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  • Into The Dust By Vikas Nagolkar

  •                                                                 Into The Dust      

    Untitled-1.jpg

    Hello my name is Vikas Nagolkar, and I am pleased, through this article of how to create “Into The Dust”.Just for specification, I created this title animation, actually while working on opening sequence for my project. And I was very much wondering about how to get on with this one. So finally I mounted bunch of resources and amended it in After Effects. Before it was like, I was going to simulate my final animation into 3DS Max, but as we all know that rendering can take lot of time,especially when you create and simulate any kind of Particle Effects in Fume FX and or in Afterburn, no wonder if you use Krakatoa you need to crank up your particles in lacs or in millions. Anyways all this system can be easily carried out in any of your favorite Compositing application(s). You may choose whichever application you feel it suites you. All we require is our desired results.

    Alright we should better get started with this.

    INITIAL SET-UP:-

    • Just fire on your After Effects set up from program file.
    • Go to “Composition Menu” and choose “New Composition” OR hit “CTRL+N”. And amend the following changes mentioned below along with screenshots.

     Screenshot_1c.jpg

    Notify below your composition changes:-

    1. In composition name tab, rename your composition to “Into The Dust”.
    2. Just below comes your Composition Resolution  OR Input Resolution. Now the input resolution may depend upon either your’s  OR  client’s requirement. This too may differ if you’re freelancing then its client’s choice. But if you’re into production then whatever suites Production Pipeline, you need to feed it in. Here I have amended 1150 pixels in width and 550 pixels in height. So your overall resolution contains approximately 6,32,500 pixels. You can create as many custom resolutions and make your own “Resolution Libraries”. Once you stay put in any production houses round the globe you’ll find many different kinds of libraries right ranging from “Models, Shaders, Lights, Rigs, MoCaps, Particles, Codes , etc”. Alright I am not going deep here discussing about building libraries for production.
    3. Keep your Pixel Aspect ratio intact to square pixels.
    4. Now the most important system of your composition settings, “FPS-Frames Per Seconds”, amend 60 FPS. Now you can input your own requirement here if you want. So each second will carry out 60 frames of data. Now if you calculate 60frames of data in just 1 second of time, so what about 1 FPS?Right. If my calculations are right then according to 1second we get  0.016666666666666666666666666666667 frame of databeing stored…WOW now just imagine.how much FPS are important in our digital life RIGHT.YES Anyways let’s take this tut further.
    5. Now the last step to finish up your composition settings.

    StartTime Code [0:00:00:00]

    Duration [0:00:10:00] amend these values and hit OK.

    • But incase if you want to change your composition settings, go top “Project Window and select your composition and right-click it, a small roll-out will appear naming “composition settings.”, there you go then change what you feel and hit OK again to approve these modified settings.
    • Also bring in your required footages in project window.

    WORKFLOW:-

    • Now, drag “Particles 09.mp4” footage into your composition and rename it as “Lens Dust ver 001”, here we won’t be converting this layer from 2D into 3D, we’ll keep as it is. But we are going to use Curves and Glow Effect.Add Curves and Glow effect from Effect menu. Give some brownish but dirty look color by shifting Red and Green and Blue channel close to each other. And for Glow effectjust change these values.

    Glow Radius = 142.0

    Composite Original = Behind

    Glow operation = Add

    Just Scale up this layer by value = [x,y] = [107.4212,110.3658] %, while rest of the properties remains the same.

    See screenshot for Curved Effect reference.

    Screenshot_LensDust_ver_001c_Curves.jpg      

    1) Duplicate the layer once and rename it as "Lens Dust ver 002"and change the layer to “Lighten Mode”. Just change Glow Radius to 62.o, while other values remains unchanged.

    2) Create an new adjustment layer and rename it as “Dust CC 1” and amend Hue Saturation , Curves and Glow Effects from Effect menu. Change the following values.

    Hue Saturation:-                                                                             

    1. Click on colorize and enable it.
    2. Colorize hue = [43x + 32.00 ]
    3. Colorize Saturation = 25
    4. Colorize lightness = -16

    Glow Effect:-

    1. Glow Radius = 51.0
    2. Composite original = Behind
    3. Glow operation = Screen

    Curves:- Go for some darkish color (see screenshots for better visualization).

     curve2c.jpg

    3) Now time for Text Animation Go to Text tool and type “Into The Dust_ver_01”. You can type it in your own way and choose whichever font you may like. I have used “28 days Later” font. Size, you may choose your choice. Also go to Layer Menu à Layer Style a Bevel and Emboss. Not finished yet editing our text. Yet we have to tour towards amending some values to our Transformation properties. But before we change it convert this layer into 3D layers. Amend the following values.

    Anchor point:-[x,y,z] = [-8.0 , 16.0 , 0,]

    Position:- [x,y,z] = [576.0 , 261.0 , 54.0] and

    Scale:- [x,y,z] = [105.3551 , 105.3551 , 105.3551] %.

    Bevel and Emboss values:-

    Depth:- 233.0

    Size:- 2.0

    Angle:- [0x + 1200]

    Altitude:- [0x + 690]. ..DONE.And time to add some basic effects. Go to Effect menu à Generate àFill and give the following value…

    H [24]                   R [208]

    S  [49]                    G [147]

    B [82]                    B [106], as for curves dark it a bit to match the background footage. Just duplicate the text layer once, but just increase Bevel and Emboss size from 2 to 4. While other properties remain the same.

    4) All right as far as text animation is considered, you can either create your own text-based animation or-else you can choose in-build, in and out animation from “Effects&Presets”.

