[Simon Ubsdell]

[Erik Swanson] “For example I have a text+ object with white text. When I lower the alpha in the shading tab nothing really happens. If I change the color of the text to black, then the alpha causes the text to fade out, becoming completely transparent.
I linked the RGB to the alpha so the text fades off correctly, it just seems that if I needed text of a different color rather than white this solution would not work
“

I think you are running into one of the unfamiliar things about the way that a Fusion Merge node works that can be confusing.

I’m not sure I’d want to bother with messing with the alpha of the text tool itself and normally I would simply adjust the Blend parameter the the Merge node that I was using to superimpose the text over my background. Alternatively I might animate the Opacity parameter of the Text tool. Messing with the Alpha is problematic as you have discovered.

However to understand what’s happening better, try setting Merge to fully Subtractive (ie set the Subtractive/Additive slider to zero). Once you have done that you will notice that adjusting the alpha of the text tool does indeed fade it out.

This is because the Merge tool (unconventionally) allows for both premultiplied and unpremultiplied sources.

In Additive mode (with the slider at the default of 1.0) all that is happening is that the alpha is being used to knock out the pixels in the background where the foreground is and the foreground is being simply added over the top of that.

This explains your issue. The Merge is effectively ignoring the alpha of the text tool other than to knock out the background and hence even reducing it to zero does not have any effect on the text which is simply being added. The result of adding the white FG (with a value of 1.0) to the black BG (with a value of zero where it’s been knocked out by the alpha) is going to give you white.

i hope that makes some sort of sense. It’s not easy to get your head around when you first encounter this.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Erik Swanson] “so I could quickly arrange all nodes that are used to create a single effect next to each other in the timeline.”

Just a quick tip here before I answer your other question:

If you select a set of nodes in the Flow, then when you go to the Timeline and click on the “Sel” button (for Selected Tools), only those tools will appear in the Timeline view.

Or you could refine that further and choose “Animated” from the All Tools menu and then you’d only have the selected tools that were animated.

Personally I find this kind of sorting to be more useful than most other ways but obviously we all like different ways of working.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

This is not something I have been able to do in either Fusion 8 or Fusion, at least on a Mac. It might be a PC only thing.

However it’s also something I’ve never had the need to do.

Apologies if you are aware of this but reordering “layers” in the timeline has no effect on the compositing order of the Flow. It’s not the same as After Effects or any other layer-based compositor.

Note also that there are many different and powerful ways of ordering tools in the timeline that do work. One simple way is to use the Order Selection option. Click on the Order Selection button and then click on the tools in the order you want them. When you now deactivate the button the tools will appear in the new numbered order.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

Have you looked at AATranslator?

https://www.aatranslator.com.au/

It’s an incredibly versatile solution for audio interchange that might just be useful here.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

Here’s a much better idea:

Create two color solids one for each side of your gradient.

Create a curved mask for the upper layer.

Add a directional blur to the mask along the axis of the gradient and increase as required.

Very controllable.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

You could try using a Bulge to add some curvature the the gradient. Alternatively you could use a radial gradient but it would be less successful for what I think you want.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Michael McCune] “RE the new Fusion planar tracker: how well would this tool work as a polygon tracker?”

Obviously as the name implies the planar tracker tracks a “plane” in your image and then applies basic transforms to that. What it doesn’t do is affect the position of individual roto points.

However, it is still immensely useful for things like facial touch-up. You can get a good track off any “flattish” surfaces such cheeks, foreheads, upper lips, chins, etc..

My suggest method is to track the area you want to fix, then a planar transform node and use it to transform a “fixed plate” of the area, to which you have applied to roto mask.

Remember to add grain to your fixed plate to avoid it looking “stuck on”.

I’ll try to do a tutorial on this at some point.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

Will certainly post my findings here when I unravel the mystery. And thanks again for your help.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Dylan Ball] “I am currently using Fusion Studio 9.0.1 for macOS”

Thanks.

I’m on the same version, but for some odd reason I can’t see the tool in any of the usual places you mention. I even tried a complete uninstall/reinstall to try and resolve this but without success.

I’ll get onto BMD to see what they have to say about it.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Dylan Ball] “You get to it by right-clicking in the flow chart, going to “Add Tool,” then “Resolve Connect.””

Hi Dylan,

I don’t have seem to have Resolve Connect as an option and I’m on the Studio version. Where did you find it?

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki