Align

• The Align effect will automatically distribute all child objects dynamically at run-time.
• The Align effect is often used with the Auto-Spacing effect.
• The Align effect can only be applied to Group objects.

Removing an image object will create this result.

• Horizontal: Align children horizontally
• Vertical: Align children vertically

Auto-Follow

• Sibling mode

• • The Auto-Follow rules of sibling mode are NOT Master/Follower necessarily. Based on the position of the elements in the scene, the Auto Follow effect is basically an Auto Align effect. Consider the object the effect is placed on as the following object. It will follow any of its parents.
  • The “Parent” is not defined. The “Parent” is the nearest object to the Follower. The Parent object can change dynamically.
  • Horizontal:
    • None:
    • Left: Follows the left edge of the nearest object maintaining distance
    • Center: Follows the center position of the nearest object
    • Right: Follows the right edge of the nearest object
  • Vertical:
    • None:
    • Top: Follows the top
    • Middle:
    • Bottom:

In the following example, the effect is placed on a group that will follow its siblings:

The result is whenever the “Master” Text is moved on the X position the follower groups, both Group1 and Group 2 will follow.

• Source Mode: Different to Sibling mode, Source mode allows you to select a specific object or group that you wish to follow and size to.
• Position
  • X: Enable and select appropriate source to follow on X axis
  • Y: Enable and select appropriate source to follow on Y axis
    • X & Y source can be different
  • Source: Select source available in scene
    • Source from Base scene is not accessible
  • Anchor 
    • X: Select Source Origin, Left, Middle or Right
    • Y: Select Source Origin, Top, Middle or Bottom
  • Target
    • X: Select Source Origin, Left, Middle or Right
    • Y: Select Source Origin, Top, Middle or Bottom
  • Offset: Apply numeric value if offset is desired
•  Size
  • Width: Enable and select appropriate source to size scale width
  • Height: Enable and select appropriate source to size scale height
  • Padding: Apply numeric value if padding is desired
  • Minimum: Apply numeric value of smallest width and height values you wish to size to. If source object is smaller than minimum, then minimum value will be honored.
•  Advanced
  • Include Source Position
  • Include Source Scale
  • Use Parent Virtual Bounds
• Expressions: Expressions are read-only, not editable.
  • • Visual representation for each position and size selection made, and the corresponding expression syntax, calculated value and binding.

Auto-Hide

The auto-hide effect allows you to hide/show objects based on the Boolean evaluation of other objects in the scene.

• Example: Hide MyImage if Text1 is empty.
• Example: Scene Tree where the Auto-Hide effect is placed on the Image object:

• There are three modes for Auto-Hide:
  • Hide on Target Empty
  • Hide on Target Not Empty
  • Hide on Condition

In the first example the Image object will hide if Text 1 is empty and in the second example the Image object will hide if Text 1 is NOT empty:

Note: The “Condition” property will always show you what the actual condition is that will be evaluated. The condition property will only be enabled when “Hide on Condition” is selected allowing the user to manually create a condition.

Hide on Condition allows the user to manual insert a statement that should evaluate to TRUE or FALSE is satisfy the Auto Hide condition.

Auto-Scale

The Auto-Scale effect can be used to scale text within its bounds. This is a useful feature for bullet point graphics.

Auto-Spacing

The Auto-Spacing effect can only be applied to Groups. Objects within the groups will be linked.

• Alignment Type
  • Tight: Objects are tightly positioned side by side.‎ Additional space defined by attribute Spacing is added.
  • Fixed: Objects are placed at fixed pitch.‎ The object size has no effect on positioning.‎ The pitch is defined by attribute Spacing .
  • Justified: Aligns the row to the left and to the right at the same time. The margins are [0, Line Width]. The minimal spacing between objects is defined by attribute Spacing
• Direction
  • Horizontal: Objects are positioned horizontally from left to right. Only X coordinate is modified.
  • Up: Objects are positioned vertically from bottom to top. Only Y coordinate is modified.
  • Down: Objects are positioned vertically from top to bottom. Only Y coordinate is modified
  • Line Width: Defines maximal size of row/column. ‎When total size exceeds this limit then the objects are scaled down.
    • Size of objects before pivot is not counted for the size
  • Spacing: The value defines pitch or additional space. See Alignment type.

Billboard

The billboard effect allows you to define the rotation of an object(s) within your scene towards a specified camera

• Transform
  • Rotation: Sets additional rotation which replaces rotation overridden by Billboard effect.

• Billboard
  •  Type
    • Planar: Rotates the object in the direction parallel to the camera view vector.
    • Directional (default): Rotates the object in the direction towards the camera position.
  • Target: Selects target camera for billboard effect. If empty, the object is rotated towards the active camera, which is the default target for billboard effect.
    • Rotate X: If checked, rotates the object in the X-axis towards the camera (default true).
    • Rotate Y: If checked, rotates the object in the Y-axis towards the camera (default true).
    • Rotate Z: If checked, rotates the object in the Z-axis towards the camera (default false).
    • Keep size: If true, maintains the size of the object normalized regardless of how close it is to the camera. The normalized size is the size that the object appears at when its Z position is at 0, and the camera is at its default Z position (default false).
• Blur
  • Motion Blur: Performs a blur in one direction or two opposite directions based on the desired Angle
  • Compound Blur: Uses Level of Detail and neighbor pixel sampling to perform a blur in all directions

Camera

Scene cameras can be added to the scene group only. Scenes can have multiple cameras.

