New Debris and Water Blast FX
Using a mortar and compressed air we were able to shoot a variety of debris and water up into the sky!
We had a 12×20 green backdrop for the dust elements to key and keep the shadow. For the water burst elements we backlit the bursts and used a 20×20 black backdrop to pull the key.
These were all shot at 4K resolution, slowed from 120fps to 29.97fps
Find the Dust/Debris Blast VFX Here
Find the Water Blast Effects Here
HD Mountain Set Extensions
Download HD Mountain Set Extensions for your Matte-Painting scenes here!
It’s time to take Middle Earth to your front lawn with our epic mountain asset collection! Matte-painting with these HD set extensions makes the process of large-scale terraforming as simple as a click! Just take a look at this before and after using the mountains from our library:
I’m sure we’ve all been jealous of directors such as Peter Jackson or Christopher Nolan who travel to the most stunning locations around the world to shoot their next blockbusters. But thankfully, you can bring these landscape setpieces to your next project without any hassle! We have made sure to blend certain edges such as the foreground, meaning that your footage will blend into these lord-of-the-rings worthy landscapes easily! All you will need to do is to colour correct the image until it fits your scene.
All of the assets in our mountain collection have been created with creators in mind, making sure that the quality is great enough for you to scale, rotate and colour correct these assets to perfectly fit your scene without any loss in photorealism. With all of the backgrounds and foregrounds pre-keyed, you will be free from the exhausting process of doing it yourself, giving you the extra needed time to spend on your projects.
We have a huge variety of terrain to choose from, ranging from rocky mountains to tropical white-cliffed forests, you will be in no short supply of inspiration and content, so feel free to start browsing through our assets now!
HD Planet Textures for your Space Scenes
Download your HD realistic planet textures here!
Planets are the unchallenged champions of establishing shots, with the power to transport a viewer to the other side of the universe in an instant. This is why some of the most iconic imagery in cinema history has featured these planetary spacescapes. Think of almost every opening scene in Star Wars, or the first minute of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Wall-E does a great job of using planets for storytelling too, as viewers can see how our entire planet has become polluted into a brown-muddy looking ball in future history.
We’ve taken the step to create these ultra HD planet texture maps to help you build your own space-scenes. Knowing that the universe has too many planets to count, we’ve made sure to feature many variations such as deserts, volcanic and ice planets.
How do you create the planets? Well, these textures can be applied to spherical surfaces either in 3D modelling programs such as 3ds Max, Cinema4d or Blender. If you’re wanting to keep it simple with Adobe After Effects, you can use the CC Sphere effect (in the Perspective category) to make the planet even quicker! Game creators can apply these textures in Unity to help make their sci-fi game even more stunning!
We have gone ahead and built out additional maps for even more control, such as height maps and illumination maps for the volcanic planets, so 3D artists can take their renders even further by giving true detail to their terrain.
Creating using our planet texture maps!
Free Aspect-Ratio Plugin (Premiere & After Effects)
Finally, one-click aspect-ratio bars for Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects. Download Windows Version Here or Download Mac Version Here
AutoCinemabar is the free alternative to using aspect ratio templates to give your video the cinematic edge you need!
Stumbling through hundreds of different pre-made templates has always been the least exciting part of an editors workflow. So we’ve decided to give everyone an early birthday gift, our free plugin!
The plugin gives you the power to create the essential aspect ratios that your video needs. It takes your videos width and height into account, meaning that the aspect ratios you create will be mathematically perfect for any resolution, whether that is 1080p, 2K, 4K, 8K, 16K and beyond!
We have considered the most popular aspect ratios used in the industry and added them onto a quickly accessible preset list! This includes 2.35:1, 2.39:1, 1.9:1, 1.85:1 and more! We have even set the default value to the cinema standard of 2.35:1, meaning you will have your aspect ratio built out in an instant! Leaving you with more time to build out your projects creative side.
If you’re hungry for extra features, this plugin gives you the power to:
- Set custom aspect ratios ranging from 1-3000!
