BackSpiceMaster -- Basic Steps -- Cool Tips

Click below for additional creative capabilities you can achieve with SpiceMaster.
Bezier-Controlled Fades
Beautiful Soft Slide/Zoom/Drop Effects
Combined Spice Designs
Easily Build Adjustable, Soft Mattes
Easy Animation/Distortion/Texture Effects
Brewing Your Own Effects for SpiceMaster

Bezier-Controlled Fades

Most video editing software only provides linear fade-ins or fade-outs of clips. Often, however, it can be very useful to create a smoother changing or accelerated/decelerated fade. With a simple trick, you can use SpiceMaster's bezier curve keyframing to smoothly vary a clip's opacity. No spice effect will appear -- just a terrifically smooth uniform fade that speeds up or slows down as it progresses. Several saved setting files are included for this type of effect. To apply one:

1. After applying SpiceMaster, click the blue Load button, as shown below.

Black bar
2. Double-click the Bezier Fades subfolder and click any saved setting file within it. That's all!

Beautiful Soft Slide/Zoom/Drop Effects

Unlike what's available in most editing software, a bonus of using SpiceMaster is you can have bezier curve-controlled super-softness or opacity in a slide, zoom or drop transition. This can dramatically change the character of such 'standard' effects to something fresh, elegant and beautiful, as shown below.

Example images  View movie at our web site

Several saved settings are provided in SpiceMaster to instantly create such effects! Just follow Step 1 above, then choose any saved setting file from the Soft Slides or Soft Zooms folder. Note: If you prefer an organic zoom edge, instead of a super-soft look, apply one of the above saved settings, then reduce the Softness slider(s) and experiment with the Texture > Amount slider (and possibly the Invert button). For an animated organic edge, also turn on the Texture > Motion slider.

Combined Spice Designs

SpiceMaster's Library is loaded with hundreds of spice designs, covering most production situations. In addition, the Texture section of SpiceMaster can add organic edge qualities to even non-organic spices. And you can adjustably zoom any alpha channel graphic or black & white matte to create softenable spice-like effects with custom geometries. With all of these capabilities, you'll likely always find a suitable design for your SpiceMaster effect.

Last but not least, the powerful Mixer control blends any chosen spice design with the luminance of your clips, tailoring the effect even further to your content. However, you have one more nifty way to create additional SpiceMaster effect geometries: apply the SpiceMaster as effect more than once to a two or more synchronized copies of the same clip to combine spice designs.

Example images

In the example above, the SpiceMaster effect was applied twice to the blue clip, to reveal the lower eye clip. All SpiceMaster settings were identical both times (OrganicFX\Climatics\Fog2 C spice plus some white border), but in one the effect was reversed (by clicking the Invert button in SpiceMaster). Thus the combined effect progresses organically in a new way.

Easily Build Adjustable, Soft Mattes

Most video editing programs can form simple garbage mattes, which can be useful to mask out unwanted areas of a clip, such as static along a frame edge, an unwanted region of a scene, an area trailing a title, etc. Usually you cannot soften the garbage matte's edges and you are limited to straight-edged basic shapes (no curves or unusual/organic shapes). Not anymore! By applying SpiceMaster and 'freezing' the progress of a spice effect, you can easily apply softenable custom mattes for any purpose. SpiceMaster's Library includes lots of fundamental shapes to create mattes in virtually any geometry. All are adjustable for position, size, softness, etc. directly in SpiceMaster.

The technique is easy: After applying a SpiceMaster effect (if available) and selecting a spice file from the Library, choose the 'hold' Progress Preset (the small Presets button to the right of the Progress control) and drag that keyframe line up or down in the Keyframes graph to set an iris-size or wipe-position as desired. To further fine-tune the matte's position, drag the orange handle in the grayscale spice image. That's all!

Completion Presets

If the spice effect does not exactly match the matte shape you need, try the Combined Spice Designs tip above to create a custom shape. To fine-tune the matte's softness, apply Softness > All Edges. In addition to softness, most other SpiceMaster enhancements in the Edge and Depth pane are available for the matte's edge -- border, glow, shadow, etc. For example, if you apply Texture > Motion then you can animate the matte's edge during the effect -- cool!

Easy Animation/Distortion/Texture Effects

SpiceMaster's numerous controls in the Edge and Depth panes are not only useful to enhance spice effects. They can be applied directly to a single clip to produce a huge range of quick and easy animation, distortion, and texture effects for you! The technique is easy:

1. Synch two copies of the
SAME clip in your timeline. One clip copy will therefore sit directly above the other copy.

Timeline

2. Apply the SpiceMaster transition between the clip copies (if they are in the same track). Or apply the SpiceMaster effect (if available) to the TOP clip copy. If you applied the SpiceMaster effect, be sure to also activate the alpha channel key in the TOP clip, if required by your editing software.

3. Set up the effect.
In the main area of SpiceMaster, click the Choose Spice File button to select a spice with the effect design you desire.

4. Apply any enhancement
from Border, Shadow/Glow, or Bevel/Ripple sections of the Edge and Depth panes of SpiceMaster. Modify further if desired with the Softness and Texture sections. Instant flowing energy wave!

Example images

Brewing Your Own Effects for SpiceMaster

Despite the hundreds of spice files included with SpiceMaster and the near-infinite ways to modify and customize them, occasionally you may still want to create your own "spice". Perhaps you need an effect that has the exact shape as a client's logo or graphic, or some other custom need. Since SpiceMaster is open-ended, it will readily accept any still-image as a spice. The file should have a wide range of grayscales -- from pure black to pure white -- to create an effect that changes over time (such as a transition). Or the file can be a simple black & white matte to load and enhance in SpiceMaster.

To create such a custom file, use a graphics program such as Photoshop to (a) create the grayscale still-image at the same size as your final output (such as 1920x1080 pixels), and (b) save the file in any format below. Then load the file directly into SpiceMaster, or add it the Library for repeated future use. SpiceMaster can load files in the following formats: BITMAP (.bmp or .dib), TIFF (.tif), PNG (.png), PICT (.pct), JPEG (.jpg), and TARGA (.tga).

 

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