Trailer templates

The trailer templates are six gallery pieces made to be turned into your own films and ads: a product film, a film trailer, a logo sting, a photo story, a sale ad and a release teaser. Each keeps its words, colours and timing where you can change them without touching code, has a place for your own logo, photos or product, and comes with variations. Change the words, swap in your files, retime the beats, then render it in every shape you need.

The six templates

Opening a template

1. Open the Gallery

   Press G, or click Gallery on the rail.

2. Pick Trailers

   The Trailers filter shows the six templates, each marked Trailer.

3. Click one

   It opens on the stage, and on a desktop the Motion panel opens on its timeline, framed to the template's shape.

Opening a gallery piece adds it to the piece you have open, as a new version. Click New piece first to give it a piece of its own. The cards on this page open each template as a new piece.

How the templates are put together

The five built on 3D and 2D keep their controls in three folders in Parameters (P):

• Copy holds the words: headlines, captions, prices, the call to action, the web address.
• Look holds the colours, the typeface and switches for the look. Hero Shot's Titles leaves the words out (for a page that sets its own) and Daylight puts it on off-white paper; Opening Night's Letterbox switches its black bars on and off, and Logo Sting's Typeface sets the type its logo is spelt in.
• Timeline holds the beats that the timeline keys. A beat runs from 0 to 1 as it comes in and from 1 to 2 as it goes, so you retime the film by dragging keys rather than changing code.

Drop Day is a shader, so its words are text layers instead, on the Motion panel's Layers tab. The timeline keys the shader's Portal, Glitch, Flash, Zoom and Spin, and the layers' blur, scale and turns, which makes it a good place to see how layer tracks work.

Every frame is worked out from the parameters and the time alone, so the templates scrub backwards as well as forwards, and their layouts work in any shape.

Changing the words

1. Switch Record off

   The Motion panel opens with Record on, and on the Timeline tab it keys every parameter you change, words included. Click Record to switch it off, or pick another tab such as Layers.

2. Open the Copy folder

   Press P for Parameters and open Copy.

3. Type your words

   Click into a field, type, and click away to keep it. In Opening Night's Billing block, the parts of the line are split by a dot (·).

For Drop Day, select each text layer on the Layers tab, or on the stage, and type into its text box. See Text, image and video layers.

Retiming the beats

On the Timeline tab, each control in the Timeline folder has a track. Drag a beat's keys along its lane to bring it in earlier or later, or select a key and change its easing. Set Length to make the whole film longer or shorter, then move the last keys to match. A few of the beats:

• Shot in Hero Shot moves the camera between its framings: 0 is the lid, 1 the label, 2 the hero shot and 3 the end card. In Opening Night, Shot is the cut, and its keys hold, so each one is a hard cut.
• Slide in Postcards runs from 0 to 5, one unit per photo. Drag its end key to make the story faster or slower, or add keys to give one photo longer.
• Assemble, Lock and Glint in Logo Sting bring the sparks in, set them into the logo and run the highlight across it.

See Keyframes and tracks for working with keys.

Using your own files

Four of the templates have a slot near the top of their code for your files. Each slot is empty to begin with, so the template draws its own.

1. Upload your files

   Open Assets (A) and upload them. This needs an account; see Your asset library.

2. Attach them to a message

   Select the files and click Use in prompt.

3. Ask Perlin to use them

   Say which slot they go in, for example "use this as the logo" or "put these five photos in PHOTOS, in this order". Perlin fills the slot for you.

Logos and images can also go over any template as layers: drag one from Assets onto the stage.

Sound

Hero Shot comes with a music bed and five sound effects (a ring pull, a whoosh, an ice clink, a pop and a logo hit), placed on its timeline as sound clips, each on a track of its own. Drag them to retime them, or swap in your own; see Sound clips. Volume in its Sound folder sets the level of the whole mix. Click the piece once to hear it in the studio.

Variations and rendering

Every template comes with variations: Hero Shot's Wild Berry and Lime Mint flavours, Opening Night's Gold, Logo Sting's Ember and Ice, Postcards' Night owl, Flash Sale's Black Friday and Summer, and Drop Day's Daybreak and Single. Change them or add your own on the Variations tab; see Variations.

Then click Render. Tick every shape you need: the templates lay themselves out again for each one, so a 16:9 film becomes a 9:16 reel without moving anything. See Rendering video.

Related

• Keyframes and tracks
• Variations
• Rendering video
• The gallery and remixing