Collaboration

Node-based compositing makes it easy for artists to reuse the effects and visual looks they create, because once an effect setup has been designed it can be applied to any number of shots or sent to another artist for modification. Conduit's lightweight file format facilitates this by making it easy to store, transfer and share compositing setups. You can ask questions and share your work on the PixelConduit support forums.

Keying and masking

Blue / green screen keying is a fundamental compositing task, and Conduit makes it easier to pull the best possible key every time. With the power and flexibility of node-based compositing, you can start with the advanced built-in keying tools such as Color Difference, Color Range, 3D Key, Unspill & Despill and then finetune the matte with other tools, or you can even build your own keying method from scratch — all without the realtime renderer missing a beat.

It's common that masks also need to be created by drawing, for example to remove an unwanted object or to limit a color correction to only a particular region. The Shapes node can be used to create high-quality vector masks and shapes. There is no limitation to the number of shapes or their complexity. The node provides on-screen editing controls, and you can easily use the Shape controls while viewing the output of another node using the 'solo' display mode.

High Dynamic Range effects

High dynamic range (HDR) means your images can have contrast ratios exceeding 1,000,000:1, so the same image can contain ultra-bright highlights and the most minute variations within shadow tones. By converting your video images to the linear light colorspace, the color values correspond to actual light intensities. This frees you from the restricting "0-255" digital mindset and allows you think of compositing in terms of combining and manipulating light itself.

Image detail is never lost because Conduit always operates at full floating point precision. For output, linear light HDR images typically need to be tone-mapped into the video colorspace. Built-in tools like Exposure allow you to think of this process using familiar photographic concepts like f-stops. You can of course also design your own tone mapping algorithm simply using Conduit's nodes.

Some of the tools available in Conduit:

• Blurs (Gaussian, Linear)
• Channel Mixer
• Curves
  Separate RGBA channels, automatic smoothing, precise numeric entry of values
• 2D Min / Max
  Expand or shrink color areas — great for mattes when combined with HDR blurs
• Histogram floater window for Curves and Levels
• Convert RGB Space and other colorspace conversions
  Instantly fix difficult problems with mismatched colorspace or color temperature
• Noise
  Renders natural-looking Gaussian noise at HDR precision — blur or process it to create freeform grain effects
• Place Over and 3D Transform nodes
  Render layers with full control in 2D or 3D space

Animation

The PixelConduit app offers several ways to create animation:

• Keyframe animation
  Create smooth transitions using the visual Curve Editor
• Procedural animation
  Use JavaScript for precise control of parameters
• Cue-based animation
  Design cues that consist of events and trigger them live (part of Stage Tools)

Video capture and effects

PixelConduit can capture live video from multiple video sources simultaneously. Consumer or professional equipment are equally well supported. A special interface is built-in for BlackMagic Design hardware so you can access advanced features like dual-stream 3D video capture. PixelConduit also includes precise analysis tools like vectorscopes, pixel slice tool and colorspace visualization.

Extensible without limits

Compositing tasks often require some kind of graphics to be rendered. This can be as simple as printing out a timecode to be “burned” into the video, or as complex as drawing and animating vector objects on multiple layers… PixelConduit can take on any rendering task with support for accelerated 3D and 2D with high-quality text and vector graphics rendering. What's more, it’s really easy to learn: the 2D graphics interface implements the Canvas part of the HTML5 standard and other parts of the PixelConduit API follow this “web-style” model.

PixelConduit is a hybrid graphics system: you can create custom realtime graphics and animations using either node-based graphical interfaces or JavaScript programming, and these two models can be combined seamlessly. Details (PDF) →

Your effects work in Apple
and Adobe apps too

The Conduit Effect System is also available as a set of free plugins for a popular video and graphics apps: Final Cut Pro, Motion, After Effects, Photoshop and Aperture.

With these plugins, you can design effects in any app and deploy them as filters everywhere!

Output anywhere

It's easy to display and deliver your video streams from PixelConduit. Multi-Display with Matrox GXM support allows multiple video outputs even from a laptop. HD-SDI support is accomplished with e.g. BlackMagic Mini Converter boxes. The included Web Video Server can be used to view streams in any browser even without Flash.

The Video Link add-on completes the picture with two output options:

• Virtual Video Camera makes PixelConduit look like a video camera to any app, including Skype™ and Flash™ Media Encoder.
• Syphon enables realtime frame I/O to advanced VJ apps.