Slit Effect

[RadioRocket]

I've seen this effect before in both videos and images but have still been unable to figure out how to go about recreating it or what it is even called.
http://complexgeometries.net/pages/prism

Any ideas?

[Inveresk]

Looks to me like it's shot through a sheet of vertically striped textured glass.

[Egg Born Son]

You usually find that sort of glass on glass front doors, bathroom windows or shower screens. But this looks like a sheet of corrugated perspex with a tight corrugation used for pergolas. Hardware store, 2.4m x 1.2m, ~$40. There are a number of related products that will achieve a similar effect. The effect is caused by refraction, think of it as a crazy mirror at the circus only a prism.

[Inveresk]

Plastic doesn't have that sort of reflectivity. My bet would be clear quarter reed glass, or similar.

[Egg Born Son]

Maybe, but you'd surprised what is available in plastic these days. It might not be perspex, the trade name is somethingCrystalTM or CrystalsomethingTM. Surprised the heck out of me when I came across it. I suggest plastic over glass for that particular video because the image didn't seem sharp enough for glass but I could very easily be wrong. Not going to find cut glass for 40 bucks though. Don't know if it's peculiar to Australia though. Corrugated tin sheeting is an iconic building materials for us so the design appears in many forms in our architecture.

[Inveresk]

Maybe, but you'd surprised what is available in plastic these days. It might not be perspex, the trade name is somethingCrystalTM or CrystalsomethingTM. Surprised the heck out of me when I came across it. I suggest plastic over glass for that particular video because the image didn't seem sharp enough for glass but I could very easily be wrong. Not going to find cut glass for 40 bucks though. Don't know if it's peculiar to Australia though. Corrugated tin sheeting is an iconic building materials for us so the design appears in many forms in our architecture.

I believe you're correct - polycarbonate sheet could give that effect. And it's cheaper, easier to cut and safer to work with than cut glass.

[Egg Born Son]

Polycarbonate, that's the one I meant. Not perspex. Well found.

[Pickthorne]

Create a PSD file of tall narrow black-to-white gradients resembling those reeds and place it under your footage in After Effects. Drop in the "Displacement Map" effect onto the footage and select gradient layer as the displacement source...and then play around.

Or take a screen grab to a door and window glass place and say "...that". Plus your effect render time with actuall glass will be really fast!

[RadioRocket]

Create a PSD file of tall narrow black-to-white gradients resembling those reeds and place it under your footage in After Effects. Drop in the "Displacement Map" effect onto the footage and select gradient layer as the displacement source...and then play around.

Or take a screen grab to a door and window glass place and say "...that". Plus your effect render time with actuall glass will be really fast!

Thanks for the response. Just wanted to confirm, for the tall narrow gradients should they be left to right or top to bottom? Also I can't seem to find how to set the displacement source..

[Pickthorne]

The gradients should go across the narrow dimension (L-R). And you are looking for the "Displacement Map Layer" drop down. Its the first option being the most important. Tutorials via a google search are plenty.