Combustion 2 for After Effects Users, Part 2

Combustion 2 for After Effects Users, Part 2
Page 2 of 3

Drilling a little deeper, let's see if Combustion got things right in terms of putting everything back together again. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm forgoing the process of checking to see if After Effects got the various transfer modes and such correct, since integration with other Adobe products is a major AE selling point (and besides, I know it works). In Combustion, I've imported the Watermark.psd file into an existing comp using the Grouped option on import. But what Combustion doesn't know is that we've secretly replaced the standard layers it normally uses with new and improved Photoshop Brand layers with transfer modes applied (fig. 6). Let's see if it notices a difference!

Figure 6

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Once Combustion has imported the various layers, twirling down the Footage Library twirly-thingee (which is Discreet's preferred term, I understand) reveals the source layers included in the parent PSD file (fig. 7).

Figure 7

OK, so all the layers are there, and named what they were named in Photoshop. So far, so good! But two layers (big_bar" and small_bar) had the Overlay transfer mode applied in Photoshop, so let's check and see if those settings made it over as well. Selecting the big_bar layer in the Workspace panel, and then clicking the Layer tab in the Composite Control panel reveals that the Overlay transfer mode is applied in Combustion as well (fig. 8). Ditto for the small_bar layer. Plus, I modified the original Watermark file by setting one of the text layers to 75% opacity, and that made it fine too (fig. 9). So Combustion is recognizing the total number of layers, all the layer names, and things like opacity settings and transfer modes as well.

Figure 8

Figure 9

At this point, it may seem like I've glossed over a glaring omission: the apparent lack of single layer import from a PSD file in Combustion. No individual layer import? No problem! Actually, importing an individual layer is a function of the Merged Image option that pops up as a choice when you first import Photoshop footage. Let's say that I want just the Watermark text layer from the Watermark file. To do that, select Import, choose

Figure 10

the Watermark.psd file, and then pick Merged Image. Then twirl down the Footage Library, select the Footage - Watermark clip, and then make sure the Source tab is active under the Footage Controls panel. On the right side of the panel, underneath the Source Layer heading, is a Merge Layers checkbox. Uncheck that, and then select the watermark_text layer from the pulldown menu located directly above the Merge Layers checkbox (fig. 10). Bingo! Single layer. In this particular case, this process results in the watermark text looking really freaky (fig. 11, left), but checking the Color+Alpha option in the same panel (fig. 11, center) results in everything looking fint 'n dandy once again (fig. 11, right).

Figure 11

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