[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

What can I say- you started with the obvious…
I did (forced by many factors) work with HDV and even DV for chroma and I got the best results using plugins like Ultimatte Advant Edge and Red Giant Key Correct Pro.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Do you want a solid paint wipe or the image to turn to a painting?
If it’s just a straight paint wipe, just shoot some colored paint that can be poured over a white board/paper that is on the floor and has a slight angle to allow the paint to flow top to bottom. Once you have that you ca easily key the paint, change the color and the speed of the footage to get the transition you need. There’s nothing line the real thing- no effect will give you that.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

After Effects just like all video apps works in RGB. When you import files from AI they should be RGB as well. Read about Color Management in between Adobe apps here:
https://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/aftereffects/articles/color_management_workflow/ae_color_mgmt_wkflow.pdf

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Not sure if I get exactly what you’re after, but if I do, one way to do it is to create a Null layer and apply the shatter effect to all text layers. Then bring in Expression Controls on the Null Layer and link the parameters of all the Shatter effects from the text layer to the controls on the Null layer. This way you have one control panel for all the text layers and if you want you can leave specific parameters to be individually animated on each text layer.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You can also create an adjustment layer with an animated mask that is feathered. The mask should travel with the light/spark. On the adjustment layer you can apply a Hue?Saturation filter that can change the red to a bright yellow. You can animate the properties of the plugin as well as the Mask expansion to give the impression of flicker.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Free Form or FreeForm Pro.
Here’s a tutorial on how to give 3d depth to 2d images using Free Form:
https://library.creativecow.net/jelescu_tudor/3D-from-2D-image_AE/1

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Technically, I am not sure I can point out a plus. I do find Colorista more intuitive though and with Colorista 2 I discovered a lot more options with the same ease of use.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

As Dave mentioned in a much better way than I can put it, the light does not help. You will have to do a few passes and some roto maybe. In Keylight you can adjust the Screen Matte – Clip Black to about 13 and White to 62 (approx- your values may differ, especially when you have the actual clip). Also you can use the Foreground Color Correction (enable) and suppress Green.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Mocha and the AE tracker will give you 2d information. Depending on the shot you may be able to animate the scale and 3d rotation to fake a 3d move. Ideally a 3d tracker would be better suited for the job. Boujou or SynthEyes are a couple of the best- pricey though.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

For future reference: questions like the one you posted above can easily be answered in the After Effects Basics forum:

https://forums.creativecow.net/adobeaftereffectsbasics

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist