Several calendar transitions have been available on our Free HFX page. We regularly prepare the Christmas and New Year calendar for you. But recently requests have been made to be able to highlight special personal dates.
So I thought I'd put you to work creating a universal calendar, well almost ... I have prepared a fully configurable transition (which was not the case with previous transitions). So you can easily make your calendar by modifying the four "Text3D" objects that make up each page of the calendar. You can change the font, font size, and text for :
- The day;
- The date;
- The month;
- The year.
And you can even add an image, if you wish, that symbolizes that particular day (choose between Christmas, New Year, a birth or a birthday).
Each calendar has two pages: the page for the day before the event and the page for the event day itself, or 8 customizable "Text3D" objects.
Step 1 : Symbols pictures
The 350-uni-calend is a free HFX file. By default this transition comes with 4 default symbols and images with dissolves set to 100. Pictures are transparent and appear when you adjust the "Dissolve" parameter. Before downloading, you can preview this transition on our preview page.
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To display the image symbolizing Christmas :
- Select the "Christmas" child object from "Jour J" (D Day) object;
- Adjust the dissolve setting of this object to 0 (ie not transparent).
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To display the image symbolizing New Year:
- Select the "NewYear" child object from "Jour J" (D Day) object;
- Adjust the dissolve setting of this object to 0 (ie not transparent).
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To display the image symbolizing a birth :
- Select the "Birth" child object from "Jour J" (D Day) object;
- Adjust the fade setting of this object to 0 (ie not transparent).
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To display the image symbolizing a birthday :
- Select the "Birthday" child object from "Jour J" (D Day) object;
- Adjust the dissolve setting of this object to 0 (ie not transparent).
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Step 2 : Modification of calendar pages
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I told you that each calendar has two pages. Each of these pages consists of two objects I have called "Jour J" (D-Day) and "Jour J-1" (Day D-1).
In the FX tree view you can see these two objects, one below the other, because I collpased the tree view for these objects so they are both visible in the same screenshot. Each object in the FX tree can be expanded or collapsed.
So, if you click on the "minus" before the Back 3 1 object the "minus" sign will be replaced by a "plus" sign and the object will be displayed on only one line rather than three.
Conversely, you have to click the "plus" sign of "Jour J" (D Day) and "Jour J-1" (Day D-1) objects to expand them and access their child objects.
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On the screenshot to the right you can see the expanded tree view of the "Jour J" (D Day) object.
You have to adjust the settings for eight "Text3D" objects shown by the swirl icon (4 items for "Jour J" (D Day) and four items for "Jour J-1" (D Day-1).
The setup is simple:
- Select the Text3D object to change;
- Click on the folder icon to access the settings for the font and size;
- In the text field, enter your text directly.
Normally, you do not have to change other settings ... but if you're feeling adventuresome, then why not?
Many of our tutorials describe changing "Text3D" objects, you may refer to these for additional information :
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Step 3 : Bonus
If you want to go even further in customizing the calendar and create one for Halloween, for example, it's not very hard to do. Use your favorite photo editing software or find images. Our tutorial "Create transparent areas in still images with Gimp" can help you use the free Gimp software if you don't have one you use now.
Or you can change one of the included pictures (P_Noel.png for example). Save it as a png with a different name.
Create a new picture from scratch with the following dimensions:
- A size of 256 pixels x 256 pixels with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch;
- A transparent background;
- 4 images of 90 pixels square at each corner.
Then you swap an existing picture in the transition tree with your picture. Maybe look here: "Tip 10 - Changing the map for effect HFX 191".
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| Or, an even better idea, create a clone of the "Christmas" object for example and substitute your own icon or photo instead of the "P_Noel.png" photo. You will have a transition involving a set of 5 images instead of 4. Take a look here: Cloning in Hollywood FX". |
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So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Congratulations and Happy Birthday ...
PS : Some readers were surprised that the preview of this transition in Studio goes directly from image A to image B. You should know that this transition has 8 "Text3D" objects, and that Studio does not really like 3D objects. Consequently, when previewing a transition with too many "Text3D "objects, image A will switch to image B immediately, skiping all in between. But do not worry, insert the transition between two clips on the timeline and wait until the rendering is completed, then everything is smooth and works perfectlly.
{Screen Capture made with TechSmith Snagit 10}
{Thanks to Loosecannon for the fine tuning}