AE 6.5 pro effect: Flys coming out of dead girl's mouth

Focus This!

Focus This!

DVXuser Sponsor
Can I make an effect using AE6.5 pro to simulate a swarm of flies eminating from a dead girl's mouth? I have tried using particle world to generate a "swarm" of blue rectangles that I then tried to use as mini blue screens...but I'm stuck...any help would be aprecciated; I don't mind having to do the "heavy lifting" just need to know what boulders I should start with!
 
How detailed do they have to be? Can they just be specs that swarm out of her mouth and you'd use the sound of the swarm to sell the shot? Or do they have to be detailed? If you need something really detailed, then you'd have to go with a 3D app to create the flies and then composite it in AE. If you can get by with some detail, then I'd recommend Trapcode Particular if you can swing the cost. You can create particle effects from any bitmap, so all you'd need is an image of one fly and you could turn it into a swarm. Particular also lets you add motion blur to the particles apart from the motion blur effect in AE.
 
Barry, how expensive is Trapcode Particular, and, more important, how is the learning curve?
I have a film guild I am part of here in Iowa and a group of indie film makers have a feature film they've shot--a horror movie set along the Mississippi--that ends with a little girl dead with a huge swarm of flies coming out of her mouth. They have no budget left...so I'm exploring how to do this for them; isn't that the name of the game in the indie world: "out of mony, hat in hand, pleading"? It is a night scene, low light, so I believe you're correct...the sound of the swarm of flies is what will sell the scene's effect.
BTW, this scene lasts less than 5 seconds, then cuts to black and credits.
 
In after effects, you could composite a single fly and then duplicate it for as many as you would like in the swarm, then spend an insane amount of hours keyframing each fly's movement from the girls mouth...probably the cheapest and "easiest" way to do it.
 
I'd definitely second particular. I use it all the time on big projects with great success. Top quality and so flexible. Would help with your fly swarm for sure. Plus, it operates in 3D space, so you could "match" any camera moves that are in your footage with the particle generator.
 
Trapcode costs $299 and I was able to get up and running as soon as I got it. So, I'd say the learning curve is pretty shallow because I'm a rank beginner in AE. That being said, the documentation is sparse, so it takes a lot of trial and error and it helps to be an AE whiz to get a specific effect.

http://www.trapcode.com/in_action/particular_custom.html

Since this is your closing shot it should be pretty good, right? Maybe you could find an AE artist that would volunteer their time.
 
I recommend 3d and Maya, although it is a bit more expensive :) and it is harder to learn...
 
if it's a really short shot i might have some spare time sometime to crack at it... no promises time wise though
 
Particle Illusion is an inexpensive 2D particle generator that does some great work. It is easy to learn, and once you have you head around it, learning particle effects from other true 3D software (Maya, Lightwave) is all the easier.

For what you are wanting, I imagine you would have to use a 3D program, so the flys actaually move and swarm as well as wing flapping and whatnot.

If you just need the appearance, other options mentioned here will work.
 
but with 3d you can do a bit more virtual camera or other cool effects. but it is hard and long
 
The extremely cool thing about Particular, is that it can animate 2D images or *clips* in 3D space. Plus, the images and clips will always orient themselves toward the camera. So you could make a a brief little fly animation (or multiple animations) in photoshop or a 3d program and Particular will animate the clips as particles in 3D space in AE.
 
Exactly. I just had to do this exact thing in a new show package. Created birds with it and it looked great.
 
that looks also good...but I prefer 3d, because you can do more extreme things with those tools
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top