[Michael Szalapski]

There are many ways to create a fireball in AE.

1. Cook up a concoction of gas, gunpowder, etc. Film it in front of black. Use Screen or Add (layer blending modes) to put it in your scene and keyframe its movement.

2. Trapcode’s Particular

3. Wondertouch’s ParticleIlluison

4. Fractal noise, gradients, masks, etc.

5. Detonation Films = free BOOM

Whatever method (or mixture of methods) you use Shine migt be helpful to make it appear to be in your scene.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

If it’s in grass don’t forget the wind is gonna make a mess of the grass.
Oooh, also watch out for footprints/peopletrails in the grass/dirt/whatever.
Watch the sky for clouds.

Dang, this isn’t gonna be as easy as it sounded.

So long as Mother Nature doesn’t mess with you too much it should be a lot of fun, you might try using masks along with keyframing the opacity to give a slightly more interesting look to the fades. You could also use fractal noise precomps as track mattes. For some bizarre reason I’m really liking this project, I wish I were doing it. So many ideas, so little time.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

If you are looking for a lights on/lights off thing try searching the archives for “ticker” I seem to recall a method (including a project file) that did just such a thing. (There was one in 3d around a corner and one that was straight up on/off)

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

I’m not sure why it’s doing that. Are your comps using the same pixel ratio? (Square pixels, etc.) Same comp size? Same frame rate? Same fields? If all these are right, I’m not sure what’s wrong.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

The picture doesn’t seem to be loading correctly.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

There are some lovely meadow-type presets with PI3. If you don’t already have them you can download them from http://www.wondertouch.com

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

I’ve got great ideas on how to get a glow, but none that will work terribly well in a vector based program.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

Are you talking about a basic outline, or a glow?

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

Or, possibly you want to set it as a Luma Matte, either way, they’re in the same place in the manual.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

Look in your help files (or manual) regarding the term track matte. You will want to set your photoshop layer as the alpha matte for your other layer.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.