After creating a mockup in Motion for the basic scenes of our Winter Wonderland template, we can start to build the three animated background clips for the template. Remember that our mockup had four scenes, with a different background image for each scene 1 through 3.

Scene 1: Starts on frame 1 and ends on frame 120 (4 sec)
Scene 2: Starts on frame 121 and ends on frame 330 (7 sec duration, 11 sec total)
Scene 3: Starts on frame 331 and ends on frame 510 (6 sec duration, 17 sec total)
Scene 4: Starts on frame 511 and ends on frame 750 (8 sec duration, 25 sec total)

Our background clips will contain one background image from the mockup and the behaviors that will emulate the camera movement that we discussed in previous Motion^R tutorials in this series. Also each clip will have a snowfall particle emitter. But because each clip has a different camera view from a closeup in scene 1 to a long shot in scene 3, each snowfall animation will be different, as seen through the implied camera lens. Therefore we need to build a custom particle emitter for each background clip.

Once the three clips have been exported in H.264 .mov format, we can not only use them in our Winter Wonderland template project but also in other projects. Rendered clips such as these also help to keep our template projects organized and optimized.

Scene 1 Clip

This scene begins with the background image slightly blurred and then brought into focus. We also will add the snowfall animation, which will also need to be out of focus at the start. The scene has a duration of 4 seconds.

1. Start a new project at Broadcast 1920 x 1080 preset, 29.97 fps NTSC frame rate and 4 seconds duration.
   
   
2. Keep the default Project properties in the Inspector: Background Color set to black and Background set to Transparent.
   
   
3. Rename the Project layer to "WinterBerries" and save the .motn file with this same name.
   
   
4. Import the first background image, which will be placed in a new Group_1 layer. Rename this to "Scene1".
   
   
5. Delete the default Group layer.
   
   

The next step is to add a Defocus filter that will emulate the camera coming into focus over the first few frames of the scene. Because we have already tested this in our mockup, we can repeat the steps from that tutorial.

Next →

Holiday Season 2015 Motion Graphics Intro Video
Apple Motion Defocus Filter
https://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art182393.asp

Tutorial Example: