hfx2

The World’s Top Tips for

Pinnacle Studio Video Editing software

(with some Avid Liquid snippets)

HOLLYWOOD FX,

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MODIFYING THE WEDDING ALBUM EFFECT a tutorial by Mike Shaw©

1. Open the HFX Editor and select the Wedding Album transition. (Note, if you're going to save this (Pro version), you may prefer to open the HFX Editor from the Start>Programs menu rather than Studio, since you can have a generic icon rather than an icon with a specific video scene).

2. The first thing to do is to set the Album object so that it stays in one place once closed. To do this, scroll down the Control panel until you come to the 'PARENT' item for the range of Album objects, and click on it, as shown alongside here. This sets the Options panel to show the the flight path parameters for the entire album. If you scrub through the transition using the Monitor scrubber or the Envelope editor position marker, you'll see the values change to show the flight path through the x, y and z co-ordinates, the degree of rotation and the scaling of the album. Fortunately, for this exercise, you don't need to adjust any of these parameters directly - they can be adjusted very quickly by using the envelope editor. Hooray!

3. Open the Envelope editor if it isn't already open (that squiggly icon button at the bottom). Next, drag the Envelope marker to the 56% point - which is the where the book is closed and just prior to the fly off - and click on the Create button to the left of the Envelope display. This adds a new key frame, identified by a red square.

Use the right 'jump to key frame' marker to select the next intermediary key frames, and remove them using the Delete button on the panel to the left of the Envelope editor, leaving the last key frame in place. The Envelope editor should now look like this.

4. We have now set a new key frame at the point where we want the album to stay static, and removed unwanted key frames. The next task is to change all the flight path settings in the Options panel for all the positions between the 56% key frame and the 100% point, to be exactly the same as the values at the 56% point. Don't panic! Make sure the Envelope marker is at the 56% key frame, then click on the Copy button. The 'Copy Keys' dialog will open, and the Copy from points should be entered for you.

Note that, as this is a key frame, the Start% and End% are the same value - but you can copy a range of values, making it easy to repeat entire sections of a flight path. You want the flight path to remain constant from this point to the end - so enter 100% in the Paste% box. Note how the transition length is measured in terms of percentage - it will take its real time from the length you give it when used in Studio. You are determining here at what point the Album stops moving - i.e. just over half way through the transition, however long it is. Click OK.

If you play the FX - or drag one of the scrubbers - you'll see that the the album now closes, and stays in position until the very end. Phase one complete.

5. Next step is to make the Album fade away, so that it is completely transparent at the 100% point. Unfortunately, you can't do this from the 'PARENT' object - it has to be done for each of the objects that make up the Album in turn ... and as you'll see, there are quite a lot of them! But, again - don't panic! HFX comes to the rescue. OK. So, select the first of the Album objects - called 'Album-Spine'. Next, click on the Dissolve slider in the Options panel. This will associate the envelope editor with the Dissolve parameter. Since there is no dissolve on this object at the moment, the envelope will be empty. Position the envelope marker where you'd like the dissolve to start (I chose 70%), then press the Create button. This adds three key frames - at the start, end, and the point you selected. Set the curve to Linear for all three key frames (left hand side of the Envelope editor panel), then, select the last, 100% key frame, and drag the key frame marker (or the Dissolve slider) to the top 100% level. That's the totally transparent point.

OK, you now have to do that for ALL of the objects that make up the Album - identified by the blue blobs next to the name. Here's the easy(er) and quick(er) way to do it.

At the top left of the Envelope Editor panel, you'll see three buttons, marked Save, Load and Remove. Click on Save, then save the envelope with a suitable name. (Note HFX Plus owners also have the option to save envelopes - and this is the next best thing, for them, to saving the final FX since it enables them to recreate it without too much effort). You'll also see a Save button down by the Curve presets, bottom left of the Envelope Editor. that's for saving special flight path curves you may create: you'll find (Pro version at least) that some curves are built in)

The rest is easy ... with each of the Album objects (as identified by the blue blob) selected in turn, then simply click on the Load button, select and load in the envelope you just saved ... and bingo, when you've finished, you have a new transition.

If you're a PRO user, you can now save the transition for use in as many videos as you want, without having to regenerate it each time. First, drag the Monitor preview scrubber to show a suitable frame for the icon that will identify this FX, then click on the Save FX button in the HFX Control panel.

I'd advise you to create your own folder for effects (within the Effects folder), It's also adviseable to copy the contents of that folder, whenever you add to it, to another safe destination on your machine. In the earlier versions of HFX, anything you created vanished if you updated. However, thankfully, from Version 4.5.6(34) that has changed. Nevertheless, keeping a back-up means you can change FX and still go back to the originals. When copying FX back into a folder, you must also delete the file effects.org from the Orgs folder in your HFX folder. HFX regenerates the file, to include your additions. You don't need to do this, of course, when you save FX as just described - HFX does it for you.

Where next?

[General HFX Info] [New FX to create]

ADDING A GRAPHIC (TITLE) TO THE WEDDING ALBUM a tutorial by Mike Shaw©

NOTE - There is now a Video tutorial showing how to do this with HFX 5 and 6

One of the frequent questions asked is - how do you add a title (or a graphic) to the front cover of the Wedding Album effect. Well, here is a method. It may not be the only method (nor even the best) - HFX is so versatile and flexible that I'm sure there are other ways to achieve the result. However ... here's how I did it.

