2011

■ Selecting and manipulating objects. You can transform (scale, rotate,
and translate) any surfaces, cameras, and lights in your scene using
the 3D manipulators and icons. You can also organize objects into
hierarchies for easy manipulation.
■ Working with cameras. You can add cameras, transform cameras, and
define other properties, such as depth of field and field of view.
■ Working with lights. You can add different types of lights and place
them in your scene. Then you can set the color and falloff, and define
different types of shadows.
■ Animating properties. Move a camera, dim a light, or change the color
of a material over time. All properties in Composite can be animated.
■ Setting visibility properties. All objects, geometric objects, lights, and
cameras are defined by their visibility and rendering properties. For
example, you can determine whether a geometric object is visible,
whether it casts shadows, and whether its reflection is visible.
■ Working with materials and shaders. You can use the hardware
renderer for fast results, or use software shaders to create special
rendering effects, such as flares, fog, and flames. A shader modifies
the behavior of the renderer while rendering an object in a scene.
Basic Compositing in Reaction
Whether you want to quickly perform straightforward 2D compositing or
create 3D effects, the first thing you'll do is set your composition background
to define the rendering plane, then you'll create layers in Reaction.
NOTE You do not have to connect an image generator to set the background;
you can work on an empty background. You'll see that when you build a
composition using the Layer Editor; the background appears automatically when
you add a Reaction tool to your composition.
Building a Composition Using the Layer Editor
The Layer Editor is designed to work with Reaction and lets you quickly build
and edit your composition while maintaining a clear view of the layers in
your Reaction composition. As in the Schematic view, you can work with the
Gate UI to create layers and perform other tasks. Then you can set the layer
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