is now

named Waves.

Animating the Flat 3D Shape

You can assign each track in the

timeline one of five 3D shapes by

clicking the Shape icon for that track. By

default, each new track is assigned aFlat 3Dshapethat is, a flat still or video image the size of the Composite window.

Selecting a track displays the parameters for that type of track in the Controls window.

Each of these parameters can be animated using keyframes. A keyframe sets specific

parameter values for a track at a certain point on the timeline. When you place multiple

keyframes on the timeline, the program interpolates, or computes intermediate values,

between keyframe values.

In this exercise, you will set keyframes in the timeline to animate several Flat 3D

parameters.

1 Click the Columns track to select it. Notice that the track already has keyframes

placed at the start and end of the track. Because both keyframes contain the

default parameter values for the track, the effect is static (not animated).

2 Move the Current Time Indicator (CTI) to frame 10 (Time 00:00:00:10).

Shape icon

Keyframes

Current Time Indicator (CTI)

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3 If it is not already displayed, click the Position tab in the Controls window.

4 Change the Scale X value to 60 by

moving the slider. (The Scale X and

Scale Y values are locked bydefault, so the Scale Y setting also

Numerical Field SliderLock

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updates.) Or, click the numerical field, type in 60, and press Return or Enter. A new

keyframe is automatically created at frame 10, and the Columns image is scaled to

60% of its original size.

5 Click the keyframe in Frame 10 to

select it, then click the

interpolation field in the Scale X

controls. Choose Hold from the

menu.

6 Return the CTI to the beginning of the effect, either by dragging the CTI to thebeginning or by pressing the Home key.

7 Play the sequence by clicking the

play button in the Composite

window, or by pressing the space

bar. The Columns track starts out at

full size, shrinks to 60% size by frame 10, then stays at that size (holds) for the

remainder of the effect.8 To view the effect in real time, choose Preview > Preview to RAM. The effect plays

through once slowly as it renders each frame to RAM, then plays through once in

real time.

Now, add another animation to move the Columns track off-screen and reveal the Waves

track.

Interpolation Field

Play Button

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1 Expand the Columns track by clicking the disclosure triangle to the left of the track

name, then expand the Transformations track. Expand the Position track to reveal

separate tracks that correspond to each parameter in the Position tab in the

Controls window. Note that the keyframes you set earlier in the exercise appear in

the Scale X and Scale Y tracks.

2 Move the CTI to frame 10 (Time 00:00:00:10).

3 Select the Position X track, then choose Track > New Keyframe. A keyframe appearsin the Position X track at the CTIs current position (Time 00:00:00:10). Use the same

steps to create a new keyframe at that point in the Position Y track.

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4 Select the Rotate track. This time use the keyboard shortcut, Command N (on

Macintosh) or Control N (on Windows), to create a new keyframe in the Rotate track.

Your timeline should now look like the following illustration.

5 Move the CTI to the last frame in the sequence (Time 00:00:01:00).

6 In the Controls Window, set

Position X to 840 and Position Y to

0. You can either adjust the

parameters in the Controls window

or drag the blue position point in the Composite window off the screen.7 Set Rotate to 0 rotations, 180.

Rotations

Degrees

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8 Return the CTI to the beginning of the effect, and play the sequence. The Columns

track now shrinks to 60% size by frame 10, and undergoes one half rotation around

the Z axis and moves off screen by frame 30.

Time 00:00:00:10 Time 00:00:00:15 Time 00:00:00:21

Working with Bezier Curves

The Ease In/Outinterpolation (the default interpolation type) allows you to work with

Bezier curves to fine tune the motion of the effect. This section describes two ways of

using the Bezier controls to smooth out transitions at keyframe points.

1 In the timeline, expand the Columns tracks Position track to reveal tracks for each

parameter in the Position tab.

2 Expand the Position X track to reveal the Value curve controls for that parameter.

Value Curve controls Value CurveBezier handle

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3 In the Controls window, click the

interpolation fields in the Position

X and Position Y controls. Choose

Ease In/Out from the menu.

4 Red Bezier curve handles appear at

each keyframe point on the Value

curve in the timeline. Drag either

of the handles to move them up ordown or lengthen them. The left

handle controls the curve going

into the keyframe, and the right

handle controls the curve going

out of the keyframe.

If you do not see Bezier handles in

the value curve, you must changeyour interpolation type to Ease

In/Out. To do so, click the

interpolation fields in the Position

X and Position Y controls. Choose Ease In/Out from the menu.

