COOL3D PS & MSP 7: Hologram with beam

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COOL3D PS & MSP 7: Hologram with beam

Post by Administrator » Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:49 pm

Author: rwernyei
Combination Tutorial By Robert W. Ernyei

How to make a hologram with beam using Ulead COOL3D Production Studio & Ulead Media Studio Pro 7

Ulead COOL3D Production Studio
Before starting this tutorial one may want to check this tutorial at Ulead site to become familiar with the user interface for COOL3D Production Studio.
http://www.ulead.com/learning/c3ds/c3ds_04_1.htm

In this tutorial I am using the Ulead logo as my hologram object. I saved the logo gif from the Ulead forum as a bitmap image file so I can use it in COOL3D PS. Now open COOL3D PS and set project dimensions and on the timeline set the number of frames and frames per second. My project settings are Standard 720x480 [DV NTSC full frame video, MPEG-2], 30 frames at 29.97fps. Click on the Insert Graphics button to open the Path Editor. I then select Convert to Vector and open my saved Ulead bitmap. Using the Tolerance, Jump point and Threshold settings I can create a 3D object out of my image file.
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Because the logo requires 2 colors, click the Edit object button and select Object button in the Path Editor. I then delete the Ulead text and keep the Ulead swoosh. Select Red as my Surface Color from the Attributes Panel and repeat the earlier steps to get the Ulead text as a 3D object. Color it Blue and go to the Object list and Group Objects. One should have a perfect Blue/Red Ulead logo 3D model. Now, go to the File tab and select Export 3D Model > 3DS Studio Model (*.3DS). Give Filename and Save. Go to File tab and select Import 3D Model > 3DS Studio Model (*3DS) and select your saved .3DS model. You have two Types to choose from when importing. C3D will import the .3DS model with no color or texture, D3D will.
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I will be using both options in this tutorial. Select D3D Type and Open. Go to Project tab and select Background. One can use Color, Image, Video or Audio. In this case I chose an image. Using the various features of Position, Orientation, Scale and Lights one can move, rotate, highlight, scale, etc? I scaled my model and positioned it where I wanted it over my image background.
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*Make note of its position. I then chose to rotate my object by going to the last frame and changing the Orientation Y-value to 360. I am now going to save this project with an alpha channel so my background image is transparent. One has many options in COOL3D PS. Create Video File with Video Save Options as Frame-based Compression None and 32-Bit RGB AVI. Others are Export Video Overlay, TGA image sequence, SWF and Animated GIF with transparent background checked or to save project as Ulead native .c3d. I saved as a 32-Bit RGB AVI. Now lets do the same thing but import .3DS model as C3D Type.
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No colors just a plain model. Scale it and position it where the prior model had been placed. *Remember when I said make note of its position. I am going to use the Global Effects Motion Blur in the Easy Palette. Here I use various settings to make and create the shape of my beam.
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One can use this technique to make other special effects like transporter beams and distress signals like atman? just to name a few. Remember with the use of keyframes, one can move or track their creations with a video background. Now, lets Color the surface. I chose light blue and this will add little highlights to the color of my ending beam.
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Again set the Orientation for rotation on the last frame and save using any of the before-mentioned ways with an alpha channel.

Ulead Media Studio Pro 7
Open MSP and start the Video Editor 7. Edit file format AVI and choose DV template, in my case NTSC and click OK. *If one has not set the overlay tracks to be more than the 3 by default, go to File tab and select Project Settings and click Edit button. Here one can change the number of Overlay tracks. I have mine set to 9. In this project I will use 4 tracks.
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V1 will be my image file. V2 will be the alpha blue beam AVI created in COOL3D PS. V3 will be the scan lines AVI.( I know I haven told you about this one) V4 will be the colored alpha Ulead AVI. Let talk about V3 track scan line AVI. I did this one using the colored alpha Ulead AVI and a created bitmap of black and white lines before starting this project. One can save this project as a .dvp and create this scan line AVI at anytime. To create the scan lines, open any photo editor like Ulead Photo Impact and draw black lines on a white background and save as a bitmap.
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In MSP, V1 will be this image file and V2 will be the colored alpha Ulead AVI. To move the lines add Moving path. 2D or Center option will do. Just key frame different values for Y from beginning to end. V2 click Overlay Options and select Alpha Channel for Type and check Invert overlay area and click OK. Save this as a Frame-based Compression None 24 Bit AVI. Now lets look at the clips on the timeline. V2 track beam AVI, I added a Gaussian Blur video filter with values 10 keyed for both beginning and end. The same also applies to V4 colored alpha Ulead AVI, but values of 2 for beginning and end. I did this to un-sharpen the overall look of my hologram model. Now, I will provide my various Overlay Options settings for V2, V3 and V4.
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*IMPORTANT look at Overlay Options for V2 beam AVI. I add Small for Soft Edge. This helps make the outer resonating blur around the beam and hologram object. Remember all these settings are completely adjustable. So in no way are they to be used as default. Other filters like Color Balance, Brightness & Contrast, etc?maybe more to your liking. Also this technique can be applied to composited footage shot with bluescreen/greenscreen. There are no limits to what you can do! In this case it is just a very small 1 second animation, so I copied and paste it 2 more times to make it 3 seconds long. Saved out as Frame-based Compression None 24 Bit AVI. I then dropped this 3 second saved AVI file into editor again and changed Speed to 50%. Created a smooth 6 second AVI and saved with the same settings. That it. I hope you enjoyed it and serves as a helpful aid in your future projects to come.
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Quicktime web version:
http://media.putfile.com/Ulead-web-hologram/320

MPEG-2:
http://media.putfile.com/Ulead42/640

Level: Advanced

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