Block Party

Block Party is a transition that builds and animates 3D geometry from the original clips.

A highly customizable particle system uses lighting and camera effects to create exceptional content, fast.

Compatibility

Block Party is compatible with Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Parameters

Presets

Presets contain a snapshot of your effect configuration. While no built-in presets are available through this parameter, you can still save and load your own preset files.

When you save parameter configuration to a file on disk, this file can later be loaded to recreate the same effect configuration. Presets generated in one video application can be used by the same plug-in running in a different video application.

How do I use the presets browser?

Transition Layer

Lets you provide the destination clip of a transition effect when used in Motion or After Effects.

Drop Zones in Motion
Layer Menu in After Effects

This parameter is not available in Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro since both video applications support transition effects natively.

Automatic Progress

Lets you control if a transition used in Motion or After Effects should animate automatically over the duration of the clip. When disabled, the transition must be animated by keyframing the Transition Progress parameter.

This parameter is not available in Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro since both video applications support transition effects natively.

Transition Progress

Lets you animate a transition effect in Motion or After Effects. This parameter is only available when Automatic Progress is disabled.

This parameter is not available in Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro since both video applications support transition effects natively.

Rows

Set to 5 by default.

The slider is limited to values between 1 and 400 but you can type values between 1 and 700 by clicking on the current value in the inspector.

The number of horizontal slices. Along with the Columns parameter, this number affects how many blocks are generated and animated by the effect.

How do I create and animate cubes?

Columns

Set to 5 by default.

The slider is limited to values between 1 and 400 but you can type values between 1 and 700 by clicking on the current value in the inspector.

The number of vertical slices. Along with the Rows parameter, this number affects how many blocks are generated and animated by the effect.

How do I create and animate cubes?

Angle

Set to 45° by default.

This parameter controls the direction of the transition. Blocks begin animating in the direction specified by this parameter.

When you set the Synchronize parameter to 100%, the transition’s angle does not matter since all blocks are animated in unison.

Reveal

Popup menu with the following options:
  • Next face — initial selection

    By default, each block will rotate 90 degrees to reveal the incoming clip. Visually, this looks like the incoming clip is the next face of cuboid.

    The number of rotations is also affected by the Rotations Count and Randomize Count parameters under the Rotation parameter group.

  • Back face

    By default, each block will rotate 180 degrees to reveal the incoming clip. Visually, looks like the outgoing clip is flipped to reveal the incoming clip. The Depth parameter lets you control the depth of the tile being flipped.

    The number of rotations is also affected by the Rotations Count and Randomize Count parameters under the Rotation parameter group.

Depth

Set to 10% by default.

The thickness of each block when the Reveal parameter is set to the Back face option. A value of 100% tells the effect that you would like the depth of the block to be as large as the portion of the clips it represents. Smaller values generate the look of thinner tiles.

Spread

Set to 0% by default.

Space between blocks at the peak of the animation. Blocks may animate individually or as a group, based on the value of the Synchronize parameter.

The Spread parameter specifies constant spacing between blocks. In practical terms, the smaller the blocks, the smaller the Spread value should be in order to keep the blocks all within the output frame. When set to 100%, blocks will move away from their original location as they animate, to the point where most will fall outside the frame boundaries.

Synchronize

Set to 0% by default.

This parameter controls when each block animates during the transition. When the value is 0%, each block animates according to its location in the frame, relative to the current progress of the transition. When the value is 100%, all blocks animate at once.

Ambient

Color set to
black by default.

This parameter controls the ambient color, which affects lighting of block faces that are pointing away from the viewer.

When a face points directly at the viewer, no lighting is applied. The lack of lighting when the face points directly at the viewer guarantees a smooth transition from the outgoing clip to the incoming clip.

When a face points away from the viewer, it is affected by the Ambient color. By default, this parameter uses black which makes block faces become darker as they rotate away from the viewer.

The color assigned to this parameter can be overridden by the color specified under the Effect parameter group, when the Replace Ambient Color parameter is also on.

