Visual FX Archives - Page 4 of 9 - Video Production News

High Resolution Blood Texture Pack

This new texture pack got a bit messy! We’ve found ourselves needing extremely high resolution Blood Textures for our Horror and Action projects more and more often. We decided it was time to build out a proper bundle.

Bloody hand prints, splatters, sprays and droplets are all featured in the new pack available on GraphicsCrate. If you’re making a zombie flick, a thriller with a shoot-out or an apocalyptic video game you’ll find what you need here.

You’ll notice these have all been keyed out and are available as PNG files. We suggest using a blending mode to get the absolute best results possible from this pack. Choose Multiply, Overlay, or Soft Light blending modes yield the best results. I do suggest playing with your options to see what works best in your scene.

Color correcting to better match your footage or even adding some blur to drop the high resolution will tie everything together. We suggest using both video and image blood effects tandem to create the exact effect you need.

Download Photorealistic Office Equipment 3D Models

in 3D, Featured, Visual FX/by David Blaker

Download the Photorealistic Office Furniture and Equipment 3D models here.

We’ve built an exciting asset library of 18 high-quality 3d models designed to help you create digital office environments.

Many 3D artists may need to create an interior scene, but face the tedious task of creating each accessory that fits inside. That is why these 3D models are the ultimate time-saving bundle to instantly push your project forward, so you can spend more time working on what really matters in your scene.

Free members of the ProductionCrate community can download a selection of these models, while Pro members have access to the entire library. On top of this, Pro users can download 10,000+ assets from our entire library of content, including more 3D models, visual effects, graphics and sound effects.

Each office 3D model is built with versatility in mind, ensuring each of the designs are generic enough to seamlessly integrate with your scenes.

Included in the office collection is:

3D Office Chair model – black, red, blue
3D Desk model
3D Filing Cabinet model
3D Whiteboard model
3D Desktop Computer model
3D Computer Monitor model
3D Keyboard model
3D Computer Mouse model
3D Mug model – red, white, filled, unfilled
3D Paper Coffee Cup model – 4 variations

These model’s have been scaled to real-world size. This will allow you to easily integrate these into your scenes with instant realistic proportions.

Our 3D office furniture models have been thoroughly tested to ensure maximum realism and ease of use. Simply apply the textures provided in the download to your material, and make any further customisations to reach your desired look.

If you’re interested in more 3D models, we invite you to explore the rest of our RenderCrate library, a growing collection of premium 3D models that will help propel your art to the next level!

Download Free After Effects Glow Script – Crate’s Glow

in After Effects, Featured, Scripts and Plugins, Visual FX/by David Blaker

Download the Free After Effects Glow Script here

Believe it or not, there’s a lot that goes into a good glow effect! I’m overly passionate about this particular topic, and would happily spend hours fine-tuning each little pixel of my glow to make sure it makes my VFX absolutely perfect – and ProductionCrate wants to help you do the same.

Except it won’t take you hours… Instead, just a few seconds!

We have built out a powerful glow extension for After Effects, capable of producing the most stunning optical effects for your compositing projects with a single click. We’ve tested this tool to its limits, and are insanely proud of what this can do for VFX artists like you. Additionally, we’ve made this free to download for everyone!

So why did we make something that After Effects can already do? Those who have already used After Effects built-in glow effect already know the answer – it’s pretty ugly.

That leads us to our next question; what makes Crate’s Glow any better? Our script has been carefully designed to follow the natural physical properties of light, allowing the final result to imitate the realistic gradient-based falloff that we see in the real world. This eliminates the artificial look that After Effect’s built-in glow generates and instead gives us an incredibly aesthetic result.

Each parameter has been fine-tuned to create the best result with one click. You can easily make further adjustments with user-friendly parameters. These can be changed even after the glow has been created by using the sliders in the “Glow Controls” null layer.

Threshold – Minimum brightness for an area of the image to begin to glow

Intensity – Brightness of the glow

Spread – How far out the glow reaches

Flicker Intensity – Increase this to have the intensity shift over time

Flickers Per Second – How often the flicker fluctuates in a second

Tint Strength – When increased, the glow will match the chosen color more

Tint Colour – The color used for the tint

Vibrance – If you’re losing color in your glow, you can use this to boost the saturation

Usually, the glow effect will work without any extra squabble, but I’ll quickly go through how you can take full advantage of the features available.

Here’s an example of an explosion VFX shot that needs an exciting glow effect to give the fire some further intensity.

Since we’re organised (most of the time), we have the robot-explosion VFX layer separated from the background. Using keying tools, we can isolate the orange flames in a new layer.

Selecting this layer, and clicking “Generate” on our glow script will have the glow effect only applied to these flames, adding an extraordinarily epic glow to our fire VFX.

And it’s as simple as that!

To download and install the script, open up After Effects and navigate through File -> Scripts -> Run Script File. Find a folder you wish to keep the script stored, and extract “Crate’s Glow.jsx” to the new location. Double click the .jsx file and the script window will open.

