Picture layer

The screen showing the painting in the above screenshot is rendered with the picture layer. The template used is from BixPack 1.

What can I do with the picture layer?

With the picture layer you can render pictures.


How do I add a picture layer?

Choose LAYER > Add layer > Add picture layer... to add a new picture layer.

Choose LAYER > Attach layer > Attach picture to active layer... to attach a new picture layer to the active layer.

The new picture layer can be selected from the layers dropdown to make it the active layer.

Examples

The installer comes with shows demonstrating the possibilities of the picture layer. Choose FILE > Open show... and select a show from the BluffTitler/Media/Shows/Picture folder.

To quickly switch between your own shows and the ones that came with the installer, click on the Personal and App buttons in the upper right corner of the file dialog.

Sources

The picture layer can render pictures, animated GIFs, videos, QR codes,... Learn more

All textures are scaled to the same height: 250 BluffTitler world coordinates. The width is scaled proportionally.


Shapes

With the first layer style dropdown you set the shape.

This example uses the Rounded style.


Borders

Click on the Attach border to active layer... button to add a border to your picture.


Effects

Click on the Change effect... button to apply an effect. This example uses the Filters/Squares effect. Learn more


Attach particles

Click on the Attach particles to active layer... button to attach a particle effect.

This example uses the Sparkles 1 preset.


Colour invert

The Filters/ColourInvert effect inverts the colours of your picture.

With the FX Colour Mixer property lots of variations are possible.


Grey

The Filters/Grey effect turns your picture to greyscale.

The FX Contrast property adds extra contrast.


Cloth simulation

With the Cloth effect that you can select with the first layer style dropdown you can simulate effects like cloth, waving flags and stretching rubber. Use the Flexibility property to control the cloth effect.


QR codes

Choose MEDIA > Change texture... and click on the QR... button to generate a QR code.


Codecs

If BluffTitler fails to render your picture, you are probably missing a codec. Learn more about codecs.

Green screen

To make green transparent apply the Picture/GreenScreen effect.


The effect supports adjustable tolerance, blur and spill suppression.



Media layer style 1

Plane

The picture is rendered as a rectangle.


Rounded

The picture is rendered as a rectangle with round corners.

Set the radius with the Radius property.


Abgeeckt

The picture is rendered as a rectangle with angled corners.

Set the size of the bevel with the Radius property.


Circle

The picture is rendered as a circle.

The circle style takes over the dimensions of your picture. When your picture is not square, it will be rendered as an oval.

Use the Morphing stage property to create a pie part.


Heart

The picture is rendered as a heart.


Star 2D

The picture is rendered as a 2D star.

Use the Points property to set the number of points, the sharpness of the points and the shape of the points.


Star 3D

The picture is rendered as a 3D star.

Use the Points property to set the number of points, the sharpness of the points and the shape of the points.

Not all number of points are possible in 3D, BluffTitler chooses the nearest possible.


Cube

The picture is rendered as a cube.

The texture must be a horizontal filmstrip with 6 square frames: one for every cube face.

The installer comes with a demo texture: CubeFaces.jpg.


Rounded cube

The picture is rendered as a rounded cube.

The texture must be in the equirectangular format.


Pyramid

The picture is rendered as a pyramid.

Use the Points property to set the shape of the base. Create a cone by using lots of points.


Diamond

The picture is rendered as a diamond.

Use the Points property to set the number of faces.


Cylinder

The picture is rendered as a cylinder.

Use the Morphing stage property to bend the plane.


Light beam

The picture is rendered as a cone.

Use the Morphing stage property to set the shape of the cone.


Sphere

The picture is rendered as a sphere.

The texture must be in the equirectangular format.


Hemisphere

The picture is rendered as a hemisphere.


Sphere cap

The picture is rendered as a sphere cap.

Use the Morphing stage property to bend the plane.


Chip

The picture is rendered as a potato chip, also known as a saddle or hyperbolic paraboloid.

Use the Morphing stage property to control the shape.


Balloon

The picture is rendered as a balloon.


Egg

The picture is rendered as an egg.


Donut

The picture is rendered as a donut.