5 To manipulate the direction of

each Bezier handle independently,hold the Option key (on Macintosh)

or the Alt key (on Windows) as you

drag the handle.

You can also manipulate the images motion path in the Composite window.

1 In the Composite window, click theControls button. Choose Motion

Path from the menu.

Interpolation Field

Bezier Handle

Interpolation Field

Controls Button

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2 The tracks motion path appears in the Composite window. You can now drag the

Bezier curve handles to adjust the tracks motion. To manipulate the direction of

each Bezier handle independently, hold the Option key (on Macintosh) or the Alt

key (on Windows) as you drag the handle.

3 Each white dot in the path represents the tracks

position point in each frame of the timeline. Click

the Frame Advance and Frame Back buttons to

view the motion of the track as it moves througheach point.

Saving Settings

The Keyframer cannot render your effect, but you can save the settings file and open it

later in a host application to render it. If you are doing the tutorial exercises within a

host application, you can save the settings with your host.To save effect settings:

1 Click the Apply button in the lower right corner of the timeline.

2 In the Keyframer, a dialog box appears. Navigate to the place where you want to

save the file, then click Save.

3 In a host application, the settings are saved with the project.

Drag Bezier handles toadjust the images motionpath.

Frame Back Button

Frame Advance Button

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Exercise 2: Creating a Multi Input Page Turn Transition

In this exercise, you will create a Page Turn transition with different media on the front

and back faces of the turning page, and apply a filter to the effect.

Creating a Page Turn Transition

1 Click the Shape icon for Track 1,

and choose Page Turn from the

menu.

The Composite window updates to

display the new shape.

2 Rename Track 1 Page Turn. Rename Track 2 Background.

3 Select the first keyframe of the Page Turn track in the Timeline window (Time

00:00:00:00)

4 In the Controls window, click the Page Turn tab, and set Offset to 0.

Shape icon

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5 Select the last keyframe in the Page Turn track (Time 00:00:01:00), and set Offset to

100.

6 Play the sequence to see the Offset animate from 0 to 100, which creates the page

turn transition.

Page turn transition

Time 00:00:00:20 Time 00:00:00:25

Mapping Media to Front and Back Faces

Each Shape has a Multi Input mode and Single Input mode. In Single Input mode, the

assigned media is used for all faces of the shape. In Multi Input mode, multiple facetracks appear in the timeline, each of which can be assigned different media.

Set first keyframesOffset value to 0

Set last keyframesOffset value to 100

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In this part of the exercise, you will assign different media to the front and back of the

page turn effect.

1 Expand the Page Turn track in the

timeline. Click the Multi/Single

Input icon on the Page Turn Track.

2 Separate Face tracks appear for the

Front and Back faces of the page

turn.

3 Assign tall trees.pct to the front face. Click the Media icon for the Front Face track

and choose Still Image File from the menu. Then choose tall trees.pct from the


4 Use the same steps to assign the image clover.pct to the background track.

5 Assign a solid color to the back face. Click the Media icon for the Back Face track,

and choose Color from the menu. Then pick a color using the system color picker.The page turn now has tall trees.pct on the front face, solid color on the back face, and

reveals clover.pct at the end of the transition.

Multi Input Page Turn Transition

Time 00:00:00:20 Time 00:00:00:25

Multi/Single Input icon

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Applying Upstream and Downstream Filters

There are two ways to apply a filter to a shape effect, referred to as upstreamanddownstream. These terms refer to the order in which the filter is processed in relation to

the shape itself.

An upstream filter is applied to the shape and processed before the shapetransformations occur. An upstream filter only affects one portion of the shape, that

is, one of the shapes faces.

A downstream filter is applied to the shape and processed after the shape

transformations occur. A downstream filter affects the entire shape and all of itsfaces.

In this section, you will apply a Ripple filter to the page turn at both the upstream and

downstream positions.

To apply an upstream ripple effect:

1 Select the Front Face track, and

choose Filter > Distortion > Ripple

to apply a Ripple filter to that

track.

The Ripple track is now nestedwithin the Front Face track.

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Thus, the Ripple affects only the

front face, and does not distort the

shape itself.

Now, move the Ripple filter to the downstream position, where it affects the entire

shape:

1 Drag the Ripple track into the Page

Turn track.

The track is now nested within the Page

Turn track, and the Ripple distorts the

entire shape.

