Online Docs : Background Tab

This section is fairly self-explanatory but a couple of the options may need a little extra documentation.

Background Type
Select what type of background you would like to display behind the Render Effects that Fluid will render.

• Solid Color – Fluid will use a solid color background. You can change the color by clicking the small color swatch at the bottom of the background preview image.
• Desktop – Fluid will take a screenshot of your desktop when it starts and each time it resets. This is a great option to use if you are using rendering options that have transparency to them because you will see your desktop in the background.
• Current Desktop Background – Fluid will check with the Finder's preferences and use your current desktop background image as the background image. This is a great setting to use if you are going to run Fluid in the background of the desktop using utilities like BackLight.
• Image – You may drop any image you would like onto the background preview area and it will be used as the background image in Fluid. This includes images from your web browser. Images will be reloaded each time Fluid resets, so if you have Fluid set to reset every minute and you have dropped an image from a webcam that updates every minute then you will have a new background from the webcam everytime Fluid resets. Way cool!

Background Effects
By using one of the Background Effects you can choose to have Fluid affect your background image too. Distort causes each pixel in the background image to be pushed around by the liquid and creates some interesting designs. This is the exact effect that Alias/Wavefront is using for their PC-only Maya Fluid Screensaver. In Fluid, it is but a minor option. Once again the Mac does it better :).

Warp causes the background to wave and flow in the liquid but it remains fairly intact. It is much like a flag in the wind.

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