This filter animates a simulated comet from the source point to the destination point. Particle density, gravity, air resistance, blur and camera zoom define the movement of the particles. The opacity, size, brightness, life span of the particles themselves are defined by the user and can all be animated. The amount of force with which particles move away from the comet center can also be designated and animated using parameters such as velocity, tumble, spin, rotate and spread.

Cartooner

For the fourth section of the project I used BCC’s Film Damage filter. It allows you to add scratches, grain particles, hair or fibers, and dirt, dust, or water spots. It also allows you to simulate camera shake and a flickering image. The color effects were the result of using the Difference mode; a mathematical operation that combines pixels on one layer of a composition with the layer behind it. In this composition I had a royal blue solid behind the layer with the keyed hand. The Difference mode I applied to the hand layer used the luminance values of the two layers and interpolated new values based on the difference.

On this footage, I started with BCC Linear Color Key and then used Keylight to remove edges I couldn’t get out with the first key. This slowed down rendering time considerably and as there were two shots; one of the front view of the mudra and one of the back view I needed to precompose. I rendered the front and back views separately with their alpha channels intact and started a new composition using these files. The shadows were also created from these files so I had four video clips in all used in this comp.

The twirl on the back drop was made by the BCC Twirl filter. It has a motion tracker which should animate the motion by following the movement of the arm but I used the "twirl center" parameter on the filter and manually generated key frames to follow the movement of the hand for a tidier motion. The motion tracker generated scads of key frames – far more than were needed. The BCC Glow Alpha Edges filter added a soft white glow to the masked arm that improved it’s compatibility with the back drop behind it.

I used this filter to apply a glow with a gradient attached to it to the alpha channel from the keyed hand. As with all Boris Filters – this filter could be used in many ways. For instance, the gradient colors, the thickness or brightness of the glow and many other parameters could all be animated over time. In this clip I chose to have the outline of the hand movement from the original video to be the only changing parameter.

The best books I’ve found for learning After Effects:

1. After Effects 7.0 Studio Techniques by Mark Christiansen [good tutors on keying and blue /green screen techniques]
2. Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects by Trish and Chris Meyer

Both come with DVDs and lots of examples.

My first impulse is to say After Effects is easy to learn. Then I’m reminded . . . I used to tell people it was easy to start a business after I’d had my own for awhile. My partner cautioned me to think about all the years I’d spent working 60 hour weeks to get the business off it’s feet. Well, all right, then . . . if you are driven and enjoy lots of technical details and trial and error experimentation you can start to enjoy creating with After Effects after say 8-10 hours of doing some serious tutors. The interface is complex and some of the concepts will be brand new to most folks. The good news is that this is an incredibly creative versatile tool for media makers that will vastly broaden the scope of what you can do.