In this tutorial I'm going to show you
how to draw your travel route on a map
and add an effect so that it looks like
the line is being drawn across the
screen. This is a simple and fun effect
that can add a lot to your vacation trip
and holiday videos. Before we get started
if you're watching this video on YouTube
you'll find a link in the description
below that will take you to our tutorial
page on the Discovery Center. Here you
can download a written copy of this
tutorial to follow along. Let's get
started. I've created a title image I
want to use for the intro to my vacation
video. I think it would be fun if I could
show my road trip following the highway
we took to get from Denver to Kansas
City by adding an animated line. To do
this, start off with the map or title
image you want to add animation to. Now
we're going to create a second image by
opening up an image editor such as
PaintShop Pro. I've opened up PaintShop
Pro, now click Open and locate your
original image saved on your computer
then click Open.
Now click on the Paint Brush tool on the
left. Under the tool options, adjust the
size of your paint brush. I'm going to
adjust it to 9. Now you can choose the
color you want for your animated line
from the palette on the right.
Now I'm going to draw my line following
highway 70 from Denver all the way to
Kansas City.
Once you're finished click on File and
make sure to click Save As to save as a
new image because you'll still need your
original image without the line in order
to create the animation. I'll save this
as "Road trip 2018 with line" and then
click Save. So now let's open up Pinnacle
Studio. First click on the Edit tab then
click on Quick Import and locate your
original map image and the image with
the line added. Select both of these
images and click on Open to add them to
your project bin. Now add the original
image without the line and drag it on
top of A/V track 2.
By default the image duration is only
3 seconds so I'm going to extend
that to about 10 seconds by clicking on
the image on the timeline and dragging
it to my desired length. Now you can add
your map with the line to A/V track 1.
Again, adjust the duration of the clip so
that it matches the length to the clip
on A/V track 2. Now we're ready to
make our line follow across the map.
Double-click on the clip on A/V
track 1 to open up the Effects editor.
Next click on the effect tab and then
select 2D/3D. We're going to then select
the 2D Editor Advanced option. Also it's
important to make sure that your
playhead is at the beginning of your
clip so that you'll add the effect
correctly. Now under the effect tab go to
Select Preset and make sure No Preset is
selected. Now scroll down until you
reach the Cropping section. Right now
we basically have two images that are on
top of each other. What we're going to do
is crop the top image in the direction
that follows your line. What that
does is it will make it seem as though
the line is being followed across the
screen. Because I want my line to go left
to right I want to crop the image from
the right. So adjust the bar from the
right and you'll see in the preview pane
that the line is disappearing as I keep
scrolling the bar.
Stop once you see that the line has
completely disappeared.
Once you've done that, scroll back up to
the top and click on the diamond icon to
enable keyframing. So a keyframe has now
been added to the beginning of the image.
Now we need to drag our playhead to
the point on the clip where we want the
line to be finished. I'm going to drag my
playhead to around the 8 second mark on
the timeline. Depending on where you drag
the playhead, this will change the speed
of the cropping. So if you want the line
to be drawn more quickly, you can drag
your playhead more closely to the
beginning of the clip. Now go back to the
Cropping section and we're going to
adjust the crop back down to 0%.
So if we preview our video, the timed
cropping of the top layer revealing the
original map makes it look as though the
travel line is being drawn across the
map. This is a really simple but great
effect that you can use as an intro to
your holiday and vacation videos to show
off the route to your destination.
If you're watching this video on YouTube
you'll find a link in the description
below that will take you to our tutorial
page on the Discovery Center. Here you
can download a written copy of this
tutorial to follow along and find other
helpful tutorials for Pinnacle Studio.