Surface cracking effects can add authenticity to your scenes. They can make earthquake VFX feel more realistic. Add them to scenes with explosions and apocalyptic bunkers. We added 19 new 4K cracking visual effects to FootageCrate.
These include flat surface cracks and wall cracking effects. The flat surfaces are great for applying onto 2D and 3D surfaces as animated textures. The wall cracks include debris particulate for extra realism. These effects pair nicely with the 4K ground crack effects on FootageCrate.
Cracking surface effects are versatile for VFX and 3D Artists. Composite them into After Effects to enhance impacts within the scene, or use as animated textures in your favorite 3D software.
Our Magic VFX assets are one of the most downloaded, most requested and most seen categories. We always get asked how we made them, and decided to finally show off some of our tricks! Since we were revisiting these effects, we decided to add 60 new Magic Impact and Block VFX assets.
Take a few minutes and see what goes into making these VFX assets, and how you can make some yourself! Now you can become a wizard just like Harry Potter in no time.
https://i0.wp.com/news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/harry_potter_magic_vfx.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920Chris Kellyhttps://news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Production-Crate-Logo.pngChris Kelly2022-01-24 11:28:342022-01-24 11:28:34Make and Download Magic VFX Assets
I remember coming across a web series 6 years ago that got me excited for indie creators. Usually, webseries tend to bomb. Even when they’re well made, they tend not to get very many views, especially compared to the one-off videos a lot of creators release.
I get it. Watching a series is a commitment we tend to reserve for television, while Youtube is primarily where we watch our short form content. However, Youtube is still one of the best places for indie creators to find their audience, so if they do pull off the unlikely and make a successful series I give them extra props.
Danny Shepherd and the Ismahawk team did just that. In 2014 they released Nightwing: The Series, the first episode now has nearly 8 Million views. Danny and the team have since gone on to make action-packed viral videos, working with some of the top creators you know and love. He was kind enough to sit down with us and talk about their insane journey. Watch the highlights of the interview here.
https://i0.wp.com/news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/danny_article_thumb.jpg?fit=1500%2C825&ssl=18251500Chris Kellyhttps://news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Production-Crate-Logo.pngChris Kelly2020-09-26 11:52:002020-09-26 11:52:00Meet Danny Shepherd – Director and VFX Artist
Explosion stock footage is the highlight of every artist’s asset collection. That’s why we have released our latest collection of exclusive professional 4K explosion effects for you to add to your video.
Over the 10 years that ProductionCrate has been helping visual creators, we’ve been figuring out what qualities make an explosion effect valuable for our users. We’re confident enough to say that this latest bundle blows our past explosion assets out of the water.
For those who are new here, ProductionCrate is a library of over 10,000+ assets for you to use in your creative projects. Our mission is to give artists the tools needed to realize their full potential. Pro members of the ProductionCrate community can access all of the 4K explosion VFX assets, while free users can access a wide selection of our content for free.
Adrian and Chris are here to give you the finest explosion compositing tutorial in ProductionCrate history.
We provide all of our explosion VFX in several formats.
Quicktime PNG – Lossless, includes an alpha channel
ProRes – Widely compatible, includes an alpha channel
MP4 – Includes a green screen that can be keyed in many editing software
PNG sequence – Each frame is stored as an individual image
This wide selection of options guarantees compatibility with most editing software, including After Effects, Premiere Pro, Hitfilm and many others. Simply drag and drop the explosion stock footage over the background video in your timeline.
These explosion assets have been designed to be as accessible as possible, so no matter if you are new to editing or a Hollywood professional, these are the right video effects for you. This has been achieved through careful consideration in how smoke and flames blend in with a background image. You’ll notice the power of this immediately when you test it in your projects.
Still to this day, it isn’t surprising when an explosion effect takes several hours to add to your project. You may run into issues such as clipping in the flames, inconsistent framerates, unrealistic appearances and lighting. We’ve eliminated all of these issues and more, so you can focus on making your explosion VFX as epic as possible, while also saving valuable time.
Ground illumination and shading is an essential part of creating an explosion effect. Interaction between the explosion and the ground is what makes VFX work. We’ve created a special ground blending add-on to compliment each new explosion effect.
To use them, simply overlay them over the effect. We recommend that two copies of the layer. One of them set to screen transfer mode, to act as the illumination from the fire. The second set to a multiply transfer mode to create the ambient shadow from the smoke. Adjusting the opacity of these gives you unlimited creative freedom in the look of your explosion.
You’ll be able to download these add-on effects by opening the asset preview and clicking the title on the top of the preview box, and finally clicking the download link.
We’re excited to see the action-packed videos you create with these explosion VFX assets. If you’re interested in more of our content, check out our grenade VFX.
https://i0.wp.com/news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Download-Car-Chase-Explosion-VFX.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920David Blakerhttps://news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Production-Crate-Logo.pngDavid Blaker2020-08-21 10:02:022020-09-09 12:16:41How to Create Hollywood Explosion VFX – After Effects Tutorial
We know how expensive adding visual effects to your films and videos can be. ProductionCrate started because utilizing VFX was a difficult and costly process. In our journey to bring you professional and accessible assets for your projects we have come across software that shares a similar vision. Here is our list of the top free software options for video effects.
