Gradient Fill Pro offers a convenient and efficient way to apply color changes, gradients and alpha manipulation to overlay stills or video which have alpha or transparency. For example, if you have a company logo in PNG format which is black, you can make it red, white, white-to-black or cutout and even place a gradient in the alpha region around the logo - all in one plugin.
Setup
There are two areas of manipulation in Gradient Fill Pro. There is a section of controls for the “Solid” or opaque area of your media file and a section of control for the “Transparent” or alpha part of your media.
- Select a color of your choosing for the First and Second colors located in the “Solid” section of controls.
- Move the Position of each of these colors by changing the XY position values, or using your NLE’s in-preview control points.
- Adjust the Opacity of each color to your liking.
- If you wish some of the original media to see through (this works best on multi-colored media), you can adjust either the Blend of each Color, or choose a different Blending Mode (only available in the Solid section)
- Repeat the above steps 1 through 3 for the Transparent section of controls, which applies color to the alpha region of your media.
- Optionally adjust the Drop Shadow values so you can create a drop shadow effect on your media. Play with the Target options for the drop shadow to see how the shadow is placed at different layers, according to your Solid and Transparent section settings.
- Solid section is the area of controls which manipulate the colors within the opaque area of your original media.
- Transparent section is the area of controls which manipulate the colors within the alpha or transparent area of your original media.
- Color allows you to select the First and Second colors of your desired gradient.
- Position determines the XY placement of your color points for your gradient.
- Opacity controls how much color is seen, from full color to complete alpha transparency.
- Blend controls how much solid color is seen vs. how much original image is allowed to be seen. This control is only available in the Solid section of controls to allow the opaque part of your media to be blended into the result.
- Disable controls if the Second color is used or not.
- Blending Mode manipulates how the colors you chose are mixed into the original opaque area of your media.
- Drop Shadow creates a drop shadow effect around or inside the opaque part of your media.
- Color controls the color of your drop shadow
- Offset controls the distance the shadow is cast from your media
- Angle determines the angle of your shadow away from your media
- Blur dials in the amount of softening to your shadow
- Opacity affects the transparency of your shadow color
- Target controls where your shadow is placed in layer order between the Solid and Transparent sections of your media.
- Info opens the Information dialog.
- Help opens this Help document
- Activate opens the Activation Manager.
- Presets opens the Presets drop-down that allows you to choose from a list of presets as well as save or load your own presets from disk (for sharing with other projects and even other NLEs)
- Select a preset from the long list of choices
- Open your saved presets using Open Preset,
- Save your own presets using Save Preset As. Each saved preset is given a file extension unique to the effect type, so it cannot be loaded into another plugin accidentally.