Animating 3D Charts in Boris Graffiti

While video editors may be less familiar with the world of graphic creation, even expert graphic artists have had few options to quickly create high-quality animated charts. Rather than trying to squeeze broadcast-quality results out of multimedia business applications, you can now tap into Boris Graffiti’s 3D Chart feature. Powerful vector graphics instantly create charts using data generated from spreadsheets or input directly using a simple Chart Editor. A variety of vector tools let youcreate a custom look for your business graphics and employ vector animation for the most impact. The charts provide fast, easy, expert graphic creation for non-graphic experts.

Graffiti’s new Chart feature allows you to import tab- or comma-delimited data to create a chart. You can export this format from any database or spreadsheet program. Instead of importing chart data, you can also enter chart data information manually into the Chart Editor.

You can create four different types of charts, a bar graph, a pie chart, a line graph or an area chart. Charts are animatable, using the parameters in the Animation tab. Charts can be either two dimensional or three dimensional.

The Boris Library Browser includes many 3D Chart presets. One of the easiest ways to learn the charts is to apply a preset then edit the chart data.

Creating a 3D Chart

1.

Launch Boris FX in your host application. For details, see

Appendix B: Applying in Hosts

in your User Guide or consult the

Applying in NLEs pdf

on your installation CD.

2.

Click to select the top (Video 1) track in the Timeline window. The track turns blue when you select it.

3.

Press the

Media icon

in the track, and choose

Gradient

from the menu.

4.

If you like choose adjust some of the gradient parameters or choose Window > Show Style Palette. Click the gradient tab and double-click a thumbnail to apply a gradient preset style. The gradient will be the background to your chart.

5.

Select the Video 2 track in the timeline.Choose Edit > Delete Track, or press

Delete

(Macintosh) or

Back Space

(Windows). You don’t need a second track for this tutorial.

6.

Set the timeline duration to five seconds (00:00:05:00) by selecting the

1,

typing

5

and pressing Return (Macintosh) or Enter (Windows). The timeline updates to reflect the new duration.

You can only use the Duration field when you work in the KeyFramer. When you use FX in a host application, you set the duration in the host application. In this case, typing in the Duration field has no affect.

7.

Click the

Add 3D Chart button

in the timeline or choose Track > New Chart Container. The chart is created over an alpha channel. Tracks lower in the timeline are visible in the background.

8.

Double-click the Chart track in the timeline to open the Chart Editor. Import a tab-delimited or comma-delimited file or enter your data in the Chart Editor.

The Chart Editor appears.

9.

Click the

Import Data icon

to import tab or comma delimited data. A dialog box allows you to navigate to the appropriate file. Select the file and click

Open

. If you don’t have a file, you can type chart data directly into the Chart Editor instead of importing data.

Media icon

The 3D Chart supports tab or comma delimited file formats. You can export this format from any database or spreadsheet program.The file extension does not matter. For example, if you create a chart in Microsoft Excel, save the chart in either

Text (Tab Delimited)

or

CSV (Comma Delimited)

format. Do not save the chart using the

Microsoft Excel workbook

format. The 3D Chart automatically rejects invalid data.

Keep in mind that the first row and the first column are used for the legend notation and not for numbers. This text will appear in the Legend box, if you choose to include one with your chart.

10.

When you finish, click the

Save Changes icon

to close the Chart Editor and apply the data to your 3D Chart or click the

Cancel icon

to close the Chart Editor without applying your changes.

11.

Select the Chart track in the timeline. In the Chart tab in the Controls window, click the appropriate tab on the left to set the chart type. The choices are

Bar Graph, Pie Chart, Line Graph

or

Area Chart

. This tutorial will create an animated 3D Bar Graph.

Bar Graph Pie Chart

Line Graph Area Chart

Bar Graph tab

Pie Chart tab.

Line Graph tab.

Area Chart tab.

Bar Graph tab

Pie Chart tab.

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12.

The

Series menu

lets you orient the chart to include rows or columns as a series. In the Chart tab in the Controls window, choose

Columns as Series

from the

Series menu

.

