Create a Burning Building VFX Shot
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
Starting with nothing more than a few still photographs, learn how to create this dynamic burning building VFX shot.
Requirements:
Adobe Photoshop (download a trial version here)
Particle Illusion (download a fully functioning demo here)
Trapcode Particular (download a trial version here)
Step 1
What we’re going to create requires some work in Photoshop. Since this is mainly an After Effects tutorial, I will explain only the basics but it should be enough to get you through it. To start you need to take a picture of a building and open it in Photoshop.
Step 2
Next you should find 2 more pictures – one with building debris in it and other with broken windows.
Drag and drop debris image into building’s composition.
Then, using rectangular marquee tool draw a rectangle around the place you want to use.
Step 3
Press the right mouse button and select Select Inverse, then hit Delete to erase all but what you need.
Change to the Move Tool and press Ctrl/Cmd+D to shut off the selection.
Now, using transform controls, align it against building’s wall (hold Ctrl/Cmd for perspective adjustments)
I did it really quickly because I have a ready version prepared so the one below is far from perfect but you should spend some time getting it to align properly.
Step 4
Now take an Eraser Tool and erase unwanted stuff so the hole blends in better.
After you’ve done it, take a black brush, set its size to around 3 pixels and lower opacity to some 80%, draw edges around the hole. Then draw some fracture lines. Change brush size to 1px if necessary.
Create a new layer, then choose a brush type with 0% hardness (feathered edges), set its size to around 30px and lower opacity to around 20%. For better blending, set Blending mode to Linear Dodge(Add). Color around the hole (soot, burn markings etc.) and use Smudge Tool to correct it.
Step 5
Here’s how you easily make a broken window.
Find a picture with a broken window in it (it can be monochrome also), then, using the same technique described above, align it with desired window and change its Blending Mode to Vivid Light. If necessary, you can color correct it. See both screenshot below.
Step 6
Go to After Effects and create a new composition. It can be whatever size you want. I went with 720p@25fps and half res. Duration too isn’t important, just go with whatever you think is better.
Step 7
Start with importing your PSD as a composition. Then drag it to your main composition. Don’t scale it down.
Since we’re going to create flames in Particle Illusion, you need a background reference image for that.
Go to Composition>Save Frame As>File… In Render Queue set the settings to JPEG. Also go to Render Settings and set Resolution to Full.
Render it.
Step 8
Open Particle Illusion.
When it’s open, double-click on that gray box left in your layer highlight and set just rendered JPEG as background.
When asked, press Yes to make the stage size same as image. Also notice the box right to the Loop icon in upper panel and change it from 120 to 500 frames so it’ll give you 20 seconds of rendered material (on 25fps)
Step 9
The element you’ll be creating in Particle Illusion is flames. You can also make smoke but I had some problems with it (alpha channel and lack of manual controls in AE) so I decided to make them using Particular.
What you need now, is to find the Flames preset in the right panel. At default it’s in the Group 2 folder. Expand it and you’ll find Flames at the bottom.
Now, click on it and move your cursor over your picture. Cursor will transform into a circle indicating that you can place emitter of particles.
Basically, you need to draw a line that will emit flames. It’s important that you start from left, otherwise flames will go downwards. See the screenshot below and do something similar(click on lower left corner, then on lower right – afterwards, click right mouse button to stop the placing of points.)
Save your project.
Sidenote: I’m using full version of Particle Illusion 3 but since it’s not that cheap, you can also use Particle Illusion SE which goes for around 95$. Main differences are the use of older engine (2nd), you can use only one layer of footage, it doesn’t include blockers, forces, Super Emitters and it has a different interface. The Pro Emitters do not work with SE as well.
Step 10
Now, see the panel to your left. There you can find emitter properties.
First, right click on Flames 0 under Angle and choose Properties.
Then find Frames to Preload box and enter 200. This you’ll have the emitter already emitted 200 frames before frame 1 in the timeline.
Step 11
If you press Play (preview), you’ll see that flames are too fast. You need to change it by adjusting some properties.
Start with velocity by highlighting Velocity from emitter’s pull-down menu.
