gunfire and blood fx in post, particular?

M

michaelcorvin

Active member
hello all. been a while.
i recently shot a gunfight scene but for various reasons i could not use any practical blood or squib effects. i need to add spraying blood and also bullets hitting wooden and plaster walls. i figure on using a combination of trapcode particular and footage of plaster/wood 'explosions' shot against black then comped in and tracked using AE.
does anyone have experience shooting that kind of footage and can offer me advice or tips.
does anyone have any trapcode particular presets i can use to simulate blood (ranging in style from grindhouse splatters to anime sprays) and bullets hitting plaster and wood (basically particles exploding outward with some dust)? you'd receive credit in my short.
thanks for any help you can give me.
-michael
 
When I get home I will upload some footage I shot so you get a basic idea of what i did doesn't look amazing but people I've showed seem to like it's(and it was my first time trying it) all digital elements and a few squibs shot behind black it's like a 45 second action clip I used some elements from videocopilot.net Andrew is great!
 
sweet, thanks. i appreciate it. and that video co-pilot site gives me hope that this will look good. i look forward to seeing your test footage.
-michael
 
Nothing that Particular or any other plugin is going to look as good as if you shot an actual element.

Ordinarily, this is hard to do, with things like fire, sparks, and muzzle flashes. But what you CAN do, if film a high contrast matte that will work as a track matte in AE. A simple black piece of poster board, and some white paint, or any white semi-viscous liquid will do. Simply put you camera zoomed into to the black poster board, and spray your white paint onto the board. A little extra lighting would be handy, but with Levels, you can even avoid that and separate the black from the white.

Now you have an actual filmed element, which will behave exactly as liquid should, in a completely black and white format. With minimal tweakage, there is your track matte. Than any layer below can be set to whatever color you want, and the colored layer can also be adjusted with Hue and Saturation, to bring out any shade, hue you want, all dictated by your filmed element.

It is surprisingly easy to do, and I have had some neat results with a plastic garbage bag and a can of compressed air. Hold the can upside down, dowse the back with a burst, and sit back and watch as coolant turns white and dissipates. Very handy.

And it doesn't have to be something that impacts the poster board. Even a burst of white paint in front of the board through something as simple as a turkey baster will give nice gushing effects.

You can do far more than you think with just your camera, black poster board, and white liquids.
 
Matt Grunau said:
Nothing that Particular or any other plugin is going to look as good as if you shot an actual element.

Ordinarily, this is hard to do, with things like fire, sparks, and muzzle flashes. But what you CAN do, if film a high contrast matte that will work as a track matte in AE. A simple black piece of poster board, and some white paint, or any white semi-viscous liquid will do. Simply put you camera zoomed into to the black poster board, and spray your white paint onto the board. A little extra lighting would be handy, but with Levels, you can even avoid that and separate the black from the white.

Now you have an actual filmed element, which will behave exactly as liquid should, in a completely black and white format. With minimal tweakage, there is your track matte. Than any layer below can be set to whatever color you want, and the colored layer can also be adjusted with Hue and Saturation, to bring out any shade, hue you want, all dictated by your filmed element.

It is surprisingly easy to do, and I have had some neat results with a plastic garbage bag and a can of compressed air. Hold the can upside down, dowse the back with a burst, and sit back and watch as coolant turns white and dissipates. Very handy.

And it doesn't have to be something that impacts the poster board. Even a burst of white paint in front of the board through something as simple as a turkey baster will give nice gushing effects.

You can do far more than you think with just your camera, black poster board, and white liquids.
Click to expand...

Very much agree and I must say videocopilot rocks....I'm going to try an upload the footage tonight if not I will try and do it tomorrow sorry working on a promo video that needs to be finished tomorrow for work...ahhh I will try and get it up asap
 
I brought the file with me to work today so I can upload it. I tried uploading to youtube last night the video quality was pretty good but for some reason the audio was synced up? wtf Will try again today.
 
Thanks. That looks pretty good. definitely gives me hope. is that using the videocopilot stuff? i think the real issue with your footage is that it'd be too darn dangerous to twirl that desert eagle.
 
that looks like a great book. i'm gonna peruse it at barne's & noble this weekend. do you actually own it? does it cover what i was asking for? thanks.
 
michaelcorvin said:
Thanks. That looks pretty good. definitely gives me hope. is that using the videocopilot stuff? i think the real issue with your footage is that it'd be too darn dangerous to twirl that desert eagle.
Click to expand...

lol, thanks using most of videocopilot stuff and some stuff I made...DV rebels guide is great book I have it.
 
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