•

Rows as Series

places the rows vertically in the chart. The information in the first row appears in the Legend (if the

Enable Legend checkbox

is selected in the Legend tab).

•

Columns as Series

places the columns vertically in the chart. The information in the first column appears in the Legend (if the

Enable Legend checkbox

is selected).

The following examples use the chart that is shown on page 1.

Rows as Series Column as Series

13.

In the Chart tab in the Controls window, set

Spacing

to

2

0 and

set

Spacing in Series

to

0

. Spacing in Series sets the spacing in pixels between each bar within each series, scaled as a percentage of the global Spacing parameter.

Spacing=20, Spacing in Series=25 Spacing=20, Spacing in Series=0

14.

In the Chart tab in the Controls window, click the

Enable

Grid checkbox

to display a colored grid with headers from your chart. The following parameters format the grid. The Pie Chart does not include this option.

15.

Click the color swatch or use the eyedropper to set the color of the grid.

16.

The Grid uses the font that you set in the

Chart

Font menu

and the size that you set with

Grid

Font Size

. If you like, adjust these parameters.

17.

When you finish, your chart should appear similar to the example at right.

18.

Complete the steps in the next section to add a legend to your chart.

Adding a Legend to your Chart

1.

Click the Legend tab in the Controls window and select the

Enable Legend checkbox

to add a legend to your chart. If this checkbox is not selected, the other options in this tab have no affect. The text that is included in the Legend is affected by the

Series menu

in the Chart tab.

When you select the Enable Legend checkbox, a 3D Container named Legend is nested inside the 3D Chart container in the timeline. Nested inside this 3D Container are all the tracks in the legend. If you select the Legend Container in the timeline, you can use the Controls window tabs to format the Legend. For example, use the Pivot tab controls to pivot the legend.

2.

Set the

Location menu

to

Upper Right

.

3.

Set the

Legend Scale

to

120

.

You can use this parameter to resize the legend.

4.

When you finish, your chart should appear similar to the example at right.

5.

Complete the steps inthe next section to extrude and animate your chart.

Extruding and Animating your Chart

The 3D Style tab parameters allow you to format your chart as either two dimensional or three dimensional.

1.

Click the 3D Style tab in the Controls window.

2.

Set the

3D Style menu

to

Extruded

.

•

When

Flat

is chosen, your chart uses the 3D Plane shape so it is two dimensional.

•

When

Extruded

is chosen, your chart uses the 3D Extrusion shape so it is three dimensional.

5

3.

When you finish, your chart should appear similar to the example at right.

Now you will animate your chart.

4.

Click the Animation tab in the Controls window.

The Animation tab parameters allow you to animate your chart. You can animate charts onscreen to reveal the elements, offscreen to remove the elements or both.

Unlike most Boris parameters, the parameters in this tab do not include interpolation fields. Instead, the animation is applied progressively using the setting in the Interpolation menu.

5.

Within the Animation tab are two tabs. The Reveal tab controls the animation onscreen and the Remove tab controls the animation offscreen. Click to

Reveal Tab checkbox

to create a chart that animates the bars onscreen.

6.

Set

Animation Time

to

10

. This parameter controls how long each bar animates during the effect, expressed as a percentage. This parameter affects animations created with the Reveal Shape, Fade, Scale, Position, Tumble, Spin, and/or Rotate parameters (described below).

With our five second Bar Graph and select the first tab’s checkbox to reveal the elements. Animation Time specifies the percentage of that five seconds that the Reveal Shape, Fade, Scale, Position, Tumble, Spin, and/or Rotate lasts. If Animation Time is 10, the bars animate for half a second (10% of 5), and subsequently remain stationary for the rest of the effect.

7.

Select the

Reveal Shape checkbox.

This lets you animate each bar onscreen. With the Bar Graph, each bar starts small and grows to full size, as shown in the following example.

Select to animatechart onscreen

(Reveal tab)

Select to animatechart offscreen

(Remove tab)