The aspect ratio of the texture controls the shape of the donut.


Cloth

Use the Flexibility property to set the flexibility of the picture.


Star 2D style

Use the 3rd slider of the Points property to set the shape of the points. The Points property in this screenshot is set to (7, 60, 1).


Star 3D style

Use the 3rd slider of the Points property to set the shape of the points. The Points property in this screenshot is set to (60, 80, 5).


The 5 Platonic solids are used as the base for the Star 3D style. To create the solids, select the Star 3D style and use the following values for the Points property:

 NormalDualTruncated
Tetrahedron(4, 100, 0)(3, 33, 2)(4, 180, 5)
Octahedron(8, 100, 0)(6, 50, 2)(8, 149, 5)
Hexahedron (cube)(6, 100, 0)(8, 66, 2)(6, 124, 5)
Dodecahedron(12, 100, 0)(20, 88, 2)(12, 108, 5)
Icosahedron(20, 100, 0)(12, 72, 2)(20, 123, 5)

Other ways are possible. For example, you can also create a cube with (4, 33, 0).

The Points property in this screenshot is set to (60, 75, 17). This turns your picture into a virus.


Media layer style 2

Fullscreen in background

The picture is rendered fullscreen in the background.


Fullscreen in foreground

The picture is rendered fullscreen in the foreground.


Skybox

The picture is always rendered at the camera position. Use it in combination with the Cube style or the Sphere style.


2D in background

The camera position and rotation is ignored. This is useful when you want to keep a logo fixed on screen when animating the camera.


2D in foreground

The camera position and rotation is ignored. This is useful when you want to keep a logo fixed on screen when animating the camera.


3D in background

The picture is rendered in the background.


3D in 3D space

The picture is rendered in 3D space. This way it can obscure, rendered behind and intersect other layers.


3D in foreground

The picture is rendered in the foreground.


Media layer style 3

Single sided

The back of the picture is invisible in this style.


Flat

Pictures are rendered as flat planes.


Solid

Pictures are extruded along the edges to create solid 3D objects.


Straight bevel

Use the bevel style to create pictures with eased edges. Set the size of the bevel with the Bevel property.


Round bevel

This gives the picture a smooth round shape. Set the size of the bevel with the Bevel property.


Inside flat

This style can be used in combination with the Outline flat style to create a flat picture with a border.


Inside

This style can be used in combination with one of the outline effects to create a picture with a border.


Outline flat

Only the outline is rendered in this mode. Use the Bevel property to set the size of the outline.


Outline no bevel

Only the outline is rendered. Use the Bevel property to set the size of the outline. This style is commonly used in combination with the Inside style to create pictures with borders.


Outline straight bevel

Only the outline is rendered. Use the Bevel property to set the size of the outline. This style is commonly used in combination with the Inside style to create tpictures with borders.


Outline round bevel

Only the outline is rendered. Use the Bevel property to set the size of the outline. This style is commonly used in combination with the Inside style to create pictures with borders.


Media layer properties

Position

The position of the layer.

1st slider: horizontal (x) position

2nd slider: vertical (y) position

3rd slider: depth (z) position

Press <F2> to render the coordinate system.


Rotation

The rotation of the layer.

1st slider: heading

2nd slider: pitch

3rd slider: roll

Press <F2> to render the coordinate system.


Pivot point

The point around which the layer rotates when animating the Rotation property.

When you press <F2>, the pivot point is visualised with cyan, yellow and purple arrows.


Size

The size of the layer.

1st slider: width (x)

2nd slider: height (y)

3rd slider: depth (z)


Colour

The diffuse colour of the layer.

1st slider: red

2nd slider: green

3rd slider: blue

When you press <F3> and the mouse is inside the tool window, the standard Windows colour dialog is presented. When the mouse is outside the tool window, the colour of the current mouse position is copied: it's a colour picker!


Specular colour

The colour used for specular highlights.

1st slider: red

2nd slider: green

3rd slider: blue

When you press <F3> and the mouse is inside the tool window, the standard Windows colour dialog is presented. When the mouse is outside the tool window, the colour of the current mouse position is copied: it's a colour picker!

