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| Using
the Custom FX for Wild FX Pro and Wild FX |
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| Contents |
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| Introduction |
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The
Custom FX collection contains fully customizable
versions of all the effects that come standard
with Wild FX Pro and Wild FX. In addition, the
Custom FX come with additional “Master” effects
that allow the user to specify basic animations
such as vertical, horizontal, diagonal and zoom
motions.
Each custom effect has between 5 and 35 variables
which affect a variety of settings including
position, timing, scaling, alpha, skew, color,
and rotation. In addition, each Custom effect
has a “speed” variable that gives
users control over the speed at which the effect
plays – a highly requested feature which
is especially useful for video export from Wild
FX Pro since you can use it to adjust the speed
of the effect in relation to the framerate.
The Custom FX can also be used as templates to
create new effects, which can then be saved and
added to the effects library. This gives customers
the ability to generate new effects templates
without requiring any animation programming. |
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| Installation |
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- To install the Custom
Effects, extract the .wfx2 files from the
Wildform_CustomFX.zip zip file and place
them in your Wildform/Wild FX Pro/Effects
folder or the Wildform/Wild FX/Effects folder.
- Restart Wild FX or Wild
FX Pro or select the “Reload” button
at the top of the effects library window.
- The effects should appear
in the Wild FX Pro or Wild FX effects list.
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| Organizing
the effects |
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- Reload button:
At the top of the effects library window
is a button labeled "Reload". Selecting
this will cause your effects to be reloaded.
This is useful if you have added new effects
to your Wildform>Wild FX Pro>Effects
folder and you want them to appear in your
effects library without closing and reopening
Wild FX Pro.
To the right of the reload button is the
number of effects you have installed.
The Custom Effects are divided into 16 different
folders to make it easier for you to organize
your effects. These folders will be maintained
as long as you use the “extract” option
in Winzip (as opposed to dragging the files
from Winzip). You can rename the folders,
create new folders and move the effects around
in any way you wish.
- Moving effects: You
can move any of the effects from one folder
to another by dragging them. If you want
to move multiple effects you can go directly
into your Wildform>Wild FX (Pro)>Effects
folder and move the effects however you want.
Any new folders created will appear in Wild
FX (Pro) once you close and reopen Wild FX
(Pro) or once you select the "Reload" button
at the top of the effects library window.
- Folder options: When
you right-click on a folder in the effects
library you have three options:
- New Folder: Selecting
this option will open a file dialogue
box that allows you to enter a new folder
name. A new folder with the name you
specify is then created in the folder
you right-clicked on.
- Rename Folder: Selecting
this option will open a file dialogue
box that allows you to enter a new folder
name. A new folder with the name you
specify is then created in the folder
you right-clicked on.
- Remove Folder: Selecting
this option will cause the selected folder
and all the effects in it to be deleted.
To add a new root folder use one of the "Insert
folder" options under the Folder
menu item.
Any changes you make in the effects library
in Wild FX (Pro) will be reflected in the
Wildform>Wild FX (Pro)>Effects folder
itself. So if you add a folder in the Wild
FX (Pro) effects library, that folder will
be added to your hard drive. Likewise, when
you delete a folder it will be deleted. When
you move or rename a folder those changes
will also be reflected in the effects folders
stored on your hard drive.
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| Customizing
an effect |
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customize an effect, select a custom effect and
then open the Custom tab of Wild FX (Pro). |
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To
use the Custom window, you must first select
a Custom effect from the effects list. Once you
have selected a Custom effect, the customizable
parameters will appear in the parameter and value
list.
To edit a parameter, simply click on the parameter
in the list. A description of that parameter
will appear in the "Parameter Description" field
to the right of the parameter list. The value
associated with that parameter will appear in
the "Value" field above the list.
To customize an effect, simply change the value
in the value field, and click the "Update" button.
Don't forget to click the "Update" button.
If you don't click this button, the variable
parameter will not update.
- Update: Selecting
this button will cause any changes you have
entered in the "Value" field to
be applied to the selected parameter.
- Restore: Selecting
this button will cause the original value
of a selected parameter to be restored.
