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UNFOLD

Presets

Use the four Unfold presets — one for each direction — for single-click setup of your origami-esque transitions. Simply keyframe the Mix duration (see below) and tune to taste! Find these presets via the blue Open Dashboard... button or the Choose a Preset... button below it.

As with all other Universe tools, you can modify or create a Unfold look and then save it under its own name by pressing the Save Preset... button.

Getting Started in a Timeline

1. Drag the transition over your edit in the timeline, placing it at the end or beginning. Alternatively, you can place it between two successive clips.
2. Modify the Duration of the transition either by entering a length in the field or dragging directly in the timeline.
3. You can choose the Alignment (Center at Cut, Start at Cut, End at Cut, or Custom Start) either by positioning the transition in the timeline or by choosing from the Alignment drop-down in some host applications.

Getting Started in a Compositor

1. Apply the transition to the layer from which you want to transition.
2. Choose the footage layer you would like to transition to in the Transition B drop-down menu. (Note for Motion users: Drag the footage layer up to the Transition B box.)
3. Animate your transition using the Mix slider from 0% to 100 percent. Set a keyframe for 0% where the transition should start, then set another at 100% for the end.

Modify the Transition

• The Animation drop-down menu offers multiple interpolation styles for your transition's animation. Click here for more information about these animation presets. The default is Ease In Out Quad.
• The Dolly slider lets you move the camera closer in or farther away from the transitioning layers along the z axis. Lowering the control toward 0 (shown left, below) moves the layer directly to the camera. Increasing the slider toward 1.2 (right) moves the camera farther away.
  
• The Direction drop-down menu can be used to change which direction the fold effect moves: Right, Left, Downwards (shown in the clip atop this page), and Upwards.
• Motion Blur:
  • Add realistic motion blur by choosing a setting from the drop-down menu: Off (shown left, below), Low, Medium, or High (right). The higher the Motion Blur setting, the more instances of the layer will appear between frames.
    
  • The Motion Blur Shutter angle default is set to 180 degrees. Increasing it spreads the motion blur iterations evenly with a high number of blur levels. Shown below at 200% zoom are minimum values of 90 (left) and 720 (right).
    
• The Edge Smooth drop-down menu provides levels of edge anti-aliasing, making them less jagged. Options for the smoothing strength are None, Low, Medium, or High. Setting this to High may increase playback and render time.
• The Lights parameter group adds lighting to your transitions.
  • Turn on the Lights from the drop-down by selecting Local or Global.
  • Choose the Light Type. The following four settings, preceded by the None option, are shown below, respectively, from top left to bottom right.
    
    • Ambient activates the Ambient color picker and affects the overall composition.
    • Directional allows you to use the Light Diffuse color and Light Position X/Y/Z controls.
    • Positional activates the Light Specular color and Light Factor Constant/Linear/Quadraticcontrols.
    • Spotlight gives you the most control, activating the Light Direction X/Y/Z sliders as well as the Light Cutoff and Light Exponent controls.
  • The Light Intensity slider controls the brightness.
  • Light Ambient/Diffuse/Specular color pickers allow you to control color tones that appear within the light. In the following triptych, we start on the left with Light Intensity: 120 and default color values, including gray for Light Ambient. In the center image, we change Light Ambient to red. Notice how the impact is subtle, unlike when we change Light Diffuse to the same red (right).
    
  • Light Position XY and Light Position Z let you control the light's center location in 3D space. Keep in mind that a "distant" light, conveyed of higher values (approaching or above 0), may leave much of your scene in darkness.
  • Light Direction X/Y/Z alter the directionality of your light in 3D space.
    
  • Light Cutoff dictates the spotlight's range.
  • Light Exponent controls the illumination falloff from the light's center. Higher values increase falloff, thus shrinking the illuminated area. A bit of falloff provides subtle vignetting. In the following image, we adjust several of the above controls to restrict our spotlight's direction and spread.
    
    
  • Light Factor Constant/Linear/Quardratic are all falloff fade types and determine how your spotlight illumination diminishes from center to edge. To learn more about these falloff patterns, see our Animation Tween Examples page.
• Camera allows you to enable the Local camera, then Zoom, Rotate and Translate its position in 3D space. (In the image below, we show how manipulating these parameters can yield some interesting, and occasionally excessive, viewing experiences for your transition. The Camera Ortho checkbox allows you to see the transition in an orthographically projected view that has no depth, which means you can view the layer more accurately without the distortion of parallax.