when I pull a key in lustre and look at the matte channel, I can draw shapes to mask out areas that are white by simply making a shape and then place that shape over the area that is white that should be black.  The other way around is not working for me.  I want to make a circle that is white on the matte channel.  I make a circle, and then turn down the color to zero which should make my circle white, but instead it is making my circle transparent so it is fading off instead of turning white.  I am sure this is operator error, but it is driving me nuts Anyone have any ideas?  Thanks.

Mark Longchamps
Senior Smoke Artist
Shooters
http://www.shootersinc.com

Hello Mark,

when using the shape system in Lustre it creates a white shape as the inside when no key is used. As soon as you do a key, the shape system beccomes a masking system to aid the key. But when you want to patch the key like you might in Smoke this cannot be done on one layer. You must use an adjacent layer in combination with the Link tool. Using Link, ADD the key and mask from secondary 1 to a stand along shape in layer 2. You will find the Link tool below the variable button. It is a toggle cycle button. This will give you a combined result which you now use for grading in layer 2.

Give that a try.

Paul

If I understand what you are trying to do, then there is actually another option allowing you to do it in a single secondary. After you create your key and your shape, turn on the invert options for both of them. Then proceed to do your grade in the “outside” portion.

This is my workaround when I am not quite getting the key to obtain full coverage and I just want to blow out the a portion to full white. Just remember that know you are striving for black as your active area, which can be confusing the first time you do it this way.

hope this helps.

Alex Arce

Hi Alex,

Nice work around for the inverted thinking man’s matte!

Paul