Lesson 13 The effects of the Stylize group

In this lesson, you will :

Discover some effects of the Stylize group dedicated to animation. Discover some effects of the Stylize group dedicated to video-editing.

Introduction

Introduction
The effects of the Stylize menu are often used to work on logos, drawings or video footages. We will take the images below as reference images for our e amples:

The running kid and the T,-aint logo are located over different background layers.

The Stylize > Glow effect

It is possible to create an aura around a te t or any other image containing transparent pi els ! The Width, Height, Color and Opacity of this aura may change in time thanks to the key system.

The Stylize > Grain effect

This effect adds a noise "polychromatic or monochromatic# to the image or video footage of your choice. The Size parameter is used to set the si$e of the grains, the Range parameter controls their distance. It is also possible to ad%ust their color using the parameters Red Variation, Green Variation and Blue Variation as well as modify their transparency. If a logo is placed in front of a filmed se&uence, application of a light noise on the logo helps integrate it into the se&uence and minimi$e the ' computer ( look of the latter. The noise effect may also be used to smudge an image or drawing in a different way than a blur effect.

Original image

Monochromatic noise

Polychromatic noise

Original image

Blue polychromatic noise

Noise with larger grain size

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The effects of the Stylize group

The .tyli$e / 0evel effect

The Stylize > Bevel effect

This effect is used to give volume to your logos or drawings. The Mode popup menu is used to choose between creation of an inner or outer relief. 1ou may also use both effects at the same time, which gives a relief effect to the contours of your image. To give an image relief you must set the Size of the bevel as well as its Lighting using the following parameters: Force, Altitude, irection, Color and !o"er. The S#ooth parameter enables attenuation of rough contours by applying a slight blur.

Inner e!el

Outer e!el

Inner and Outer e!el

Inner e!el

Outer e!el

Inner and Outer e!el

The Stylize > Drop shadow effect

This effect is useful to add a shadow to a logo or any other image that is not entirely opa&ue. Color, irection, i$tance and Opacity are parameters that may be set using keys at your disposal. In this way you can make the shadow of your logo move as if a light source were moving above it.

"arious shadow distances and directions

Traditional shadow and lurred shadow #the ac$ground and the running $id are located on different layers%

The Shado" only option of the %oon$hading and rop Shado" effects will be studied later in the chapter called ' the Color & '#age Source effect (

The effects of the Stylize group

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The .tyli$e / Toon .hading effect

The Stylize > Toon Shading effect

This effect differs from the drop shadow as it enables creation of a shadow inside an image. The transparent pi els are not affected by the creation of your shadow "see below#.

Toon &hading

'rop shadow

2et3s take the shape filled with white below as an e ample to study this effect:

The panel of the toon(shading effect

Our reference image

The )*' of the effect

- The Color bo is used to choose the color of the shadow you will create.

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The effects of the Stylize group

The .tyli$e / Toon .hading effect

- The 'nten$ity option is used to vary the power of the shadow in time:

- The !ro(ile option is used to vary the nature of the shadow:

- The Size in pi els sets the range of the shadow:

- The Angle parameter is used to choose the direction of you lighting5shadow. When using animation keys, the Rotation parameter reflects the number of complete rotations to be carried out before arriving at the chosen angle.

- The Spread parameter "in degrees# defines the angle over which the shadow will be spread.
The effects of the Stylize group )*-6

The .tyli$e / Toon .hading effect

7sing the H) shadow.

is very practical to ad%ust the angle, si$e and spread of your

- The Ray Count parameter refines the result when applying the effect. The higher this value, the higher the &uality of your image, the lower the value, the more noise your shadow will contain.

- The Border bo , if checked, is used to create a shadow from the borders of your pro%ect "see below#.

8riginal image

0order option not enabled

0order option enabled

8nce you know how to use the Toon-shading effect, it is possible to create all kinds of shadows for your characters:

The Shado" only option of the %oon$hading and rop Shado" effects will be studied later in the chapter called ' the Color & '#age Source effect (

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The effects of the Stylize group

The .tyli$e / :rode effect

The Stylize > Erode effect

This effect enables eroding the contours of an image or video footage. This may create an interesting effect for the appearance or disappearance of images as well as for the attenuation of contours "see below!#. There are two parameters that may be ad%usted using keys : Width and Height.

