BCC+ Pixel Chooser

The BCC+ Pixel Chooser is a matte/mask generator and is available as a standalone filter and as an option integrated into almost every filter in the Continuum package.

The integrated version provides a way to select which pixels in the filtered source will be affected by a Continuum filter, via the generation of image based mattes, gradient mattes, vector/object masks, and depth maps. Mocha planar tracking, vector shape masking, and ML object matte options are included in the Pixel Chooser, which allows for the generation of motion-tracked mask shapes as a hold-back mask.

The standalone version of the Pixel Chooser includes all of the same features that are in the integrated version and can be used to generate a track matte for use with a host image layer for seamless composites. It can be used to generate an alpha channel for an RGB image source layer and also includes options to augment an existing alpha channel in an RGBA image source.

There are four main parameter groups in the Pixel Chooser: Mask, Gradient, Matte and Depth Map ML.

Masks are vector based and generated using one of 3 methods : built-in simple geometric shapes, host mask shapes from Adobe After Effects, or Mocha generated shapes. Mocha masks have the advantage of being trackable with the Mocha planar tracker. Mocha also includes Matte Assist ML, which is an AI powered object based mask generation and propagation system.

Gradients are generated procedurally and options are included for linear, radial or strip ramps.

Mattes are pixel based and are generated via a selected channel from a user selected host source layer. Integrated tools for adjusting the matte include levels, range and threshold controls along with an option to generate a color key by selecting two color points from the selected image layer, which is quite helpful when trying to isolate a human face.

Depth Map ML automatically generates a depth map from the filtered source, which can be used for compositing elements into a scene. Typical use may include sky replacement, compositing elements such as fog, smoke or text behind other still or moving objects in a scene, selective color correction, grading or blurring isolated objects in the filtered source.

Presets and the FX Editor

The FX Editor provides a convenient way to store and retrieve factory installed and/or user generated filter presets. To select a preset, open the FX Editor interface and pick one from the Presets panel. Click the apply button in the FX Editor to return to the host user interface.

Filter Parameters

Compare Mode

The BCC Compare Mode provides a convenient mechanism to compare the effect result with the original source layer. It provides several variations on basic split-screen views with the filtered clip placed next to the unedited original.

For more information on the Compare Mode, Click Here.

Output: used to set the final render from the Pixel Chooser

• B-W Matte: Displays a black and white matte of the image.
• Alpha Channel: Displays any alpha channel information.
• Multiply Alpha: Displays the alpha with a multiply blend effect.
• Screen Alpha: Displays the alpha channel with a screen blend effect.
• Stencil Alpha: Displays the alpha channel cut out from the opaque pixels.
• Mask Unchosen Pixels: Displays a red overlay on all pixels not selected with the pixelchooser.

Mocha Mask: Provides a way for the user to select and track which pixels in the filtered source are actually going to be affected by the filter, via the generation of image based mattes, gradient mattes and vector shape masks. Mocha planar tracking and vector shape masking options are included in the PixelChooser, which allows for the generation of motion-tracked mask shapes as a hold-back mask.

For more information on the Mocha Masking and Tracking, Click Here.

The Pixel Chooser Group

View Mask/Matte: Used to enable to see the generated mask/matte from the Pixel Chooser, which is useful while tuning the matte.

Intensity: Used to adjust the intensity of the mask. A value of zero will generate a pure white matte and have no effect. Values lower than 0 will cause the matte result to be inverted, values higher than 100 will overdrive the matte result.

Mask: This sub group contains specific parameters to generate and tune Pixel Chooser masks.

Shape: Used to set the mask type for the Pixel Chooser. Available shapes include:

• Off: Disables the pixel chooser shape mask.
• Circle: Creates a round, circular mask.
• Ellipse: Creates an elliptical mask.
• Rectangle: Creates a rectangular mask.
• Rounded Rectangle: Creates a rectangular mask with rounded edges.
• Mocha Spline: Used to enable mocha splines.
• AE Host Mask (After Effects Only): Allows the use of AE generated masks inside the pixel chooser.

