Applying to
a media
After setting up each stroke
map level, the other factor affecting the
image is the paper. When you select the
Media level there's a file selector control
for choosing a paper texture image; an uncompressed
greyscale bitmap. Light areas in this image
represent high areas of a bumpy texture,
and dark areas represent depressions in
the paper texture. The level
specific controls are slightly
different to the stroke map controls

|
Media Specific
Controls |
The Low
Bump and High
Bump controls specify the degree
of paper bumps in dark and light areas of
the source image. Low
Bump sets the intensity of bumps
where the source image is black, and High Bump sets
the same for where the source image white.
When the source image lies between black
and white the level of the bumps is interpolated
between these two levels. Using these
controls you can set the same level of bumping
across the image, or increase/decrease bumps
in dark or light areas. Bump levels are
usually set quite low.
Contr
Start and Contr
End specify the contrast of the
image. The stroke maps are applied for each
active level producing grey image which
is then refined to define the intensity
of the strokes. Contr
Start sets the % intensity of
the stroke maps above which the final image
is white. Contr End
specifies the % intensity of the stroke
maps below which the final image is black.
Any intensity falling in between is interpolated
between the two. Setting Contr
Start and Contr
End to the same value reduces
the output to black or white; a slight gradient
produces a smoother transition; a large
difference between the two produces a much
softer effect. If Contr
Start is set to 100 and Contr End is
set to 0, you will see the final raw stroke
map image data.
Setting the value of these
two controls lower produces darker images,
and vice versa. Increasing the bump levels
results in a darker stroke map, so to maintain
similar output balance, if you increase
the bump levels you will need to decrease
Contr Start
and Contr End.
Setting Smoothing
The last control is Smoothing. The
value sets the supersampling of the plugin,
a way of producing smoother images. Setting
it low produces grainy renderings, and higher
values gives softer images. This setting
works best with the square numbers 1, 4,
9 and 16. Non-square numbers can
produce artefacts depending on the settings. |