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

We will add a new graphic element at the end of the timeline and extent its duration.

1. Start with the timeline from the previous exercise.
2. Press S to go to the end of the Record Timeline.
3. In the EditDesk Library, activate the View tab on the Source folder “Titling”.
4. F-Drag the “XBALL_logo” clip at the end of the timeline on the lowest layer.
The XBALL_logo clip appears, but it is only one frame long. We need to extend it to the proper length, which is three seconds.
5. Select the “XBALL_Logo” clip in the timeline.
6. Zoom in if necessary (Drag the pan bar at the bottom of the Timeline up).
7. Click in the Timecode field (right-bottom corner of timeline).
The timecode calculator appears.
8. Type 300 and then click Add. This moves the positioner three seconds forward.
Click the value on the calculator to accept the duration.
9. Press B+SPACEBAR.
This trims the tail of the clip to the positioner, your clip is now three seconds long.

We will now animate the logo using an Axis soft effect and Autokey. We will start off with a large horizontally blurred logo that positions itself quickly in the middle of the screen while zooming in slowly.

1. Enable the Axis soft effect while the logo shot is selected.
2. This time, enable Autokey, the (A) button.
3. Enter the Editor (E) button.
4. Go at the first frame.
5. Set the Prop Scale value to 200%.
6. Set the X Blur value, under Blur on the surface parameters, to about 100.
7. To refine the Blur quality, change it from Box to Gaussian.

8. Go to frame 10.
9. CTRL-Click the Blur value to reset it to its default value of 0 (or click on it and set it to 0).
When you change a value at another frame and Autokey is enabled, Smoke automatically creates animation between the two values.
10. Drag down the Prop Scale value to about 90.

11. Go to the end of the clip, at frame 72.
12. CTRL-Click the Prop Scale value to reset it to its default of 100%.
Now the text zooms out very quickly and then zooms in slowly.
13. Scrub the result.

Use the Proxy display inside the Axis FX if you need a faster interactivity. As a reminder proxies are set up in the Project.

You will notice that there is an issue: while the smallest keyframe value is set at about 90, we see the values decreasing to about 80 in the middle of the clip. This is caused by the interpolation curve; the hermite curve eases in and out from keyframe to keyframe. In this case we require a linear behavior between keyframes.

1. Click on the Animation tab to access the animation channels.
2. In the Animation Tree, select the entire scene at the top.
3. Change the Hermite interpolation to Linear.
Now when you scrub, you start off with a very large and blurry title, it zooms out quickly as it becomes sharper and then it zooms in very slowly.
4. EXIT the Axis back to the EditDesk.
Because this is a soft effect, you do not need to process it right away.

The Animation default settings, such as interpolation Linear, can be change in your User preferences, under Modules/Soft FX.

Here we will add a subtitle using the Text soft effect. We will not add the effect directly to the logo clip. Instead, placing the title above the logo layer will allow us to give it its own independent timing and animation.

1. Look at the Record Player, press ESC.
2. Drag the positioner to the frame where the zoom-blur effect of the logo ends, 10 frames into the XBALL_logo clip.

3. Move the focus point of the positioner to the topmost layer.
4. Select the empty gap on that layer.
The entire layer is selected (yellow).
5. Press DELETE Forward on the keyboard to add a Cut to the clip.
This cuts the gap into two separate segments. We are going to use only the second segment for the subtitle.
6. Select the second segment of the gap.
7. Enable the Text soft effect.
Note: You have to click on the Soft FX arrow to access Text in the second page of the Soft FX.
8. Make sure Autokey (A) is enabled.
9. Enter the Editor (E).

You can use the Previous/Next keyframe controls in the player to navigate to a keyframe.

1. In the Text module, click anywhere in the viewer.
This creates a new text box at the top.
2. Type in the text: “PODIUM SERIES PAINTBALLS”.
3. Press ALT+A to highlight all the characters.
To change the attributes of the text, you need to select the characters first: properties are character-based in Text. You also need to be in Edit mode.

