Hollywood FX for Studio

Advanced Tutorials

Release 4.5 For Windows

Revision A

Plus & PRO

Pinnacle Systems, Inc. 280 N. Bernardo Ave Mountain View, CA 94043 www.pinnaclesys.com www.hollywoodfx.com

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing Hollywood FX. Hollywood FX gives you an incredible collection of 3D transitions that you can quickly add to your video productions, and customize completely for your needs. Plus & Pro also adds the ability to create entirely new FX using the hundreds of 3D objects included or by importing objects from 3D modeling programs. This guide provides tutorials for the advanced features in Hollywood FX. Hollywood FX will add new tutorials from time-totime. Check our website at http://www.hollywoodfx.com for updated revisions of this document. Before following these tutorials, you should fully read and understand the Quick Start guide. Each tutorial indicates which product levels (Plus or PRO) that the tutorial is useful for.
Hollywood FX: Advanced Tutorials

The Hollywood FX Dialog

The Hollywood FX dialog gives you quick and easy access to all of your 3D transitions, and lets you quickly change rendering options and edit flight paths and other attributes of FX. This chapter describes the Hollywood FX dialog and all of its controls.
The Hollywood FX dialog is made up of a number of panels. These panels group together the different features of Hollywood FX so that you can quickly and easily select effects and make changes.
The Control panel lets you select items to be changed. The Monitor panel provides an instant preview that lets you see changes immediately. The Options panel changes to provide options for the selected item in the Control panel.
The Tool Bar (Pro Only) panel provides buttons to accept or cancel changes, and to display the Settings and About dialogs.
Click here to open or close the Envelope Editor.

The Edit List Panel

The Envelope Editor panel is where you work with keyframes for flight paths and envelopes for individual options.
The Edit List is the central control for the Hollywood FX dialog. It contains items to select the current FX, set options for the FX, and edit individual media items and objects (Plus & PRO). When you click on one of these items, the Item
Adding a MultiWindow in Pinnacle Studio
Panel on the right side of the Hollywood FX dialog changes to show the options for the selected item.
Click on Effect Options to change options like lighting, shadows, shine, motion blur, and more.
Click on the current FX name to display the FX Catalog and select a new FX.
Click on Object items to change objects, alter flight paths and rendering options for each 3D object in an FX.
Click on Media items to change video sources in an FX. Media can come from the host application or from video or still image files.
Use these buttons to sort objects, rename items, clone, delete and save a new FX to disk.
Click on Surface items to change texture mapping or colored surfaces.

The Control Panel

In addition, the Control Panel provides controls for sorting objects, rename items, clone, delete and save a new FX to disk. (Saving is Pro Only).
Plus & PRO Prepare two video sources on the 1st and 2nd frames of the storyboard. Now drag any HFX Plus transition between them.
Two video clips ready with a Hollywood FX transition in the storyboard

To edit the transition:

Go to the desired transition in the storyboard. Double-click on the transition block. The Studio Transition Options should appear. Now click the Edit button.
The Studio Transition Options where you can edit your selection.

To Change an FX:

Click on the Edit button and the powerful HFX Plus/PRO editor appears. Select Plus or PRO Bars group from the FX Group popup list. Click on the Flying Bars icon.
The Hollywood FX Plus Bars for Studio transition group

Now add the 3rd Source:

Click on the Host Video 3 button in the Control panel. Click the Select File button and choose a media clip from where it resides on your hard drive. Now you can trim the In and Out point by dragging the preview bar and click the In and Out buttons for the desired length.
Basic options Shadows checked and Easy Flight modified

