Editing the Animation.

The software I used to edit my animations was Adobe Premier Pro CS3 as it is software I have used many times before and am very comfortable using. I knew I could add in special effects to my animation using this software instead of using 3DS Max, as I felt like this would be way too fiddly.

My final animation consisted of 10 separate clips in total, using various angles and camera movements. I know sound effects and music aren't a necessity, but I wanted my animation to have sound effects, it would be boring without them! Sound effects I included were the Y-Wing and TIE Fighter engine noises, TIE Fighter laser blasts and a few, royalty free effects I edited myself. The backing track for the entire animation is 'Battle of Heroes' from Episode III.



Above is the timeline for my fully edited animation. As you can see I used multiple tracks of both video and audio.

Special Effects: How I made them.

My lasers and explosion of the Y-Wing at the end of the animation are all simple 2D videos pasted on the layer above the animation window and key-framed in. The green TIE Fighter lasers have a simple colour change modifier on them to make them green, instead of creating an entirely new image. The explosion also has a chroma key on it in order to make the black background invisible. This also makes the explosion have a slightly green tint, but in this case the TIE Lasers are green, so it looks okay!



Keyframes and path of motion for the Venators cannons. Explosion is done with the same method using a pre-keyed explosion effect, placed on the layer above and set to a motion path that covers the Y-Wing.

Despite Prem Pro (in my experience) being notorious for crashing, especially when dealing with multiple layers and keyframing effects, nothing negative stopped my editing process with only 1 crash. I was able to work efficiently and quickly, which was nice, getting the whole animation done in around 5 hours, give or take.