Click on the icon for a quick preview of the exercise and the result.

Here we will load the backplate as the background in Action but also as a layer. The reason for this is that the background layer does not participate in the 3D composite of the scene; it just faces the camera at the very back of the scene. In this particular case we want to deform and move this backplate image in 3D space.

1. In the EditDesk Library, enable the View tab on the “Compositing” source folder.
2. Click on the Action button.
Note that you will not see the Action button if you are in the Player view, ESC to the EditDesk.
3. Choose the Clear All option to make sure Action is reset to its default settings.
The colored arrows will prompt you to choose the clips in the following order: front/back/matte.
4. Click three times successively on the clip “Leap_Backplate” to load it as the Front/Back/Matte sources in Action.
Note that you have to click on the upper left corner of the clip.
5. When you see the white cursor, click in the empty space on the Source Area and you will enter Action.

Action cursors are: red for Front, green for Back and blue for Matte. White prompts you to choose a destination for the processed result.

You can load multiple media layers at the same time on the EditDesk if you hold (CTRL), then click on Front/Matte for as many sources as you need. Release (CTRL) to select the background and the destination. You can also load Media sources from the (Library) instead of (From Desk).

1. Important: in Action, change the duration of the composite: click on the duration field and enter 48.
2. By default, the Media menu is displayed; click on the Media tab if it is not the case.
This is where you load media clips to use in your composite..
3. Double-click New Media layer to add another layer from the EditDesk.
The Source Area is displayed.
4. Choose the “Leap_Red” clip as the Front and then click the clip again to choose it as the Matte.
5. Back in Action, double-click New Media again.
6. Choose the “Leap_Black” as the Front and Matte.
The layers look a little strange right now, but that’s because the default luma-key behavior is turned on.
We’ll address this issue in a later step.

7. Deactivate Autokey.
8. Be sure you work in Full Res mode:
Go to the Setup menu and under Miscellaneous make sure Use Proxies is turned OFF.
To toggle proxies On/Off pres CTRL+P.
9. Notice in the Setup menu that Auto DVE is the default Smoke image setting; thus each new media gets automatically added to the scene as a DVE object.

You can access the (Schematic) view from the view list, or press (ESC). The Action schematic is a graphical view of your scene. Each element is represented by an icon. This view helps to select and group scene components. Press (ESC) again to return to the last view. Note that you can also pan (SPACE) and zoom the schematic view (CTRL+SPACE).

You can apply effects to each of the layer sources in the Media menu; such as keys, color correction, blurs and crops. We will access the keyer from the Media Layer and key the green-screen clips.

1. In the Media menu, select the “Leap_Red” on Media 2 layer.
2. Double-click the K field to access the Keyer sub-module.
3. Make sure Master Keyer is selected.
4. Deactivate Autokey in the Keyer also.
5. Click the Color Pot (left grey box) to define a key color.
6. Drag from a dark green to a lighter green in the image.
7. From the View menu choose Matte, or press F3.
8. Drag the Master Keyer Mix value; find the value where the Matte looks best.
9. Set the Sampling to Patch 1 (default is Sampling / Matte).
10. CTRL+Drag little areas of dark grey to force them to black; this creates a black patch.
Don’t worry about values in parts of the set as we will remove these with a garbage mask later.
11. If necessary, use Patch 2 to clean the white area of the matte if you see light grey pixels inside the talent’s silhouette.
12. Toggle to Result view, press F4.
13. Shrink the matte a little bit if necessary:
Press the Shrink button and set a value around 0.6.

We have performed a nice key on the layer but the green-screen does not fill the entire frame and there are elements that still need to be removed from the matte. To fix this, we are going to use a garbage mask.

1. Click the GMask tab.
2. Click Add Geometry to create a mask.
3. Hold SHIFT and draw a freehand shape around the gladiator.
4. Click on the initial point to close the shape, or click the Close button.
The Close hotkey is SHIFT+C.
5. Look at the Matte view, F3.
The mask’s default behavior is not what we are after. Instead of filling the outside with black, it’s filling the inside with white.

