3D explosion

Hawk Teflon

Hawk Teflon

Veteran
Trying to create a 3-dimensional explosion in after effects. Before you start the "after effects is only 2.5D, n00b," I am fully aware. That changes nothing for me.

My best assumption would be to purchase Trapcode's Form (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/trapcode-form/) and build from there. I have NO experience with this, though. How plausible / simple / difficult is this? Does anyone have any examples?
 
By "no experience" I meant I have no experience with Trapcode, not with AE. Unless I'm missing something, that's not what I was looking for at all. Thank you, though.
 
Oh your looking for info on Trapcode? or your wondering if Trapcode was the only way of making 3d explosions?
If 1 google trapcode forum, tutorial etc.
if 2 of course not, and the link I provided has tons of tutorials using particle systems in AE as well as way to make explosions that are a combination of 2d and 3d elements.

I guess the better question is, why are you limiting your self to 3d when often 2d compositing looks better since you are using real explosions that are layered on your footage.
Here is what im talking about. All 2d using videocopiliot action movie essentials 2 tutorial. This was not made by me by the way. Just snagged it off youtube for demonstration purposes.
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I AGREE
 
Yeah, I'm very familiar with that effect. I made something with AE2 last November:

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I AGREE


I need it 3d because I want to build a camera that orbits the flame / explosion.
 
robertwerden said:
Oh your looking for info on Trapcode? or your wondering if Trapcode was the only way of making 3d explosions?
If 1 google trapcode forum, tutorial etc.
if 2 of course not, and the link I provided has tons of tutorials using particle systems in AE as well as way to make explosions that are a combination of 2d and 3d elements.

I guess the better question is, why are you limiting your self to 3d when often 2d compositing looks better since you are using real explosions that are layered on your footage.
Here is what im talking about. All 2d using videocopiliot action movie essentials 2 tutorial. This was not made by me by the way. Just snagged it off youtube for demonstration purposes.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: No media files are hosted on these forums. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website. We can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. If the video does not play, wait a minute or try again later.
I AGREE
Click to expand...

Not sure how you missed what he asked, but your responses are kinda out of line. I guess you're trying to be cool on an Internet forum by telling people to go to Google or Video Copilot when they asked a pretty straightforward question. Maybe it's because you don't have a good answer and you felt so inclined to be a dick. Whatever makes you feel better I guess, but maybe you should go devalue the Cow instead of here.

To the original question, Form is definitely an option. If you want it to be camera aware, it definitely plays ball in that arena. Form is kinda tricky to figure out though and will take some work. There are some great low cost training options on it out there though. You can easily do some stylized stuff in there, photo-real will be harder.

You can try real footage using camera projection in AE, planes in 3D space arranged and warped and such. You can probably fake it pretty far there and fill in with Particular. There's a lot you can do with this method to fake it.

Or mix them all up, usually the best option.
 
Of course I was being a dick!!
The question was un clear to me and I wanted to know why he wanted to do it in 3d, which he then answered in post number 5.

You are the one being a dick if you think about it, for assuming I was pre dicking on a dick move like yours, which was 10% more dickesh than my simple question which simply had dickish under tones.

Now to answer his question, no you dont need form to do what you want. You can use AE and particular mixed with 2d composite fire elements in a 3d camera move. Once again I forward you to the Great videocopilot website for reference on the specifics on how it can be done.

I would say if your fire elements are going to be shown in real speed then the rotation of the camera can be locked to the 2d element while the particles (which would consist of smoke and debree) would be the 3d rotatable element. However if you want to matrix rotate around the fireball you may need to go with form because that would give you a better 3d feeling. The specifics of Trapcode form procedures for making a 3d fireball are beyond my knowledge.
 
Wow, this has definitely taken an odd turn.

Oneinfinite, so if I'm understanding you correctly, basically just build a 3d circle of 2d files of explosion, maybe masking them off to eliminate some of the area it's on the "ground" and fly around that? Seems plausible. I might give that a couple of goes when I get home tonight. And yes, I'm trying to make it as photo realistic as possible. I've seen some abstract stuff done with Form, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I did, however, see a cool video of a distorted sphere used as a single raindrop. That's what made me think form could be what I was looking for.

Robert, keeping the explosion locked down to the rotating camera is not an option. It's going to be orbiting too slow and you will see that it looks exactly the same.
 
A very odd turn lol

Use the shatter effect the comes with AE and you're all sorted. looks 3D but not, it's close enough lol
 
No, shatter won't work. Have you ever tried that with other layer in front and behind it? The ones behind it look like they're suddenly in front when you orbit. Very strange. Thanks, though.
 
Here's a quick example I put together using 2D footage and the CC sphere effect with some displacement mapping. I downloaded some footage from Detonation Films, not the best but free, so with better plates (and more variety) and some more time you can probably get a decent result. I also used the Knoll UnMult plugin from Red Giant to key out the black. The link for that and the stock footage is in a text file in the project ZIP.

If you use that method as your base you can add some particle effects with Trapcode particular and also add some variety with additional planes, etc. CS5 comes with that FreeForm plugin which allows you to do warps in 3D space which would be useful on a project like this, but not necessary. Let me know if you have any questions.

QT of the final result:
http://andrewfallon.tv/mov/fireball.mov

AECS3 project file:
http://andrewfallon.tv/goodies/fireball.zip
 
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