    5) Create an new adjustment layer and rename it as “CloseUp”.Go to Layer menu à Distort à Magnify, hit it to make it active and amend the following values.

    Magnify Parameters:-

    Centre = [572.9167 ,313.5965]

    Magnification = 235.0

    Link = Size and feather to magnification

    Size = 100

    Feather = 89

    Scaling = soft

    Blending mode = Screen.

    6) Time to introduce the “EYES” of software à “Camera”. In order to bring camera in AE go to , Layer à New à Camera. It would open up Camera settings and amend the following changes.

    Zoom:- 394.4252 mm

    Film Size:- 36 mm

    Angle Of View:-54.4322 mm

    Focal Length:- 35 mm

    Enable DOF and give Focus Distance = 405.714 mm

    Aperture:-25.3 mm

    F-Stop:- 1.4

    Blur:- 100%

    7) Again create a new adjustment layer and rename it a “Tint”. Now , again, Effect Menu à Color Correction àTint. And change amount of tint to 25% from 100%. Add curves effects and brighten up the scene a bit.

    8) Now to give more old aged look to our scene, lets add “Real 8mm Film.mov” clip. Now as you’ll see that clips acting in our scene is not at good length. In order to match our sequence . Select the clip “Real 8mm Film.mov” à Right Click a Time aTime Stretch.

    Time stretch to 200%. By putting this new value your old film clip will now have a new duration of [0:00:10:01].

    Yet it is not meeting our requirement. So in order to achieve it, let us change its Transformation parameters shall we.

    Scale:- [x,y] = [197.7778 , 156.6667] %.

    Finally change the current layer mode to “Multiply Mode

    9) So closing up we’ll make our final move towards creating a new adjustment layer. Name this layer “Final_CC”. Just add Hue Saturation again.

    Amend the following changes.

    Hue Saturation values.

    1. Click on colorize checkbox.
    2. Colorize Hue = [1x + 200]
    3. Colorize Saturation = [42]

    10) So our last step would be giving final touch to our scene. Here we’ll add third party plugin called as “Magic Bullet Looks v2.0.0” from Red Giant Software LLC. You can download this plugin from Red giant website (web address here).But first create a new adjustment layer and rename it as “Final_Looks”.

    So go to Effect Menu àMagic Bullet Looks àLooks. In your edit control panel you’ll get EDIT button, hit it , a new window will be opened. We get total 18 in-build preset, you can choose whichever fits your scene best. Not only you are limited to that but also you can manipulate them all and create custom Looks by naming them. So this custom looks will be added in Looks Magic Custom library at the top most of these presets.You can check out my file for Looks I have added.

     looks_c.jpg

    TAKING IT FURTHER:-

    11) Now there are ways to take this scene further. Just create a new adjustment layer and add Colorista II . effect from Red Giant Software LL.C and give littledirtier look color like warm brown with average saturation content. Play with Colorista , a new way of giving Color Correction without stressing duplicating Curves Effects over multiple layers. Similarly you add Mojo again from Red giant Software LL.C.

    Check out the screenshot for better visual.

    Resources Used for this tutorial:-

    A:- Third Party.

    1. Magic Bollet Looks.
    2. Magic Colorista II.
    3. Mojo.

    B:- Footages and Clips:-

    1. Lens_Dust_ver_001 Footage.
    2. Real_8mm_Film.mov Footage.

    C:- Website:-

    1. Third Party web address (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/)
    2. Footages and Clips (http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/)

    I heartily appreciate Video-Co-Pilot for providing freely available footages and clips. Especially footages like particles used in this tutorial are made through splashing “flour” and capturing the full on-floor simulation on HD cam. These kinds of footages can be manipulated in various forms without any pressure or any conversation.

    Secondly I appreciate guys from Red Giant Company for producing this excellent application, a kind of support for completing After Effects package to higher level. Thumbs Up:

    Note:- I have tried to explain each and every step cut-to-cut. If I’ve missed out anything from the start of this tutorial till end please let me know for sure.

    About the author:- Hailing from Mumbai,India, VikasNagolkar is  a Asst.Director, Digital FX Artist and Research Visionary. He started out as an junior faculty at MIDDS(previously known as DASA), where he use to teach 3DSMax and Photoshop.His shift of taking Autodesk Certified plugins became the first to qualify and technically certified of FX from MIDDS round over in India. Also becoming the first researcher of "Physics Algorithmt in CG Application(s)"and "Proof of there contains no 3D in any 3D Application", which finally leaded him to take roles like  FX Concept Designer, Environmental FX Artist, Technical Head and Technical Trainer, Public Speaker, Pipeline designer and Technical Supervisor and now as Research Visionary. Due to his experience in this industry he’s known as “Particle Boy”, “Technical Kid”. The author has been interviewed by Emiko Amagawa from Miyazaki Film Production for Japan Broadcasting Corporation in a special project “NHK(Nippon HosoKyokai)”.

    Company Name:- Pixel Paradise(NPO-Non Profit Organization(A freeware CGI and VFX course)).

    6thSense(Sadaytana (Developing research stuff)) officially opening in 2015,still under process.

    Hobbies:- Research and Development, Designing Pipeline, Articles and Video tuts, Consultation and Advisory.

    Gender/Age:- Male/27

    VikasNagolkar [FX Artist, Research Visionary]

    Email-Id:-vikasnagolkar@gmail.com / vikasnagolkar@indiatimes.com

    Cell:- +91-9004528717 / +91-9967513049 / +91-9867575583.

    That’s all for now guys. Till then HAPPY AFX.