All properties of the Camera effect are keyframe-able.

• Projection
• Perspective:
• Orthogonal:
• Rotation Type
  • XYZ:
  • Pan, Tilt, Roll:
• Field of View
• Transform
  • Position:
  • Rotation:

Character

The Character Effect allows animations to happen one character, one word or one line at a time. A character affect may be applied to a Text object only.

This adds a character to the canvas to allow you to create a character effect. The character is only in the canvas for editing purposes.

When the character is selected, the property editor for the character animation is displayed.

• Mode
• Character: Each individual character will animate
• Word: Each word will animate as a group
• Line: Each line will animate as a group.

Animation

• Total Duration: Sets the duration of the animation regardless of the length of the text
• Duration Between Elements:  Set the time for each character.
• Reverse: This will reverse the animation.
• Random: Elements will be animated in random order

Next Add a Transition to the Timeline Editor:

Next create any type of animation on “Character 1.” For example, a 360 degree rotation on the Z axis:

When this transition is played or previewed each character will rotate individually 360 degrees.

Chroma Key

The chroma key effect allows users to remove chromanace for an object.

• Color: The target color to make transparent
• Gain: The hue threshold for the target Color. Increasing this value will make colors similar to the target Color also transparent
• Softness: Sets pixels within the gain threshold to semi-transparent.
• Shape: Linear to non-linear softness value adjustments
• Despill: Removes some of the key color from the remaining pixels.
• Matte: Shows the alpha values as grey scale. Select this option to fine tune your key.

Shows various softness shape graphs.

Clip Plane

The Clip Plane effect allows for clipping in a single direction: Left, Right, Top or Bottom.

*There is a limit of 6 clipping fields in one single render path.

• ‎Transform: Allows positioning and rotation of the clip plane
• Clip Plane: Select the direction of the clip plane
• Feather: Applies soft edges to the clip plane
• Center Feather: Centers the feather of both the fill and shadow of the parent graphic.‎

Crawl

The Crawl effect will cause all objects, including any child objects, to crawl Left or Right,

Selecting the Crawl effect creates a Crawl Box. In order for an object to be seen crawling, it must be inside the Crawl Box. The Crawl Box is similar to a crop box.

The crawl effect has two modes:

• Crawl from Text file or Select a Resource Data Object (This mode is automatically entered if a file is selected)
• Crawl from data (No file selected). Data source could be a control panel text box.

The “Data File browser” will show Text files and Data Objects in the Scene resource tree.

The spacer is only applied in “File Mode”

The spacer property can be an image, Text (Type text into the File drop down box) or a Render to Texture Group

With a Render to Texture Group all things can be crawled like 3D objects, Live video input etc.

Texture 1 in this example is an image, Text and a 3D spinning logo.

The direction property allows crawling in 4 directions

Crawl Commands

None: The crawl will remain in its current state

Note: Only None, Update, and Clear will be available a data source is not present.

Crawl Events

Crawl events occur when specific conditions are met. The occurrence of an event depends on whether the crawl is associated with a text file or not.

• Start of line: Occurs as the data enters the crawl box
• End of line: Occurs when the data exits the crawl box
• End of file: Occurs when the last piece of data has been crawled when associated with a text file.
• End of data: Occurs when there is no more data to crawl from an associated text file

Crop

Crop is a “Crop box” that allows cropping in 4 directions: Top, Bottom, Left and Right.

Each Crop effect is made up of 4 clipping planes. There is a limit of 6 clipping fields in one single render path.

• Transform: Allows positioning and scaling of the crop
• Surface: Sets the surface size of the crop box
• Crop: Select the sides of the crop box
• Feather: Applies soft edges to the crop
• Center Feather: Centers the feather of both the fill and shadow of the parent graphic.

Duplicate

The Duplicate Effect’s intended use is to be a quick method for building a data bound table graphic in a fraction of the time. Best practice is to apply the Duplicate Effect at the group level, where a group with contents is duplicated.

• Best Practice: Use Data Object to bind to a Table Resource and then enable Bind to Table within the Duplicate Effect.
• Under Table: Select the same Table Resource bound to data. Data bound to Table will automatically row pop, and advance to the next row of data on each duplicate. This will save designers hours of time previously spent individually linking each cell to the corresponding data source.
• ‎*It is recommended to make changes to the Group (parent) where the duplicate effect has been applied. If you are adding objects to the group or adding new bindings then revert the duplicate number to 1, apply changes and then increase the duplicate count to desired number to regenerate the duplicates.

• ID: Name of scene tree object which contains Duplicate Effect
• Count: # of times Duplicate Effect replicates the object ID within the Scene Tree
  ‎
  ‎
• Copy Number: child Duplicate Effect identifier
• Bind to Table: Drop down will display table resource available in scene
• Table: Select table you want to bind to
• First Row: Will display data from Table’s first row
• Row Number: Will display data from selected row number in table
• Parameters
  • Add and Remove
  • Only available if Bind to table is deselected
    • *If Bind to table is selected these controls are grayed out and not active.
  • Bindings - Bind any object properties to a parameter
    • *Bindings can be set even when Add & Remove are grayed out.

