Hey guys, welcome back to another video in our series on how to create a successful YouTube
gaming channel. Today, we’re going to be showing you some of the things you need to
know in order to create your own custom motion graphics inside HitFilm Express. These techniques
can be used to create channel art, animated end plates, thumbnails, and other visual elements
that help represent your own personal brand. Before we get started we've teamed up with
AMD to bring you guys an exclusive prize draw. Download the latest version of HitFilm Express,
our all-in-one editor, compositor and VFX software from the card on-screen or the link
in the description and you'll be entered in with a chance to win an awesome gaming PC
courtesy of Armari and AMD. If you’re still using a previous version
of HitFilm you can actually still enter the prize draw by downloading version 13 of HitFilm
Express for free. Most all of the effects and controls we’re
going to talk about today are detailed in the online manual, which you can find in the
description if you’re looking for more info. The first thing to be aware of is that in
HitFilm, any kind of visual effect or motion graphic is usually better created in a composite
shot, rather than on the Editor timeline. We’d recommend switching to the Compositing
workspace. This gives you more room in the Controls panel to tweak your settings later.
In the Media panel, select New, then Composite Shot. Note that this is where you set the
size of your comp. If you’re wanting to make a square thumbnail, for example, this
is where you change the height and width. First up, let’s take a look at Gradients
There are 3 types of gradients in HitFilm. These effects can be applied to Plane layers,
which are basically solid rectangles of color, Text layers, or Grade layers, and are a quick
way to add color to your graphics. The 4 Point Color Gradient effect allows you
to have 4 colors on screen, and each can be moved around to be in whatever position you
want. You can change each color in the Controls panel under the corresponding dropdown.
The Color Gradient effect gives you two points of color. Again, this can be customized in
the Controls. The closer the two points are to each other, the sharper the change in color
will be. And finally the Radial Gradient gives you
two colors again, but in the shape of a circle. There are a variety of controls to adjust
the shape, and you can increase the Radius of the colors in the Viewer as well as the
Controls panel. Now let’s take a quick look at Text in HitFilm
You can add text into your composite shot by going to New Layer, Text. Type your title,
then highlight it and come into the Text panel. This is where you can customize the font,
size, character spacing, color, and other options. You can add an outline to your text
by clicking and dragging this number here. The color can then be changed in this box.
For a full tutorial on creating text in HitFilm, see the card onscreen.
Next up, Masking If you’re looking to create a specific shape,
you can use masks to get the job done. I have a colored Plane here, and there are 3 types
of masks: rectangle, ellipse, and freehand. Select the shape you want to use, then click
and drag directly in the viewer to create it. Invert the mask in the Controls panel
if you want the mask to flip. You can create multiple masks in one layer if you need to
make more than one shape. The freehand mask lets you click as many times as needed to
create multiple points. Click the first point you made to close the shape. Click and drag
to create a curve. The individual mask controls can be found
in the Controls panel for the layer. You can increase the feather to blur the edges or
increase the roundness of the mask points. For more on masking, see the card onscreen.
And finally, Keyframing Keyframing is how you get your image or effect
to change over time. That could be something like the color of a gradient, or the size
and position of a PNG. You can keyframe on both the Editor timeline
and in composite shots. We’re going to stay in a composite for this section because, when
making an animation, it’s easier to keep track of multiple layers here. Keyframes are
activated in HitFilm by clicking the gray circle to the left of a parameter. If I double
click this setting it’ll open up in the timeline, and you can see that one keyframe
has been created. I’ll skip forward a few seconds and change the number. If I play it
back, you can see the image grow over time. Remember that when you download HitFilm Express,
you’ll be entered into our prize draw to win an exclusive gaming PC courtesy of Armari
and AMD. The deadline for this prize draw is September 29th 2019.
That’s it for today, do let us know if you have any questions down below. Join us next
time in our final episode of the Game On series where we’re going to show you how to create
a motion graphics intro using free stock assets.