How to stop a faint copy of each picture showing before its reveal
If a faint outline of each picture shows before its reveal, ask Vizard Agent to check the mask itself. A matte that should be pure black can come out as dark grey after padding, which lets a few percent of the picture through. It reads the mask's pixel values, forces everything below the video black level to true black, and re-checks every reveal.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Describe the reveal you want and that nothing may show before it. A ghost of a few percent is easy to miss at normal speed, so asking for each picture to be fully invisible until its reveal gives Vizard Agent a rule it can check frame by frame.
Add a smooth camera move that visits each of the three panels in order, and a scratch effect before revealing each picture. Nothing should be visible before its reveal.
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
It treats the ghost as a number. A faint early picture means the mask is letting some light through, and the question is where that light comes from. Guessing at the extraction wastes rounds; reading the mask's values answers it. In the session behind this article it:
- Lifted the three graphics off the background, generated a short scratch matte, and measured its coverage frame by frame.
- Found faint outlines of each picture before its reveal in a check at twelve frames a second.
- Tried a cleaner extraction and a separate static background, and saw the ghosts survive both.
- Read the mask's actual values: the generated matte's black was zero, but once padded in time it became 16, the black level of standard video, which let about 6% of each picture through.
- Forced every mask value below 17 to zero and confirmed all three pictures stayed fully hidden until their reveals.
When does this not work well?
When the ghost comes from the picture itself rather than the mask. If the artwork was flattened onto the background before the reveal was built, there is nothing to hide, and the fix is separating the layers first. Masks with soft, deliberately grey edges also need a gentler threshold so the wipe does not harden.
Common questions
Why can I see the picture before it is revealed? Often the mask's black is grey. Vizard Agent forces true black.
Is it the cut-out that is wrong? Sometimes. Vizard Agent checks the mask values before redoing it.
How do I know it is fixed? Vizard Agent re-checks every reveal frame by frame.