Applying SapphireTransitions to SpectraMatte without affecting Background

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Alex,

Firstly, you’d probably have more luck with Sapphire questions on they’re own Cow forum, or actually emailing the support. Normally they get back to me within a couple of hours.

To answer your question, this is what I’d do…
Now, I know you are dealing with more than the 2 video layers, so you gonna have to adapt what I say to fit (maybe Collapse a few layers), but do as follows:

V3 SpectraMatte Keyed Clip
V2 Background
V1 SpectraMatte Keyed Clip (again, copied exactly as on V3)

On the V3 clip, where you want the transition to start on the Outgoing Clip, put an Add Edit in. Now ALT+Drop a normal Sapphire Glow (NOT the Transition) onto it. Park on the first frame, set Brightness to 0. Park on last frame, set Brightness to whatever you want. Now the cool bit. Set the MASK drop-down menu to 2 Tracks Below.
There you have it. Repeat (but reverse the Keyframes) for the Incoming Clip.

[Alex Bond]

Ra-ey,

Thanks for taking the time to respond, I’ve tried your solution but can’t get it to work – I still end up glowing everything underneath the Keyed layer. I collapsed the tracks underneath so I had 3 in total and that didn’t help either.

I’ve got another solution from Gary at Sapphire, well 3 actually, and I’ve got one of those to (kind of) work.

Thanks again

Alex

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Hey Alex, Gary is great, so hopefully it’s a good enough solution.
You really need to follow my way to the letter for it to work.
Did you copy the EXACT clips from V3 to V1 (including the Spectramatte effect)?
Sometimes a lot of layers can confuse teh Avid and you have to insert blank layers.
I’d try and create a simple 3 video layer effect as I described, and if that worked then try and locate the issue, if that doesn’t work , then you’re probably missing something, or I described it incorrectly!

Ray

[Alex Bond]

Cool thanks,

I’ve got your instructions and will have a try again on the second phase of this project – I’ve run out of time today to get this working so I’ve just put the glow on as far down the layers as possible, looks ok but I’d still like to see your method working.

Thanks for your help

Alex

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Alex,
If you email me I’ll send you an example sequence, which should make it simpler to emulate.

ra_eysaleh at hotmail dot com

[Grinner Hester]

very cool of you, man.
Can I get a group hug for Ra-ey Saleh?!

[Terence Curren]

Here’s another option.

V3 keying material with spectramatte dialed, set to show alpha, and matte key nested on top
V2 Keying material with Sapphire transitions
V1 BG layer

Setting the Spectramatte to “show alpha” would effectively give you a matte that will key the V2 layer over the V1 layer. The Matte Key effect nested on top does the rest. You can then treat V2 to your hearts content and it will only come through where V3’s matte is.

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Thanks Grinner, all part of being on a forum. Can’t count the times it’s helped me out.

Terence, your way is definitely an alternative, the only problem is that no effect you apply will affect the ‘edges’ of the Matte (you’re effectively your just using it to cut a hole) and for something like a Glow, there’s still a jump on the edges from the Out-going shot to the In-coming one (even though what’s inside works perfectly.

[Terence Curren]

[ra-ey Saleh] “the only problem is that no effect you apply will affect the ‘edges’ of the Matte”

True, that is why the Boris effects and the Sapphire effects are better when you use their keys as you can then apply their effects to the key.

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca

[Ra-ey Saleh]

“the only problem is that no effect you apply will affect the ‘edges’ of the Matte”

“True, that is why the Boris effects and the Sapphire effects are better when you use their keys as you can then apply their effects to the key.”

The alternative workflow that would allow you to create the effect without Boris or Sapphire’s key access would be to layer the sequence as outlined by you:

V3 keying material with spectramatte dialed, set to show alpha, and matte key nested on top (set to ‘Invert key’)
V2 Keying material with Sapphire transitions (NOT using a transition effect but in the way I described by ALT + Glow effect nesting and animating the Brightness)
V1 BG layer

Then, dummy edit the transition start and end of V3 the same as V2.
Copy both the Glow effects templates from V2 to a bin.
Step-into the Out-going seg of V3, and ALT+drop the Out-going Glow template from the bin onto the Spectramatte. Step-out.
Repeat for the Incoming seg.