Assignment 2 - Title Sequence

I have chosen this title sequence because it gives a mysterious and cool look/feel which is more suitable for our story, compared to other title sequence tutorial. This tutorial is also interesting because I can create the smoke effect with just an image by rotating it and it looks like it.

I do not have the background as seen in the video tutorial (link below) so I have used or created a dark blue solid background instead. I have also added glow for the title/text to make it look nicer.

Tutorial link: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/smoke_screen/

Steps:
1. Create a composition with the image "Smoke Element.jpg"
2. Create a white solid (Layer> New> Solid)
3. Create an adjustment layer (Layer> New> Adjustment Layer)
4. Color correct the Adjustment Layer with "Colorama" (Effect> Color Correction> Colorama)
5. In the effects control

• under the input phase, change Get Phase From to "Alpha"

• under the Output Cycle, change Use Preset Palette to "Ramp Grey", back color to blue and bring the transparency down (alpha)

6. Apply Turbulent Displace for some movements (Effect> Distort> Turbulent Displace)
7. In the effects control

• set size to "10"

• alt + click on stopwatch beside "Evolution", type in the expression box "time*100"

8. Create a new composition, "Main Comp"
9. Drag the "Smoke Element" composition in
10. Create a new background (Layer> New> Solid), drag it below the Smoke Element composition
11. Select the "Smoke Element" composition, hit "r" to reveal the "Rotation", alt + click on stopwatch beside "Rotation" and type in "value+time*5"
12. Hit "f4" and turn on the 3D layer switch
13. Create a camera (Layer> New> Camera), presets "35mm"
14. Create a new dark blue solid background
15. Duplicate for another "Smoke Element" composition, rotate, scale and position it (repeat/duplicate for more smoke layers)
16. For the background, go to Effect> Color correction> Curves, RGB down to darken it, Red down and Blue up a little
17. Create a null object (Layer> New> Null Object)
18. Parent the Camera to the null object
19. Set keyframe in the 1st frame and at about 4 secs in the timeline, change the position (so that the clouds move to the left)
20. Duplicate another "Smoke Element" composition and move it closer to the camera
21. Create text/title, turn on the 3D layer and i would prefer to add glow to it to look better (Effect> Stylize> Glow)
22. Create a new adjustment layer and do an overall color correction, red down abit and blue up abit (Effect> Color Correction> Curves)
23. For the Null object, 2nd keyframe, hit "f9" (For easy ease)
24. Go to camera and set keyframe for position and point of interest, drag the keyframes to the front
25. Move to the next few frames/ around 1 sec, use the "Track Z camera tool" and push in a little so that it will zoom in, select the keyframes and hit "f9" and now the camera will slowly zoom in
26. Select all the "Smoke Element" composition layers and change the mode to "screen" so that it will look nicer and with more depth