VFX Techniques: Creating Particle Effects

Course details

VFX Techniques is back with a new course on particle effects—everyone's favorite feature for creating realistic smoke, fire, explosions, and other phenomena. Author Lee Lanier tackles a wizard battle, producing Harry Potter–style effects as the two wizards fight with their magic wands. Using this sample footage, he shows how to generate particles with After Effect's built-in plugins, dives into the settings to adjust their appearance, and retimes and color grades the scene to create a particular magical mood. Plus, learn about green-screen removal techniques, background plate repair, CG particles, and rotoscoping techniques. This course covers puffs, sparkles, blobs, flares, smoke, sparks, and blasts, so you'll be prepared to create particles for almost any scenario.

Learning objectives
Setting up the project in After Effects
Generating a particle blob
Hand tracking particles into the plate
Patching the background
Creating particle puffs, sparkles, and explosions
Motion tracking elements
Color grading shots
Keying green screen
Layering particles

Concepts

Introduction

Welcome
Using the exercise files

Getting Started

Breakdown of final comps
Setting up the project in After Effects

Prepping and Repairing the Plate

Working with Cineon files
Color grading for night
Generating a particle blob
Hand tracking particles into the plate
Patching the background

Working with Particles

Creating a particle puff
Creating a trailing particle sparkle
Creating a streaked particle blast

Relighting the Scene

Creating light spill
Adding a fake shadow and flare

Motion Tracking Damage

Copying footage and effects
Motion tracking elements
Continuing with motion tracking

Creating Smoke, Sparks, and Blasts

Creating smoke with simple particles
Creating sparks with particles
Reusing particles
Adding the blast as a 3D layer
Integrating a CG explosion
Creating glowing embers
Rotoscoping the foreground
Color grading the shot

Working with Green Screen and Clean Plates

Preparing the green screen
Keying green screen
Time remapping and split screening
Reusing particles

Utilizing CG Particle Simulations

Preparing CG particles
Using the Liquify effect
Layering the particles
Final relighting

Conclusion

Looking at the final project
Next steps