Focal Easy Guide to Discreet combustion 3: For new users and professionals (The Focal Easy Guide)

Front cover......Page 1
The Focal Easy Guide Series......Page 3
Title page......Page 4
Copyright page......Page 5
Table of contents......Page 6
About this Book......Page 12
Platforms......Page 13
About the Footage......Page 14
About the Author......Page 15
A Few Thanks.........Page 16
1 Preferences, UI and Key Terms......Page 18
And So it Begins.........Page 19
Quick Visit to the Preferences......Page 20
Major Project Components......Page 25
Main Interface Explained Graphically......Page 28
Data Entry Conventions......Page 36
2 Workflow Basics, Footage and Viewports......Page 40
RAM Cache and Caching......Page 41
The Cache Meter......Page 42
Display Quality and Caching......Page 43
File Menu Options......Page 45
The Thumbnail Browser......Page 48
Working with Footage......Page 49
Footage Controls (Source and Output Settings)......Page 50
Working with Proxies......Page 55
Missing Footage......Page 56
The Workspace Panel......Page 57
Working with Viewports......Page 61
View Modes......Page 68
3 Paint and Text Operators......Page 72
A Bit of Background.........Page 73
Applying a Paint Operator......Page 74
Non-Destructive Paint......Page 78
The Paint Toolbar......Page 82
Pivot Points......Page 86
Control Points......Page 87
Paint Groups......Page 88
Categories of the Paint Controls......Page 90
Vector Paint, Raster Output......Page 99
Working with Adobe Illustrator Files......Page 101
Text and Character Generation......Page 102
Paint Preferences......Page 106
4 Compositing in 2D and 3D......Page 108
2D Composites......Page 111
Transformations......Page 114
Transfer Modes......Page 117
Layer View......Page 118
Effect Operators......Page 120
3D Compositing......Page 122
Additional Notes about 3D Composites......Page 127
... and Finally, Nested Composites......Page 128
5 The Schematic View (Go with the Flow)......Page 132
Accessing the Schematic View......Page 133
Applying Operators......Page 138
Notes on Nodes......Page 139
Further Points on Schematic View......Page 140
Schematic Hotkeys......Page 141
Duplicating (Creating Instances)......Page 142
Schematic Preferences......Page 146
6 Selections and Masks......Page 148
Shared Terminology......Page 149
Selection Operators......Page 155
Mask Operators and Alpha Channels......Page 157
Stencil Layer......Page 163
Preserve Alpha......Page 165
Preferences......Page 166
7 Working with Color......Page 168
Color Spaces......Page 169
Color Channels and Bit Depth......Page 171
Color Correction......Page 173
The Discreet Color Corrector......Page 175
Color Matching......Page 181
The Store and Compare Features......Page 183
8 Keying and the Discreet Keyer......Page 188
Keyer Types in Discreet combustion......Page 190
More than Just Making the Blue or Green Vanish.........Page 191
The Discreet Keyer Operator......Page 196
One Keying Workflow......Page 200
On-Set Tips for Chroma Key Shoots......Page 207
Additional Resources for Chroma Keying......Page 208
9 The Tracker......Page 210
The Enigma Unveiled......Page 211
Two Questions to Consider......Page 212
Applications for the Tracker......Page 213
Let’s Make Tracks, Already!......Page 215
Trackers......Page 218
Picking an Element to Track......Page 219
The Tracker Interface in Depth......Page 220
Image Stabilizing......Page 226
Closing Tips......Page 232
10 Animation and the Timeline......Page 234
Methods of Animating in combustion......Page 235
Creating Simple Keyframe Animations......Page 238
The Timeline......Page 240
Animation Channels and Filtering......Page 242
Ease Curves......Page 245
Extrapolation......Page 248
Markers......Page 250
11 A/V Editing......Page 254
Audio......Page 255
The Filmstrip......Page 258
The Edit Operator......Page 260
Trimming Heads, Middles and Tails......Page 262
Simple Editing......Page 263
Transitions......Page 265
One- and Two-Point Editing......Page 267
Split Layer......Page 268
12 Expressions......Page 270
Quick Pick......Page 271
Editing an Expression......Page 274
Expression Browser......Page 276
Converting Expressions to Keyframes......Page 279
Ideas for Further Exploration......Page 281
13 Integrated Particle System......Page 282
OpenGL......Page 283
Components of the Particle Operator......Page 284
The Preview Window......Page 286
Categories of the Particle Operator......Page 287
Library Presets as Starting Points......Page 295
Closing Tips for Particles......Page 296
14 Rendering and Output......Page 298
Output Settings......Page 299
Render to RAM......Page 303
Commit to Disk......Page 305
Network Rendering with RenderQueue......Page 308
Discreet Backburner......Page 309
Appendix I: File Sizes and Formats......Page 314
Caching and File Sizes......Page 315
Still Image and Sequential File Formats for Rendering......Page 316
Single File, Multi-Frame Image Formats......Page 318
Appendix II: Glossary/Index of combustion Terminology......Page 322
Index......Page 330
Focal Press......Page 340