Recreate The Matrix Chopper Scene
Tutorial Details
- Requirements: After Effects, 3ds Max (knowledge of PF source)
- Difficulty: Intermediate
Download Source Files
In this 3ds Max/AE combo tutorial, you will learn how to make a stream of raining bullets using PF source in 3DS Max and then combine all the elements together in AE to give a stunning “Matrix-like” effect.
Preview
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Tutorial
Step 1
First of all launch 3DS Max and selecting the front view hit “ALT+B” on the keyboard to get “View port Background” appeared. While selecting “Match Bitmap”, “Display Background” and “Lock Zoom/Pan” , click on “Files” and browse for the reference image of the bullet.
Step 2
Pick the Line tool and draw the shape according to the middle bullet.
Step 3
Apply “Lathe” modifier on the spline and click on “Max”.
Step 4
Apply a “Shell” modifier on it and increase the inner amount to something like 2.0 to give some thickness to the shell.
Step 5
Press “M” on the keyboard to open Material Editor. In the diffuse channel choose the color as something like brass, give the Specular level as 125 and the Gloss value as 50. And apply it to the shell.
Step 6
Now drag a PF source icon in the view port.
Step 7
Hit “6” on the keyboard to open the Particle View window. Adjust the values of Birth > Emit Start, Emit Stop and Amount as shown in the figure.
Step 8
Put “Shape Instance” in the event instead of “Shape”, and pick the bullet from the scene as Particle Geometry Object.
Step 9
Now, if you choose the Display type as “Geometry”, you will see that all the particles have taken the shape of bullet.
Step 10
Drag a Gravity force in the view port. Put a Force operator in the event and choose the gravity in “Force Space Warp” section. By doing this you will see the bullets going downwards.
Step 11
Again go to “Shape Instance” operator and down the scale to 25%.
Step 12
Draw a Box in front of the PF source icon to make a building .
Step 13
Make a camera and place it on the ground level so that the scene should look like this. Add some lights also to lit the scene and the bullets.
Step 14
Press “M” on the keyboard and apply this kind of texture to the building.
Step 15
Give “Raytrace” in the Reflection tab and put the value to 20. In this way some reflection of the bullets would come on the building.
Step 16
Now go to Time Configuration and choose 100 frames per second, since we need it in slow motion.
Step 17
Now this is the time to render the scene. Hide everything except the bullets and then save the animation in .TGA format with alpha channel. Same would be done with the building also.
Step 18
Next, in Photoshop, I took an image of helicopter from internet and then separated its blades and the body in two different layers as “Heli” and “blades”, so that later I could use it separately. I hope, the readers know the technique how to do that, since this is a very basic procedure in Photoshop. If not, then I would recommend you to visit www.psd.tutsplus.com to watch some basic as well as advance tutorials on Photoshop.
Step 19
Now lets move to After Effects. Make a new composition as “Final” with 720/576 dimension.
Step 20
Import the Building and the Heli_Bullets files and drag these into the Final Comp. Import a Sky footage also and put it beneath all the layers.
Step 21
Now import the “Heli.Psd” file which has been separated in two different layers in Photoshop. While importing it at the first time, choose the “heli” layer which is the body of the helicopter and then drag it into the Final Comp.
Step 22
Do the same again and choose “blade” this time.
Step 23
Select the “Pan Behind Tool” and move the pivot of the blade to the center of the Helicopter. By doing this the blades will rotate around its right axis.
Step 24
Select both of the layers of “heli” and “blade” and adjust these parallel to the building.
Step 25
Select the “blade” layer, open its rotation and animate the rotation of the blade in clockwise direction.
Step 26
Now select the “Building” layer and apply color balance effect on it. Adjust the color to match with the scene.
Step 27
Now its time to make muzzle flash. I used one of the suitable muzzle flashes from VideoCoPilot’s action essential 2. You can buy it from www.videocopilot.net.
