The RAYZ interface consists of docked windows, which can be thought of as panes in the RAYZ application window.
Six types of pane are available, each of which provides a different view of the data and a different set of controls, based on the task for which it is designed: the Worksheet, Image Viewer, Node Panel, Clip Editor, Curve Editor, and Render Control.
The Worksheet, for example, contains the network of nodes representing the flow of images and operations, and the Node Panel is where you adjust parameter values for each node operation.
You can create more than one pane, or "data view," of a single type. To display the parameter settings for two separate nodes simultaneously, for example, you would use two Node Panel views. Any view pane can be resized, repositioned, duplicated, or deleted.
The configuration of the RAYZ interface--the way the views and other interface elements are arranged in the application window--is known as a layout, and any layout can be saved for reuse. This enables you to switch instantly from one customized layout to another.
The paragraphs below describe the purpose of each type of data view. For more information about using them, refer to the chapter referenced in the following descriptions and to Working with Views. For information about creating, deleting, and rearranging view panes in the layout, see Manipulating View Panes.
Worksheet: Where you create and connect nodes to build the dataflow (flowchart of node operations) that describes the shot. See also Chapter 5: Nodes in the Worksheet.
Image Viewer: Where you see the image as it appears in the currently selected node. See also Chapter 6: Using the Image Viewer.
Node Panel: Where you access the parameter controls for a node. See also Chapter 7: Using the Node Panel.
Curve Editor: Where you manipulate curves to adjust and animate parameter values. See also Chapter 8: Using the Curve Editor.
Clip Editor: Where you re-sequence source imagery interactively using filmstrips arranged in a timeline. See also Using the Clip Editor in chapter 12.
Render Control: Where you can initiate rendering of any or all Image Out nodes in the RAYZ project file. See also Chapter 11: Rendering Images.
Fig. 4.1 The default layout includes an Image Viewer, (top) a Node Panel (lower left), and a Worksheet (lower right).
In addition to the data views listed above, the RAYZ interface provides several general purpose tools: the Main Menu strip, Time Scooter, Process strip, and Status Bar.
This strip provides menus for commands used to access and modify RAYZ project files, modify the current layout, render images to disk, and access help files.
Each menu is described in detail in Chapter 9: Main Menus, however, three menus that affect the interface should be noted here:
The Main Menu strip is located by default in the upper left corner of the RAYZ interface, although you can reposition it along any outside edge by dragging the grabber handle located at the left edge of the strip. An outline representing the menu strip will appear under the cursor, and when you release the mouse button the strip will drop into the new location.
The Time Scooter is used to navigate through time. The current frame specified in the Time Scooter is the frame displayed in the Image Viewer, Node Panel, and Curve Editor. When you change frames, these views will update accordingly. For example, the Image Viewer will display the new frame image.
Fig. 4.4 Time Scooter frame navigation controls.
To change the current frame, drag the slider bar back and forth in the time scale, click the navigation arrows, use the hotkeys, or enter a specific frame number in the Current Frame field.
You can change the default frame range (1-100) of the Time Scooter by typing new values in the range fields located at each end of the time scale. See Fig. 4.3. Typically, the range is set to match the total length of the shot.
The Time Scooter uses frames by default, but you can specify a different type of unit in the Project Settings panel, which is accessed from the RAYZ Edit menu. You can select Frames, Seconds, Edge Code, or Time Code from the Time Display Style preference menu. See also Editing Project Settings in chapter 13.
The Process strip is located by default in the upper right corner of the interface. Use the Stop button in the strip if you want to cancel the current process, or use the equivalent hotkey: Esc .
The current memory usage is displayed in the color-coded bar between the Stop button and the gears icon. The gears animate whenever RAYZ is actively processing data.
Fig. 4.5 The Process strip provides feedback on current memory usage: blue represents memory used by RAYZ; yellow represents memory used by the operating system and any other applications that are running; green represents the remaining memory available. (The black line dividing the green bar separates physical RAM, on the left, from swap space, right.)
The Status Bar displays information about the object or parameter currently selected or pointed to with the cursor.