Tutorial: Envelopes

Plus & PRO (PRO envelope editor shown) This tutorial demonstrates the way you can keyframe any option in Hollywood FX to create advanced results. Hollywood FX uses the term Envelope to describe a set of keyframes that describe how an options value will change over time in Hollywood FX. Prepare for the Tutorial and Select the FX:
Create a new project in your host application. Add two video clips and create a two second transition between them. Add Hollywood FX as a transition between the two video clips. From the Hollywood FX dialog, select the Tumble 2 transition in the Flying Window Transitions group.
The Envelope Editor is normally hidden when you first begin using Hollywood FX (to keep life simple). To display the Envelope Editor:
Click on the Envelope Editor button at the bottom of the Hollywood FX dialog.
The Envelope Editor Button
The Envelope Editor will appear. We are going to modify the Tumble 2 transition by making the tumbling video dissolve as it tumbles into the distance. We will do this by creating an envelope for the objects Dissolve option.
Select the Object and Option:
Click on the Flat Window object in the Edit List panel. Click on the Dissolve slider in the Object Options panel so that it is highlighted.
Notice that the word Dissolve under the slider is highlighted in green. This is an indicator that it is the current option that can be modified in the Envelope Editor. Whenever you select a control that can have an envelope in Hollywood FX, it will be highlighted in green. Hollywood FX makes it extremely easy to create envelopes by simply clicking and dragging in the envelope window. We want to create an envelope for dissolve that makes the object disappear over the entire length of the transition. To create a simple envelope:
Click-and-drag in the envelope window at 100% in time, and 100% in value. Drag the keyframe you create all the way to 100% value and release the mouse.
A second keyframe is created automatically at time 0%
The envelope after creating the first keyframe
Click here to create your first keyframe.
Notice that there are two keyframes (indicated by blocks). The one at 100% is the one you created. The keyframe at 0% is created automatically, since all envelopes in Hollywood FX must at a minimum have keyframes at 0% and 100%. Also notice that the preview and the current time slider at the top of the envelope window both moved to 100%, and that the keyframe at 100% is highlighted in red to indicate that it is the current keyframe. The way the envelope is currently designed, the value of Dissolve will remain 100% for the entire effect. What we want is for the value to start at 0%, so lets change the first keyframe.

To change the first keyframe:
Click-and-drag on the blue block that represents the keyframe at time 0%. Drag the blue block to the bottom of the envelope window (value 0%). Notice the Dissolve slider (in the Object Options panel) while you are dragging. Its value is tied to the current envelope. Release the mouse button.
Click and drag the keyframe at time 0%.
The first keyframe is adjusted
Now our envelope will work correctly, causing the object to dissolve over the entire length of the transition. Try playing the preview to see the results. Lets add one more keyframe to this envelope, so that the object becomes transparent more quickly. We will create this key in a different way. To create the new keyframe:
Drag the current time slider at the top of the envelope window until it is at 50%. Now drag the Dissolve slider in the Object Options panel up to 90%.
After creating the new keyframe
The new keyframe is created automatically when you change the value of Dissolve. This shows how the original value slider for Dissolve and the Envelope Editor are tied together.
This feature makes it extremely easy to create keyframes for any value in Hollywood FX. Before concluding this tutorial, lets play around with some of the other envelope controls. First, lets move quickly between the keyframes in this envelope. To move between keyframes:
Click on the Prev button in the Envelope Editor. The current time slider (and preview) will move to the keyframe at 0%. Click on the Next button in the Envelope Editor. The current time slider will move to the keyframe at 50%. Click on the Next button. The current time slider will move to the keyframe at 100%. Finally, click on the Prev button to return to the 50% keyframe.
Using the Prev and Next buttons can quickly get you to the keyframe you need, especially when you have keyframes close together and one of them is hard to select by clicking on it with the mouse. Now, lets save our current envelope to disk. If you create an interesting envelope that you might want to use again, you can save it to disk. To save the envelope:

Click on the Save button in the Envelope Editor. Type tutorial for the filename in the file requester. Click Ok in the file requester to save the envelope.
Now lets say we dont really like having the keyframe at 50%, so we will get rid of it. To delete the current keyframe:
Click on the Delete button in the Envelope Editor.
The keyframe at 50% disappears, and the envelope returns to a straight line between 0% and 100%. If we decide we dont want the envelope at all (we want to return to a single value for the entire duration of the FX), then we can remove the envelope.

