Wikipedia defines Bullet Time as a digitally enhanced simulation of variable speed (i.e. slow motion, time-lapse…) photography used in films, broadcast advertisements and computer games. It is characterized both by its extreme transformation of time (slow enough to show normally imperceptible and un-filmable events, such as flying bullets) and space (by way of the ability of the camera angle—the audience's point-of-view—to move around the scene at a normal speed while events are slowed). The first movie credited with this effect is Blade, but it was the Matrix that really made it famous.
In this tutorial, Wes shows us how to use the built-in Shatter plugin to achieve "Bullet Time" with type or a logo.
Create a “Bullet Time” Logo Shatter Effect
Apr 22nd in Motion Graphics by Wes Kandel
Preview
RSS readers: click post title to view preview video at AETUTS.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Download
PreviewView Tutorial
RSS readers: click post title to view preview video at Aetuts+.
Instructions: Click 'View Full-screen' button (bottom right corner) to see this HD tutorial at maximum size. Click screen to pause, click again to play.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Download
TutorialRelated Posts
Keep reading with more great tutorials and articles!
Enjoy this Post?
We'd love your vote!
Plus Members
Source Files, Bonus Tutorials and
More for $9 a month for all Tuts+
sites in one subscription.
User Comments
( ADD YOURS )zak April 22nd
GREAT. thx dude
( )mehmet akif April 22nd
GREAT
( )mehmet akif April 22nd
GREAT.
( )vijay April 22nd
superb great ,thanx dude
( )Junaid April 22nd
Can someone plz give me project file of it??????????? Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
( )Ben Wotton April 26th
Dude, you are the epitome of laziness. do the tutorial!!
( )гордей April 22nd
классно!
( )спасибо за интересный урок
u April 22nd
Really impressive, thanks.
( )DX April 22nd
GR8
( )samBrown April 22nd
coolness – thanks
( )Steve Mullen April 22nd
Really like this look! Thanks!
( )Muhammad Talha Khan April 22nd
Really this is the Great site for Ae tuts
i like this site All tuts
and thanks
( )mult1 April 22nd
wow! ty!
( )Swany April 22nd
look forward to doing this one today.. woo hoo
Orlando eh? I’m live in the shitty city too, if you ever want to hang out drop me a line, I’ll pick you up in my side car and we’ll grab and icee…
Swany
( )Alexandre Broggio April 22nd
Really good, thanks.
( )David Wood April 22nd
Nice tutorial man!
( )Diego SA April 22nd
This effect is so cool… Awesome… It lets me speechless!
( )hobofan April 22nd
Nice tutorial!
I like his work, especially the “War” video
( )ev149 April 22nd
Once I reach about 2:45, the video shoots back to the start and I can’t play it. Anyone else having this problem?
( )Skellie April 22nd
Try just downloading the tutorial from the link below it.
( )CgBaran Tuts April 22nd
Thanks for this work i really need to try this
( )Yasser K. April 22nd
fabulous……there’s just no limit to what people can try to replicate what has been done by the pros in Hollywood. I’m just happy to see that there are talented people out there who can pull this off.
( )Wes C April 22nd
Hi WesK, Sweet tutorial, nice aesthetic
from WesC
( )Kai April 22nd
HEY!
I submitted a tutorial on how to do this, and they rejected it!
Cool tutorial, though
( )Kike Coronado April 22nd
the best
Thanks !!!
From Colombia
( )G April 22nd
Sick sick sick. Thanks for the tut!
( )wufeihu April 23rd
nice!
( )John April 23rd
Hi Wes,
Great tut, nice explained.
I was wondering if you could do a tut about your “War” video on your page?
I would love to know how you did that, it looks great !
( )Kevin Richards April 23rd
Looks like a lot of Trapcode Form.
http://www.trapcode.com/products_form.html
Also check out Maltaannon’s tut on creating this effect.
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/videos/redgianttv/item/11/
=)
( )Lloyd April 23rd
Maybe this comment was meant for this tutorial?
Kevin Richards April 24th
Nope. John was asking about a different video called “WAR” on Wes’s blog.
http://weskandel.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/war/
oscar April 23rd
good job, I liked a lot, thanks
( )Ghost April 23rd
Okay so the tutorial is not of the preview.
( )TMKdesigner April 23rd
Very useful, thanks
( )Ei_b3low April 23rd
hi wes kandel, i have 1 question for u..
( )screen recording of what you use??
really soft…
Wes Kandel April 26th
I used a program called ScreenFlow by Telestream.
( )William Morren April 23rd
man this is so easy, you don’t need a tutorial for that…
( )I have this for months on my website (that one day I’m going to build :p no time) check it out http://www.williammorren.be/
Elie Romano April 24th
if i’m not mistaken you are you using the twitch plugin from videocopilot.net right?
( )dotcom April 23rd
Nice tut,
( )so it’s more about shatter than the bullet time know how.
Just a few minutes would have been usefull to explain that part deeply.
Nice one anyway. I’ll try out how to do this “bullet” from here.
Lloyd April 23rd
Bullet Time is what is achieved, but I think Wes did a great job explaining the technique that gets you there.
( )elfindetodo April 23rd
WoOoOW. really nice!! thnx
( )JavasBoy April 23rd
Nice,i like.
( )Bonus April 23rd
Beautifull , i already tried my way check it and give some feedback if so…
http://www.vimeo.com/4297452
thanks
B
( )pix April 23rd
great! awesome man~
( )pablo April 23rd
Well done!!!! Thanks
( )Chris April 23rd
I feel very enlightened. Thank a lot!
( )Coffey April 23rd
Honestly, not very special.
( )Daniel April 23rd
I can’t download the tutorial =( how is this posible?
