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  1. Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
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    Australia
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    I am looking to create some animations for my kids, everything here is just at hobby level.
    I will be using 3DS MAX to create scenes and animations coupled with ICLONE 4 for character animation, but I will be using Premier Pro CS4 and/or After effects CS4 for the masking/blending/whatever the effect is called im trying to make detailed below. I actually won the entire CS4 sweet at uni so also have all those programs at my disposal should I need them but have not a lot of knowledge in most of them.

    My kids are currently obsessed with my old Super Nintendo and Street Fighter 2. So Im making a short 'episode' if you will, having my kids fight of bad guys but want them to do some of the street fighter moves as they love them right now.

    So im talking about Ken & Ryu's hadooken - the blue ball that flys across the screen, or Guiles 'sonic boom' that flys across the screen.

    Firstly I can simply screen capture it in action, cut it out in photoshop and keyframe a static image across the screen, that is my fall back but for my own intrest would like to see if I can do it properly.

    So im thinking, in after effects or Premiere pro, can I create a mask/marquee similar to in photoshop that will block out anything not in the mask and using keyframes follow it until I tighly capture just the 'sonic boom' or 'hadooken' flame/ball and then in a new composition overlay just my mask/marquee selected animation over my scene and I can then keyframe it (scale and position it) to come from the hands of my kids and then move it to the bad dudes effectively making my kids have street fighter powers in my animation?

    Would that be the way to do it? I have heard of saving a a video to individual frame and then photoshopping every single frame, but for my hobby level I would rather a keyframe method where I so several parts until it ties in close enough, I will use the static image mentioned above before I spend that much time since this could lead to literally hundreds of frames.

    Secondly, is there a feature in AE or PP that can 'track' similar objects/colours? Such as the magic wand tool in photoshop can identify similar edges and select an object, can I marquee, mask the 'hadooken' ball and then let AE or PP analyse and automatically track the object looking at similar pixels/dimensions/colours etc and it might do a pretty good keyframing job for me?
    That would be cool if possible!

    Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
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  2. Always Watching guns1inger's Avatar
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    Apr 2004
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    Miskatonic U
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    if you have AE, go to videocopilot.net and look through the tutorials there. You will find that it is probably much easier than you think, and won't require anywhere near the level of hand masking you envisage.

    You could also consider using particle effects in Max and rendering out either pre-alpha'd stills or a alpha mask video pass and using these in after effects.
    Read my blog here.
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  3. Member
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    Feb 2004
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    Australia
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    great thanks guns1inger, will check out the tutorials.....never expected a reply saying it could be easier than I expected!
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