Curtain effect in FCP

[Bob Jovi]

hi,
I'm about to start filming/editing a short fashion video and the client wants it to be in the style of the film "Cabaret". I need to know how to do a transition that is a pair of theatre curtains being pulled open. Is there any quick way to do this, such as a plug in etc??

thanks

 

[Cromulent]

Motion would be the easiest using a black background and subtractive blend thingy using the bezier tool. At least that is how I'd do it.

There are probably much better ways out there, but I can't think of any.

 

[lorductape]

oh gods please no.... the one big thing I loved about jumping from iMovie to fcp was the removal of all that lame stuff

 

[Bob Jovi]

ha cool, so it's in imovie then?
I know it's lame, but that's what they want.

 

[AviationFan]

Bob,

one way to do this very quickly is to go to istockphoto.com and download a curtain animation. Go to their video section, do a search for "curtain" and you'll find quite a few different animations. Not sure if they contain alpha channel information, but if not I bet they are easy to key.

- Martin

 

[Bob Jovi]

I still haven't found a way to do this and the deadline is looming, has anyone else got any ideas?
also anyone know where I could get a countdown?
thanks

 

[Peel]

I still haven't found a way to do this and the deadline is looming, has anyone else got any ideas?
also anyone know where I could get a countdown?
thanks

What do you mean by countdown? If you're refering to the 8 second head leader found on film (the black and white countdown clock that includes an audio blip at the 2 second mark), there are clips of this in verious standards and timecodes included with FCP. Look on the FCP program disk in the Extras folder. In there is a folder called Head Leaders for Cinema Tools.

 

[AviationFan]

I still haven't found a way to do this and the deadline is looming, has anyone else got any ideas?

Have you even tried istockphoto.com, as suggested earlier? I'd be happy to guide you through the process if you can tell us where you are stuck, or why the suggestions that have been made by several posters in this thread don't work for you. Without that, it'll be difficult to provide useful guidance beyond what's already been said.

- Martin

 

[jimedit1]

i created this effect once. I downloaded the first 5 minutes of the film moulin rouge where they have the large velvet curtain opening and closing to reveal credits. I put it in motion (or FCP) where i created an animated mask that blocked out the credits. A little painstaking, but very effective.