To remove the envelope:

Click on the Remove button at the top of the Envelope Editor.
The envelope will disappear, and the Dissolve slider now controls the dissolve value for the entire duration of the FX. For our final trick, lets load back in the envelope we saved above. To load an envelope:
Click on the Load button in the Envelope Editor. Double-click the tutorial file in the file requester.
Our envelope is back. Exit the Hollywood FX dialog and try rendering the FX with the dissolve envelope. Remember, envelopes can be created for almost any value in Hollywood FX. If a control is highlighted in green when you use it, that means you can control that value with an envelope and create exciting results.

Tutorial: Path Editing

Plus & PRO. When you want to customize an FX, you can edit the paths of any 3D object to create unique results. A set of tools on the Object Options panel along with the Envelope Editor give you complete flexibility to create new flight paths for objects. In this tutorial, we will take the Ball Backup FX, and create a new path so that the ball bounces up and down on the screen. We use the term path to mean the envelope for an objects position, rotation, and scale. Prepare for the Tutorial and Select the FX:
Create a new project in your host application. Add two video clips and create a two second transition between them. Add Hollywood FX as a transition between the two video clips. Select the Ball Backup transition in the Basic Shape Transitions group. Click on the Sphere object in the Edit List panel.
The Positioning group should be highlighted in green, indicating that object positioning is currently being edited in the Envelope Editor. This is exactly what we want, since the positioning tools are what we use to create a path for an object. In the case of path editing, each keyframe of the envelope (or path) indicates the position, rotation and scale of the object at that time in the FX. Hollywood FX then automatically determines the positioning of the object between each keyframe, so that the object moves smoothly from the position at one keyframe to the position at the next keyframe. Lets start by looking at the keyframes in the Ball Backup FX.

The picture above shows each keyframe in the Ball Backup FX. For each keyframe you can see the position, rotation and scale values, as well as a camera preview and a perspective preview of the FX at that time. You can follow along yourself by using the Next and Prev buttons in the Envelope Editor, and using the View buttons in the Monitor panel to switch between camera and perspective view. At the first keyframe, the object is not morphed, and is positioned at 0, 0, 0 on the X, Y, and Z axis. It is not rotated at all (0, 0, 0), and is scaled at 100% of normal size (1, 1, 1). At the second keyframe, the object is moved down a small amount along the Y axis (-0.123) and farther away from the camera (-0.37 along the Z axis). The sphere object is also scaled smaller (0.39, 0.39, 0.39) in all directions. The third keyframe continues the objects movement away from the camera (-1.36 on Z), and is smaller again (0.25, 0.25, 0.25 for scale).
In the fourth keyframe, notice that the sphere is rotated 118 degrees around the X axis, and has moved offscreen. In the last keyframe, the object has been scaled so small it is no longer visible, and is far offscreen. By looking at the existing keyframes, you will better understand what is needed to create a new path. We are going to create a path where the sphere moves away from the camera, then bounces up and down. We will begin by removing the current path. To remove the current path:
First make sure the current time slider is at time 0% (so that the first keyframe is highlighted). Click on the Remove button to remove the path envelope.
By first making sure we are positioned at time 0%, the object will be left at its fullscreen size and position when we remove the envelope this will make it easy to start a new path. Try playing the preview now. The object still morphs into a sphere, but it doesnt move anywhere. We are now ready to make it move the way we want it to. Often, the easiest way to create a path is to create the first and last keyframes, then fill in the middle. To create a new path:
Click on the Create button in the Envelope Editor
Two keyframes get created, both with the object at the fullscreen position. Hollwood FX must always have at least two keyframes (one at time 0% and one at time 100%) in a path, so it creates the second keyframe automatically. If you play the preview again, you will notice that nothing has changed. Since our two keyframes are at the same position, the object still does not move. Lets change the 100% keyframe so that the object will be in its final position. You will actually move and adjust the sphere object by clicking and dragging in the preview window, so read the following directions very carefully.