Hitfilm Express
If you’re not familiar with Hitfilm then you’re in for a treat. Hitfilm Express is an easy-to-use professional editing software, free for anyone to download. It’s packed with features, allowing any creator to build complex scenes with convenient tools. We gave Hitfilm Express the #1 Spot because of the overall flexibility and functionality it provides. If you’re looking for one software to add video effects to your projects, look no further.
Hitfilm Express is great for compositing, tracking, masking, transitions, and more. The Hitfilm community is fantastic, and you’ll have no trouble finding plenty of tutorials to get you started. You’ll also notice regular updates to the software, keeping it modern and up-to-date. It’s our favorite free VFX software. Check out this color grading tutorial for getting started.
Blender
Blender has always been the go-to software for free 3D work, but with recent improvements it has become so much more than just the “free-alternative”. Since Blender 2.8 has been released we can comfortably say that the software is as capable and functional as most 3D software out there. The user-community is absolutely massive, with a hardcore following and thousands of helpful artists. You can find tons of tutorials online if you’re just starting out and get on your feet fairly quickly.
We primarily use C4D and 3DSmax for most of our 3D projects, however the exciting updates in Blender were too good to pass up. Adrian decided to see how much Blender he could learn in just one month, see how he did in the video below.
GIMP
Whether for story-boarding, matte painting, graphic editing or concept art you’ll need a good 2D image editor. When it comes to a free option, there is none better than GIMP. GIMP has be around for decades. It is open-source, so you will see a lot of plugins and assets built and provided by the community. They have basic tutorials to get you started, but we always suggest searching on Youtube for the best educational content.
The learning curve is considered somewhat difficult, but once you’re used to the functions and interface you’ll be cruising. We use Photoshop at ProductionCrate, but GIMP is considered the best free alternative, and it’s always awesome to use open-source software. Here’s a great video to get you going.
Unreal Engine
We were a little hesitant to add UE to our list, since the software is primarily used for game development, but with the recent advancements we’re seeing from the Epic Games team we had no choice! UE offers the amazing abilities to create hyper-realistic scenes, live in-engine compositing, set extensions, particle systems, dynamics, and entire worlds. The learning curve is far more difficult than any of the previously mentioned software, but there are more tutorials showing up to get you started. Since launching RenderCrate we’ve been diving deeper and deeper into the 3D world, so grasping Unreal Engine and utilizing it for our projects is something we’re hoping to tackle.
Check out this insanely cool video for UE4’s virtual production abilities below (also this mind-blowing demo for UE5)
https://i0.wp.com/news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/best_free_vfx_software2.jpg?fit=1500%2C825&ssl=18251500Chris Kellyhttps://news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Production-Crate-Logo.pngChris Kelly2020-06-01 13:40:022020-06-02 09:34:51the Best Free Software for VFX
We are expanding our Magic Library with 2 New packs!
Our Magical Shielding pack is perfect for creating your own Harry Potter style short film. We have a variety of angles for the longer clashing effects, as well as the faster magic blocking assets. These are all pre-keyed and easy to use.
The Magic Energy-Ball Kit has 60 different elements. It includes various assets which you can mix and match to create your own custom energy-balls, as well as some fully built energyballs for some quick compositing. You can create Dragon Ball Z inspired Kamehameha effects, Sci-Fi blaster charge up effects and of course magical energy-ball effects with this variety pack.
We will continue to add more Magic VFX soon, so keep visiting for more!
https://i0.wp.com/news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/energyball_thumbnail_no_text.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920Chris Kellyhttps://news.productioncrate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Production-Crate-Logo.pngChris Kelly2020-04-15 08:13:382020-04-15 08:13:38New Magic Effects Available
Download loopable COVID-19 backgrounds, overlays and effects for your videos here.
We have recently received many requests to help editors create their videos covering the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In response, we created a brand new collection of assets and stock footage that will help you create your information videos, PSAs, news reports, infographics and more. We have also created 2 unique 3D models of the COVID-19 virus.
To maximize detail, the assets are provided in resolutions ranging from 1080p to 4K, ensuring you maintain a high-quality professional look in your project.
Many of these stock-footage elements are even loopable, meaning they can repeat for an unlimited amount of time without any “cuts” at the end.
3D Artists can access 2 unique COVID-19 virus models here
You can also download the coronavirus videos in 4 different file formats to maximise compatibility including:
MOV – Maximum quality, with pre-keyed alpha backgrounds for instant application
.MP4 – Compatible with most software, with a built-in green screen
ProRes – Best format for Apple devices
PNG – Individual frames in a file, with pre-keyed alpha backgrounds.
ProductionCrate is a collection of over 10,000 stock video elements, VFX assets, sound effects, 3D models, graphics and more, helping over 700,000 creators like you. Feel free to explore our huge collection of content!
With the help of these stock footage elements, we hope you’ll be able to level-up your projects. We ask you kindly not to spread any misinformation related to COVID 19. Remember to stay safe!
