Video Compositions Masks Mattes and Blends

[micpool]

Ever wanted to use  Qlab to produce complex  Photoshop or After effects type  composition using Mattes Masks Blends and Alphas like this?

Well you are in luck! New chapter on The QLab CookBook shows you how.

https://qlabcookbook.com/1971/02/12/comp/

It's a monster.

Mic

[micpool]

This has now been updated (already), and now includes 2 new Quartz composer patches. 

One will apply a mask to video or camera cues, and has 5 different shapes selectable from the video Effects tab of the cue it is  applied to, and the other has 21 different blend modes in the one Custom Composition, again selectable from a menu.

Instructions for using them and downloads with an example workspace  are at the end of  https://qlabcookbook.com/1971/02/12/comp/

Mic

On Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 2:31:21 PM UTC, micpool wrote:

Ever wanted to use  Qlab to produce complex  Photoshop or After effects type  composition using Mattes Masks Blends and Alphas like this?

[Joseph Seamans]

Hi, In a related post on your blog post about mapping the Sydney Opera House, you say "another approach, that is often used with mapping, is to put a Photoshop canvas live on a projector, and trace the features directly on the actual set or building structure to make the map."  Did you explain how to do that? I don't understand how that might work but would love to know. Thanks, Joe Seamans

[micpool]

On Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 1:49:26 PM UTC, Joseph Seamans wrote:

Hi, In a related post on your blog post about mapping the Sydney Opera House, you say "another approach, that is often used with mapping, is to put a Photoshop canvas live on a projector, and trace the features directly on the actual set or building structure to make the map."  Did you explain how to do that? I don't understand how that might work but would love to know. Thanks, Joe Seamans

To make a black and white mask suitable for the surfaces editor:

Set up your projector beam to cover all the structure you are mapping

Open a new document in Photoshop with a white background at the same size as your projector resolution

 Drag the tab for the new window onto your projector

Enter Full Screen mode (no menu bar)

Set zoom to 100%

Using the pen tool click on all the vertices of the structure you are mapping, or if it is complex with curves, trace a bezier outline.

Set the foreground color to black

Open the paths window

Stroke work path using pencil tool

You should now have an outline drawing of your set

At this point it's probably easier to exit full screen and drag the document window back to the main Photoshop window and re dock  it by dragging the title bar where you dragged it from when you put it on the projector.

Create a new Layer

Using the pen tool trace the area you want to make the mask for  onto the new layer

In Paths click on work path and make selection

Create a new  layer and using the drawing you made on the structure as a guide select the areas you want to project onto.

Fill this selection white

Inverse the selection

Fill this selection  Black

Deselect

If you want to soften the edges of your mask gaussian blur the whole image

Save as .jpeg with a meaningful name. I always include the pixel dimensions in the name so I know what size surface it is meant to fit

If you want multiple masks for different surfaces then switch off that layer and repeat with a new layer for each surface.

Finally save the Photoshop document as a .psd so you have the original tracing and all the masks layers you have made in 1 place so you can return and easily modify the masks or make new ones.

Mic

[Joseph Seamans]

My mind is blown. Thanks Mic, I can’t wait to try this.

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[micpool]

Here's a related method that actually allows you to draw directly on a QLab surface, which means you can have an extreme perspective warp set on the QLab surface and still draw accurate masks directly on the projector.

Create a document at the projector size in photoshop with a white background

Set the zoom to 100%

Open CamTwist and set it up like this:

The important bits are

Use Desktop+ (which doesn't require your window to be visible or fully on the screen)

Confine to the photoshop window( Leave the document window docked this time.)

Don't rescale (which means you won't get a black border when you go full screen in  a moment)

Show mouse pointer simulated (which allows the mouse pointer to be visible on the QLab surface)

Method:

Put a camera cue in  QLab and use Cam Twist as the  source and the projector as your video surface and trigger the cue

You should see the Photoshop window on the projector

Select the pen tool

Put Photoshop into full screen no menu mode

Double check you have the correct relationship between photoshop and the surface by moving the cursor in photoshop to each corner

Draw on the QLab surface

Switch between QLab,  Camtwist, and  Photoshop while in Photoshop full screen mode using cmd-tab

When you are mapped take Photoshop out of full screen mode, stroke the paths and make your masks as in the previous post.

