propagation of transparency

[gaaned92]

when I have a hierarchy of objects (parent/children), the transparency is not inherited by children unlike other animation parameters. That doesn't seem logical.

Could you please explain the reasons: technical, usecase...

If it is by design, it should be identified in the GUI .

[Lin Evans]

It's by design. There are many animations possible using the hierarchical properties which require "children" to be visible when the parent object's opacity is set to zero.

Think of this example. You want to create an animation where an object begins at the top center of your screen and rotates 360 degrees describing a complete "circle" on your display as if  following a giant circle passing to the far right or left, bottom and far opposite before returning to the top. But while rotating in this manner, you want the object to remain in a perfectly upright position throughout the journey around the screen. How do you program this?

It's easy to do by setting the parent and child to identical sizes beginning at top-dead-center. You set the rotation of the parent to negative 360 degrees and make it invisible. You set the center for the child to the proper place on your display and rotate it 360 degrees clockwise with full visibility. The parent's rotation with center of rotation being center of the object keeps the child in perfect upright orientation while the child's center of rotation allows the visible child object to circumscribe a perfect circle on your display. Without having separate opacity, this would not be possible. This is but one of many possible hypothetical situations where not passing opacity to child objects is useful.

Best regards,

Lin  

[jt49]

You have to be careful using the notion of inheritance. PTE works with relative coordinate systems, i.e. a child's spatial position is described relative to a coordinate system that is attached to its parent. If you define a movement for the parent you define a change of the parent's coordinates (parameters) via keyframes. This does not have any influence on the relative coordinates (=parameters) of the child.

So the behavior of the spatial parameters does not give any hint on inheritance of parameters. We have some kind of inheritance in case of Blur (one may like it or not) which sometimes is useful. In case of Transparency I would regard it as disadvantageous.

[Lin Evans]

I don't agree that it's disadvantageous. How would you program this without this feature?

Lin

 

 

[jt49]

There seems to be a misunderstanding

[Lin Evans]

Whether the transparency is inherited or not inherited but can be used as an option with inheritance is rather immaterial as long as it's possible to have a parent with zero opacity and children which are visible and vice versa. Being able to have the option is what makes PTE flexible whether the opacity is inherited or not.

Perhaps I misread or misunderstood your comment. Did you mean that inheriting transparency might be disadvantageous? If so I can agree that it might make it sometimes difficult for one to understand what what happening.... 

Best regards,

Lin

[gaaned92]

Lin Evans

Thanks for this clear explanation

[Igor]

We plan to add possibility to add inherited opacity for child objects in future version. As an option.

[jkb]

3 hours ago, Igor said:

We plan to add possibility to add inherited opacity for child objects in future version. As an option.

Yes please, this will be a big Plus.

The project I am currently working on I have a group of objects - in a frame that I want to change opacity at the same time.
Now I have to select each individual object & change it's opacity.

To be able to adjust the parent & have all the objects change together would be a big time saver.

Perhaps have a new type of frame that will allow inherited opacity?

Jill

[Igor]

14 minutes ago, jkb said:

Yes please, this will be a big Plus.

The project I am currently working on I have a group of objects - in a frame that I want to change opacity at the same time.
Now I have to select each individual object & change it's opacity.

To be able to adjust the parent & have all the objects change together would be a big time saver.

Jill,

Yes, I understand and agree. I also want to add this feature soon. Just we had many internal discussions, how to better implement it.

Alternate solution for all existing versions: using of a Mask container and control opacity of a Mask object for all embedded child objects.

14 minutes ago, jkb said:

Perhaps have a new type of frame that will allow inherited opacity?

The most likely it will be an option for any object: "Inherit opacity for child objects".

[jt49]

5 hours ago, Igor said:

Jill,

Yes, I understand and agree. I also want to add this feature soon. Just we had many internal discussions, how to better implement it.

Alternate solution for all existing versions: using of a Mask container and control opacity of a Mask object for all embedded child objects.

The most likely it will be an option for any object: "Inherit opacity for child objects".

Will it work with a common alpha channel (as we have it when using a mask); or will each object have its own alpha channel?

[MUR]

It is not the solution, but try "hide child objects"

MUR

 

[Igor]

12 hours ago, jt49 said:

Will it work with a common alpha channel (as we have it when using a mask); or will each object have its own alpha channel?

Of course, yes. It's the most important condition for this feature.

[jt49]

8 hours ago, Igor said:

Of course, yes. It's the most important condition for this feature.

Sorry, but it is not clear to me if your answer refers to the first part of my question (single alpha channel), or to the second part (all objects with their own alpha channels)

[Igor]

With Inherited opacity for child objects the result will be same like if you add several objects into a Mask container in PTE 10 and then adjust opacity of Mask container. It means one united alpha for all child objects.