Magic 3D FX

General Info

Matrix 3D creates a grid like surface with up to 40 different video clips on it. The size, layout and shape of the surface is fully adjustable. The video clips can be put onto the surface in many different ways. And with the ability to create specular light effects Matrix 3D is the perfect tool to create stunning 3D effects.

Configuration

Matrix 3D is compatible with Final Cut Pro 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4, Final Cut Express 4.0 (and higher) and 6 (and higher) and Motion 2 & 3 (and higher). All screenshots of the controls in this manual are taken from Motion. The controls in Final Cut Pro are the same.

At first you have to drag and drop the plugin Matrix 3D from effects menu to the timeline. The canvas will show a colored surface with no clips applied to it. Now it's up to you to adjust the surface.

Dimension

First you have to tell Matrix 3D the dimension of the surface. Increasing Dimension by one enlarges the surface by one field in the grid into each direction. The maximum size of the grid is 201 x 201 fields.

Height over Matrix
Distance

Height over Matrix moves the camera up from the surface to a desired height. This position will be the reference point for the Distance slider. Distance moves the camera backwards from that position, depending on where the camera is looking at. So if the camera if looking straight down Distance will move the camera straight up. If the camera looks straight over the surface Distance will move the camera parallel to the surface in a backwards direction.

Perspective Angle

Perspective Angle controls the focal length of the cameras lens. This parameter behaves just like the zoom of a regular lens on a camera.

Perspective Angle = 30	Perspective Angle = 100

Move Left/Right
Move Forward/Backward

Move the camera into all directions parallel to the surface.

Pan
Tilt Up/Down
Tilt Left/Right

Control the angle of the camera. You can rotate the camera around the vertical axis of the surface by changing the Pan parameter. Tilt Up/Down makes the camera look up and down. You can also use this parameter to look straight down onto the surface. Tilt Left/Right rotates the camera around the axis the camera is looking along.

Pan
Tilt Up/Down
Tilt Left/Right

Size X
Size Y

Here you can reshape the surface. These two parameters help to adjust the aspect ratio of the applied video clips for all possible resolutions.

Gap

This parameter defines the gap between the video clips on the surface. With a setting of 0 all video clips will touch each other. The gap will be transparent to make it possible to place a video into the background of the surface.

Tile Ordered Rotation
Tile Random Rotation
Tile Random Movement

Use these three controls to rotate and move each video field in a random manner.

Ordered Rotation	Random Rotation	Random Movement

Wave Amplitude
Wave Length
Wave Speed

You can define two independent waves. Both waves distort the surface in the vertical direction.

Wave 1 creates a wave from the left to the right, Wave 2 creates a wave from the front to back. Both waves can be combined. Length defines the wavelength for each wave. With Speed you can animate the waves.

Wave 1	Wave 2	Wave 1 and Wave 2

Empty Field

This popup menu defines how a field should look like when no clip is applied to it. You can choose between a randomly defined color, a predefined color and you can make the field fully transparent.

Enable Light and Specular

Here you can switch on or off the light method for the cube. If this control is switched off, you will see that the filmstrip appears much brighter. This might be confusing. So you have to understand that this control does not "switch on a global light" that illuminates the cube. This control selects between a flat lightning model, which makes the cube shine with full brightness, and a light model with a light source that creates specular reflections with an angle dependant method to illuminate the surfaces.

Light Brightness

If Enable Light and Specular is enabled, the color you select with this control is use as an ambient light source that illuminates the filmstrip from all directions.

Specular Brightness
Specular Size

Adjust the size and brightness of the specular reflection. This control only has an effect if Enable Light and Specular is enabled.

Light model switched off	Light model switched on Small specular light	Light model switched on Large specular light

Anti-Aliasing

Switch on/off the anti-aliasing feature. Note that this features slows down render times a bit, but gives you much nicer results. CHV suggests that you turn off this option for your animation creation process, if your computer is not fast enough to be able to run this plugin in realtime.

Use Clips 1-

Select how many video clips should be used for the fields on the surface. Up to 40 clips can be used.

Order

Select in which order the video clips will be placed onto the surface. There are 8 methods to choose from.

Video Clip configuration

In this section you can find 40 image wells. Up to 40 independent video clips can be placed onto the surface depending on how many clips you have chosen by the Use Clips 1- popup menu.

Clip/Image

Apply the desired clip or image onto this image well. If no clip has been applied, the above popup Empty Field controls the content of the field.

Crop Border

With this function unwanted black borders can be cut from the source video.