Introduction
We have all seen the gorgeous scrolling image carousel that iTunes and Finder uses. CoverFlux reproduces that slideshow effect for still images, producing movies & project files for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Final Cut Express & After Effects.
CoverFlux 2 has been completely re-written, redefining this signature browsing slideshow with stunning new visual effects. It's faster with over 10 unique features added:
Load, reorder and rename the files using the built in file browser. Select the depth of the stack, the number, the angle and even the depth of field of the display. Add round corners, soft edges and even a travelling gloss to highlight edges. Display with square or round corners, make them soft or use your own mask. Use the full XYZ camera movement & rotation to fly around the stack whilst animating. Choose the auto-animation feature or manual keyframe control to jump forward or backwards to any image in the stack.
What's New?
Browser based loading, editing and reordering of images.
Choice of image resolution handling.
Three animation modes including fully auto and manual keyframing.
Start and end on chosen image.
Stack depth.
Stack spread.
Angle of images.
Completely configurable reflections.
Reflection now allows compositing on backgrounds other than black.
Blurring of images for shallow depth of field look.
Desaturation of images within stack in Z space.
Animating highlight gloss on images with adjustments.
Rounded corners.
Soft edges.
Custom mask.
Static or dynamic titles.
Title effects.
Parameters
Presets
Presets contain a snapshot of the plug-in parameters. The Presets control lets you choose among one of the presets built into the plug-in, save current parameter values to a preset file, or load an existing preset file from disk.
A preset file saved to disk via the "Save As" button can be loaded from another instance of the same plug-in by clicking the "Open" button. Presets generated in one host can also be loaded from the same plug-in when used in a different host.
Images
This parameter lets you choose the image files that will be animated by the plug-in. When you first apply the generator, clicking the "Choose" button will bring up a file selection window. Once you have selected the files you want to animate, you will be able to make further adjustments through the following user interface:
The above window can be used to add or remove files from the slideshow. You can also perform the following actions:
Reorder images by dragging them up or down the list to the desired location.
Double-click the Title column value to enter a new image title. By default, the title starts out as the file name (stripped of its extension).
Select a file and click the Relink button to link the image to a different file. This option is helpful in fixing missing media errors.
Select a file and click the Reveal in Finder button to navigate to the location of the file in a Finder window.
Resolution
Toggle image resolution in the stack between low, medium, high and native. It is recommended that images are not larger than 4000x4000 pixels as some graphics cards will not render larger than this size. When using a lot of images in the stack, compose the scene using the low setting and then change to high before rendering.
Geometry
Scale
Scale the size of images within the stack.
Spacing
Adjust the X spacing between images within the stack.
Images On Deck
Control how many images are displayed within the stack. Images will be added or removed at either end of the stack.
Depth of Stack
Adjust the distance in Z space that the front images spread forward from the rear pictures in the stack.
Max Angle
Adjust the maximum angle that the images can be rotated on their Y axis in the stack. When set to zero, all images will have no rotation and will be displayed perpendicular to the default field of view.
Animation
Animation Time
This parameter lets you choose a method for timing the animation (its duration and progress):
- Duration of the clip - default option
When this option is selected, the animation will progress in sync with the length of the generator's clip (in After Effects, it will stay in sync with the layer to which the generator is applied.)
The animation begins and ends according to the current values of the Start At and End At parameters, specified as percentages of the total clip duration.
- Duration in seconds
When this option is selected, the animation is driven by two parameters: Start Time and Duration. The parameters let you specify, in seconds, when to start the animation and how long it should last.
- Animate via "Current Image" parameter
When this option is selected, the overall progress of the animation is driven by a single Current Image parameter. Add keyframes to this parameter to have the finest control over the animation's progress.
Animation Curve
This parameter controls the interpolation function used to drive the slideshow. The animation curve determines how the animation will progress in between images.
 Linear
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 Quadratic In
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 Quadratic Out
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 Quadratic In-Out
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 Cubic In
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 Cubic Out
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 Cubic In-Out
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 Exponential In
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 Exponential Out
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 Exponential In-Out
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 Sinusoidal In
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 Sinusoidal Out
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 Sinusoidal In-Out
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Start At (% of clip) and End At (% of clip)
These parameters, available when the Animation Style parameter is set to "Duration of the clip", let you pick a start time and end time of the effect specified as a percentage of the duration of the entire clip. A value of 0.2 for the Start At parameter means that the animation will begin 20% into the clip (for a clip that lasts 10 seconds, the animation would start 2 seconds into the clip.)
By default, the animation covers the entire clip, starting at 0% and ending at 100%.
Using relative measurements rather than time units may guarantee some additional flexibility to your timeline, should you decide to resize the length of the CoverFlux track. If you prefer to use actual time units, please set the Animation Style parameter to "Duration in seconds" instead.
