User Manualv. 2.1.5

1Introduction
Welcome to Amberlight 2!
Amberlight is a unique art software that creates computer generated images and animations.
Millions of particles are flying through your scene and you can drive them with the special
Amber fields. No matter if you are an advanced artist or a complete art beginner, playing andexperimenting with its tools you are able to create fantastic images and motion graphics. In theworld of computer art this is a one-of-a-kind tool that will broaden your artistic horizons andunveils a very new art experience.
Amberlight 2 is boosted with many innovative features including advanced animation mode,modifiers and variations. From now on, users can breathe life into their artworks and create
flawless animations saved as video or image sequences.
Similarly to Flame Painter, Amberlight was originally created as an experimental project in my'I am an Artist' series. The initial vision was to create the application where anyone could
create original artworks. It was made both as a tool for artists as well as for people without
artistic skills who want to create something unique. Lack of inspiration and motivation areoften the reasons why we people are not creative, however, I believe the tools that we use canbecome the inspiration for creativity. I think that with tools, which inspire you, everyone can be
an artist.
In this manual you’ll find general information covering all necessary details you need to know
for a hassle-free use of this software. We’ve prepared for you explanations of its features,
useful hints and some technical background of Amberlight.
Thanks for purchasing Amberlight. We hope you’ll have a great time!

Peter Blaškovič
Creator of Amberlight2

Table of Contents
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................2
Welcome to Amberlight 2! .........................................................................................................2
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................3
Getting Started ...........................................................................................................................5
Installing and Registering Amberlight .....................................................................................5
Amberlight Interface ..................................................................................................................7
Scene Panel ............................................................................................................................8
Parameters Panel ...................................................................................................................8
Modifiers Panel ......................................................................................................................9Variations ...........................................................................................................................9
Wave ..................................................................................................................................9Contrast Curve Panel ............................................................................................................10
Filter Panel ...........................................................................................................................10
Navigator Panel ....................................................................................................................10
Palette Panel ........................................................................................................................11
Layers Panel .........................................................................................................................12
Timeline Panel ......................................................................................................................12
Edit Fields .................................................................................................................................14
The Menu Bar ...........................................................................................................................16
File Menu .............................................................................................................................16
Edit Menu .............................................................................................................................18
Scene Menu..........................................................................................................................18
Filter Menu ...........................................................................................................................19
View Menu ...........................................................................................................................19
Window Menu ......................................................................................................................19
Community Menu .................................................................................................................20
Help Menu ............................................................................................................................20
Animation.................................................................................................................................21
1. Create a New Scene ..........................................................................................................21
2. Playback Speed and Playback Looping ..............................................................................22
3

3. Work with Timeline ..........................................................................................................23
4. Animate fields (simple example) .......................................................................................24
5. Experiment with Modifiers ...............................................................................................26
6. Rendering Animation Preview ...........................................................................................28
7. Final Render......................................................................................................................29
Creating, Opening and Saving Scene .........................................................................................31
Creating a New Scene ...........................................................................................................31
Opening a Scene ...................................................................................................................31
Saving a Scene ......................................................................................................................31
Closing an Application ..........................................................................................................32
Publish an Image to Gallery ......................................................................................................33
Publish from application .......................................................................................................33
Publish from Community website .........................................................................................33
Edit your Community profile and artworks in Gallery............................................................33
Keyboard Shortcuts ..................................................................................................................34
Copyright & Credits ..................................................................................................................36
Amberlight End-User Software License Agreement ..................................................................37

4

Getting Started
Installing and Registering Amberlight
Download & Install
After purchasing Amberlight, you will be redirected to a page where you create a Community
account by entering your unique username and password. This Community account will serve
for registering your Amberlight. You will also receive an email with a download link.
Mac OS X Users
Download a .dmg file from link provided in a registration email. Locate the Amberlight Installer
file named "Amberlight 2.dmg”. Double-click on the installer to complete the installation.
Windows Users
Download a .zip file from link provided in a registration email. Locate the Amberlight Installer
file named "Amberlight 2.exe”. Double-click on the .exe installer to complete the installation.

Registration
Fill in your email address or username and password of your Community account.
Please check if you are connected to the internet, the internet connection is required for
activation to check the registration details.

Application Launch
You’ll see an Intro Tutorial during first launch of an application, or after every updating to thenewer version. This tutorial will guide you through the most essential Amberlight tools. You canrun an Intro Tutorial from a Menu -> Help anytime.

System Requirements
Intel or AMD processor, OpenGL 2.0 graphic card, 1GB RAM, 40 MB free disk space, Windows
7, 8, 10, or Mac OS X 10.12 and newer.