- Restore all: Selecting
this button will cause the original values
of all parameters for a selected effect to
be restored.
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| Saving
a new effect |
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Once
you have changed any settings in a custom effect,
you may save it as a new effect. In this way,
you can create an unlimited number of new custom
effects.
If you want to save the customized effect as
a new effect select the "Save as New Effect" button.
- Save as New Effect:
Selecting this button will open a window
with options to save a new effect with the
settings you have entered in the Custom tab.
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- Effect filename: This
is the name the effect file will have in
your Wild FX Pro>Effects directory. We
recommend that to assist you in organizing
the effects, you maintain the same naming
system, but the effects will work no matter
how you name them
- Effect name: This
is the name the effect will have when it
appears in your Wild FX Pro effects list.
- Cancel: Selecting
this button will close the window without
saving a new effect.
- Save: Selecting
this button will save the effect using the
filename and effect name you have entered.
To have a newly saved custom effect appear in
your custom effects directory, click the "Reload" button
above the effects directory. The directory will
then reload and your newly saved custom effect
will then appear. |
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| Changing
the speed of an effect |
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As
noted above, each Custom Effect has a speed control
which you can change in the Custom tab. The speed
variable is always the first variable for every
effect.
In addition, there are three other settings you
can adjust to change the speed of your output:
the effect framerate, the letter delay and the
line delay. These are located in the Main tab. |
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- Framerate:
- Video: For
video output this is the number of distinct
frames generated in the effect. It is
not the same thing as the video framerate
of your output which you set using the
video options dialogues boxes that are
accessed through the Video tab.
While you can set any effect framerate
when creating video, you will get the
best results by selecting an effect framerate
that is a factor of the video framerate
(so if your video framerate is 30, it
would be good to use an effect framerate
of 30, 15 or 10, etc. - which divide
evenly into 30).
- SWF: For
.swf output this is the .swf framerate
of your output.
If you are loading or importing your
output .swf into a "parent" Flash
movie, the effect framerate you select
should be the same as the framerate of
your "parent" Flash movie.
Otherwise, your Wild FX Pro .swf will
play at the same speed as your "parent" Flash
movie.
- Letter delay: The
letter delay affects the rate at which the
letters animate in relationship to each other.
At a setting of 0 all the letters will be
displayed simultaneously. As you increase
the value of the letter delay, the time between
each letter appearing increases (which will
also increase the duration of the effect – and
slow it down). The default value is 1.
- Line delay: For
any effect with multiple lines of text, you
can also change the Line delay value to
choose the rate at which the lines of text
will animate in relationship to each other.
At a setting of 0 all the lines of text will
be displayed simultaneously. As you increase
the value of the line delay, the time between
each line appearing increases (which will
also increase the duration of the effect.
The default value is 1.
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| Effect
versions |
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Custom
effects all have a or a icon. Custom effects
with a C1 logo
will play in any Flash player version 4 and up.
Custom effects with a C2  logo
will play in any Flash player version 5 and up.
When exporting video, these version numbers do
not have an effect on the output. |
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| Exporting
to Video |
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There
are a couple of additional issues to consider
when exporting to video.
Effects getting cut off: The
Custom effects are dynamically created when they
play, so the actual number of frames in an effect
may be fewer than the total number of frames
required to display the animation once it is
output to video. By adding frames to the end
of an effect, you can be sure that the entire
effect will display. You can extend the ending
by using the "Insert__ frames at end" option
and/or the "Estimate actual duration" option
both of which are in the video tab.
Alpha channel transparency: Wild
FX Pro will output video with a transparent background
using alpha channel. In order to export video
with a transparent background you must do the
following:
- You must check the "Transparent
Background" checkbox in the Video tab.
- You must use a codec
that supports the use of alpha channel.
The following formats/codecs support the
use of alpha channel transparency through
Wild FX Pro:
MOV: Animation, None (uncompressed), PNG,
TGA, TIFF, Indeo
AVI: None (uncompressed)
Image Sequences: PNG, TGA, TIFF
- You must set the color
depth option to "Millions of Colors+".
Do not forget the "+" because the "+" is
for the alpha channel.
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