I duplicated the muzzle flash layer several times by pressing “Ctrl+D” and lined these up so that it could give the feel of continuous fire rounds.
Step 28
Select all these muzzle flashes layers and goto Layer>Pre-Compose. And rename the Pre-Composed layer as “Muzzle Flash”.
Step 29
Put the Pre Composed “Muzzle Flash” layer beneath Bullets, Building and Helicopter layers. Adjust the rotation of Muzzle Flash layer a bit.
Step 30
Make the duplicate layer of Muzzle Flash, Helicopter and Bullets layer and mirror these layers so that the reflection of these layers could appear on the Building.
Step 31
Select these duplicated layers and pre compose them as Reflective Materials.
Step 32
Now select the Reflective Materials layer, right click > blending mode> soft lights. Now it gives a cool reflection on the building.
Step 33
I used some dust elements taken from again Action essentials 2, but in a different manner. First simply import the dust element in the Final Comp, and apply Distort > Twirl effect on it . It gives a cool effect of wind simulation due to fan blade of the helicopter.
Step 34
Now make an Adjustment Layer at top of the all layers and apply Effect> Sapphire Stylize> S_film Effect. This effect gives some glow and grain on the footgae with overall color corrected effect. You can get the plugin from www.genarts.com.
The End
Now render the scene and see the effect. You can always play with the values and options of the effects to get desired result.
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sorry but is there anyone working with 3d max (or any other 3d app) and AE, and couldn’t figure out how to achieve this effect? (and with far better results). I think AE TUTS should raise the bar for posted tutorials but this is just my opinion. No offense…
hey there, make a better tut, post it here!
thx, Steven
I wasn’t gonna say anything but you hit it on the head. I haven’t used either AE or 3DS in a while and was looking for some tuts to spark my creativity. This is severely lacking in inspiration.
i work with blender its a good free program you should go look at wardson tutorials he works woth blender and after effects
Pretty darn cool.
Sound effects could be better but the effect is awesome.
Nice Try, great tut, but i don’t like Image Tuts .. I think everyone should do video lessons..
and .. not everyone has the 3d max.. this is a Ae Channel. i think is jus for after effects..
but is just a opinion too..
anyway.. great preview.
hey the went premium. so alle the free tuts will be lame.
Why do more than half of the tutorials and posts on this blog have nothing to do with AE or require another program to do parts of the tutorial? I just started After Effects and have to say that the many pages I went through here have been basically a waste of time.
Calling this blog aetuts might make one think the blog is specifically about After Effects.. You should call it AnimationTuts or something.
my two cents
I think in this world, you have to be fit with so many apps. That way you can learn 3ds max.
That was fun for me to see, how easy it is to make the bullets with just drawing a line and
applying modifiers.
Ok, would be more realistic with over doing it with a real bullet texture, but, to see the way
things beeing produced is worth that tut!
Dude we just finished doing a zombie movie and hired a animation artist to create something similar. Wish the tutorial would have come out sooner! It would have been fun giving it a crack. Awesome tutorial. Thanks for sharing.
Pretty cool bro, but the windows are not broking :(
The muzzle flash is WAY WAY too big. What are they firing from that helicopter….a howitzer? Plus it’s daytime so the flash would be even less visible and any visible flash would be translucent. The effect itself is decent but the entire composting of the scene is kind of a mess.
They are firing a BFG probably… LOL.. ))
Yeah, you are right about the muzzle flashes. They are outrageously big and why aren’t the glasses shattering when shooting at the building? This is the same person who posted his Floral Design Animation tutorial and was taken off a few days after because it was so bad and many complained about it. Check it out his tutorials: http://www.vfxrider.com/after_effects.html
Tvandnag, thanks for the tut. This tut is very useful. It teaches me well how to kill my time in a best way.
Frankly guys I really miss the tuts like this here
http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/motion-graphics/create-a-geometric-color-explosion/
Thanks for showing me the tut but it is sad that this kind of tut which really has something traditional but new to those who only want and use already made “evolution” designs. I liked it though.
Pity on you guys, “tvandang” and “f1a5……”
Dear Rohan, from my point af view the tutorials are about the correct techniques. The tutorials are about to show us the most correct and easy way to get the project done. And if you are posting some sort of the tutorial you are responsible for all those people who will learn smth from it. Are you agree with me?
Rohan, you have to check his tutorial Floral Design Animation that was posted here. Many complained about it because it taught beginners the worse way of doing this, and so they took it off AETUTS. If you think that is the best way of doing it, then you are right and i am wrong–have pity on me:-(
Why so many bullet when you have Trapcode Particular or just using build in Particle World, basicly you can render 1 bullet and multiply it with trapcode particular, that will save the rendering time, I guess
Agreed completely man! With particular would have been much quicker to make and you will have much more control on the bullets…! :)
Hey, guys.
You don’t need 3ds MAx here at all to recreate this scene. All you need is Trapcode Particular 1.5, 2.0 and the rendered shells from Andrew Kramer’s Action Movie Essentials 2. That’s all…
and if you even wanted to use this you could… http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2010/05/12-gauge-program/ it is a shotgun shell, but it IS free…
I agree, I think Particular would have been a better way to go, or at least better for our WHINY community. You would still have to render out about 5 different image sequences to have different falling shells with different movements, and then make those custom particles. So you would still need to use 3d.
AND – to make anything remotely realistic, especially when it is an object like a bullet falling at the camera, you need to work in 3d, even if it is with Zaxwerks. So stop complaining. If you aren’t at least experimenting with a trial version of a 3d software, you aren’t taking your interest in visual effects and motion graphics seriously.
One note I do have is I agree with Billy the flash is way too bright, but there is no broken glass or holes in the window that the gun is shooting? Seems like that was a key thing to include if you are “recreating a scene” from a movie.
I’m not comlaining, Topher. Are we talking about this particularly scene or what?
I am sure that if I have three rendered sequencies with different shell views I don’t need any 3D software. Even when it is an object like a bullet falling at the camera. Try it for yourself Topher before blaiming me in complaining…
@ f1a5h84ck response –
I’m not coming down on you, but you know, a 3D program was used to make those bullets in the first place… thats my point. You might have stock elements to use THIS time, but in a similar situation, what if it was iron bars, or teddy bears… you would need to use 3D… know what I mean?
@Chandan –
I was saying the Particular stuff and stock elements for those that refuse to use anything but AE… but you are absolutely right, and if you are proficient enough in a 3D app… it actually might just be easier to set up an emitter in the 3D app and rendering that plate instead of bringing rendered elements into AE.
Okey, Topher. I see.
well you could use particular and just make the bullets in a 3D program and use a custom particle and just have random rotation. am i wrong?
People who are screaming that this can be done using particular also then let me tell you that you can’t get this effect using particular. To get 3d depth, lighting and specular information, you will have to use 3d app.
Somebody said it can be done using “rendered shells using VCP action essential 2″. I can only pray for that guy, who said this. LOL.
True, I didn’t think about specular passes and lighting, but you can faux the 3D depth. I was merely explaining a possible way for the whiners that refuse to use a 3d program a way that they might be able to acheive something similar.
I don’t understand you guys.
Are you talking about this scene or about the scene in the MAtrix? Let’s make it clear. LOL.
Agreed 100%. You can’t achieve a true 3D effect like you get here with Particular. Anyone saying this really knows nothing about Particular.
Okey, Billy. Possibly I do not know Particular as good as you do, but please tell me that these falling shells are looking waay waay worse than the shells in this tut.
http://romanborodin.com/_temp/shells01.mov
I don´t know…I am not getting into the level of difficulty of the tutorial in here, some basic tuts teach great lessons, but the point here is that there could be a little bit more of thought and planning on the scene. The final outcome looks a bit…wrong. I like the techniques though, they can be very useful for Max users and people who want to integrate 3D and AE, but for the next tut, give it some deep thoughts about details and mechanics of the scene, many of them already mentioned above.
