AV News Magazine | Page 8

AV News 194 - November 2013 Remember that any of these adjustments that you have made can be revisited at any stage and changed to suit. I often find that I do something that I think will work, run the sequence and realise that the background is too dark, the position of the object is wrong or that bright red border that I chose really doesn't work. No problem, just go back and change it. Now for something a bit more tricky. The technique above almost inevitably produces hard edges to the second image. Could we have soft edges to our second image so that the images blend together better? Yes, but we need to get into 'Masks'. Using a mask to add the second image to a slide A little aside about masks. The Venetian lady in this photo is wearing a mask. The mask is a solid, white plastic, object with bits cut out so that we can see parts behind. The mask also has decoration, an image, applied to the surface. In PTE terminology that physical mask in its entirety is represented by a 'Mask Container', in which there are two images. One image represents the shape of the mask, i.e. the parts that are cut out. As with the Venetian mask of white plastic, our PTE mask is white where we don't want to see underneath and black where we do want to see underneath. But what is most useful in PTE is that different shades of grey give different amounts of opacity. There is a second image in the 'Mask container' that represents the image which is pasted on the front of the mask. To create a soft edge to our second image, we need a mask which is opaque in the centre (i.e. the image of it will be white), but is see through round the edges (black), but there is a gentle gradation from white to black at the edges. To create the mask: · In O&A, with your base image not selected, click on the 'Add Mask' icon. This will bring up a dialogue box which, inevitably, gives you lots of options. The image gives you an impression of the mask which will be created. · Let's keep it simple to start with. Make sure the 'From template' button is lit and the 'Style' is 'Rectangle'. Forget the other options at the moment, you can come back to them later. Your mask will be a white square blending to black at the edges. · Click 'OK' Page 6