Tutorial: Motion Style

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

It's finally here, my next tutorial! Maybe good things come to those who wait. This tutorial go over the feature of Motion Styles. If you don't know what that is or how it works then you SHOULD because it should most certainly effect every one of your shows. When everything is said and done, the tutorial is actually runs for 26 minutes! Pretty lengthy for an item that I believe gets about 1 line of explanation in the manual.

Without further ado, you can view it on my MyCityPhotoGuide.com site by clicking on this link.

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

An excellent tutorial !!
A bit longish, but well worthwhile !!
The example that you chose, with the racing turtles, was a brilliant one and explained the things so very well !
Thank you.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Excellent tutorial - I visualize things as curves (it's the engineer in
me ), but for many people, it will suddenly click when they see
the pictures of what those curves represent. - two things missing:

1) Rabbit running in circles

2) You might want to address how the "smoothing" slider affects things.

mikey

[VernonRobinson Profile Private message]

Thanks Rick,
The examples of the racing turtles clearly shows the effect. You cleared up a question for me. While it seems that Smooth is probably the most desired default, there are times when another motion style would be appropriate. Thanks for taking the time to create this.

Regards,
-Vernon

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

An excellent tutorial !!
A bit longish, but well worthwhile !!
The example that you chose, with the racing turtles, was a brilliant one and explained the things so very well !
Thank you.

I was shocked when I put together all the clips and saw the total time. It does go by rather quickly (I think) but I felt it was necessary for the tutorial to actually pause at the specific points and analyze the behavior. That was it was not left as an exercise to the viewer (which is pretty much the way the manual already works).

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

Excellent tutorial - I visualize things as curves (it's the engineer in
me ), but for many people, it will suddenly click when they see
the pictures of what those curves represent. - two things missing:

1) Rabbit running in circles

2) You might want to address how the "smoothing" slider affects things.

mikey

I don't understand the circle thing.

Smoothing should effect everything exactly the same I would strongly think. Setting the Smoothing to 0 or 100 is not going to make the Accelerate Motion Style start it's motion any faster.

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thanks Rick,
The examples of the racing turtles clearly shows the effect. You cleared up a question for me. While it seems that Smooth is probably the most desired default, there are times when another motion style would be appropriate. Thanks for taking the time to create this.

Regards,
-Vernon

A lot of people like Smooth (the default) because they feel it's less jerky at the start. Personally I lean towrd Linear most of the time because I like that it's constant from start to finish. Now that I understand the Accelerate/Decelerate, I have used them on occassions for example when I wanted something to zoom very quickly or slowly. Motion Style is a really critical aspect of a show and I'm guessing that 95% or more of people don't ever touch it for many different reasons but mostly because it's probably not obvious what it controls.

Glad you liked it.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

You might want to address how the "smoothing" slider affects things.

The one thing about smoothing that perplexes me is in the first keyframe where there's a slider on both the left and the right. I haven't tested it to see what the difference would be if, say, I set layer 1 to start out with 0% smoothing and end up with 100%, and then set up layer 2 so it's reversed. The only time I think about this is when I'm deep into doing something other than testing things.

Barbara

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Excellent tutorial - I visualize things as curves (it's the engineer in
me ), but for many people, it will suddenly click when they see
the pictures of what those curves represent. - two things missing:

1) Rabbit running in circles

2) You might want to address how the "smoothing" slider affects things.

mikey

I don't understand the circle thing.

Sorry - thought everyone would pick up on that one - the old "tortise and the hare"
thing (especially as implemented in the cartoons of my youth ... not that I have ever
left that stage you understand ! ).

As far as the smoothing slider, I have not played with it much either although vidqueen
did mention it in one of her tutorials some time ago and trying to get things to move
in a square for example (seems to me she got more of a circle with the slider high
and a square as expected with the slider set low. Just thought it fit in with your
motion tutorial.

mikey

[Herriot2 Profile Private messageWebsiteYIM]

It's finally here, my next tutorial! Maybe good things come to those who wait. This tutorial go over the feature of Motion Styles. If you don't know what that is or how it works then you SHOULD because it should most certainly effect every one of your shows. When everything is said and done, the tutorial is actually runs for 26 minutes! Pretty lengthy for an item that I believe gets about 1 line of explanation in the manual.

