I want to create the effect of a wicked witch melting. Have a witch standing somewhere then melts down to puddle, nothing left but her hat. Does anyone know how I can create such an effect? ???
Your BEST bet would be to do it in 3D using fluid effects and mapping textures to it, displacing it, etc... That would give you the most realistic approach.
In after effects you'll be pretty limited to the look you can pull off (no camera panning down over the puddle, etc). Play around with displacement maps and mesh warp.