The Stylize > Add Border effect

This effect is in a way the opposite of the *rode effect. It enables creation of a border of the thickness of your choice around an image. ;s T,- ;nimation works with sub-pi el precision, it is possible to increment this thickness in steps of <.6 pi el using the associated mini-slider. It is also possible to choose the color of the border.

=ere again, the option Border only will be studied later in the chapter called ' the Color & '#age Source effect (

The Stylize > Bloom effect

This effect produces a light blurred aura on the current image and may give an unreal aspect to an animated footage. >ontrary to the Glo" effect this bloom is applied to the opa&ue areas of the image. The parameters Width and Height are the same as those for the Glo" effect. If you wish, you may apply the bloom effect to the channel of your choice " Red, Green or Blue# and control Blur, Saturation and Lu#ino$ity of this aura.
The effects of the Stylize group )*-?

The .tyli$e / 0lender effect

The Stylize > Blender effect

This effect blends the original image in a certain way and then transforms it into a large pu$$le, the pieces of which have distorted contours. The ad%ustable parameter enables random modification of the result.

The Stylize > Mosaic effect

This effect was already studied in lesson @. It enlarges the pi els on the screen to the Width and Height of your choice.

The Stylize > Posterize effect

This effect is used to reduce the number of colors on the screen and simplifies the original image or video footage. The +u#,er o( color$ parameter may be set using the mini-slider and locked with a key. This +u#,er o( color$ parameter does not represent the e act number of colors on the screen but the number of colors blended to obtain the effect re&uired.

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The effects of the Stylize group

The .tyli$e / Boise effect

The Stylize > Noise effect

This effect moves the pi els of the original image at a distance corresponding to your parameter setting. 1ou may also choose the percentage of pi els of the original image to be moved. Well applied, this effect gives the impression that one sees the image or video footage through frosted glass.

The Stylize > Print effect

=ave you ever looked at a comic or cartoon strip through a magnifying glassC The color areas are made up of superposed round points of different si$es and colors. The !rint effect reproduces e actly this aspect. 1ou may choose to work in Color, in Blac- . White or work only on the non-opa&ue areas of the image!

The Size parameter is used to set the si$e "and therefore the number# of dots on the screen. ;bove you see the !rint effect applied with the Color channel and with the Blac- . White channel.

The effects of the Stylize group

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The .tyli$e / Begative effect

The Stylize > Negative effect

This effect replaces the color of each pi el with its negative.

The Stylize > Solarize effect

This effect reproduces the photographic effect named solari$ation which consists of mi ing the colors of an image with the colors of its negative. These two effects have no parameters.

The Stylize >

olor !ange effect

This effect substitutes the colors of one of the channels Red, Green, Blue, Alpha or Lu#ino$ity with those of the gradient of your choice "see lesson * for gradients#. In the e ample above: the gradient blue / orange / yellow was applied on the image3s luminosity channel: the yellow pi els replace the light pi els of the image, the red pi els replace the mid tone pi els, the blue pi els replace the dark pi els.

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The effects of the Stylize group

The .tyli$e / =alfTone effect

The Stylize > "al#Tone effect

The Hal(tone effect reproduces the aspect of a ' grid ( on the current image and gives the current image the appearance of an 'artist3s canvas(. D 1ou may set the parameters for the hori$ontal and vertical cells "H cell$ and V cell$#, Opacity of the grid as well as their type "Line, ot, Cro$$, Chec-$, Bloc-$, etc.#. D There are also several application modes: Color on ,lac-, Color on "hite, Saturation, etc. D Einally, you may use the /itter parameters which will slightly modify the shape of the grid. irection,

The Stylize > $%mi& effect

This effect e changes the luminosity values of the pi els in an image or source video footage with those of another image or footage, which gives the impression of seeing an image through the contours of another image "see below#.