5Getting Support for AmberlightIf you need help using Amberlight, please refer to the included manual first. We tried to makeit easy to read and full of information you may need to know.
If you have any question, technical issue with Amberlight, or you would like just to greet us,
you are welcome to send us an email at support@escapemotions.com.
Before asking questions please visit the forum on Escape Motions Community first:
escapemotions.com/community. If the answer is not there, please add your computerconfiguration to your email (Windows / Mac OS, 32 / 64bit OS, processor, graphics card,
memory). This will help us provide answers much faster.

Community
You are welcome to visit the Escape Motions Community where you can join in discussion
about the software, get tips and tricks, share your feedback, create your own portfolio, post to
online Gallery or download assets.
To login to Community, use your Community account.
Let’s keep in touch on our social channels as well - click on any icon and visit our pages on
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, DeviantArt and Behance.

6Amberlight Interface

1 - Viewport
2 - Scene Panel
3 - Parameters Panel
4 - Modifiers Panel
5 - Contrast Curve Panel
6 - Filter Panel
7 - Navigator Panel
8 - Palette Panel
9 - Layers Panel
10 - Timeline Panel
This is a default Amberlight interface. You can change it according to your needs.
TIP: All panels are dockable - you can modify, change positions and adjust the width of panels.

7

Scene Panel
Fields - Set the number of fields (1-12).
/- Add or remove selected fields.

Edit - Switch to Edit fields mode.
Random - Random scene and fields.
Render - Render actual frame.
Render animation - Render animation preview.
Step - Set the number of render steps - iterations. If you
would like to have smoothly rendered scene, set it to10000. If you need a print quality set higher number.
Use actual value - Use the value from Step as a final
value.
Raster - Select raster value (1-8). Set Raster to higher
values for preview purposes, the rendering will be faster.

Parameters Panel
Position X - Set the position X of the field.
Position Y - Set the position Y of the field.
Force - Set the force of the field.
Intensity - Set the intensity of the field.
Cut-off - Set the cut-off of the field.
More about fields parameters and how to edit them canbe found in ‘Edit Fields’ section.

8

Modifiers Panel
Experiment with field modifiers and manipulate the final look. Modifiers are divided into:

Variations
There are two types of variations to choose from:
Random - Fields will create random shapes andformations.
Uniform - Fields will create uniform shapes andformations.
Number - Select number of variations (1-50). Number
affects how many variations will be created on the scene.
Scale - Scale the variations (1-100). Scale affects the
position of each variation. When the scale is lower, thevariations will be rendered closer to each other. Whenthe scale is higher, variations will be rendered further
from each other.

Wave
Wave is a modifier, which affect the final look. There are
six different types of wave modifier to choose from:
None - No wave modifier is used.
Circle - Circle wave.
Square - Square wave.
Vertical - Vertical wave.
Horizontal - Horizontal wave.
Frequency - Set the rate with which waves will be
repeated on the scene (1-100).
Amplitude - Set the amplitude of the wave (1-100). The
amplitude is half the distance between the minimum andmaximum values of the wave.

9

Contrast Curve Panel
There are four different contrast settings:
Base - Set the base of the contrast curve - shadows(1-100).
Peak - Set the peaks of the curve - highlights (1-100).
Limit - Set the limit of the curve peak (1-100).

Filter Panel
Filter parameters to experiment with:
Alpha Mask - Amberlight’s image opacity (0 - 100).
Tint -Turn on and off tint gradient, rotate tint and set the
tint color and radius (0 - 100).
Glow -Turn on and off glow effect.
Radius - Set the glow radius (0 - 100).
Strength - Set the glow strength (0 - 100).

Navigator Panel
Zoom Out - Zoom out from your scene (at a minimum
size of 5%).
Zoom In - Zoom in on your scene (at a maximum sizeof 2000%).
Zoom Slider - Set the zoom using the zoom slider (1 2000%).
Reset Zoom - Check the zoom value here. Press the
button to reset the zoom to 100%.
Fit to screen - Set the scene to fit the screen.

10Palette Panel
Choose and set up your gradient transition for scene.
Click on the color button you want to change and selectthe color from palette. You can switch on/off the color
you want to use in the gradient.
Palette - Open the system color palette.
Gradient to White - Change gradient transition towhite color.
Gradient to Black - Change gradient transition to
black color.
Flip - Flip gradient.
Invert - Invert colors in gradient.
Shift - Shift gradient colors to right.
H | S | L - Change hue, saturation and lightness for allcolors in gradient.

Palette - Select the color.
Color set - A palette of the default set of colors. You can add custom colors - they will be saved
for a further painting project even when an application is closed.
/- Add and remove colors from Color set.

Gradients - Select the gradient from the Gradients list.
/- Add and remove gradients from the lists.
To use a monochromatic color instead of a gradient, set
the first color of the gradient to black, the middle to thecolor you want to use and the last color to white.

