In this lesson, we will begin working on the scenes for our Winter Wonderland opener, by adding the effects that will animate the scenes. For the first scene, we will use the Defocus filter, which will act as a nice beginning transition. Let's apply this filter to the Scene 1 group.

Scene 1 - Defocus

Our opener begins with a few snow covered berries on the screen but we don't want them to just jump on to the screen. We need to add a short transition that will "introduce" the berries to the audience. One technique that is used often is to start the scene with the subject slightly out of focus and over the first few frames the subject comes into focus. We want to give the impression that the video photographer is adjusting his lens for a better picture. We can do this with the Motion^R Defocus filter.

1. With the Playhead at the beginning of the Timeline, select the Scene 1 layer.
   
   
2. From the Library, select Filters - Blur - Defocus. Then click the Apply button.
   
   In the Layers pane, you will see the Defocus filter applied to the Scene 1 layer.
   
   
3. With the Defocus layer selected, go to Inspector - Filters - Defocus. There are a few parameters that we can use to customize the filter.
   
   Amount: This parameter controls the radius of the effect. Default is 10. A higher number results in greater blur.
   
   Gain: Sets the amount of gain. The higher the gain applied, the brighter the light areas become. Default is 2.
   
   Shape: The two options for the lens aperture shape are Circle or Polygon. Your choice determines the other parameters available. Default is Circle.
   
   Sides: When using the Polygon shape option, this parameter determines the number of sides to the polygon. Default is 3.
   
   Rotation: Again this parameter is available with the Polygon shape option and determines the rotation of the lens aperture. Default is 0.
   
   Aspect Ratio: The lens aperture aspect ratio has a default of 1.0. Below 1.0 results in horizontal blur. Above 1.0 adds a vertical blur.
   
   Crop: When used, the filter reaches the edges of the image. Default is unchecked.
   
   Mix: Determines the amount of the image that is blurred. Default is 100%. A lower percentage results in less blur.
   
   As you would expect, the best settings will be different for each image to which the filter is applied and the effect you want to achieve. For our berries, I set the Amount to 20, because I found the highest setting too harsh. In order to add some "sparkle" to the snow on the berries, I set the Gain to 3. I kept the Circle shape and the Aspect Ratio at 1.0.
   
   Of course, we want to add animation to this filter. We will start with the Mix set to 100%, which will give us the greatest blur, begin the transition at 2 sections on the Timeline and reduce the Mix over 2 seconds to 0%, which will get us back to full focus.
   
   
4. With the Playhead on frame 60, keep the Mix to 100% and click on the Keyframe icon (icon on right).
   
   
5. Move the Playhead to frame 120 and reduce the Mix to 0%, which will add a second Keyframe automatically.