Layers IPP Effects

IPP stands for Image Post-Processing Effects and includes all 2D effects that are applied at a Layer Editor level. While all of these effects are built to be used and rendered in real time, some combinations will have more of an effect on your scene real-time performance than others.

These effects can be added, nested, reordered and deleted for any Ventuz layer, regardless if they are 2D or 3D layers - effects on 3D layers will be applied to the whole hierarchy inside them. If you want to apply your IPP effects only to some 3D elements in your scene, you can create separate 3D layers sharing the same camera and apply individual IPP efects to them, all within the Layer Editor.

In addition Ventuz includes some properties that can be adjusted for all Effect groups

• Margin: Adds a margin around the edge of the layer. This allows layer effects to look correct close to layer edges or to add effects to non-fullsize 2DLayers. See Margins.

Blending

By clicking on this drop menu two options appear; None and Blending. If Blending is selected, the following parameters will be shown below:

• Mode: selects the blending operation used for the Effect Group. The operations avilable are the same as you can find in layer Blending, so please refer to Blending Modes for more in-depth information on this and the rest of the parameters.
• Opacity: controls Effect Group opacity, 100% means totally opaque, while 0% means totally transparent. Default value is 100%.
• Blocked: This checkbox controls if the Effect Group Blending mode operation is performed or not, the main difference with switching Off Blending operations is that this property can be bound in the Content Editor, and therefore used to optimize performance in complex scenes. Default value is OFF.
• Blocked On Full Transparency: This checkbox is used to optimize Effects performance when animating Effect Group Opacity, if opacity is set to 0%, and is therefore invisible, Ventuz will block this layer completely, thus removing almost all calculation overhead from it.

Mask

This option enables Effects masking, i.e. using the Color or Alpha values of a texture to set which areas of the image will be affected by the Effects or not. Ventuz 5 features different types of Masks and Mask presets used for both Layers and effects like:

• Mask: Uses a texture as the mask source, there are many preset options available like Loader, Checker, Checker Blue, Checker Dots, Lines, Dimple and Noise. For an in-depth description of all the options available check Layer Mask.
• Mask Vignette: This creates a vignette type mask for the effect, a soft mask that affects mostly the areas closer to the Layer edges. The Vignette properties allow creating softer or harsher edges and controlling the Vignette shape. The available presets are Default ( a standard Vignette), Horizontal and Vertical. For an in-depth description of all the options available check Layer Vignette.
• Mask Border: This creates a mask on the borders of the Layer to control where the effect will be applied, properties allow creating softer or harsher borders and controlling the their shape and thickness. The available presets are Default (a standard border effect), Round 2% (a rounded corners border) and Square 2% (a transparent outline with straight corners). For an in-depth description of all the options available check Layer Border.

Types of IPP Effects

The drop-down menu allows selecting the Image Post-Processing effects, or IPP effects for short, that you can apply to any layer. Effects are grouped into three main types or families:

Effect Group

Creates a group of effects that will be applied together at once. It works exactly the same as the Effects Stack, so the same Effects can be added, moved, deleted and enabled inside of the Group in the same way you operate with the Effects Stack.

Color Correction

These effects are used to correct the color values of the layer. The available Color Correction IPP Effects are Grayscale (simple Grayscale effect), Color Grading (a standard color correction effect working with the RGB primaries), Color Correction (similar to Color Grading, but using the HSL/HSV Color model) and Gain (quick Gain color correction effect).

Please refer to the IPP Color Correction Effects section of the User Manual for more info.

Filters

These effects filter the pixel values of each layer, changing their position, adding new elements,or even changing the opacity of some of them.
The available Filter IPP Effects are Mosaic creates a set of tiles colored according to the original color values), Blur (averages each pixel color values with the surrounding pixel values) Glare (a smooth halo around the brightest areas of the layer), Crash Zoom (often called "God Rays"), RGB Noise (a video noise-like effect), Feedback (a trail effect by blending with previous frames), Posterize RGB (rounds up/doen pixel color values), Posterize HSV (Posterize effect based on the HSV color mode, Edge Detection (detects the outline of shapes in the Layer), and Color Difference Keyer (similar to a Chroma Keyer, but using different math).

Please refer to the IPP Filter Effects section of the User Manual for more info.

Distortion

These IPP Effects work mostly by changing the relative position of pixels in the layer.
The available Filter IPP Effects are Drop Shadow (2D shadow effect based on Layer Alpha), Lens Distortion (replicates artifacts created by lens spatial aberrations), Distortion (a standard distortion effect, combining most of the options available in the rest of IPP distortion effects), RGB Distortion (offsets and scales Layer RGB channels individually), 2D Displacement (displaces the Layer pixels according to the Luminance information of an external file), Noise Distortion (uses a randomly animated texture to create a fake Noise Displacement effect), Polar Distortion (transposes the x and Y pixel coordinates in the original image to a Polar Coordinate system) and Kaleidoscope Distortion (Kaleidoscope pattern effect). Please refer to the IPP Distortion Effects section of the User Manual for more info.

Margin

Some effects need to render outside of the Layer for them to look right, since their area is larger than the actual rendered area. This happens when a layer is smaller than the screen area and it uses effects that affect a greater area than the layer area (e.g. a blur, needs surrounding pixels). Following is a list of all effects with hints on whether you need to consider a Margin. In some cases it might look okay without margins and the performance would definitely profit from not using one. So consider to use it or not for each case. Note again that Margin is only needed at all when the effect is close to or beyond layer borders!

Effect		Compatibility
Grayscale Color Grading Color Correction Gain Posterize RGB Posterize HSV RGB Noise all Masks Color Difference Delay		works on every layer without problems
Mosaic Blur Glare Dropshadow Crashzoom Feedback Edge Detection Lens Distortion Distortion RGB Distortion 2D Displacement Noise Distortion		profits from Margin
Polar Distortion Kaleidoscope Distortion		will be cut off at the border even with Margin