Wall effect

Robbie Comeau

Robbie Comeau

Como's back. back again
Hey guys, im writing a film, right now, and im at a part which im seeing if i can do in After Effects, and maybe Final Cut.

Its a boy leaving a forest, into a new path, and its kind of a small entrance. Buyt in the movie, he cant enter, because there is a "wall" type thing in his way, and he cant get by it.

Its hard to explain, but he touches it at a close up, and iwant him to touch like a weird wall thing where its blocking his way.

How can i achieve this in after effects?

thanks
 
Are you talking an "invisible wall" a la "Donnie Darko" or "Dungeons and Dragons"? If so that's easy enough. It really depends on where it sits in relation to your camera, and the actor. If the wall is between the actor and the camera, then you put the effect you want (do a search on creative cow, or check the sticky in the AE thread. Wonderful tutorials that can convey more than text would here). If the actor is between the wall and the camera, then you need to mask anything between the wall and the camera you don't want distorted, then you do the exact same thing as you would have if they weren't there.
 
I think ill do the wall between the actor and camera. Just to make things easier..

I could add a new layer, with a fractal noise, add a warp, and motion key frame the warp, and bring the opacity down ot bout 50 percent. Might look cool
 
I'de think more along the lines of displacement maps for ripples and/or compound blurs to enhance

You could also add a fractal noise layer with either the displacement map or blur layer acting as a track matte, and setting the noise layer to Screen and maybe giving a little bit of glow.
 
when you do the zoom out in the beginning, the warped wall should match. So scale the the effect down as you zoom out, to simulate its inclusion in the shot
 
yaya i was going to do that, but i got to lazy, and i have 512 of RAM, so ya...wanted to get it over with lol...im getting ram soon btw
 
getting lazy and giving up is never going to build a skill set that you can market :)
 
But i no how to do it...And i just wanted to test it out...My mac is terribly slow with 512 mb in a.e....

question

i ahve the imac, 1.83 ghz, fairly old. I understand i got 256memory in two slots. Can i take one out, and put a gig stick in it? thanks
 
depends on your motherboard. Probably it uses DDR400, and I think you can find 1g sticks on www.newegg.com

but make sure that they will work with your motherboard.
 
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Hey como, try putting displacement maps on the energy layer when her hands hit. Like water rippling from a stone in a pond, but break up the shape so it's not perfectly round. That'll look cool.

I didn't get that you wanted a visible wall. Nice job on the test.
 
SeanEmer said:
Fractal Noise would do the trick
Click to expand...

Yup, or even something like Wave Warp. Any of the "Warping" functions would do. Hell, you could even use Liquify if you wanted. You WILL have to precompose that layer for it to act as a displacement properly after you alter it, or the alterations wont show through. That's the nature of the pipeline in AE.
 
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