6. Enable the Outside button to fill the outside of the mask.
7. Drag the Color value from 100% white to 0% black.
Now our gladiator is the only visible object in the shot.
8. Go back to result view, F4.
9. Click on the RETURN button to go back to the Action module.

We also need to key out the second gladiator shot. Instead of re-building the entire key, we will copy the keyer effect from the media layer to the next one.

1. Select “Leap_Red” on media 2 layer.
2. Click Copy on the Media tab, to copy all effects on the strip to the clipboard.
3. Select the “Leap_Black” on media 3 layer.
4. Click on Paste. This copies everything from the previous layer to the current layer, including the entire keyer module’s parameters.
5. Because these two shots were filmed with the same camera using the same background, the key works for both. If you need to tweak anything, remember that you can double-click the K icon to access the keyer module.

You can also copy and paste chosen parameters between Media layers by selecting only specific fields on the layer.

Now that we keyed the shots we don’t need the Background anymore since it does not participate in the final 3D composite; we will disable the Background.

1. In the Media menu (right side), set the Back to Off.
The backplate still exist as a layer but now it looks dark – that’s because the default luma key is still active Since we used the same image for both the front and matte.
2. Select the “Leap_Backplate” on media 1 layer.
3. Set the Matte to Off.
Now the brightness has been restored.

If you need to increase the interactivity now that the keys have been done in Full Res; use the Proxy mode. Press (CTRL+P) or set this option in the Setup menu. When you are in Proxy mode the viewer outline is orange instead of yellow.

Next we will re-position the gladiators. To introduce depth, we are going to push the background further back and the gladiators closer in 3D space. Then when animate the camera we will feel the perspective shifting.

1. Press ALT+2 to display the 2-up view.
This helps to work in 3D space.
2. Click in the left viewport to put that view into focus (highlighted in yellow).
Set it to Top View; choose Top in the view list.
3. Keep Result view in the right viewport.
4. You can zoom out both views to get an overall view.
Drag in the Zoom field, or use CTRL+SPACE+Drag.

5. Click on the main Object tab.
Object is where you find the axis controls to reposition, scale and rotate your objects.
This is also where you can apply blending modes and other image attributes.
6. Select DVE_L1 in the layer tabs which is the “Leap_Background” layer.
The thumbnail on the right hand side of the media menu updates; you can see which layer you have selected.
7. Drag the Position Z slider towards the left to push it back in the scene (around -600).
8. Increase the Prop Scale value until the layer fills the entire screen (around 200%).
Now the background looks pretty much the same as what we had before, except that it is further away and larger – this will add some realism.

9. Now select the DVE_ L2, which is the “Leap_Red” gladiator.
10. Drag the Position sliders to move the gladiator so we feel like he is aiming at the other man.
11. Select the DVE_L3 tab which is the “Leap_Black” gladiator.
12. Move him forward in space with Position Z and to the left with Position X.
Tweak the position until he looks properly positioned.

To move objects in the scene, you can manipulate the numerical controls and also select and move the elements directly in a viewer.

Now if we were to animate the virtual camera around the scene, we would quickly realize that these objects are flat and they don’t actually have any depth. We will compensate for this by curving the backplate.

1. Select the DVE_L1 tab (Leap_Backplate).
2. Under the Object menu, in the image parameters, change the Surface type from Flat to Bicubic.
Dragging one of the corners of a Bicubic surface will deform it in 3D space, using curved segments between the corners.
3. Work in the Top view.
4. Zoom out in the top view to see the entire scene.
5. Select the middle handles of the Bicubic using CTRL+Drag to draw a box around them.
6. Push the handles back in the top view to give the surface a concave roundness, much like a curved movie theatre screen.
7. Click outside of the shape to deselect the points.
8. Work in the Result view now.
9. Tweak the vertical position of the points until there are no empty areas in the Result viewer.

10. Select the Orbit operator in the list, or press SPACE+O.
11. Click and drag the cursor in the Result view to orbit the camera.
This is just to give you a feel for the 3D environment.
12. Click the Undo button or press BACKSPACE to reset the camera.
13. Select the Move operator in the list to go back to default mode, or press SPACE+M.

