Creating a Heads-Up Display with Premiere Elements 7
In this mini-tutorial, you will learn how to create a Heads-Up-display (HUD) as used in many a Hollywood film, such as the Terminator series and by such science-fiction characters as Green Arrow in Smallville. You’ll create this effect with some creative use of the Text Tool and the Color Matte, combined together to create a very cool-looking visual effect.
What Is the “HUD” Effect?
For the sake of this article, the HUD (Heads-Up Display) effect creates the visual illusion of a text readout appearing in front of the lead actor’s eyes. This actor can either be playing the part of a robot, with super tactical vision, or a futuristic soldier wearing science-fiction battle-enhancing glasses (the example used in this tutorial). Once you have mastered the techniques shown here, you will no doubt being applying the effect to your own film ideas. The only limitation here is your imagination.