One of the toughest things to achieve in After Effects is a true feeling of space, environment, and temperature even. One
way to infuse your scene with reality is to add light—and not simply a
spotlight with a feathered edge and a few shadows here and there, but a
realistic light cast from the very essential form of illumination: fire!
[If you’d like to preview the final effect, click here to download. All files are for personal use only.]
1 Import Image Files
The specs for this project are an NTSC D1 square-pixel composition of
720×450 pixels, 29.97 frames per second, six seconds long, a black
background, and named “Flame.” The first step is to assemble the
elements you want to use. In this case, we’re going to use three items: a
logo (or icon), a texture for the floor, and a movie clip for the
flame. Double-click in the Project panel to bring up the Import dialog,
then locate the items you wish to use. For our example, we’ll import an
1800×1800-pixel file called “Texture.psd,” and a small 350×73-pixel
vector logo called “Energi Text.ai.”
2 Import Movie File
Now locate the movie clip of fire or flame you wish to use (this could
also be one you’ve created with a particle system such as the one in
Motion). We’re bringing in one of Artbeats’ wonderful flame clips from
their ReelFire 1 collection, “RF108.mov.” Now all these items are
assembled in the Project panel, we can start to piece the scene
together.
ARBEATS REELFILE 1 COLLECTION
3 Create 3D Floor; Rotate
Select your texture image in the Project panel and drag it into the
Timeline at 0 seconds. Click the 3D Layer icon in the Switches panel for
this layer, then go to the Active Camera menu at the bottom of the
Composition window, and choose Custom View 1. Press R on the keyboard to
reveal the layer’s Rotation property, then click on the +0.0° value
next to X Rotation and change it to +90°, pressing Enter to confirm when
done. This rotates the texture to become the floor.
4 Add 3D Logo; Position & Scale
Press C on the keyboard to access the Orbit Camera tool and drag it
around in the Composition window to view the scene from a better angle.
Press V to return to the Selection tool. Now, drag your logo or icon
(ours is Energi Text.ai) image from the Project panel into the Timeline
above the image at 0 seconds also. Turn this into a 3D layer, then drag
the green Y-axis arrow in the Composition window to position the logo
above the floor. To scale the logo up or down, press S on the keyboard
to reveal the Scale property and adjust it to suit your design.
5 Add 3D Flame; Adjust Anchor Point
Now drag in the your flame clip at 0 seconds in the Timeline—note how
the layer’s anchor point is in the center of the rectangle. Select the
Pan Behind tool (Y) from the Toolbar and drag the flame’s anchor point
toward the lower middle of the flame itself. This will make scaling and
positioning easier, as this is the point from which the layer will
transform. It will also give us a handy reference for the position of
our light in a short while.
6 Key Flame; Make 3D Layer
Let’s quickly remove the black background of the clip. Press V to return
to the Selection tool, then go to Effect>Channel>Shift Channels.
In the Effect Controls panel (ECP), choose Red from the Take Alpha From
option to use the layer’s red channel to create transparency. Now, go to
Effect>Channel>Remove Color Matting and the original brightness
and color of the flame will be restored. Now, click this layer’s 3D
switch in the Timeline to turn it into another 3D layer.
7 Scale & Position Flame
Switch from Custom View 1 to Front, then hit S to reveal the flame’s
Scale property. Drag to the left on any one of the three 100% numbers
and scale the flame down to the size you prefer. Then use the green Y-
and red X-axis arrows in the Composition window to move the flame into
the desired location. In our case, it’s going to sit directly on top of
the I in ENERGI.
8 Add Point Light; Turn On Shadows
Switch back to Custom View 1 now, then go to Layer>New>Light and
in the resulting Light Settings dialog, choose Point from the Light Type
pop-up menu. This creates a light source that shines in all directions
(we called it Firelight). Turn Casts Shadows on, set the Intensity to
120%, Shadow Darkness to 60%, and the Shadow Diffusion to 20%, then
click OK. A new light is sitting toward the lower right of our scene and
you should be able to see it illuminating a small section of the
floor—not a bad start!
9 Position Light within Flame
Let’s position the light in exactly the same location as the flame, as
that’s where the light source is to come from—and this is also why we
adjusted the anchor point of the flame! Select the flame layer, hit P to
reveal its Position value, click on the word Position, and then press
Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy the value. Now, select the Firelight
layer, press P, select the word Position, and press Command-V (PC:
Ctrl-V) to paste in the copied value. Perfect—except everything’s gone
dark, and there are no shadows…
10 Adjust 3D Material Properties
Adding lights in After Effects only illuminates layers that are a
distance from the light source (such as the floor); but this light is in
the right position, so let’s tell the logo and flame to
self-illuminate. Select both the logo and flame layers in the Timeline,
then hit AA to reveal their 3D Material properties. Set the Accepts
Lights option to Off and you’ll see the layers again. Now, select only
the logo layer and change Casts Shadows to On.
11 Change Light Color; Add Intensity Expression
Now, let’s make the light source much more realistic. Double-click the
Firelight layer to bring up the Light Settings dialog, click the Color
swatch and change it to a light orange. Click OK, then press AA to
reveal the Light Options in the Timeline. Hold down Option (PC: Alt) and
click on the stopwatch next to Intensity to add an Expression field.
Type “wiggle(10,40)” in the filed and then press Enter to confirm. If
you scrub the Timeline now, you can see the light intensity flickering
very nicely on the floor.
12 Add Position Expression
To now reveal the shadows and make them “dance” as the flames jump
around, let’s use a similar Expression for the Firelight’s position.
Press P to reveal its Position property, then Option-click (PC:
Alt-click) on the stopwatch to add an Expression field. This time, type
“wiggle(2,100)” and then press Enter to confirm. If you now press 0 on
the keypad to RAM Preview, you’ll see the shadows cast from the logo
moving very nicely across the floor, and also beautifully diffused as
they get further away from the light source.
13 Add Camera; Adjust & Keyframe
Now we can create a simple camera move around the logo to really get a
sense of space. At 0 seconds, go to Layer>New>Camera, then choose
28mm from the Preset pop-up menu in the Camera Settings dialog. Click
OK, then in the Composition window, switch back to Active Camera. Press C
and drag the Orbit Camera tool around to set your starting view, then
press P and click the stopwatch to add a Position keyframe for the
camera at 0 seconds.
14 Animate Camera
Hit End on the keyboard to jump to 6 seconds, then drag the Orbit Camera
tool again to set your end view. Do a final RAM Preview, or render, and
you should see some wonderfully realistic lighting effects, making this
simple scene so much more alive. Remember the light intensity, color,
shadow darkness, diffusion, and position movement, as well as the
relative distances between the light, the floor, and the logo can all be
adjusted to get infinitely varied results. Enjoy!
Jumat, 01 Agustus 2014
Creating Fire in After Effects CS3
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