We will now animate the virtual camera around the gladiators.

1. Still working with two viewers (ALT+2).
2. Activate Autokey (right side of the interface).
3. Select the Camera tab under the Object menu.
The Object menu displays the Camera settings.
4. Enable Path in the Camera Param1 options.
This is a visual representation of the path that the camera is taking when animated.
5. Go to frame 1.
6. Zoom in and frame the two gladiators.
If you modify the Camera parameters; use the Eye Z slider to zoom in and maybe the Eye X and Y sliders to view the gladiators slightly from the side.
You can also select and manipulate the camera icon directly in the Top view while monitoring the result view.
7. Because Autokey is ON, a keyframe is created at frame 1.
8. Go to the last frame.
9. Dolly the camera back.
10. Zoom out and frame the gladiators from the left.
Make sure that there isn’t any black in the render frame.
11. The camera has been animated.
This created a path – a dotted line where each segment is a separate frame.
You can actually manipulate this path now – just make sure you are in Move mode.
12. Scroll the shot and look at both views.
Right now the camera starts off slowly, speeds up and then stops. This is due to the default Hermite interpolation. This seems unrealistic as usually you wouldn’t be cutting in the middle of the camera motion.
13. Click on the Animation menu.
14. Select the Camera item.
15. Set the Interpolation from Hermite to Linear.
Now if you scrub, you can see that this feels like a crane shot looking at our two gladiators and it actually looks like they’re frozen in mid-air while jumping in a coliseum.

The last thing we need to do is render the result, but we’d like this to look as realistic as possible. We will tweak the rendering options to improve the result.

1. Press ALT+1 to display only one viewport.
2. Make sure you are in Result view (F4).
3. Step out of Animation and go inside the Setup menu.
The Setup menu contains all the preferences for the current Action session.
4. Enable Motion Blur.
This will render intermediate samples between each frame and blend them together to create the illusion of motion blur.
5. Set a Shutter speed of 1.5.
This will exaggerate the impression of speed.
6. Increase the Samples to about 10.
Keep in mind that these settings are quite costly in terms of rendering time, so use them in moderation.
7. Press Save to save your Action setup.
8. Call it “Action_Leap” and press ENTER.
9. Drag the positioner to the very first frame.
10. Make sure Proxy is OFF to process in full resolution.
Press CTRL+P to toggle Proxy ON/OFF.
When you press Process a message will tell you if you are on Proxy mode.
11. Click on Process.
This processes each frame and creates a finished clip that goes in the Source Area.
The name of the final clip will be the same as your setup, if you haven’t save it, it will have the name of the backclip_ACT.

12. Click on the Player button that has just appeared.
13. Play back the result.
We can see that the motion blur creates the illusion of speed. We can also feel the perspective shift between the two gladiators.
14. EXIT the Player and EXIT the Action module.
15. The result clip of the Action session is visible in the Source Area.

Motion blur is only visible on the render, but you can press Preview to see the final result on the current frame.

We will integrate the result clip in our previous timeline. To create a smoother transition between the Action clip and the Xball logo at the end of the timeline, we will extend the Lens flare clip to the top of the Action clip, so both the Action clip and the logo will have a flare.

1. Make sure the “Action_Leap” clip is selected in the Source Area.
2. Set its positioner to the first frame.
3. Make sure the Record timeline is displayed in the Record Area, press F5.
4. Also display the Record Player.
5. Set the focus point to the bottom most layer.
Use the UP/DOWN Arrow keys.
6. Place the timeline positioner just before the “XBALL_LOGO” clip.
Use the Z and X hotkeys to hop from cut to cut on the current layer.
7. Enable Sync.
This will ripple all tracks when you insert a clip.
Ripple should be set to End.
8. Press G to insert the clip in the timeline.

9. Disable Ripple.
10. Press Z to hop to the beginning of the Action clip.
11. Set the focus point to the topmost layer.
12. Select the “Lens_Flare” clip.
13. Press N+SPACEBAR to trim the head of the selected clip to the positioner.
14. Process.
15. Access the full screen player (CTRL+ESC) and Replay the result (T).