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The effects of the Stylize group

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The .tyli$e / 2umi effect

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The So%rce 'mage notion

; source image or footage is used in the Rendering bo of the Lu#i0 effect and some other effects "in particular the Motion / 1ey(ra#er effect which will be studied later#. 2et3s discuss this further: T,- ;nimation offers some effects which re&uire the use of an image or footage other than the current image. These are referred to as source images or footages. .everal choices are available for the so-called source images or video footage: the pro%ect of your choice, the layer of your choice, the current brush or animated brush, the spare image, the paper, the current display, the F2 $tac-.

D The choice F2 $tac- will use the current image with the effects of the F2 $tac- applied as Source '#age before applying the parameters set for the Source '#age. D The choice Current layer allows you to apply the effect from the current layer. D The choice i$play allows you to apply on the current layer the effect from the footage viewed when playing your pro%ect "the effect will be that all layers appear to be merged, while the hidden layers are not taken into account#. D 1ou may also choose to use the Spare '#age or !aper if they are available. D When choosing another pro%ect, layer or brush, you may ad%ust the -re- and -ost-0ehavior, the position and the animation mode: the number ' n ( of the !o$ition parameter corresponds to the image ' n ( of your pro%ect, animation layer or animated brush. The Ani#ation mode controls the ' behavior ( of your brush, layer or pro%ect: random animation, ping-pong, animation reduced to the image indicated in the position parameter, etc. If the number of source images is lower than the number of images to which your effects are applied, you may ad%ust the -re- and -ost-0ehavior for your source "random, pingpong, loop, etc.#. ;s re&uired, you may choose to flip your source vertically, hori$ontally or both, before using this source.

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The effects of the Stylize group

The >olors / Image .ource effect

The

olors > 'mage So%rce effect

The Color$ & '#age Source effect allows you to display the image or the se&uence of your choice on the current layer. D The Source menu use all notions encountered in the last paragraph. ;s a conse&uence, you can choose to display the current layer, another layer, a paper, the spare image, another pro%ect, the current custom brush, etc. D The Blend popup menu is used to choose the mode to be used when drawing the .ource '#age or Se3uence on your current 2ayer ">olor, 0ehind, :rase, ...# D The Opacity parameter allow you to ad%ust ... the opacity of the displayed image or se&uence. This effect could seem simple, even obvious, but it has a lot of useful applications : )st e ample :

8n the uni&ue layer of our timeline, a 'T,-aint( logo has been drawn. We are going to replace it by its own glow.

2et3s take a look at the EF-stack opposite : )# The first effect that will be applied is the Stylize & Glo" effect. +# The Color$ & '#age Source effect is the second effect that will be applied. The Source selected is Current layer and the Blending Mode is the *ra$e Mode. In this way, the 'T,-aint( logo will be removed %ust after the rendering of the glow on the screen. This process works with other effects of the Stylize group like Add Border or Be4el "with Outer option selected#. "Eor the rop Shado" and %oon$hading effects, please study the ne t e ample#

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Original image ,fter applying the effect Stylize > Glow only

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,fter applying all the -.(stac$

The effects of the Stylize group

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The >olors / Image .ource effect

+nd e ample : In this e ample, we will create a shadow for the running kid thanks to the Stylize & %oon$hading effect. This shadow will be rendered on an empty animation layer. In the EF-stack opposite, the Stylize & %oon$hading effect will be applied on the animated layer called GToon .hadingH. "see the timeline below# The effect Color$ & '#age Source allows you to specify the reference layer used to render the shadow. =ere, the Source is the animation layer called GcolorH. If we use the *ra$e blending mode as we did in the first e ample, the shadow will disappear. "the toonshadow is inside the running kid# That3s the reason why we will keep the Color blending mode and use the Shado" Only option of the Stylize & %oon$hading effect5 It allows us to create the shadow of the running kid without re-drawing it. It is then possible to generate a shadow for our running kid on a separate animated layer. ;s a conse&uence, the character is not altered by the rendering of the shadow.