Step 12
It’s important that you’re positioned at frame 1 in the timeline, otherwise you’ll set keyframes which you don’t need.
Bring down Velocity to 120% by pulling the red box.
Next, go to Weight and set it to around 15%
Then set Motion Randomness to 15%
You can preview and see that burning is slower but still, there are a lot of fast movement.
Save.
Step 13
Open Life properties and set it to 135%
The last thing you should change is the Zoom to around 80%
For this tutorial you’re set but if you have a different scene you can try changing both Emission angle and Angle.
Disable Background by clicking on BG icon.
Save. Exit the software because you’ll do the rendering with pIllusionRender. It should be in your Particle Illusion directory.
Step 14
Open pIllusionRender.exe and press OK if prompted.
Set your Project File and Output. I suggest to output as TIFF sequence (you need a format with Alpha channel).
Press Save.
Step 15
Then set Render Frames as necessary. Press Options and disable OpenGL (it gave me errors) and scroll image quality to maximum.
Tick Save alpha.
Turn off motion blur, otherwise it’ll give you bunch of nasty stuff.
Hit Render. Switch to AE.
Step 16
In AE, import it as image sequence with Straight-Unmatted Alpha. Then right mouse button on it and hit Interpret Footage>Main. Set Frame Rate to 25.
Next, drag and drop it into timeline and you’ll see that the colors are completely wrong and doesn’t match to our scene.
Apply Tint and Curves and configure them as you see in screenshot.
Save.
Step 17
It’s time to set track-matte. Create new, white solid, which will serve for this purpose.
Using Pen-tool, apply a mask around lower and right edge of the hole from which the fire will come.
Also apply new mask to the wall in the middle so that fire wouldn’t cross it.
See the screenshot and set the Feather options accordingly.
Now, highlight flames layer and set her’s Track-matte to Luma Inverted. Don’t forget to enable Eye Icon of flames if you have disabled it as i did.
Save.
Step 18
As I mentioned earlier, we’re going to use Particular for smoke so create a new solid. Apply Particular to it.
Next, set Particles/sec to 80 which will, basically, be the density for smoke so if you want them to be less dense lower it later.
Because the hole is rectangular shaped, set Emitter Type to Box.
Obviously, Direction should be set to Directional as smoke raise in only one direction.
Now we need to set up an angle which, I guess, is self explanatory:
X Rotation: 115
Y Rotation: -30
Z Rotation: 40
We want them to move slowly because, as you know, things look slower when they are afar. Velocity must be lowered:
Velocity: 40
Velocity Random: 0
Velocity from Motion: 0
You can also set Emitter Size Z to 0 because flat smoke looks good enough. It can save you a little render time.
Save.
Step 19
Go to Particle pull-down and change these settings:
Life to 15 which is a longevity of our smoke.
Particle Type: Cloudlet – Sphere should also work but i prefer Cloudlet because of it’s irregular shape.
Cloudlet Feather: 100
Size: 25
Opacity: 10
Opacity Random: 50
Color to Dark Gray
Now it starts to look something like smoke.
Under Physics:
Wind X: -5 to simulate a little wind.
Save.
Step 20
Now, apply Turbulent Displace (Effect>Distort>Turbulent Displace)
Set settings as shown in screenshot.
The key setting is Complexity which gives that cloudy look. Amount should be low because we want to leave the form as it is and not displaced all around.
To get more organic and irregular look, raise the Y values for Offset (Turbulence)
Change of Evolution isn’t mandatory so you can change it as desired.
Step 21
It’s time to change the Position XY for Smoke Emitter. Do that as shown or whatever you want.
Also offset Smoke layer in timeline so at Frame 0 particles would be fully emitted.
Save
Step 22
Create a new, white solid for Smoke Track-matte. Again, draw a mask as shown in screenshot. Set Feather to 90.
Highlight Smoke layer and set it’s Track-matte to Luma Matte.
Then Highlight both Smoke and Smoke_matte layers and move them under flame layers.
Save.
Step 23
You can clearly see that flames are too big. Highlight their layer and change its position downwards.
Thanks to Track-matte, you can do it freely.
Save.
