2D and 3D Animated Charts

2D and 3D Animated Charts Video editors are used to editing, and may be less familiar with the world of graphic creation. Even expert graphic artists, however, have had few options for to quickly create high-quality animated charts. Rather than trying to squeeze broadcast-quality results out of multimedia business applications, you can now tap into RED's powerful vector graphics to instantly create pie, bar, line and area charts use data generated from spreadsheets or input data directly using a simple Chart Editor.

It couldn't be simpler. Create a chart by clicking the shortcut button in the Timeline window or selecting New Chart Container from the Track menu. The default chart includes some generic data to provide a starting point for customizing, beginning with the kind of chart you'd like to use. Four types of charts are available - bar, pie, line and area - and offer a wide range of options. For example, bars may be oriented horizontally or vertically, stacked and inverted.

Double-click the chart track in the timeline to open the Chart Editor, where you can either enter your data manually (the top row and left column are reserved for labels that you can choose to display) or import data that has been exported from spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel as tab-delimited or comma delimited text files.

Charts in RED are built as containers of nested tracks on the timeline, but you won't need to adjust the parameters on a bunch of individual elements by hand. Simply make adjustments in the Controls window, and let Boris build the keyframes for you.

Start with chart creation. Set the color of elements, use supplied colors or use randomized values. You can even fill your chart elements with natural media such as wood grain, marble, and reptilian skin. Add grids, labels, legends, with control over colors, styles and more. You can set the starting range for values, use logarithmic scales, include currency and scientific symbols, and much more. One more click is all it takes to extrude the charts.

Compelling custom animations are literally only another few clicks away. The Controls window once again supplies power that would be enormously difficult and time consuming to keyframe. Use the Reveal option to have elements "grow" onscreen, or have elements progressively animate position, scale, opacity, tumble/spin/rotation and more with just a few clicks.

All of these capabilities and many more are built into the over 100 chart presets included with RED. Feel free to start with any of these settings when building your own.

« back | next »

Newsletter sign up

Enter your email address below to receive tutorials and free goodies!