Grid

The Grid effect will subdivide or duplicate the child graphic into multiple graphics depending on the Rows and Columns properties. The segments can then be modified and animated individually using the Transform, Surface and Grid properties on the Grid effect.

A vertical or horizontal blind look can be created by setting Rows or Columns properties to 1 and the opposite property to the desired number of blinds.

The Grid effect can only be applied to a subset of objects: Image, Cube, Sphere, … Other graphics including Clips, Video Input and Groups can still be affected by the grid effect by using a Render To Texture effect on the desired graphic, then adding a Grid effect to an Image object that has its File property set to the render to texture output

Transform and Surface properties work the same as those in Graphic objects other than they affect the individual segments created by the Grid effect.

• Grid Mode – used to set whether object is Subdivided or Replicated into rows and columns
• Columns – number of columns to create
• Rows – number of rows to create
• Spacing – used to set and animate the spacing of the segments. 1.0 is normal spacing. 0.0 is all segments on top of each other.
• Mirror Rotation – used to set opposite rotation values in X and Y for half of the grid segments
• Animation Mode – used to determine the order in which grid segments are animated. Currently only Linear is supported
• Angle – the direction in which grid segments are animated
• Duration – used to add an amount of time between starting the animation of the first grid segment and the last grid segment to create a staggered animation effect. Set to 0 frames for no stagger

HDR (High Dynamic Range)

Constant: No change in the curve just add more value to the existing range.

Linear: 1=No change. 2 would be 0 to 200% 3 would be 300% etc.

Squared: Curved Graph. Brighter areas become more bright. Darker areas are not as affected as much.

Cubed: Same as squared but with a more severe affect.

JavaScript

Java Script Effect can be applied to any scene Graphic Object.

Java Script Resource can be applied to the Scene, Project, and Application levels as well as Master Control Panels.

To import an existing JavaScript navigate to script file. 

To add or edit a JavaScript:

1. Select the edit pencil icon.
2. The scripting panel will display..
3. From here, you can Execute and Halt scripts for testing.
4. Press the Save icon to save any edits to the script.

Execute on Load: Option to enable “Execute on Load” for Script to evaluate upon Scene load in Prime playout.

Mode:

• Asynchronous - runs the script in the background and returns immediately to the context calling the script
• Synchronous - blocks execution until the script is finished, or until the Timeout duration is elapsed

Timeout: The duration of time in seconds that scripts in Synchronous mode will execute before timing out

JavaScript Local Parameters: Press Add to remove Parameters to a JavaScript Effect. Any Parameters added to the JavaScript effect will be saved with the effect itself. Option to bind any scene object to the JavaScript parameters.

• JavaScript Advanced Options: (settings are saved with the script)
• Enable XMLHttp Request: Allows you to download data
• Enable Window Functions: Window functions allow you to pop up windows. For example alert, confirm, prompt and message boxes.
• Enable Extended Host functions: Enable for TCP clients, and other advanced objects. Without these checked functions keeps Prime in a Sandboxed mode.

JavaScript Keywords, Properties, and Objects
Further documentation can be found within the PRIME_JavaScript_User_Guide

Inline Text

The Inline Text effect can be added to Group objects only. When added to a group object the objects within the group will no longer be part of the composited objects in the scene tree meaning that group stands alone. The object within the group are cached in memory and can be referenced as text tags in the Text Object. Text tags start with a backslash and are terminated with a semi colon. The letter “o” is an indicator that this is an “Object” tag followed by the name of the object. This method is the same as “Style Tags”. Refer to the “Style Effect”.

• Example: Hello\oImage1;

The benefits of this approach is the objects can be animated individually. So, a crawl can have an animated Cube for example. A crawl “Trigger” can trigger an action that animates any of the objects in the “Inline Text” group.

Light

• Type: Point or Directional
• Diffuse: Light color.
• Ambient: Ambient color applied to the material
• Specular: Specular color applied to the material

• Evaluating Logic Effects: Similarly to Conditions, Logic effects should be told when to evaluate during playback. Evaluate commands can be accessed in event lists. This is an example of a Logic effect being evaluated on the Effect In event.
  • This method of evaluating Logic effects is in addition to the Evaluate On Parent Changed property previously mentioned.

• Logic Effect Statements Editor
  • Statements can be constructed by dragging object properties from the Property Pane (similar to Conditions). Users can also type statements with the assistance of PRIME’s auto-complete tool.
  • Users who wish to reuse a Logic file in the same scene should consider giving graphic objects the same name. For this to work, objects must be placed in separate groups.

LUA

LUA scripts are scripts that run at a low level inside the render engine on a frame by frame basis unlike VB or C# scripts which run at a high level outside the render engine.

LUA Script code can be written in PRIME by adding a LUA Script Effect. They can be embedded in the scene or saved out as “. GEF Effect Files”. These GEF files can be assigned to the LUA effect. The LUA property editor will show attributes defined in the LUA file; these attributes appear as properties of the LUA effect and can be keyframed on the timeline.

