I am trying to create a transition from one scene to the next. The first scene will end with a still image of that scene. I want to use a circular mask and have it shrink to about 20%. I have another scene which is a picture with a moving ball. I would like the still image to appear as if it is on the ball and track the ball as it moves throughout the second scene. I would like to be able to repeat this effect several times for each clip in my movie. Does anyone have any suggestions. I would really appreciate your help. Please, I am a newbie so anything that you might suggest would be useful. Thanks.
This certainly is not a newbie-type of effect. You need to understand keyframes for scale and position and to take an extensive course in how to use the Motion Tracker. And that's assuming your footage of the ball was shot well enough to use the Tracker on it successfully.
Without the Tracker, you will have to set position keyframes on every frame.
Get all three books by Trish and Chris Meyer and do the tutorials on Motion Tracking.
bogiesan