Episode 012 - Burst into Flames and the Soul Eating Demon

Brian Brushwood of Scam School drops by, but Josh and Tim are not impressed by his usual bag of tricks. So Brian brings out his A-Game.

Episode Run-time: 13:03

Burning Man Effect
In this episode Ryan uses fire assets from Action Essentials 2 by VideoCopilot.net. However, if you prefer to use fire assets readily available, you can find some for free on detonationfilms.com.
 * Difficulty: Hard
 * Needs:
 * After Effects or Editing software
 * Fire assets
 * Cost: $0

"It's best to know which fire asset you're going to use before you shoot. That way you can match the angle and come up with the most convincing effect possible." You may need to go frame-by-frame and reposition the fire depending on how much the actor moves.
 * 1) Import your footage into your editing suite and add your fire asset above the footage of your actor.
 * 2) Size and position the fire above your actor. If you choose to use Action Essentials 2, the footage is already pre-keyed, but depending on where you get your fire asset you may need to change the blending mode to screen or multiply.
 * 3) Track your footage.
 * 4) *In After Effects, create a null object (Windows: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Y; Mac OS X: Command+Option+Shift+Y)
 * 5) *Open your tracking menu. Click "Track Motion" and select a part of your footage where there is high contrast, e.g. your actor's hair line.
 * 6) *Once your track is complete, parent the footage of the fire to your null object.
 * 7) Open your pen tool and mask out areas where needed.
 * 8) To really sell the effect:
 * 9) *Duplicate the footage of your actor (Command/Ctrl+D) and lighten it by changing its
 * 10) *Mask around the area of their face where the fire should be effecting.
 * 11) *Open the opacity dialog for your duplicate layer (click the layer and press 'o'). Set a key frame and move forward a couple of frames. Change the opacity and repeat throughout the footage.

Growing/Floating Effect
This effect, as Ryan says is incredibly easy to pull off, just like the Giant Effect.
 * Difficulty: Easy
 * Needs:
 * A short table or ladder, as long as it is safe and stable to stand on
 * Cost: $0
 * 1) Position your camera in front of your table at a low angle.
 * 2) Have your actor squat on the table and slowly rise up. Pan the camera up to follow the actor as they rise.
 * 3) Repeat this but with the camera at a high angle behind the actor as they rise before another actor in front of them.

Soul Sucking Effect
For this example, Ryan shot his footage hand-held to add realism to the shot. To make the energy particles look like they'[re being sucked into the soul sucker's hand, simply follow steps 2,3 and 8 and invert the particle effect so that rather than exploding, the particles are gathering to one spot.
 * Difficulty: HARD
 * Needs:
 * Adobe After Effects
 * Cost: $0
 * 1) Import your footage into After Effects, start a new sequence and create a new null object.
 * 2) Motion track your actor's chest (or any other part of their body) since that's where their soul will come out from.
 * 3) Apply your tracking data to the null object.
 * 4) *Note: By applying your tracking data to a null object, you can save time if you need other objects to follow the same tracking data.
 * 5) Take a still frame of your footage where your actor's face is visible. Create a mask around their face and position it where you want their soul to be sucked out.
 * 6) Add a color correction to give it a more ghostly look. Hue and Saturation adjustment should work.
 * 7) Add the Bulge effect on to the still of your actor's face. Center the effect on your actor's nose and raise the bulge height.  As your actor moves, raise and lower the height to match his movement.  Make sure to set a key frame for every adjustment you make to the bulge height.
 * 8) Duplicate the face layer and chang the blending mode to add.
 * 9) Increase the size of the face layer and adjust the mask to make it look like it's trailing away from the lower layer. Decreases the opacity of this duplicate layer to 85 percent.
 * 10) Create a black solid (Ctrl+Y/Command+Y) and add the CC Particle World effect to it.
 * 11) *Turn off the grid on CC Particle World.
 * 12) *Set the birth rate to 1.8 and the longevity to 1.32
 * 13) *Under Physics, set the animation to Direction Axis, the velocity to 10.7 and the inherit velocity to 7.
 * 14) *Under Particle, change the particle to Faded Sphere and the color to whatever you prefer.
 * 15) Parent the black solid to the null object containing your tracking data.

Trivia

 * During the demon effect, Brian claims that he is Shiva, "Goddess of Death." While Shiva is considered male, and is the creator and destroyer in Hinduism, Brian may be referring to the Ice guardian, Shiva from the Final Fantasy series.  However, it is ironic that his hair would be on fire since Shiva uses ice magic.
 * In this episode's installment of Tim's "Warning-Warned," he warns that watching "Twilight" too many times can be detrimental to men's health.

Notable Quotes
"''I'll barbeque your spirit, man, and eat it with a nice red wine!" ''-Brian

"He wants to use my soul for fine dining!" -Josh

"Leave his soul alone!" -Tim

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