Pinnacle Studio Help | Shape masks

Shape masks

You can draw a shape in the mask preview window using a variety of tools:

Selection tool: Lets you interact with the selected shape in the Mask preview area (size, position, rotation).

Rectangle tool: Lets you draw rectangular and square shapes.

Circle tool: Lets you draw circular shapes.

Pen tool: Lets you draw an enclosed shape by setting nodes connected by straight lines.

Freehand tool: Lets you draw a freehand outline to create a mask.

Brush tool: Lets you apply freehand brushstrokes. Adjust the brush Radius to change the size of the brush. To auto-detect edges, enable the Smart Edge check box, and adjust the Tolerance value to increase or decrease the range of similarly colored pixels that are included in the mask.

Magic Wand tool: Lets you select all areas of a specified color by clicking a sample area in the preview window. Instead of color, you can choose from a Mode list to detect other values. For more information, see Magic Wand Modes. Adjust the Tolerance value to increase or decrease the range of similar pixels that are included in the mask. To select only those pixels that are attached to the original sample areas, enable the Contiguous check box. Hold Ctrl and click to add another sample area. Hold Shift and click to remove a sample area from the mask selection.

Eraser tool: Lets you erase brushstrokes that you have added with the Brush tool.

Text tool: Lets create a text-based mask.

Import: Lets you import a media file to use as a mask.

Object tool: Lets you create a mask based on popular shapes (arrows, speech bubbles...)

Face tool: Auto-detects the face area when you click on a face in a photo or video frame.

Magic Wand Modes

The following modes are available for the Magic Wand tool:

• None — selects all pixels

• RGB Value — selects pixels that match the red, green, and blue values of the pixel you click

• Color — selects pixels that match the shading variations of the pixel you click

• Brightness — selects pixels that match the perceptual lightness value of the pixel you click

• Perceptual — selects pixels that match the perceptual shading variation and lightness of the pixel you click

• Traditional — selects pixels that match red, green, and blue values, with a bias toward lightness variations. This match mode is therefore more discriminating than the RGB Value match mode.

• All Opaque — selects all pixels that are not completely invisible (that is, having an opacity value of 1 or greater). Choosing this option disables the Tolerance control.

• Opacity — selects pixels that match the opacity value of the pixel you click.

Mask groups and shape interaction

You can use one or more shape tools to create a mask. Each time you use a shape tool, it adds a new shape to the current group. The Brush and the Eraser are the exception to this rule (all brushstrokes are added to the same shape until you switch to another shape tool).

The shapes within the group can interact in three different ways, according to the Combine setting:

• Combine: Overlapping shapes are additive (increase the area of the mask).

• Subtract: Overlapping shapes are subtractive (decrease the area of the mask).

• Intersect: Only areas where shapes overlap are masked.

You can add a new group to help organize elements of your mask.

Editing mask shape properties

You can edit the shapes you use to create your mask by adjusting Position (X, Y), Size (X, Y), or Rotate (value in degrees). Keyframes can be used to adjust the properties of the shapes throughout the video to create dynamic masks.

Mask and Matte

Pinnacle Studio Shape masks let you apply distinct functions or filters to the Mask (the selected area that has the ruby-colored overlay) and the Matte (the "unselected" area).