The edit button allows for the script to be edited and then saved

Masks

PRIME allows for two types of Masks: Layer or Group.

Layer Masks

Consist of “Sources” and “Targets” and can be assigned a “Channel”

“Soft Mask” settings allow you to blend between both the target and the source.

Layer Masks can be Stencil or Soft.

There is a limit of 5 concurrent masks per channel for stencil masking and 127 per channel if soft is enabled.

A single target can only be the masked target of 8 total layers. If more than 8 layers are used on a single target, the first 8 effects with the mask layer effect will still mask. Any layer effects after that will not mask. You can have multiple objects use the same layer

With multiple Hide Targets, any part of the source that is covered by a target will be hidden

With multiple Reveal Targets, ONLY the places where all of the targets intersect will be revealed.

Layer Mask scope:

• Global masks will affect any other Global masks. Scene masks will only affect other
• Scene masks in the same scene (or base scene)

Group Masks

Group masks will mask everything within its parent group and has no notion of “target and source”.

Mode: Hide/Reveal

Soft Value:

Materials

Materials can be applied to various scene objects. The material effect controls double as an editor that can be used to manipulate the current effects properties. It also has the capability of saving material effects for future use. Saved materials can then be applied later to other scene objects. A preview of the material is supplied to show the user the result of the created material effect.

• Faces
• Preset: The file that was saved or is being created. Any saved materials can be chosen from this control  

• Color

• Diffuse
• Emission
• Ambient
• Environment
• Specular
• Shininess

Diffuse: Diffuse lighting is used to simulate re-emission from a surface where the re-emittance isn't "ordered"(that is, the re-emitted light is diffused).

• Texture
• Intensity
• Offset
• Repeat
• Wrap
• Contrast
• Gamma
• Saturation
• LOD Bias
• Invert

Specular

A specular highlight is the bright spot of light that appears on shiny objects when illuminated

• Texture
• Intensity
• Offset
• Repeat
• Wrap
• Contrast
• Gamma
• Saturation
• LOD Bias
• Invert

Normal

• Texture
• Intensity
• Filter
• Offset
• Repeat
• Wrap
• LOD Bias
• Invert

Environment

Environment lighting adds light to the scene as if it came from a sphere surrounding the scene. The light is usually colored using an image called an environment map. An environment map can match the lighting (and reflections) in a scene to a real-world location, or may simply be used to add interesting variation to the scene’s lighting.

‎‎

• Texture
• Intensity
• Filter
• Offset
• Repeat
• Wrap
• Contrast
• Gamma
• Saturation
• LOD Bias
• Invert

Occlusion

Ambient Occlusion is a sophisticated ray-tracing calculation which simulates soft global illumination shadows by faking darkness perceived in corners and at mesh intersections, creases, and cracks, where ambient light is occluded, or blocked.

• Texture
• Intensity
• Filter
• Offset
• Repeat
• Wrap
• Gamma
• Contrast
• Saturation
• LOD Bias
• Invert

Reflection

• Intensity
• Color
• Bias
• Fresnel

Refraction

• Intensity
• Color
• Bias
• IOR
• Function

Multi Style

The Multi Style effect is a user-friendly way to allow a single text box to display two separate styles. The Multi Style effect is predicated on having existing Styles available to your scene already. Refer to the “Effects->Style” section.

In the first screen shot I have a simple scene with a single Text object, one “Style effect” placed on the Scene object, and one “Multi Style” effect placed on the Text object itself.

The second screen shot is the “Style Effect”. See the “Style Effect” section in this guide.

The first text will use the style defined by the Text object itself and the second piece of text will use the style defined by the “Style Effect” placed on the scene object. As a note the “Style Effect” could have easily been placed on the text object as well.

Select the Multi Style effect to show its Property Page.

Now select the style you wish to use and enter the text for each to get the desired result.

The Styles available to the Multi Style effect will enumerate in each of the “Style” drop down combo boxes.

The Multi Style Text objects function the same way as a single Text object. Each can be bound to any data source like the Data Object or XMP or as a replaceable for automation or Replaceables in LUCI.

You can drag and drop each into the Replaceables for instance. Drag the Text 1 label from the Multi Select effect into the Replaceables window to expose this object to Automation.

Binding with XMP

Binding with the Data Object

Page Turn

The page turn effect can be applied to any object.

• Transform
• Position
• Surface
• Size
• Page Turn Properties
• Angle
• Inner Radius: Diameter of the roll (at the start of the roll)
• Outer Radius: Defines how tight the roll is. With a higher value (greater then Inner Radius) there will more space between the layers of the roll.
• Tessellation: Number of points per width and/or height.
• Factor: Value from 0 to 1 define roll process

Parameters

The parameters effect is intended to be used in parallel with the table resource. Best practice is to apply the parameters effect at the group level, where a group is duplicated. For example if you have a table of statics information and have designed your template with multiple rows that are individually grouped. Apply parameters effect to Row 1 Group, and the copy/paste for additional iterations, Row 2 Group, Row 3 Group ect…

Parameters Properties

• Parameters Effect name: updatable alphanumeric text field
• Table
  • Bind to table: Drop down will display table resource available in scene
  • Row Number: Will display data from selected row number in table
  • Query: Custom Query for selecting data
    • Apply: Select to evaluate query
    • Reset: Column values will rest to default values
    • Apply on change: Enabled by default
• Parameters
• Toolbar
  • Add & Remove: If Bind to table is selected these controls are grayed out and not active
  • Only available if Bind to table is deselected
  • Bindings: Bind any object properties to a parameter

•  

 *Use semicolon between objects if binding to more than one object.

