Creating a Short Film: 10 VFX Effects

Course details

Get a practical look at the world of visual effects (VFX). In this installment of the 13-part Creating a Short Film series, filmmaker Chad Perkins focuses on how to tackle the effects in the VFX portion of the post-production workflow. Throughout the course, Chad demonstrates how to create the visual effects seen in The Assurance, the short film featured throughout the series. Chad goes over a variety of common VFX tools and how to really sell effects shots. He digs into how to create magical effects with Trapcode Particular, Trapcode Form, and with native After Effects tools, as well as how to create a cool explosion shot by compositing live action fire footage, create swirling particles in Cinema 4D, build a custom lens flare using Optical Flares, and much more.

Learning objectives
Selling effects shots with sound design and practical lights
Making magical effects with Trapcode Particular and Form
Building a custom lens flare with Optical Flares
Making a 3D magic ball from 2D Fractal Noise textures
Rebuilding shots digitally
Creating an explosion shot
Using dust footage to make fiery embers
Creating swirling 3D particles in Cinema 4D

Concepts

1. Introduction

01 - About this training series
02 - The Assurance
03 - Introduction to this course
04 - About the third-party plugins used
05 - Dealing with the exercise files

2. The World of Effects

06 - An overview of common VFX tools
07 - The importance of sound design in effects
08 - Using practical helps
09 - Utilizing contrast to enhance effects shots
10 - Using 32 bits per channel
11 - Why the VFX were done in 4K

3. Ta'ani's Off-Screen Light

12 - Approaching VFX shots
13 - Supplementing the practical light
14 - Anatomy of the lens flare
15 - Enhancing with Particular dust
16 - Removing the background bird
17 - A quick look at the reverse shot

4. Making Ta'ani's Magic Eyes

18 - Painting the eyes in Photoshop
19 - Tracking the eyes in After Effects
20 - Creating depth and movement with Fractal Noise
21 - Coloring the effect to composite better

5. Forming the Little Ball

22 - Preparing the shot
23 - Making the little ball with Trapcode Form
24 - Adding particles with Form and Particular
25 - Making the tiny swooshes
26 - Simulating a rack focus effect
27 - Simulating the ball being blown away

6. Creating an Explosion Shot

28 - Combining live action explosion shots
29 - Creating a realistic glow in front of objects
30 - Compositing branches over the explosion
31 - Adding embers created with Trapcode Particular
32 - Rotoscoping the characters
33 - Freezing areas of the frame in time
34 - Simulating camera shake

7. Forming the Big Ball

35 - Examining the original plan, and why it changed
36 - Creating the textures with Fractal Noise, part 1
37 - Creating the textures with Fractal Noise, part 2
38 - Making the textures equirectangular
39 - Assembling and compositing the ball components
40 - Coloring the ball
41 - Creating the fiery top in Trapcode Form

8. Effects in the Finale Sequence

42 - Custom lens flare, part 1 - Streak
43 - Custom lens flare, part 2 - Glow
44 - Custom lens flare, part 3 - Multi-iris 1
45 - Custom lens flare, part 4 - Multi-iris 2
46 - Gathering the ball with Element 3D
47 - Creating Golhatn's eyes
48 - Using dust footage to make embers
49 - Creating swirling particles in Cinema 4D
50 - Compositing live action fire footage
51 - Adding heat distortion

Conclusion

52 - The importance of failure
53 - Previewing the color course
54 - Final thoughts