In this e ample, the Color$ & '#age Source effect allows you to define an image or an animation se&uence as reference for the GfollowingH toonshading effect in your EF-stack.

In this e ample, it is also possible to replace the effect Stylize & %oonShading by the effect Stylize & rop Shado". "the Shado" Only option is also present in this effect# In that case, you will obtain a classical shadow. 8f course, the character layers "color$ and Running 1id# will stay unchanged.

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The effects of the Stylize group

The >olors / Image .ource effect

=ere is the *D view of the layers you can obtain after using the effects Color$ & '#age $ource, Stylize & rop Shado" and Stylize & %oon$hading5

Toonshading Layer

Borders Layer

/olors Layer

'rop &hadow Layer

Bac$ground Layer

The resulting image

The effects of the Stylize group

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The .tyli$e / >onvolve :ffect

The Stylize > onvolve 0ffect

The effect Stylize & Con4ol4e allows you to modify the pi els of an image or an animated se&uence by using a matri "here below on the right#. Eor the neophyte, a matri is an ordered set of numbers listed in a rectangular form. Eor the mathematicians, it is a powerful and convenient calculation tool used in algebra. To open the matri relative to this effect, %ust click on the *dit button of the panel.

The matri of our effect contains )* rows and )* columns, and as a conse&uence )9@ numerical fields. :ach numerical value is usually called coe((icient. The grey bo es are located on the two diagonals of the matri . It usually gives a better readability when you fill in the matri . We have already seen that each color can be broken up in various ways depending on the color system. Eor e ample, the Slider tab of the Color !ic-er panel gives the numerical values of the ; color in the I,J,0 and T,.,2 color systems. The Stylize & Con4ol4e effect calculates a new value "and so gives a new a color# for each pi el in an image or an image se&uence by using the values "and so the colors# of its neighboring pi els. In the mathematical point of view, each new value in the I,J,0 color system will be calculated by taking the average of itself and the pi els surrounding it. It is a weighted average using the matri coefficients. Well, you are an animator, not a mathematician, it doesn3t help you a lot to get an idea of the internal working of this effect... =ow to obtain convincing results by changing the numerical values of the matri C The e amples below should help you in this task. )st e ample : =ow to create a 0lur 2et3s take a look at the matri opposite : each coefficient is e&ual to *, e cept the central coefficient which is e&ual to ). ;ll the other coefficients are e&ual to $ero "and not visible here# 7sing this * * matri neighboring pi els. "* rows, * columns# will make each pi el modify itself according to its

The surrounding pi els will have more weight "or will be more represented# than the central pi el : this is e actly the common process to render a blur effect.

=ere is an e ample. In the T,-aint logo opposite : D The white and opa&ue pi els outside the T,-aint logo are most often surrounded by opa&ue white pi els. ; weighted average of white pi els gives ... a white pi el.

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The effects of the Stylize group

The .tyli$e / >onvolve :ffect

D The blue pi els inside the T,-aint logo are most often surrounded by blue pi els. ; weighted average of blue pi els gives ... a blue pi el. D Eor the pi els located at the frontier between the blue and white areas, the situation is a bit more complicated : a weighted average of blue and white pi els gives a more or less light blue, as shown below :

0elow, two $ooms on the ' T ( letter of the T,-aint logo : Erom the result above, it is possible to deduce the result of the Stylize & Con4ol4e effect on some pi els +
Before applying the effect ,fter applying the effect

=ere is the result on a wider area of pi els. The T,-aint logo begin to get blurred ... + ;nd here is the final result :

+
Before applying the effect ,fter applying the effect

+nd e ample : What happens with a bigger matri C 2et3s take a look at the matri opposite : each coefficient is e&ual to *, e cept the central coefficient which is e&ual to ). ;ll the other coefficients are e&ual to $ero "and not visible here# 7sing this 6 6 matri "6 rows, 6 columns# will make each pi el modify itself according to its neighboring pi els. We use here a larger radius than in the * * matri of the first e ample. In this case, the principle is the same as the one enunciated above, but more pi els are taken into account to calculate the average It gives a larger blur than the one obtained with the * * matri . "see ne t page#

