Modifiers & Masks

Learn how to enhance your compositions with a variety of effects and masking techniques.

Use a 2D Modifier

You can apply post FX, effects, on top of 2D Layer . In Smode, these effects are called 2D Modifier .

There are different categories of modifiers depending on the type of effect you want to apply to your layer. Refer to the 2D Modifier documentation to learn more about each modifier.

Applying a 2D Modifier to one 2D Layer vs a full Compo

Modifiers operate on the input, therefore if you affect it to a single layer it will only modify this one:

but if it is a Compo with several layers inside, the effect will be applied to the full composition of layers:

Create a 2D Mask

There are different types of 2D Mask to mask 2D Layer in different ways. Refer to the 2D Mask documentation to learn more about each mask

To create a 2D mask in order to mask some parts of a 2D Layer , right click on this layer and select menu Masks :

For example, you can create a Bezier mask that allows you to draw the shape of the Mask directly with Bezier points in the viewport with edit on by pressing control and clicking to add points.

It is possible to add feather every mask to soften the edge of it. You can control the position of this feather with the percentage next to it. The feather exponent allows you to change the mask feather curve. This will be particularly effective when a mask is applied over Distort Modifiers .

Note that when you create a Mask, two different elements are created:

In this example, Mask designates the 2D modifier and Placement mask designates the mask that is applied to this modifier.

Masks can also be grouped with a 2D Group mask .

Multiple 2D Mask on a 2D Modifier

A 2D Modifier can have multiple masks. To add a mask to a modifier, right click on that modifier and select menu Masks to duplicate masks.

In this example, multiple masks are added to the same Placement mask modifier:

Note that, to build the example above faster, it is also possible to use [CTRL] + [D] to duplicate masks.

Masks and Distort modifiers

For most modifiers, the effect of masks consists in interpolating between unmodified pixel colors and modified pixel colors. Since Distort modifiers act on geometry rather than on color , they follow a different rule: for each pixel, the mask controls the amount of the geometric distortion applied to the pixel (from “not distorted” to “fully distorted” ).

As an example, consider 2D Transform . By itself, this effect is nice but rather bounded. In combination with masks, the number of possible geometric distortions becomes very large. Here is a small sample of the kind of things you can obtain:

• Scale transform with radial mask
• Position transform with placement mask
• Checkerboard transformed with the Mona Lisa picture as a Mask
• With noise mask
• With Polygonal Mask
• With quantized noise mask

% vs px units to make precise masks

If you want a precise mask, you can set Smode unit to pixels and use mask size (absolute size) instead of scale factor (relative to the layer on which it is applied):

Tutorial

Here is a short video to show the basics of 2D Mask manipulations, using Placements, edition mode and several little tricks:

Color modifier examples:

Here is an example in which you can change the sky color only using a Tritone mask with a Color mask . This is how you do a selective color correction in Smode:

Here is a 1min tutorial using Colorize :