Embedding 3D titles into a live-action scene is a technique that has been used by many
people on many projects, but perhaps most famously in the television series Fringe.
I’m Axel Wilkinson for HitFilm.com, and today, I invite you to be an observer as I
show you how to replicate this effect in HitFilm.
So first off, note that I am using HitFilm 4 Pro. If you are using Hitfilm 4 Express,
then you will need the Starter pack, which includes the 3D extrusion effect that we will
apply to the text. This technique also involves creating a 3D camera solve, which I have done
in mocha Hitfilm. The solve is already complete and included in the project files that accompany
this tutorial, so it isn’t necessary to have mocha to follow along here, but if you
want to create your own version of this shot, you will need the mocha HitFilm add-on, or
a third-party 3D tracker that can export to the .ma format.
The moving camera is at the core of what makes this type of title interesting. So the first
step is to create a camera solve, so we can track our title into the scene. We have a
number of tutorials that cover using mocha HitFilm, so we won’t go through the whole
process again, but I will take a quick look at how I approached this solve in mocha.
Notice that I tracked four planes in mocha. The front wall of the building, a bit of the
parking lot, the trees in the background, and the heat pumps on the roof. I probably
could have gotten away with fewer, but I wanted to make sure that mocha had a clear sense
of the depth in the scene, to ensure it calculated an effective solve. Having planes in the immediate
foreground and the distance gives it the necessary data to do so. And since I planned to put
the text above the roof, I wanted to track a plane as close to the text position as possible,
so I used the heat pumps there. Technically the gap between these rows of fans isn’t
planar, but its sufficiently devoid of pattern, so the track still works nicely. Having used
the grid to ensure that all these tracks are solid, I used all four of them to solve the
camera. But I only included the roof and parking planes in my export, since I don’t need
the position data from the others. Really, I could have managed with only exporting the
roof plane, but in case I wanted to position the text closer to the ground, I included
the parking data as well. So, back in HitFilm, we can select Import
> composite shot, and select the Establishing Track comp containing our mocha solve. And
if we select one of these roof points, we can check that it is nicely locked in place
on the building as the camera moves. All of these points are fixed positions, none of
them contain animation data. All of the animation is in the camera layer. That’s why this
type of 3D tracking is called a camera solve, what mocha does is work out how the camera
was moving, based on the fixed position of the different planes we tracked.
To position our text, we want the position of this point, but we don’t necessarily
need the scale or orientation info, since we will be adjusting the angle and size of
the title ourselves. So, let’s open the Transform controls for the Roof Center point,
and reset everything except the position back to zero. We can now use this point’s Position,
and start from zero to adjust the orientation and size of our text later on.
Select the Text tool, and drag a largish text box across the frame. Since we are replicating
the Fringe titles, we will be using Helvetica for this, but of course you can use whatever
font fits best into your project. Increase the size of the font as much as your text
box will allow, and we can leave the rest of the settings as-is for now. Now find the
3D Extrusion effect, and drag it onto the text. As if by magic, and by magic I mean
a mathematical algorithm, the text is extruded. Now, to blend it into the scene. To position
the text properly, open the Position controls in the 3D Extrusion effect, and Transform
From our Position point. Now we can transform our point layer to control the text. Adjust
its Y rotation and X rotation so it lines up with the roofline. Then adjust its position
to put the text wherever you want it. I’m going to push it back a bit more to the left,
so the angle of the text is less obtuse and its easier to read.
Let’s increase the Depth of the extrusion a bit, until its about three times as deep
as the stroke width of the letters. Now, to make the text look like it is actually in
the scene, we want to set up the Environment Map. This option in the 3D Extrusion controls
lets you convert any layer in your timeline into a massive, dynamic reflection on the
surface of the extrusion. In the Layer menu, select your video layer, in this case Establishing
shot, and we can then control exactly how much of the reflection is present by dialing
in the other properties. Pre-blur controls how shiny the text is, if
you turn it down, then you will get a mirror-like reflection, while increasing the pre-blur
softens the details in the environment map. Amount is the blend between the text color
and the environment map, so if you want the reflection to be more subtle, you can reduce
the Amount. Angle Dependency handles the specularity of the reflection, so as you turn it up, only
certain parts of the text will reflect the environment, depending on their angle relative
to the camera. As you bring this down, the entire surface of the extrusion will reflect
the environment equally. Texture Scale and Ratio control the size of the reflected image
in relation to the text, and its aspect ratio. Dial these settings in to get the look you
want. In this case, I’m going to leave these as they are for now, but I might come back
to them in a bit. To ensure that the title is clearly legible,
we want to increase the amount of shadow on the extruded edges, while keeping the face
of the letters nice and bright. Since the extrusion responds to our 3D environment in
HitFilm, we can create a new Light to handle this. Select New Layer > Light, and then change
the light Type, in its controls, to Directional. Move the light off to the right, and immediately
we get a result much closer to what we want. By default the directional light is aimed
toward a target position of 0,0,0, which leaves it pointing toward our text as well, but if
your text is in a different position, in whatever scene you are setting up, then you can change
the target coordinates to reflect the position of your position point, and it will be aimed
at the text. Perhaps reduce the Intensity of this light, a little. Looking at the shot
now, as an Observer, I’d say the shadows are too dark. But we can fix this by adding
another light. Set the type of this one to Ambient, then turn it way down until the shadow
levels are satisfactory. Now, I will jump back to the Extrusion controls,
and reduce the Amount a bit, to add more contrast between the face and the sides of the letters.
And there we have it. Our finished shot, in all its glory. Hopefully this serves, not
only as a pattern you can follow for embedding 3D text into your shot, but also as a primer
for HitFilm’s 3D extrusion, for those of you who haven’t seen our older videos on
that effect. I thank you very much for watching, I hope it was useful, and I invite you to
subscribe if you want to see more tutorials like this one. We release new videos every
Thursday, so until next week, carry on.