Without further ado, you can view it on my MyCityPhotoGuide.com site by clicking on this link.

Excellent. Time flew by. It's amazing right enough that this only took one line in the manual. It's a very comprehensive tutorial. I for one now understand motion styles so thanks for that.

Now I just need to figure out Alpha,'s Double alphas mattes double mattes blah de blah so maybe you can creat a tutorial for that

Peter

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Peter, take a look in the Tutorial section. Rick has a bunch of tutorials about masks.

Barbara

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

Sorry - thought everyone would pick up on that one - the old "tortise and the hare"
thing (especially as implemented in the cartoons of my youth ... not that I have ever
left that stage you understand ! ).

As far as the smoothing slider, I have not played with it much either although vidqueen
did mention it in one of her tutorials some time ago and trying to get things to move
in a square for example (seems to me she got more of a circle with the slider high
and a square as expected with the slider set low. Just thought it fit in with your
motion tutorial.

mikey

Uh, clearly you missed my "Smoothing" tutorial where I show you how that control works. Get with the program Mikey!

Here is the link to the Smoothing thread: http://www.proshowenthusiasts.com/viewtopic.php?t=5067

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

It's finally here, my next tutorial! Maybe good things come to those who wait. This tutorial go over the feature of Motion Styles. If you don't know what that is or how it works then you SHOULD because it should most certainly effect every one of your shows. When everything is said and done, the tutorial is actually runs for 26 minutes! Pretty lengthy for an item that I believe gets about 1 line of explanation in the manual.

Without further ado, you can view it on my MyCityPhotoGuide.com site by clicking on this link.

Excellent. Time flew by. It's amazing right enough that this only took one line in the manual. It's a very comprehensive tutorial. I for one now understand motion styles so thanks for that.

Now I just need to figure out Alpha,'s Double alphas mattes double mattes blah de blah so maybe you can creat a tutorial for that

Peter

Thanks Peter. Ya, 1 line. Glad it flew by though. Barbara's right. The Masks tutorials take care of "some" of the Alpha issue but it sounds like you are talking more about Alpha Channels for Video. The Double Mattes would certainly be video. I can do a Video Alpha (specifically in regards to Digital Juice). For more generic "Swipes" or GIF's, then it gets a bit trickier because you have to have some kind of extra software to make it work.

[Herriot2 Profile Private messageWebsiteYIM]

Thanks Peter. Ya, 1 line. Glad it flew by though. Barbara's right. The Masks tutorials take care of "some" of the Alpha issue but it sounds like you are talking more about Alpha Channels for Video. The Double Mattes would certainly be video. I can do a Video Alpha (specifically in regards to Digital Juice). For more generic "Swipes" or GIF's, then it gets a bit trickier because you have to have some kind of extra software to make it work.

I have looked at your Masks tutorials and they are all excellent too. But you are right I need to get my head around the Alpha Channels. I keep hearing people talk about Mattes etc and no matter how many times i check the tutorials for the double alpha it just doesn't seem to stick. I'll keep looking though.

Peter

[rkligman Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thanks Peter. Ya, 1 line. Glad it flew by though. Barbara's right. The Masks tutorials take care of "some" of the Alpha issue but it sounds like you are talking more about Alpha Channels for Video. The Double Mattes would certainly be video. I can do a Video Alpha (specifically in regards to Digital Juice). For more generic "Swipes" or GIF's, then it gets a bit trickier because you have to have some kind of extra software to make it work.

I have looked at your Masks tutorials and they are all excellent too. But you are right I need to get my head around the Alpha Channels. I keep hearing people talk about Mattes etc and no matter how many times i check the tutorials for the double alpha it just doesn't seem to stick. I'll keep looking though.

Peter

Double Alpha is a Digital Juice product that just came out at the end of last year. I wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep over it. If you needed it then you'd already know it. You don't need it.