Hi guys, today I'm going to be showing you
how to create the flying Captain America shield
effect from our latest short, Assemble.
"Yes! Huh?" *Screams*
If you haven't already, grab your free copy
of HitFilm Express from our website. This
tutorial is going to use a 3D model of the
shield, which is now possible thanks to the
3D Model Render add-on pack available for
the HitFilm Store for use in Express. Let's
jump right in and get started.
I've got my footage in its own composite shot,
but I haven't yet set up my 3D model. Let's
do that now by going to Import, 3D Model.
It'll open up a file browser, and I'll go
into the Cardboard Shield folder. The file
we're looking for is in Assets. Double click
the .FBX model file to import it.
You might not see anything, and this can happen
with some 3D models. In the Materials tab,
search for Opacity. Raise all of the sliders
to 100%. Search for Diffuse Color, click the
top box and select white. Increase this fourth
number as well, which determines the Alpha,
or Opacity. Use the eyedropper tool on the
other 5 materials to get the same result.
Do the same with Ambient color. This will
come into play later when we light the model.
Now we can begin texturing the shield. In
the search box I'll type diffuse map. Click
this folder icon to browse for the first file.
Go into Source Images, Textures, then into
the corresponding folder. We're looking for
the Shield Plate V1 texture, so I'll go into
there. The Shield Plate Default Base Color
is the one we want.
Same process for V2, I'll back out of the
V1 folder and find the correct image. Repeat
this process and assign all of the textures
to the pieces of the shield.
Next up is the Normal maps. The purpose of
these maps is to add the appearance of more
texture without actually increasing the polygon
count. I'll put normal map into the search
bar. This is almost the same process as before,
but I'll select the Default Material Normal
image for each piece. Once you're done, hit
OK to import the model. Drag the FBX file
from the Media panel into the timeline. Create
a new Camera as well. Click the model, and
come into the Controls panel. Let's push it
back in Z space and put the shield around
where the starting position should be. We'll
do the rotation and spinning later, for now
let's just make sure that the animation is
correct. Activate keyframes for the Position.
Skip forward in time and drag the position
of the Shield to be right up against the tree.
Remember that technically it should just be
the edge of the shield hitting it, not the
center. Move to the end of the timeline and
position the model to fly offscreen towards
the audience. I'll start by setting the Z
position back to 0. It's too far right, so
move the X position over to the left. Looks
like 0 isn't quite offscreen. Adjust the Z
position again to until it passes the camera.
Depending on how you want the shield to appear
in the scene, raise or lower the Y Position
as well. Let's take a look at what we have
so far.
The shield doesn't appear to be ricocheting
off the tree, it's sort of curving like a
boomerang. This middle keyframe is what's
causing the problem- right click it and under
Spatial Interpolation, select Linear. To demonstrate
what's happening here I'll change my camera
view to top. Use the controls in the top right
corner to move the view until you see the
shield. If necessary, turn off the floor plane
and turn on the Motion Path. Here is what
the path looks line with the middle keyframe
set to Linear. Here is what it looks like
set to Auto Bezier, which is what it was before.
HitFilm is trying to smooth the motion and
make is less sharp. This is usually good for
most animations, but in this case we want
the shield to bounce off the tree. You don't
have to set the Interpolation to Linear to
get this motion. You'll notice that the middle
keyframe has handles here. I can click and
drag these individually to adjust the curve
into something more direct. In the end it's
whatever best fits your scene and results
in the animation you like.
Now that we've got the position down, let's
add in the correct rotation. First we'll make
it spin throughout the shot. In the Controls
panel, activate keyframes for the Y Rotation
value. Skip to the end of the timeline and
set it to about 5 times over. If you want
it to spin slower, choose a smaller number.
Let's move on to the X Rotation, which turns
the shield away or towards the camera.
At the beginning, I'll have it start in this
rotation. Turn on keyframes again and move
forward in time. After the shield bounces
off the tree, I'll adjust the X Rotation to
have it pointing more directly at the camera.
To make the shield appear more unsteady, introduce
some Z Rotation into the properties. You don't
have to keyframe this value, just change the
number to anything but 0. You can see that
this makes the model appear to shake as it
rotates. And finally I'll adjust the Z Orientation
so that the shield isn't perfectly parallel
to the ground. This also helps match the angle
of the bounce.
Now that we've got the animation down, we
can start compositing. First I'll mask out
the areas where the shield would be going
behind the trees. Select the model layer,
grab the freehand mask tool and draw a shape
around the left bushes here. Make sure the
mask contains the shield inside of it, and
close the shape. Click the Invert Mask button.
In the Shape dropdown, feather the mask as
needed. The shield would also go behind these
trees here, so draw another shape around those.
Depending on where your mask is positioned,
you might have the slight problem of it affecting
the shield later in the shot. Let's back up
in time to where nothing is affected and go
into the mask's Transform properties. Activate
keyframes for the Opacity, skip one frame
forward, and set it to 0.
Let's create a new Light. In the Transform
properties, I'll raise the Y Position and
move it off to the left, where the sun is
in this scene. Lower the Intensity if needed
to avoid the shield appearing too bright.
I'll add another Light and change the Type
to Ambient. This fills in the dark spots of
the shield to ensure that nothing falls into
complete black.
The reason this shield is standing out so
much is because the color is wrong. It should
match both the actual prop shield from previous
shots, and fit into the color of the current
scene. Add a Hue, Saturation and Lightness
effect directly onto the model layer. I'l
drop down the Master controls and lower the
Saturation to around -40 or 50. Now drop on
a Grain effect. This step depends on your
background footage. Checkmark Monochrome if
you need to, to make the noise black and white,
and adjust the Amount to match your shot.
When you're ready to export, be sure to turn
on motion blur.
The stock footage came from the ActionVFX
Bullet Hits collection. I used several of
the Wall Hit Front and Side elements. For
more information about removing the black
from stock footage, see Josh's previous tutorial
on just that. Because this shot did not require
motion tracking, I just had to position and
scale the elements in my scene. Make sure
that the stock layers go under the shield
model layer.
That's it for this tutorial. Visit our channel
for more Assemble content and leave your questions
or comments down below. Subscribe, hit the
bell icon, and I'll see you all in the next
video.
