Adding Explosions and Muzzleflashes to Your Videos

Ever notice that a gunfight looks super lame if there are no flashes at the end of the gun ?
In this Instructable I, Tharl, will show you how.....for free!

Read on to find out!

Step 1: Obtaining Footage

You can get all sorts of stock footage from various 'sites but www.detonationfilms.com has the best.
Upon entering the site, you need to select "Stock Footage" scroll down a bit and you will find some muzzle flash footage. The free footage is for pistols and single shot guns, while the smg footage is for machine guns. You have to buy the big pack of smg flashes, but there is a much smaller free package.

Step 2: Layer Your Footage

Use the chroma key tool to remove the black background. Adjust the intensity and threshold to rmove any offending black. You should get something like this....

Step 3: Posistion

Now you gotta set the flash over the gun and size it to proper proportions. Use any motion tracking or pan tools to set the size of the flash. You may need to throw in a coupla key frames to move the flash with the gun.

Step 4: Finished Flash

Here is a Short video I did for a test. However you may need to string multiple flash for a machine gun. ( sorry the pic wont go away )

short test.avi
Download

Step 5: Explosions and More

For explosions: same website, same method. Just make sure you don't have a letterbox effect in the middle of the screen.. here is another test... ( sorry the pic wont go away!)