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Masking workflow question

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ChrisWilliamson

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Masking workflow question

PostMon Dec 01, 2014 10:50 pm

This is more of a workflow question than anything else, I was going to do some logo animation from a layered PSD. Import PSD doesnt seem to work correctly currently, so to work around that I thought I would import the logo as a flat image with an alpha channel, then separate it using polygon masks.

So I guess really I kind of want the 1 loader, splitting off into as many streams as i need each masking out the various section I want, then a transform node on each stream that I can animate, then merge them all back together again.

The difficulty I'm having is the mask nodes don't seem to actually work 'inline' on a stream, but are used to mask another node that is on the stream? What kind of node would I use just to set alpha to 0 and premultiply if necessary? Or is there an equivalent to the 'Roto' node in Nuke that you can draw a shape and set it to black alpha, inline on the stream? I tried a channelBoolean with 'to alpha' set to black, but the results are wierd, the stuff inside the mask seems to go partially transparent or something when merged over anything other than black?

I may have also found a bug, in the default view layout - you can select a node, and click the little mask icons on the viewer, and it will add a mask to that node. On any other view layout however, the buttons, they do nothing! (you just click and no node appears)

Also getting a lot of fusion crashing to desktop scrubbing some alembic files here, seems if I scrub quickly back and forth, boom, fusion disappears.
animationsbychris.com
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Rony Soussan

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Re: Masking workflow question

PostMon Dec 01, 2014 10:57 pm

Hi Chris,

Try making a clean PSD with no layer groups or layer adjustments as Fusion does not support those features.
Let me know if that worked out.
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Win Conway

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Re: Masking workflow question

PostMon Dec 01, 2014 11:27 pm

PSD is broken in this version of Fusion (flattens all layers) you have to go back to 6.4 for a working version (confirmed by usrs here and at WSL)
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ChrisWilliamson

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Re: Masking workflow question

PostMon Dec 01, 2014 11:29 pm

Hi Rory,

Thanks for that! Its just a simple photoshop file unfortunately, just 6 layers, with no masks or adjustments.

When going 'import PSD' it generates a bunch of loaders (matching the layer number) but each loader seems to contain the entire merged result of the PSD, rather than the individual layer. It may be related, but the import process also took an extremely long time to create the nodes, on the order of 20 seconds for an 860k PSD

There is a zip file with the logo PSD I used and a comp with it imported here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7sJcS ... sp=sharing

One other thing, do you happen to know where the hotkeys preference file is installed now? I've looked on my machine for a Fusion.hotkeys file but cant seem to find it. My hand is a bit gimpy from too many years comping and I would like to juggle around some shortcuts if possible haha :)
animationsbychris.com
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Marek Subocz

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Re: Masking workflow question

PostTue Dec 02, 2014 12:00 am

Hi,
Fusion masks don't work like Nuke roto node (Fusion also do not work with channels as nuke).
So with masks You can:
1) connect it into loader itself (but then You won't have access to "un-masked" loader)
2) use a MatteControl node - You can connect mask as:
a) mask (result - masking the Matte Control operation)
b) FG (result - copying (or other operation) mask to BG)
c) garbage matte

In Matte control You also have post multiply checkbox, or Invert Garbage Matte checkbox to quickly set the result.

Also a tip / reminder:
Most Fusion tools/nodes will accept any footage as mask input, however (sadly) there are some which will only work with a "MASK" type of input.. in that case You can "convert" to "mask input" by using bitmap mask node.
i.e. You cannot connect a Loader as a Garbage Matte into Matte Control. However if You connect the loader to Bitmap Mask, then You can connect it to GRB matte ;)
This will also happen occasionally with transforms, blurs, ColorCurves etc..

Also the Bitmap Mask node may act as a "mask merge" node.

And one more:
in order to have a more neat Flow, we can use the Wireless tool. But it won't work with mask nodes, apart from.. You've guessed it - the Bitmap Node! ;) so then add th bitmap node after all poly/bezier nodes and voila! one "spiderweb" gone :)

Cheers and happy fusioning
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ChrisWilliamson

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Re: Masking workflow question

PostTue Dec 02, 2014 12:32 am

Aah Brilliant, thanks so much! That MatteControl was exactly what I needed, actually I like the way of splitting up the mask operation from the mask shape, thats quite nice. Wow that wireless node is very cool! I can only imagine how creative I'll get with the layout my node graphs how :D
animationsbychris.com
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Marek Subocz

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Re: Masking workflow question

PostTue Dec 02, 2014 9:57 am

Your Welcome, glad to help ;)
node per shape has its pros and cons - i.e. imagine roto for a character... LOTS of nodes :) if that happens, You can always Group (ctrl+G) the mask nodes, and guess what - wireless node should work with that! ;)
But beware: Grouping the nodes "cuts" the outputs. I.e. - if You have 7 mask nodes, each connected to the next, with last connected do Matte Control, grouping will have only ONE output (the one going to Matte Control). And You cannot drag-connect nodes from "group" to the ones outside of group... ;(

so the workaround would be connecting each mask to some node separately (i.e. BC), group only the masks- so You have now 7 outputs from the Group. Lastly just delete the BCs and You're ready to go ;)
You can even script that. OR BMD could fix that issue in next / Studio version ;)
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Eric Westphal

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Re: Masking workflow question

PostTue Dec 02, 2014 11:34 am

Hi Chris.

If you want to avoid the 'overhead' of a MatteControl,
you could simply use a BrightnessContrast,
connect the mask to that,
enable the Alpha Checkbox,
and set the Gain to 0.

Cheers.

Eric.
my hovercraft is full of eels.

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