BLUE Camera Pull Transition

In this tutorial I'll show you how to create a camera pull transition similar to some the presets found in our library. Open the setting cameraPullBackFrames.blu from the 00 transtions/3D moves folder in our library to see preview of the effect we're going to build. In order to achieve this effect we'll need to use our new Target Camera and 3D split views.

See how the finished effect looks»

To begin apply a Blue Transition on a cut between two clips in your Avid Timeline and change the duration of the transition to 2 seconds in your Effect Editor window. Launch the Blue User Interface (UI) and you'll see a Scene with Video 1 and Video 2 inside it. In the Comp window go to the Toggle Split View menu and select Dual Horizontal to get a better view to set up our effect.

Select Video 1 in the timeline and change the following values. Spin Y = 90, Position X = 900, Position Z = 650. Make sure the Keyframe Interpolation for all of those is Constant so the video plane doesn't move.

Now select the Scene in the timeline so you can access the camera controls. Change the Orientation to Point To Target to use our new camera features and enable Display Camera Interactor so you can interactively move the in the Comp window.

Since we're already pointing at Video 2 let's set keyframes with this camera position at the end of our timeline to hold this location. For smooth motion set Ease In/Out keyframes for the Camera X,Y,Z positions and Target X,Y,Z positions.

Now go to Frame 1 of the effect so we can orient the camera to face Video 1. We know Video 1's location because we entered those values in step 3 so let's enter some of those values for the camera. Set both the Camera Z position and Target Z position to 650 to match Video 1 and then set Camera X position to -530 so Video fills the video frame in the right pane.

One more step to go in order to finish the camera move. If you preview the effect right now you'll see the camera fly from Video 1 to Video 2 but it doesn't really pull out. To do that go to the middle of the timeline and change your Split View mode to Four so you can see a Front, Top, Side, World view of the environment. To make preview easier you can change the Front view to a Render view by clicking in the pane (top left) and Toggling the Camera view from the menu next to the Split View menu. Now you can interactively position your camera and see it update in the alternate views.

The position I settled on were Camera X = -2400, Camera Y = -670, Camera Z = -1240 and no new keyframes for the Target.

Adding the extruded 3D frames to the images is quite easy. Select Video 1 in the timeline and duplicate it and change the name of the duplicate to V1 Frame. Change the Track Shape to Extrusion through the 3D Plane icon next to the track name. Twirl open V1 frame so you can see the Rectangle track, this is your spline shape where you can control the shape of the extrusion. Select that track and enter the following vales in the Controls window.

Shape Tab:
Left and Top = 0
Right and Bottom = 100
Corner Size = 2

Fill Tab:
Disable Fill

Border Tab:
Position = Outside
Edge Width = 8

You can repeat the steps for Video 2.

The last element we’ll add is the floor. Start by adding a 3D plane to the Scene (rename it to Floor) and set the Tumble X to –90. To place it below the video tracks you can set the Position Y to 486 and the Scale X and Y to 1500. You may not see much because the floor extends much farther than the lights are setup for. To fix this select your Scene and go to the Lights tab and increase the Light Y and Intensity to your liking.

The only thing left to do is click Apply from the bottom right corner of the timeline and render your new 3D transition in Avid. Enjoy.

See how the finished effect looks»

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