1. Create your graphic Pretty obvious (unless you are a Pro user and are merely creating a 'template' FX to save, for future use). Create a static file as a bitmap, using your favourite editor - such as Paint shop Pro. You can also use a video for the cover, if you want. Bear in mind that you may want to match the colour of the cover for the graphic's background. Alternatively, by using the 'masking' technique discussed for transparent overlays in the Edit>Titling pages, you can create a .tga file with transparent or semi transparent areas. This is particularly useful if you wish to have text only on the cover - the name of the person or event to be depicted in the Album for example. Simply mask out everything except the text itself....

2. Open the HFX Editor and select the Wedding Album effect. (Those who have adapted the Wedding Album to fade away, as discussed in another tutorial, can use that also).

3. Add a new 3d object. First step is to add a 3d Object to take the graphic you want to include.

You do this by clicking on the 3D Object button, in the panel across the middle of the editor (or bottom, if you haven't opened the Envelope panel). You can, of course select any object you want (best not to pick one that has already been used for this FX though!). I chose - and for the purposes of this tutorial, I suggest you choose Back 7 from the 00 Common folder. Other objects may offer interesting effects. Experiment later!

That will place the new 3d object 'Back 7' at the bottom of the control panel objects list.

4. Go to the bottom of the Control panel and you should see the new Back 7 object, already selected for you (purple background to it). If it isn't, then select it. We're going to start by putting this object 'in the right place'.

5. Attach it to the right 'parent object.

We want this new object to move around in exactly the same way as the cover of the Album. So, what we will do, is 'attach' it to the Album-Front object. You do this by clicking on the down arrow in the Parent Object selector panel on the right hand side, and then select 'Album-Front from the list. Do you get the feeling this is all too easy when you know how? Good. It means you're following it all very well indeed.

Incidentally, you could try a 'playback' now if you want, to see what has happened so far. You'll see the object you've just added looking as if it has been stuck in the album spine like a playing card. Don't worry. It'll all be fixed up.

6. Attach the graphic to the object We now need to make that object you created something real - the graphic file you created way back in step 1. This can be a bmp file, or an avi file (if you really want a moving picture on the cover of the album. No, probably not - but remember that it can be an avi when you're using this procedure on one of your own creations. You can have a moving picture on any surface this way). So, go to the Control panel and in the Media section select the new item that's been added there - Host Video 7. Yes - this was automatically added when you added that object 'Back 7'. Incidentally, when you really get good at this - you can change those names to something more meaningful to yourself. For example, you can click on the Rename button at the bottom of the Control Panel, and rename Host Vide 7 as My Graphic. When you save this (Pro version), that's the name that will appear - to remind you what you need to put there.

Next step then is to select the graphic. To do this - click on the Select File button in the Media options panel on the right side. From the selector that opens, browse to the folder where you placed your graphic, and select it. Note - I haven't tried any files other than BMPs or AVIs. Maybe the Manual has something to say on this....

7. Position the new graphic So far, we have created an object, assigned it t0o a 'parent' object, allocated a file to it, and, if you've pressed play on the viewer, watched it working away with everything else - in the wrong place. The next job therefore, is to position it correctly.

This is a LOT easier than you might think at first. Here are two tricks you can use to help - EITHER click on the Loop playback button, and adjust the position dynamically as described below, OR simply drag the preview scrubber to a position where you can see the cover in the Monitor viewer window. For this effect - the second method is probably best. Now, all you need to do is change the X, y and Z values to position the object on, and just above, the cover. These values will be relative to the position of the parent object - the Album cover. Every time you change a value, click away from it - in another cell - to make that value effective, then look at the result in the viewer. I found about 0.13 to 0.15 best for the Z parameter. X and Y - that's down to you, and the scale - that's down to you and your graphic.

That's it. Lesson over. If you want to save the FX for future use (selecting a suitable preview frame for the icon first), I suggest for Step 6 you select - or leave selected - the Host Video 7.

Then put away your books and enjoy...

Homework... (is he kidding?)

Writing on the page ... if you create an AVI of a signature appearing as if written (see 'How to draw a moving line on a map' on these pages for a similar technique), then you could use that AVI to 'write' on the cover.

For future experimentation ... you can create an envelope for the position, and have it moving around 'over' the Parent object. Not that you'd want to do it for the Wedding Album ... but you might for future applications of this procedure.

NOTE: These articles were written for HFX 4.5, but still apply to the current version in principle - the interface has changed from that shown here

Modifying the Wedding Album Effect

Adding a Graphic (Title) to the Wedding Album Cover

Where next?

[General HFX Info] [New FX to create]

The almost bewildering variety of options and parameters available with HFX can seem a little daunting at first - and it can take a bit of time to 'discover' what all the various control features will do. This example will introduce you to a simple (?) modification to one of the effects which seems to be popular - especially among those making Wedding videos. The Wedding Album transition, as supplied, flies off at the end like a demented Starship Enterprise warping away on a desperate mission. I prefer to have the album sit still where it closes, and fade gracefully away to reveal the incoming clip, as shown (rather jerkily in this demo) in the example alongside. Achieving this is easy ... when you know how. And for your benefit, here's how...