Hi all,

Is there any way within Avid FX to draw a custom shape to create an alpha like you can with the BCC make alpha? All I can find is set shapes like circles and rectangles etc.

When I try to draw a spline I can't seem to work out how to use that as a key.

Thanks,

Craig.

craig r harbour:

Is there any way within Avid FX to draw a custom shape to create an alpha

Is this something like you are looking for, Craig?

http://www.screencast.com/t/l0pJU6Ontk

I animated it to show further possibilities

Regards,
Douglas

Hi Douglas,

Not really what I'm after. I want an alternative to animatte but with the advantage of being able to move the newly created matte around the screen. BCC Make alpha does this which is fine if I have access to it but being a freelance editor you never know if the next suite you end up in is going to have BCC installed now that it has been removed from version 6, I can however be sure that Avid FX will be there. 

The way I would do it With BCC Make Alpha is Make Alpha from Alpha, turn on pixel chooser and in PC region change shape to custom and then draw the shape I need.

If I try to do something similar inside Avid FX I can only go as far as getting custom shapes like circles and rectangles.

Hope that all makes sense.

Thanks in advance.

Craig.

craig r harbour:

Is there any way within Avid FX to draw a custom shape to create an alpha

There is a way, and that way involves using the "Mask" tracks present on shapes in AvidFX. I just did a screencap with voiceoever showing what I mean here ;

http://www.borisfxresources.com/AvidForum/AvidFXmasks/AvidFXmasks.html

Yup this is what I wanted to do, Thanks.

It will take a a bit of practice though to get my head a round it!

Thanks again,

Craig.

craig r harbour:

Hi Douglas,

Not really what I'm after

Yes it was, Craig.

While I was asleep in Japan, Dirk did that useful quick tutorial (below) which actually describes the exact method I used in my demo above.

Thanks for filling in the gaps, Dirk.

Regards,
Douglas

PS. I cover quite a lot about using the spline tracks/spline objects etc. in some the tutorials on my site.
Feel free to take a look.