Freezing Title's special effects

Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Solved by

Nov 21, 2018 13:58

Hello,
is there a way to have the special effects of a title (in my case the Neon effect) play at a certain speed and then freeze in the last position until the end of the title? Because the item I need it for is a minute long (I'm attempting to make a custom countdown video and figured the Neon effect would look great on that), but the effect would just stretch out over the entire minute, making it look very laggy.

Regards, Vitus.

Warry

Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline

Nov 22, 2018 06:55

Depending on the way the titles has been constructied there might be a possibility to work with keyframes in the title designer.
The quick and dirty solution is to make a snapshot at the end of the title and add that just behind the title and set the duration as long as you need it. You may have to make the background (black?) of the title transparent by using the Chromakey in the PIP designer.

Warry

Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Nov 22, 2018 07:16

The thing is, the special effects don't support keyframes. And yes, I've thought about the snapshot option, but chromakey will never be quite as clean with the neon effect. There will always be a darker edge around the text. I suppose I'll have to play a bit with paint.net for that then...

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 22, 2018 11:58

The way titles achieve their effects is with multiple tracks, each with a single beginning and ending point, and as mentioned, no keyframes. They will often re-use the same image on another track if the effect repeats.

I looked on DZ when I first saw your post but there were so many "neon" titles I wasn't sure which one you were referring to. If you could please let me know the exact title (or even better, post the DZ download link to it), I'd be happy to try and find the appropriate tracks to extend the effect for the duration of the clip.

Generally speaking, you'd want to have your title expanded to the full desired length, and then scroll through all of the tracks and locate the track(s) with the right-most endpoint(s). Then move each of those end point(s) all the way to the right so the content will remain visible.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 22. 2018 12:00

Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Nov 22, 2018 16:35

It's not from Director Zone, but the one that comes with PD 17 Ultra.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 23, 2018 13:42

Thanks very much for the screenshot! Now I see exactly what you're doing, and it's clear that there isn't any easy way to manipulate the special effect.

Rather than freeze the final frame, maybe you could simply change the effect speed at the end.

For example, if you're going to do a countdown, that implies that you'll need to create a new title for each event, and the effect would run for the duration of each event. In this demo, each event is 1 second long and then the ending title last 10 seconds.

To me, this offers continuity along with a clear indication that you've reached the end of the countdown. It will also allow you to use the title effect directly and avoid chroma-keying and masking.

Here's my timeline:

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Nov 23. 2018 13:46

Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Nov 23, 2018 19:30

Hmm I see, thanks. I was just hoping that I could have that easier, like keeping the minute digit steady, and the tens and ones digits separate as well, like so:

There I tried to keep it frozen with a snapshot, but I couldn't really make it look good. For now I've just gone for a starting effect on the 6:00 part and then a simple transparent text with a blurred outline without an effect for the rest of the countdown, also considering the readability on the background clips that I'm going to insert and that I have yet to receive and cut.
Anyway, thanks very much for your help!

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 23, 2018 23:10

I think you've created a very nice timer, and I think the dark 0 at the end with the slower electric effect is wonderful!

I have a couple more ideas. First is you may like the look of a monospaced font better, as each digit will stay in the same place on the screen. Here are the monospaced choices from one of many sites that have free fonts for downloading.

If you don't want to spend any more time getting manually placing all the digits, NewBlueFX has a Time Clock in their Videos Essentials IV pack that you can place on the FX track and set for the desired duration. It will then automatically create the number sequence, and there are several styles of numbers, including neon.

At the other extreme, you can spread PD's neon title effect across several seconds, so the effect flows naturally while the digits count down. This takes more time and effort, but the effect may be closer to what you were originally looking for. I used the Overpass Mono font and spread the effect over 4 seconds.

The first set is with Neon Look 2 using 0.1 second cross transitions for each change, and the final set is Look 3 with no transitions:

If this last method is of any interest, I can pack the project post a link to it so you can take a closer look.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Nov 24. 2018 02:55

Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Nov 24, 2018 05:28

Well, we only use this font (CMG Sans) and Arson Pro in all of our designs, so I'd like to stick with those... and I wouldn't want to spend even more money now for this one project. I'm quite happy with how it turned out for now.

But I am indeed interested in your last option... How did you spread the effect over multiple titles?

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 24, 2018 11:59

Basically I made 4 copies of a 4-second title, edited the text in each, then used black color panels to block off staggered 1-sec blocks, so the first/highest time showed only the first second, then next title was only visible for the 2nd second, and so on. I produced that whole section, placed it on the timeline, then right-clicked and chose Edit Video, Trim... and used the Multi Trim tool to cut out the 4 individual sections. See the attached full size screentshot.