Opacity: Used to control the overall opacity / intensity of the mask

Dilation Quality: Determines the overall quality of the global contraction and expansion of the mask shape

• Fast: Uses lower resolution dilation to improve render times.
• Best: Uses higher resolution dilation, which may slow down render times while producing a better result.

Dilation: Used to adjust the global contraction and expansion of the mask shape.

Invert Mask: Inverts the mask when enabled.

Mask Feather: Used to soften or feather the edges of the mask shape

Roundness: Used to set the roundness of the selected mask shape

Use AE Host Mask: Provides options for using Adobe After Effects native host mask shapes

• Use All: uses all mask shapes in the selected PixelChooser layer
• Use Single: allows the user to select a single AE native mask shape. When this option is selected, the Select Host Mask pop-up become active and displays a list of the current AE native host mask shapes that are present in the selected PixelChooser layer. Select a single mask shape from the list to use it
• Choose by Name: allows the user to select mask shapes based on their naming convention. When this option is selected, the Name Starts With pop-up becomes active and displays a list from which the user can select.

Select Mask: Used to select AE mask shape(s) from the filtered source

• List of AE host masks

Mask Name Starts With: Enables the selection of an AE native mask shape by name

• Anything: selects all masks regardless of the name)
• A Through I: only masks beginning with the chosen letter are selected
• Mask: all masks shapes that are named Mask are selected

Mask Center: Used to reposition the mask

Mask Rotation: Used to rotate the mask

Scale Mask: Used to increase or decrease the size of the mask uniformly

Scale Mask X: Used to scale the mask along the x axis only

Scale Mask Y: Used to scale the mask along the y axis only

The Gradient Group

Gradient Type: Use to select the type of gradient ramp that is being generated

• Off
• Circular
• Linear
• Strip

Opacity: Used to control the overall opacity / intensity of the gradient mask

Center: Used to reposition the mask shape along the x/y axis

Aspect: Used to stretch or squish the gradient along the x / y axis

Central Radius: Used to set the size of the circular gradient

Falloff Radius: Used to set the length of the circular gradient ramp

Falloff: bias control for the gradient falloff

Size: Used to control the length of the linear or strip gradients

Angle: Used to set the angle of the linear or strip gradients

Invert Gradient: Used to invert the gradient

The Matte Group

Channel: Used to select a channel for the PixelChooser source clip for the matte

• None: no pixels from the input source are used
• Luma: only values from the luma channel are used
• Red: only values from the red channel are used
• Green: only values from the green channel are used
• Blue: only values from the blue channel are used
• Alpha: only values from the alpha channel are used
• Key: only pixels that fall into the range set by the color swatches are used

Opacity: Used to control the overall opacity / intensity of the generated matte

Matte Layer: Used to select a source layer for the matte section of the PixelChooser

Matte Type: Used to select an operator which can modify pixels in the selected channel

• Levels: matte is based on user determined black and white levels
• Threshold: matte is based on a user defined midpoint
• Range: matte is based on user defined start and end points
• Slice: matte is based on the range width and position.

Pre Smoothing Amount: Used to control upstream edge-aware smoothing which can generate smoother masks without softening important image detail

Preserve Contrast: Used in conjunction with the pre smoothing option to preserve contrast in the matte

Black Level: Used to control the shadow areas of the matte when using levels

White Level: Used to control the highlight areas of the matte when using levels

Threshold: Used to set the threshold for the black/white regions of the matte

Range From: Used to set the start point (highlight) for a range based matte

Range To: Used to set the end point (shadow) for a range based matte

Softness: Used to expand or contract a threshold or range based matte

Slice Center: Used to set the range position of pixels to be included in the matte.

Slice Width: Used to set the width of the range of pixels to be included in the matte.

Softness: Used to soften the result of the threshold and range mattes.

