NewTek TriCaster Advanced Edition User Guide - Manual (Page 108)

Page | 96
The next layer is treated as a mask based on opacity, and defines the part of the source image that will appear
in the result. The ‘bottom’ layer supplies a background to appear behind transparent parts of the source (as,
for example, when LiveMatte is applied to a source).
Hint: Since the opacity of the mask layer can vary between fully opaque and fully transparent, you can create soft-
edged effects such as vignette effects. Also, as foreground and background layers can optionally be empty, a simple
opaque shape in the mask layer can serve a variety of imaginative results.
DSK T RANSPARENCY
Sources assigned to DSKs are often partially transparent. This might be because they are drawn from a
Media Player (DDR or Graphics) file that includes an embedded alpha channel, because LiveMatte or Crop
options are enabled for the source, because a Network source includes an alpha channel, or all of these factors
operating together.
In all of these cases, DSK layers automatically respect transparency when supplied by the source. The BKGD
layer and all visible content in lower-numbered DSKs will appear through or around sources with
transparency as appropriate.
Important Note: It’s best to use files with straight (a.k.a. “non-premultiplied”) alpha channels in TriCaster’s Media
Players. Premultiplied files will generally not yield correct results when overlaid on other imagery.
FIGURE 99
TriCaster’s DSK layers offer a lot of creative possibilities. You might use DSK channels to display a permanent
station ID ‘bug’, superimpose a company logo onto a title page, perhaps to add a ‘spinning globe’ animation
playing in the DDR to a lower-third, ‘frame’ a keyed source composed over a title (Figure 99), or set up many
other elaborate effects in this manner.
9.4.2 MAIN CONTROLS
In large measure, TriCaster’s main Transition controls behave similarly to their local sidekicks. What makes
them especially powerful is the T-bar and Transition Delegate button group located just above.