making a “thought bubble” in AE 6.5

[Glenn Moore]

I’ve done this a few times recently. Depending on the project, you can use a simple oval/circle collection you create in Illustrator (or whatever you have). Save it as a Targa or Tiff (or whatever you prefer). Place it above the layer with the person. You would place the text or video layer that will appear within the cloud in the top-most layer (you have to move it to the right position since it’ll be centered when you do this). Just drag it into position within the cloud. It could be tricky if the character is moving erratically. If not, it’s very do-able for a beginner.

Another thing I’ve done that I like but looks strange sometimes. Use an actual cloud (created in Maya or Particle Illusion (or with the AE particle generator). In either case, you can fade out slowly or quickly (as in an interrupted thought). There are several approaches. You just need to figure out the look you want.

Hope that helps.

[Ace Billet]

If you want the balloon to appear in a comic-pop kind of way,
scale it from 0%, to 120%, to 80% to 100% over a little number of frames.
Dont forger to set the anchor point for the balloon at the place it “pops” from the head.

I did a music video that was all-comic. check it out on https://www.billet.co.il/video/izabovid.swf
About 11MB to load, but you can get a lot of comic style ideas. Press the pointing hand for play & enjoy.

cheers
ace

Intel Inside, the world’s most popular warning label.

[Ruby Gold]

Thanks you guys! I tried out the little balloon over the head and found that putting a mask on the footage that was to go inside it gave me the shape I wanted and looked a little better than the shape I drew and imported. Thanks again for the great ideas!
Ruby