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Exercise 3: Animating Masked Tracks in a 3D Container

In this exercise, you will apply masks to two tracks, animate them individually, thenadjust them within a 3D Container.

About Masks

A maskis a piece of media that contains an alpha (transparent) channel, which can be

used to hide part of another image. Each Shape and Face track in Boris FX contains a

Mask track. When you apply a mask to an object, the object becomes transparentwherever the masks alpha channel has a value of 0, and remains opaque wherever the

masks alpha channels value is 255. Intermediate alpha channel values in the mask

produce semi-transparent areas in the object.

Any mask can be applied as either an upstreamor downstreammask. These terms refer

to when the mask is processed in relation to the shapes transformations.

An upstream mask is applied to theshapes face track. It becomes part ofthat faces media and is processed

before the shape transformations occur.

In the example at right, the mask is

applied first, then the masked face is

curved into a cylinder.

A downstream mask is applied to theshape and processed after the shape

transformations occur. In the example at

right, the face is curved into a cylinder,then the mask reveals the cylinder.

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This exercise will use only upstream masksthat is, masks that are applied to the

shapes face before the shape undergoes transformations.

Applying a Mask to a Track

1 Use Command K (on Macintosh) or Control K (on Windows) to create three new

tracks. Drag the tracks to position them in numerical order, with Track 1 at the top

and Track 5 at the bottom.

2 Rename and assign media to each of the five tracks:

Change Track 1s media type to Color, and assign it a white color. Then changethe tracks name to White.

Change Track 2s media type to Color, and assign it a red color. Then change thetracks name to Red.

Change Track 3s media to the still image file Arrow.pct, located in the TutorialFiles folder on the Boris FX CD-ROM. Name the track Arrow.

Change Track 4s media to the still image file Bullseye.pct, located in theTutorial Files folder on the Boris FX CD-ROM. Name the track Bullseye.

Change Track 5s media type to Color, and assign it a black color. Change thetracks name to Black.

Your timeline should now look like the following illustration.

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3 Expand the White track, then

expand the Face track within to

reveal its Mask track. Drag theArrow track into the Face tracks

Mask track.

4 Expand the Red track, then expandthe Face track within to reveal its

Mask track. Drag the Bullseye track

into the Face tracks Mask track.

The Composite window displays the red

track masked by the bullseye shape, and

the white track masked by the arrow

shape.

Changing the Duration of an Effect

Change the duration of the effect from 1 second to 3 seconds:

1 Click the Duration field in the timeline.

2 Edit the duration to the desired length (00:00:03:00).

3 Press Return (on Macintosh) or Enter (on Windows). Thetimeline updates to reflect the new duration of 3 seconds.

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Manipulating Tracks Within a 3D Container

Placing two or more tracks inside a 3D Container preserves the spatial relationshipbetween the tracks. This allows you to animate tracks independently (at the track level),

then apply parameters and animations globally to all the tracks within the container (at

the container level).

In this section, you will place the arrow and bullseye into a 3D container, then animate

the arrow to fly in from the left and hit the center of the bullseye.

Creating the 3D Container

1 To create a 3D Container, choose Track > New 3D Container.

Be sure that no tracks are selected when you create the new 3D Container.

Otherwise, the 3D Container track will appear above the selected track, rather than

at the top of the timeline.

2 Collapse the White and Red tracksby clicking the disclosure triangle

for each track. Select the White

track, then hold the Shift key while

you select the Red track in order to

select both tracks at once.

3 Drag the White and Red tracks into

the 3D Container track.

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Setting Static Parameters

To set a parameter that does not animate over the course of the effect, adjust the

parameter and set its interpolation type to Constant. In this section you will set the static

attributes of the arrow before animating it.

1 Select the White track. Click the Position tab in the Controls window.

2 Set the Spin value to 45 and set the

interpolation type to Constant. The

arrow is now spun 45 around the Y

axis, and stays at this angle for the

duration of the effect.

Animating Position Parameters

In this section you will use the Controls

window and the on-screen controls to animate the X, Y, and Z Positions of the objects.

1 Select the first keyframe on the Red track (Time 00:00:00:00).

2 In the Controls window, set the Redtracks Position Z value to 1500 to move

the bullseye farther from the viewer in Z

space.

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3 Drag the blue position point control to

the right and position the bullseye near

the right edge of the frame. The PositionX and Position Y values should be

approximately 720 and 240 respectively.

