Axogon Composer Looping Backgrounds

How to make texture loops with Axogon Composer?

Axogon Composer beta 0.93 is the predecessor to Main Concept’s MainActor software. While MainActor has some additional features, Axogon Composer has most of them and is freely available and various download sites. (just check Google). If you find you like it, you might want to consider purchasing MainActor. Here is one site that has it: MediaFire

At first glance Axogon can be a bit overwhelming but it’s an extremely powerful compositor if you take the time to learn it. Here is how you make texture loops:

Start by using File->New to create a new project that is the format you want and press OK. I use “NTSC DV, 720 x 480“. You will be presented with a blank timeline with one track that hasn’t been assigned.

Step 1: Double clicking on the word Track 1 on the left will bring up the preview window for that track. Every track has its own preview window. This one will have the title “Track 1 Error” because no clip has been assigned yet to preview. First move the preview window to the right so future dialog boxes won’t cover it. Now let’s fix the error by assigning a clip.

Step 2: Double clicking on the track itself (in the middle) will bring up a dialog with the title “Choose Clip to Create“.

axogon_step02

Step 3: Double click on Complex Filtering to the options in that category.

axogon_step03

Step 4: Double click on Image Processor and an image processor will be assigned to the track. You’ll see the I-Procicon on the track.

axogon_step04

Step 5: Double click on the I-Proc icon and you’ll get the IMAGE PROCESSOR dialog box and click the Random checkbox to enable random generation.

axogon_step05

Step 6: Click the Generate button and you should see a colorful texture appear in the track preview window. Keep pressing Generate until you see one you like. You can view each frame by giving the preview window the focus and use the left and right arrow keys to view it on frame at a time. You can also move the green timeline marker but the clip will not play in real-time. It will refresh where ever you stop the marker.

If you like what it looks like, give it a render. Here’s how:

Select the menu item Rendering->Render Options

On the “Rendering Options” dialog select the Format,Name, and Path you want to use and press OK. Now would be a good time to save your project before rendering just in case you hit a bug. (after all, it is a beta). This is also a good idea because you can save the projects you like and render the actually footage only when you need it to save on hard drive space.

Then just press the last button on the button bar below the menu that looks like a pressure cooker. The hint text will say Render. It’s that easy. I usually do a preview render at 320×240 using a fast codec just to make sure I like the loop before I do a full DV 720×480 render which takes a lot longer.

You can change the length of the loops by going into Time->Set Active Segment (which is also Ctrl-A) and change either the TO or the LENGTH on the New Segment Ranges panel to be the length you want and then press the Set button. That’s it!

Happy Editing,

JRSig