User's Guide Table of Contents

1. Introduction

• What is it?
• Who is it for?
• Interfacing with other video software

2. Getting started

• PixelConduit user interface
  • Project window
  • Project window tabs
  • Viewer window
  • Previews and scopes
  • Conduit Editor window
  • Sliders and Controls window
  • Notes on using sliders in the project
  • Project Script Editor window
  • Other windows
• Setting up the project
  • Project settings
  • Free Run and Timeline modes
• Node widgets in the Project view
  • Node widget connection types
  • Display
  • Multi-screen output using Matrox GXM
  • Other video outputs
  • Video sources
  • Supported file formats
  • Live Source
  • Effects
  • Capturing video
  • Other node widgets
• Creating animation in PixelConduit
  • Keyframe animation
  • Procedural animation
  • Cue-based animation
• Exporting to a movie file or image sequence
• Recording live video
  • The capture session
  • Recording original streams vs. Rendered capture
  • Recording original video streams
  • Using Rendered Capture
• Video capture quick start tutorial
  • Setting up live video and a Conduit effect
  • Viewing the incoming video image
  • Choosing a recording mode
• Performance tuning and troubleshooting
  • GPU limitations
  • Disk speed limitations
  • Latency and frame rate mismatch
• Extending PixelConduit

3. Using the Conduit Effect System

• References and other documentation
• How values are transferred from PixelConduit to the effect
• Effects essentials – the “Conduit Cheat Sheet”
  • What's a conduit?
  • What are sliders and color pickers?
  • Where's the eyedropper tool?
  • Where's Brightness & Contrast?
  • How to use Levels?
  • What's alpha?
  • What's premultiplied alpha?
  • What's a matte?
  • How do I mask an effect (i.e. limit an effect so that it renders only within a specified matte)?
  • Problem: transparent areas are displaying as bright.
  • Problem: composited object has a black outline.
  • What's gamma?
  • What's linear light?
  • What's floating point color?
  • What's HDR?
  • When to use the Bezier/Cubic Curve nodes instead of Curves (RGBA)?
  • How to rotate an image?
  • What's the difference between Place Over and 2D Transform?
  • How to create a macro (or capsule)?
  • How to package multiple nodes into one?
• Drawing custom shapes
  • Creating shapes
  • Editing shape points
  • Working with smoothed curves
  • Viewing shape controls in another node’s context
  • Exporting and importing shapes

4. Live control and performance

• Stage Tools Overview
• Getting Started with Stage Tools
  • The project’s control room
  • The cue robot
  • During the show
  • What next
• Overview of Stage Tools windows
  • Designing cues in the Cue List window
  • Running the project
  • Using the Info window
  • Live Titles window
• Combining Stage Tools node widgets
• Hardware control protocols
  • MIDI: connecting to musical control hardware
  • DMX512: connecting to light controllers
• Triggering events and clips
• List of node widgets in Stage Tools
  • Audio Input
  • DMX Source
  • Live Titles
  • Perspective Warp
  • Playback Control
  • Stage Tools Trigger

5. Custom rendering

• The Supernode – how to nest effects and make custom plugins
  • Loading a conduit asset
  • Modifying the interface
  • Creating a custom interface element
  • Adding an action to the button
  • Editing a nested conduit
  • Saving as a plugin
  • Printing info from a script
  • Appendix: tutorial materials
• Rendering graphics and text with the Canvas node - a scripting tutorial
  • The Canvas API
  • The Canvas node
  • Enabling the button
  • Adding text
  • Making the counter animate
  • What next?
  • Assets
  • On-screen controls
• Making Rain – creating an animated particle effect
  • Editing scripts outside of Conduit
  • Painting the drops in the constructor function
  • Putting the GPU to work
  • Tweaking the rain look
• Conduit Effect System reference documentation
• Scripting the PixelConduit project
  • Standard objects in the PixelConduit project
  • Finding out object properties
• Deeper with data using script node widgets
  • Script Widget
  • Connection data types and the Map object
  • Creating custom user interfaces

6. Compositing workflows

• Pro Pixels – working in raw YUV video, Cineon/DPX and OpenEXR
  • Raw video: unmodified YUV in and out
  • Exporting raw YUV
  • Working with film images: Cineon/DPX file format
  • OpenEXR: the floating-point multi-channel connoisseur’s choice
  • Exporting to OpenEXR
  • Choosing between export file formats
• Drowned World – a creative compositing tutorial
  • Drawing the foreground shapes
  • Color for the mood

7. Automating workflows using Render Automation

• The elements of an action
• The Batch Actions window
• Importing source files
• Setting up exports
• Telling the project how and what to render
• Executing the batch
• Modifying effects within actions
• Working with stereo 3D content

8. Working with stereoscopic 3D

• A starter guide to stereo 3D production
• 1. Getting the streams flowing: Importing (and perhaps splitting) video
• 2. Viewing 3D
• 3. Going deep or staying shallow: Adjusting the 3D effect
• 4. Cross-eyed and painless – fixing alignment issues
• 5. Color, gloss, shadows: Using effects in 3D
• 6. A good use of space – creating 3D layers
• 7. Exporting 3D and using batch automation
• 8. What’s next? Advanced topics