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Points of light animation

Specific to Premiere Elements Version 12.

Points of light animation

Postby don731 » Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:20 pm

So here's a task that I would appreciate some advice on:

I'd like to create a plain black background with tiny flashing points of white light on it....like you were looking at dozens of flashbulbs or strobe lights going off.
Then record this as a movie, perhaps 30-60 seconds long.

Any thoughts? If this couldn't be done in PREL12, then thoughts on another app?

Cheers!

Don in Chicagoland
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Re: Points of light animation

Postby Steve Grisetti » Sat Sep 20, 2014 1:13 pm

You could certainly do it by keyframing several Lens Flare effects!

You could add any number of Lens Flares to the same background -- then keyframe them on and off throughout the clip.
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Re: Points of light animation

Postby don731 » Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:54 pm

Steve,

Working on this effect! Is there no easy way to toggle the effect on or off by a keyframe? So far, to get the lens flare to "turn on or off" I am keyframing a quick flare brightness.

Thanks!
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Re: Points of light animation

Postby Bob » Sat Oct 18, 2014 9:33 pm

No, there is no simple on/off with this effect. You need three key frames -- one to set it off, a second to turn it on, and a third to turn it off again. After you apply the lens flare effect, display the effect properties. Be sure you display key frames. Set the flare center to where you want it to be and turn the flare brightness to zero. Enable key frames for the effect. This will create the 1st key frame. You need to set two more. Using the right arrow key, move a couple of frames forward. Set the flare brightness to the desired level. This creates the second key frame. Move a couple of frames forward and turn the flare brightness back to zero. This completes the third key frame. Now, use the cursor in the effect properties panel to drag a rectangle around the three key frames -- this will select all three. Do a copy operation. Now, move the cti in the effect properties panel to another time and paste the three keyframes. Repeat the move cti and paste operation until you have the desired number of flashes for that flare center location. Now, create a set of three key frames using a different flare center and copy them. Repeat the move cti and paste process to add the new flashes. Repeat the process until you have enough flare centers and flashes to give the effect you desire.

Don't place the flashes too close together. If you are running out of room or want flashes from two different flare centers at the same time, you can add a second lens flare effect and place the key frames there. If you need to adjust the timing of a flash, you can drag a rectangle around the key frames to select them and slide them as a unit left or right.
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Re: Points of light animation

Postby don731 » Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:56 am

Thanks for the help! I've figured it out but with one problem: only one lens flare seems to be active at a time. I've added a couple more, but the last one added seems to be the only one active. I'm on a Mac.

Cheers,
Don
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Re: Points of light animation

Postby Bob » Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:53 pm

Mac or Windows shouldn't matter, Premiere Elements should work the same way on both. You should be able to put as many lens flare effects on the same clip as you want and have them all active. Is it possible the visibility is turned off? Check the applied effects panel and see if the multiple lens flares are present and that the eyeballs for each are on.

One other thought. Did you apply the multiple lens flares effects to the same black video clip or did you stack multiple tracks of black video with a lens flare on each. They need to be applied to the same clip. Black video is not transparent and will hide layers underneath making it appear that only the last one is active.

If you did use only one black video clip with multiple flares applied, a screen shot of the applied effects panel with key frames visible would help us figure out what's wrong.
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Re: Points of light animation

Postby don731 » Sun Oct 19, 2014 2:14 pm

Bob,
Thanks so much for your guidance! I feel like a real noob! FYI, I am doing this in the new PE13.
I have one black clip about :15 long. Both lens flare effects are turned on.

Here is an example: The first lens flare has keyframes for adjusting the flare brightness. The second lens flare has keyframes for adjusting the position on the screen. What happens, is that the brightness does adjust according to the first flare's keyframes, but the position on the screen is picked up from the last position adjusted, which I did in the second lens flare, and never changes. There are never two lens flares shown on the screen, in two separate positions. It would appear that dragging the position of the lens flare on the screen in either flare effect changes the position in both.

I've tried just a simple effect of adding two totally visible lens flares at once for the entire clip, but only one lens flare is visible at a time, and it seems to always be the last one manipulated.

I am wondering if I need to just add a total of 30 black clips, each .5 second long, and apply one lens flare to each, which would possibly accomplish my task, which is to have multiple points of light turn on and off from different positions during the entire clip.

UPDATE: I may have found the issue. It would appear that moving the position of the lens flare by clicking on the video playback screen and moving it around moves ALL lens flares to the same position! I moved one of the lens flare's position by changing the numeric values in that effect, and guess what: now I see two lens flares! Perhaps there is some trick to moving only one lens flare position by using the "click in the screen" method.

Thanks!
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Re: Points of light animation

Postby Bob » Sun Oct 19, 2014 5:57 pm

It would appear that moving the position of the lens flare by clicking on the video playback screen and moving it around moves ALL lens flares to the same position!


What's happening is that by moving it that way, you were moving the position of the clip itself, not the position of the flare in the clip. So, yes, all the flares were in the same position.

Perhaps there is some trick to moving only one lens flare position by using the "click in the screen" method.


Display the applied effects panel. Look for the line with the Lens Flare Effect and click on the name. You should see a circle with a cross at the center of the lens flare in the screen. Click on that symbol and drag to change the location of the lens flare -- the numbers on the flare center should be changing as you drag. If there is more than one keyframe on the same effect, you will see a dotted line showing the path of the flare center.

Here is an example: The first lens flare has keyframes for adjusting the flare brightness. The second lens flare has keyframes for adjusting the position on the screen.


You need to adjust the flare brightness and position at the same time. Keyframes work by recording the values of the keyframed properties at a point on the time line. Premiere Elements will interpolate the values as the they change between keyframes as the movie plays. When the flare flashes, you want the flash position to be still and go from off to on to off again. The easiest way to do that is to use a set of three adjacent keyframes as I described before. Start with the cti at the beginning of the clip, set the flare brightness to zero and enable keyframing for the Lens Flare Effect. Move the cti to the position in the timeline where you want the flash. In the applied effects panel, set the flare center position either by dragging the circle/cross symbol or change the numbers directly. The flare brightness will still be zero so a brightness keyframe won't be automatically set. You need one. Jiggle the slider up and back down to zero or click the diamond shaped add/delete keyframe symbol on that line. You should now have a keyframe for both the brightness and center position values. Press the right arrow a couple of times to move the cti and increase the brightness. That will set a brightness keyframe. Move a couple of frames to the right and set the brightness to zero. You will need to add a keyframe for the flare center position. Click the diamond shaped add/delete keyframe symbol on that line. Double check your keyframes!! They should look something like this (this is from a much earlier version and won't look exactly like yours, the important thing is to see how the keyframes are arranged):

flashKeyFrame.JPG


You can place as many of these group of three lens flare keyframes as you need in the same effect. However, you can also add as many lens flare effects as you want to the clip and keyframe each independently from the others.
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Re: Points of light animation

Postby don731 » Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:41 pm

Thanks! I did figure it out eventually. Copy and paste makes adding more flashes on each effect a snap!

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Re: Points of light animation

Postby Bob » Sun Oct 19, 2014 10:36 pm

:-5
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