Hello, and welcome to Hitfilm Express 2017.
I’m Axel Wilkinson, from HitFilm, and in this tutorial we are going to jump right in
and create a cool effect of a pistol being fired, from Westworld To Yuma.
So, make sure you have installed your free copy of the software, and download the project
files linked below.
They are provided in a .zip format, so make sure you unzip it, and then we will get started.
When you launch HitFilm Express, it opens to the Home screen.
This gives you access to the User Guide, it links to recent tutorials and other training
resources, and, it manages your projects.
You have direct access to recent projects, you can create a New project, or you can Open
a project, which is what we will do.
Navigate to the project you downloaded and select it, and it opens right up.
In the Media panel, we have the video clips we will be working with.
As you select each one, it will open in the Trimmer, where you can preview it.
Our main clip is very short, less than a second.
Because this is a gunfight, and bullets move fast, things will happen very quickly.
We have just enough time to register that the gun has fired, and then we will cut away
to the consequences of those bullets landing.
In the daylight, with an old-fashioned revolver like this, you often don’t see much of a
muzzle flare, but there is a lot of smoke.
So our focus, in this tutorial, is adding smoke to the gun when it fires.
You will notice that there are three stock footage clips imported into this project.
These clips are provided by ActionVFX, and they are yours to keep.
You can use them however you like in your other projects.
They have been formatted specifically for this project, so we highly recommend visiting
the ActionVFX site, as they have loads of amazing stock footage for sale in much higher
resolutions and higher framerates, so it can easily be used in a wide variety of projects.
There is also an audio clip of a revolver report, which Film Riot has graciously provided.
Again, this one is yours to use however you like, and if you like it, they have loads
of additional high quality sound effects available for purchase in the Triune store, which is
linked in the description.
Let’s get started with putting this shot together now.
In the Media panel, right-click on the pistol-firing.mp4 video clip, and choose Make Composite Shot.
This creates a new timeline the exact length of our clip, so we can focus on adding, or
compositing, our stock footage onto it.
Composite shots are a special sort of timeline specifically designed for layering multiple
videos and images together.
Our Pistol-Firing video is layer 1.
Now, find the Ground Hit 11 video, and watch it in the Trimmer.
This one has a great initial plume of smoke that comes out, and will work very nicely
as the initial ejection of smoke from the barrel.
On the timeline, right-click on our video layer, go to Options, and select Show Waveform.
This lets us see exactly where the sound of the gun being fired occurs.
Frame 3, right after Josh has fanned the hammer, is where the first shot needs to go, so position
the playhead there, on frame 3.
You can see the frame count here, and in addition to dragging the playhead, you can move it
one frame at a time in either direction using the comma and period keys on your keyboard.
Once you are on Frame 3, drag Ground Hit 11 onto the timeline, and drag it over until
the blue placement crosshairs line up with the playhead, then drop it.
Notice that this first frame is black, the smoke hasn’t started yet, so drag the clip
back to the left one frame, until the smoke appears.
Of course, we can’t see our footage now due to all this black, so we need to remove
the black and leave just the smoke.
We will look at two different ways to do this; on this clip, right-click, go up to Blend
mode, and switch the blend to Screen.
Blend modes control the way pixels in your selected layer are blended with the pixels
beneath, and the Screen blend, as you can see, will remove the dark areas and leave
only the brighter bits.
Now we need to line it up with the barrel of the gun.
This widget on the viewer gives you control over the placement of your selected layer.
The arrows let you drag it in specific directions, and the Square handle lets you rotate it.
You can also just click on the layer and drag it around.
So, rotate the layer until the angle is right, and drag it so it lines up with the muzzle
of the gun.
If you have trouble, you can click this triangle to twirl the layer controls open, then open
the Transform controls, and you can manually change the values.
Rotation at 43 degrees, and Position at 257 for the X axis (that’s side to side) and
-608 for the Y axis, from top to bottom.
I recommend not just punching in the numbers I used, though, instead use the positioning
widget to put it right where you like it.
The first frame or two of this stock is excellent, just what we need, but it should maybe detach
from the barrel after two or three frames, or it looks like the gun is just continually
spouting smoke, so we will need to modify the smoke a bit to control what is visible.
We can do this using masks.
So, go back to frame 3, then click on the Ellipse Mask tool, up here in the toolbar.
There are three mask tools here, for different shapes, we want the Ellipse so we can draw
a nice smooth shape.
Now click the layer you want to add the mask to, which is the GroundHit 11 layer, then
drag an ellipse all the way around the visible smoke.
We are now going to animate the position of this mask, to control where and when the smoke
is visible.
To do this, we will use Keyframes.
Keyframes are used in HitFilm to make it easy to change values over time, as you will now
see.
Click this triangle to twirl open the Mask controls, and then open the Transform controls
as well.
Here we will find the Path property, which lets us animate our Mask.
Just to the left of the Path is a circle.
Click it, and keyframing is enabled for this property, and a little square appears on the
timeline, indicating that a keyframe is saved on this frame, frame 3.
Now, advance 2 frames with the period key, and we will move the mask.
