Nerf gun shenanigans

I was inspired by a recent Video Copilot sample of various science fiction weapon effects, so I made my own (using their Optical Flares plug in, among other things).

After effects, Optical Flares, Nerf gun. That's about it. The background is an old render of a reasonably crappy corridor I made a bazillion years ago. Enjoy.

Teleportation effects, as you do

I've been screwing around in Final Cut again. This time, I've whipped up a fairly craptacular Star Trek-style teleporter effect. Ingredients:

• Scrunched up tin-foil waved in front of the camera to create shiny particles
• Footage of myself wandering around the back yard like an idiot, hoping the neighbours don't look over the fence
• A mask of my shape, used to isolate the shiny particles to only appear where I'm standing
• A sound effect created in GarageBand by layering all sorts of instruments and pitchbending them in directions they don't want to be bent
• An insert shot of my iPhone with a Star Trek LCARS graphic on it, with some beepy sound effects

I had plans to make more of these. We'll see. For now, enjoy.

(Also, I'm aware that the iPhone's interface appears when I press the buttons. It was just an image stored in my gallery. Next time, I'll motion track a screen replacement.)