Side Color

Set to
14.83% gray by default.

This parameters specifies the color of block faces that do not contain the incoming or outgoing clips.

Each block has 6 faces and only 2 are populated by portions of your clips. On its default value of dark gray, the effect puts less emphasis on the empty faces.

Some of the presets included with Block Party show how the Side Color parameter can be used to create looks where the empty sides play a more interesting role. Please note that scene lighting and effects also affect the appearance of block faces.

Rotation

Axis

Popup menu with the following options:
  • Y axis — initial selection
  • X axis
All blocks rotate along the same axis by default, as defined by this parameter. Additional parameters under the Rotation group let you assign fixed or randomized_ rotation patterns for more interesting results.

Axis Variant

Popup menu with the following options:
  • None — initial selection
    All blocks rotate along the same axis, as specified by the Axis parameter.
  • Checkerboard
    Blocks rotate along one axis or the other according to their relative position in the grid. Even blocks rotate along one axis while odd blocks rotate along the other. The order is inverted on the next row to match the sequence of colors in a checkerboard.
  • Randomize
    Blocks rotate along a random axis. If you are not happy with the particular choice made by the effect, assign a new value to the Seed parameter under the Advanced parameter group.

Rotations Count

Set to 1 by default. Only values between 1 and 10 are allowed.

This parameter controls the number of times each block rotates to reveal the incoming clip. On its default value of 1, each block only rotates once to immediately reveal the next clip.

Randomize Count

Off by default.

This parameter lets you randomize the number of times each block rotates, between 1 and the value currently assigned to the Rotations Count parameter.

Easing

Popup menu with the following options:
  • Ease In-Out — initial selection
    The animation accelerates and decelerates smoothly.
  • Ease In
    The animation accelerates smoothly.
  • Ease Out
    The animation decelerates smoothly.
This parameter let you control the animation progress of each block as it rotates and moves in 3D space.

Winding

Popup menu with the following options:
  • Clockwise — initial selection
    Rotate blocks clockwise along the selected Axis.
  • Counter-clockwise
    Rotate blocks counter-clockwise along the selected Axis.

Winding Variant

Popup menu with the following options:
  • None — initial selection
    All blocks rotate in the same direction, as specified by the Winding parameter.
  • Checkerboard
    Blocks rotate in one direction or the other according to their relative position in the grid. For example, even blocks may rotate clockwise while odd blocks rotate counter-clockwise. The order is inverted on the next row to match the sequence of colors in a checkerboard.
  • Randomize
    Blocks rotate in a random direction. If you are not happy with the particular choice made by the effect, assign a new value to the Seed parameter under the Advanced parameter group.

Wobble

Wobble Amount X

Set to 0% by default.

This parameter controls how much each block moves irregularly along the X axis, during the animation.

Wobble Amount Y

Set to 0% by default.

This parameter controls how much each block moves irregularly along the Y axis, during the animation.

Wobble Amount Z

Set to 0% by default.

This parameter controls how much each block moves irregularly along the Y axis, during the animation.

Wobble Offset X

Set to 0 by default. Only values between -1 and 1 are allowed.

This parameter controls the location within the scene each block moves to. While animating, the block animates towards its given offset along the X axis according to the Wobble Amount specified for the same axis.

Wobble Offset Y

Set to 0 by default. Only values between -1 and 1 are allowed.

This parameter controls the location within the scene each block moves to. While animating, the block animates towards its given offset along the Y axis according to the Wobble Amount specified for the same axis.

Wobble Offset Z

Set to 0 by default. Only values between -1 and 1 are allowed.

This parameter controls the location within the scene each block moves to. While animating, the block animates towards its given offset along the Z axis according to the Wobble Amount specified for the same axis.

Wobble Count

Set to 1 by default. Only values between 1 and 10 are allowed.

This parameter controls the number of times each block wobbles along the three axes. Since the animation in 3D is based on wave patterns, one can increase the value of Wobble Count to repeat the same animation more than once.