Hey you all, did you know I like bacon. Thought you all should know that about me :)
sure he got 3d shells to fall.. the final composite is pretty bad…. I just went limp.
You forgot the motion blur on the shells. They look out of place and very CG without it.
I agree that this scene need some more things to look well.
One of that things nobody told about is that the shadows have to change while the bullets are rotating…
Nice
how about doing the glass shatter from the Helicopter on the glass?
Hey there.
I like the idea of this tutorial and the 3D techniques are certainly useful to know. So thank you so much for that, the 3D section itself will prove very useful for other projects that need simple modelling and particle effects in 3D max.
I do agree with people who say it could have been done 100% in After Effects, not only that but you could do it even better and more realistic then the outcome we see in the tutorial without the need for 3D max. I’m not saying max is bad, because its awesome and sometimes 3D is the only way to get the shot, it’s just not necessary here especially if working to a tight schedule and you can’t afford the extra render times.
But at the moment i just sound like a guy complaining that can be easily argued down, because its one thing to say it… so I tell you what….. I’ll try and prove it, give me a few days, I’ll post a video up of the same shot, done entirely in after effects, If it works then we (those who believe it can done) are right, if not then we are wrong.
I think it’ll at least put the issue to bed and hey I like a challenge!
Don’t do it man… Or Chandan will have to pray for you too. LOL.. ))
@f1a5h84ck- I am seeing that you have posted 10 times here. I think you are a dumbo person or mentally challenged who is not able to understand any other person’s comments who has far better and in-depth knowledge about cg and AE than you,atleast! LOL
Even I pray for you, fool!LOL
Misunderstanding couldn’t be excepted here because English is not my native language. But thanks for your opinion Burt. And as you could have mentioned you are the only person who is insulting other persons here. It tells a tale.
That Guy – “Why do more than half of the tutorials and posts on this blog have nothing to do with AE or require another program to do parts of the tutorial? I just started After Effects and have to say that the many pages I went through here have been basically a waste of time.”
Keep in mind you’re new to after effects. Many, MANY visual effects artists use more than one program to create an effect. Sometimes it just makes sense to use another application. It wouldn’t hurt to learn the other programs. After Effects is a tool to help you create. You don’t build a whole house with just a hammer do you?
I just don’t like pigs feet. My bro on the other hand holds it down w/ that stuff, freakin’ sick.
I love PIGS FEET!!!!!
usage of pflow is not entirely done .. broking windows could have been done through that ..
You’ve done it once again. Great writing.
@ f1a5h84ck
I read all your comment. May be some of them are true but I think you trying to protest a tutor in anyway and project him as dumb guy on other’s mind. This is fucking technique !!!
If you not like this tut and you think that you can make better then his tut then make it and post it here but don’t play dirty game.
If you have ability then proov it !!
I like the techniques though, they can be very useful for Max users and people who want to integrate 3D and AE
Yeah, you are right about the muzzle flashes. They are outrageously big and why aren’t the glasses shattering when shooting at the building? This is the same person who posted his Floral Design Animation tutorial and was taken off a few days after because it was so bad and many complained about it.
There are lots of unwanted and unnecessary tuts are still live on Tuts+ and no body complaints. Posts of Stefen Surmajov are there for example. If you don’t like my tuts then just fuck off! Let others enjoy this coz there are lots of beginners also here.
hey Great effect!!!, only thing: the machinegun is ‘belt fed’ that means that you should see little clips that hold the bullets together!! but really good tut! 5 stars
Thanks David, my this tut is to show the workflow only. It depends upon you guys how much creativity you put then .
good topik to talk to
Great effects