4. Set the paragraph settings to Center.
5. Click the Font field (typically set to Discreet by default).
This brings up the fonts browser.
6. Select the system font: LuxiSans-Bold.

7. Click on the Load button.
8. Reposition the text box by dragging it just below the Xball logo.
To move the box, grab it by the left top corner.
9. Increase the Size value and make the text the same width as the logo.

10. Set the preview mode to Preview FX. This will give you a preview of the rendered result.
11. Enable the Outline attribute.
12. Click on the Color box and click on Pick.
13. On the logo, pick a dark yellow color.
To accept this color, click on the result color swatch (top right).
14. Increase the Outline edge Width.

To toggle between Text Edit and Move mode, press ESC.

You can use different fonts, browse to their location on the system or copy them in: /usr/discreet/font

To animate the text, we will increase the kerning value, so that the width of the text matches the width of the logo, we will then go back to the beginning of the timeline and reduce the kerning value.

1. Still in the Text editor; go to the last frame.
2. Raise the Kerning value so that the text matches the width of the logo.
3. Go to the first frame and CTRL-Click the Kerning value to reset it to its default, zero.
4. Scrub the result.
5. We can see that the animation eases in and eases out.
To match it to the logo, we will choose Linear interpolation.
6. Go to the Animation menu.
7. Select the entire Scene folder at the top of the list.
8. Choose Linear as the interpolation type instead of Hermite.
9. Click EXIT.

We will now fade-in the subtitle.

1. Select the cut-point at the head of the subtitle shot.
2. Press the End key on the keyboard to add a dissolve.
3. Scrub the result.

As a last refinement we will add a lens flare on top of the composite. It would look best if we could add the lens flare at the point where it is the brightest. Since the lens flare shot is too long, we will perform a 4-point edit to speed it up with a timewarp.

1. Press L+ to add a new layer.
2. Select the “XBALL_logo” clip at the bottom layer.
3. Mark its duration by pressing SHIFT+/.
This will add an In and an Out mark at each end of the clip on the Record Timeline.

4. Select the “Flare” shot in the Source Area.
5. Press ESC, and in the source player, scroll to the brightest frame and park the positioner there.
6. Look at the Source Timeline view, or press F6.
7. Mark an In-point, by clicking on the In button on the Source Player menu.
Alternatively, you can press the Right-ALT on the right-hand side of keyboard to set an In mark.
8. Go to the end of the shot, or press SHIFT+S.
9. Mark an Out-point, by clicking on the Out button on the Source Player menu.
Alternatively, you can press CTRL on the right-hand side of keyboard.

10. Go back to record Timeline, or press F5.
11. Make sure the focus point is on the topmost layer.
12. Press H, to overwrite.
The Flare clip has been timewarped to match the Source in/out duration to the Record in/out duration.
Notice that the TW FX is enabled.
13. Scroll the result.

To toggle between the Players, you can press the (Source/Record Focus) button. Hotkeys are: Record Focus (F7), Source focus (F8).

Now the problem is that we have an opaque clip that fills the entire screen, covering up our title. We will apply a different blending mode in an Axis FX to fix this.

1. Select the “Flare” clip on the top layer.
2. Enable the Axis soft effect and enter the Editor (E).
3. Make sure the Preview mode is set to Context.
4. Under the Surface parameters, change the blending mode from Blend to Screen.
‘Screen’ makes dark pixels become transparent yet the lighter pixels remain opaque.
5. EXIT back to the Timeline.
6. Select the topmost layer and click on Process.
Smoke will automatically process everything underneath, in order to make it real-time playable.
7. Replay the shot, press T.

As usual, continue to save your work to the Library at every important step.

1. Choose Record Area in the Item Box.
2. Be sure that your “Smoke_Essentials” library is selected in the Library box.
3. Press Save.
4. Type a new name for the new Record Area folder, such as “Timeline_Assembly_06”, press ENTER.
5. The Record Area is saved in the currently active Library.