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Last Saturday, I’ve saw my ex-girlfriend Manu (I still love her) in a club with her new boyfriend.  The same night, I dreamt about her; in my dream (it was a nightmare), Manu had transformed into a monster, like those in one of my favorite TV shows, Stargate SG1. She was transformed into a Goa'uld!

This tutorial is about recreating what I saw in my nightmare (I hope that you’ll forgive me, baby…)

Note: You'll AE 6.0 to open the project files, but you can complete the project with an older version

Instructions

1. Create a new comp ( 320x240, 5 sec long and 24 fps)
2. Import your picture on it. Girls, you may use photography of your ex. Scale the picture to your comp size
3. Create a new black solid which is the same size your comp size. Make sure this solid is above the picture.
4. Apply Vector Paint to this solid (Effect > Vector Paint).  Set the playback mode to "all strokes" and composite paint to "only".  The object is to only paint the eyes of Manu white. Remember, ONLY THE EYES.
5. Add a Gaussian blur on the solid, amount: 10, then set the layer mode to add.
6. Now, go to 1:09 in the timeline and set a keyframe for opacity of the solid layer to 0%. Go to 2:06 and set another key to 100%.  Go to 2:18 and set it key to 0%.

Now you can save and preview the result. If you use a movie, you need to use expressions like the Adobe standard script "Position", to make your paint follow the eyes of your actor. If you don’t know a lot about expressions, like me, paint each frame of your movie with the paint mode set to “current stroke”.

It isn't finished yet. In my nightmare, she tried to kill me (Why, baby???) with a beam.  Let’s create the beam.

1. In your timeline go 2:06 and create another solid, same as your comp size, and call it “beam”.
2. Apply the Beam effect  (Effect > Render > Beam). Apply these settings:
   - Start point: choose the position of the left eye
   - End point: 320x200
   - Color: a bright blue or a bright green
   - Time: 0%. We will set keyframes after for this property to animate our beam.
   - Make sure that composite on original box is not checked!
3. At 2:06 in the timeline set a key for Time.
4. Go 4 frames forward and set another keyframe to 100%
5. Add a fast blur on layer beam, amount 7.4
6. Go back to 2:06 and duplicate layer beam. Call it beam2. In this layer, set the start point of the beam effect to the other eye of your actor.

That is the end of the tutorial! I hope you learned about how to use vector paint and the beam effect.