Fireball and Masking

Post date: May 02, 2016 12:56:46 AM

Go to the folder of sharing and find Will Fireball.mov

Drag it to your desktop.

1. Drag Will Fireball to the AE project panel and then to the timeline.

2. Layer > New > Solid

3. Effect > Generate > Circle

4. Radius = 50ish, Feather Outer = 19ish, and change the color.

5. Make the layer a 3D layer

6. Select the layer and press p to open position numbers or open the twirlers until you see position. You will now see three numbers for x, y, and z position.

7. Move the x and y values so the circle starts where Will's hands start.

8. Trim the beginning of the layer so the circle begins when Will puts his hands together.

9. Press the stopwatch for position and animate the circle. Remember to animate z as well. The more negative z is, the closer the fireball will be.

10. Trim the end of the layer in so the circle disappears.

Some effects to apply to the fireball:

11. Effect > Noise and Grain > Fractal Noise.

11. Animate evolution by pressing the evolution stopwatch and changing the evolution at the beginning and end of the fireball layer.

12. Effect > Stylize > Glow to add some glow.

Here's all my settings. But play with things to make it look how you want.

Save this because next time we will mask his hands.

Next!

1. Select the fireball layer and then Layer > Precompose Select "Move all attributes into the new composition"

This bundles up all the effects and animation into a composition of it's own allowing you to use all of it as if it was just a video clip.

2. Use the pen tool to draw as simple a mask as you can around the hand. The fewer clicks, the better.

3. Open the twirler, then open the Mask twirler, and turn up feather to feather your mask, Around 20 is good.

4. Press the stopwatch for Mask Path.

5. Invert the mask so it covers the hand and not the fireball.

6. Animate the mask. Command-Click the word MASK to deselect all points. Click the words Mask Path to select all points and click nothing to deselect all the points. It's tricky. Be careful not to accidentally create another mask. just delete it if you do.

7. At the end, move the mask off the screen.

Composition > Add to Render Queue. Bring it into Final Cut, add sounds, a title, and credits and post it to Youtube and then to your website.