Mic

[Joseph Seamans]

Hi Mic,

I've done as you said, but things aren't coming out right.

Basically, the camera window seems to be quite small, not the full dimensions of the photoshop file.  If I set the camera cue to custom geometry, it's a small rectangle inside the surface.  If I go full screen, it blows up the small rectangular part of the photoshop window into the full projector surface. So there's no one to one equivalence between the photoshop file dimensions and the surface dimensions.

Where am I going wrong?

best,

Joe Seamans

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[Mic Pool]

Hi Joe

If yourPhotoshop document is the same size as your screen

And

Your document is still docked in photoshop 

And

photoshop  zoom is 100%

And

Do not scale is selected in CamTwist

Then it should work.

The only other thing is your monitor with photoshop on it has to be the same size or bigger than your projector.

But if you are getting a small rectangle the only way I can do that is by not having the zoom at 100%

Here are a set of screenshots  (cmd-shift-3)

Here’s the photoshop QLab and Camtwist windows before going full screen

and here’s what is on the projector showing that only photoshop is CamTwisted

After going full screen Here’s my main monitor ( Its 2560x1440 hence the black border)

And here’s the projector display. There is no black border as do not scale is checked in CamTwist

If you want take the same 2 screenshots (before and after full screen which results in 4 .png files) and send them to me actual size and I will see ig I can work out why it isnt working for you.

Best

–––––––––––––––––––––––––

Mic Pool
Sound and Video Designer
www.micp.tv
mic...@mac.com

07711 308549
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[Joey Moro]

Hey Mic,

I followed your post, trying to get the blend modes to work...but I'm not having any luck.  Even with your example files!  I am just getting the Main Image Syphon image to appear on my projector output, and am not seeing the overlayImage Syphon no matter what blend mode I select in the camera feed that sends the Main Image Syphon to the projector surface.  What did I do wrong?

Thanks

-Joey

[micpool]

Hi Joey

You didn't do anything wrong, something in the Quartz Composer or Syphon has broken in High Sierra (and possibly earlier OS).

Additionally the method is now flakey in QLab 4.2

IN OS 10.10.5 with QLab 4.1.7 It works perfectly

in OS 10.10.5 with QLab 4.2.3 It works but the overlay image flickers

in OS10.13.x You don't see the overlay image at all with QLab 4.1.7 and QLab 4.2.3

I'll try to narrow it down later in the week

Thanks for bringing it to my attention

Mic

[Joey Moro]

Thanks Mic!

Having a quart composer to combine two syphon screens with a blend mode would be a huge benefit for Qlab programming!

I can confirm it doesn’t work with 10.12.6 with either QLab 4.1.7 or 4.2.3.  

I’m doing an opera next week with surtitles being brought into Qlab through a capture card, and added on top of the main surface with a camera cue.  Titles are coming from the operator’s laptop running keynote, but I was looking for a way to get rid of the black background behind the white text.  I’ve found a keying quartz composition that works alright, but has some edges…a lighten blend mode would be best…

Do let me know if you end up solving what broke before this weekend!

Thanks

-Joey

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[micpool]

So with a few caveats this chapter is now fully functional and tested with High Sierra and 4.1.7 and 4.2.3.

There were some bundling errors which meant some of the custom patches were missing from the demo workspaces (they were still working on my machine because they were pointing to local files)

Some workspaces will crash or may flicker in 4.2.3. For the moment run them in 4.1.7.

There was a very important step missing from the text of the chapter just before the introduction of the blend mode techniques. For these blends to work you have to install Syphon Quartz Composer 4 on your machine. Download links are now provided in the text.

If you had previously tried some of the demos in this chapter and found the later ones were not working correctly, then it may be worth revisiting. I have worked through the chapter on an out of the box High Sierra machine and am very confident that all the demos work apart from some problems in 4.2.

Mic