Points of Light Video Effect [closed]

Question

To say I'm a novice video editor would be generous. I'm tasked with a product demo that needs the classic "Million Points of Light" video effect.

The layout would be an empty world map surrounded by 6-10 human portraits. Each portrait would transform into (or generate) an animated glowing light that moves from the portrait to its respective region of the world and shrinks to a small point. Then millions of light points would bloom around the world to produce something similar to the classic Facebook map.

Any specific guidance on a workflow and tool set to best achieve this effect or something similar would be welcomed. Is this too advanced for laymen to put together from scratch in a day or so? I am familiar with Adobe Premiere and have access to After Effects.

Answer 1

I think this is rather a job for some 3D modeling SW and it needs more advanced knowledge - if you do not intend to animate it frame by frame in any graphics editor.

Ok, I could imagine to create something in Inkscape (I do not have Adobe), but as I said, you would have to create every frame (or every second frame) to get a fluent animation. You would have to export all the frames as images and then load them in Premiere (I already did something similar with Inkscape and Pinnacle Studio HD).

So I would use some 3D modeler - the glowing map would be relatively easy also in free apps like Anim8or, but the transformation of the faces and the glowing tracks ... hmm, this would be more complicated.

I would ask someone who can work with Blender or with some commercial apps like Cinema 4D, 3DS Max or maybe Maya.