Start Time (secs) and Duration (secs)
These parameters, available when the Animation Style parameter is set to "Duration in seconds", let you pick a start time and duration of the effect.
Start With (image #)
Select so that the stack will start to animate from a specific image.
End With (offset from last)
Select so that the stack will finish its animation on a specific image.
Current Image
This parameter, available when the Animation Style parameter is set to "Animate via "Current Image Parameter" gives the user complete control to animate the stack using keyframes. This method enables reverse display, holds on images and the skipping of images within the stack.
The image below shows how keyframing in Motion has programmed pauses into the slideshow.
Exactly the same manual control is available within the other hosts. Here we can see that smoothing is being applied to the keyframes in Final Cut Express.
Camera
X/Y/Z Position
Change the viewpoint by navigating around the stack in 3D space using the XYZ position parameters.
X/Y/Z Rotation
Rotate the viewpoint of the stack in 3D space using the XYZ rotation parameters.
Both sets of parameters can be individually keyframed to move in 3D space whilst the stack animates.
Reflections
Reflections (checkbox)
Toggles the image reflection on/off.
Amount
Controls the opacity of the reflection.
Falloff
Adjusts the soft edge of the reflection to blend in with the background or floor.
Length
Sets the length of the reflection downwards.
Offset
Distances the reflection away from the image to give the impression that the stack is hanging in space.
Effects
Blur
Applies a blur to the images increasing in strength backwards to give the impression of a depth of field. The front plane of the stack always remains in focus.
- None: No blur applied.
- Gaussian : A Gaussian blur is applied.
- Defocus: Gives a more realistic optical blur.
Blur Amount
Controls the strength of blur applied.
Desaturate
Reduces the chroma levels in images that are not on the front plane of the stack.
Gloss
Applies a gloss overlay to the images that animates to give the impression of light reflecting off the images. The gloss will animate as the image travels through the stack. When the image is on the front plane of the stack the gloss will have animated to zero.
Gloss Amount
Adjusts the opacity of the gloss on the images.
Gloss Height
Controls the size of the gloss on the images.
Gloss Rotation
Rotates the gloss from parallel to the image edge to angled on either external corner.
Gloss Falloff
Controls the softness of the edge of the gloss.
Masking
Shape
Toggles between rounded edges, custom mask and off
- None: No mask is applied
- Custom Mask: Masks image using the alpha from the item in the image well.
- Rounded Corners: Applies rounded corners to the image.
Custom Mask
Applies a custom mask from the item in the image well to all images in the stack.
Radius
Adjusts the size of the rounded corners of the image.
Softness
Adjusts the softness of the image edge, even when rounded corners have been applied.
Titles
Positioning
Toggle between the classic 2D display and the dynamic 3D display of titles.
- Fixed Location
- Linked to Image
Fixed Location
Title will be displayed flat at the front of the stack. The title can be positioned using the XY parameters.
Relative Placement
When Dynamic Titles is selected, the title will follow the image in 3D, displaced on the Y axis by this control.
Font Name
Select a font from the dropdown menu.
Font Size
Select font size.
Colour
Select font colour.
Alignment
Choose the flush method of ranging the text.
Tracking
Spreads or compresses text by adjusting the space between each character evenly.
Title Effects
Blur
Toggle between the options for adding blur to the title animation.
- None: fade up/down between titles.
- Gaussian: Adds a gaussian blur to the fades.
- Defocus: Adds a defocus to the fades.
Blur Amount
Controls the level of blur applied to the title when fading.
Drop Shadow
Toggle the drop shadow on/off.
Drop Shadow: Dynamic
Toggle the drop shadow on/off for dynamic titles.
Drop Shadow: Colour
Set the drop shadow colour.
Drop Shadow: Radius
Set the drop shadow size.
Drop Shadow: Offset X/Y
Position the drop shadow with an X/Y offset in relation to the original text.
Motion Blur
Quality
Enables motion blur at different quality settings. The higher the quality, the more samples are used to render the final scene.
- Off - the scene is rendered without motion blur.
- Low - render a few samples per frame.
- Medium
- High - render with the highest number of samples (slowest setting, highest quality)
Figure: motion blur with four samples per frame, a shutter angle
of 180 degrees and a shutter offset of 0.
Shutter Angle
When motion blur is enabled, this parameter controls the size of the shutter used to simulate motion blur. The size of the shutter determines how frequently light is allowed to pass through the lens. A shutter angle of 360 degrees means that samples are collected for the entire duration of one frame. Setting a shutter value of zero means that you want to collect light only once, which is equivalent to turning motion blur off.
Shutter Offset
When motion blur is enabled, this parameter determines the time when the shutter will open and close, relative to the current frame time.
An offset of zero means the shutter is open an equal amount of time before and after the current frame time.
