matte sequence start offset?

#1

hello!

i’m trying to learn combustion 3, got all my layers and alpha channels set up, but i am stuck now at a matte problem:

i’ve imported a 150 frames matte tga sequence that i need to start masking at frame 550, but i’ve found no way of telling combustion to start this sequence at frame 550, it always starts masking at frame 0!

i’ve tried all the timeline dragging i can think of to no avail, and now i’m down to inserting 449 blank frames to my matte sequence to get the timing right, surely there must be another way of doing this?

…i realise i must be missing something crucial in my workflow, could someone please tell me what?

#2

I think I know your problem.

  • make a new layer from that matte and choose nesting in the right click menu

  • choose selected layers in the nesting dialog

  • now you can move your matte in the subcomposite in the timeline

  • in the set matte operator choose the nested composite as input

hope that helps

#3

excellent!

neogeo you’ve just made my day, it works like a charm! thanks!

…don’t know why you can’t set start/stop position for the matte footage istelf - but hey, if it works, don’t fix it :slight_smile:

#4

heh, i’m starting to realise that combustion is not learned in a day :slight_smile:

i can now position my matte sequence on the timeline wich is good, but my problem now is that i can’t move my underlying footage on the timeline without moving the the matte sequence as well…

…hmm, i managed to move my underlying footage by nesting that as well, seems a bit awkward, but i am really dizzy at the moment, and i have absolutely no idea if i am on the right path or not…

#5

if I understand you right, there is no need to nest the RGB footage
The footage should remain in the main composite.

Main Composite
#Layer 1
Set Matte Operator or Stencil Layer Function
#Layer 2 - Nested Composite
#Matte Layer

  • as a guide every footage imported into combustion starts at frame 1
  • even adjusting the in out marks does not affect that
#6

hoy, this is confusing, the matte layer moves relative to the set matte operator, which means that when i offset my rgb layer which includes the set matte operator with 400 frames, the nested composite which is used with the set matte operator is also offset with 400 frames, but not the footage within it, which means that i have to offset this footage by the 150 frames to make it start at frame 550…and thats why i need the nested composite, to be able to move it in time locally, since footage always start at frame 1…jeez, that almost makes sense, but just almost - i guess it will, in time…

#7

I never thought about that issue in that way, but if you use the Stencil layer function it makes some “more” sense and you only have to move two layers without any operators.

Select the RGB layer and set the nested matte comp as stencil Alpha or Luma and that’s it.
Now it works like dropping the RGB and Matte footage in an editing application on two video tracks one over the another.

#8

eyh nice, stencil function? i will try that one out now.

I already got problems with the set matte operator, when 2 layers are to use the same matte channel and one of the layers is offset, there’s trouble

is there really no easier way of offsetting a footage within a layer than adding another composite operator or nesting? that would make the whole problem go away…

well, let’s check out stencils then, thanks for the tip!

#9

I will think about that. My first idea is the Timewarp operator, but it is only availbale in Combustion 4. With that it must be possible to hold the first frame of the footage and control it via a curve.

Don’t have a better solution this time. perhaps tomorrow.

#10

beautiful! stencils! that’s what i was looking for! :bounce:

the whole scene was set up in 5 minutes! took me all day to figure it out though, but now i got it!

thanks for all the help neogeo, it’s really appreciated!!!

#11

timewarp? wow, really sounds like overkill for such a ‘simple’ action doesn’t it?

the stencils worked like a dream, but still - out of curiosity, it would be real nice if you found an easy way to offset footage :slight_smile:

#12

use the edit op (its not even a very time consuming op)

-rayk

#13

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