MacroSystem Columbus - Manual (Page 22)

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5.3 Fading the head object in and out
This example is based on an already existing
route, so after you activate a map of a continent
and start Columbus, you should create a totally
new route or load one from the Archive – for
instance, the one you created in the first exercise
(“Africa”).
You will now use the route you created to learn
about another settings option called “transi-
tion”.
You will use the “Transition” menu to change
the look of the head object at the point in time
at which the object reaches the finishing point.
Select the starting point on your route so that it
turns green, and then click on the symbol for the
“Transition“ menu:
In this menu you can now change the settings
for the starting point. In the transition settings,
only the „Fade-in effect” and the “Fade-in time”
buttons are currently active because the start-
ing point is selected. If, on the other hand, you
activate the finishing point of your route, only
the “Fade-out effect” and the “Fade-out time”
buttons will be active.
If you view the route using “Preview”, you will
see the head object that you selected appear
fully in the very first frame and it will be visible
at the finishing point until the very last frame.
Since, however, you want your head object to
fade in at the start and fade out at the end, you
should first activate the starting point and then
set the “Fade-in effect” button to any value
except “Off”: you can choose between the three
transition effects “Smooth fade”, “Light up” and
“Zoom”. (The “Global” transition setting uses
the standard settings for the transition that have
been configured in the “Global settings” menu
item.) In this case, select the “Zoom” transition
setting.
Once you have selected the type of transition,
you will need to set the transition time (e.g. 1
second) and then start the preview so you see
the effect taking place at your starting point. If
you like the resulting effect, active your finishing
point in order to fade out the head object there.
Proceed in a similar way as described for the
fade-in effect, though select the „Smooth fade”
transition effect this time for the fade out.
Note: If, on the other hand, you select a key
point within your route (you will of course first
need to set one if you are using the route from
the first example exercise), you can make your
head object first fade out and then fade back in
again there. We advise you only to use a fade
out and fade in together. If, for instance, you
only use a fade in effect, your head object will
arrive at the key point and will disappear sud-
denly only to faded in again afterwards. Fading
out and in within your route at a key point can
be effective, for instance, if you want the journey
to be paused at this point in order to be able to
fade in briefly to some video footage that was
filmed at this point in the journey. (To do so,
however, you must make absolutely sure that