intro

[JustAnotherNoob]

hi,
i've been looking for a nice video sample i could use as an intro for a dvd.
I'm sure you all know these old film projectors back from school. There was that countdown intro, counting back from 5 to 1 then the film started.
Does anyone know where to get such an intro (would be nice if it was b/w and looked pretty old with interferences and stuff)?

Thanx for your help

[andkiich]

DO A FORUM SEARCH!!!!

This topic has been covered before, and in those posts are links to websites.

Thank you.

[northcat_8]

Make it.

If you have any video editing software it is very easy.

I use Adobe photoshop 6.0, premiere 6.5, after effects 5.5

all you need to do is go to photoshop, make 5 pictures of the numbers 1-5. Add circles around them, whatever you want on them.

Take those into premiere or after effects and put them on the timeline in order from 5-1 and then use a clock wipe transition. Then add some "noise"(not sound) to it and throw the "film" filter on it.

It's a very short section of video, it only plays for...um...5 seconds so.....it won't take long to render and you can do it in about 30 minutes.

Even if you don't use the Adobe products, just about any video editing software will do. Use the Titler to make the number titles, then clock wipe it. You can play with the color and contrast settings to get an older look to it.

[BigCJS]

Arcsoft Showbiz has that and a few other stuff for intro's. It came with my dvd writer that I brought.

[JustAnotherNoob]

Thanks for wasting your time for my problems

BTW: I've been searching the forum, maybe I used the wrong keywords

[northcat_8]

I did your intro yesterday in about 10 minutes.

I used:

Photoshop - to make the pictures of 5,4,3,2,1...
Premiere - to time the clips and to clock wipe transition them
After Effects - DigiEffects Cinelook FilmDamage - DE FilmDamage plugin

I was going to post it but the file is too big. It took me 10 minutes to make it and I bet I spent almost an hour trying to make it small enough to post

The original 720x480 file is 6 MB, I got it down to 643 KB at 120x90 as a gif file. Smaller than that it didn't look good.

I did it with those 3 but I could just as easily have done it with Studio 8, Ulead Video Studio, Vegas, ......all except for the film damage look.

[racer-x]

northcat_8,

Nice tips. Another way if you have Premiere, is click File > New > Countdown Interger. This will generate one for you using various options.

[northcat_8]

That's a good idea racer, but I like to make my own stuff.

Here's a screen shot of the one I created yesterday. I rescaled it to 320x240.



Of course all the noise and the hair in the bottom left is animated as well as the clock wipe.

[dxj40c]

If you have Premiere (or know someone who does) you can create one. Set your project properties (720x480, 320x240, etc.).
At the bottom of the 'Project' window are a row of icons, click on the one that looks like a 'layer' icon (a turning page) this is 'Create new Item', in the pop-up choose 'Universal Counting Leader' and it will create the thing you want in the time line. Then render it in whatever format you want.

[racer-x]

Very nice, northcat_8.

It looks like you're a big Photoshop fan too. You're right, homemade is best. I usually make 90% of my effects from scratch, usually using Photoshop.

I read one of your previous posts, wich you said you like to do 3D animations. What S/W do you use? I usually use Ulead Cool 3D for my 3D animations. It works very well for most of the things I do. Just curious about what you use.

[northcat_8]

I like Cool 3D and I have it. It is great. Very sharp images and for animated text, especially if I want a bright chrome surface. I like the control over frames, especially with exploding things and then unexploding them.

The 3D software I use is pretty old. It's called Bryce 3D, or Bryce 5. It's discontinued...it was from corel. It is mainly a landscape image making software but you can do animation with it. Big learning curve though.

Here's some things I've done with it.



This is a school emblem or shield that I did because the one they had was hand drawn and really looked like a LD 3rd grader did it with dull crayons. They use it in our school videos to intro and/or to close them. Screen starts black, shield comes forward, the black inside the shield will actually turn red and then blue (all reflective)because of the reflection of the sun (or shade as you see it now). It turns blue and the letter "N" with a torch rises up through it, then a lightning bolt hits the torch to light it. The lightning and flame are done in after effects.



I made this bi-plane just screwing around learning the program. The sky and water are presets in the program, I made the plane. The propeller spins and the plane is actually animated from the top right of the screen, loops around to the left and speeds by the camera.



Everything here is animated. The number, freshman, point guard all slide around the area, they go below the surface, come up, etc. The box rotates. The drop wing falcon was done in photoshop, as well as the word "falcon"...the picture of the falcon and the word are really just textures applied to objects. The word Falcon actually scrolls as the box rotates. I have another one with a basketball spinning and some other stuff.



