Realtime color tinting

You can quickly and easily create interesting realtime color effects with a Matrox RT2500 using a 32-bit solid-color TGA graphic (known as a Matte) that you create using a 3rd-party graphics program, such as Adobe Photoshop. For example, with a solid white matte, you can control the overall brightness of your video clip, and with a completely black matte, you can control the overall darkness.

1. Create a new image

   Start your graphics program (such as Adobe Photoshop) and create a new image with the following resolution: 720 pixels wide by 480 pixels high for an NTSC image, or 720 pixels wide by 576 pixels high for a PAL image.

   
2. Paint the image

   Using the Paint Bucket tool, Gradient Tool, or other painting tool in Adobe Photoshop, fill the entire image with the color of your choice. In this example, we've used a brownish-orange color to simulate a sepia tone. The RGB values for this color are Red:184, Green:134, and Blue:0.

   
3. Save the image

   After painting the image, save it as a 32 bits/pixel Targa (TGA) file with the file name of your choice.

   
4. Create the Adobe Premiere effect

   Start Adobe Premiere and import the color matte graphic you just created and a video clip. Place the video clip on track Video 1A, and place the color matte on track Video 2. Use the Video Opacity rubberband control (red opacity bar) on the color matte to control the level of tinting you want to apply to the background video layer. You may need to click the triangle to the left of the label "Video 2" to see the red opacity bar.

   You can set the opacity of the entire clip to a constant value with the fade adjustment tool. By default, the level of opacity is set to 100%, meaning you will not be able to see the background video layer. Hold down the Shift key and place the selection tool over the red opacity bar. Drag the opacity bar down to make the graphic more and more transparent, thereby adjusting how much of the background video layer can be seen. 

   
5. Preview your effect in real time

   Press the Play button in the Monitor window or press the Enter key on your keyboard to preview the resulting color tint in real time.

     

   The background video layer before and after color tinting is applied.