The effects of the Stylize group

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The .tyli$e / >onvolve :ffect

0elow, two $ooms on the ' T ( letter of the T,-aint logo :

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Before applying the effect ,fter applying the effect

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Before applying the effect ,fter applying the effect

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Before applying the effect ,fter applying the effect

It is easy to understand that the bigger your matri will be "the more coefficients e&ual to * in our e ample#, the more pi els will be used to calculate the resulting colors. "the larger will be the blur in our e ample# =ere is what you can e pect by using bigger matri , constructed in the same model than the one above.

;bove the source image. 0elow the blurs that you can obtain by using a :

313 matri1

212 matri1

313 matri1

414 matri1

11111 matri1

13113 matri1

The e ecution speed of the Stylize & Con4ol4e effect depends on the number of coefficients which are different from $ero inside the matri . In other words, the more $ero coefficients you will have in the matri , the faster the effect will be applied.

*rd e ample : =ow to have a sharper image : 8btaining a sharper image is the opposite as obtaining a blurred image. The surrounding pi els will have less weight than the central pi el : in other words, they will be less represented than the central pi el. 2et3s take a look at the matri opposite : each coefficient is e&ual to -+, e cept the central coefficient which is e&ual to ++. The central coefficient is really higher than the coefficients surrounding it. Bow we can apply this effect to our logo :

+
Before applying the effect )*-)A ,fter applying the effect The effects of the Stylize group

The .tyli$e / >onvolve :ffect

;s seen above, the weighted average of the blue "or opa&ue white# pi els gives ... a blue "or white# pi el. That3s not always the case, as we will see later. Eor the pi els located at the frontier between the blue and white areas, the situation is a bit more complicated : they will become more visible than the blue and white pi els surrounding them. In other words they will become a little darker. It results a sharper image ... 4th e ample : how to draw the edge of a picture : In order to obtain the edges of a picture, you need to have a sharper image and you need also to make the pi els surrounded by same color pi els become black. To do so, we will use a matri which coefficients are close from those we used in the last e ample. -lease note that the sum of the surrounding coefficients is e&ual to the opposite of the central coefficient.

In this case, the pi els surrounded by pi els with the same color will become black. The weighted average of the values "or colors# is e&ual to <. The pi els at the frontier between the blue logo and the white background will be strengthened. =ere is the result :

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Before applying the effect ,fter applying the effect

6th e ample : =ow to emboss an image. ;dding relief to an image can be done by strengthening the pi els colors in a given direction and by reducing the impact of the pi els colors in the opposite direction. The matri opposite allows to emboss the image as if a light source was added at its right. "all the layers have been merged before applying the effect#

+
Before applying the effect ,fter applying the effect

The effects of the Stylize group

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The .tyli$e / >onvolve :ffect

Bow, let3s study a few notions : D We saw that our effect was modifying the color of the pi els on the screen. It is also possible to modify the pi els transparency by using the )$e alpha button5 In this case, the calculation of the weighted averages is applied to the alpha component of the pi els too. D The Border popup menu allows to choose how the pi els at the border of the image will be calculated. "The pi els located at the border of your image don3t have neighboring pi els ...# 1ou can choose to use as neighboring pi els : - 0lack pi els "none option# - -i els resulting from a symmetry of your image "#irror option# - -i els resulting from reproduction of the image "tile option# - -i els resulting from reproduction of the last "first# line "or column# of pi els "repeat option# D The #ultiplying coe((icient allows to multiply all the coefficients of the matri by the same value. It does not change anything to your picture if all non-$ero coefficients of your matri are the same. 8therwise your convolution effect will be more or less pronounced. .ome preset e amples : Bow that you have some basis about the convolution matri , you can try to modify the numerous matrices at your disposal in the ,in menu of your effect. 0elow, you will find the results obtained with the matri :

Blurred Image

&plit Image

Only the edges

0m ossed Image

&pecial lightning

Other 5esults

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The effects of the Stylize group