Motion 5.3 Tutorial Part 3 - Ecotrain Gif Animation

gardenbsquared (59)in #animation • 9 years ago

This the third part of the Ecotrain GIF tutorial. I hoped that this would be the last but there's simply too much to explain.

At the end of this part we will have a completed scene with the train moving from left to right.

If you have missed the first two parts, you can see part 1 here and part 2 here.

Before we start building the train and the text we first have to put in the rails.

Create a new group. Click on project and hit <cmd + shift + n>
Rename this group, let's call it rails
Select the line tool

Draw a small vertical line like this. Pressing the shift key while drawing keeps the line straight.

Go to: Inspector - properties - Location
Right click and reset the parameter. This will centre the line.

Go to: Inspector - Shape - Style - Outline
Fill in a width of 15

Press the L key, this creates a replicator
Go to: Inspector - Replicator, and under Shape select line

Fill in a X start value of -780 and a x end value 780
At points fill in a value of 35

Go to: Inspector - properties and rotate -90 degrees on X
Lower the beams by dragging downwards on position Y

To finish the rails we have to draw a horizontal line

Select the Line tool
Draw a horizontal line while pressing the shift key.
Duplicate the line by hitting <cmd + d>
move the line copy into place

This finishes the rails.

Now we can build the train. We can either draw it ourselves or find a PNG image on the internet. I took this from the internet to build my train and imported it into Motion.

Create a new group: <cmd + shift + n>
Cal this group train
Import your image. Go to: File - Import or hit <cmd + i>

This picture is only an outline we have to fill it. I want the bottom of the train to be blue and the top to be white.

Go to: Library - Generators and choose Gradient
Select gradient and move it underneath the train picture. <cmd + Left Hand Square Bracket>

Go to: Inspector - Generator and open the Gradient bar
Select for the left hand tab a pure white and for the right hand tab a dark blue
Play with the Y Values until the picture looks like this. (Y Start -250 and Y End -400)

Now we want to mask out the background.

Select the Bezier Mask tool

Click around the outline of the train and close the mask (start point = end point)

By clicking and holding while using the Bezier Mask or the Bezier tool, the created point will be smooth with control over angle and curve. Also the level handles will appear which can be used to alter the shape later on once the shape is closed.

To decorate the train we're going to import the Ecotrain logo and the Steemit logo.

I cropped the bottom of the Steemit Logo to remove the name, scaled it down and put it in its place.

I did the same for the Ecotrain logo.

I forgot the clouds in the original picture of the train. So I selected the train picture and cropped the top.

I want the Ecotrain logo stand out a bit more. So I made a copy by hitting <cmd + d> and changed the blend mode to multiply.

I scaled down the train and moved it to the left end of the screen. As you can see it's not coming out of the tunnel. It's very easy to fix that.

Turn off the train group
Save current frame. Go to: Share - Save Current Frame
Save it as Screen Copy Left

Import this picture in a new group called Screen Sides or something
Make a copy <cmd + d>, call this Screen Copy Right and turn it off
Select Screen Copy left and crop the right all the way to the edge of the left side of the tunnel
Select Screen Copy Right, turn it back on and do vice versa

This is then the result. I turned off the sun group to make it more clear.

There are many ways to make the train move from left to right, here we will work with Key Frames. Once understood, key frames are an easy way to animate objects.

Select the Train group and move it all the way to the left so that you don't see it anymore
Make sure that your at frame one or at 0 seconds in the time line

Go to: Inspector - Properties - Position
Click on that little diamond icon next to the X Value that says Add a Keyframe

Go to frame 120 or 6 seconds in the timeline and move the Train group to the right by dragging the Position X Value upwards so that it is off the screen on the right.