How to do effects with after effects cs5? Such as lightning

[Darthvix]

Can someone do a video of themselves, then edit it from start to finish, from making the lightning, to hand tracking so the lightning goes where the hand does, and so on? Im having a terrible time lol, and i watched over 20 tutorials, but they are all pieced, none full.

[Luke S.]

Master durangus is our resident efx pro.  Not sure if he's ever tackeled lightning like you're taking about.  He'd be the one I'd start with though.  ;)

[Darthvix]

what else is there other then lightning? Like something like this

[Luke S.]

The only thing I know he's done is more simple like seen on our sigs.  That's more of a simple frame animation.  I'm guessing MD would know though.  He's pretty knowledgable with efx.

[Darthvix]

Track motion is what wont work, i set it to track a hand, it goes all over the place, a head, no workie lol, idk dont think it can be done maybe

[SgtBatten]

it certainly can be done using tracking.

or even manually keying in the lighting.

I suggest you check out Video Copilot. i had a quick look, some good lightning vids but no tuts. But there are lots of tuts on tracking

[Master Durangus]

Luke, thanks for the support :).

Darth Vix, what I use to make lightning, as you said, is the effects in AE. AE actually has its own lightning plug-in built into it that works wonders with the system, you just have to get the frames keyframed properly and the settings right. I would recommend Creative Cow or this man's website for a bunch of GREAT tutorials on using AE. I'd start from the beginning, he'll explain things like keying and keyframing and everything, and then look to specific effects. Video Copilot is your friend ;).

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

AE is a vastly complicated program, more so than Photoshop. The best thing to do with it is get some practice footage (Kramer provides free footage on Video Copilot) and read, learn and practice the techniques. With lightning, same thing. Have a steady camera film someone with their hand out making the "lightning" then practice creating it using the plugin. There are TONS of tutorials on how to use the plugin online, but if you have any problems finding one (Google is also your friend ;) ) feel free to send me a PM and I can send you some links.

[Darthvix]

See, here
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13/capturenub.png/

See the beginning of the lightning? its a line, that looks terribly fake lol, is there a way to manipulate that anyway? It looks better, now all i need is some lightning noise.

[Rhyen Skytracker]

A lot of the tracking has to do with how you film the video.  For example, you need to have the object that is being tracked a different contrast.  If you have a black glove that you want to track then around the gloove will need to be toward a white color.  You must consider what effect you want and how you need to film it to achieve that effect.  It is not as simple as just take a camera, film and then add the effect.  You need to consider what colors the people are wearing, what type of lighting there is and what colors are in the back/foregrounds.