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Silhouette Artist Docs

Silhouette - 0.1.0

Silhouette 2023.5+ supported only

Only BorisFX Silhouette 2023.5+ is supported due to required support for the SFX_SCRIPT_IMPORTS environment variable on startup.:::

Silhouette 2024.5.0-2024.5.3 crash due to Qt font load bug

Silhouette 2024.5.0-2024.5.3 will crash due to a bug in Silhouette's Qt binding which causes the application to crash when loading custom fonts. When using 2024.5 please make sure to use 2024.5.4 or higher.

AYON global tools​

For a general overview on how AYON tools work inside a host integration see:

Loading​

In Silhouette, we can load:

  • sources: products with video/image extensions
  • matte shapes: matteshapes product type
  • tracker points: trackpoints product type

Loading sources​

When loading sources, it's good to know that upon load the loaded source is not directly added to your node graph. Instead, it's added to the project sources where you can then choose add it to your node graph like any source in Silhouette.

AYON Silhouette - Load Source drag and drop source to node graph

Removing a loaded source will remove the node from the node graph

Removing a loaded source from the project sources will also delete the nodes from your graph. Cleaning it up for you.

AYON Silhouette - Load Source remove loaded sources

Loading matte shapes and tracker points​

Loading roto matte shapes or trackers can be used without any active selection to load as a new node in the node graph. If you have a selection, it'll add the imported data to the selected node. That way, you can e.g. 'import' to an existing roto node.

Updating removes all children

Currently updating loaded content like this will completely recreate and re-import the children objects to the roto node. As such, any changes made to the object list will be lost and the new updated import will replace it completely.

Publishing​

Multiple publish instances per node​

Unlike in many other AYON integrations in Silhouette it's possible for a single node to contain multiple publishable instances, e.g. you could publish both Trackers and Matte Shapes from a single Roto node. When the Use Selection is enabled on creating a Matte Shapes or Tracker instance, and you have a 'supported' node like a Roto node then it will add the publish instance to that selected node instead of creating a new node in the graph.

Publishing matte shapes​

  1. Select the Roto node you'd like to export from.
  2. In the Publisher Create tab, choose "Matte Shapes"

You can optionally choose to export only some of the matte shapes in the Roto node's object list:

AYON Silhouette - Publish Matte Shapes select child object shapes to include in export

Publishing trackers​

  1. Select the Roto node you'd like to export from.
  2. In the Publisher Create tab, choose "Track Points"

You can optionally choose to export only some of the tracker points in the Roto node's object list in the publisher UI's attributes for the instance.

Publishing renders​

  1. In Publisher Create tab, choose "Render".
  2. Connect the newly added output node to your graph.
  3. Publish to render and integrate the new output from the graph.

Workfile Template Builder​

The Silhouette integration supports the AYON's Workfile Template Builder.

Using the workfile template builder you can create a new workfile template that can be configured as a startup workfile for new tasks in Silhouette. This includes loading relevant sources and trackers/matte shapes directly that are relevant to the current context you're starting in.

Loading multiple products

The "Load Placeholder" can load multiple products using one placeholder, like loading all existing published source plates for a particular context. Each of those will be loaded to your node graph, but only the last loaded product will remain connected to the other nodes in your template, since each new load would replace previously existing connections.

Building your first template​

To start building a new workfile template use the menu entries in the AYON > Template Builder submenu.

AYON Silhouette - Template Builder menu

Create Placeholders do not work yet

Due to the more complex nature of Silhouette Creator's allowing multiple publish instances to currently exist on a single node, the template builder 'Create Placeholder' currently is not functional yet.

As a workaround you can create a real publish instance in your graph and use that as a placeholder, it does mean you'll need to update the publish context on the publish instances after scene setup, this can be done through the publisher UI by changing the folder path and task for the instances. You can multiselect and edit them all, make sure to "confirm" and save the changes.

The 'Load Placeholder' is fully functional and can be used to load single and or multiple products and start building your template graphs accordingly.

See the Implement Workfile Templates issue for the latest status.

Configuring templates​

The studio admin with access to the studio and project settings can configure the Silhouette Templated Workfile Build settings by setting up profiles for which they should apply. See the AYON Silhouette Admin documentation.