Testing: Flying

 My first test was trying to make myself fly. For this I watched Tara Arts video:

After Effects TUTORIALS : How to Fly Like Man of Steel! at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1V3Ssi4XOo Although this video is based on flying like Superman, the same rules apply for Thor (other than having the hammer in the air when setting off) so I thought it was worth a look. I found this video guide extremely useful, and would advise it to anyone as it is very easy and clear to follow, do however ensure you watch it prior to filming, as you will have to shoot backplates and other useful hints can be made full advantage of. 

What I did was, firstly, get the backplate footage (a Jpeg would suffice, but when movement is in the background, such as trees moving, footage works better) to be behind/below the other layers. Then, when I was in the air, I duplicated the layer and right clicked it, went to time; and freeze frame. I then deleted the footage prior to this point, and then cut around my shape with the pen tool, and enabled motion blur (which appears on the bottom right hand corner above the layer names in after effects). I then did a simple Position keyframe animation to shoot me off-screen. Having the backplate allows the other footage when I am on screen that is unwanted (such as landing after the jump) to be deleted while the footage still has a background.

My first test can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW__lDIQwko