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Layers Panel
Use Layers panel window to edit and manipulate withlayers.
Blending - Layer blending mode.
Opacity - Set the opacity of the layer (0 - 100).
Eye - Show or hide the active layer.
Background Color - Show / Hide Background Color andselect its color. To save a scene with transparent
background, hide the background color by clicking the Eye
icon and save as .png.
Import Image - Import the second image forcomposition.
Clear Layer - Clear the Amberlight or Image layer.

Timeline Panel
Use Timeline panel to create animation, edit and manipulate frames and keys.

Playback Range Start Time - Set the start time of playback range. You can change it by enteringa new start time. If you enter a value that is greater than the Playback Range End Time, thePlayback Range Start Time is shifted to one unit less than Playback Range End Time.
Playback Range End Time - Set the end time of playback range. You can change it by entering a
new end time. If you enter a value that is less than the Playback Range Start Time, the Playback
Range End Time is shifted to one unit more than Playback Range Start Time.
Animation Start Time - Set the number of the first frame in animation.
Animation End Time - Set the number of the last frame in animation.
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Current Frame - The entry field indicates the current frame. You can change the current frame
by entering a new value.
Range Slider - Set the playback range.
Time Slider - Control the playback range, keys and selections within the playback range.
Rendered Range - Green line indicates frames, which have already been rendered via ‘renderanimation’ function.
Selection - Select multiple keys to copy, cut, paste or delete.
Playback Controls:
Go to Start - Go to playback range start time.
Previous Keyframe - Go to the previous keyframe.
Previous Frame - Go to the previous frame.
Play - Play the animation. When animation is playing, the button changes to Stop button
Next Frame - Go to the next frame.
Next Keyframe - Go to the next keyframe.
Go to End - Go to the playback range end time.
Add Keyframe - Add a new keyframe.
Remove Keyframe - Remove selected keyframe or keyframes.
Auto Key - Automatic keyframing. Key will be automatically created on the current frame. Turn
off if you want to set keys manually.
All Fields - Key frame all fields. Keys will be created for all fields. Turn off if you want to key
only a selected field.
Scene Settings - Open Scene Settings dialog window.

13

Edit Fields
Press Edit button in Scene panel or Left Mouse Button on the scene to edit fields. You can set
number of fields in Scene panel from 1 to 12. Every field is represented as a circle with position
X, Y and 3 parameters. With these parameters you can set how the fields will influenceparticles.

Field parameters
Center Position - (A) - Press LMB (Left Mouse Button)
on a center circle button and set position of the field
on a scene. You can set it manually in the Parameters
panel, where you enter values for Position X and
Position Y.
Force - (B) - Press LMB on a button and set the forceof the field with moving it left and right. Right fromthe center has the field positive force (+) and on a leftfrom the center is negative force (-). You can set it
manually in the Parameters panel.
Intensity - (C) - Press LMB on a button and set thefield intensity with moving it up and down. Distancefrom the center sets the intensity value. Up from thecenter is higher and down is lower. With thisparameter you change how intense is the influence ofthe field on the particles. You can set it manually in
the Parameters panel.
Cut-off - (D) - Press LMB on a button and set the field
cut-off with moving it down from the circle center.
Distance from the circle center sets the distance,
where the particles will stop from the field. You can
set it manually in the Parameters panel.

14

Working with fields
To copy the properties of selected field, use Ctrl + C / Cmd + C or Edit -> Copy Field Properties.
To paste the properties to selected field, use Ctrl + V / Cmd + V or Edit -> Paste Field
Properties.
To duplicate selected field or fields, use Ctrl +D / Cmd + D or Edit -> Duplicate Fields.
Select all fields using Ctrl + A / Cmd +A or Edit -> Select All Fields.
You can also select fields by click and drag to pan, scale or rotate selected fields.
Use Shift to only pan the fields and Control / Cmd to only rotate the fields.
The center of the rotation is displayed as ( + ) symbol. You can place the center anywhere on
the scene by click and drag ( + ) to desired position.

View grids to position the fields more precisely via menu Scene -> Snap to Grid. The center ofthe field, the center of selection and keyframes are snapped to grid.
You can set the number of grids in Preferences Panel.

15

The Menu Bar
File - Contains items related to loading, saving and exporting your images.
Edit - Contains items related to editing tools and fields.
Scene - Contains items related to editing tools, the scene and rendering.
Filter - Contains items related to the image filters.
View - Contains items related to the viewport.
Windows - Contains items related to dock panels and user interface.
Community - Contains links to Community forum, gallery, your account and publish option.
Help - Contains items that let you get help on the application, or look for updates on website.

File Menu
The File Menu contains items related to your scene. They work as follows:
New... - Open a dialog that allows you to create a new scene with new settings.
You can set the width and height of the new scene in pixels, centimeters or inches, set the
playback speed in frames per second (FPS), select playback looping, background color andimage DPI:

16

You can also choose from variety of scene size presets or add / remove presets using/
buttons.
Open... - Open a file dialog that allows you to load a scene from disk.
Open recent… - Open one of the last saved works.
Save... - Save your scene in .amb, .png, .jpg, .bmp and .tif file format. If you have not saved it
before, you are prompted to enter a name.
Save As… - Save a copy of your current scene as a new one.
Import Image... - Import .png, .jpg, .bmp and .tif image to Image layer. Image is resized to fit
the actual scene size, but you can change it to any size. Press Enter to confirm or Esc to cancel.
Export Image… - Export .png, .jpg, .bmp, and .tif image file from Amberlight.
Preferences… - Set General and Keyboard preferences.
- General- Startup Screen - Show “New Scene” dialog at application startup. Check thisoption if you want the New Scene dialog to open every time you launch theapplication.
- Scene - Zoom at cursor. Check this option if you want to zoom at the cursor,
not at the scene center.
- Jpeg compression - Set the quality of jpeg file.
- Interface - Set the scale to resize the interface (90-200%).
- Spinbox editing sensitivity - Set the sensitivity of spinbox editing for Mouse or
Tablet.
- Memory - Set the maximum used memory.
- Grid - Set the number of horizontal and vertical grids (maximum is 100).
- Keyboard - Set custom keyboard shortcuts. Click Reset to reset the current shortcut orDelete to delete the shortcut. Click Reset All to reset all shortcuts.
Click OK to continue or Cancel if you decide not to.
Quit - Close the application. (Only on Windows)
For more information on creating, opening and saving your images, see the ‘Creating a New
Scene’ section later on in the manual.
TIP: You can also Drag and Drop an image from any application, file manager or internet
browser directly to Amberlight if the application allows it.

17

Edit Menu
Undo - Undo the last operation you performed. Maximum number of undo steps is set to 100.
Redo - Redo the last operation you undid.
Copy Field Properties - Copy the properties of selected field.
Paste Field Properties - Paste the properties on selected field.
Duplicate Fields - Duplicate selected field or fields.
Select All Fields - Select all fields.

Scene Menu
Scene Settings… - Open a dialog that allows you to set a scene size. You can select if you want
to Keep aspect ratio of the scene and if you want to Scale fields.
Edit - Edit fields, their position and parameters - Force, Intensity and Cut-off.
Edit Trajectory - Edit keys and animation trajectory tangents. Each key has two tangents, left
and a right. Moving tangents of a key changes the shape of the animation trajectory.
Reset Tangents - Reset the tangents to default.
Random - Random scene and fields parameters.
Snap to Grid - Use grid to position the fields more precisely. You can set the number of grids in
Preferences Panel.
Crop - Select the area you want to crop. Cropped area will be placed on the scene and fields
will be scaled accordingly.
Render Image - Render actual frame.
Render Animation - Render animation to get a preview of how the final render will look like.
Final Render - Render final animation and save to computer. Select the path, filename and fileformat - either as an image sequence in .jpg, .png, .bmp, .tif or as a video in .mov or .mkv fileformat.

18

Filter Menu
Tint - Turn on and off Tint filter. Set the color, rotation and strength.
Glow - Turn on and off Glow filter. Set the glow Radius and Strength.
Tile - Tile layer horizontally and vertically for repetitive images.

View Menu
Zoom In - Zoom in on your scene (at maximum size of 2000%).
Zoom Out - Zoom out from your scene (at a minimum size of 5%).
Zoom 100% - Check up a zoom value. Press the button to reset the zoom to 100%.
Fit to Screen - Set the scene to fit the screen.
Stay on Top - Application will stay always on top of other applications.
Enter Full Screen - Enter full screen mode.

Window Menu
The Window Menu contains items related to dock panels and interface:
Scene - Show or hide Scene dock panel.
Parameters - Show or hide Parameters dock panel.
Modifiers - Show or hide Modifiers dock panel.
Contrast Curve - Show or hide Contrast curve dock panel.
Filter - Show or hide Filter dock panel.
Navigator - Show or hide Navigator dock panel.
Palette - Show or hide Palette dock panel.
Layers - Show or hide Layers dock panel.
Timeline - Show or hide Timeline dock panel.
Uncheck the panel to hide it from UI. Check the panel to bring it to user interface.

19Community Menu
Forum - Visit Escape Motions Community forum to browse the FAQs, find useful information,join in discussion about the software, get tips and tricks, share your feedback and more.
Gallery - Browse the Community gallery and post your paintings.
My Account - Visit your Community account where you can upload your painting to the gallery,
edit your profile and change password, or download your purchased software and assets.
Publish… - Publish your painting to the Community Gallery. Enter the name of the painting;optionally write a description and tags.

Help Menu
Help - Open this document.
Send Feedback... - Send us feedback if you have any problem, some idea or just like theprogram. You can choose from 3 feedback types:
Bravo - Would you like to express how cool Amberlight is?
Idea - Do you have any feature in mind that would be a great addition to Amberlight?
Bug - Did you spot any strange behavior when using Amberlight?
Just enter your email address and write us a message - we read each and every one. Amberlight Website - Link to website: http://amberlight.escapemotions.com.
Intro Tutorial - Show the Intro Tutorial. This tutorial will guide you through the most essential
Amberlight tools.
About Amberlight - Get some basic information on Amberlight, copyright and credits. (In Help
menu only on Windows).
Show Library Folder - Show folder where gradients are saved.

20

Animation
This section describes how to create animation in Amberlight:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Create a new scene
Set Playback speed and Playback looping
Work with timeline
Animate fields (simple example)
Experiment with modifiers
Render animation preview
Final render

1. Create a New Scene
In this section we’ll describe how to create a new scene in Amberlight:
1. Click File -> New… and a New Scene window appears:

212. Set the width, height and DPI of the scene manually or select from the list of scene size
presets.
3. Set the playback speed in FPS and enable / disable playback looping (more about playback
speed and playback looping in the following section).
4. Save your custom scene settings using
button for future reference.
5. Set the background color. Choose from Black, White or Transparent (None) or select yourown Custom color from the system color palette.
6. Click OK to continue or Cancel if you decide not to.
You can change these settings anytime during your work on animation from the menu Scene ->Scene Settings or directly from the timeline by clicking on Scene Settings button.

2. Playback Speed and Playback Looping
When creating a new scene you can easily set FPS values and Playback looping. FPS refers toframes per second or how many frames need to be drawn for every second that goes by in realtime. This feature is essential when considering how long should the final video fromAmberlight be. The recommended fps setting is between 25-30 fps, however this depends on
what purpose the video will be used for. Set the Playback looping, if you want the video tocreate a continuous repetitive video outcome.
You can change the playback speed and looping before the Final render.
TIP: To count how many frames you need for your video, think about your final video length inframes per seconds. If Playback speed is set to 30 FPS and you need the final video to be 30
seconds long, you will need to create 900 frames (30 FPS x 30 seconds).

22

3. Work with Timeline
Use Timeline panel to create animation, edit and manipulate frames and keys.

Set the number of frames by setting Animation Start Time and Animation End Time.
Manually set the Playback Range Start Time and Playback Range End Time. Click and dragRange Slider to move around the timeline. The Time Slider displays the playback range andkeys you’ve set for selected frames.
The Playback Controls control animation playback. You may recognize the conventional
buttons for play and rewind (return to the start time). The stop button appears only when the
animation is playing. To find out which operation a button represents, hold the mouse pointerover it:
Go to Start - Go to playback range start time.
Previous Keyframe - Go to the previous keyframe.
Previous Frame - Go to the previous frame.
Play - Play the animation. When animation is playing, the button changes to Stop button
Next Frame - Go to the next frame.
Next Keyframe - Go to the next keyframe.
Go to End - Go to the playback range end time.
Add Keyframe - Add a new keyframe.
Remove Keyframe - Remove selected keyframe or keyframes.
Auto Key - Automatic keyframing. Key will be automatically created on the actual frame. Turn
off if you want to set keys manually.
All Fields - Key frame all fields. Keys will be created for all fields. Turn off if you want to key
only a selected field.
23

Scene Settings - Open Scene Settings dialog window.
You can manipulate with a selected key or keys
directly in the timeline.
Move a key using click & drag. Select multiple
keys at once by click & drag or with Shift key.
Move them or right-click the selection andchoose to Copy, Cut, Paste or Delete selectedkeys.

4. Animate fields (simple example)
Below you can find an example of a simple animation. We will create animation with two fields.
1. Set the starting position of fields. Default
number of fields on the scene is 4. Easily add or
remove fields using/
buttons in the
Scene panel or type in the exact number in the
Fields section. To edit fields, either click Edit
button in the Scene panel or click directly on thescene with left mouse button. You can add or
remove the fields anytime during the process.
More about editing fields can be found in ‘Edit
Fields’ section.

2. Move to frame 8 on timeline.

24

3. Select all fields using Ctrl + A or highlight themusing multi-selection (click and drag).
Move fields to desired position.
As "Auto Key" is on, key will be automaticallycreated on frame 8.

4. Move to frame 15 on timeline.

5. Click on field 1 and move it to desired
position.
Key for this field will be automatically created onframe 15.

6. Click on field 2 and move it to desired
position.
Key for this field will be automatically created onframe 15.

25

To view the animation trajectory of a field, click on the field’s center.
The keys on the trajectory are displayed as nodes. You can edit the position of the keys directlyon the curve.
To edit keys and animation trajectory, go to menu bar: “Scene” -> “Edit trajectory”. The
tangents on every key will appear. Each key has two tangents, left and a right. Moving tangentsof a key changes the shape of the animation trajectory:

To reset tangents to default, go to menu: “Scene” -> “Reset tangents”.

5. Experiment with Modifiers
Modifiers will help you shape and change the final look of the scene. They are divided into twogroups: Variations and Wave.
Variations
There are two types of variations to choose from:
Random - Fields will create random shapes and formations.
Uniform - Fields will create uniform shapes and formations.
You can select the Number of variations that affects how many variations will be created on
the scene. Besides adding variations, you can also scale them. Scale affects the position of eachvariation: when set to low values, the variations will be rendered closer to each other. Whenthe scale is higher, the distance between each variation will be greater.

26

Examples of random and uniform variations:

Wave
There are five different types of wave to choose from:
None - No wave modifier is used.
Circle - Circle wave.
Square - Square wave.
Vertical - Vertical wave.
Horizontal - Horizontal wave.
Examples of wave modifier types:

Set Frequency of the waves, or in other words, the rate at which waves are repeated on thescene. Choose how strong the waves should be with Amplitude slider. The amplitude
represents half the distance between the minimum and maximum values of the wave.

27

Examples of a square wave modifier with different frequency and amplitude settings:

6. Rendering Animation Preview
To check how animation will actually look, you can use Render animation button in the Scene
panel. You don’t have to render animation preview before running Final render. Renderanimation serves only for preview purposes.
With Raster set to 1, the render will be smoother, the image will be of higher quality but it will
also take more time to render the animation. Set Raster to 8 to get faster rendering with low
quality preview.
Frames that have already been rendered in the animation preview are marked with green on
the timeline.

28Note: Rendering is a compute-intensive operation. When you have many keys and frames set, it
may be time consuming. We suggest you to set Raster to higher values to get the approximate
look of animation much quicker. The quality of the animation preview does not correspond toquality of the final render.

7. Final Render
When you are satisfied with animation, select from Menu: Scene -> Final render.
Select path, filename and file format - either as an image sequence in .jpg, .png, .bmp, .tif or asa video in .avi, mov, .mkv or .webm format.

For image sequence, set frame padding andanimation extension.
Choose the start frame, end frame and number ofrendering steps.
Click Render to start final render or Cancel if you
decide not to.
Click Apply to apply the changes.
You can create animation from the image
sequence using third-party applications.

29For video, set frame rate in FPS. Select the codec
for video format:.avi: h264, huffYUV (lossless compression).mov: h264, h265
.mkv: h264, h265, huffYUV (loseless compression).webm: VP8
Choose between basic or advanced quality
settings.
Basic - set the quality in %. The higher is thequality, the larger will be the file.
Advanced - set the advanced settings for selected
codec, including profile, level, bitrate encoding,target / maximum bitrate and keyframe distance.
Check lossless compression if you want theoriginal and decompressed video to be identical.
Lossless compression option is not available for
VP8 codec.
These settings are for advanced users who arefamiliar with H.264, H.265 and VP8 codecs.

Choose the start frame and end frame and number of rendering steps.
Click Render to start final render or Cancel if you decide not to.
Click Apply to apply the changes.
When the final render starts, the application calculates the estimated time of the render:

Note: The more steps you set for final render, the longer it will take to render the final
animation. Large animations can take even few hours. We suggest you to render suchanimations when you don’t use your computer actively, for example during the night.
30

Creating, Opening and Saving Scene
Creating a New Scene
To create a new scene, select the New... option from the File Menu. When you do this, theNew scene window appears. This window lets you set the size of your new scene, and set up
the settings you’re going to use. In ‘Image Size Info’ section you can set the image print
resolution in DPI.
You can choose from scene size presets and add / remove your own using the/

buttons.

Set the playback speed in FPS and playback looping.
You can select the color of the background selecting Custom… in a scroll-down menu. The
choice of the preset Black, White and None (transparent) background is available as well.
Finally, click OK to create a new scene, or Cancel if you decide not to.

Opening a Scene
To open a scene, select the Open... option from the File Menu. This panel lets you open an
image (PNG, JPG, BMP, TIFF) or previously saved image (in AMB file format) and set up theproperties. When opening a previously saved image, the image will be again re-rendered.
Finally, click OK to open the image, or Cancel if you decide not to.
To open a recently saved image, select the Open Recent option from the File Menu. This option
lets you select one of the last saved artworks in .amb, .png, .jpg, .bmp and .tif file formats.

Saving a Scene
To save your scene, use the Save... option in the File Menu. The native format is an AMB fileformat, which contains all the information about the image and the layers. Use this format if
you want to edit scene later. When you open a saved scene later, the scene will be again rerendered. We advise you to save your work regularly to avoid any problems while getting used
to new software.
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If you wish to save your scene with specific settings or in a form that can be read by otherapplications, use the Save As... option in the File Menu. It allows you to save your scene as a
PNG, JPEG, BMP or TIFF file.
Note: Please be aware that only AMB file contains all the image information. PNG, TIF and BMP
file save only color and transparency information. Transparency is not saved in JPG format.
Finally, click OK to save the painting or Cancel if you decide not to.

Closing an Application
If you want to close an application, you can choose from the following options depending on
your operating system:
Windows user
- click on File Menu -> Quit, or- press a Close button in the upper rightcorner of an application, or- use a shortcut Ctrl+W or Alt+F4

Mac OS user
- click on Amberlight Menu-> Quit, or- press a Quit button in the upper left
corner of an application, or- use a shortcut Cmd-Q on Mac OS

Note: Please don’t forget to save your image before closing the application.

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Publish an Image to Gallery
You can publish a painting to online Gallery directly from Amberlight application or via
Escape Motions Community website escapemotions.com/community.

Publish from application
Go from Amberlight's menu Community > Publish. Set Picture name, Descriptions and Tags andclick Publish button. Your picture will be published on the Gallery from your Community
account.

Publish from Community website
Log in to your Community account at escapemotions.com/community.
To publish your painting, go to My Profile and click the Upload icon. You can drag and drop
your files or upload files from your computer (Browse). Select file you want to upload and click
Upload button. After the uploading is finished, enter the Picture name, Tags, Description andselect the Software it was created in. To finish, click Save.
Note: Only images may be posted to our online Gallery. To share a video, upload it to Youtube
or Vimeo video-sharing websites.

Edit your Community profile and artworks in Gallery
On your Community profile, click Edit Profile button - you can edit your username, first and last
name, change the password, write a short bio and add your social accounts.
If you wish to delete your account, click “Delete my account” - you will be sent a confirmation
email. After you confirm, your Community account will be deleted.
To upload or edit your artworks, click the Portfolio tab.
To access download links to your purchased Escape Motions software, go to Purchases tab.

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Keyboard Shortcuts
Windows

Mac OS

New...
Open...
Save
Save As...
Quit
Import Image...
Publish mage...
Preferences

Ctrl-N
Ctrl-O
Ctrl-S
Ctrl-Shift-S
Ctrl-Q
Ctrl-I
Ctrl-P
Ctrl-,

Cmd-N
Cmd-O
Cmd-S
Cmd-Shift-S
Cmd-Q
Cmd-I
Cmd-P
Cmd-,

Undo
Redo

Ctrl-Z
Ctrl-Shift-Z

Cmd-Z
Cmd-Shift-Z

Copy Field Properties
Paste Field Properties
Duplicate Fields
Select All Fields
Delete Fields

Ctrl-C
Ctrl-V
Ctrl-D
Ctrl-A
Del

Cmd-C
Cmd-V
Cmd-D
Cmd-A
Del

Scene Settings...

Ctrl-E

Cmd-E

Edit Mode
Pan Selected Fields
Scale Selected Fields
Rotate Selected Fields

EE

Left Mouse Button (LMB)
Shift + LMB
Ctrl + LMB

Shift + LMB
Cmd + LMB

Increase Value +1
Decrease Value -1
Increase Value +10
Decrease Value -10

Up
Down
Pg Up
Pg Down

Up
Down
Pg Up
Pg Down

Move Scene

Right Mouse Button (RMB)

Previous Keyframe
Next Keyframe
Previous Frame
Next Frame
Play / Stop

Ctrl-Left
Ctrl-Right
Left
Right

Cmd-Left
Cmd-Right
Left
Right

Add Keyframe
Remove Keyframe

S
Del

S
Del

Zoom In

Ctrl - +Cmd - +Spacebar

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Zoom Out
Zoom 100%
Zoom In | Out
Fit to Screen

Ctrl - Ctrl - 0

Help

F1

Ctrl-.

Cmd - Cmd - 0
Mouse Scroll or Alt + Mouse Scroll
Cmd-.
Cmd + ?

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Copyright & Credits
Amberlight © 2013-2020 Escape Motions, s.r.o.
Amberlight © 2009-2012 Peter Blaškovič

Escape Motions Team:Peter Blaškovič, Michal Fapšo, Miroslav Sedlák, Ľuboš Tóth, Anton Poživenec, Pavol Obuch,
Veronika Klimeková, Andrea Hornáková, Jaroslav Kaša, Pavol Valovič.

Special Thanks to:Everyone who contributed with ideas, suggestions, or helped to finalize Amberlight, especiallyto Mark Schafer, Shannon Hoppe, Casey Herbert, Tomáš Lancz and Rastislav Piovarči.
Translation and corrections: Tanya Hayman, Veronika Klimeková, Marta Fernandez, Andrea
Hornáková, Irene Briz.
User Interface Icons: "Batch" by Adam Whitcroft.