This is actually a camera animation. As you can see you are looking through a facemask, the ball is in the air. In this particular animation, I put the player's pictures on boxes scattered around the field (the same as I did the falcon above) and the camera goes around to each box. This was done for a football highlight film and took 19 hours to render on my machine. I made everything you see except the sky. There are goal posts, yard lines, hash marks, yardlines are numbered every 10 yards. Oh and the best part...you are actually carrying the ball and you pause at each player's picture and it slow mo's then back to normal speed and you make a football move and head to the next box, spin moves, studder steps, cuts...it's pretty cool, the kids loved it.


The only problem with bryce is that things from photoshop are not directly importable. I can't bring psd files in. I have to make jpg or bmps. The animations however are output in AVI form and you can just output pictures as jpgs and some other formats. You can output the AVIs in a variety of codecs and you can choose between fine and superfine rendering...superfine takes 19 hours to render 1:10 minutes of video...or so I found out...

Of course 95% of the effect of animation is the sound so everything has sound to it. Like the football animation, as you the player in the helmet, get to each kid on the box the movement slow motions and the player's number, name and position is announced and between boxes there are sounds of the game, crowd noise, pads cracking, you breathing and grunting. The sound took me forever I did it with sonic foundry and cool edit 2000.

I like it, there are some things that I wish it could do that it doesn't, but for most of what I need it for it works well and when I combine it with after effects, premiere and photoshop...I can get some pretty cool looking things.

It has opened up a new market for me. I have been doing school logos for several schools around the area. Other things like animations for the titles of school plays and things...it's really kind of weird...being that I'm not an art teacher, but being a math teacher is useful since I am essentially graphing in 3D space.

[racer-x]

Very impressive stuff!

I also use Photoshop, Premiere, and Affter Effects. I also use Cool 3d. Here is some of my stuff:

This is my logo before is straightens up. Then a lightning bolt hits the FVP and sends it rotating.


Here is an animated flame I made for my son's Pinewood derby car.


Here's an intro clip for my son's football team. I made it in After Effects. Those are video clips playing on the walls. This is also a camera animation. I made everything in Photoshop. The effect is too long to explain in words, but you get the picture.

[northcat_8]

Very nice.

Don't you just love after effects? I don't think there is anything you can't make with the AE, Premiere, PS combo.

[daamon]

You guys (northcat_8 and racer-x) are seriously awesome!

What you've posted I can only dream of! I hope you don't mind, but having seen your work I've pointed Sakuya in your direction...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=213018

I may even be pestering you myself (I have Photoshop and After Effects), if that's OK?

[northcat_8]

Racer -

Have you played around with the 3D stroke plugin in combination with photoshop and the path tool?

It's freakin awesome. If you don't have the Trapcode plugins for AE, you have to pick those up. 3D stroke, Shine, Lux and starglow.

Basically you can take any image in photoshop, create a path of it and then animate the path in after effects it's really cool. I'm easily entertained


daamon -

Thanks for the compliment. I am far from good at it. But I learn something new everytime I open any of those programs up.

check out:
http://www.wrigleyvideo.com

for some premiere tutorials, I haven't used many of them but they do make you think about some things differently and once the creativity is flowing...look out.

[racer-x]

northcat_8,

No, I don't have any of those plugins. Actually I'm new to After Effects. That intro I made was only my second project with After Effects. Most of my animation is made in Cool 3D, then I import the avi into Premiere.

I'm not a PRO, this is just a hobby for me. It's nice to know that there are others on this forum that like to be creative too. It is definately more fun when you make it your self.

[daamon]

Thanks for the compliment.

Credit where credit is due.

check out: http://www.wrigleyvideo.com for some premiere tutorials

Yep - Found that one already, but thanks. Haven't really explored the tutorials as they're reasonably big downloads for my poor dial-up connection...

I haven't used many of them but they do make you think about some things differently and once the creativity is flowing...look out.

Yeah, I know that feeling. Makes me have to agree with racer-x:

It's nice to know that there are others on this forum that like to be creative too. It is definately more fun when you make it your self.

Any good guides, hints, tips etc. from either of you guys? When I get the time, I'd love to get into this kinda stuff - I've finally discovered that I am creative after all, and that this (and video creation / editing in general) is the vent for it! Cheers.

[JustAnotherNoob]

kewl my post has unleached an avalanche