hello everyone i'm zach and welcome back to another hitfilm tutorial today i'll be showing you
how to create this metallic title inspired by the mortal kombat trailer i'll be using the surface
studio and custom light flares effects which are hitfilm pro exclusives a similar result can be
achieved for free in express by using the parallax effect and regular light flares effect you can
find the project file for the pro and express versions of this title in the video description
an essential aspect of an epic title sequence is using the right font the font i'm using is
free from dafont.com link in the description once you have downloaded and installed the
font open up a new composite shot in hitfilm add a new text layer and type out your text
select the font then increase the font size and letter spacing
i'll add a few spaces in between the words to make room for the logo
create a new square composite shot
add a new white plane then double-click the ellipse
mask tool to create a circle that fills the frame
duplicate the mask set its blend to subtract and decrease the expansion to create a ring shape
drag in your logo image and adjust the scale to fit inside the circle
i'll add a fill color effect to make it a solid gray color
drag this comp into the previous comp and scale it down
add a new composite shot and drag in the finished logo
this is where the final title will come together
animate the scale of the logo so it slowly zooms in over the whole shot
to bevel the text i'll be using the surface studio effect exclusive to hitfilm pro
if you are using express stay tuned for a free method to achieve a similar result
add the surface studio effect to the logo
in the surface 1 controls remove the edge offset and increase the bevel height to 100
then increase the bevel size until you are happy with how it looks
let's add our own lighting instead of the built-in default lights
set the illumination type to comp lights then add a new light layer
set the type to directional then position the light so it is above the logo pointing down at it
i also chose to add an additional light this time a red colored point light i placed it
in front of the center logo and reduced its intensity and reach to make it more subtle
we can improve this title even further by adjusting the material properties
i'll increase the specular all the way causing the bright highlights to stand out more
to make the logo feel a little more metallic i'll drag in an image to use for reflections
i'll make this image into its own comp and add a heavy blur effect as i don't need this much detail
back in our main comp drag it onto the timeline hide it and select it as the environment layer
to see the reflections reduce the fresnel value
this is looking good and we can tweak it even further later on with our final color grade
if you are using hitfilm express you can still create beveled text like this for free the key
to this result is the parallax effect which gives the appearance of 3d depth by using a height map
in the media panel make the logo layout comp into another composite shot
apply the matte cleaner effect
check view matte then increase the feather setting
until you see a sharp edge in the middle of your logo
bring this height map back into the final title comp and hide it
parent it to the scaling logo layer and reset its transform so it follows the movement
add the parallax effect to the logo selecting your height map
this doesn't seem to have done anything to see the effect add a new light layer cool
our text now appears to have a 3d bevel check this box to invert the height map so the bevel goes in
the right direction i chose to reduce the depth a little and to add some blur to smoothen the result
i don't want the text to be completely dark so we'll add another light this time in ambient
light reduce the intensity so it isn't too strong you can also play with the material settings on
the parallax effect to control how the lighting affects the logo the completed express project
file is available for download so you can see the other settings i used or even use it as a template
a great way to make this metallic title look more interesting is to add some small light flares
glinting on the bright spots of the logo add a new black plain layer setting the blend mode to add
apply the custom light flares effect and select the tiny glint preset
if you are in hitfilm express use the standard light flares effect
choose a flare type and reduce the global saturation also adjust the other flare settings
place the flare on a bright spot of your logo then adjust the intensity and scale as needed
duplicate the effect and move the flare to another location
position the flares on the first frame of the shot when the logo is the smallest
then parent the flare layer to the logo layer so it scales up with it
if we position the flares on a later frame and then parented the layer
we would see the edges of the plane as the flare glows cut off
to finish off the title i added a new grade layer and added a curves effect to adjust the color
i added more contrast and lifted the blue in the shadows a little i also applied glow
chromatic aberration
a slight radial blur and film grain these effects add some imperfections and interest to the title
making it feel a little more realistic matching the style of the other shots in the sequence
to slowly fade in the title i added a new grade layer with an exposure effect
i animated the gamma to decrease towards the beginning of the shock
so the brighter areas fade in before the dark areas
in express i used the gamma effect and animated all three
values
i then animated a black fill color effect to fade it out completely
and that's how you can create your own mortal kombat title effect in hitfilm feel free to
leave a comment if you have any questions or if you learned something new don't forget to check
out our other mortal kombat tutorials including retro video game effects and sub zero ice vfx
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