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Aaaargh! What are all these mattes for???
Oh my gossssssh! This is so annoying! Could someone Pleeeease tell me what all these “Mattes” are and what the are used for? I’m new to Avid (we use MC at work) and I wanted to do a simple effect -I have an avi of the earth rotating on a solid black background. I also have greenscreen footage of kids talking about stuff. I want to have the kids superimposed inside the spinning earth. Simple enough? right? When I asked the senior (and only other) video proder how to acomplish this she said, “try using a matte”. Now shes gone on maturnity leave and I’m looking at all these different “Mattes” in Avid , “garbage matte, spectra matte, screen matte, this matte, that matte”……I ‘m just an intern and still in school and I don’t have any experience with Mattes. I have no clue what each one is for or how to apply them.
Is there a descriptive list of all these mattes and their uses or , even better, a video tutorial ?
Could one of you maybe enlighten me by listing each matte, what its for, and how to apply it? I would be FOREVER grateful and hang the list on my wall next to my computer for reference. 🙂
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3 Replies
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Think of a matte as a stencil – in the case of video, it allows you to see a layer without the background, allowing you to see whats underneath the matte. I hope that makes sense.
I’m not a big user of Avid mattes. I’m sure someone can give a better answer on them. I do know a garbage matte is used to do a rough cut around something – essentially a quick and dirty matte.
I mostly use PhotoShop and After Effects to create things with an alpha matte.
Mattes are very useful – every title you create in title tool is a matte, for example.
As far as your spinning globe, try playing with a circle wipe.
Jon
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What is a circle wipe? Is that something in Affter effects? We also have After effects 6.5 here and Im learnung it as quikly as I can. Video co-pilot has some nice tuts as well as creative cow. Can you tell me what program I need to use the circle wipe and maybe how to do it??
Thanks 🙂 -
The circle wipe is in the effects pallette of Avid under ‘shape wipes’. Wipes are generally considered ‘transition effects’ – that is, they are meant to lay on a cut. Try putting it on a clip (like a segment effect), and start playing with it.
Lay it over your spinning globe, and open the effect controls. Play with the edge softness, try reversing the source, etc. You won’t break the machine, and you usually learn something in the process.
After Effects is good to know – I call it PhotoShop on crack. Mattes in After Effects are a little more advanced, and take some getting used to. I highly recommend Chris and Trish Meyers book (any of them, actually) on After Effects. HIGHLY recommend them.
“So you want to throw out the old you – but the old you is old enough to know it won’t make it better”
Del Amitri – “Make it Better”
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