Fireball visual effect - Matt Kinahan Editing: part 2

Fireball visual effect - Editing
Program: adobe after effects
PART ONE:
Once the fireball effect was made i wanted to incorporate it into a video.

 So i recorded myself holding and throwing a juggling ball, then i could overlay the fireball effect on top, some would say that this is a bad technique to use, however i believe it gives me a good reference point to overlay the fireball in post production and also gives a feel for how heavy the ball is and where the ball actually is.

As you can see in the pictures to the left, this made it very easy to position the fire ball on the screen, however the fireball's rotation stayed stationary, this is more difficult to animate do to having no reference to how to the fireball should rotate. So this part of the editing stage i had to do manually, this meant rotating the fireball when i felt it was necessary.

after that i just had to make the fireball was in sync with the juggling ball, this helps make the fireball appear more realistic, but also helps cover over the juggling ball so that my video doesn't show continuity.

I don't always use the juggling ball to reference the position of the ball, sometimes just motion tracking a point can give you a decent reference point. this i done by using the 'tracker' feature in adobe after effects. by tracking the X and Y axis points on a specific point in the video (dots, lines and even shadows are good points). track the motion to a null object, then parent the footage you want to stick to the tracked motion, this should make the fire ball look as if it is sticking the your tracked point.

To see how the video turned out check it out on YouTube, need any help?

Contact me at MattKinahan@gmail.com