- Adapt to any resolution
- Choose from preset templates including such as 2.35:1
- Grow or shrink the letterbox with the “constrain” tool
- Set colors for your aspect ratio
- Use a horizontal or vertical orientation
- Toggle transparency in different areas
- Speed up your workflow, and master the art of making your video look cinematic – fast!
Using the plugin is the easiest part of the process. Simply select your video, go to the “ProductionCrate” category in your effects list, and choose “Auto Cinemabar”. Your video will have an aspect ratio within the blink of an eye! If you have multiple clips that you need to apply the aspect-ratio to, then you can apply our plugin to a black solid layered above the entire composition, and check the “transparent image” button. This will make the black layer transparent in the centre, allowing you to see your wonderful video beneath!
MotionCrate Script – Realistic Motion Reaction!
Download the MotionCrate Script and give your stock VFX assets some life. This is the BEST script for creating realistic fire in After Effects.
Unarchive the .ZIP and install the MotionCrate Script into your After Effects>Scripts folder.
Launch the script in AE by going to File>Scripts and selecting MotionCrate
Here’s what you will see –
The script works best with Fire and Smoke VFX. It was based off of a tutorial by Wren Weichman
If your Fire, Smoke or other VFX Element is pre-keyed, you will need a solid matte for the script to function smoothly. Create a new solid and drop it beneath your VFX element.
Precompose your Solid and your VFX Element together.
Because this script uses the puppet tool, we recommend drawing a mask around your solid, making sure the VFX Element stays within the bounds of your mask
Navigate back to your main composition so you are no longer in your precomp. Select the ‘Setup Endpoints’ button.
This will create a null with 2 points, Top and Bottom. Move those points to their respective top and bottom of the solid you have masked out.
Enter the number of Nulls you would like to create. 3 is the minimum recommended. The smoother you want your reaction curve, the higher the number of Nulls. We do not recommend more than 7 for any purpose.
Hit the Create Nulls button.
Ignore the Wide Elements button. If you have a wide-based VFX Element, watch the video above to learn how to use the MotionCrate Script with it.
Then enter the amount of Wind, Wind Turbulence, and Delay you would like. You can always adjust these settings later when the Control Null is generated.
Select your precomp with the VFX Element and solid. Find your Puppet Pin tool. You need to put one pin for every Null you generated. Place the Pins approximately at the top left of each null.
Note: Ignore the Endpoint Selector Null, which is usually in the center and Red, when placing your pin points.
After placing your Puppet Pin points near the top left of each null, hit the Generate button.
You may see the image shift as the puppet pin points jump to the null points, but if you were close with your puppet pin point placement, the shift should be minimal.
There will be a Source null created. If you don’t see the null names, select ‘Layer Name’ above your layer window. The Source Null controls all the movement. If you are tracking to an object or person, you will want to parent your source null to that position.
The Control Null allows you to fine tune your Wind, Wind Turbulence, and Delay settings. If you push any of these settings too far, the effect tends to degrade.
And that is how you use the MotionCrate Script!
Broken Spine Tutorial
Using a dummy, a jumpsuit and some VFX magic we were able to re-create this fun effect from Deadpool 2.
We dropped the dummy from the top of the staircase a few times. When we had a fall we liked, we locked the camera down. We took a reference photo with a phone and then positioned Chris in roughly the same position as the dummy.
From there, it was a matter of transitioning from dummy to man with masks. We added some fake-pan with scale and position keyframes to give the camera a little movement during the transition.
Create Convincing Telekinesis-Effects
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Visual Effects will always work better when used with practical effects. This telekinesis tutorial is no different.
Using a real knife instead of a CGI knife, we were able to achieve realistic shadows, reflections, and motion far faster and cheaper than we could with a CGI knife.
The Wisp Assets are some of our favorite effects. They are easy to overlook because they lack the flashiness of other FX, but they’re subtle touch and unique looks are why we use them in nearly every-other tutorial.
The Sorcerer’s Fireballs collection was an obvious choice for these effects. The fiery energy balls are nearly the exact look as those used in the Marvel movies.
Using the Solid Composite effect and a Tritone effect you can easily achieve the look and color you need from the Scarlet Witch telekinesis tutorial.