Creating Realistic Explosions

[jmproductions13]

Anyone know a good site or have an explanation of how I can make some very realistic explosions in after effects? I was looking at a program called Particle Illusion that can do it and was wondering if after effects could do the same thing? Thanks!

[Jive]

Partical Illusion is a partical generator. The effect would be most easily achieved in AE using the same type of a tool; a partical generator. AE 6.5 comes with a new 3d partical generator, tho I haven't really messed with it so I don't really know how well it does "realistic" partical effects (smoke, fire, etc.). Trapcode (link (http://www.trapcode.com)) also recently released Particular, a great 3d partical generator for AE. It has many presets, a few of which are explosions. You might want to check out Trapcode's site to see what it can do.

It also depends what type of explosion you want. A explosion of smoke would be very easy with an AE plugin like Trapcode's Particular. However, an explosion with a massive fireball would be a little more difficult.

[jmproductions13]

hmm.. kinda looking for a fireball effect to go along with windows blowing out of a building... thanks for the link though

[PrestonH]

Artbeats sells several cd's with explosions that can be comped. If realism is important to you it might be worth checking out.

www.artbeats.com

[jmproductions13]

hmm... how could i make my own explosions like the artbeats ones and film them? what did they explode to get some of those?

[Neil Rowe]

..uh oh here we go again :P ..what ever happend to that old pyromania thread?

[kai]

most of those explosions are very dangerous, and shot at highspeed 35mm. Chances of you copying them on your own with a dvx is slim. I bought them and they've worked great. Plus, you sometimes get an alpha channel making compositing with them a breeze.

[jmproductions13]

how do they make them though? like the backgrounds are pure black, but if they had some sort of blue or black screen behind the explosion, it would surely go up in flames too.. so how do they do it?

[SirAllen]

The ones I've seen are against pure black backgrounds.

[jmproductions13]

hmmm can i download a stock explosion from someone? im just using it for an effect test to see if i can "blow up" my house. thanks.

[kecorcoran]

Another AE trick to remember is the Shatter plugin. It that won't give you a fireball but will help get effects like windows blowing out. You can give the effect a custom Stength Map to indicate which areas you want to blow out.

Never used it myself, so I can't tell you anything more -- check AE's documentation.l

[Neil Rowe]

it works ok, but is better for simulating a mirror breaking since its hard to work with it as a transparent surface like glass.

[jmproductions13]

yeah i was planning to shoot the windows as normal but then shoot again with a white blanket behind the windows of the house so that the shatter effect would result in realistic looking shattered glass. my main problem though is getting a real looking explosion without paying 150 bucks for something i might only use once.

[Jive]

Check out AlamDV (link (http://www.fxhome.com))

[jmproductions13]

Looks pretty cool! Thanks for the tip!

[Jay_Blanchard]

"hmmm can i download a stock explosion from someone? im just using it for an effect test to see if i can "blow up" my house. thanks. "

The ArtBeats Explosions disk, as was already mentioned, is perfect for this. If you're just running a test, you can download a 320x240 watermarked QuickTime for free.

http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/Film/filmresultsmain.aspx?source=quickSearchFilm&txtSea rch=explosion&brand=27

Click on "Play Clip", then on the popup screen, "Download Clip"

[Guest]

Try these free clips at www.detonationfilms.com

[Guest]

Here is the link

Scroll down near the bottom..

http://detonationfilms.com/free_stuff.htm

[Goblin]

The last thing I shot had an explosion in it I was pretty happy with. I'm not sure where we sourced the stock footage. Probably Pyromania. Here's a clip:

http://www.unrequitedfilms.com/clips/carrier/explosion.mov (13 megs)

The explosion is two or three explosions on top of each other. When the first one starts, there's a very hard lens flare effect right on top of it. On the frames during the explosion, there's some rotoscoping on the building opposite, in order to get it to light up from the flames. It's a handheld shot, and the explosion was placed by hand frame by frame. We messed around trying to figure out how best to pull this shot off for awhile, but in the end, I think it took my compositing artist all of about an hour or two to get it to where he was happy enough with it to let me have it.

I wasn't that happy with the sound, but the guy that usually does sound effects work for me didn't have time to work on this project, so I had to make do with just a list of stock sounds he provided and my own fumbling attempt at mixing them.

The explosion just comp'd in by itself would have sucked, the combination of the other visual effects with it, and the audio on top of it all goes together to really helps sell it. It's not perfect, but I thought it was ok for an effect in a student film.

[toddmcm]

Make friends with a 3D artist that uses something like 3DS Max or Maya.... or composite a REAL explosion into/onto your footage.

Good Luck

[Arcburn]

I am a professional 3DS MAX artist and I have done a bunch of explosions in Max. Digital fire is still very very tricky. Even for Hollywood. It works great on fantasy stuff like the Balrog in Lord of the Rings, but for natural fire. You will still find actual fire footage comped in with particles, smoke, etc.
The good thing about explosion shots are they are normally quick and the audience doesnt have time to scrutinize them. I like to do some screen shake to help hide the "joins" as it were.
I have a firey explosion in my latest short. You can check out the trailer if you like. The shot is in there. It is brief. But again, it is a fantasy/horror scenario so I didnt need perfect realism with the flames.

A

[Arcburn]

Oops. Meant to post a link

http://www.deathrattles.com/trailer/ntrailer.html

sorry

[visulfx]

give me you email address. I Have a bunch of Explosions on CD that was shot on film.High Res. Its good to help a brother out! ;D

[visulfx]

E-mail me. I have Alot of explosions on CD. Just let me know what your looking for.

[strancali]

You can download a free demo at this place to test out your footage. The package is pretty cheap almost if you like it. Watch some of the movies these people are making with these effects. Some of them were done nicely.

http://fxhome.com/alamdv2/