[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

It was getting really difficult to explain, so I just made a test project – instead of a sphere I made two intersecting 3d layers, but the principle should be the same. Let me know if it works.
1832_spherecontrols.aep.zip

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

It’s easier to animate with a reference – shoot a coin spinning and dropping on a table from above, import that in AE and animate over- that’s the first thing that comes to mind.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

You can use a few AE native plugins: Distort/Displacement Map and Noise& Grain/Fractal Noise . Create a displacement map by applying Fractal Noise to a solid, animate that for the length of your clip. Cut a mask around the area where the heat wave is supposed to be, animate the edges to give it a fluid movement and precompose. Turn off the visibility for this layer. Apply Displacement Map and use the previously created precomp for the source of the displacement. Tweak to obtain desired effect.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

It would help to know the details of what you are trying to achieve. What app do you need to import the movie in and why should the file size be small? A 10 sec clip with alpha channel in a standard format will be a large file. What format are you working in? It’s good to give as much information from the beginning to get good answers.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

And 3d Stroke may be an option, although I agree with Joey, Particular is by far the best choice.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Maybe this article can help:
https://www.creativemac.com/2004/01_jan/tutorials/lw2ae2.htm

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I tried the idea I suggested earlier and it works.
Set your shape/object that you want to animate in the middle of your comp. Precomp that layer. Apply Stylize/Motion Tile. You need to set the width and height of the tiles in order to determine how many tiles you get in each direction (x and y). Depending on how many times you need your object to come in the frame after it goes out and on the size of your comp those values will change.
Also, depending on the way you want the object to come back in the frame (as soon as part of it goes out at the top the same amount comes in at the bottom- default setting, precomp size the same as master comp- or the object does not come in at the bottom until all of it goes out at the top of the frame, in which case you need to chage the size of your precomp, making it bigger – add the width and height of your object in pixels to the size of the initial frame).

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Have you checked both the pixel aspect ratio for the comp and for the way AE interprets your footage?

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

I do not have the means to test this now, but I wonder if applying Motion Tile to your moving layer will do it.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

Broadcast can mean different things for different stations. I usually deliver 1080i, Mpeg 2 at 50Mb/s, but since the station said 1280×720 QT, I would ask them what codec and bit rate instead of guessing it.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist