
AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
395
Note: When you animate the Output Cycle, a triangle’s position and color are interpolated between keyframes. For best
results, make sure that all keyframes have the same number of Output Cycle triangles.
Cycle Repetitions HowmanyiterationsoftheOutputCycletheinputcolorrangeismappedto.Thedefaultvalueof
1mapstheinputrangetooneiterationoftheOutputCycle,frominputblackatthetopoftheOutputCyclewheel,
clockwisetoinputwhiteatthetopoftheOutputCyclewheel.Avalueof2mapstheinputrangetotwoiterationsof
the Output Cycle. Use this option to create a simple palette and repeat it many times throughout a gradient.
Interpolate Palette Colors between triangles are interpolated smoothly. When this option is deselected, output
colors are posterized.
Modify controls
Modify controls specify which color attributes are modified by the Colorama effect. For subtle refinement of images,
choose the same color attribute for Input Phase and Modify. For example, choose Hue from both menus to simply
adjust Hue.
Modify The color attribute to modify.
Modify Alpha Modifies alpha channel values.
Note: If you apply Colorama to a layer with an alpha channel, and the Output Cycle doesn’t contain alpha information,
the anti-aliased edges of the layer may appear pixelated. To smooth the edges, deselect Modify Alpha. If Modify Alpha is
selected and the Output Cycle contains alpha information, the output is affected even if you’ve selected None from the
Modify menu. Using this method, you can adjust the levels of just the alpha channel without also changing the RGB
information.
Change Empty Pixels The Colorama effect’s influence extends to transparent pixels. (This setting works only if
Modify Alpha is selected.)
Pixel Selection, Masking, and other controls
These controls determine which pixels are affected. For the Matching controls for Pixel Selection to work, Matching
Mode must be set to anything other than Off.
Matching Color The center of the range of colors of pixels to be affected by the Colorama effect. To select a specific
color in the image using the eyedropper, turn off the Colorama effect temporarily by clicking its Effect switch in
the Effect Controls panel.
Matching Tolerance How far a color can be from Matching Color and still be affected by the Colorama effect. When
MatchingToleranceis0,onlytheexactcolorselectedforMatchingColorisaffectedbyColorama.WhenMatching
Tolerance is 1, all colors are matched; this value essentially turns Matching Mode off.
Matching Softness How smoothly the matched pixels blend into the rest of the image. For example, if you have an
image of a man wearing a red shirt and blue pants, and you want to change the color of the pants from blue to red,
subtly adjust Matching Softness to spread the matching from the blue in the pants into the shadows of the pants folds.
Ifyouadjustittoohigh,thematchingspreadstotheblueofthesky;ifyouadjustitevenhigher,thematchingspreads
to his red shirt.
Matching Mode What color attributes are compared to determine matching. In general, use RGB for high-contrast
graphics and Chroma for photographic images.
Mask Layer The layer to use as a matte. Masking Mode specifies what attribute of the Mask Layer is used to define
the matte.
Composite Over Layer Showsmodifiedpixelscompositedontopoftheoriginallayer.Deselectthisoptiontoshow
only modified pixels.
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