Difficulties with moving a solid frame-by-frame over footage

[southwestform]

I'm using footage of a kid swinging a toy light saber around and I am simply trying to add a glowing solid on top of it, and map it the movement. I have been going frame-by-frame through the footage and simply moving the solid so that it covers the toy saber on each and every frame.

1. I am having some difficult seeing where to move the solid so it matches the toy underneath. What is the best way to handle this? Temporarily lower the opacity of the solid? If so, where do I do this?

2. As I adjust the the angle of the solid by dragging on either the top of bottom crosshair (not sure what it is called?) it changes the size of the light saber I am making. Is there a way to do what i am doing while keeping the size of the solid fixed so it can not get longer or shorter?

3. I spent a bit of time moving the solid on each frame so that it covers the toy, though when I go back and either scrub through the timeline or hit spacebar the solid is not moving along with the toy. What did I do wrong?

4. Is there an easier way of doing this instead of moving the solid on each and every frame?

Thanks for any help.

[Mike_Abbott]

What did I do wrong?

Can I be brutally honest? You didn't learn the basics of Ae before tackling a moderately complex job.

4. Is there an easier way of doing this instead of moving the solid on each and every frame?

Yes - much easier, but it requires some learning:

Use the point tracker to track the 'tip end' of the toy saber.

Use the point tracker to track the 'hand end' of the toy saber.

Create a black solid above your footage and apply the beam effect to it.

Adjust the beam effect to create a suitable light saber effect.

Set the solid to 'add' blend mode.

Create and expression linking the 'tip end' track point to one end of the beam.

Create and expression linking the 'hand end' track point to the other end of the beam.

They didn't make star wars in a day ; )

[P.M.B]

southwestform  wrote

lower the opacity of the solid? If so, where do I do this?

Hire someone to do it for you.  There are people who spend a great deal of time learning how to use this software with the hopes of someday being able to get some return on all that time & effort that they invested.  And then here you come asking how to lower the opacity of a solid.

Most of the learning sites offer a free 30 day trial...follow a god dang introductory course on after effects, would you?! SHeesh

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi southwestform,

Are you still facing this problem? If not, let us know how you solved it. If so, please let us know so we can assist you further.

Thanks,

Kevin