Adobe After Effects & Compositing

The compositing stage using Adobe After Effects was quite simple as very little masking was required. I simply imported the Lightwave rendered targa sequence into After Effects so that the flight path was within the top left region of the frame amongst the blue sky and distant mountain range. I then decided that a shadow animated and parented to the UFO would add depth and would thus make the UFO more realistic.

After doing this I learnt that I could have created a plane in Maya and extruded it to create a hilly region such as the one depicted in the original footage. I could have animated the UFO with a directional light present so that a shadow would be cast on the plane. I could then select both the UFO and the plane and make them transparent so only the shadow would be rendered. This would have created a more convincing shadow. However I think the shadow I created in Photoshop and animated in Adobe After Effects was decent enough to create the illusion of depth.

I could have even included a dust layer to suggest surface displacement caused by the UFO. This perhaps would have added an extra element of realism and detail which could have enhanced the animation.