How to make circle highlights over subjects??

[ShugPro Digital Studio]

I've been searching but can't find if this has been discussed here.

I need to highlight multiple subjects in a moving video clip. Basically need to sort of grey out the video and have circles over people's faces that show the video without the grey. Same kind of effect used for highlighting UFOs in the sky or a robber in a video clip like they show on TV news sometimes. I can do it in Final Cut Pro by moving around a layer of grey with a circle hole in it, but i need to highlight more than one subject, and using that method, each layer adds to the grey and the background gets to dark. i know i can get much better results out of AE (cs4)

i think i need to do something with a solid color layer and the circle tool, or a circular mask, but i'm not sure what i need to do, or the right steps to do it.

can anyone point me to a tutorial or give me a basic overview of what i need to be doing and i can figure it out from there.

thanks in advance.

 

[brinks]

Just duplicate your video layer. Hide the top layer and then on the bottom layer play with the hue/saturation or any other color correction filters to achieve the desired look. Then turn the top layer back on and draw an oval mask over the area you want in the highlighted area. Then key frame the mask position to animate it.
This is just one way to go about it. Good luck!

 

[Justyn]

Cheers. Very helpful and totally intuitive after I did it.... thanks