Photoshop Import

Import from Photoshop to PRIME

• The PSD effect allows the user to import photoshop files (.psd) into prime. Photoshop layers are imported into PRIME as individual PRIME scene objects. The PSD effect can only be applied to a PRIME “Group” object. All PSD layers are imported into this PRIME “Group” object and can then be treated as native PRIME objects.
• Basic usage -  Add PSD effect on a group object. Select a psd file in the file box and press the ‘Import button’. Import button acts as if checkboxes ‘Reset Layer Position on Update’ and ‘Clear Group Before Update’ were checked. It imports individual layers from PSD file into PRIME.
• Checkboxes: 
  • Reset Layer Position on Update - resets coordinates of layers on Canvas based on the PSD file.
  • Clear Group Before Update - removes all objects from the group with the selected PSD effect.
• Add Crop Effect - adds crop effect to the group.
• Update button usage - using the update button will not render images that were previously rendered, thus it can import the psd file quicker - this only works if you're using the same psd file multiple times. The update button will also import any new changes from the psd file.. This can be done using Import button as well, but that will automatically reset the layer coordinates and re-render all layers.
• Text drop-down menu usage - if the psd file contains text layers, the drop down menu contains three ways of how to deal with text:
• Image Only - the text layer will be imported as an image.
• Text Only - the text layer will be imported as a text object.
• Text With Disabled Images - the text layer will be imported as a text object and it will also be rendered as an image. The image will be disabled.

When using an option where a text object is created, the basic text information from the PSD file will be transferred to PRIME if found, including: the text value, font name, font weight, font size, font color, kerning, alignment and whether the text is all caps. The positioning of the text can be a little off due to differences between PRIME and Adobe Photoshop.

 

PSD effect properties

• File: Image browser same as in Image Object allows you to either select a file or import it into project images folder.
• Currently supported PSD elements:
  • PSD effect is able to import psd files that use 8 bit depth color mode and Rle image compression.
  • PSD effect supports importing layers, masks on layers, groups, masks on groups. Supported attributes are opacity, open/closed folders, visible/invisible layers.
  • Text supports both basic dropped shadow and outline PSD effects. Image supports only basic dropped shadow PSD effect.
  • To get the best results, it is recommended to apply effects and clipping masks in Photoshop before importing.‎ 

QR Code

The QR code effect allows users to assign QR properties to specific objects like Images .

QR Code effect allows users to create a QR code from URL or plain text. Once it’s created, they can bind it to an image, or a texture of a graphic object.

• QR Code properties controls
  • Size: QR Code size can be adjusted in the Surface section of the property editor.
  • Update (Button): Updates QR Code manually.
  • URL (TextBox): Contains a link to the webpage QR Code represents.
  • Error Correction (ComboBox): QR Code has error correction capability to restore data if the code is dirty or damaged. Four error correction levels are available for users to choose according to the operating environment:
    • Low
    • Medium
    • Quartile
    • High (Raising this level improves error correction capability but also increases the amount of data QR Code size.

  • Foreground and Background (ColorPickers): Colors can be adjusted in classic Prime Color Pickers.

  • File Name (TextBox): By default generated from URL, but custom name can be used if Update File Name from URL is unchecked.

  • Folder (TextBox): allows users to change the name of the folder which is stored in the project’s Images folder.

  • File (TextBox): Non Editable, shows a path to the QR Code file.

  • Update File Name from URL (CheckBox): controls if File Name is generated automatically from URL

  • Update on Change (CheckBox): Determines if QR Code should be updated on any given property change or if it has to be updated manually by pressing the Update button.

• Binding controls

• • Target (TextBox): contains a path to the property which should be overridden by QR Code.
  • Auto Update Parent Size (CheckBox): Controls if the target object’s size should be inherited from QR Code.
  • Reload on update (CheckBox): Determines if target object should be reloaded when QR Code is updated.
  • All QR code effect properties are specific to industry standard QR codes.
• Render to Texture

• ID: User friendly name to refer to this group. This Id will show up in the images browser as well. (The texture is also accessible under file name --render: ID -- or --render: channel / ID --)
• Resolution-Texture resolution. Can be used to render smaller texture when full size would be too large.
• Having smaller texture can have positive effect on performance.
• ‎The resolution of one RTT name should be consistent among all RTT effects in the scene.
• Full: Texture resolution and antialiasing is the same as used in the main frame buffer.
• Half: Texture resolution is 1/2 of both width and height of the main frame buffer resolution.
• Quarter: Texture resolution is 1/4 of both width and height of the main frame buffer resolution.
• ‎Antialiasing is disabled.
• Render Order: Render order of this texture among other RTTs.
• ‎Lower number is rendered first.
• ‎When undefined then the implicit order is given by depth of this effect in the scene.
• ‎Do not mix explicit ordering with implicit ones at the ordering relationship is not obvious.
• Keep Transformation: By default (Off) the transformation applied from scene root to this object is reset.
• ‎It mimics the rendering to empty frame buffer.

