Motion overlay? I'm not even sure what to call this...

[nitestar95]

Found a video with part of it showing what appears to be some sort of overlay, a dark background with the motion of falling into a virtual 'swimming tube' with all the curves, making you feel like you're falling down into it. The rest of the video is a slideshow and words inserted which I do not want. I have Premier Pro available but have only used it for basic things, so if that is something I can use for this great. Here's the part of the clip which shows the effect I want. https://youtu.be/XKt0DZ5CmJo?t=48

Am I correct in referring to this as an overlay?

[JVRaines]

Almost all effects are overlaid in some manner. I would call this an animated flare or glow off the titles with partial transparency over video that cuts in and out of black. I think you would want After Effects for this kind of work.

[jagabo]

They are often called plasma effects. Usually generated algorithmicly. Often found in screen savers. For example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G24gM1Czoo

That's a 2d plasma whereas the one in your video was probably 3d. The plasma is overlaid onto another video using a transparency (alpha) mask. Here's an example using that youtube video:


[Attachment 48604 - Click to enlarge]

At the upper left is the youtube plasma video. At the upper right I created an alpha mask from the ~saturation of the pixels in the plasma -- ie the white parts of the mask are the most saturated pixels, black the least saturated (you could use any property of the video or even some other video). On the lower left is a background video onto which the plasma is going to be overlaid. At the bottom right is the final result of overlaying the plasma onto the background via the alpha mask.

[nitestar95]

Thanks! This answered my question. I think I've got it. Searched and found all sorts of things similar to what I want on youtube, but now I know where to start. And yes, it seems like After Effects will be what I want to use. I will have to check to see whether I can go the monthly lease plan for only a while instead of buying the whole package.

Looks like I'll be plenty busy learning a new program.

Alex