Assignment 1 Progressive Work - Magic Portal

Tutorial Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZhSXn8v5F0
The tutorial teaches how to create a "walk through wall" effect but I have enhanced it by creating a "magic portal".
Inspiration for "magic portal" from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNGgLpx46uA
I think that this effect is fun and I have enjoyed doing this effect!
*For this effect, do not film the foot.

Steps (summary of tutorial):

1. Masking
-Using the 'Pen Tool', mask out the person at the frame where he/she starts to "disappear".
(For my project, I have to mask myself out in the footage.)

2. Adjust the 'Mask Feather' to "3" pixels.
-Press "mm" to show Mask Feather.

3. Set keyframe by clicking on the "stopwatch" beside 'Mask Path'.

4. Apply radial blur effect (Effects> Blur & Sharpen> Radial Blur) and change type to "Zoom".

5. Set keyframe by clicking on the "stopwatch" beside 'Amount' (press uu to show Amount).
(make sure in either first or last frame)
-Go to the first frame, change 'Amount' to "0".
-Go to the last frame, change 'Amount' to "55".

6. Set keyframe also for the 'Mask Expansion' at first frame and change the 'Mask Expansion' to a negative value at the last frame so that the person will totally disappear. (For my project, i have changed it to -45)

As I have mention above, I have also create a "magic portal" for enhancement. I got the inspiration from a youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNGgLpx46uA). I actually have a rough idea of how to create the "magic portal", tried it out and it works!

Steps:

1. Firstly, create a new solid (layer> new> solid)
-For the color of the "magic portal", I thought that yellow would be nice but in the end I find that it is more suitable to have it in white.

2. Resize the solid to the size of a door.

3. Turn on the 3D layer.

4. Change the 'Y rotation' to have the same angle as the camera so that it will look like it is on the wall. (Shortcut key for rotation, "r")

5. The "magic portal" is now covering me so in order to have the "magic portal" on the wall with me (myself, in the footage) facing it, I have duplicated another footage named as "Me 3" and place the "magic portal" layer below it.

6. Mask myself out for the layer "Me 3" and change the 'Mask Feather' to "3" pixels so that it can blend well.

7. In order to have my "magic portal" looking more natural and realistic, I added a box blur effect
(Effect> Blur & Sharpen> Box Blur) and used a value of "30" for the 'Blur Radius'.

8. Motion tracking (steps 9 - 10 below)
-The footage is a little shaky in the last few frames so I have done motion tracking to get the "magic portal" to look like it is on the wall and following the camera movement.

9. Create a null object (Layer> New> Null Object)

10. Select the footage, "BG" layer, and track motion
-Enable motion tracking also for the 'Rotation'

11. Pick 2 good track points, analyze forward and apply to the 'Null Object' (Edit Target).