Fig. 4.6 Point to a node, connection, parameter, or image to display information about it in the Status Bar.
If you position the cursor over an image in a Viewer, for example, the Status Bar tells you which image it is, what size it is, how many channels it has, whether the image is log or linear, and the bit depth.
If you position the cursor over a parameter in the Node Panel, on the other hand, the Status Bar will explain the purpose of that parameter.
This section covers integral features of data views, such as the mechanisms used to specify the content of a view and how it is displayed.
An important concept to understand when working in RAYZ is that three of the view types, by default, are dynamic--they change their focus as you select different nodes. The views that follow the current selection are:
The Worksheet is used to control the focus of these views; that is, to specify what node data is displayed in the view. By default, the Image Viewer, Node Panel, and Curve Editor all display the data that is relevant to the node currently selected in the Worksheet, and when you select a different node, they automatically update their content to show the data relevant to the new node selection.
Fig. 4.7 The Image Viewer display changes as different nodes are selected in the Worksheet: Image In node (left), Roto node (middle), Ultimatte node (right).
The title bar of every Node Panel, Image Viewer, and Curve Editor always displays the name of the individual node data it is displaying. |
You can override dynamic focus at any time by "pinning" a view to a specific node. When you pin a view to a node, that view will not change focus when you select a different node in the Worksheet.
Fig. 4.8 Title bar of Node Panel displaying "blur1" node data: it is pinned to the node (top), and free to follow the current Worksheet selection (bottom).
This change is specific to the individual view pane; if you have two Node Panels in your layout, for example, the other Node Panel will continue to follow the node selection in the Worksheet unless you choose to pin it to a node also.
There are three ways to pin a node to a view. You can use
You can use whichever method is most convenient, as explained next; however, there is only one way to "detach" a view so that it starts following the current selection again and that is to use the Pin icon:
Click the Pin icon in the title bar to toggle the view state.
Fig. 4.9 Pin Icon in default state (left) and when view is pinned (right).
If the view has been following the current node selection, it will be pinned to the node currently displayed in the view. If it has been pinned to a node, it will update to display the currently selected node.
Drag the node out of the Worksheet and over the view, and then release the mouse button. The node data is now pinned to the view.
A "ghost node" icon will appear under the cursor as you drag a node over a view to pin it. (The actual node remains in its original position in the Worksheet.)
Fig. 4.10 Node "blur1" is dropped into Image Viewer (left). The pinned state of the node is indicated by blue stripes (right).
The node will remain pinned until you press the Pin button in the title bar of the view to release it, or until you pin a different node to that view.
You can drop-link between separate windows. Just drag the node out of the Worksheet in one RAYZ window and drop it over a view in another RAYZ window. (See also Creating a View in a Separate Window.) |
Click and hold the right mouse button on the node you want to pin and the Node Actions menu will pop up. Select a view from the list and release the mouse button. The node data is now pinned to the view.
Fig. 4.11 "Pin to Image Viewer" option being selected from Node Actions menu.
The node will remain pinned until you press the Pin button in the title bar of the view to release it, or until you pin a different node to that view.
The Curve Editor can display data from multiple nodes. (See also Displaying Parameters from Multiple Nodes in chapter 8.) This means that multiple nodes can be pinned to the Curve Editor too. When you use any method to pin a single node, and all nodes in the Curve Editor will become pinned to the view. To pin an additional node or nodes, repeat the drop-link or menu-selection method.
Click the Pin icon in the title bar of the Curve Editor to restore dynamic focus to the view.
The way that the Worksheet, Image Viewer, Curve Editor, and Clip Editor are used dictates that these views have an infinite viewspace, which means that the work area within the view is not limited to the current size of the view frame.
You can move the viewspace around under the view frame, scale it up or down, and recenter it if necessary.
You can slide the viewspace around in the view frame by dragging it with the middle mouse button. In the case of the Image Viewer, for example, you can bring any part of a large image into view without resizing the view frame. In the Worksheet, on the other hand, it means that you can bring a specific part of a large node network into the view frame.