Step 24
As you saw in preview, there are stuff falling down from sky. Create a new solid and apply Particular to it.
Set these settings:
-Emitter pulldown-
Particles/sec: 50 – it’ll be the amount of those flying things, later you can adjust as necessary
Emitter Type: Box – obviously, as you need them to fill the whole screen evenly
Position Z: 20 – you can change it for depth
All 3 Velocity settings: 0 – since we don’t want them to do flying on their own (physics does the work)
Fill the screen:
Emitter Size X:
4000
Emitter Size Y: 1200
Emitter Size Z: 10000
-Particle pulldown-
Life: 30
Particle Type: Smokelet – as well you could use your own, custom made particle
Smokelet Feather: 100
Size: 7
Color: Gray
Physics pulldown
Gravity: 5
Spin Amplitude: 90 – this is really important, it will give turbulence and random, organic movement as they fall
Wind X: -40 – does what it says
After this, change emitter’s Position XY so that you can’t see emitting particles (set Y value to around -1000). Offset the layer accordingly in timeline.
Save.
Step 25
The only element left is those small firey things falling from the burning opening.
Again, create a new solid and apply Particular.
Really few particles are necessary so set Particles/sec to 10
Emitter Type: Box
Direction: Directional
X Rotation: 90
All 3 Velocities: 0 – we’re going to use the almighty gravity again
Emitter Size X: 100
Emitter Size Z: 200
You can set Emitter Size Y to 0 because that will be masked anyway
Life: 30 – since they fall slowly, they need more time
Type: Smokelet – again, irregular shape
Feather: 100
Size: 1
Opacity: 80
Color: Orange
Gravity: 0,5
Spin Frequency: 2 – a bit of randomness in movement
Wind X: -1
Set Opacity over life and change emitter’s position as shown in screenshot. Don’t forget to offset the layer in timeline.
Save.
Step 26
Create new, white solid which again will be used as a track matte layer. Draw a mask as in screenshot and then set the Firely_stuff layer’s track matte to Luma Inverted. Also set it’s Blending mode to Add. Save. All the elements are set and you can carry on with color correction.
Step 27
For easier color correction Pre compose everything into a single composition. Call it a Final_Comp or whatever you want.
You can try correcting on your own but here is what I used:
Hue/Saturation – Blue channel Saturation at -50 and Lightness at -26
An S Curve for contrast and some Levels adjustments to make the scene darker.
Plus I used Noise effect with Amount of Noise set to 7% and Use Color Noise unticked for more realistic look.
You can try to change the Blending mode for flames to Add also.
Step 28
In addition you can add a glow around the fire. Create a new, orange solid. Draw a mask around the fire, set hers feather to 120 and opacity to 70%. Then change the Blending mode to Overlay. At last, set the expression for Opacity as follows: wiggle(1,20)
See the screenshot.
Save.
Step 29
You’re done. Furthermore you can add a camera and animate it for movement. If you’re doing that, go back to Main_Comp, open it’s Composition Settings and expand it’s dimensions for more flexibility. If necessary expand particle layers too.
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nice one i really like it
nice tutorial dude
man, this is really awesome, great oportunity to evolution in fx world
preview looks cool, the partilces falling is abit ott but its cool.
The final result looks very artificial. I think actual flames footage would look better, and the falling particles are way over the top.
good job homie, i just think the shot seems too stagnant. Maybe a camera w/ a wiggle to at least give it more life? Here is a good comparison shot that i believe would help anyone pursuing this effect in post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt5RkbkXXZA
Once again good job man
i agree with u
Cool. Great Job! VFX isn’t that easy at all…
Very nice man …..can you make a video tut?
Adding a camera wiggle would also help your illusion even more. Cool.
I beg to differ. Camera wiggle is getting very addictive these days and EVERYBODY is using it either to give life to a shot or to cover up not-so-well acomplisehd effects. I think in this case though the still shot isn’t bad for showing the actual FX which is the fire composite.
I’m not by all means against camera wiggle, but come on fellows, let’s just not exploit it into some addictive design fashion… camera wiggle here, camera wiggle there…makes me sick at some point.
For me the falling bits of ash and the smoke could definitely be improved upon but I think it’s a good tut. Nice job.