( )Lloyd April 23rd
There is a download link in case you are having trouble streaming the tutorial.
( )makbol April 24th
Great tutorial. How you do chromatic aberration?
( )Elie Romano April 24th
Very well presented tutorial.
( )Great job keep it up looking forward to seeing more from you Wes!
Charley C. April 24th
Hey Wes,
Nice tutorial. However I would like to criticize two points…
1. I would’ve liked you to go further into the bullet time aspect of what the preview showed me.
2. I feel the tutorial should be named “learning about the shatter effect” – it didn’t really cover anything about “bullet time”.
Overall though, you explained everything just fine…thanks for your contribution
( )Lloyd April 24th
[Editor Reply] I called it bullet time after Wes finished the tutorial which is why he didn’t cover it in the tutorial.
( )Brako April 24th
Damn good tutorial! Loved it
( )ck April 26th
I HAVE LEARNED SOME IN ANDREW KRAMER’S DSFX PROMO but this time more detail thaks
( )CharmerLlama April 26th
Very useful…Thanks!
( )KJ April 27th
I have downloaded the movie file but the video is jumpy. When I select play all frame is quicktime the jumpy is gone but so is my audio.
Anyone else experiencing this?
KJ
( )Lloyd April 27th
What is your machine/system/quicktime versions/setup?
( )CharmerLlama April 27th
This was great to watch, I couldn’t agree with you more about exploring these types of effects, I’ve lost literally days on shatter and never got this degree of control before. It makes a great deal of sense now, so thanks Wes.
( )udin April 27th
another great shatter plugin
but, do yo did some rotoscoping for you text
, sorry for my bad english
thanks a lot
( )Wes Kandel April 29th
Yeah I did. Good eye!
( )Josh M April 28th
Cool tut. Can’t wait to try it out when i get home! Thanks!
( )Johsonator April 30th
Thanks for the tutorial man! I used it for one of my assignments.
( )Eric At Full Sail May 1st
Nice tutorial Wes! I like how you used depth of field to help achieve the motion blur on the shattered pieces.
( )adams offthehook May 14th
Great tuts. I use mat to shatter so I control the shatter effects to what shatters first. I did tuts on the mat side on different objects…
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=offthehook2+shatter+&aq=f
( )Dave May 16th
awsome tut, meny thanx to you for explanation of this tool
( )Sean Smyth May 17th
Wow. Amazing. Thanks.
( )Samuel May 18th
GREAT TUT!!!!!!
One Question (and its making very frustrated)
Is there a way to delay the effect of the shatter, I have a stop motion picture of a guy punching but I don’t want it to shatter till he punches the screen but the shatter effect happens before the time I want it to shatter. If you or anyone could let me know that would be great, till then I will keep playing around, thanks again for the TUT
( )Samuel May 24th
holy crap i must have skipped a part of the tutorial just watching it again and u explained it, my bad. Still jaw dropping everytime i watch it.
( )Woutchi May 21st
Great tutorial. Thanx !
( )titi May 28th
Hi,
( )it’s a fool question, but where can I find the Shatter plugin.
I search in google without finding it.
There’s just tutorials about the shatter effects, but nowhere to download it …
Thanks
Lloyd May 28th
Shatter is a built-in plugin to After Effects. If you don’t have it you might want to try re-installing.
( )titi May 28th
ok,
for the moment, I have the trial version, maybe it’s not in this version? It’s surprising …
Thanks
Esteban May 31st
de la puta mare
( )me guio por los procedimientos, aunque quisiera que los tutoriales tambien sean en castellano para la gente latina como
ak June 1st
im getting this error when I try to preview when the tutorial guy first tells you to preview it. this is my first day using after effects and its a good tutorial.
ram preview error “ram preview needs 2 or more frames for playback”
( )titi June 4th
Hi,
( )when I follow this (great) tutorial, I have a little problem :
my “particles” made with the shatter effects are not completely filled : they fade : they are not solid like yours.
Do you see what I mean ?
I suppose there’s a parameter to specify it, but in Physics or other : I don’t see.
Thanks for your help
Lloyd June 4th
Try checking the visibility section. Also made sure your custom particle is at full opacity.
( )titi June 4th
my opacity is 1 ( and I can just put between 0 and 1), so it’s not this
Bernardo June 15th
Hey man, im new to after effects, but knowing illustrator and photoshop and because of the way u explain things, im starting to learn, thnx i really apreciate it =D.
( )geoff July 3rd
great tut!
one question:
how is it possible to ’sandwich’ a text layer in between shatter particles, like in the preview.
thanks
( )GreenStar July 28th
As I type this, I am saving my try at this. It’s going to be used for an intro to a video blog series I am doing on an MMA site. THANK YOU for this tut + the other tuts on this site. I’m just getting into AE, but man it looks awesome.
( )Konrad August 24th
Hey, i have a problem.
( )You typed a text, i used an image. But it’s explode only in area of image (it’s smaller than composition size). How I can change it?
tvandang September 10th
EXCELLENT TUTORIALS!!! SO EASY TO FOLLOW AND UNDERSTAND. I WANT MORE LIKE THESE!!!!
( )benjamin September 21st
HI ! And thanks for that tutorial and all the others…
I would like to discuss aboute the fact that they seems to be no way to link a force Force param to a sound spectrum.
I mean, the shatter just do not render if you set it that way…
At a T time if you set a value manually at 5 for exemple, the force will be applyed, but if you use expression to link to your sound channel amplitude and make it have a similar value, the shatter do not explode ..
why ?
anybody has fixed it ???
Thank you very much, you’re makin my day, everyday
( )rks November 1st
hmmm…. too old for me, i watch this technique a year earlier in andrew kramer designer sound fx tutorial
( )