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Perhaps Motion Tracking, I don’t really know!
I need a little (perhaps a lot) of help. I have AE 6.0 but am not proficient in its use. I have a video I am editing containing footage that needs to be manipulated. I have a character that I need to show continuous lightning bolts emanating from his fingertips and electrifying, striking continuously, various other parts of the video. As I have been told, I need to invoke motion tracking to accomplish this. I am able to produce the lightning effect but am at a loss as how to keep the effect at his finger tips as the character moves about the scene. Is there a tutorial on how to do this? Or can someone here guide me through the process? What if any specific plug-in might I need to accomplish this?
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2 Replies
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You would need to motion track his finger (which might be difficult if his finger is moving against a non-uniform background like a greenscreen, but not impossible), then apply the track to a null object. If you’re not clear on tracking at all, you could follow the tutorial on it at my youtube page (link below). Remember that you don’t need to track rotation – so don’t check that box in the tracker window. Only use a single track point. The next thing you would need to do is to make the start point of the lightning equal the position of the null object (i.e. the fingertip). Off the top of my head I can’t recall if the lightening effect has a start point property. If it does, alt-click on the stopwatch and pickwhip the position property of the null. That should do it.
Simon Bonner
youtube.com/simonsaysFX -
Check out Andrew Kramer’s Demon Face tutorial here on CreativeCow. Using the concepts he presents on reverse motion tracking you can stabalize your shot based on your subject which will make it Much easier to pin effects to his hands. Also, the tutorial gives a good work flow for points you have tracked that may leave the screen.
If things get really complex you can reverse track each hand separately, use separate comps and layers to apply the bolt effects… pin back to your original footage, just like the demon face warp, and get a very nice effect.
Just an idea =)
CreativeCow tutorials and the concepts found in them can always be tweaked to fit your individual needs.
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