Axon Mask settings

Cormac,

Currently, custom masks are not implemented in the Axon or DL.2 software. This is something that we are planning for in the future, but has not been done yet.

There are a few alternatives you could try, however. One is creating a custom jpg or png file that is the shape of your screen. In this case, because you want to have a soft edge, a PNG file would probably be the better choice as you can place a gradient on the image file to create the soft edge.

The file would have black on the outside (where you do not want to see output) and white on the inside where you do. You could then load this jpg or png on a layer, use chromakeying to make the white transparent and you would end up with the same effect as a custom mask. The only big downfall is that you now have used up one layer to do your masking, leaving you with only two layers left.

A second possbility is creating a 3d object that is the shape of the custom screen. The advantages to this are that you have easy scaling control to make everything fit nicely, and you would also still have access to all three layers since you can just use the object on all three layers to shape the media. The disadvantage is that you don't really have a way to do soft edge on a per layer basis.

As for light loss, any time you mask off part of the output (in one way or another) you are going to be losing light output. In order to get the full output, you need to have every pixel in use, and doing this is obviously going to cut some of those pixels out.

I hope this helps and gives you some options/ideas for what you are looking at doing.

Regards,

Cormac,

Currently, custom masks are not implemented in the Axon or DL.2 software. This is something that we are planning for in the future, but has not been done yet.

There are a few alternatives you could try, however. One is creating a custom jpg or png file that is the shape of your screen. In this case, because you want to have a soft edge, a PNG file would probably be the better choice as you can place a gradient on the image file to create the soft edge.

The file would have black on the outside (where you do not want to see output) and white on the inside where you do. You could then load this jpg or png on a layer, use chromakeying to make the white transparent and you would end up with the same effect as a custom mask. The only big downfall is that you now have used up one layer to do your masking, leaving you with only two layers left.

A second possbility is creating a 3d object that is the shape of the custom screen. The advantages to this are that you have easy scaling control to make everything fit nicely, and you would also still have access to all three layers since you can just use the object on all three layers to shape the media. The disadvantage is that you don't really have a way to do soft edge on a per layer basis.

As for light loss, any time you mask off part of the output (in one way or another) you are going to be losing light output. In order to get the full output, you need to have every pixel in use, and doing this is obviously going to cut some of those pixels out.

I hope this helps and gives you some options/ideas for what you are looking at doing.

Regards,