Overview :

As we announced in our news Pinnacle Studio 14 HD, Ultimate and Ultimate Collection, Studio 14, in its Ultimate Collection version, has been equipped with various plugins from Red Giant. Among these, Trapcode 3DStroke.

3DStroke is a graphics generator in the form of lines moving in three dimensions. Of course, it is a lighter version of the plugin for us. But many parameters allow us to modify it at will.

A video worth a thousand words, here are some examples of graphics that you can include in your videos :

Here, I voluntarily put a black background so that the graphics are more visible, but of course everything can be overlayed on your videos.

Setting the plugin :

Like any Studio plugin to apply to a video you must open the video toolbox and choose the video plugins category :

Then in the category Red Giant Trapcode 3DStroke choose 3DStroke and validate withOK :

The simplest is to use one of the many templates provided by default. There are for SD images and others for HD :

Immediately the animation is visible in the preview window of Studio.

In fact 3DStroke uses for all its animations drawn shapes. There are forty delivered in the plugin. If you want to create your own animation, it is necessary to first select one of these shapes in the dropdown menu Shape :

Let's choose Basic Square. That is what appears in the preview window :

Firstly you can change the color of the outline with the eyedropper or the color selection dialog box of Windows.

You can then modify the line thickness with Thickness. Either with a slider, or by returning a numerical value.

Then comes the parameter Start. It can change the starting point of the outline on the square. If we set it to 15, that's what will look like our square :

The red arrow I added indicates you the path followed by the beginning of the animation in this change.

With End, we have the same effect for the final point of the animation :

Another image for you to understand better :

Point 1 is the starting point of the square. Point 2 is the point where the animation will start. Point 3 where animation ends. And point 4 the final point of the square. The whole turning in a clockwise direction.
By playing with the Start and End parameters is adjusted length of the outline which follows the square.

With the Offset parameter, we keep the same length, but it shifts the same way the points start and end. For example :

The parameter Taper reduces the thickness of the beginning and end of the outline :

The parameters Bend and Bend Axis can bend the outline. For example :

Bend Axis determines according to which axis (X, Y or Z) the outline is twisted and Bend determines the level of twist. The outline above may end up like that :

The parameters Position X, Y, Z and Rotation X, Y, Z are explicit enough that I do not need to make you a drawing, not ?

With Repeater we add copies of the original outline. Of course if you look at the square facing you, you won't see many things :

But if we rotate the whole, it becomes immediately more attractive :

With Instances we multiply the number of duplicate frames :

Opacity, as its name suggests, adjusts the opacity of the duplicate images:

While Scale adjusts their size :

Factor manages their spacing :

Last settings : Opacity again but for the whole animation and a Transfer mode menu that determines how pixels in the animation must be mixed with those of the original image. Try different settings. You will see that sometimes the effects are amazing !

And if we went a little further ?

The personalization I mentioned in the title of this tutorial does not stop changing the settings plugin. I wanted to talk about true customization. Something that does not exist in your neighbor's videos. For example this :

You want to be able to do so ? If yes, follow me !

The drawn shapes which uses 3DStroke are all in SVG format (Scalable Vector Graphics). It's vectorial drawing. That's why 3DStroke is able to deform at will drawing with geometrical operations more or less complex. The langage format of SVG can describe an image as a file of type XML.

As I said above, when installing the plugin, forty shapes were installed. They are all in the form of SVG files in C:\Program Files\Pinnacle\Studio 14\Plugins\RTFx\TC3DStrokeSE\Trapcode\SVG\ .
If in your PC the path is C:\Program Files\Pinnacle\Studio 14\Plugins\RTFx\MBLooksSE\Trapcode\SVG\, write to me. I would be glad to learn that I am no longer alone in the universe to have this configuration on his PC (private joke). 

I think you have guessed by watching the video above that I created my own drawn shape (the "handwritten" Déclic Vidéo) and that I made a SVG file with it.

I can cite two softwares capable of creating such images, but there are others. Those have the advantage of being free :

Gimp and Inkscape.

In Gimp, create a new image with a white background. With the pencil, black color, draw what you want. With the Select by color Tool create a selection corresponding to your drawing. Then in the window Paths, right-click + Selection to path. Again right-click, Export path, give it the name you want but with the .svg extension.

In Inkscape, it's even easier. Create a new document, select the tool Draw freehand lines (or F6). Then File, Save as and choose .svg extension.

For example, here is my "Déclic Vidéo" in Inkscape :

Despite a careful reading of the file Trapcode3DStroke.xml I have not figured out how to simply add my .svg to the forty . svg already installed. It is therefore necessary to substitute. If some readers, gifted in XML, find another solution I am tenant.

For example, in C:\Program Files\Pinnacle\Studio 14\Plugins\RTFx\TC3DStrokeSE\Trapcode\SVG\, create a backup of Moon.svg rename it in MoonBackup.svg for example. Copy in this directory the .svg you created and rename it in Moon.svg.

From there, in 3DStroke, once you select the Moon shape or a preset using this shape it is your .svg to be displayed. That's how I made my animation helping me with about twenty keyframes to spice it all.

If you want to go back you will just replace Moon.svg by MoonBackup.svg you've previously renamed in Moon.svg.

That's all for today.