Transitions

When TMOMovieMaker travels between the "real world" and the "virtual casting office" (a visual metaphor for the TMO forums), I felt I needed to have some sort of unique transition effect. There were a number of ways this could be done, all of which involved overlays. I wanted the animation to be as smooth as possible, so I went with a technique that used as much actual film footage as possible.

In the end, what I had were three game scenes for each of the two transitions. The first transition used the "Group Move" scene on my "Empty Space" set. In the Post Production screen, this looked like: Group Move -> scene with full-screen animated overlay -> Group Move. So, I filmed the Group Move scene with the bedroom as set dressing. Then, I copied that scene and redressed the second shot with the casting office, sidewalks, and other ornaments. The camera angle remained the same on both shots.

I then had to decide exactly what type of visual effect I wanted. I could have used a Crossfade transition in VideoStudio, but ultimately decided that was too simplistic. I wanted to have a white outline appear around TMOMovieMaker - and that would only be possible in Photoshop.

This required me to film two additional scenes: copies of the two Group Move scenes explained earlier, but with TMOMovieMaker removed. I exported all four shots in "Highest" quality. I then took each corresponding frame from each shot into Photoshop, and did the following:

• For the first layer, inserted the frame with TMOMovieMaker walking in his bedroom.
• For the second layer, inserted the frame of the casting office without TMOMovieMaker.
• The third layer was filled with solid yellow.
• Using the Lasoo tool, made a selection tightly around TMOMovieMaker. I saved this selection.
• With this selection in use, I deleted the second and third layer, so that TMOMovieMaker was showing through.
• Transformed this selection, using Select -> Modify -> Border.
• Using this bordered selection, created a fourth layer and filled it with white. This makes up the white border around TMOMovieMaker.
• With each consecutive frame of animation, I used different merge types and opacity settings. The second layer was merged using Colour Dodge, and varied linearly from 0% to 100% and back to 0% opacity. The third layer varied linearly from 0% to 25% and back to 0% opacity. These settings are what made the animation look smooth.
• Once the half-way mark of the overall animation was reached, the first and second layer were swapped. The first layer was then taken from TMOMovieMaker walking to the casting office, and the second from his empty bedroom.
• Additional layers were added to ensure the mood meter was there.

Frame #6 of the first transition effect in Photoshop. Watch the animation for details!

Post Production screen of the three shots that make up the complete transition.

Riley Entertainment