The Placer layer is essential for bringing visual sources to the program output. It takes any visual source (video, movies, images, etc.) and draws it into the program output canvas.
Setting up the Display Mode
The Placer layer has several display options to choose from in the “Geometry > Show as:” popup menu:
| Display Mode | Result |
|---|---|
| Fullscreen | The source image gets scaled to fully fill the program output. The aspect ratio of the source remains so that the image gets cropped. |
| Letterbox | The source image gets scaled to the size of the program output. The aspect ratio of the source remains so that black bars will appear if the source aspect ratio doesn’t match the program out one. |
| 1:1 | The source gets drawn exactly in the pixel size of it self. If the size of the source doesn’t match the program output size the images gets either cropped or the areas that are not covered remain transparent. |
| Custom | The custom mode let you is rather complex and is described in detail below. |
Cropping the Video Source
If your video source contains of pixels at the edge that you don’t want to display in the program out, you can use the “Crop” parameters in the Geometry section to cut them off before the source gets drawn to the canvas. You can manipulate the crop margins in the layer preview while holding down the “alt” key.
Custom Placement of a Video Source
In “Custom” mode you get all kind of options to place the video source. In the layer preview it is possible to move the video around (just grab it) , scale it to any size (by the square handles) and rotate it (with the circle knob). Mask insets from all sides can be used to crop the image further when its gets drawn into the program output.
Special Options
The Placer layer has some special options that are only needed in certain situations:
| Option | Function |
|---|---|
| Freeze Source | This option will grab the current video image and display it until the option is switched off. This is usefull if you need to take a closer look to a certain portion of the video image but its a moving target. |
| Flip in Preview | Because we are much more used to look at our selfs in a mirror this option helps when recording yourself and you want to see your self mirrored. |
| Transition | When switching this layer live it either will show the video immediately (“cut”) or fade it in with a “Dissolve” transition. For the dissolve there is a duration option in seconds. |
| Flip Horizontal/Flip Vertical | Those option actually flip the video source image before it gets cropped and draw into the program output. |
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