Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual page 451

Adjust the following controls for the Cell Pattern effect:
Choose a pattern from the menu. HQ denotes high-quality patterns that render with more definition
Cell Pattern
than their unmarked counterparts. Mixed Crystals is available only as a high-quality option. The patterns appear as
pictured below:
Note: The Static Plates option is identical in appearance to the Plates option. However, when evolving, the static plates
retain a uniform lightness value, while the plates shift the lightness of the cell pattern.
Inverts the cell pattern. Black areas become white, and white areas become black.
Invert
Specifies the contrast of the cell pattern layer when you use the Bubbles, Crystals, Pillow, Mixed
Contrast/Sharpness
Crystals, or Tubular cell pattern. The control specifies sharpness for any of the Plate or Crystallize options.
Note: The layer's contrast is affected by the option chosen in the Overflow menu.
Specifies the method used to remap values that fall outside the grayscale range of 0–255. Overflow is not
Overflow
available when sharpness-based cell patterns are chosen.
•
Specifies values above 255 as pure white, and values below 0 as pure black. Contrast amount controls how
Clip
much of the image falls outside this range; higher contrast amounts result in a mostly black or white image, with less
gray. Therefore, less subtle cellular detail appears at higher contrast settings.
•
Remaps grayscale values to fall inside the 0–255 range. As a result, contrast appears reduced; the cells
Soft Clamp
are mostly gray with very few areas of pure black or white.
•
Changes overflow values to the 0-255 range by folding values back in the other direction. For example,
Wrap Back
if the maximum value allowed is 255 and the actual value is 285 (255 + 30), the resulting value is 225 (255 - 30). As
a result, more defined subtle detail appears when Contrast is set above 100.
Specifies how randomly the pattern is drawn, thus affecting the angle of the cells relative to each other.
Disperse
Lower values result in more uniform or grid-like cell patterns.
Note: If you set the Disperse value above 1.0, set the layer to Best quality to avoid artifacts.
Specifies the size of the cell shapes. The default size is 60.
Size
Note: To determine the size of your tiles, use the following calculations: tile width=Cells Horizontal x Size; tile
height=Cells Vertical x Size. For example, to create a tile size of 256x256 pixels, set Size, Cells Horizontal, and Cells
Vertical to 16.
Specifies the portion of the cell pattern visible in the Composition panel. This control is useful when
Offset
animating the cell pattern across the composition frame.
Choose one of the following options to control tiling:
Tiling Options
•
Renders the cell patterns in seamless tiles. The shape and number of tiles are determined by the
Enable Tiling
Cells Horizontal and Cells Vertical values.
•
Cells Horizontal, Cells Vertical
Creates subtle changes in the shape of the cell pattern. Animating this control results in smooth changes
Evolution
of cell shapes over time. Set keyframes for Evolution to determine how much the cell shapes "evolve" over the period
of time allowed between keyframes. The more revolutions in a given amount of time, the more rapidly the cell shape
changes. Higher Evolution values may result in less smooth changes in the cell shapes.
Note: Although the Evolution value is set in units called "revolutions, " it is important to realize that these revolutions are
progressive. The Evolution state continues to progress infinitely at each new value. Use Cycle Evolution (under Evolution
Options) to return the Evolution setting to its original state at each revolution.
Specify the number of horizontal or vertical cells on a tile.
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