You can stretch out the title duration for as long you like how the effect looks and put in as many seconds as needed. This is time-intensive and will require many rounds of edits, productions, and multi trims, but you will have a timer with a flawless, continuous neon effect that won't need any additional work to cleanly overlay your final video.

Here is the packed project. Just download it and double click on the Neon countdown.pds file.


Filename	neon countdown.jpg	Download
Description	full size editor view
Filesize	116 Kbytes
Downloaded:	3 time(s)

Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Nov 24, 2018 19:06

Wow, that is time intensive. Thank you. But the problem with producing it is that the background is black and will have to be chroma-keyed out again, which is never quite clean. I think I'll just stick with what I've got now.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 24, 2018 19:28

You're right about the black background. I wanted to simply use the opacity control to blank the unwanted section of each title, but that's not available as a keyframe so I tried staggering them on different tracks, but the color boards blocked everything above them, so I went with what I knew would work, but by then I guess I'd forgotten the whole point of not chroma-keying

Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Nov 24, 2018 19:33

What just came to my mind though: Now in PD17 the same would work without producing it, but by importing the project as a second tab in the timeline of a new project, wouldn't it? That way it could remain transparent.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 24, 2018 21:31

Interesting. I think the main issue is that we still don't have a way of blocking 3 different seconds of every 4 second title while still letting the "active" title's content show through. If these were video clips, that'd be easy - but titles (as we know very well) - are different.

I think there is a way to do this, and maybe with a little more thought (and any input from other forum members) we'll have a new idea to discuss and try out...

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Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Nov 25, 2018 09:22

I've made the font colour transparent and changed the effect opacity with keyframes so I could get rid of the colour boards. Unfortunately, this way I can't have an outline anymore, because there are no keyframes for the outline opacity.

But the tabs don't seem to work the way I thought: Even though the background is transparent, it's shown as black when inserted into another project. So that will be something for Cyberlink to improve upon.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 25. 2018 10:21

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 25, 2018 12:31

No, your way works, but you can't use a nested project because PD doesn't process it the right way. Use the titles directly on the main project's timeline, like this

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 25, 2018 13:46

Vitus - I actually found a way to use opacity keyframes so you have full control over font face, outline, shadow, etc. while still being able to overlay the text! Here's the full timeline:

And the missing piece is to use the Object Settings keyframes for the title:

Once you've set up the keyframes, it's straightforward to copy them in blocks of 4 and just edit the timer digits! You'll also want to make sure that the starting color for the neon effect in the first frame is the same as the keyframe color in the final frame. I've done that with red, but you can use any color and scroll though any other colors as long as they wrap around properly.

You can even chain 2 or more blocks together and have the colors cycle only once through those blocks, again just have the final color of the block match the starting color.

Here's the final result:

It may be easier to build on my work rather than starting all over, so take a look at my project and feel free to customize it any way you want. It's in the same folder I orginally linked to.

I know that this will still be time consuming, and PD seems to be very slow when making the edits, but now we know how to expertly use titles with special effects and keyframes

Vitus SK

Newbie Joined: Nov 21, 2018 12:53 Messages: 13 Offline

Nov 25, 2018 17:05

Yes I know that it works all in one, but the nested project is what I thought would work the same way, too. Because my idea was to create a few naked countdown templates with different fonts and stylings, so I could then nest the right one for the background clips I'm going to receive. But yes, looks like I have to copy them into one single project then.
And looks like I must've been blind with the outline opacity...

Thank you

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Nov 25, 2018 18:15

We both missed the Object Settings keyframes, but your most recent screenshot of the Farbe/Color keyframes was the clue I needed.

I'll try out the nested projects this evening to see if I can find any way to get them to work properly. Was the black background only there when you previewed the timeline, or did it also appear when you produced the video?

EDIT: I tried this out and found that PD doesn't integrate/overlay the nested project video with/on the regular timeline content. Not during preview, and not while producing, so overlaid content can't be used in a nested project unless the main project content is added to Track1 inside the nested project.

See this post for more info.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 26. 2018 02:18

PowerDirector Moderator

Senior Contributor Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan Joined: Oct 18, 2016 00:25 Messages: 2104 Offline

Nov 26, 2018 05:06

Hi,

My information is that CL are aware of the current limitation relating to "transparency/opacity" of nested projects and are looking to enhance the functionality of nested projects in this area.

Cheers
PowerDirector Moderator

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