‎Set to On to keep position/rotation/scale transformations applied to all parent nodes.

The “Render to texture” effect is a special effect that can be applied as a surface to objects.

Typically, you will apply a “Render to Texture” to a group of objects. Once a “Render to Texture effect is applied to a group the group is no longer part of the scene tree although it appears to be. This “Render to Texture” group will then be available in the “Images” folder and be used as a Material on another object.

In this scene tree example, the “Render to texture” effect is applied to Group 1.

The cube has a “Material” effect applied to it. The Material effect is the “Render to texture” and is named “Texture 1 and appears in the image browser.

Note: The Group Name of the render to texture Group will be italicized to indicate this group is a special “Render to Texture” group.

Example output:

Roll

Refer to the “Crawl Effect”. A Roll is a vertical crawl. Crawl_Effect

Roll Crawl

The Roll Crawl effect animates an object using both the Roll and Crawl effect combined. The Roll effect is animated first followed by the crawl effect.

Example: Text can roll up from off screen to its set position and then begin to crawl.

• Animate behavior
  • Always Crawl off: The crawl effect will always execute
  • Roll Off if it Fits: Only execute the crawl effect if the text does not fit into the bounding box otherwise roll off
• Roll Duration: The duration speed on to off and off to on
• Roll Wait Duration: If the off effect is a roll (Roll off only if it fits mode) Wait time before next roll off begins. The Time the object is static on air.
• Crawl Wait Duration: If the off effect is a crawl (Based on animation behavior) Wait time before next crawl off begins. The Time the object is static on air
• Crawl Ease Duration: Ease in crawl duration
• Finish Fade Duration: If the finish offset is greater than zero the crawl will fade offset number of pixels from the bounding box edge.
• (For other property definitions see the “Crawl” effect section)

‎Scale to fit options

Text Uniform Scale

With the introduction of uniform scale we changed the word wrap options on Text Object’s property control and extended it with the option to uniformly scale in both horizontal and vertical directions.

• Text Uniform Scale Properties Control
  • Off - select this option to turn off any text word wrapping or scaling based on text bounding box size
  • Word Wrap - breaks text line into two if it is wider than text bounding box
  • Uniform Scale - when this option is selected text is scaled horizontally and vertically to fit into text bounds

It also sets vertical alignment to Top if it was set to First
Turns off Horizontal and Vertical Scale options if turned on

Example: Text before Uniform Scale is applied Text after Uniform Scale is applied

Auto Scale

Auto scale effect is a tool that works together with adjacent text objects and allows a scene graphic with auto scale effect applied to target one of the texts and position and scale itself accordingly. This is especially useful when designing bullet graphics.

• Auto Scale Properties Control
  • Target: dropdown that enables users to select from sibling text objects list (text objects in same group as an object auto scale is applied to) and specify target that an object will position and scale according to
  • By default target is first sibling text if it exists
  • Offset - offsets position of auto scaled object from its target
    • Default s to [-25,-25]
  • Scale X Offset - if enabled it scales down the Offset X value
    • True by default
  • Scale Y Offset - if enabled it scales down the Offset Y value
    • True by default
  • Scale Parent - if unchecked an object with auto scale applied will no longer scale itself according to target
    • Defaults to true

•  

Example:

A scene with Text 1 and Bullet 1 objects and no Auto Scale applied.

A scene with Text 1 and Bullet 1 objects and Bullet 1 has Auto Scale applied.

Multi Scale

The multi-scale effect was added as an extension tool for Uniform Scale effect and can be applied to group objects. If a group object contains text objects and Multi Scale effect is applied then all text objects in that group have Uniform Scale automatically enabled.

• Multi Scale Properties Control

• Horizontal - controls horizontal alignment for the whole text group
  • Defaults to Left with other options Center and Right
• Vertical - controls vertical alignment for the whole text group
  • Defaults to Top with other options Middle and Bottom
• Direction - allows to specify order of text objects in the group
  • Options Down and Up
• Font Size - sets Font Size for all text objects in group
• Leading - sets Leading on all text objects
  • Default value is 0
• Threshold - higher the threshold is set more performance is gained but multi scale loses its precision
  • Text objects are scaled most precisely at value 0
  • Defaults to 1
• Spacing - this property adds spacing between each text object in group
  • Defaults to 50
• Scale Spacing - if enabled it scales down the Spacing value
  • Defaults to true
• Update Width - if enabled it makes sure text objects in group are scaled horizontally according to the width of multi scale effect size
  • Defaults to true
• Update X - if enabled text objects are repositioned according to multi scale effect x position changes
  • Defaults to true

Example: Group with 3 text objects without Multi Scale applied

Group after Multi Scale was applied, this example illustrates bigger spacing between text objects and horizontal alignment set to Center

Auto Size

Auto size effect automatically calculates the size and sizes its parent object based on other sibling objects in the parent group. This effect was designed to work in conjunction with other Scale to Fit Options.

