Warping meets blur meets light rays meets chroma explosion with ChromaTown. Bend and warp the image with pseudo light rays, splitting the image into numerous colored subdivisions. Energize your text or video, or go wild and create stunning imagery from scratch.
Presets
ChromaTown offers a host of handy shortcuts that will make your text and imagery pop with drama. Locate ChromaTown's presets in the Red Giant Universe Dashboard (accessible via the blue Open Dashboard... button or the Choose a Preset... button below it).
As with all other Universe tools, you can modify or create a ChromaTown look and then save it under its own name by pressing the Save Preset... button.
Modifying the Effect
Chroma Style affects the style of coloring. Chromatic Spectrum (below, left) uses the entire spectrum of visible color, Start/End Colorize (center) uses the start and end colors to tint the effect, andStart/End Fill (right) uses a more solid color to fill the effect.
Falloff provides a selection of falloff types, controlling the way the effect fades along its length. The differences can be subtle but important. Shown below are options None (left) and Smooth In/Out (right).
Falloff Gamma controls the gamma curve of the falloff when the Falloff drop-down has anything other than None selected. A 0 value has no falloff and the effect is at the start or end, depending on the falloff choice.
Completeness sets the range of the effect between the start and end positions. Here, you see the difference between 30 (left) and the maximum of 100 (right). Note how the image center remains only minimally impacted by the effect relative to the edges.
Completeness Center selects the start point for the completeness control. At a Completeness Center value of 0, the effect moves from the start position to the end position as Completeness increases. A positive value moves the start point closer to the end position; a negative value moves the start point in a negative direction from the start position. Compare the above-left image, which used a Completeness Center value of 35, to the following with a Completeness Center of 100.
Completeness Capped controls the start point of the Completeness control along a trajectory defined by the start and end positions when this is not selected the Completeness Center. Completeness Capped allows the effect to work along a path defined by the start and end position without being limited by its boundaries.
Start/End provide the same controls for both groups. Thus, we'll discuss the Start parameters here, but assume the same descriptions and principles also apply to the End group controls.
Start Color determines the color used at the start of the effect. Both the Start and End Color will be grayed out if your Chroma Style is set to Chromatic Spectrum. To show Start Color's impact, consider the following triptych. In each case, we have Start and End Color Amount (see below) set to 100, and the End Color is set to a bright red. We then set the Start Color to white (left), lime green (center), and black (right).
Start Color Amount sets the color's saturation.
Start Position controls the start position of the effect. Examine the impact of moving our Start Position control point in the following two images.
Uniform Start Scale chooses between a single scale control and a separate x/y scale.
Start Scale establishes scale amount when you select Uniform Start Scale. In the image below, you can see how we moved the Start Position toward the comp's top-left corner and the End Position into the lower-right. Additionally, we set Start Scale to 20% and End Scale to 200 percent (with Uniform Start/End Scale checked). This is why the effect begins smaller than the source text but ends much larger than it.
Start Scale X/Y govern scale amount on the x and y axes when Uniform Start Scale is not selected.
Start Rotation controls the rotation at the start position. Along with End Rotation, you might think of this as twisting on two ends of a rubber shape. In the next image (which uses Chroma Style: Chromatic Spectrum), we set Start Rotation to -35 degress, giving the smaller red word a bit of a counter-clockwise twist. At the other end of the effect, we used 75 degrees to give our larger blue FUNGI a clockwise tilt.
Start Lens Distortion sets the level of lens distortion at the start position. A positive value simulates a convex lens while a negative value simulates a concave lens.
Start Blur regulates the amount of blur at the effect's start. This is handy for simulating depth of field in effects.
Swap Start/End swaps the start and end colors.
Colorfulness applies the saturation level to the entire effect.
Alpha controls the alpha level of the effect, with a 0 value being completely transparent and 100 being a new solid.
Chromatic Spectrum
Chroma Tint sets the saturation along the effect when Chroma Style is set to Chromatic Spectrum. At a value of 0, the saturation is at maximum over the full range of the effect. At -100 (left, below), the start of the effect has no saturation while the end is fully saturated. At 100 (right), the end of the effect has no saturation while the start is fully saturated.
Start/End Color
Start/End Color Interpolation chooses between RGB and LAB color for processing.
Color Normalization converges the blur/streak effect on the image's original color when set to 100 percent. At 0%, the start and end colors are used directly.
Quality controls the quality of the effect. The default of 30 allows for a relatively fast effect, but banding can be evident. Increasing the value will smooth the effect, but there is a cost in speed. For reference, the following comparison shows values of 15 (left), 40 (center), and 90 (right).
Repeat Edges repeats the edge pixels to fill the frame when the scale is less than 100 percent.
Linear Gamma activates a linear gamma curve when selected.
Composite Original controls the composite mode used in relation to the source image. When None is selected, only the effect is visible. It's also possible to composite the effect on the source using Screen, Add, Behind, or In Front. The latter two are particularly useful with text effects.
Draw Overlay enables two guides that indicate the position, scale, and rotation of both the Start and End, each of which is identified by its respective color. Be aware that, when active, this overlay will be visible in the render.
Get Inspired!
ChromaTown is even better when used in conjunction with other Universe tools. Watch the following two-minute video to see what happens when we combine ChromaTown with Universe Turbulence Noise and Symbol Mapper.
OK, and maybe one more, this time combining ChromaTown with Universe Line and Turbulent Noise.
