Table of Contents
Graphical objects that are added to a scene layer are immediately shown in the screen preview area. The objects are also added to the timeline, which is shown in the Timeline view. A layer is represented in the Screen view not only as a static screen but also how it appears over time. This means that if you move the timeline cursor on the timeline you will notice that the object appear and disappear depending on if the timeline cursor is within the time span of the new object or not. Since the object also has a timeline, it means that some of the object's properties may change depending on the current timeline time. The properties for an object is accessed by right-clicking on the object in the Screen view or in the Timeline view and then selecting Properties in the context menu that appears.
Some properties are available in all graphical objects and are described below.
Common Graphical Object Properties
- X - This is the horizontal location of the upper left corner of the object.
- Y - This is the vertical location of the upper left corner of the object.
- Width - This is the width of the object on the screen.
- Height - This is the height of the object on the screen.
- Anchors - Anchors are used to lock the position and size of an object to scale with screen aspect ratio changes. This means that if you have placed an object on a screen with a certain aspect ratio and then changes the aspect ratio of the screen, the object will scale itself to be placed at the same percentage of the screen area as before the aspect ratio change. This percentage ratio can be maintained for any or all of the object's sides, which is specified with the anchors property.
- Blending - Defines how the pixels are drawn to the screen. The can be one of the following modes:
- Normal - The pixels are drawn above the previously drawn pixels on the screen. This mode takes into account the transparency values, which is also known as the alpha channel, of the object's pixel values and blends onto what is previously drawn.
- Add - The pixels are added, color channel by color channel, to what is previously drawn on the screen.
- Subtract - The pixels are subtracted, color channel by color channel, from what is previously drawn on the screen.
- Composition - The object can be use as a composition by other objects that use an image or texture, see Section 17.1.10, “Composition” for more information.
- HiddenComposition - The object is not drawn to the screen but can be use as a composition by other objects that use an image or texture, see Section 17.1.10, “Composition” for more information.
- Filters - With this property you can add post-effect rendering filters that are applied to the object when it is rendered to the screen. This is further described in Section 17.6, “Filters”.