When this property is (0, 0, 0), the specular light colour is used.


Specularity

The size of the specular highlights.

Set the specular colour with the Specular colour property.


Transparency

The transparency of the layer.

0 means fully opaque

1 means fully transparent (invisible)


Bevel

1st slider: width

2nd slider: outer depth

3rd slider: inner depth. This will be 0 in most cases.


Texture repeat

The number of times the texture is repeated. The neutral value is (0, 0);


Model repeat

The number of times the models is repeated. The neutral value is (1, 1, 1);


Flexibility

This property is only when using the Cloth style.

In analogy with the property of the same name in the text layer, the 1st slider controls the delay in seconds of the slowest part of the picture.

The 2nd slider controls the horizontal position of the pickup point. 0 means the left side, 0.5 the centre and 1 the right side.

The 3rd slider controls the vertical position of the pickup point. 0 means the bottom, 1 the top.


Filmstrip frames

1st slider: the number of horizontal frames in the texture

2nd slider: the number of vertical frames in the texture

A filmstrip is a single picture that contains all frames of an animation. For example, you can store a 10 frame animation with a resolution of 100 x 100 pixels in a filmstrip of 1000 x 100 pixels.


Filmstrip frames per second

The frames per second (FPS) of the filmstrip.


Radius

This property is used by the Rounded style and the Abgeeckt style.


Points

This property is used by the Star 2D, Star 3D, Pyramid and Diamond styles.

1st slider: number of points

2nd slider: sharpness

3rd slider: shape.


Fragment explosion

The Fragment explosion property explodes the picture into fragments.

1st slider: the positions of the fragments.

2nd slider: the rotations of the fragments.

3rd slider: random seed.

For a typical animation, the 1st and 2nd sliders are animated and the 3rd is fixed.

Use the Fragment explosion size property to set the size of the fragments.

Use the Special/FragmentExplosion effect to colour the fragments.

The Fragment explosion property is only available for a limited number of styles including the Flat style and the Solid style.


The 3rd slider has special meaning when using a negative value:
-1: Not X
-2: Not Y
-4: Not Z
-8: Positive X
-16: Positive Y
-32: Positive Z
-64: Negative X
-128: Negative Y
-256: Negative Z

Values can be added. For example:
-6: Only X
-5: Only Y
-3: Only Z
-24: Positive X and positive Y


Fragment explosion size

The size of the fragments. A smaller value means smaller, but also more fragments.


Polygon explosion

The Polygon explosion property explodes the picture into polygons.

1st slider: the positions of the polygons

2nd slider: the rotations of the polygons


Bounding box

This property controls the maximum size. Press <F2> to visualise the box. When the picture is bigger it will be scaled to fit. This is useful when using the show as a template.


Volume

The audio volume when using a video texture.


Morphing stage

Morphs the picture into another shape.


Depth bias

This property can be used to solve sorting problems.

Layers have to be sorted according to their distance to the camera. This sometimes goes wrong when using very big, very small or irregular shaped layers. When this happens, use the Depth bias property to fix it.


Video layer

What can I do with the video layer?

With the video layer you can render videos.

How do I add a video layer?

Choose LAYER > Add layer > Add video layer... to add a new video layer.

The new video layer can be selected from the layers dropdown to make it the active layer.

The video layer uses the same interface and has the same features as the picture layer, only it operates on videos instead of pictures. Visit the picture layer page for more information.

Start position

Video files start playing at the beginning of the show and the audio streams are mixed with all other layers containing audio.

Video codecs

If BluffTitler fails to play your video, you are probably missing a video codec. Learn more about codecs.

Webcam layer

What can I do with the Webcam layer?

With the Webcam layer you can render the output of your webcam or TV tuner.

How do I add a Webcam layer?

Choose LAYER > Add layer > Add Webcam layer... to add a new webcam layer.

The new webcam layer can be selected from the layers dropdown to make it the active layer.

The webcam layer uses the same interface and has the same features as the picture layer, only it operates on the output of your video capture device, like your webcam or TV tuner. Visit the picture layer page for more information.