Effects Nodes

The Effects menu comprises "special effects" style operators. Loosely defined, this category includes operations such as embossing and posterization, as opposed to core operations related to compositing such as color correction or edge detection.

The first group of Effects menu nodes described here are related functionally--they all contribute to embossing, rippling, and other distortion type effects. The Surface Normal and Bump nodes both create two-channel floating point outputs that are then used by other nodes, including the Emboss and Vector Warp nodes, which require a two-channel float image for the second input.

Bump Node
Surface Normal Node
Emboss Node
Vector Warp Node

The other Effects menu nodes include Posterize , which reduces colors to an indexed palette; Time Convolve , which averages pixels from different frames rather than pixels in an area of the same frame, as other convolve operations do; Vector Blur , which is often used for motion blurs; and Xpresso.

The Xpresso node is perhaps the most versatile node in Chalice. To use Xpresso, you enter expressions into a text field, which enables you to essentially design your own filter, composite, or other operator. The Xpresso node could have been placed with equal logic in several other menus, including the Tools menu and the Composite menu. Xpresso is a multi-input node; like Mcomp, every time you add an input to Xpresso a new connector is created.

Posterize Node
Time Convolve Node
Vector Blur Node
Xpresso Node



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