Animate church bells

[Divine_fantasy6C19]

I've got this static video clip of motionless church bells.  I'd like to animate the bells to appear that they are swinging.  Please see attached frame grab.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

When the bells swing the perspective will change so your only real option would be to recreate the bells in a 3D app, match the camera angle, match the lighting and look, paint out the existing bells, render the new ones, then assemble a composite in After Effects. If the camera is locked down and you are an experienced AE and 3D artist then the project will probably take a couple of hours. If the camera is moving and you are just getting started it could easily take you a week to learn what you need to know, run some tests and make things work.

[Divine_fantasy6C19]

Painting out the existing bells with the stamp tool done works well. As for the replacement, I've been testing stock clips of bells in motion, cutting them out and replacing them.   If this looks believable, then I plan to source some real bells and shoot them against green screen.     

[dj.summitt]

Conversely, if you want a stylized look you can go to Photoshop and cut out the bells on to a separate layer. Then use the clone stamp to create a clean plate. Once you bring the layered PSD into AE you can set your anchor point to the top of the bells. Turn the layer in to a 3D layer then keyframe rotation as you wish. This will not look real AT ALL. Rick's method is the only way to get it looking realistic. This will be stylized (and probably not great) but it technically meets the criteria.