To change the last keyframe:
Click the Next button in the Envelope Editor, so that the 100% time keyframe is selected. Click on the Scale tool button in the Object Options panel. Click-and-drag in the Monitor window to interactively scale the sphere object. Drag to the left until the object is about one quarter its original size (you can watch the scale values and stop scaling when the scale values reach about 0.25). Click on the Move tool button in the Object Options panel. Click-and-drag in the preview window to interactively move the sphere. Move the sphere towards the top of the preview until it is offscreen. Click on the Persp button in the Monitor panel to switch to perspective view. Right Click-and-drag in the preview window to move the sphere along the Z axis. Move the mouse up until the object on the screen moves all the way behind the backdrop video object, and the shadow is no longer visible. Click the Cam button in the Monitor panel to return to camera view.
Now if you play the preview, you will see that the sphere simply shrinks and disappears towards the top of the screen.
How your keyframes should look after modifying the last keyframe
Now we will create two more keyframes for the top and bottom of our bounce (then we will use the Envelope Editors copy function to duplicate the bounce). First lets create the top of the bounce. To create a new keyframe:
Move the current time slider to time 10%. Click on the Scale tool button in the Object Options panel. Click-and-drag to the left in the preview until the objects scale values are around 0.25. Click on the Move tool button in the Object Options panel. Click-and-drag up in the preview until the object is at the very top of the preview.
The new keyframe is created automatically at the current time when you change the positioning.
How things should look at the top of the bounce
Notice that a new keyframe was automatically created for you as soon as you began changing the objects positioning. This eliminates the tedious process of manually creating keyframes that some programs require. You simply move the current time slider to the time you want, and begin editing. ANow, lets create the bottom of the bounce. To create the bottom of the bounce:

Move the current time slider to 20%. The Move tool should already be selected in the Object Options tab, if not, click on it. Click-and-drag down in the preview until the object is at the very bottom of the preview.
Right now, at the bottom of the bounce, the keyframe is set to move smoothly through that time, so it wont look much like a bounce. Lets change that by making the spline curve to perform a bounce instead of a smooth curve. We will use the Presets feature in Hollywood FX. To make the current keyframe a bouncy keyframe:
Click on the Presets dropdown in the Spline Control group at the bottom of the Envelope Editor.
Select Bounce from the list of presets. This will adjust the Tension, Continuity and Spline values for the current keyframe to create a bouncy motion.
Now we have a single bounce, but we would like the sphere to bounce again and again. We will use the copy function to easily reproduce our bounce. We will copy two keyframes that are at 10% and 20%, and paste them so that we have a new bounce from 30% to 40%. To copy a set keys:
Click on the Copy button in the Envelope Editor. Type in 9 for Start and 21 for end (this makes sure we get the keyframes even if they arent exactly at 10% and 20%). Type in 30 for paste. Click Ok.
The keys at 10% and 20% will now be duplicated, and you should have a second bounce at 30% and 40%. Lets make one more copy, this time of our original bounce, and the first copy we made. To copy the keys:
Click on the Copy button in the Envelope Editor Type in 9 for Start and 45 for End. Type in 50 for Paste. Click Ok to make the copies.
Now you will have four bounces before the object flies off screen. Try playing the preview to see the results. Before leaving, you might want to save this path for future use. To save your path:
Click on Save in the Envelope Editor. Type the name bouncy as the filename in the file requester.
When you are finished try rendering your creation in your host application.
Tutorial: Creating New FX from Existing FX
Pro Only. The easiest way to create new FX is by changing an existing FX to meet your needs rather than starting from scratch. In this example, we will take the Flyoff FX and replace the flying window with a morphing shape, plus we will use an image filter plugin to dissolve the shape in an exciting way. Prepare for the Tutorial and Select the FX:

Create a new project in your host application. Add two video clips and create a two second transition between them. Add Hollywood FX as a transition between the two video clips. The FlyOff transition should already be selected. Select the Flat Window object in the Edit List panel.
The first thing we want to do is replace this simple flat window with a more interesting shape. We will choose a Large Cylinder shape to replace the flat window. To replace the Flat Window:
Click on the Select File button in the Object Options panel. A file requester will appear.
In the file requester the Objects folder within HFX PRO for Studio should be the current folder (if it is not, make it so). Open on the Basic Shapes folder. Double-click on the Large Cylinder.hfo file.
The flat window has now been replaced with a large cylinder, but if you play the preview, it looks like nothing has changed. That is because we have not morphed the cylinder from its flat shape to its fully morphed cylinder shape. To do this, we will create an envelope that will change its morph to 100% during the first 10% of the FX duration. To create the initial keyframes:
Click-and-drag the Morph slider in the Object Options panel so that it is highlighted and its value is 0. Click-and-drag in the Envelope window at 10% time and 0% value (see picture below), then drag the new keyframe up to 100% in value and let go of the mouse button.
Click-and-drag up from here.
Let go of the mouse button here.
Creating the first keyframes.
Adjust the 100% time keyframe:
Click-and-drag on the keyframe at 100% time. Drag it up to 100% value and let go of the mouse button.
Click on the Linear checkbox in the Key Type group in the Envelope Editor.
After adjusting the 100% time keyframe
We now have an envelope where the Morph starts at 0% and moves up to 100% during the first 10% of the duration of the FX. Then it stays at 100% morphed for the remainder of the FX. If you play the preview you will see the results. In a moment we will make some more changes to this FX, but lets save it as a new FX right now. If you are creating a custom FX for a specific project, you dont need to save it. All of your customizations will be saved as part of the host applications project file. However, if you want to use the customized FX again and again you will want to save it to disk and add it to the FX Catalog. To Save Your Custom FX:
Make sure the current time slider in the Envelope Editor window is at 10% time (the current preview frame will be used as the icon for the FX, so we want a nice time for the icon). Click on the Save FX button in the Edit List panel. A save file requester will appear. The current folder in the file requester should be 1 Flying Window Transitions. Click on the parent folder button to move up one folder to the Effects folder. Click on the Create a New Folder button to create a new FX group. Name the new folder Custom FX. Double-click on the Custom FX folder to open it. Change the filename to cylinder1 as the filename for the new FX and click Ok.

After a few moments, the FX Catalog will appear with your new Custom FX group and your cylinder1 FX icon visible. Now, lets make our cylinder do a cool dissolve over time using the Gradient Wipe plugin. Hollywood FX includes a number of plugins for filtering media video and for warping 3D objects (for more information see Plugins in the Reference Guide) and new plugins can be added from Club Hollywood to further extend the limitless capabilities of Hollywood FX. The Gradient Wipe plugin uses a grayscale gradient image to dissolve a Media item using the shape of the gradient as the shape of the dissolve. This plugin is a simplified example of the product Alpha Magic also available from Hollywood FX. Before attaching the plugin we will make two small changes so that everything looks great while we are working. To prepare for the plugin:
Click on the Effect Options item in the Edit List. Clear the Shadows checkbox to turn off shadows. In the Monitor panel, change the Sources dropdown to Live.
Now you are ready to add the Gradient Wipe plugin and set its options. We will use a sample gradient included with Hollywood FX. To add the Gradient Wipe Plugin:
Select the Host Video 1 Media item in the Edit List. Click on the Plugins button at the bottom of the Edit List. Double-click on Gradient Wipe in the list of plugins that appears.
The new plugin will be added directly below (and indented) the Host Video 1 Media item, and the Item Options panel will change to show the Gradient Wipe options.
The Gradient Wipe Options
We will now select a gradient image and set some options. To set the options for Gradient Wipe:
Click on the Select Gradient button. A file requester will appear. Change the current folder to the HollywoodFX4\Images\gradients folder (in a normal installation you will find the HollywoodFX4 folder within the Program Files folder of your hard drive). Double-click on the Clouds1.tga file. Check the Tie transition amount to effect transition checkbox. Change the Softness slider to 80. Change the Border Size slider to 30. Click on the Border Color button and select a yellow color from the color requester.
Try playing the preview. Now the cylinder looks like its being eaten away by acid as it flies off screen. Rather than tie the transition amount to the FX duration, you could have keyframed your own transition amount to have the object partially dissolve then reappear, and you could envelope
softness, border size, and color to create a more dynamic and interesting dissolve. To conclude this tutorial, save your modified FX one more time. To Save Your Custom FX:

