Preview

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Similar to Andrew Kramer’s tutorial, this one shows how to use a Difference Matte to roto out an actor and then composite various HD elements in front AND behind an actor to make the ground smashing effect seen in movies such as Hancock and games such as Crackdown.

Preview

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Requirements

• Images You can download the photos of the door and the corridor.
• Action Movie Essentials The clips used was from the the first volume. But you can download the most recent package here.

Overview

• Core Training Value: Setting up a 3d corridor from still images. Simulating a flaming explosion by animating the doors, shattering the glass, and creating displacement “heat”.
• Difficulty: Intermediate

Preview

Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

Tutorial

Requirements

• Mocha for After Effect You can visit the product page here.

You will also need some footage of a face. Plus Members have direct access to the footage used in this tutorial. Want the AE Project Files and assets for this tutorial and all of the other tutorials on Aetuts+? Join Ae Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

Tutorial

Preview

Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

Tutorial

Preview

Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

Tutorial

STEP 1:

First of all open After Effects CS3. Now Import the image sequence “DSC_2014” which is actually an HD footage. Drag it to the comp. I have renamed this layer as “My Hand”.

STEP 2:

In the same way go to Composition>Composition Settings and there rename the composition as the “Final”.

Step 3:

Now select the layer “My Hand” and press Ctrl+D to make a duplicate layer of it as “My Hand 2”. It can be done alternatively by going to Edit>Duplicate also.

Step 4:

Now Select the layer “My Hand 2” and make a mask around the hand with the pen tool as shown in the figure. Give some feather, say 35.

Step 5:

Now the time is for some roto work. Animate the mask points of “My Hand 2” layer in such a way that it must cover only the palm area throughout the timeline. It should be done with a great concentration. Below are some screen shots of different frames. I dedicated my 1 Hr for this roto work.

Step 6:

Now, having selected the layer “My Hand 2”, go to Effect>Channel>Invert and apply this effect. It will look something like this.

Step 7:

Having selected the same layer “My Hand 2”, apply a Hue & Saturation and a Levels effects on it. Keep the Master Hue value as 157 for the Hue & Saturation and keep the Input Black-0, Input White-175, Gamma- 1 and leave rest of the values as same as default.

Step 8:

Make another new composition as “Heat Distortion Map”. Now copy the layer “My Hand 2’ from the “Final” comp and paste it into the new “Heat Distortion Map” comp.

Step 9:

Apply a “Gaussian Blur” on this layer with the blur value of “167.1’ in the vertical direction. Also apply a “Fractal Noise” effect too with the given values shown in the figure

Step 10:

This time you can increase the mask feather value of the layer to 63.

Step 11:

I animated two things in the Fractal Noise effect- Offset Turbulence and Evolution. You can see the values in the given figure. However you are independent to play with the values. But you have to keep it in the mind to animate the offset turbulence value from down to upwards.

Step 12:

Now import the “Heat Distortion Map” comp into the main “Final” comp. Turn this layer off as shown in the figure.

Step 13:

Make a new adjustment layer on the top of all layers, and apply a “Displacement” effect on it.

Step 14:

Pick the “Heat Distortion Map” layer as the Displacement Map Layer in the Displacement Effect. Keep the Max Horizontal Displace value as 15 and the Max Vertical Displace value as -15. By doing so you will notice some movement in the palm area as if it is giving the effect of heat distortion.

Step 15:

Now Pick the “Heat Distortion Map” layer and put it above the “My Hand” layer. And choose the mode as “Screen” as shown in the figure. Don’t forget to make it on. You will notice that a little bit of smoke is coming out from the palm.

Step 16:

Since the smoke amount is very less and is hardly noticeable, so make a duplicate of the “Heat Distortion Map” layer by pressing Ctrl+D and choose the mode this time as “Add”. It makes the smoke more prominent.

Step 17:

To make the smoke more viable, apply a “Displacement Effects” on the duplicated “Heat Distortion Map” layer. Choose the “Heat Distortion Map” as the displacement map layer in the “Displacement Effects”. And keep the Max Horizontal Displace value as 225 and the Max Vertical Displace value as -225.

Step 18:

This looks nice. Now you can give a light flickering effect on the face of the actor. For this, make a “Medium red solid” layer by going to Layer>New>Solid and down the opacity to 50%. The value of R,G and B can be seen in the given image.

Step 19:

Pick the pen tool and make a random mask around the face. Give some feather, say 55.

Step 20:

Select the ‘Medium Red Solid’ layer and right click on it. Select “Blending Mode>Overlay”. By doing so it blends and gives a feeling like the face of the actor is hot due to the heat coming out from the palm.

Step 21:

If you want to flicker the lighting on the face, you need to animate the mask opacity of the “Medium Red solid” layer. To do so, you can choose two ways. Either you animate the mask opacity randomly or you write a “wiggle” expression. I tell you how to write a “wiggle’ expression for this task. Keep pressing Alt key on the keyboard and left click on the stopwatch before the ‘mask opacity’ option of the “Medium Red Solid” layer. This will open the expression line . Delete any existing lines and write there “wiggle(10,55) “as shown in the figure. It will now flicker the lighting on the face randomly.

Step 22:

Now everything is done. Render the footage for the final preview.

Note: Always play with values and the properties of the effects. It will be always helpful.

Preview

Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

Tutorial

Source Settings

Make sure to download The Farm (by Jonathan Gill) and The Car (by Hyperscholar) pictures to follow along.

All of the sounds at the preview were obtained for free from FreeSound

Particle Settings

Here you will find the settings to all the Particle World effects mentioned at the tutorial. Check the title at each picture to follow, also, they are in order.

FUNNEL

DUST

GREEN DUST

GRASS

DEBRIS

RAIN

Preview

Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

Tutorial

Source Settings

Make sure to download The Farm (by Jonathan Gill) and The Car (by Hyperscholar) pictures to follow along.

All of the sounds at the preview were obtained for free from FreeSound

Particle Settings

Here you will find the settings to all the Particle World effects mentioned at the tutorial. Check the title at each picture to follow, also, they are in order.

FUNNEL

DUST

GREEN DUST

GRASS

DEBRIS

RAIN

Preview

Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

Tutorial

Preview

Want access to the full AE project files and assets for every tutorial on Aetuts+, including this one? Join Ae Plus for just $9/month. You can view the final effect preview video below.

Tutorial