As an alternative to using the middle mouse button, these views also provide scrollers for navigation, which are located along the bottom and left edges. You can use the left mouse button to drag back and forth (or up and down) in a scroller to navigate around the viewspace.
The scrollers in the Curve Editor graph have a unique look, but they operate in the same way as the scrollers in other views. |
You can also use the scrollers to scale the viewspace by holding down the Control key as you drag. Ctrl-dragging left, or down, in a scroller scales the viewspace down and Ctrl-dragging right, or up, scales the view back up to normal size.
In the Image Viewer and Worksheet, you can also zoom in and out by using the Minus (zoom out) and Plus (zoom in) hotkeys for zooming. And the Curve Editor graph has a unique feature, the Fit button (lower left corner) that scales the graph to fit all active curves into the visible area of the graph.
An infinite viewspace also means that the contents of a view can end up out of view. When this happens, click the Center button--located in the lower left corner of the Image Viewer, Worksheet, and Clip Editor--to re-center the contents of the viewspace.
In the Image Viewer, for example, this centers the image frame in the view pane, while in the Clip Editor it centers the timeline around the current frame marker.
The hotkey for this command is the Backspace key. Be sure the cursor is over the view you want affect.
If you have zoomed in or out, you can use the Home hotkey to recenter the contents and reset the scale to normal simultaneously. |
Although the task-based displays and controls vary among the view types, all data views provide the same interface controls (the same view frame) for manipulating the view pane in the layout.
At the top of every view pane is the title bar, which is labeled with the name of the view and the node currently in the view. The title bar also has controls used to split or delete the view, and a Tools menu.
Fig. 4.13 All view panes feature the same title bar controls.
The specific contents of the Tools menu varies from view type to view type, but it is always used to access view-level control strips and panels. In the Image Viewer, for example, you can use the Tools menu to control display of the Flipbook and Wipe control strips, while in the Worksheet the Tools menu controls display of the Node Menu strip.
Position the cursor over the border between two views and the cursor icon will change to up/down or left/right arrows, depending on the orientation of the border. Drag the border to resize.
Fig. 4.14 The cursor icon changes to double arrows whenever you position it over the border between two views. You can then drag the border to resize the views.
If necessary, any tool strips in the view will adjust to fit the new display area. For example, if you resize an Image Viewer such that all of the items in the main control strip no longer fit in a single row, the strip will change proportion to display its tools in two rows.
Fig. 4.15 The cursor icon changes to compass arrows when positioned over a title bar.
Position the cursor over the title bar of a view and the cursor icon will change into compass arrows. Start dragging, and an outline representing the view pane will appear under the cursor. Release the mouse button when the outline is positioned in the area you want. The other view panes in the layout will rearrange themselves around the relocated view.
You can swap the position of two views using the same technique described above for moving a view. To swap two views, however, you have to match the shape of the outline to the frame of the view you want to swap.
Drag a view outline over another view until the outline snaps to the border of the other view, matching it exactly, and release the mouse button. The two view frames will swap their contents. If you drag a Node Panel over an Image Viewer, for example, the Image Viewer frame will remain the same size but now contain the Node Panel, and vice versa.
You can add a new view pane to the layout by selecting the type of view you want to add from the Views menu. The new view will appear at the bottom of the layout, although you can then move it as described above.
Another way to add a view to the layout is to split an existing view into two independent panes of the same view type, that is, to duplicate the view. The duplicate view initially has the same settings as the original, but it is not tied to the original view in any way and can be manipulated independently just like any other view.
Drag the Split icon in the title bar (the diagonal line on the far left) to split the view in two. Drag to the right to split horizontally (for side-by-side views); drag downward to split vertically (one view on top of the other).
Fig. 4.16 Drag the Split icon (circled) of the title bar to duplicate the view.
As you drag the Split icon, an outline representing the border that will separate the split views appears under the cursor. When you release the mouse button, the view is split at that position.
You can replace any view with a different type of view in the same location. Right-click and hold on the title bar of the view pane to access the "replace with" menu and select the type of view you want.