If you do not see the blue position point control

in the Composite window, click the Controls

button and choose Position Point from the

menu.

To see the position point control after you moveit off-screen, either increase the size of the

Composite window or decrease the size of the

image frame using the Ratio button in the

Composite window.

4 Select the last keyframe in the Red track (Time 00:00:03:00). The Composite window

displays the default position settings for that keyframe. Therefore, the bullseyeappears at the center of the frame.

5 Set the Position X and Position Y values

to approximately 420 and 240,

respectively, using either the sliders in

the Controls window or the position

point in the Composite window. Leave

the Position Z value at its default settingof 0.

6 Select the first keyframe in the White track (Time 00:00:00:00).

Controls Button

Ratio Button

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7 In the Controls window, set the Position

Z value to 640 to move the arrow closer

to the viewer.

8 Drag the arrows position point to the left until it is entirely off-screen. The Position

X and Position Y values should be about 65 and 240, respectively.

9 Select the last keyframe in the White

track. Drag the arrows position point to

place the tip of the arrow at the center ofthe bullseye. The Position X and Position

Y values should be about 352 and 240,

respectively. Leave Position Z at its

default setting of 0.

10 Move the CTI to the beginning of the

timeline and play the sequence or

Preview to RAM. The arrow flies in fromthe left and the bullseye zooms in until

the tip of the arrow hits the bullseye.

Animated effect

Time 00:00:01:00 Time 00:00:01:25 Time 00:00:03:00

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Using the 3D Container

In this section, you will use the 3D Container to make global adjustments the objectsyou have animated. Animating or adjusting a container affects all the objects inside it

while preserving their spatial relationship to each other.

Setting the Default Interpolation

In this section, all of the adjustments you will make are static adjustments. Therefore,

you should use the Constant interpolation type so that adjusting parameters does not

create new keyframes. Rather than setting the interpolation type to Constant every timeyou adjust a parameter, you can save time by changing the default interpolation type to

the type you want to use most often.

To set the default interpolation type to Constant:

1 Choose Edit > Preferences.

2 In the General Options, set Default Interpolation to Constant.

3 Click OK.

Adjusting the Container

In this section you will use the 3D Container to scale, rotate, and apply trails to the

objects inside the container.

1 Select the 3D Container track in the timeline.

2 In the Controls window, set Trails to 6, Scale X to 75, and Rotate to 180. Each of theseparameters should display the new default interpolation type, Constant.

3 Move the CTI to the beginning of the sequence and play it or preview it to RAM. The

new Trails, Scale X, and Rotate settings are applied to both tracks inside the

container.

Animation with adjusted container

Time 00:00:01:00 Time 00:00:02:00 Time 00:00:03:00

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Exercise 4: Filtering Selectively with the PixelChooser

The PixelChooser uses the source images color or luma information to apply a filter toselected pixels. For example, you could use the PixelChooser to apply noise to only the

brightest or darkest areas of an image, depending on the luma values you set. You can

also apply another image to the PixelChooser Source track, and use that images

channels to selectively apply the filter to the source image.

The PixelChooser also provides region controls that apply the filter to a specified region

in the image. This allows you to apply a filter to any rectangular or oval-shaped region,

and animate the region size to create wipes between the filtered and unfiltered image.

In this exercise, you will apply a blur filter to selected channels using the PixelChoosers

Channel controls. The second part of the exercise shows you how to create a wipe using

the PixelChoosers Region controls.

Applying a Blur to Selected Channels

In this section you will use the PixelChooser to blur the source images luma channel tocreate a glow effect.

1 Assign the still image grasses.pct, found in the Tutorial folder on the Boris FX CD,

to Track 1. Name the track Grasses. Delete Track 2 by selecting it and pressing the

Delete key (on Macintosh) or the Back Space key (on Windows); you will not need it

in this exercise.

2 Apply a Directional Blur filter to theGrasses track. To do this, select the track,

then choose Filters > Blur > Directional

Blur. The source image is blurred

uniformly.

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3 In the Controls window, click the PixelChooser tab. Within this tab are separate

Region and Channel tabs. Click the Channel tab.

4 Set Make Mask From to Luminance. This tells the PixelChooser to create a mask

based on the source images luminance values, using one of three Mask Types.

5 Select View Pixels Chosen to view the

mask in black and white. The black areas

of the mask show where the source

images pixels will be filtered, and the

white areas of the mask show where the

pixels will be unfiltered.

