Explosion Clip - Critique Needed!

pia12254

pia12254

Well-known member
I have this clip of an explosion for a WWII short film I am trying to finish up.

http://www.godandcountrymovie.com/Mo... Explosion.mov"
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Here is the original clip with no effects:

http://www.godandcountrymovie.com/Movies/Bridge Explosion_RAW.mov"
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We did not have access to a green screen so I had to roto the guy in the foreground so I could layer him on top of the explosions etc.

I could really, really use some advice on how to improve this shot and make it more realistic!!! I am working in After Effects.

I have added the explosions, broken up the background into various layers in Photoshop so I can animate them being "blown apart", and I added in some camera shake among other things.

I know the audio will really add a lot to this shot but I think there is still a lot I can do visually to make it more realistic. For example, when the explosion starts under the bridge it seems too bright. I have tried different transfer modes/opacity etc. to make it blend better but to no avail.

If you need me to post screen grabs of my After Effects workflow let me know...

Any help is appreciated!!!

Thanks!
 
I'll just give you my first and honest impression. Hope it helps to have a fresh set of eyes look at it.
The explosion looks way too slow. especially for the distance shown.
The color is wrong, doesn't look like it even belongs there. Try killing the orange colors, and mute them with blue or green, something, anything so that the colors look like the rest of the frame.
No muzzle flash, easy enough to do, make sure the image tells the story, don't depend on the sound.
No debris. if it had been shot with an air mortar throwing stuff around, it would have been a good reference too.
No light from the explosion is cast onto the surroundings.
Check this guys stuff out.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=80293
go to Blog #7 and check out the anatomy of a shot. he did some nice work on it.
I hope this helps. Is this what you were seeing too, when you look at your footage?
 
At this point it's a bad composite. It looks like an Artbeats explosion plopped on the shot. It needs a lot of work.
 
The slowness of the explosion and lack of debris are what is hurting the most. corona hit all the main points. The color of the explosion is off. Nice light wrap though.

There needs to be a crap ton of debris and, there needs to be some gaping holes where the debris came from. You may want to think about putting the bridge (or the portions to be exploded) on their own layer and using the clone tool and healing brush in Photoshop to rebuild a clean backplate.

Unless the only thing exploding was gasoline of flamable liquid, it wouldn't look like that. You may not even see any flames at all.

Look at some missle, morter, rocket, and artillary explosions on youtube or google video. There is rarely as much fire as dust, rock, concrete.
 
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The explosion was way too slow.
The surroundings should light up with the explosion.
No muzzle flah from your gun
No sound.

+
The bridge moves as it explodes. Very good.
 
I thought the second half of the composite looked pretty realistic.

However, besides being too slow, the explosion would not bloom out from the center like that if you were shooting into an enclosed area like under a bridge.

The flames would fill up the area under the bridge and then be pushed out toward the camera.

FP
 
Apart from the actual start of the explosion, and the speed, the middle looked good, but the debris at the end looked very unrealistic spinning so slowly...Add some blur to those elements, and speed them, and everything up, also try decreasing the size of the flame, color match it, and add debris...Basically what everyone else said.
 
Did you get the explosion from Action Movie Essentials?

I would add more, but I think the guys above me tackled it pretty well. My biggest thing was the color of the explosion. Match that better and it would work well in the shot.
 
Also, try making the explosion start from somewhere blocked from view, maybe in front of the talent, so that the emerging flame is more surprising, and realistic.
 
I'd stear away from Wondertouch for this. Your explosion clip is fine in quality, you just need to adjust the parameters of its start/movement, as well as interaction with live action elements.
 
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