Baseball player, Qynton Davis reached out to me to make an animated intro for his youtube videos that included a titles screen with his logo and a screen directing viewers to his merchendise, using the music featured in the finished intro. I was enjoying using Adobe After Effects at the time and had seen a recipe online for making a really cool fire effect shortly before getting this request.
This was the original picture I was asked to use in the animation. I thought this picture could pair nicely with the fire effect in that I could use the fire to imply the motion of the baseball. See an early version of the animation below.
Later on I was asked to use the following picture instead. My baseball idea was gone but the animated fire was still super cool and eyecatching. From here I went on to add all the transitions and other effects that you see in the final video.
Here's was the merch screen looked like. It's got T-shirts and those arm warmers that ball players like to wear. You can see Qynton's channel here.