In the end I had to do the muzzle flash for Kane's rifle. Ruth had said she was going to get someone else to do it, but nothing ever came of that.
My original test was very amateurish looking. I realised that more than an actual flash itself, I needed smoke.
Over the previous summer, I had begun playing around with the free visual effects software Blender. So I fired it up for the first time in a while and created the smoke for the gun.
Then, combined with a slight flash, I composited this into the final shot. I had to cut around Kane's leg shot by shot, in order to give the illusion that the smoke was behind it. I think it's small details like that which really sell it as part of the scene. I also added a mask which brightened his leg for a few frames, to sell the flash.
Overall I'm very happy with how this shot turned out.
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