Key Color A: Used to set color for keyer

Key Color B: Used to set color for keyer

Hue Softness: Used to expand or contract the hue values used by the keyer

Saturation Softness: Used to expand or contract the saturation values used by the keyer

Luma Softness: Used to expand or contract the luma values used by the keyer

Clip Black: Used to control the shadow region of mattes generated by the keyer

Clip White: Used to control the highlight region of mattes generated by the keyer

Gamma: Used to adjust the gamma of mattes generated by the keyer

Choke: Used to shrink/spread the generated matte

Dilation Quality: Determines the overall quality of the global contraction and expansion of the matte.

• Fast: Uses lower resolution dilation to improve render times.
• High: Uses higher resolution dilation, which may slow down render times while producing a better result.

Dilation: Used to adjust the global contraction and expansion of the matte.

Blur: Used to post soften or blur the generated matte

Invert Matte: Used to invert the generated matte

The Depth Map ML Group

Enable: Used to enable/disable the Depth Map ML effect.

Model: Used to select the desired depth map model.

• Better: a slower but more precise depth map model
• Faster: a faster but less precise depth map model

Mapping Mode:

Scale: Available when Scaled mode is selected and used to tune the white scale of the depth map result. Low values in this parameter will introduce more transparency, high values introduce more opacity.

• Min/Max: Automatically rescales the depth map to span the full range from black to white
• Guided: Generates a depth map based on user defined start and end points in the image. A pair of position points, Guide Near and Guide Far, are placed over regions that are nearest to and farthest from the camera, which provides a start and end point for the depth map generation.

Scale: Available when Scaled mode is selected and used to tune the white the returned depth map result. Low values in this parameter will introduce more transparency, high values introduce more opacity.

Guide Far X/Y: Available when Guided mode is selected and used to set the far point for the depth map

Guide Near X/Y: Available when Guided mode is selected and used to set the near point for the depth map

Brightness: Used to increase or decrease the brightness in the generated depth map

Contrast: Used to increase or decrease the contrast in the generated depth map

Gamma: Used to increase or decrease the gamma in the generated depth map

Level Far: Used to tune the Far (furthest from the camera) region of  the generated depth map

Level Near: Used to tune the Near (closest to the camera) region of  the generated depth map

Invert: Used to invert the depth map

Refine Depth Group

This group includes a set of brightness/contrast/gamma controls to separately refine the near/mid/far regions with user definable range and position settings for each region.

Far Sub Group: Used to tune the far regions in the depth map (furthest from the camera)

• Position: Used to set the mid-point in the Far range
• Range: Used to define the size of Far range
• Brightness: Used to control the brightness in the maps Far region
• Contrast: Used to control the contrast in the maps Far region
• Gamma: Used to control the brightness in the maps Far region

Mid Sub Group: Used to tune the mid regions in the depth map

• Position: Used to set the mid-point in the Midtone range
• Range: Used to define the size of Midtone range
• Brightness: Used to control the brightness in the maps Midtone region
• Contrast: Used to control the contrast in the maps Midtone region
• Gamma: Used to control the brightness in the maps Midtone region

Near Sub Group: Used to tune the near regions in the depth map (closest to the camera)

• Position: Used to set the midpoint in the Near range
• Range: Used to define thesize of Near range
• Brightness: Used to control the brightness in the maps Near region
• Contrast: Used to control the contrast in the maps Near region
• Gamma: Used to control the brightness in the maps Near region

Matte Tools Group

This group includes a set of parameters to fine tune the matte that is generated from the Depth Map result.

