Layer types

[Michael Duff]

a solid is just a block of colour .. so a red solid will just fill the screen with red … but they are handy for much more than that .. use them for building effects on to … masking to make gradients … make shapes, mattes … all sorts of thing …

an adjustment layer is not really a layer that you see … you can apply an effect to an adjustment layer and it will effect all the layers beneath…. for example … if you’ve got 50 layers and you want them all to be blurred you can just put an adjustment layer above them with the blur effect on it ..

check out the help files and do a few tutorials and you will pick it up quickly …

[Jeff Mcbride]

You didn’t mention, but a Null layer is also in that list… A null is used to control a group of layers transformations. If you parent layers to a null the null defines things like position, rotation, and scale. Each layer retains it’s own position, rotation, and scale properties but it controlled by the null. It can’t use effects like an adjustment layer.

[Darby Edelen]

[LGABoarder] “It can’t use effects like an adjustment layer.”

Thought I should point out that Adjustment Layers and Null Objects are essentially solids that have special attributes. You could make a solid and, by toggling the Adjustment Layer layer switch, make it an adjustment layer (with no discernible difference between one created from the Layer Menu). Null Objects are more special because they are not rendered, but you could create a solid layer, turn its visibility off (or set it as a Guide Layer if you still want to see it but don’t want it rendered) and use it in exactly the same way as a Null Object. They’re very closely related.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA