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HUE: Variant Fan-Out

How to use the variant fan-out feature as a retoucher in Hue.

Written by Viviana

Variant Fan-Out in Hue allows retouchers to automatically create new files defined by preset asset requirements. Using variant creation via fan-out, studios are able to maintain exact requirements while keeping extra work for their internal retouching teams to a minimum.


Variant Fan-Out

The Fan-Out step defines which post-production step the variant assets should be created during. When fan-out is enabled for Internal Post, Creative Force creates the new files with respect to the specifications defined in the preset.

With a single click, Hue will automatically create a new file format according to the setup in your presets. You can keep all the core retouching effects, and Hue will take care of the outputs for you.

Click Fan Out, Hue will then show you 2 options:

  • Duplicates: HUE will keep all the work that you have done on the image and make a copy with the respective dimensions as per the setup in your presets

    • When Duplicate is selected: Hue will duplicate everything of the main file that you are working on (including edit effects, color profile, dpi...etc) except for the dimensions. The dimensions of the duplicates will be the same as set in the variant preset.

  • Blanks: HUE will create a completely blank file so you can start working again

    • When Blank is selected: Hue can copy over 3 specs from the main which are color profile, bit per channel, and dpi. For the dimension spec:

      • If the dimension is set to Pixel or height and width, it will copy the spec number.

      • If the dimension is set to ratio or N/A: copy the dimension of the main.

Click the Settings wheel, you will be able to see the additional functions when duplicating files. Both are selected by default.

  • Scale to fit canvas

  • Center on canvas

When both boxes are checked, the following scenarios will happen after the file is created:

  • If the aspect ratio of the Variant is equal to the Main: Hue will resize the image to fit the dimensions of the workfile canvas as defined in preset.

  • If the aspect ratio of the Variant is proportionally taller than the Main, Hue will action in the below order:

    • Resize the variant image so that the height equals the height of the workfile canvas/crop.

    • Then, center the image on canvas by aligning it to the horizontal middle of the canvas.

  • If the aspect ratio of the Variant is proportionally wider than the Main, Hue will action in the below order:

    • Resize the variant image so that the width equals the width of the workfile canvas/crop.

    • Then, center the image on canvas by aligning it to the vertical middle of the canvas.

Note:

  • When creating a variant, Hue will remember the previous export option (according to the preset variant ID) that the user chose, whether it’s a preset or manually changing each specification, and then apply it to the next task. This setting is cached in Hue's workspace folder.

  • If there are no previous export options or the preset doesn’t define the file format or there is no preset, then HUE will apply the default specifications as below:

    • format: JPG

    • qualityPercent: 100

    • progressive: true

    • embedColorProfile: true

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