Fig. 4.17 To replace one view type with another, right-hold on the title bar and select a different view from the popup menu.
You can also use hotkeys instead of selecting a menu command to replace whichever view the cursor is currently hovering over:
To delete a view, simply click the Delete button in the upper right corner of the title bar. The other views in the layout will resize to fit the new configuration.
You can maximize any view pane to fill the interface by using either of the following hotkeys, while the cursor is positioned over the view to be maximized:
To switch back to the full layout, repeat the command.
Many views offer control strips that are specific to that type of view. For example, the Worksheet provides a node menu strip and the Image Viewer provides a tool strip with controls for channel display, zoom, etc.
You can choose which tool strips to display in any particular view (not all tool strips are displayed by default) by using the Tools menu in the title bar of the view pane. The Tools menu is the down-arrow icon on the left side of the toolbar. Check any item in the menu to display the corresponding tool strip in the view; uncheck the item to hide it.
Just as you can reposition the Status Bar or the Time Scooter around the edges of the RAYZ layout, you can also rearrange the tool strips in an individual view to suit your needs.
Tool strips have grabber handles at the left edge, for horizontally oriented strips, or at the upper edge, for vertically oriented panels such as the Viewer Tools panel in the Image Viewer.
Fig. 4.18 Examples of grabber handles on a tool strip (vertical stripes) and a tool panel (horizontal stripes).
Tool strips can be moved to the top or bottom edge of the view. If the view provides multiple toolstrips (the two strips at the top of the Node Panel, for example), they can be reordered or moved to opposite edges. Tool panels can be moved to the left or right side of the view frame.
When you mouse over the grabber handle for a tool strip, the cursor icon changes to compass arrows. In the same way that you reposition a view, drag the tool strip and an outline representing the strip appears under the cursor. Release the mouse when you are in position and the tool strip will drop into the new location.
The most prominent tool panel in RAYZ is the Viewer Tools panel in the Image Viewer, located by default along the right edge of the view pane. The Clip Editor and the Curve Editor also feature tool panels.
Like any other view tool, you can control the display of tool panels in the Tools menu for the view. However, you also have the option of hiding the bulk of the panel while still retaining a thin control bar you can use to access the tools at any time.
This works like the "windowshade" controls on some operating systems to stow the contents of the panel out of the way while still retaining easy access to its tools. To shut the tool panel, or to open it if it has already been shut, click the Shutter button.
Fig. 4.19 When the Shutter is clicked (left), the tool panel is stowed away (right).
You can also adjust the width of any tool panel by dragging the inward-facing edge to the left or right.
In addition to pinning a node to a specific view pane in the layout, as described in the section on Dynamic Focus, you also have the option of creating a new Node Panel, Curve Editor, or Image Viewer in a separate window so that it can be resized, minimized, and so forth without affecting the current RAYZ layout.
To display the contents of a node in a separate view window:
The new window will appear over the main layout with the selected view type (Image Viewer, Node Panel, or Curve Editor) filling the window and pinned to the node from which it was spawned.
You can detach a node from a view in a separate window by clicking the Pin button in the title bar of the view. The view window will then display the contents of whatever node is selected in the Worksheet in the main layout.
Using separate, floating windows is just another way of arranging interface elements in RAYZ. In fact, no matter how many separate windows you create, RAYZ is still a single interface functionally in which you work on the same project file.
For example, if you create a new node while you are working in a separate Image Viewer window, the node will appear in the Worksheet of the main layout.
You can create as many separate view windows as you need. Be aware, however, that each Image Viewer uses additional memory, especially when it has cached a flipbook sequence, and it is easy to forget about view windows that have been minimized or are hidden behind other view windows or the main layout.
To delete a separate window, use the Close Window command in the File menu at the top of the window. Do not use the Exit command (or Ctrl-q), which will quit the RAYZ application when invoked from any RAYZ window.
You can change the layout of elements in the RAYZ interface whenever you want. You can change the number, type, size, and position of data views. You can also reposition the Main Menu strip and the controls accessed from the Tools menu (Time Scooter, Process strip, and Status Bar), although the options are more limited--these elements must remain along the edges of the interface.