If you’re looking for even more scripts to add to your workflow, check out our incredible Hologram extension!

SciFi Weapon VFX

in Featured, Visual FX/by Chris Kelly

We have traveled to the farthest corners of the galaxy. We have visited parallel dimensions and seen worlds previously undiscovered. Throughout our journeys we have been collecting assets for our latest collection of Visual Effects.

The SciFi Weapons Firing Bundle

This new bundle let’s you become the hero (or the villain) of your favorite SciFi films. Lasers, blasters, shockwaves and more are all available. These video effects all come with an alpha channel for easy compositing.

We are having an awesome time building these assets out, keep checking back as we add more in the future.

You’ll be needing some Sound Effects to go along with those SciFi weapons. Make sure to visit our SciFi Sound FX page for all you’ll need.

5 New Storm Cloud Effects

in Featured, Visual FX/by Chris Kelly

We have 5 New Storm cloud effects available for download.

These overlay style effects are built with compositing in mind. Instead of containing an alpha channel (transparency) as most of our VFX assets do, these storm clouds come with a black background. Black backgrounds make it easier to adjust color and luminosity channels to fit whatever your scene calls for.

(UPDATE: A user requested some storm-clouds with transparency, so those options are also available!)

Blending modes such as screen, add or lighten will work best for you. Blending modes are available in most common editing software, including Premiere, After Effects, Final Cut, Vegas, Hitfilm and more.

The new storm cloud assets work best with night or overcast scenes. The lumenance channel is the only visible channel, so blue skies will not work with these FX! If you are not getting bright enough results try curves, levels or duplicating your storm cloud layers.

These files are H264, we often avoid this codec for VFX because of the compression. However, for these storm cloud assets the real value is in the greyscale. With a high bitrate no useful information is being lost for these files, and you’ll be able to use them with ease!

Download Magic Beam VFX Assets

in Featured, Visual FX/by David Blaker

Download HD Magic Spell Beam VFX assets here.

ProductionCrate has launched a brand new collection of magical assets, inspired by the VFX from the Harry Potter franchise!

These incredible effects can be used in most editing software, with our top recommendations being After Effects, Hitfilm and Premiere Pro.

Using a screen blending mode is the easiest way for you to apply these effects with minimal effort.

These intense effects have been built with several different varieties, meaning each of your characters can have their individual styles. So whether you want an electrical theme or a fiery blast, this new effect bundle has you covered!

If you’re an After Effects user, applying a solid composite + puppet pin to the beam will give you control over the origin point. This creates the epic fluid appearance that we see in the movies.

You can also adjust the colour, brightness and speed of each effect, giving you unlimited variety.

Additionally, we’ve included some mind-blowing magic clash VFX assets. These are the explosive effects seen when two opposing forces collide in a dangerous wizarding duel.

This is the spectacular value of the magic effect bundle shine, as these can be blended on top of the magic beam effects to create an incredible composition. We’re especially proud of the liquid variety, which are an iconic visual from the Harry Potter movies.

To complete the pack, we’ve included an essential mix of magic flashes. These can be used when a wizard is casting a spell, or even deflecting one.

The quick yet detailed effects are perfectly designed to not look overdone, making it incredibly easy for them to blend into your action sequence.

Some of our effects work best when using auto-orient, which keeps layers pointed towards the camera when in 3D space. This can be accessed via Layer -> Transform -> Auto-Orient -> Towards Camera. When using this, combined with standard 3D beam layers, you can create the most incredible effects that are easy to customise and composite!

We hope you enjoy using these magic VFX assets. All of these are available for our Pro members, while free users can still access handpicked content!

If you want to learn even more movie-making magic, check out our Thor lightning VFX collection!

100 New Super-Powered Lightning Effects

in Community, Featured, Visual FX/by Chris Kelly

Download 4K Lightning VFX Assets here.

This is one of our largest releases ever.

Over 100 4K New super-power lightning effects are available for you to download. This massive pack offers variations for aerial strikes, ground hits, lightning with or without sparks and tons more.

We categorise these into four main groups, those being ground, wall, aerial and basic. For the ground and wall assets, the illumination on the surfaces has been built-in, meaning you don’t need to spend a single second working on realistic environment lighting.

With inspiration taken from Thor in Infinity War and Endgame, as well as the Flash, these effects maintain the epic plasma-arcing motion that defines the superhero look.

The VFX Artists at ProductionCrate tested this pack and are thoroughly amazed at how easy it is to use. By simply dragging on any effects you’ll see how well they integrate into your scenes with minimal effort.

Blending modes such as Add, Screen or Lighten will add that extra level of realism to your shots. Applying these lightning VFX assets onto this composition was incredibly easy, while also making it look undeniably epic!

You can add extra detail to these 4K assets by adding a simple displacement effect, which will give your lightning a far more jagged and powerful look.

With over 100 variations to choose from, you can combine, rotate, scale and adjust these in infinite ways for full control over your scene. In other words, these 4K electric effects will never fail you.

