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Hi guys, I have a transparent TGA (which I converted to PNG just in case), which I'm trying to _OVERLAY_ over my video editing app so I can perform my edits using the PNG overlay as a reference.

The size of my PNG image is 720x540.

I drag-drop the image onto PureRef and resize the window to match the image - all is perfect until I set the mode to Overlay Selection - the image is then SCALED till the top / bottom is nearly the same size as my screen height, which basically ruins what I'm attempting to do in my video editing software since I can no longer resize the image back to 1:1???

I'm using a LG 3840 x 1600 wide screen monitor, I also tried PureRef dragged onto my 1920x1080 Wacom tablet screen with the same results; image scaled till the height nearly fills the display.


I've tried resetting the scale, camera etc., no joy.
(I just now tried with a non-transparent image, same result...)


Is this behavior expected because it seems no matter what, once I hit Ctrl+Y, ZOOM - image proportionally resized to fit monitor height?

Any insight as to what I can do to prevent this from happening OR if I'm just missing something about PureRef, I'd really appreciate any help on this - thanks!

-Will

EDIT - Okay I kinda figured it was a "Between the Chair and Keyboard..." issue.

My inexperience with PureRef, or in particular the shortcut keys, prevented me from knowing how to resize the image ([CTRL + ALT] mouse drag) after switching to Overlay mode.

I did a search and ran across this excellent video from Gleb Alexandrov over at YouTube:
https://youtu.be/mtFgeu7yBzU

Hopefully this video will help others that stumble across this post with same issue.

(Admin, you can delete this post if you feel it was a waste, I also don't want to violate any terms here about posting links etc., Gleb's comprehensive video really helped me understand PureRef's features, to a much better degree!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-07-06 02:12 by WillBellJr.

Glad to hear you found how to solve your issue! However it still sounds a bit wrong that the image would scale up to be fullscreen when you toggle overlay mode... We'll look into it and see if we can get that fixed for the upcoming version of PureRef.

Just to clarify a bit; did you actually want to use overlay mode (many images acting as their own window) or was it the Always On Top feature you were looking for?

Hi, Admin - it was a single PureRef window overlaid on top of the new standalone version of Particle Illusion (I used to love PI back in the day, and now BorisFX has refreshed, and released the standalone version for FREE! Everyone can now enjoy this wonderful program - there's nothing like dragging the various emitters in the preview window!)

https://borisfx.com/products/particle-illusion/

The only downside (which I'm hoping they eventually change), is the program no longer supports loading in background images / video as reference in the viewer window when animating moving the particles around.

I knew PureRef had the features to allow me to place an image over other programs, while also supporting transparency and mouse click-thru - it was when I precisely placed PureRef over PI's viewer window (matching the video size 720x480) and selected "Overlay" mode where PR would scale up a few pixels shy of my screen height (3840 x 1600 @100% scale) prompting my posts above.

Yes, I also feel that shouldn't happen and if you can reproduce and fix it I would be wonderful for me, eliminating all the extra steps...

Initially I was using just 1 image to test, ideally I'd use a handful of images (switching between them as major keyframe points) for guiding the particle anims.


-Will



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-07-20 21:41 by WillBellJr.