Animation Background Painting using Satori Film FX Software

Special web edition. Written and Illustrated by Michael Hirsh.

Tutorial 01. Page 3 of 5

Step Six:

Make the layer called "FarButte" active by clicking it in the Layer List.
The buttes are created using the familiar Geometry /Shape / Irregular Polygon / Fill with Box Corner turned on.

Make your "Layout" layer visible to the degree that suits you, and carefully click your way round the outline path of the butte, making a click at every change of direction. Then, right click when you're done and click on "Join" in the little pop-up menu which appears. Right click again, and hit "Render". Toggle off your Layout layer, to see the colours in true relation to the sky. Ask yourself if it is worth Renaming this object in the Object List. If so, it's easiest to do so now, when it will be the topmost object within the layer in the list.

Paint the second butte in the same way, varying the colours in the Box Corner. Use lighter tints at the base of the buttes to suggest heat haze.

Two Beautiful Buttes.

Step Seven:

The "MidButte" Layer. This feature contains some graphic textures, so it will need a User Mask. Construct the butte's outline and body colour as before, but use warmer colours.

Just join the dots. The "Mid" Butte in close-up, with the Layout showing on top.

We're going to make a User Mask for this butte so that we can do some big brushing within its shape.
In the lower left of the Actions Palette, click on the Mask button like this:

Answer "Yes" to the pop-up dialogue box which asks you if you want to create a mask for this layer,

Just say Yes...

Then immediately click on the Colour button in the lower left hand corner of the Actions Palette. Use the Edit Toolbar to select the outline you've just created, and when all its points become visible, click on the yellow plus sign (Copy Edit Selection).

...Copy the Butte...

A dialogue box will pop into view, asking you where you want to place the copy of the butte. Click the lower drop-down list and click "User Mask".

...To the Mask you've just created on the Layer...

Click on the green tick to finish the edit, and the silhouette of the butte will be copied to the mask. The butte will then disappear from your picture, which can be worrying at first. Stay cool, and select the Layer tab on the Actions Palette. Hit the Mask tab and press the button marked Invert.

Watch the Butte disappear!!!

The butte will re-appear, and in the Layer List you'll see the butte, its alpha channel, and a red mask with a butte shaped hole punched in it.

And re-appear!!!

This is a good thing.

You have just copied an object and turned it into a mask of itself. This is such a useful (but weird) technique, that it's worth trying out a few times, just to get your head round it. Nothing like this happens in real life.