• Auto Size Properties Control
  • Padding - this value controls the amount that is added to calculated size
  • Defaults to [0,0]
  • Update Width - if enabled it automatically adjusts the width of auto size parent object according to newly calculated extent of sibling objects
    • Defaults true
  • Update Height - if enabled it adjusts height of auto size parent object according to group extent
  • Hide On Empty - hides auto sized object if there is no content inside parent group
    • This can happen e.g. when all objects in group are disabled or there are empty text objects
    • Defaults to true

Example: Multi Scaled group of text objects and Pod object without Auto Size applied

Multi Scaled group of text objects and Pod object that has Auto Size effect applied

Shader

Shader effects can be added to PRIME objects. They can be loaded and saved out as “. GEF Effect Files”.

The property editor will show properties defined in the Shader file. All Shader properties are keyframeable.

Property Changed Events will be included.

Style

The Style effect allows multiple styles to be used within a single text object. The Style effect can only be applied to a group, including the scene group or any individual text object. You can apply as many Style effects to each.

In this example, the style tag will apply to all 4 text objects

In this example the style tag applies ONLY to the Text 1 text object.

Style properties:

• Id: This is the name to be used in the text string that will change the inline Style
  • Example: Text\tStyle 1;Text\t;Text

Results in the following

Font:

Style: This list enumerates all of the Styles available for this project. These are user created style. See the Text Style Browser section of the “Text Object”. The Style can be edited and save here.

• Style Tag Format
  • Backslash “t” starts the style tag notation followed by the Style Name ending with a semi-colon:
  • \tStyle1;
  • To revert the style back to the default style of the Text object leave the name blank;
  • \t;

Style Sheet Statement Editor

Similar to .Tag using .Parent is another method of applying the same statement to multiple objects. Using .Parent avoids addressing the object by it’s name as the statement evaluates against the Parent Object that the Style Sheet is applied to.

Table

• Texture: Textures can be applied to various scene objects. Textures use the “Images” folder.
• Faces: Only one face per texture

Texture Properties

• Mapping: Texture wrap in X and Y dimensions.
• Method of texture application outside it's dimension.
• Wrap:
• Clamp: Edge pixels are repeated.
• Repeat: The whole texture is repeated.
• Filter: Texture filtering mode.
• Point: Pixel sampling, no interpolation.
• Linear: Linear interpolation.
• Mipmap: TriLinear interpolation of mipmap levels during minification. Linear interpolation is used for magnification.
• Mipmap Anisotropic - MIPMAP with enabled anisotropic filtering.
  • This mode helps when texture get blurred because of viewing angle or non-uniform scale.

• LOD Bios: Specifies a value that is to be added to the level-of-detail parameter for the texture sampling. This parameter has effect only for mipmap texture filtering. ‎Value less than zero makes the image blurry. Value greater than zero makes the image sharper.

• Unit: Texture unit.

• File: File name which contains an image for texture.

Texture Matrix

Texture Matrix Properties

• Offset: Offset defined in normalized coordinates.
• Scale Factor: Same as Pivot
• Rotation: Rotation in degrees. See also Pivot attribute.
• Pivot: Rotation and scale pivot.
• Inverse: Setting true makes the transformation inverse. The inverted transformation makes it easier to understand and is similar to node transformation

Touch

• Touch Properties
  • Hit Test:
  • Geometry: Raise the touch event only when the object itself is touched.
  • Bounding Box: Raise the touch event when touch is within the bounding box of the object.
  • Drag X: Allows the object to be dragged on X axis
  • Drag Y: Allows the object to be dragged on Y axis
• Events
  • Touch Down: Triggered on touch down
  • Touch Up: Triggered on touch release (tap or slide)
  • Touch Move: Triggers during drag
  • Tap: Triggers on touch up (not slide).

If the touch point is more than 3 pixels, then prime will assume this is a slide, not just a tap.

Tap threshold can be modified through Logic condition. For example Touch1.TapThreshold = 5

Touch Setup: Use Windows Control Panel “Tablet PC Settings” found in the “Hardware and Sound” section to configure your touch screen device.

Transform Object

• Transform object: Allows you to add an additional transform to an object. This allows you to separate the transform of your object from your animations. Using the Transform effect reduces the number of groups you'll require to achieve the same result.
  • Example: Add an image to a scene and position it. Add a transform effect to the image. Create an Action that animates the transition effect Position X. Now move the Position X of the image somewhere else in the scene and play the action again. The animation is the same and is relative to the position of the image. Being relative to the object it is applied to is the importance of a separate Transform effect
• Update Parent Bounds setting: Disabling this check box, prevents the parent object graphic bounds from applying any transform effect offsets. This behavior can be applied when Auto Follow Source mode and Transform effect are used together, and you want to avoid an auto follow update from effecting the Transform effect animation.

Transition

Transition effects can be used to animate graphics from one value to another.  By default, the transition will occur when any child graphic default property changes (such as the Text property of a Text object, or the File property of an Image or Clip object), but can also be configured to trigger when child graphics are Enabled or Disabled, or when their Color changes.

There are two types of transition that can be applied to a group or Object: File or Custom.

 

File-Based Transitions

To create a new File Based Transition:

This will open the Transition Editor:

From this UI you can create transition effects. This UI begins with an “Effect In” and an “Effect out”

There is a surrogate scene tree object named “Target”. The target will be replaced by the actual scene object where the transition is applied.

