Lyric Common Effect Controls

Most of the Lyric Effects Filters have a set of common effect controls in a section at the bottom of their control panels. The Effect Controls section contains controls for fading the effect and for determining how it will be affected by any alpha-channel mask and be applied to the source clip. The notes below detail how these controls work.

All of the Lyric Effects can be controlled by mattes and masks, and several of the controls in the Effects Control section relate to mask control. For background information on mattes, masks and alpha-channels and their uses in Final Cut, please refer to the Lyric Matte Primer.

The Fade slider works in a similar way to the filter Fade control in Photoshop, giving you a general way of control the intensity of an effect by blending back in some of the original clip. Moving the Fade slider to the right blends in more of the original clip, reducing the visibility of, or fading, the effect.

The Apply To dropdown menu controls how the effect is applied to the clip, including options to select from several effect masks, and is described in detail in the Apply To Menu section below. The Output Alpha dropdown menu determines how the output alpha-channel is affected, and is described in the Output Alpha Menu section below.

Ticking the Show Effect Mask checkbox shows the original clip with the chosen effect mask shown overlayed in translucent red. This is similar to the matte display mode in Photoshop and can be used to check coverage while still being able to see the original clip frame. Ticking the Show Source checkbox shows the original clip without the effect applied. Clicking this on and off several times is an easy way to do an A-B comparison of the filter's effect.

Apply To Menu

The Apply To menu determines how the effect is applied to the frames of the source clip.

Source

The effect is applied to the entire source frame, just as with the standard filters in Final Cut.

Source Through Alpha

The effect is applied to areas of the frame defined by the source's current alpha-channel. This is the mode you would choose when using a Matte Filter to mask an effect. You apply the Matte Filter first and it inserts its matte into the source clip's alpha-channel. You then apply a Lyric Effect filter and it uses the inserted alpha-channel to modulate the effect. White (or opaque) areas in the matte cause the effect fully applied, Black (or transparent) have no effect applied at all and levels of gray in between vary the level of the effect. All the Lyric Masked Effects pages show examples of this application mode. Background info on mattes and masks and alpha-channels can be found in the Lyric Matte Primer.

Source Through Inverted Alpha

This mode is identical to Source Through Alpha except the source's alpha-channel is inverted so that areas that would have been effected are not and vice versa.

Highlights, Midtones, Shadows

The effect is applied only to the selected luminance-level areas in the source frame. This is a quick way of achieving the same effect as applying a Lyric Highlights or Midtones or Shadows Matte filter first and then choosing the Source Through Alpha apply mode, though it doesn't give the level threshold and matte adjustments control you'd get by using a separate matte filters. The areas that will be affected when one of these modes is chosen can be previewed by enabling the Show Effect Mask checkbox.

Red, Green, Blue

The effect is applied only to the selected RGB channel. This typically is used for color-correction or special stylistic effects. A discussion of image channels can be found in the Lyric Matte Primer.

Luminance

The effect is applied only to the luminance (brightness) levels, leaving the color unaffected. This is often useful with effects that can distort color, such as thresholding, or sharpening and contrast when applied at high levels. Limiting the effect to just the luminance can achieve the required effect without chromatic aberation.

Chroma

The converse of Luminance mode; only the UV chroma channels are affected by the filter, leaving the brightness levels intact. Because of the eye's much higher sensitivity to brightness detail relative to color, chroma changes under effect-filters are often subtle, but can produce interesting stylistic results. For example, a heavy blur applied to the chroma channels produces a "wash" effect, and heavy sharpening adds color halos to the edges of objects.

Output Alpha Menu

The Alpha Output menu determines the contents of the alpha-channel output by the filter.

Reset will replace the current alpha-channel with all-white, essentially resetting it to the default and making the entire image visible. This is useful if a Matte Filter has been inserted before the current filter to generate a filter mask for it (that is, you are using Source through Alpha or Source through Inverted Alpha Apply To mode). You generally want the alpha-channel to be reset, so that the entire frame is visible after the effect has been applied through the mask.

Preserve Source Alpha will retain the incoming alpha-channel, leaving it unchanged in the output alpha-channel. This can also be useful when using matte filters if you want the matte to act as a mask for several successive effect filters. Choosing Preserve Source Alpha in all but the last effect filter will allow each to see the mask and use it to control their effect.