To restore the default layout, press the F10 key, which is equivalent to selecting the Factory Default command from the Layouts menu. |
Once you have adjusted the layout to suit a particular task or phase of shot-building, you can save it so that it can be recalled at any time.
The default layout is a good all-purpose combination of views, but you can change the default to fit your work habits. In addition, you can create layouts optimized for specific tasks. For example:
Try setting up a layout with a Worksheet, Node Panel, Clip Editor, and a small Image Viewer to use for importing all your imagery and doing whatever re-sequencing is necessary.
For adjusting mattes, you will probably want to use a layout with two Image Viewers. You can use the primary Viewer to draw a spline around an element and the second Viewer to see the result in a composite node while you continue to tweak the shape or edge characteristics of the roto.
To animate parameters, create a layout that includes a Curve Editor in the size and location that suits you best.
Once you have taken the effort to get the layout just the way you want it, you can save it for reuse.
Fig. 4.20 Layouts Menu in the RAYZ Main Menu strip.
You can select Layouts > Save As User Default from the Main Menu strip to use it as the default layout for new project files instead of the factory default layout.
Or you can use Layouts > Save As to save any current configuration under whatever name seems appropriate. The new layout will subsequently appear in the Layouts menu.
To change the current layout to a saved layout, just select it from the Layouts menu and the interface will update accordingly.
To delete a layout, remove the corresponding file from the Layouts directory, which is located by default in the .rayz/2.0 application directory.
Layouts are saved in the directory path specified in Edit > Preferences > File Paths > Layout Search Path. For more information about using the Preferences panel, refer to Chapter 13: Setting Preferences. |
The conventions adhered to for mouse usage and hotkey assignments are described in this section.
In RAYZ, each mouse button is used for a different type of activity:
The cursor icon in RAYZ is dynamic, indicating the potential usage of the cursor at the current position. For example, the cursor icon changes to an I-bar over data entry fields to indicate that you can type in the field. It becomes a double-headed arrow when positioned between view frames to indicate that you can click and drag the border to move it. And when using the Color Picker, the cursor changes to an eyedropper to indicate you can click the color under the cursor to sample it.
Cursor position also determines how hotkey commands are applied, as explained next.
Many common commands have keyboard equivalents, or hotkeys. When using hotkeys in RAYZ, it is important to remember that the position of the cursor determines which view in the layout the command will be applied to. For example, the F11 hotkey, which maximizes a view, applies to whichever view the cursor is over when the key is pressed.
Hotkeys for individual commands are noted in the section of the documentation that covers the corresponding task, and a complete list of the factory default hotkeys can be found in Default Hotkeys in RAYZ in chapter 13.
You can reassign the hotkey currently used for a command, and you can add a hotkey for a command that does not currently have one. This process is described in Hotkeys in chapter 13.
This manual is accessible from with RAYZ and, in addition to the Status Bar readouts, you can also get contextual feedback by using Help Tags.
Help Tags are context-sensitive popup help boxes that appear when you let the cursor hover over individual objects in the interface. The Help Tag will tell you what the item is for or how to use it (by noting a mouse button action or hotkey for it).
To enable this feature, check the Help Tags option in the RAYZ Help menu.
Fig. 4.21 Help Tag (yellow box).
The hotkey or mouse button to use, if applicable, may be indicated in <angle brackets> and followed by a description of the type of action that can be taken or will result.
You can access this manual in HTML format from within the RAYZ application by selecting RAYZ Manual from the Help menu or by using the F1 hotkey .
RAYZ searches for the HTML manual files in the directory specified in Edit > Preferences > File Paths > Help Search Path, which is set by default to usr/grail/rayz2.0/manual. You shouldn't need to change this unless you have a non-standard installation of RAYZ.
By default, the HTML manual is opened in Netscape; however, you can override this internal setting by specifying another browser in Edit > Preferences > Settings > Help Browser. For more information about using the Preferences panel, refer to Chapter 13: Setting Preferences.
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