Effect

Most parameters in this group become available only when an Effect is applied to the scene.

Effect

Popup menu with the following options:
  • None — initial selection
    No effects are applied to the 3D scene, making the output be based purely on the geometry of the blocks.
  • Glow
    The area behind the clips exposed by each block as it animates is turned into the source of a glow that affects the entire scene.
  • Light Rays
    The area behind the clips exposed by each block as it animates is turned into the source of light rays that shoot from behind the blocks and towards the viewer. The origin of the light rays follows the progress of the transition. When the Synchronize parameter is set to 100%, the origin of the light rays remains constant at the center of the frame.

Amount

Set to 10% by default.

This parameter controls the strength of the current effect. When the current effect is Glow, this parameter controls the radius and intensity of the glow. When the current effect is Light Rays, this parameter controls the length of the rays.

Color

Set to
99.75% red, 100% green and 87.51% blue in the SRGB color space by default. The alpha component (opacity) is unavailable and/or ignored.
This parameter lets you pick the color used by the current effect. Glows and light rays usually work best with extremely bright colors. Darker colors can also be used to create interesting results, as demonstrated by a few of the presets included with Block Party.

Replace Ambient Color

On by default.

This parameter controls whether the current effect color is also used as the Ambient color. In most cases it helps to have the two be the same in order to guarantee a consistent output.

Camera

Motion Blur

Enables motion blur at different quality settings. The higher the quality, the more samples are used. Multiple samples are blended together to produce a single frame of output.

  • Off — initial selection
    Output frames are rendered without motion blur. This is the fastest setting.
  • Low
    Combine 4 samples to produce each output frame.
  • Medium
    Combine 8 samples to produce each output frame.
  • High
    Combine 16 samples to produce each output frame. This is the slowest, highest quality setting.

Multiple samples are combined to produce a single output frame with motion blur

Shutter Angle and Offset

The Shutter Angle slider controls the size (aperture) of the shutter used to simulate motion blur. The size of the shutter determines how long light is allowed to pass through the lens. The angle is set to 180° by default. A shutter angle of 360° means that samples are collected for the entire duration of the frame.
Setting a value of zero means that you want the shutter to collect light only once, which is equivalent to turning motion blur off.

The Shutter Offset slider controls the moment in time when the shutter opens and closes, relative to the duration of the frame. The offset is set to 0 by default. An offset of zero means the shutter is perfectly centered over the moment in time when the frame occurs. The shutter is therefore open an equal amount of time before and after the current frame occurs.

The Shutter Angle and Shutter Offset parameters are only available when motion blur is enabled.

Depth Blur

Set to 0% by default.

This parameter controls the appearance of blocks as they move away from their original location.

In simulating a virtual lens, blocks that move away can be made to look out of focus by increasing the value of this parameter. Please note that the effect of this parameter may be obvious only when the Wobble Amount Z and Wobble Offset Z parameters are being used to make blocks fly towards or away from the viewer.

Field of View

Set to 60 by default. Only values between 30 and 90 are allowed.

This parameter controls the angle of view of the virtual lens used to animate blocks in 3D. Certain features of the geometry appears flatter or deeper to the viewer depending on the angle of view.

Slow Motion

Set to 0% by default.

This parameter can alter the transition’s progress in a non-linear fashion, so as to make the animation progress quickly to its midpoint, and proceed slowly for a while, before accelerating again to the end. In different terms, this parameter can be used to simulate shooting the animation in slow motion, but doing in a way that still allows the transition to progress from beginning to end according to its in/out points.

Advanced

Seed

A number that controls random aspects of the output.

Click the New button to assign a new seed value. When the seed value is changed, the effect makes new random choices to produce a different output.

This parameter is used to seed the algorithm that generates random values used by effect. Generating a new seed allows the effect to use a new set of random values.

Transparent Fill Color

Set to
black by default.
This color is used as the background fill color for any transparent areas in the clips. When applying the transition to titles or graphics with non-opaque areas, it is important to make this parameter match the color of the background over which the original media appears.