AE Forest Explosion needs to be better

D

djbobbyrhodes

Well-known member
I made an explosion in AE. It looks okay. But I need it to be Michael Bay good!


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I AGREE



In case you're wondering, the 2 seconds in the beginning is just a place holder for footage to be shot in a few days.

What can I do to make this better? I want to blow minds. I want people to think we actually blew up a forest.
 
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Well if it's any consolation, it doesn't look *that* bad to me.

Something certainly seems to be off with the debris heading for the camera. What it is, I don't know. That seems to be the "fakest" thing going on in this comp. I like the way you lit up the screen with a layer of red or whatever you did.

Maybe someone has some good ideas, I'd be curious as well. I figured I would get the ball rolling.
 
I'm with Deep. Something seems off, but I can't figure out what it is. Maybe it's the particles that are flying around. They seem fast, and they got there quick.

Looks pretty good, though.
 
It's really good. The only thing I think might make it work a bit better is getting some of the treeline to move(or catch fire or even better fall down). The treeline doesn't move at all. Getting some action there would help a bit. Also some sound.

To get the Micheal Bay look you're going to have to move the camera during the shot. Camera shake isn't enough. His cameras pretty much are never that still.
 
msorrels said:
To get the Micheal Bay look you're going to have to move the camera during the shot. Camera shake isn't enough. His cameras pretty much are never that still.
Click to expand...

And it needs to be in slow motion with someone running from / jumping away from it.
 
So, what I'm getting here is

1. Movement from the trees.
2. Something with the ash/embers

Hmm... maybe a lightwrap around the trees as well.

Cool. Anyone have any other ideas?
 
For me it's the "sparkling" particles that invade the foreground jjst after the explosion. It just LOOKS like a particle emitter. How about shooting some actual falling embers against a green screen and layering that on there instead? I agree that having some reaction in the trees would be effective to further sell it. - CK
 
Collink said:
For me it's the "sparkling" particles that invade the foreground jjst after the explosion. It just LOOKS like a particle emitter. How about shooting some actual falling embers against a green screen and layering that on there instead? I agree that having some reaction in the trees would be effective to further sell it. - CK
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Haha. It's actually a firework. Not cc partical world/particular. But if it looks lame, it looks lame.
 
interesting, I think if the flashes burned a little longer and you could see the short streaks of light as the burning bits of tree/ soldier/ furry woodland creature cascaded down I would find that more real than the sparkly filcker. You asked for it. there it is.
 
Not that bad, but yeah, definitely fake. Pro tip: Michael Bay uses real explosions. But short of that, what else can we do? :)

The light particles definitely give it away... how did small embers shoot out of the forest that quickly? Where is the larger debris?

What really gives it away is that this seems to be a pretty massive explosion, and yet it really only goes UP – not OUT. The blast DEFINITELY needs to affect the treeline – bowing them out, breaking off branches, etc. Branches nearest the blast would also probably immediately catch fire. Lots of tree debris should be thrown upward from the initial blast. The fireball should cast light and shadow on the more distant trees. Lots of secondary dirt and small debris should roll out between the tree trunks towards the foreground.
 
After the initial blast, most of the glow from it fades. I think it should still have a little white or warm glow during the fireball. Once that glow fades, its pretty obvious the explosion is just a 2D video pasted on. Sometimes by limiting what the viewer sees (obscuring some of the detail with a glow/blur) you could make it seem like the explosion is so powerful that the camera can barely pick it up.

Other than that, it's pretty good. The camera movement could also be a factor in how real it looks, so you may want to redo it artificially/naturally.
 
The explosion doesnt look to scale to what an actual exposion would look like in that forest. maybe scale down the action essentials fire element and add a few more to give more detail in the explosion and fire.
It also seems like part of the forest just being masked off all of sudden is odd, i think we need to see at least pieces of the forest like trees flying off from the area that you masked.

Also is there suppose to be smoke bombs or something? the two black smoke elements have their own explosive force. It feels like their seperate elements from the fire which doesnt seem too real as those are big smoke explosions right with a fire explosion. the fire itself should turn into the blacksmoke near the top of the frame, and rather than having it "explode" from the ground up.

Also why am i seeing sparks, i thought the forest just blew up, i think i should be seeing debri the sparks seem to come from no where. (maybe this is different when looking at the entire short film?)

What the shot feels like is seperate elements piled together, but not really playing off of eachother. that said its still fairly convincible, better than a lot of other people who just take kramers action essential 2 elements and dont bother with at least some sort of compositing refinement.

Good work!
 
What i would do is keep what you have but have a still of the forest after the blast made up in photoshop starting with the original forest shot. I would darken it and flatten the trees outwards from the blast. Then I would do a quick circular wipe out from the blast between the existing forest and your damaged forest (this will be the shock wave). motion track the damaged forest. There is also some dirt/dust debris in one of those videocopilot programs and use that slowed down as part of your shock wave. It's really not too bad as it is, but the wow you are looking for and missing is the shock wave.
 
I'd desaturate just a bit. or add some gray on top, it felt like the saturation level helped separate some layers. I would have a b&w version to look at, and then slowly start saturating and find where the explosion pops out of the forest.

Other than it looks cool, I'm with most replies about the particles and the forest not moving too much. But it does work. I'm sure if watched in context it would feel fantastic.

Add sound, really makes things sit. Good job mate, looks wicked.
 
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