I don´t know…its a cool effect but that is where Color Correction, camera shaking and grain prove to be crucial…I think it would look way more realistic if those were added. The effect is awesome, but in my opinion it needs to have some final polishment.
Particle Illusion? Seriously…..who uses particle illusion when you have particular as a feakin’ plugin FOR After Effects?
Final effect does look artificial. This is the stuff you see in movies done by high school kids wanting added special effects. AETUTS actually “paid” for this?
Man, you are bad with the kid but actually true! Truth sometimes burns (like the not so succesful effect!!!), however necessary for everyone who wants to get better.
The purpose of this tutorial is anything but to achieve what you see in final video. My intention was to show the right way how to do it. Of course, you can use AE to build up fire but why limit yourself with knowing only After Effects? There are a lots of other uses for Particle Illusion too you know.
Particle illusion is only fun tool for kids to make them interested in vfx. Particular, stock footage and 3d particles is the way you should do it
Actually this is a very versatile tutorial… seeing as ParticleIllusionAE will be out in a few months or so.
I agree it doesn need some polishing, but that is where everyone’s own style comes into play. It does need grain, camera shake, and preferably live footage… but why don’t you all quit complaining… go shoot some footage and try out the effect… worst thing that will happen is you will learn something that you didn’t know before.
Nice start and yeah it does look like it needs polishing but it shows how to do things differently and in your own style, which is what AEtuts is about. Big up ma man. Go get your paper and forget about these haters, you’ve laid down the gauntlet. Let another who thinks is up to the task pick it up.
I agree with Billy above about the artificiality of your effect. Before you move to AE you have to work more on PS, the perspective is wrong and the whole matte looks strange.
Lately, there is a Kramer-ism in the internet, the difference is that Andrew knows well his job!
How can you become a teacher when you have never been a student before?
I hope that those comments-feedback will improve your work
Good luck, Eddie
I totally agree, photoshop done in this tutorial is really baad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24bAqJradMg this is how explosion/flame vfx should look, wiggled and short shot with good use of particles.
The concept I think is fine. Final result does leave a lot to be desired, if realism was intended.
I do have to agree with billy. This is pretty bad.
very easy to complain instead of giving good feedback.
I agree that the final composite isn’t very polished, but I liked the effort.
catch with some advices here and retouch the thing.
keep up.
This tutorial rocks. and let me tell you why. I can’t stand people who’re saying: This looks like some high school 13 year old’ job. If this tutorial laid it all out for you negative people, then where’s the fun? If there’s room for improvement, fill them in yourself! Only wankers copy and paste. I am not implying anything here, but those who feel offended, take a deep breath, move along and be not creative while looking for templates and presets of stock FX material.
amen my brother.
Are you saying that in order to be a good tutorial, the end result must not look desirable, so people don’t just copy and paste the recipe?
Are you proving to everyone that you have awful comprehension skills? Maybe you were joking. In that case.. “Ha Ha”.
I must be a wanker because i copy and paste all day… that is, after i spell check first
cool tut none the less, people polish as needed.
I think you’ve done a fine job here … all you need is just some color correction maybe a camera shake and real flames to polish things off
but overall its a great tutorial … keep it up Eddie
BTW i was born in Latvia .. 1972 .. but moved to Israel so i don’t have any visual/memory reference of Latvia
I agree that the final piece lacks realism, but i would have enjoyed this tutorial immensely 6 months ago, when i was just starting out.
you could have tried to play with the alpha for the smoke, because IRL, smoke is not always pure black.
camera shake also would have helped, but still, a great Tut.
I don’t quite understand why this was put on the website.. it doesnt really explore anything new, and we’ve seen this done a 1,000 times before.
This site is great for motion graphics, but they should maybe just stay away from adding VFX all together. Decent VFX tuts here are few and far between.
However, tutorials are made mostly for people just starting out
I think its an important benefit for them to learn step by step processes
Ahh yeah, good point, thank you for pointing that out, you’re absolutely right.
it’s cool, but it has no realistic look.
