My goal with the speaker is to create a rhythm that is going to communicate "fast." If I animated the speaker with the traditional tweening methods , I'd end up with smooth motion that doesn't necessarily convey my message. Moreover, tweens are processor intensive on the user system. I developed a technique that utilizes blank keyframes to create quicker cuts from one frame to another, which works well in this situation. It's faking tweens to get a bit more pop. To animate the speaker, follow these steps: -
Return to the Movie Editor. Select Edit > Edit Movie and in all layers add approximately 50 frames by click-dragging down through the layers at frame 50 and choosing Insert > Frame or using the keyboard shortcut F5. -
In the speaker layer, create a blank keyframe by choosing Insert > Blank Keyframe or using the keyboard shortcut F7 on frame 5. -
Making sure the blank keyframe on frame 5 of the speaker layer is still selected, drag an instance of the speaker symbol from the Library onto the stage. -
Center the speaker on the stage using the Align command. -
Make a keyframe by choosing Insert > Keyframe or using the keyboard shortcut F6 on frame 7. With the Modify > Transform > Scale and Rotate command, scale the speaker down to 60%. -
Make another keyframe on frame 9, and remove transform by selecting Modify > Transform > Remove Transform. This will return the speaker to its original size . Now, lower the Alpha setting to 45 through the Modify > Instance command. I use the Alpha modification to vary the appearance of the speaker so that it doesn't become too predictable. -
Make a final keyframe on frame 11, scale the speaker up 110, and restore the Alpha to 100. -
Add a blank keyframe immediately after the first three existing keyframes in the speaker layer (on frames 6, 8, and 10). Add a final blank keyframe on frame 13 as shown in figure 03:19. Figure 03:19. The addition of the blank keyframes after the speaker appearances makes for a quicker cutmore popof the speaker element. We're establishing a rhythm that should jolt the viewer's attention. Quick and fastlike a drum beat. After this sequence, I leave the speaker onstage, static, for a few seconds so that it will overlap the next element to appearthe text. |