Make sure the current time slider in the Envelope Editor window is at 40% time (for the icon). Click on the Save FX button in the Edit List panel. A save file requester will appear. The current folder should already be Custom FX and the filename should be cylinder1. Click Ok to replace the FX we saved earlier with our current changes.
When you are finished try rendering this FX in your host application to see the final results. As you can see, by modifying existing FX and using plugins you can create dramatic and exciting new FX.
Tutorial: 3D Warp Plugins
Pro Only. Hollywood FX Pro provides a number of 3D plugins called Warps. These Warps mathematically change the shape of a 3D object and can be keyframed over time. This tutorial will demonstrate the use of one of the most common Warp plugins called Peel. Unlike more limited effect software, Hollywood FX allows you to attach a Peel to any object (not just a flat plane) and allows you to attach multiple peels to the same object. Prepare for the Tutorial and Select the FX:
The flat window in FlyOff has a very small number of polygons, so it would not peel very well. We will it with an higher polygon object. To replace the Flat Window:
Click on the Select File button in the Object Options panel. A file requester will appear. In the file requester the Objects folder within HollywoodFX4 should be the current folder (if it is not, make it so). Open on the Basic Shapes folder. Double-click on the High Mesh1.hfo file.
Lets attach the Peel plugin and experiment with its options.
To attach the Peel Plugin:
Verify that the Flat Window object is selected. Click on the Plugins button at the bottom of the Edit List panel. Double-click on the Peel plugin in the Plugin Selection dialog that appears.
You should immediately see that the object has peeled. By default, the Peel time is keyed to the total transition time, and the direction of the Peel is tied to the Flight Direction spinner (under Effect Options). This makes it simply to quickly add a Peel to an effect. Most plugins work this same way, providing default options that make it easy to quickly get the results you want.

Peel Options

Lets try making some options changes to see what they do. To modify Percent of peel completed and Angle of Peel:

Clear the Tie transition amount to effect transition checkbox. Clear the Tie peel direction to flight direction checkbox. Change the Angle of Peel spinner to 45 and the Percent of peel completed slider to 50.
Erreur ! Source du renvoi introuvable.
Angle of Peel of 45 and 180
The Percent of peel completed controls how far the peel has progressed. This can simply be tied to the total transition time, or can be keyframed individually to create interesting effects, like partial peels. Now lets play with the Peel Radius. To modify Radius of the Peel:
Move the Radius of Peel slider back and forth to see the result. When finished, leave the Radius at approximately.25.
Radius of Peel of.10 and.50.
Finally, there is a checkbox that controls whether to perform a roll (which is the default) or to actually peel without rolling. To Peel instead of Roll:
Click on the Peel instead of roll checkbox.

Roll and Peel

Now lets quickly create an interesting keyframed effect where the peel spins around the object as it peels. To start keyframing the Angle of Peel:
Clear the Peel instead of roll checkbox. Check the Tie Transition Amount to Effect Transition checkbox. Move the Angle of Peel spinner to 0. Move the current time slider in the envelope window to 0%. Click on the Create button in the Envelope Window to create a keyframe at time 0% with the Angle of Peel currently at 0.
You have now created the first keyframe, with the angle starting at 0 degrees. To complete the keyframing:
Move the current time slider in the Envelope Window to 100%. Move the Angle of Peel spinner to 180 degrees.
You have now created the second keyframe, and if you play the preview you will see the object peel as it flies off, and the peel rotates around the object. Remember that plugins in Hollywood FX can be combined. You could attach a Ripple at the same time the object is peeling, or even attach a second peel to the same object.
Two Peels attached to the same object