To test the true power of these assets, we took our favourite Hulk scenes from the Avengers movie and gave him the mighty powers of Thor. Take a look at what happened:

If you want to explore more of our superhero VFX collection, why not explore our Mysterio assets?

Free Hologram Generator Script (Download)

in After Effects, Featured, Scripts and Plugins, Visual FX/by David Blaker

Download Crate’s Free Hologram Script here

This Script has been updated for AE CC2021 on 12-17-2021

Create a Free or a Pro account, then simply click the link above to download! This script was built with an older version of After Effects, but is completely compatible. If you have errors appearing, please go to File > Project Settings > Expressions and change your expression engine from JavaScript to Legacy ExtendScript

Creating holograms in After Effects is about to get a lot more fun with the release of our latest script.

These effects are one of the most requested on ProductionCrate, our library of thousands of digital assets to help build your creative endeavours. We know that often you will need to control what’s projected in the hologram, which is why we released this tool to help you do exactly that.

Not only can you download it for free, but using it to create your After Effects hologram is a one-click process!

Every feature that you could possibly need was built into the script. This includes:

Color
Glow
Projection Rays
Chromatic Aberration
Scan Lines
Displacement
Flicker
Signal Interference
Framerate
Pixelate
Blur
Sharpen

All properties are fully customisable, meaning no matter what style you were aiming for, you’ll get there.

If you wanted to save your customised hologram, you can also click Animation -> Save Animation Preset to be able to apply it to any other shots you may have.

And if you wanted to save time, you might be interested in checking out the presets that we have built into the script. You can navigate through these by clicking the arrows on the pop-up window. These have been built to mimic some of the most recognisable movie holograms, referencing Star Wars, Iron Mans HUD, Aquaman and more.

To download and install the script, open up After Effects and navigate through File -> Scripts -> Run Script File. Find a folder you wish to keep the script, then extract both the images folder and “Crates Camera Script.jsx” to the new location. Double click the .jsx file and you’ll be ready to create your holograms in an instant!

If you’re wanting to save even more time, you can download these HD hologram VFX assets for your video.

Download New Cloud VDBs Set

in Featured, Visual FX/by Chris Kelly

We have 10 Production-Ready Cloud VDB’s ready for you to download.

These video effects were built in Houdini and are compatible with most 3D software. Load these VDB’s quickly into your scene using your renderer or plugin of choice.

This set of 10 includes the most commonly seen cloud shapes. You can mix them together for cloudy days and rotate them for an endless variety of options. These clouds also work wonderfully as storm clouds. Use a light with some randomized position parameters and have your light flash and fade over 15 or so frames. Place your light within your cloud VDB and you have quickly created your own storm-clouds!

We are having a great time building out FootageCrate assets based off of these VDBs. If you have an aerial shot you want to make more interesting by flying through some clouds or a CGI shot that calls for some interesting sky scenes then these FX are right for you.

We also have two other VDB categories already built out. Our Mega Tornado pack will let you create your own doomsday, while our mist pack is perfect for those SciFi and fantasy projects.

Using VFX Assets in 60fps (After Effects + Premiere Pro)

in After Effects, Featured, Premiere, Visual FX/by David Blaker

So you’ve embarked on a video editing project at 60fps? Here’s a little thing you might want to know!

For those who need an introduction, the “fps” refers to how quickly a video will switch between individual pictures to create the illusion of a movement, which begins at roughly 15 frames per second.

So why would you want to create a 60fps project if most video formats are at a standard 24-30fps? For one simple reason: it’s satisfyingly silky smooth.

Other than it’s an impressive visual effect, it can also help out for a variety of purposes. For example, gameplay videos are often recorded at 60fps since the games strive for immersion, and so this smooth playback helps gives the game a more natural look.

Another case is for motion graphics, where a clean art style compliments the fluid framerate. This is common in infographics, such as a personal favourite from the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt.

So what do you need to do to your ProductionCrate workflow to make the assets you download fit into your scene? As you may know, most of our FootageCrate elements are 30fps, so here is what we suggest to make it work.

Introducing a much-loved technique, time interpolation! This handy tool is the computer taking a guess at what is happening between two images. From the guess, it then creates an image which is what it predicts the image to look like halfway between the first and the second image. This means you can convert a 30fps asset into 60fps, as the software will create the 30 extra frames out of thin air. We need to apply the interpolation to the 30fps asset to convert it to 60fps.

Most mid-tier editing software supports this. Here’s how you’ll find them:

After Effects

– Right-click on the ProductionCrate asset, go through Effects -> Time -> Time Warp.

– Set the speed to 50%, and make sure your project is in 60fps.

Premiere Pro

– Right-click on your ProductionCrate asset, and select “Speed/Duration”.

– Adjust the speed parameter to 50%.

– Choose Optical Flow as the Time Interpolation method.

Congratulations, your video is now as smooth as butter!

If you’re interested in levelling up your compositing skills, you might also be interested in our recent rotoscoping course!

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