Mesh Warp Effect (Pro Only) - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0
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User Guide
Specifies the percentage of magnification (or scale) of the area you select. The values represent the
Magnification
percentage of the scale.
Specifies how the effect links the Size, Magnification, and Feather amounts so that they increase or decrease
Link
proportionally. None specifies that the Size, Magnification, and Feather controls operate separately. Size To Magni-
fication specifies that the size of the magnified area increases or decreases proportionally in relation to the magnifi-
cation adjustment. Size & Feather To Magnification specifies that the size and edge feather of the magnified area
increase or decrease proportionally in relation to the magnification adjustment. Setting the Link control to any
setting except None disables the Resize Layer control.
Specifies the size of the magnified area, in pixels. Setting the size larger than your original source layer may
Size
expand the magnified area outside the composition frame, depending upon the location of your center point.
However, the effect still retains the image resolution.
Specifies the amount of feather, in pixels, that the effect applies to the edge of the magnified area. Higher
Feather
values soften the edge of the magnified area, and blends the edge with the layer behind it. Lower values sharpen the
edge of the magnified area.
Specifies the transparency of the magnified area. The Opacity value for the effect layer in the Timeline panel
Opacity
represents the 100% setting of this control.
Specifies the type of scaling the effect uses to magnify a layer. Standard uses standard scaling. This method
Scaling
maintains sharpness in the image but produces pixelated edges at higher values. Soft uses spline algorithms. If you
scale the image beyond 100%, Soft reduces edge pixelation and maintains image quality. Soft works well at large
magnification amounts. Scatter creates scatter or noise in the image as the image enlarges.
Specifies the blending mode that the effect uses to combine the magnified area with the original
Blending Mode
layer. Except for None, all of these blending modes behave identically to the Timeline panel blending modes. The
None option displays transparent pixels around the magnified area.
If Resize Layer is selected, the effect uses only the composition boundaries as the edge of the layer when
Resize Layer
the magnified area extends beyond the original layer's boundaries. If Resize Layer is deselected, any area of the image
outside the original layer's bounding box is cropped by the layer's boundaries.

Mesh Warp effect (Pro only)

The Mesh Warp effect applies a grid of Bezier patches over a layer, which you can manipulate to distort areas of an
image. Each corner of a patch includes a vertex and two to four tangents (points that control the curvature of the line
segment that makes up the edge of the patch). The number of tangents depends on whether the vertex is in a corner,
on an edge, or inside the grid. By moving the vertices and tangents, you can manipulate the shape of the curved line
segment. The finer the grid, the tighter the adjustments you can make to the area of the image inside the patch.
You can also use Mesh Warp to create smooth transitions between multiple images and layers. Using keyframes for
effects and opacity, you can animate the transition between layers, revealing and distorting layers over time.
This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.
Original (left), with distortion mesh (center) and with Mesh Warp applied (right)