Libraries & Tools:
This application has been developed with the following libraries:
Qt 4.8 - LGPL license (2.1) - http://qt-project.org/downloads/
QuaZIP - LGPL license (2.1) - http://sourceforge.net/projects/quazip/
CryptoPP - Boost Software License (1.0) - http://www.cryptopp.com/
FFmpeg with libx264, libx265 and libvpx - https://www.ffmpeg.org/
H.264/AVC license by MPEGLA - http://www.mpegla.com
H.265/HEVC license by MPEGLA - http://www.mpegla.com
Complete list of licenses is available in the installation folder: Amberlight 2/Licenses.
Thanks to God for all creative ideas.

36

Amberlight End-User Software License Agreement
Copyright 2013-2020 Escape Motions, s.r.o. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2009-2013 Peter Blaskovic. All Rights Reserved.
This license is a legal agreement between you and Escape Motions for the use of Amberlight
software (the "Software"). By downloading, installing, copying, or otherwise using theSoftware, you acknowledge that you have read terms and conditions of this license,
understand them, and agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree with these terms andconditions, Escape Motions is unwilling to license the Software to you, and you are notauthorized and may not use the Software.
Permitted Use
You may install the Software on multiple computers provided that not more than one of thosecomputers is in use simultaneously and that those computers are solely for your own personaluse.
The Software may be installed on a computer that is for multiple users but it may not be
installed on more than one computer regardless of whether those computers are operated
simultaneously or not.
Users may use the Software for commercial, or for-profit activities as well as for personal, noncommercial, or non-profit activities.
You may not remove the copyrights notices from the Software. You may make one (1) copy of
the Software for back-up or archival purposes.
Restrictions
This is a SINGLE COPY SOFTWARE LICENSE. The Software is copyrighted and protected by law
and international treaty. This is a license, not a transfer of title, and unless you have been
granted prior, written consent from Escape Motions you may not:a, Reproduce, distribute, or transfer the Software, or portions thereof, to any third party.
b, Sell, rent, lease, assign, or sublet the Software or portions thereof.
c, Grant rights to any other person.
d, Modify, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or create derivative works based on the
Software or the documentation in whole or in part.
e, Use the Software in violation of any international law or regulation.
You must not intentionally or unintentionally make the Software available on any web server,
ftp server, file sharing network, shared directory, or other location where any other person canacquire a copy of the Software. You are responsible for keeping the Software safe from being
copied by others.

37

Display of Copyright Notices
All copyright and proprietary notices and logos within the Software files must remain intact.
Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Escape Motions for any third-party claims, actions orsuits, as well as any related expenses, liabilities, damages, settlements or fees arising from youruse or misuse of the Software, or a violation of any terms of this license.
The Software may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors, so changes and/or
updates may be affected without notice. Escape Motions may also make improvements and/or
other changes to the Software at any time without notice.
Disclaimer Of Warranty
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED \"AS IS\", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED ORIMPLIED, AS TO THE SOFTWARE OR ITS OPERATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. FURTHER, PETER BLASKOVIC DOES NOT WARRANTTHAT THE SOFTWARE OR ANY RELATED SERVICE WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE.
H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC License Notice
To the extent that the Software contains AVC and HEVC encoding and/or decoding
functionality, commercial use of AVC and HEVC requires additional licensing and the following
provision applies: THE AVC AND HEVC FUNCTIONALITY IN THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED HEREIN
ONLY FOR THE PERSONAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE OF A CONSUMER TO ENCODE VIDEO INCOMPLIANCE WITH THE AVC AND HEVC STANDARD ("AVC VIDEO" / “HEVC VIDEO”) AND/OR
DECODE AVC VIDEO THAT WAS ENCODED BY A CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL AND
NON-COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY AND/OR AVC AND HEVC VIDEO THAT WAS OBTAINED FROM A
VIDEO PROVIDER LICENSED TO PROVIDE AVC AND HEVC VIDEO.
INFORMATION REGARDING OTHER USES AND LICENSES MAY BE OBTAINED FROM MPEG LA
L.L.C. SEE HTTP://WWW.MPEGLA.COM.
Limitations Of Liability
YOU ASSUME ALL RISK ASSOCIATED WITH THE INSTALLATION AND USE OF THE SOFTWARE. IN
NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OF THE SOFTWARE BE LIABLE FOR
CLAIMS, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN CONNECTION WITH
THE SOFTWARE. LICENSE HOLDERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR DETERMINING THE
APPROPRIATENESS OF USE AND ASSUME ALL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH ITS USE, INCLUDINGBUT NOT LIMITED TO THE RISKS OF PROGRAM ERRORS, DAMAGE TO EQUIPMENT, ANY LOSTPROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF DATA OR SOFTWARE PROGRAMS, OR
UNAVAILABILITY OR INTERRUPTION OF OPERATIONS.

38