Paint

• Amazingly fast 16-bit paint engine, allowing instant use of any 32-bit image’s alpha channel in an unlimited number of layers
• Real time display on Video Toaster program output while you paint
• Paint over live video. Bring live video into the Aura paint area and paint ‘in place’
• Each layer can be a still, an animation, or a video clip
• Paint modes: Color, Light, Shade, Erase, Behind, Pantograph, Colorize, Tint, Smooth, Noise, Grain, Negative, Sharp, Emboss, Add, Sub, Multiply, Screen, Saturate and UnSaturate.
• Specify which channel (Red, Blue or Green) you wish to paint on
• Friendly navigation tool for handling large print or film-sized imagery
• Setup and paint images using proper aspect
• Light Table (onionskin) controls for cell animation or stop-motion video
• Wide range of Text controls using any installed TrueType fonts
  

Animate

• One to four-point Pixel Tracking, with sub-pixel accuracy
• Use Pixel tracking for image stabilization of shaky video
• Animate sketches or handwriting using Stroke Recorder
• Manipulate layers in 2D or 3D. Any image, brush or layer can be animated in XYZ position, HPB rotation, with height and width stretching using the keyframer
• Animated Motion blur, opacity and noise variables
• Real time playback
• Background renders of any changes
• Instantly reorder layers
• Instantly reverse playback of any layer
• Animated layers have loop options of Once, Repeat, PingPong, and Hold Last
• Easily create animated masks using animated stencil layers
  

Create

• 2x2 or 8000x8000-pixel images handled easily with Aura’s resolution independence
• Multiple projects can be open at once, and copy and paste between them
• Native DV Support
• Apply Photoshop 5.5 or earlier filters to any video layer
• WAV audio previews
• Imbedded audio support for QuickTime and AVI
• Animate your text along a spline path
• Incredibly powerful George Scripting
• Chroma, Luma and CrossKeyer™
• Timeline interface with an interactive zoom display
• Extensive (and user-definable) keyboard shortcuts
• Print storyboards from an animation sequence
• Drag and drop layers and merge in any paint mode
• Burn timecode
• Create color bars
• Hardware framebuffer support for Video Toaster [2]

2D Graphics Integration
The capabilities within Aura 2 are amazing. As a mint within Video Toaster 2, Aura adds raw speed and power to the already impressive graphics tools available. Because NewTek makes both the hardware and the software, integration is seamless. Use any input on the Video Toaster switcher as a real-time background in Aura 2. Grab images or sequences from the currently selected preview or program bus. The Aura File requestor allows real-time preview of any image or animation file by right clicking on it. This makes choosing the right file among similar ones fast and easy. Aura [2.5]'s preview window allows instant play of your project. Any changes made to a layer quickly render in the background. Clicking Play yields an instant, and accurate display on both your Toaster Vision monitor and on the Toaster’s Program output. This gives you accurate feedback on a video monitor for tweaking color and position. Aura delivers. Unlimited layers with alpha channel; instantly change a layers position in the stack or in time; the direction of the video and its opacity can also be changed in real-time. Bring up the Toaster grabber panel, and with a single click of the mouse, you can capture any image coming in to the Video Toaster. Aura’s animated transitions such as wipes, curls, pushes and blinds will help you flow from one clip to another.

Paint It
simple stroke of the pen can be a dramatic animation, but is frequently not considered by producers, due to the lengthy process involved. Aura changed that with Stroke Recorder. Have a client sign their name across your tablet (Aura has full tablet support) while Aura records every nuance. A few mouse-clicks later, you now have that fully animated for playback. You want integration? That same recorded stroke can be imported into LightWave 3D [link the phrase ‘imported into LightWave 3D’ with the tutorial] for a variety of incredible effects. You can also use stroke recorder, and any of Aura’s many natural-media tool types (Pen, Pencil, Oil brush, Wet brush, etc) to record a fully artistic sketch. Video Toaster [2] adds power by letting that preview window become a switcher source. Within the Toaster’s Live Production Environment, simply launching Aura will automatically add it to a Switcher row. Now, you can set up a looping animation, ask Aura to play it, and Toaster [2] is ready for playback or even recording that over live video. You can, for example, load up a rotating logo, or ‘bug’, in the lower corner of the screen and then key it in real time over a captured clip or a live input.

Send it Downstream
The ability to key animation in Aura [2.5] are broadened by Aura’s ability to be used a source for a Downstream Key. Leave Aura looping the preview on another Toaster [2] desktop (after all, you have 6 of them) and return to your switching desktop. Choosing Aura as the DSK source now means you can have video, animation, or anim brushes onscreen, while you switch sources behind it. Those sources can transition with cuts, fades, or even 3D DVE’s which will not affect the Aura imagery on top. If you use Aura as a DSK with the video in the background of Aura's
interface, you can create the same effect as a Telestrator™ costing thousands more.

Unlimited Power
NewTek knows that creativity is often a process of trial and error, so you are vested with the power of unlimited undo, even with multiple projects open at once. That goes a step beyond with Aura’s reapply feature: Undo your last step, change a base color, maybe tweak a filter setting, and then simply reapply that same step with your new changes. Freedom to experiment is yours.The power and flexibility of Aura [2.5] takes you far beyond the ability to create motion graphics for TV and film, it is also perfect for print, computer graphics, multimedia and web design. This is the tool in Video Toaster’s arsenal that will cause you to smile whenever your client asks for something special by saying, “Sure! I can do that.”