NewTek TriCaster 2 Elite (3 RU) - Manual (Page 120)

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Hint: Since the opacity of the mask layer can vary between fully opaque and fully transparent, you can easily
prepare soft-edged effects such as vignettes. Also, as foreground and background layers can optionally be
empty, a simple opaque shape in the mask layer can serve a variety of imaginative purposes.
T RANSPARENCY
Sources assigned to DSKs are often partially transparent. This might be because they are drawn from a Media
Player ( DDR ) file that includes an embedded alpha channel , or because LiveMatte or Crop options are enabled
for the source, or perhaps because a Network source includes an alpha channel, or even 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 u se 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 117
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 117), or set up many other
elaborate effects in this manner.
9.7.2 BACKGROUND CONTROLS
FIGURE 118