2017

A surface is used to place a media in the scene. To use media that you load into Action, you must add a
surface to the scene for that media. A surface has the following characteristics:
■ A surface type can be flat, bilinear, or extended bicubic.
■ The same media can be applied to multiple surfaces. Any cropping, blurring, or re-colouring that you
apply to one media is applied to all the surfaces for that media. For example, if you blur a media, all of
the surfaces using that media are blurred.
The first time you open Action during a session, an image surface is added to the scene using the first media
(if Auto Image is enabled in the Action Setup menu). You must add a surface for each additional media
before its clips can be used in the scene. You can then add textures and lighting effects, or change the surface's
properties such as its shape, transparency, and specular highlight. Once added, the media appears in the
Media list.
By default, a Flat surface is added. You can change the surface type in the Shape box of the Surface menu.
See
Changing the Shape of a Surface (page 509).
You control the position of the surface using axis, rotation, scale, shear, and other attributes related to its
placement. See Manipulating an Object's Axis (page 493).
Adding Surfaces
To add a surface:
1 In the Media list, select the media containing the back or front/matte that you want to add to the
scene.
2 Do one of the following:
■ Drag an image node from the node bin and place it in the schematic. An axis and an image are
created and linked together.
■ Drag an image node from the node bin to the Result view, so you can see its effect on the scene
before placing it exactly where you want.
■ Double-click an image node. The node appears next to the last added object. You do not need to
be in Schematic view to add a node in this manner.
The surface is added to the scene with its own axis. The selected media in the Media list is automatically
applied to the surface.
Notice that when front/matte media is applied to the image surface, the front and matte clip are
combined. You can turn off the matte in the Matte Clip box in the Media menu to show the entire
front clip.
3 If you later decide to change the media on the surface, select the surface in the schematic, then select
the new media in the Media list and click Apply.
Modifying Surfaces
The Surface menu includes properties common to all surfaces, and specific controls for bilinear, perspective,
and extended bicubic surfaces. You can change a surface's shape, position, and transparency, as well as apply
lighting effects. You can also apply tracking data to, and access the UV points of bilinear surfaces.
To access the Surface menu:
1 Double-click the selected surface in the schematic, or follow the tab population rules for the Object
menu. See
Populating Menu Tabs of Selected Objects (page 459).
500 | Chapter 15 Compositing in 3D Space with Action