New on PVC... Motion backgrounds, transitions, clouds, fog, fire, water, paper texture, metal and other textures, ink and watercolor effects, etc. are all effects that can be generated by Fractal Noise filters built into After Effects.
Highlights of Fractal Noise in After Effects, plus the newer Turbulent Noise effect, include a good description of it and some nice performance tips in AE Help, and in-depth looks by Chris Zwar and Harry Frank.
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Note: Harry Frank's Medical Fund... Harry's family is trying to raise money to help cover the costs related
to surgery and recovery. Even after insurance, the surgery is quite
expensive and requires more than the Frank family can afford, ever.
Digieffects launched a new inexpensive plug-in for After Effects, Atmosphere, which:
"... simulates atmospheric conditions such as haze and fog in your composition. Layers further away from the camera appear to be more deeply immersed in the haze/fog than layers closer to the camera. This also applies to parts of layers: If one edge or area of a layer is closer to the camera, this area will appear less immersed in the haze/fog than the pixels further away."
Here's a tutorial from Digieffects:
Atmospheric effects without a filter assist can be complicated; here are some resources:
The Genesis Project's Adobe Beginner Classes Episode #26 is available. It shows you how to create semi-realistic fog inside of After Effects. The clouds are created on 4 layers in Photoshop then animated in After Effects.
There are several essential techniques shown, and the final effect is easy to replicate. As usual there are several additional ways to do this effect. You can adjust the method by using a square image size in powers of 2 (512 or 1024 for example), so that the image is seamless when the Clouds filter creates the fill. Layers can then be used as a seamless tile for animation with the Offset filter in AE. Though spare, you can get away with only 3 layers (as seen in at least one 3rd party fog filter). Other additions should include a light touch of a favored distortion filter and/or 3D moves. Sebastian Sulinski showed how to create a seamless animation loop in another tutorial, Animated clouds effect with Photoshop and After Effects. Here's ABC Episode #26 (mentioned above) from AdobeTV:
A less archaic approach that may require more experimentation is just using the Fractal Noise filter in After Effects; for background, check out the resources in the AEP post Spare time for Fractal Noise.
Dean Velez also showed how to use Fractal Noise in the Total Training course Advanced Adobe After Effects 7 Pro. Here's a video excerpt if you want to sit through a commercial:
See also a few related implementations in tutorials by Video Colpilot, for example Smoke Screen (using puffs of smoke as particles) and Stabilize Shaky Footage.
"Projecting one 3D layer onto another is useful for creating film and video projections as well as stained glass effects. In After Effects: Light Transmission, instructor Chris Meyer demonstrates the required steps, including mastering shadows and the Light Transmission parameter. He teaches numerous tips and tricks for building 3D worlds (including using seamless tiles), grouping together layers and lights, softening or sharpening projections, and using "negative light" to remove unwanted light leaks from a scene."
If you don't have a Lynda.com subscription, click here for a free 7-day pass.
Update: Lynda.com is also carryingAfter Effects Natural Light Effects, which tackles "volumetric lighting effects, such as light rays and glows, [which] are susceptible to two common problems: They can look too synthetic, and they are prone to banding when compressed for DVDs and the web. ...Chris Meyer shows how to make light look more realistic by adding dust or swirling smoke, creating natural imperfections that help with compression. He demonstrates how to do this using stock footage of this natural phenomenon or the After Effects Fractal Noise and Turbulent Noise effects."
Robert Hodgin of The Barbarian Group (makers of iTunes visualizer Magnetosphere), presented a movie (pictured left) at "Flash in the Can" in Toronto earlier this year.
He talks about the Processing environment and his use of 3D Perlin noise for flocking. Flash people were quick to experiment after an earlier presentation on Perlin noise; here's one, Animated Perlin Clouds in Papervision3D.
There's a bunch more generative processing stuff around beside the recent video by Radiohead. Toolbox is a node-based generative editor app that was featured recently on Create Digital Motion, which also features regular write ups on Processing projects. You can find demo movies of Toolbox on Vimeo, where the programmer links to Vector Field animations that do not use Perlin noise (implemented in After Effects in the Fractal Noise filter).
Chris and Trish Meyer have a new-ish tutorial on techniques for using the After Effects filter Fractal Noise to create seamless background textures. An earlier video by Aharon Rabinowitz of Creative Cow showed how to create seamlessly looping fractal background animations by using AE's Fractal Noise.
New on PVC... Motion backgrounds, transitions, clouds, fog, fire, water, paper texture, metal and other textures, ink and watercolor effects, etc. are all effects that can be generated by Fractal Noise filters built into After Effects.
Note: Harry Frank's Medical Fund... Harry's family is trying to raise money to help cover the costs related
to surgery and recovery. Even after insurance, the surgery is quite
expensive and requires more than the Frank family can afford, ever.