Enable: Used to enable / disable the refine matte controls

Matte Type: Select one option from the list to fine tune the matte

Levels: Uses depth map levels directly as set by earlier phases

• Threshold: Exposes Threshold and Softness control sliders for selecting all levels above or below a particular threshold
• Range: Exposes Range From and Range To matte control sliders for selecting an arbitrary range of levels
• Slice: Exposes Slice Center, Slice Width and Softness matte control sliders for isolating a range of pixels around a particular level

Threshold: Used to set the center point for pixels that are either black or white

Range From: Used to set the starting range (brights) of pixels to be included in the matte

Range To: Used to set the end range (darks) of pixels to be included in the matte

Slice Center: Used to isolate a range of pixels around a particular level to be included in the matte

Slice Width: Used to define the width (in terms of levels) of the Slice range

Softness: Used to soften the transition of the threshold, range, and slice boundary regions

Choke: Used to choke or spread the matte

Blur: Used to blur the matte

Invert Matte: Used to invert the depth map

GPU Rendering: This popup allows toggles renderer in use for the filter.

• Default: By default the filter will utilize the installed video card and bases the render on the project settings.
• 16 Bit Float: Sets the render to 16 bit float
• 32 Bit Float: Sets the render to 32 bit float
• Disabled: Disables GPU rendering and switches to software rendering.

Quick Start Guide for Mask Assist ML inside of Continuum Pixel Chooser

Inside of Mocha Pixel Chooser, Mask Assist ML and Matte Assist ML use advanced machine learning to automatically generate a matte over time based on single or multiple keyframed roto shapes or input mattes

If using the standalone Pixel Chooser filter, apply the BCC+ Pixel Chooser to a clip in any supported host. A black and white b/w matte is generated by default, but we’ll disable that for this use of the pixel chooser.

• Twirl open the main Pixel Chooser control group and then twirl open the Matte Group.
• Click on the Channel pop-up and select None from the pop-up list.
• Close the Matte group.

If using the integrated Pixel Chooser from within a BCC+ filter, begin by twirling open the Mocha Mask and Track group at the top of the filter effect. Then, click on the Pixel Chooser pop-up and select On from the list that appears.

Once you have set up your version of Pixel Chooser, we can begin by clicking on the Mocha Mask button to launch the Mocha GUI. In the Mocha custom GUI, select the Create New Mask ML layer tool from the top toolbar. We are now ready to begin mask generation

Mask ML Generation

Begin by clicking on the image in the viewer to set a starting point for the mask ml model. A solid colored dot will appear at the click point in the image. You will also see a mask generation progress bar in the top right of the Mocha GUI. Once the progress bar is complete, you will see the resulting mask shape preview.

• To add more regions to this mask, just click on other areas in the image.
• To remove regions from this mask, hold the option / alt and click on other areas in the image. Alternatively you can use right-click to remove regions.

Once satisfied with the mask shape preview, select the solid black arrow to convert the mask preview to an editable Mocha spline mask shape, and if desired you can further tweak the mask shape before propagating/tracking. Because the default spline shape type is X Spline, you will see a blue tension bar on each point in the spline mask that can be used to tighten or relax the spline corner points for a perfect fit to the image. We are now ready to propagate the mask over consecutive frames in time.

To do this, begin by clicking on the Mask tab in the panel on the left of the Mocha GUI. From there, click on the Render Forwards and Backwards button to commence the mask propagation.

• Immediately upon clicking the render button, you will see that the spline mask will convert to a yellow spline shape that will move frame to frame with the selected object
• You should also see a progress bar at the top right of the Mocha GUI as the mask is propagated over all frames in the shot

Once tracking has completed, the mask shape outline will be displayed as a dashed yellow outline under a solid red outline.

If the tracked mask result is satisfactory, save and exit the Mocha GUI to return to the host.

The Pixel Chooser is set to generate a B/W Matte by default. To use the Pixel Chooser to generate an alpha channel for the filtered source, click on the Output pop-up and set it to Alpha Channel.

Important Notes:

• Should you need to modify the animated Mocha mask, you can either return to the Mocha custom GUI or you can use the parameters in the filters control panel from within the host.
• To modify the alpha matte generated by Mocha, twirl open the Mask group in the Pixel Chooser UI and we can use some of the included tools.
• The Dilation control parameter and it’s associated quality pop-up enables global contraction and expansion of the mask shape.
• The Feather control parameter enables softening of the edge of the mask shape.
• The Invert option will invert the mask.