MacroSystem Bluebox World User Manual

Page 17

6.3.1-9 Luma 2

As with “Luma 1“, the only selection criteria

for “Luma 2“ is the brightness of the image.

However, whereas under “Luma 1“ a selected

range of brightness is made transparent within

a specific tolerance range, “Luma 2“ functions

like a limit switch. Regions of the image whose

brightness is less than that of a specified

brightness threshold become transparent,

whereas all the image regions above this

brightness threshold remain visible.

Two settings have to be made:

• Threshold

The brightness threshold is specified by means

of the “Threshold“ slider. The foreground

scene remains visible below the specified

threshold, whereas it becomes transparent

above this threshold.

• Mode

When “smaller“ is set, all the brightness values

above the set threshold become transparent. In

the “higher“ mode, the entire foreground video

is initially transparent, and certain brightness

values only become visible when past the set

threshold.

6.3.1-10 Saturation 1
The function and application correspond to

those of “Luma 1“, but the color saturation is

used instead of the brightness.

6.3.1-11 Saturation 2
The function and application correspond to

those of “Luma 2“, but the color saturation is

used instead of the brightness.

6.3.1-12 Black
The “Black“ mode allows black components

of the foreground scene to be removed. This

function is particularly interesting for special,

ready-made video material (“super-black

animations“), where the background be shown

in what is called “super-black“, a particularly

deep black for “super-black“ Bluebox effects.

One setting has to be made:

• Tolerance

The “Tolerance“ slider specifies how far the

black value may diverge from“ideal super-

black“.

6.3.2 Select Area

Allows both an active and an inactive region of

the foreground video to be selected. The rele-

vant Bluebox effect operates within the active

area. No changes are made areas outside the

active area. It is possible to define yet another

inactive area within the active area. This area is

then also excluded from execution of the effect.

In order to clarify the functioning of active and

inactive areas with the aid of an example, ima-

gine one scene showing a fire in a fireplace and

another scene containing a blue sky and blue

ocean. A person with blue eyes stands in the fo-

reground of the ocean scene, and looks into the

camera. You would now like to replace the sky

by the fire, which means making the sky transpa-

rent so that the fire appears in place of the sky.

The problem that initially stands in the way of

this idea is that the sky and the ocean differ only

slightly in color, so that Bluebox technology may

affect them both. For this reason, the ocean must

be excluded from the effect, by defining the sky

as the only active region. The Bluebox effect only

operates in the region of the sky, while the other

regions remain unaffected. We now have the

problem of the blue-eyed person in front of the

blue sky. The Bluebox effect would automatically

allow the fire to shine through the person‘s blue

eyes, if it were not for an additional inactive re-

gion. You place this area over the person‘s eyes,

and now only the sky is given modified colors.

The following settings can be made:

• Full Images

Area selection does not operate if “Full Images“

is selected. The effect is then applied to the

whole area of the screen. In order to set the “In-

clude Area“ and the “Exclude Area“ it is neces-

sary to remove the check from “Full Images“

(by a single click with the trackball). The initial

setting for this value is “Full Images: active“.

• Include area

A rectangle whose position and size can be

freely selected precisely encloses the area of

the front video image that is to be subjected to

the effect.

• Exclude area

A rectangle whose position and size can be

freely selected encloses any area within the pre-

viously selected active area. This second area

will be excluded from execution of the effect.