In this tutorial, we’re going to take a look at how to create a very basic “meteor” fireball effect and composite it into our shot. We’ll take a look at some basic compositing techniques such as fake shading, shadows, reflections, and other fine details that make the effect look more natural and dynamic. This is my first vfx tutorial so things may be kind of lacking, but feel free to tell me how I did in the comments below!

Resources

Videezy
Cloudlet Image from Video Copilot (Download the Project File)
Download InstaFilm Tools from CreativeDojo
Optical Flares from Video Copilot
Action Essentials 2 from Video Copilot
Trapcode Particular from Red Giant

Preview Video

Tips & Recommendations

Carefully select the flame elements, the more dynamic and lively the better. I’d also suggest using a rock texture and composite it with your fireball flames. Using the Roughen Edges effect will give you a more natural bumpy rock for your scene. By applying a glow, setting the colors to a hot red and messing with the threshold/blending modes, you can achieve a “molted lava” look for your rock based on the cracks.

Meteors are hot, by adding heat wave distortion you can easily add more realism to your shot and also distort any of the imperfections with your asteroid. It’s a great way to get a better look while hiding all the junk you didn’t do so well with. Additionally, enabling motion blur will make it more convincing and will also hide some imperfections.

Lastly, I’d recommend duplicating the Particular layer, change the particle type, and create flying sparks with them to simulate falling ashes/flames from the falling meteor. Think Michael Bay and Transformers. You may have to play around with the velocities and physics a little.

Conclusion

So that’s pretty much it guys, experiment and play around with the effect to achieve some really cool vfx work. If you create anything cool, show me down below. I hope to do more sophisticated vfx tutorials in the future, so stay tuned!

If you guys have any particular request, let me know in the comments down below. Also let me know how I’m doing with these types of tutorials, love to hear your feedback! Have a nice day folks.