animating a effect

[Simon Bonner]

We would need more information on how you’ve created the fire. Is this a particle effect, or a fire element you’ve brought in from outside?

If it’s an element, it’s not strictly speaking “an effect”. In that case, you would bring up the position property of the fire layer and alter it over time, adding keyframes where appropriate.

If it’s a particle effect, you may want to keyframe the position from which the particles emanate (the name of this property differs between the particle effects).

Simon Bonner

youtube.com/simonsaysFX

[Hype Napungra]

It sounds like you want to animate the position of the fire itself in relation to the subject in which case there are two basic options that I can think of. The first, and most laborious, is to keyframe the position of your fire layer to follow the person who’s meant to be burning – you do this by basically going through the footage frame by frame and, as the other comments says, add position keyframes to follow your subject.

Another option could be to motion track your subject, apply the results to a null object and then parent the fire layer to the null which should make it follow your main figure.

I’m still learning AE too and these are the easiest ways I can think to achieve your effect. If you’ve already managed to generate the fire then you don’t need to worry about particle effects or suchlike. I recommend checking out every tutorial on this site and also on http://www.videocopilot.net – you’ll learn everything you need.

All the best
Tommy

Hype Napungra