Focus On Making A Simulated Microscope Field of View

Focus On Making A Simulated Microscope Field of View

on Jul 26th 2010 with 19 comments
Tutorial Details
Download Source Files

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

I created this Microscope’s Field of View using 3 particle systems. The Base Layer is a water animation created using a fractal noise; the first level of particles is created using CC Particle World and it’s meant to look like quickly-moving bubbles. The Second Level of particles is created using Particular with a custom designed sprite, and is meant to look like a microscopic organism. The Third Set of particles are also created using Particular, and are added to mimic more floating debris. Finally, an arrow indicator is added to accurately simulate a microscope’s FOV.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .flv

File size 306MB

Additional Resources

 
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Grayson Honan is a young technology enthusiast with a background in film making. His desire to improve the quality of his films has driven him to learn After Effects. Grayson's After Effects work can be found at his Vimeo page, and his less serious work can be viewed on his Youtube Channel.  

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  • karthikveera

    Thanks.

  • jink

    final result looks great

  • Mrn87

    I like it :D

  • chris

    looks awesome.. i think a real microscope has a MUCH shallower depth of field though.. everything basically looks 2d, and when you focus up or down, you see different things

    • Ace

      If you watch the tutorial, it’s really easy to adjust this.

  • http://www.youtube.com/ianhpiratao IANH – BR

    Fantastic! Really Awesome! congrats! :)

  • http://visualfxtuts.com Topher Welsh

    Yeah the DOF thing is off… but this result looks amazing… too bad it is super hard to make the “cells” morph apart and together… you would have to get into 3d for that… but this is a really good result none the less…. also very customizable…

  • Anthony Breslin

    Fantastic FREE tut but yes would like to see some 3D integration also. Might try it in my own time.

    Great tut

  • Osvaldo_Tampico

    Man! This is really really great! Thank you so much!

  • http://www.greasypigstudios.com arvin

    Great tutorial, great final result. Mirroring what others have commented, I also am not sure that there’d be so much gentle drifting at that magnifcation… I feel like it’s either very still with intermittent really fast motion (either the bacteria wiggling or the whole scene just just pulsating quickly)… at that small magnification things just move a lot quicker.

  • Patrick

    A quality tutorial like the ones we’ve been asking for!

    While the tutorial creator didn’t have much energy in his voice, he made up for that with VERY clear instructions and he spoke extremely well, so it was extremely easy to watch and follow. The effect is pretty outstanding on its own, and it also opens up a whole range of things. People are already thinking of integrating 3D particles, morphing the blobs, changing the DOF to more accurately emulate a microscope effect etc. it’s fantastic!

    Keep this up and you’ll be an even more awesome site in no time.

  • Lucas

    Very very good… thanks

  • Harry

    Great Tutorial Grayson, the directions were clear and very well explained. I also love the final outcome it looks great.

    The only negative I can think of is it was maybe a bit long, but I suppose that is what you get with such good explanations.

    Keep up the good work I would love to see a more advanced tutorial from you.

  • Harry

    On a side note you could integrate a recent Video copilot tutorial to add the “Rack Focus” that is seen at the beginning when the microscope is trying to find focus.

  • Hyde Zhong

    Thanks

  • dickie

    I am wondering where to find the animation presets for fractal noise as used in this tutorial.

  • http://www.nonelite.org Vio

    Here’s my variation.

    Great tutorial!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HabcAn7eYcA

  • Javi

    God, I really love this website… So many cool tuts… This will be the first thing i’ll do with AE, so thx a lot for the tutorial!! Very usefull :D