I want to create muzzle flashes in blender with a video file that contains the muzzle flash. There is a tutorial that shows how to make a muzzle flash but it is using a still image. I tried to import it as a plane but the video doesn’t show on the plane just a black surface. Is there anyway I can use camera tracking with a muzzle flash video in blender? If so please do step by step because I’m not very good at blender yet.
yes, but it depends on what your muzzle flash is, usually its a flash on black background which is usually SCREENED over the footage in final cut or after effects. You could track but i don’t think you can view the movie plane in realtime and also i don’t think this movie plane works in cycles.
you could just create a muzzle flash using the smoke and fire sim or in cycles create the muzzle flash shape and add a emitting volume material.
Responding also to see if using a movie plane in cycles is achievable.
If the elements are already created, there’s no need to re-create them from scratch. That would only be required if the stuff that you can get your hands on do not meet your needs.
Assuming that the muzzle flash image sequence you’ve got has an alpha channel, then the easiest thing to do would be to use the wonderful “import images as planes” addon. That will enable you to control transparency and easily make all sorts of adjustments.
Black image means either wrong shading options (GLSL + textured solid to see it realtime in the 3d viewport) or incorrect material & texture settings (e.g. z-transparency not activated, data type set to single image instead of image sequence etc).