User Manual

Table Of Contents
If you’re familiar with applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you’ll already be
familiar with many of the basic concepts of editing Bézier polylines.
B-Spline Polylines
A B-Spline polyline is similar to a Bézier spline; however, these polylines excel at creating
smooth shapes. Instead of using a control point and direction handles for smoothness, the
B-Spline polyline uses points without direction handles to define a bounding box for the shape.
The smoothness of the polyline is determined by the tension of the point, which can be
adjusted as needed.
B-Splines excel at creating smooth curves.
Converting Polylines from One Type to Another
Just because you created a shape using a B-Spline or polyline, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck
with the controls you started with. You can convert any shape from B-Spline to Bézier, or Bézier
to B-Spline, as needed.
To switch a shape between Polyline and B-Spline controls:
Right-click a shape in the viewer and choose Convert Bézier Spline to B-Spline or
Convert B-Spline to Bézier from the spline’s contextual menu (only the appropriate
option will be displayed).
When converting from one type to another, the original shape is preserved. The new polyline
generally has twice as many control points as the original shape to ensure the minimum change
to the shape. While animation is also preserved, this conversion process will not always yield
perfect results. It’s a good idea to review the animation after you convert spline types.
How to Use Masks with Other Nodes
Typically, a node applies its effect to every pixel of an image. However, many nodes have mask
inputs that can be used to limit the effect that node has on the image.
A Blur node with a Polygon
node masking its effect.
Chapter – 71 Rotoscoping with Masks 1437