simple mask

WARNING:
PLEASE DOWNLOAD AND TEST THIS PLUG-IN BEFORE PURCHASING IT. WE HAVE RECEIVED REPORTS OF INCREASED INCOMPATIBILITIES WITH NEW SYSTEM UPDATES, AND IT APPEARS THAT THE PROBLEMS ORIGINATE OUTSIDE OF THE PLUG-IN.

what is it?

simple mask is a simple to use, yet very powerful plug-in for clip post-production. virtually all professional-looking footage requires masking of one sort or another (unless, of course you are very able as a director and very lucky). simple mask makes the process of masking parts of a clip a painless, and even fun procedure.

simple mask sports the following features:

• live feedback: preview the result while positioning the mask
• import any image as mask
• a collection of thirty ready-to-use high-quality masks
• four mask pre-processors to automatically convert a picture to a mask
• additional threshold mask pre-processor
• eight mask/cross-fade mask generators with user-selectable cross-fade size
• mask can be freely resized and positioned
• mask supports 256 levels of transparency
   

price : USD 2.50

version 2.0.0

mask setup dialog

mask source
this frame shows a preview of the mask source. this is what will be used to create the mask.

mask preview
this frame shows the mask as it is generated from the mask source, and after all transformations and options (including mask position and size, as set from the configure dialog) have been applied.

load picture
to load a picture as mask source, press this button. this plug supports any picture format known to QuickTime.

note:
there is a more powerful version of this plug, called ‘mix / blend movies' that has the same finely tuned mask capabilities, but allows blending two clips.

what should I use it for?
use this plug whenever you attempt to

• watermark a clip

• fade parts
• pre-processing for compositing
• make transitions
• pre-processing for chroma-keying
• post-processing after compositing
• create blends

features

mask area

this is the area the mask will be scaled to and positioned into. depending upon the setting of 'whole clip' (below), the area outside the mask are will either be not affected at all, or blotted out by the background color. to move the mask area, simply click and drag inside the rectangle. to re-size the area, click and drag one it's handles.
while moving and sizing the mask area, the frame will be constantly updated to show an accurate preview of the rendered movie frame.

whole clip control
when set, everything outside the mask area will be set to the background color. if not set, everything outside the mask area will be left untouched.

live preview, frame controls
use the slider to quickly advance through your clip, and use the '<' and '>' buttons to advance frame-by-frame. you can disable live preview by un-checking the box. if live preview is disabled you will not see the effect, but you gain some performance (important for some low-end systems)

background color
this sets the color an unmasked pixel will be set to.

mask preview
this little box shows a preview of the current mask, taking into account the position and size of the mask area.

select all
pressing this button will select the whole clip surface as mask area

mask button
clicking this button will take you to the mask setup dialog.

load pop-up (mask generator)
this pop-up menu enables you to choose between loading a mask, or engaging a mask generator.

• picture:
  mask generator is disabled. the mask will be generated from a picture that is loaded from disk.
   
• rectangle:
  a rectangular mask is created. fade slider is active
   
• oval:
  an oval mask is created. fade slider is active
   
• top & bottom
  a mask is created that fades the picture towards top and bottom. fade slider is active.
   
• left & right
  a mask is created that fades the picture towards left and right. fade slider is active.
   
• top / bottom
  a mask is created that fades the picture from top to bottom. fade slider is active.
   
• left / right
  a mask is created that fades the picture from left to right. fade slider is active.
   
• upper left:
  a mask is created that cuts the image diagonally in half. fading is done where the two halves meet. fade slider is active. note that checking ‘invert’ will exchange this to lower right.
   
• upper right
  a mask is created that cuts the image diagonally in half. fading is done where the two halves meet. fade slider is active. note that checking ‘invert’ will exchange this to lower left.

fade slider
this slider defines the size of the cross-fade between white and black areas when using the mask generator.

min slider
this slider controls the minimum black value. if you increase it, the darkest black will gradually become lighter.

max slider
this slider controls the maximum white. if you increase it, the whitest white will become gradually darker.

h off
this slider moves the mask horizontally (left and right).
note: this slider will not affect a loaded picture mask.

v off
this slider moves the mask vertically (up and down)
note: this slider will not affect a loaded picture mask.

reset
pressing this button will reset all sliders and methods to factory pre-sets.

method pop-up

• red, green, blue:
  use red, green, or blue channel to create the mask
• brightness:
  calculate a pixel's brightness, and use this as index for the mask

straight method
the values calculated by the method preprocessor are taken unmodified and placed into the mask. choosing straight will re-set the threshold slider to zero.

threshold method, threshold slider
instead of directly using the values from the pre-processor (as with the straight method), you can engage another pre-processor that uses the values passed from the soure to determine if the pixel should be masked or not. the threshold pre-processor only has two output states: mask (white) or replace (black). use the threshold slider to set the pre-processor's sensitivity.

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