Movie Masher effects can be applied in several different ways. Perhaps the simplest is to attach them directly to specific visual clips, either by using their effects property or by nesting effect clip tags within the visual clip tag (making sure they have negative track values). This binds the effects to the clip so they reflect any changes in its length or start time within the mash.
Another method is to allow effects to be placed on a track of their own, separate from the main visual track. These effects aren't bound to the clips beneath them, so they have their own length and start time values, as well as positive track values. They are themselves displayed as clips within the Timeline, in tracks above the main visual track and, like audio
clips, can be moved independently of it.
Yet another method is to attach effects to the mash itself, either by using its effects property or by including effect clip tags with negative track values within the mash tag. These effects always start at zero and run for the duration of the mash. Like effects attached to visual clips, these clips are not displayed in the Timeline.
Like other modules, effects are used to generate the actual
effect
media
items that users drag from the
Browser.
Each module has properties that can either be
made editable for advanced effects, or predefined to generate a wide variety
of simpler, non-editable effects. It's also possible to limit the range of possible values for
each editable property, keeping users from applying effects too strongly.
The core effects modules currently include a multi-purpose
Adjust module which can be used to color balance
the underlying clips in a variety of ways, and a flexible
Convolution module which applies any matrix-based
filter like sharpen, blur, emboss or
outline.
There are also several text related effects including
Caption,
Textbox and
Ticker, all of which overlay colored text on to
underlying clips, displayed in a custom font.
Some modules are able to merge video tracks together.
The simplest is Picturebox, which allows the merged video to resized, positioned
and cropped. Composite goes a step further by enabling it to be rotated and
sheared. And finally, the Displace module uses the merged video as a 'bump map',
enabling effects like wave, ripple and glass.
All effect modules have a length property which determines the amount of time they are
applied. Many effects also have an fade property, which allows their intensity to be
increased and decreased arbitrarily over time.
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