hi, forumers.
would anyone know of any plugin/footage/special effect simulating either a shooting star/comet or just a static bright star? this is for a Christmas scene simulation in a video. thanks.

Aram,
imovie has a built in effect like this. Not sure if your a mac person
but ive used this star on many dvd's ive dont you can custimize it to.

hope this helps
shawn

thanks for the reply, Shawn. yes, i'm a mac guy and i mostly use imovie. which plugin did you mean? nothing comes to mind apart from "fairy dust". is that a 3rd party plugin?

p.s. i'm using imovie hd 5.

Motion can do all sorts of things like this. But you would need to learn how to use the software first...

thanks, but i mean something i can apply straight away. for example, a well-drawn animated gif, which i would insert into the footage through the picture-in-picture plugin.

Couldn't you just use a photo with an alpha channel? Not sure legalities, but NASA offers a lot of their stuff for free I think.

Comets don't really move. They almost look like a photo in the sky, so why not just use one. If anything just add a keyframable glow around it so the glow has a slow 'pulse' to give it some life, but even in real life they don't do that. I've seen many in my 8" reflector telescope and I feel like it's a photo.

Or, heck, just use one of those countless lens flares in most NLE packages. Just tweak it 'till it looks right.

Scott

thank you, Scott, for the ideas. will look into all of them.