Creating Fire in After Effects

...is a roundup of tutorials and free projects now at PVC.

One item mentioned is by Video Copilot, who posted an effective campfire or torch-like flame in a free fire project for After Effects:

"Here is a little test I made using CC Particle World and some vector blur to make Fire. It’s not perfect but an interesting study. One of the key things I did was used a wiggle expression on the particle birthrate to give a variable emission pattern like something was burning inconsistently. It’s a little slow to render but it is very high resolution."

Read the rest in Creating Fire in After Effects at PVC.

Toward realistic explosions in After Effects + bang!

BlueCast Studios posted a tutorial on YouTube, Realistic Explosions (but really, pedestrians in San Francisco aren't that jaded).

This one is good for those just learning After Effects (you know who you are), who might follow Todd's sage advice: "the best place to start is at the beginning." If you're at the beginning, try these then some of these and maybe these; then see Andrew Kramer's explosion compositing demo and his explosion tutorials).

Advice is not too different for those wanting to learn faking fire, gun fire, muzzle flashes, and so forth; see Fire in After Effects, Realistic Muzzle Flare Tutorial and Muzzle flash tutorials in After Effects.

Note: There are a number of stock footage resources that have footage. Video Copilot has a stock/training DVD Action Essentials 2 (see the compositing demo), and Forging Fire posted about free stock footage from Detonation Films in Free Explosions - Fire - Missile - Decapitation Footage.

Steve Holmes has several tutorials on integrating fire and smoke into environments in his Artbeats videos. Todd Kopriva summarizes these in a kind of course outline in Steve Holmes Artbeats podcast.

Also, Mark Christiansen's book After Effects Studio Techniques explores best practices of common creative VFX tasks, including those involving light, environment matching, heat, and explosions. One of the chapters is free on the Peachpit Press website: Pyrotechnics: Creating Fire, Explosions, and Energy Phenomena in After Effects. See especially his advice on modes and luma mattes.

Update: The CGSociety was digging through its vault and goes back to 2005 for the basics with a study of the anatomy of the explosion by Kieron Helsdon; see BANG! The Anatomy of Explosions.

Update: see also Mind-Blowing Movie Explosions Explained from Reactions and
a Tuts+ course on the topic, Smoke, Fire and Explosions in Adobe After Effects with Christopher Kenworthy.

Burning Edges transition in After Effects

Umask.TV, a "design resource for art in motion," posted a Burning Edges in AE Tutorial (via Lester Banks on the Vimeo beat):

Burning Edges in AE Tutorial from unmask.tv on Vimeo.

Artbeats tutorials: transform fire + shatter

Artbeats has a couple of new After Effects tutorials:

Firestarter by Steve Holmes is a new written tutorial, demonstrating After Effects keying and animated masking techniques to turn a simple fire clip into a looping, swirling, boiling mass of fire that can be composited over any background.

Cleft, an After Effects tutorial video by Eran Stern, uses AE and Boris Continuum Complete to create a 3D logo, incorporate stock footage and sound, and add shatter effects for idiosyncratic opener.

Trapcode Particular 2 training DVD preview + fire

Harry Frank announced that his new training DVD Complete Training for Trapcode Particular 2 is now available for pre-order. There are some video previews of the new training up now (along with 2 old ones) if you want to peak and plan.

By the way, @rymden notes a well-executed video of fire below made by Ramiro Fernandez using Trapcode Particular:




Note: more examples of fire can be found in Fire in After Effects round-up.
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Fractal Noise: fades & more

This post was updated and moved to Pro Video Coalition, as Fractal Noise in After Effects: plus the newer Turbulent Noise.

Fire in After Effects round-up

This roundup was updated and moved to ProVideo Coalition as Creating Fire in After Effects: A roundup of tutorials and free projects.

Yes: Fire created using Trapcode Particular by Ramiro Fernandez looks really nice, via @rymden.

Free fire project for After Effects

Video CoPilot has a free fire project (CS3+) for download:

"Here is a little test I made using CC Particle World and some vector blur to make Fire. It’s not perfect but an interesting study. One of the key things I did was used a wiggle expression on the particle birthrate to give a variable emission pattern like something was burning inconsistently. It’s a little slow to render but it is very high resolution."

Update: Mathew Kelly shows you how to build your own with built-in filters:

After effects fire tutorial from Mathew Kelly on Vimeo.

11 free AE 7 Pro fire animations

Dean Velez posted 11 free AE 7 Pro fire animations at theanvel.com.
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