To do this, we want to switch to the Selection tool, which looks like an arrow, then just
drag the mask so the edge is halfway between the muzzle of the gun and the edge of the
frame.
Now let’s soften that mask edge a bit.
In the Shape controls for the mask, you will find the Feather Strength control.
Increase it until you like the softness of the edge, i used a setting of 114.
Now, advance two more frames, and drag the mask until it is completely out of frame.
Try to drag it oughly in the same direction the gun is pointed, so the motion we are creating
feels like the smoke is being pushed away from the gun.
OK, this is coming along nicely.
Now we will duplicate this layer, so we can add another muzzle smoke to the second shot
of the gun.
Select the layer and press CTRL+D, or CMND+D if you are on a Mac, to duplicate it.
Now, drag the layer so it starts at frame 6, and the smoke will start at frame 7, where
the waveform of the other shot is located.
Reposition this layer so it lines up with the barrel on frame 7.
Rotation of -30, and Position of 387, 233 does nicely.
With this one, only two frames are visible, so we don’t need to worry about the mask.
Our mask is already there, since it was copied along with the layer, but you can delete it
if you want.
Our next thing is to add some more ambient smoke into the air, using our other ActionVFX
stock clips.
When working with stock footage, its common to blend multiple layers of different stock
together using various techniques, rather than just dropping one clip ontot he timeline
and calling it good.
More layers help create a more random result, which tends to add realism.
Select Ground Hit 14, and it opens in the trimmer.
We want to remove the beginning of this clip, so we have a cloud right away, so drag through
until the plume is mostly gone, and just a cloud remains, maybe frame 9.
Now click the In Point button, here, to mark this frame as the first frame of the clip
that we want to use.
You can also set an Out Point, using this button, if you like, but its not really necessary
in this case.
Now, drag the clip from the Trimmer onto the timeline, starting on frame 3.
If you want to use In and Out points on the clip, you need to drag it from the Trimmer,
as dragging the clip from the media panel will always use the entire thing.
This time, we will remove the Black using an effect, called Demult.
Click the Effects panel tab, then find the Keying folder and open it.
When you find Demult, drag it onto the Ground Hit 14 layer, and once again, the black disappears,
leaving just the smoke.
We will use keyframing once again, to animate the size of this smoke.
So on the first frame of the layer, open its Transform Controls and set the Scale to 50%
and reposition the layer so it is on the muzzle.
Now, enable keyframing for the Scale and Position.
Step forward one frame, with the period key, and change the scale to 100%, then reposition
it so the cloud is centered on the muzzle again.
Awesome, let’s do the same thing one more time, with our last stock clip.
Click it in the Media panel to open it in the trimmer, and see which portion you want
to use.
I think starting at 1:13 is good, so I will set my In Point there.
By the way, you can also use the Keyboard shortcuts I and O for In and Out, to set those
points.
Drag this clip onto the timeline as well, and add the Demult effect.
Then, we will use the exact same techniques to animate its scale and position.
I think I’ll start the Scale at 30% this time, and enable our keyframing options, then
advance two frames and adjust the scale and position again.
And there you have it.
Let’s add our gun sound effects now.
We have great audio of the gun mechanism in our original clip, so we just need to add
in the report of the gunshot.
And we can just drag this fantastic sound effect onto our timeline, and line it up with
the waveforms in the original clip, one copy for each of the two shots.
But if we do that, the sounds get cut off when the clip ends.
So, in the context of editing this into a sequence of other clips, that’s not the
best option, let’s delete them.
Instead, we should add the sounds on the Editor timeline.
Click the Editor tab, and here is where we can combine multiple clips and shots to build
our project.
In the Media panel, find the Pistol-firing Composite Shot.
Both the original clip and the composite shot will be here in the media panel, so make sure
you select the comp, and right-click and choose Make Proxy.
A proxy is a pre-rendered version of the composite shot, to improve performance.
You can use this slider to zoom in on the timeline, which will make it easier to see
what we are doing with this very short composite.
Then, drag the proxied comp onto the timeline.
Because its proxied, we can see the waveforms of what is contained inside the comp.
Now, to add our sound effect where we see the waveforms of the gun being fired, we need
another audio track.
Right-click on Audio Track 1, and select Insert Track.
Then drag the sound effect onto the timeline, starting at frame 3 where the waveform is.
To add our second sound effect, let’s use a different technique.
Another way to add a new track is to just drag the sound clip below the Master track,
and a new track is automatically created to hold it.
Make sure it lines up with the second shot, on those waveforms, and we are done.
Adding the sound effects on the editor means we could add another video clip, of the other
gunfighter or whatever, and the sounds will still carry through, across that cut, for
a natural, realistic result.
And now you know a few techniques for basic compositing of stock footage when creating
visual effects.
Check out the Action VFX website for more premium quality stock, and the Triune Films
store for more great sound effects.
A huge thanks goes out to both of them for giving away the assets included in this tutorial,
and thank you very much for watching.
Do check out our other Westworld to Yuma tutorials to learn more about using HitFilm Express
2017.