Transition Properties:

You can add many scene objects to the transition, like sound effects, flares etc. so you need to define the “Target Object” The Target object can be an Image object or a text object. When the transition is applied to a scene object it will inherit the “Target Objects’ properties.

Saving the transition will allow it to show up in the transition browser.

 

To use a created transition:

1. Within a Prime Scene, apply a Transition Effect from the toolbox onto an object
Select the transition effect from the Scene Tree and the Transition Properties panel will be shown:

2. Once a new transition is created it will show up in the browser.

3. Select the previously created transition from the browser.

• Preview
  • Hide - hides the content being transitioned
  • Out - plays the specified Transition Out Action
  • In - plays the specified Transition In Action
  • Show - shows the content being transitioned

 

• Behavior - sets when the transition will fire. Your choices are “On Update” or “On change:”

• • On Update will fire for each update regardless if the data is the same or different.
  • On Change will fire ONLY on an update if the new value is different than the current value.
    
    

• Duration - may be modified from its original value. This will allow for applying the same effect on multiple objects and creating a “staggered” effect.
  
  
• Offset - Creates a Duration delay prior to the Transition playing
  
  
• Out on Empty - If checked, performs the specified Out Animation when the content is changed to an empty value 
  
  
• Property Triggers
  • Default Property - If checked, the transition will be triggered when any child graphic default property changes (ie, Text property for a Text object, File property for Image or Clip objects…)
    
    
  • Enabled - If checked, the transition will be triggered when any child graphic Enabled property changes
    
    
  • Color - If checked, the transition will be triggered when any child graphic Color property changes

 

Custom Transitions

Custom transitions work the exact same way as file based except they require the transition to be in an existing “Action” in the scene. Simply choose your “In Action” and “Out Action”

• Priority - specifies which graphic will be at the top during the transition: Incoming or Outgoing
• In Action - specifies the animation(s) to play for the incoming graphic
• Out Action - specifies the animation(s) to play for the outgoing graphic

 

Transition Event Properties

Now you can modify the properties of the transition and hook up to its internal events.

• Before Update - event is triggered before the transition occurs
• After Update - event is triggered after the transition occurs
• Finished - event is triggered after the transition finishes animating

 

Warp

More information on Warp Clips can be found in the “Creating Warp Clips in After Effects CS6” user guide.

Virtual Group

This Effect is intended to be used in conjunction with AutoFollow Source Mode. A Virtual Group effect can be applied to multiple objects in a scene, regardless of how they have been physically grouped together in the scene tree, to “virtually” group them together. The benefit of this is the effect will give the calculated values for the Left, Top, Right and Bottom of all objects within the virtual group.

Example for using this effect: If you have a Full Screen graphic table, consisting of multiple rows and columns of data. The scene is constructed to animate each row individually. But the operator wants to change the amount of columns that display. Apply the virtual group effect to each text object, to create “virtual columns”. Then have each virtual column row autofollow the next. The virtual group will calculate the text field in the column that is the longest, making auto follow even easier. Essentially virtual groups will do math.max calculations, using the calculated property.

• Virtual Group Properties
  • Name: Naming convention must be exactly the same for any other virtual group effects that you want to reference within the same virtual group.
  • ID: Read only, Prime’s reference name of the virtual group
  • Parent: Left, Top, Right and Bottom values of the object the virtual group is applied to. Width and Height of the object the virtual group is applied to.
  • Calculated: Left, Top, Right and Bottom values of all objects within the virtual group. Width and Height of all objects within the virtual group.
  • References: List of all items within the virtual group.
    • Note: Auto Spacing does not affect Virtual Group bounds.

XMP

Adobe Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) is a file labeling technology that lets you embed metadata into files themselves during the content creation process. PRIME can bind to the data stored in Image files.

Apply the XMP effect to an image object. If the Image contains XMP metadata, the data will appear in the XMP properties window:

Notice the “Bindings” column. This is where you can drag and drop other object properties to bind the data. All Object properties are bindable like Color, opacity, Position etc.

Users can alternatively type manually into this field to take advantage of PRIME’s “Auto-Complete” feature as well.

The Bindings field also allows for the use of Expressions.

See the separate “Parameters & Expressions” document.

Example using an Expression:

Example Using Auto-Completeu

This example binds the image color:

XMP LUCI Workflow

Any text, images or clip objects must be bound to a corresponding replaceable within Prime, to be visible and editable in the NRCS LUCI plug-in. In addition, for objects that are data bound to XMP, the replaceable must be flagged as databound.

In the Replacables window there is a databound column with a chain link icon. Click in the empty row space of the replaceable column to turn on the databound icon for each object that is databound to XMP.

If the databound column is not flagged for each object that is databound to XMP, then the corresponding XMP data will not be visible in the LUCI plug-in.

Example of databound XMP information visible in the LUCI plug-in

Unicode UTF-8 Region Setting for Character Accents

XMP can fail to return character accents properly if Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support is not enabled within Windows.

• Example: Without this setting turned on, cinéma would display as cinéma.

To enable this setting,

1. Go to Windows Settings > Time & language > Language & region > Administrative language settings > Change system locale…
2. Check Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support.
3. Reboot the PC for the change to take effect.