Hi guys, welcome back to another HitFilm episode.
Today I'm going to be showing you how to create a sniper scope overlay, using techniques that
work in both HitFilm Pro and Express.
Let's jump right into the software and get started.
We'll start by creating a New Plane to form the base of the scope.
Come up here and select the Ellipse Mask tool.
Position your mouse in the center of the viewer, using the coordinates in the bottom right.
Click and hold both Shift and Alt to draw a perfect circle that originates from the
center.
In the Controls Panel, click Invert Mask.
For the crosshairs I'll use a new layer.
Drag in the Plane from the Media panel and choose the Rectangular Mask tool.
Hold down the Alt key and draw your shape.
Name this one Vertical Thick Line.
Instead of drawing it again horizontally, just duplicate it.
Then in the Transform properties, set the Rotation to 90.
There are a many different kinds of scopes out there, and of course you can create whichever
one you want.
I noticed that most of them have thinner lines near the center, so that they don't obscure
the target.
Let's do that now with this same plane.
Go back to the rectangular mask tool and draw a shape from the center.
In the Controls Panel, set the Blend for this mask to Subtract.
Rather than draw these vertical lines again, I can duplicate what I already have.
Move these two masks below the subtracted cutout.
In the Expansion properties for each, set them to a negative value to shrink the line.
Now I know that masks and their blend modes aren't the easiest things to understand, so
once we've got these crosshairs set up, I'll turn them all off and quickly show you how
they work together.
First we've got this black Plane, which fills the entire screen.
The first mask cuts out the vertical line.
The second one adds to that with the horizontal piece.
Then we cutout a defined portion of what we just made, this is the mask that is set to
subtract.
Finally, these two masks add back in the shapes we had before, but since we decreased the
expansion, they appear thinner.
In the search box here type "feather", and add some blur to each of the masks.
Even though they technically are in focus in this scene, we don't want them to be 100%
sharp, because that's just not realistic.
Add some feather to the circle cutout as well.
The Radial Blur effect is a great one to use for your elements in this scene.
It leaves the very middle sharp, and gets blurrier the further out you go.
I'll use it to soften the outside of my crosshairs.
Create a Grade and place it right above your footage.
Go ahead and add the Vignette effect.
In the Controls panel, lower the width and height to equal values until you get a soft
feather on your video.
To simulate a little bit of color bleed, duplicate that effect.
Increase the height and width, and maybe decrease the softness a bit.
In the color dropdown, change it to whatever color makes sense for your scene.
If it's in the desert, you might want to go for brown or light tan.
If your character is in the forest, green might make more sense.
Drop down the strength so that it's more subtle.
For the distortion of the lens, create another Grade.
Place this below the vignettes and add a Bulge effect.
Set it to -.1 for now, and increase the Plateau all the way so that there is a sharp border
between what is bulged and what is not.
Increase the Radius until it hits the edge of your scope, then lower the Plateau to smooth
the transition.
I'll make the Bulge a less obvious -.05.
Let's add lens dirt to give some texture to the scope.
You can download this pack for free from the link in the description.
Once you find a texture you like, drop it in the timeline and resize as necessary.
Right click the layer and set the Blend to Screen.
Add a small Blur and drop the Opacity so that it's not obscuring the sights.
For the inside of the scope I'll find another picture of lens dirt and drop it in.
Add the Polar Warp effect to this layer.
Increase the End Radius all the way, and scale up the layer until the edges go past the screen.
Now raise the Start Radius until it lines up with your scope.
Apply a regular or Zoom Blur to hide the details and lower the Opacity if needed.
And that's all there is to it, if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment
below.
Don't forget to subscribe, and I'll see you all in the next video.