Designing a Broadcast Ski Report with Boris RED 4.1

John Lafauce Jr.

Footage provided by Artbeats

Winter storms can wreak havoc by dumping heavy snow, stranding travelers, causing
blackouts - difficult conditions for most, but simply awesome news for skiers and boarders!  And, what better way to communicate that news of the plentiful white stuff than with a motion graphic created using the newly released Boris RED 4.1?

In no time at all, John Lafauce from Boris FX will walk you through the steps necessary to create a broadcast-worthy ski report that just might make you want to head for the slopes!

Step 1. Get Started

• Project size is NTSC D1
• Duration is 8 secs.
• Create a New Composition with a Video 1 track in the top track
• Import the Snow Mountain.mov clip that was included with this tutorial into Video 1 track
• Click the Toggle Animate / Static Mode button on the bottom pane of your Controls window to ensure your default interpolation is Constant

Step 2. Apply and Customize a Pre-Made, Animated Blue Background

1. Launch the Boris RED Library Browser

2. Navigate to the Splines – 2D category and select it from the RED 4.0 Keyframe Library. (Its effects should populate the browser)

3. Select Blue Texture Template.red and click the Insert Effect button.  (The effect appears in RED)

4. Move the Snow Mountain.mov track above the Blue Texture Template track in the Timeline

5. While the Snow Mountain.mov track is selected, navigate to the Composite tab in the Controls window

6. Change Apply Mode to Overlay

7. Enter the following values:

• Brightness: -14.08
• Contrast: 21.13
• Mix Back: 43.66

8. Expand the Blue Texture Template track to reveal its nested tracks and select the video track

9. Hit F on your keyboard to select the video track’s Face track

10. On this Face track, import the Snow Mountain.mov as its media

11. Go back and select the video track inside the Blue Texture Template track

12. Navigate to the Composite tab in the Controls window and change Apply Mode to Overlay

Step 3. Apply and Customize a Pre-Made, Animated Type-On Text Effect

Here we will generate three rows of text from one pre-made text effect to serve as our snow and lift reports.

1. Deselect all tracks

2. Launch the Red Library Browser

3. Navigate through:  Titles > Animated Text In, and select the Zooms folder

4. Select throwDown.grf and click the Insert Effect button.  (The effect appears in Red)

5. Delete the Solid Color track in the Timeline

6. Double-click the Boris Graffiti 2 track to launch the Text window

7. Change the text to:  24 - 28" Base / Packed Powder / 6 Lifts Open

8. After entering the text, hit the Enter or Return key on your keyboard three times to leave three line spaces separating your next row of text

9. Type the 2nd text line:  29" Base / Packed Powder / 16 Lifts Open

10. Leave three more line spaces separating your next row of text

11. Type the 3rd text line:  33 - 46" Base / Packed Powder / 28 Lifts Open

12. Highlight all text and in the Style tab of the Text window:

• Change the font to Futura Md BT
• Font size is set to 24
• Justify text to the Right

13. In the Color tab:

• Turn Fill on
• Change Style Color to white

14. In the Shadow tab:

• Turn Drop Shadow on

15. Click the Update button and close the Text window

You won’t see any text at the head of the clip as the animation begins out of frame. Advance ahead in the timeline and you will see the text appear in the Comp window. You will need to reposition the text and adjust the Leading to match the final image.

Step 4. Add and Position Static Text

For the names of the ski resorts, we will repeat the technique of entering three rows of text in the same text window.

1. Deselect all tracks

2. Click the Add Vector Text button in the Timeline window to add a new text track

3. In the Text window, enter the following text, separated by two line spaces between each row of text:

• Aspen
• Beaver Creek
• Breckenridge

4. Highlight all text and in the Style tab:

• Set font to Futura Md BT
• Font size is 44
• Set Tracking to 2.96

5. In the Color tab:

• Change Style Color to an orange (255, 198, 64)

6. Give it a Border with an Edge Width of 0.50 and make sure to add the drop shadow

7. Click the Update button and close the Text window

You will need to reposition the text and adjust the Leading to match the final image.

Step 5. Give it a Bold Heading

The ski report needs a main heading and feel free to title it as you wish. You can achieve this by:

• Duplicating the current text track and deleting the rows of text you don’t need, than rename the existing text. Mine is called: Ski Report

Be creative and add variety to your text. I did so by:

• Italicizing my heading text and then filled it with a gradient. All this can be achieved inside the Style and Color tabs of the Text window

Lastly, I underlined my heading text with a blue bar I made by:

• Selecting the Rectangle tool from the Tool window
• Drawing a spline, scaling, positioning and filling it with blue to go with the rest of the color scheme

Building the graphics

Ways to Embellish your Design

Hot Tip #1: If you prefer 3D text, simply change the Track Shape of your desired text from 3D Plane to 3D Extrusion.

Hot Tip #2: Want it to snow and accumulate on your titles? Try out the realistic BCC Snow generator, which is also included with Red 4.1.

Along with the features mentioned in this tutorial, Boris Red 4.1 offers users enhanced image processing technology, a slew of new image treatment tools, and a newly designed user interface optimized for 2D/3D effects creation. To learn more about Boris Red 4.1, please visit:

www.borisfx.com/product/red/

About the author
John Lafauce Jr. is a visual effects artist and lead compositor who has worked on over thirty feature films in Hollywood. He currently works in software quality assurance for Boris FX in Massachusetts.