Motion Graphics Software (continued)

Here are some of our favorites:

nBorisFX: Boris makes a number of excellent titling applications and plug-ins. Boris Graffiti and Boris Red are plug-ins that are compatible with over 20 different editing and compositing applications. Both plug-ins provide most of the titling functionality you’ll ever need. From simple rolls to text on a path to cool shattering effects, Boris’ plug-ins provide a tremendous amount of power and can create both 2D and 3D text. Because they plug directly into your editing application, Red and Graffiti are incredibly convenient and Boris Continuum provides a great palette of effects filters.

nRed Giant: Red Giant is most famous for Magic Bullet—the plug-in that lets you create truly great-looking film-look effects. Magic Bullet Looks offers specialized film stock presets and a range of controls to re-create things that used to be only available if shot in-camera. Magic Bullet Colorista is a sophisticated color correction plug-in, and Red Giant also offers the Primatte keyer plug-in.

nGenArts: GenArts makes the Sapphire plug-ins, famous for their ability to create sophisticated lighting effects and also the Tinder family of plugs-ins, both very popular among visual effects professionals.

nDigiEffects: DigiEffects makes two great sets of plug-ins: Damage and Delirium. The plugins in Damage help you degrade your image by adding aged film looks, video interference, camera shake, and other “bad” effects. Delirium offers an array of color and compositing tools along with glows, fog effects, and many others. Buena Depth Cue lets you adjust depth of field in post.

Motion Effects

Motion effects are possibly the most basic and commonly used effects in postproduction. When we speak of the motion features in a motion graphics or editing package, we’re not talking about features that let you control the motion of objects within a shot. In other words, you’re not going to be able to take a video clip of a basketball game and control the motion of the ball. Instead, motion control is limited to specifying the movement of an entire image. In addition to position, you can control other properties such as opacity, scale, cropping, and rotation.

Keyframes and Interpolating

In traditional hand-drawn cel animation, a director draws certain frames that indicate where a character should be at a particular time. These keyframes might occur every 10 frames, or every two minutes, depending on the amount and nature of the action in a scene. Once the keyframes are defined, a group of animators draw all of the intervening frames that are required to get from one keyframe to the next. This process is usually called in-betweening or ’tweening. It can also be referred to as interpolation, as the animators must figure out, or interpolate, which frames are required to get from one state to the next.

378 The Digital Filmmaking Handbook, 4E

This same keyframe/in-betweening approach is used in editing and effects programs to animate the properties of a clip or image. By properties, we mean the parameters and characteristics that define how a clip looks, such as position, scale, and rotation. Some packages add control over additional properties, such as distortion, opacity, cropping, or 3D rotation. Many programs also let you animate the parameters of any filters you might have applied to a layer, letting you change the amount of, say, Gaussian blur or color balance that you’ve applied to a video clip. The ability to animate all of the properties of a clip is an easy way to create complex effects (see Figure 17.7).

Most keyframe interfaces work roughly the same way:

1.Go to a particular point on the timeline.

2.Adjust the parameter you want to animate.

3.The computer will either automatically set a keyframe at that point, or you’ll have to manually tell it to set a keyframe. During playback, the computer will automatically interpolate all of the frames between your keyframes.

4.Repeat the preceding steps until your entire animation has been defined.

5.Render and play the video to see the full animation, including all of the in-between frames that the computer has interpolated.

Figure 17.7

The Timeline window from Adobe After Effects. Notice that there are many animatable properties ranging from position and opacity to parameters of filters that have been applied to the layers. In addition, you can also adjust the acceleration and velocity of an animated change.

Some programs also give you control over the velocity of an animated element. Such controls let you make an object slowly accelerate and decelerate as it moves, and they make it possible to sync the animation of a property to another element in your composition.

A discussion of the specifics of the animation controls is beyond the scope of this book. If you are not familiar with the features of your package, consult your manual. Look for topics such as animation, keyframes, and velocity.