Flojo, amigo
Here’s the alternate preview with some camera animation if anyone’s interested: http://vimeo.com/5307801
Cool beans player, that little bit looks a whole lot better. keep it up and shake them haters off
Great outcome with these materials only thanks
some suggestions and pointers.
your shot can only be as good as your source material. the angle/view of the building is a bit difficult without a previous setup or establishing shot. a ground floor view may have helped, but that also would really increased the work needed ten-fold (ie. a crowd of people, ambulances, etc). this type of visual effect could profit from more elements to make it dramatic and increase the intensity. presumably this view would be from a nearby building (since we are seeing the building more straight-on), so I think a foreground reference would really help to solidify the shot. maybe a piece of the window frame and or a blurred window reflection could really help. i agree some grain, the camera movement (which was added in the update), and color correction would all help to set the mood and once again increase the intensity.
the updated camera movement certainly helps, but it is my belief that it should either be smoother or more chaotic. the camera push in is a great idea to add a more personal touch. it may benefit from a possible rack-focus. and once again, if the camera movement were a bit more crazy and unstable, ala tony scott or twitch effect look, glaring light and blurriness may help also.
after researching some disasters and explosions on google (sad to see by the way) a few other things dawned on me. one which i will explore again. depth. i mentioned the foreground element earlier. but also some background elements would help. other buildings in the distance would help. but since they don’t exist here, maybe some birds? if these buildings did exist i would suggest you blur them out. but one thing to note, even though this is not some huge explosion maybe an overall hazy look would really help. this could be done with some color correction. if this were a larger explosion i would also suggest the hazy look could also be intensified by some billowing smoke from the ground.
all around i think it is great to explore different mediums and effect driven shots, increased awareness and usage of possible work-a-rounds will only help to make everyone better. this was my main point of emphasis all throughout this long post. i understand, and may agree with some concerns (to say nicely) of some other people, but this forum, as with all others of it’s kind (in my humble opinion) should be about perfecting the craft.
NIce round up! Thank you.
Dude, you should so apply all that thought to your version and post a link to it on here. That would go hard.
looks a lot like my old dorm room
seems like AE.Tuts is taking about anything these days
@Justin….I completely agree. If these were tutorials being submitted and accepted just for the heck of it, I think I might understand more. However the fact that AEtuts is actually paying for this stuff blows me away. The quality of the tutorials has dropped off drastically over the past 2 months. We can only expect tutorials on Monday and Wednesday and only about 1 out of the past 5 have been anything other than bad. Don’t know what’s goin’ on….
Seriously, why are you STILL talking? You don’t like the tutorial, great, got it. Hopefully it isn’t too hard to imagine that not everyone is on the same skill level when they visit a tutorial website. That being said, obviously there will be people coming here that will find this tutorial easy and simple enough to try, and in the end will benefit from reading this tutorial.
fantastic work i like vry much
Along with the wiggle you might wanna add some bluriness and get the building out of focus for some instances… I mean, whoever is filming a burning building will most likely be “shocked”… not just sitting arround making a steady shot.
This is a nice tutorial…it establishes the foundations…A relistic and believable fire or explotion in building will take lots of work…so you´ll have to do it on your shot until you are convinced and satisfied
Thanks and keep them coming
Sorry to say, but this doesn’t look good at all. The flames, the smoke, the ashes, none looks real at all.
Not saying that there might be a peice of good information in the tutorial but this site is set to a higher standard of tutorials and that is why they pay for them… if you look at any other tutorial on this site it seems that this one is out of place just alittle bit. one other thing tutorial are meant to show people how to do things right. and if the effect at the end is not a desirable effect then who is going to want to use them. Waste of time.
This needs a wiggle effect to make it look more realistic. Maybe some grain to liven up the still image. The particles are over the top. Also, the smoke is moving in the wrong direction. A better solution would be to shoot the scene with a video camera, add some movement, then track the position of the window with a null object and finally parent the smoke, debris and fire to it. Nice try though!
its really fantastic……………
try this
教程不错，我正想学
good tutoral thank you………..
Hi, just joined the forum and looking forward to finding out more, looks like a knowledgable place!
Thanks!
brtghbgf!! xx
Good site from Jon Hinderliter