LO4: Applying visual effects and transitions

Matt created the visual effects in after effects

The Lazer gun (the same method was done for both scenes with the laser gun):

First of I put the clip, that I wanted to put the laser gun onto, into a new composition in Adobe After Effects. The next step that I did was create a new white solid and move to the frame where I wanted the laser to start and create a mask for the white solid which was just on the edge of the laser gun. 

I then used keyframes for the mask path, I stretched out the mask over the next few frames so it looked like the laser beam was travelling through the air. 

I then put a black solid in between the original clip and the beam, I did this so I could pre-compose this layer and then put it into another layer with the original clip on it and use the blending mode screen and edit the original clip and the background clip separately.

I then made multiple layers of the beam in its comp and feathered each one differently so that it looked like it glowed with the outside being less dense and more seethrough and the centre being bright like a laser should look like. 

I then used colour balance to change the level of blue in the laser beam so that it looked like a blue laser beam.

I then created my own muzzle flash as in a new composition I did a similar thing to the beam where I created a muzzle flash looking shape using a mask on a white solid and lined it up by having the original clip in the background.

I then put a black solid in to block out the original clip, again so I can put it in the main comp. I made the muzzle flash glow like I did with the beam, make multiple layers and feather each one differently.

I then put this in the main comp and used the blending mode screen so you could see the clip of John shooting the murder victim. I then added some glow in areas by duplicating the background video and masking it to only be in areas that would experience a glow from the blast

and then change the blending mode to add

then added a tint effect and changed it to a blue colour and feathered it till it looked like a glow from the laser

I finally feathered it out.

this will only be there for the muzzle flash. I added a glow around the laser by creating a white solid and masking it with the ellipse tool to be around the laser beam.

and keyframing scale and the location so that the elipce followed the beam

 I then changed opacity and duplicated this multiple times and adding different feathers to each to add a glow to look like it was a glow coming off the beam.

Then I added a tint to make it glow blue.

The glitch:

First of all, I used a white solid over the main clip and then added fractal noise to it and made the fractal type dynamic and noise type block.

I then scaled the width so it was really stretched out

I made it so evolution changed over time using keyframes,

then I precomposed the layer. I used a displacement map on the original clip so that it moved like the fractal noise does, making it look like it was glitching out

 I then used the 3D glasses effect to create the multicolour look.

Title:

For the title, I took a handwritten-looking font 

and traced over it with a pen tool and generated a stroke which creates the handwriting where I drew with a pen and allows me to edit it better than I could do with text.

This allows me to change where the handwriting starts and ends, this is useful as I can then use keyframes to change the end over time so that it comes onto the screen like handwriting.

I did the line through the fifteenth with the same technique, by just drawing a line with the pen tool and changing where the end is.