Region Tab

Channel Tab

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6 Select Invert Mask to invert the luma

values of the mask. Now the lightest

parts of the plants will be blurred.

7 Set Mask Type to Levels, and use the

Black Level and White Level controls to

adjust the mask and eliminate most of

the gray background regions. Increasing

Black Level pushes dark gray pixels to

black, and decreasing White Level

pushes light gray pixels to white.

8 Deselect View Pixels Chosen to view the

composite. If you want, adjust the

amount of blur or the direction of theblur to fine tune the glow effect.

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Creating a Wipe Between the Original and Blurred Images

In this section you will animate the PixelChoosers Region controls to create a wipebetween the original image and the blurred image you have just created.

1 Click the Region tab in the PixelChooser tab, and set Region Type to Inside Rectangle.

This applies the filter inside a rectangular region whose top left corner is set using

the Top Left X and Top Left Y controls, and whose bottom right corner is set using

the Bottom Right X and Bottom Right Y controls.

2 Position the CTI on the first keyframe in the sequence (time 00:00:00:00). Set

Bottom Right X to 0, and set the Interpolation type to Linear.

3 Position the CTI on the last keyframe in the sequence (time 00:00:01:00). Set

Bottom Right X to 640.

4 Play the sequence. The blurred region of the image wipes from left to right.

PixelChooser Wipe

Time 00:00:00:10 Time 00:00:00:20

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Using a PixelChooser Track

You can also use a separate images color, luma, or alpha channels to determine howthe PixelChooser filters the source image.

1 Expand the Directional Blur track

to reveal the PixelChooser Track.

2 Assign the still image Burst.pct to the

PixelChooser Track.

3 In the PixelChooser tab in the Controls window, set Make Mask From toAlpha, and

select the Use PixelChooser Track checkbox.

4 Deselect Invert Mask.

5 The blurred portion of the image now

corresponds to the alpha channel of the

PixelChooser Track image.

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Exercise 5: Creating a Chroma Key Effect

In this exercise, you will use the Chroma Key filter to key out the background of an imageand superimpose it over a new background. You will also use Clean Up Alpha to refine

the matte created by the Chroma Key, and then apply Levels/Gamma to match the

foreground to the new background.

Creating the Garbage Matte

A garbage matte is used in keying effects to discard unwanted portions of thebackground before keying takes place. Using a garbage matte can produce a cleaner key

and speed up processing time.

In this section, you will import foreground and background media, apply the Chroma

Key filter, and create the garbage matte.

1 Choose Edit > Preferences and set the Default Interpolation to Hold, since you will

not need to animate any parameters in this exercise.

2 Name Track 1 Girl and import the still image Greenscreen Girl.pct from the


3 Name Track 2 Background and import the still image file Silhouette Trees.pct

from the Boris FX CD-ROM.

4 Click the Background tracks

Visibility icon to hide the track

while you work with the

greenscreen track.

5 Select the Girl Track. Choose Filter

> Keying > Chroma Key to apply a

Chroma Key filter to the track.

Click to hide track

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6 In the Controls window, click the Garbage Matte tab.

7 Click the Lock icon to unlock the

parameter values in order to

adjust the settings independently.

Click to unlock parameters

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8 Adjust the Left and Right settings to

eliminate as much of the green

background as possible without cuttingoff any of the foreground subject. The

Left value should be set to about 80, and

the Right value set to about 16.

Creating and Adjusting the Matte

In this section you will create and adjust the matte using the Chroma Key and Clean Up

Alpha filters.

1 Click the Matte Controls tab in the Controls window.

2 To set the Key Color (the color to key

out), click the eyedropper, then click

the green background in the

Composite window, close to the subjects hairline.

The area whose color matches the Key

Color is made transparent.

3 To view the matte you have created click the

Channels selector in the Composite window, and

choose Alpha.Channels Button

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The Composite window displays the

alpha channel of the keyed image in

black and white. White areas are opaquein the output, black areas are

transparent, and gray areas are semi-

transparent.

This matte has some unwanted semi-transparent gray areas. You can apply a Clean Up

Alpha filter to adjust the matte and eliminate some of the gray areas.

1 Select the Girl track. Choose Filters

> Keying > Clean Up Alpha.

2 In the Controls window, adjust the White

setting to increase the range of grayvalues that are output as white. A setting

of ab

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