• Adobe After Effects

  BLOOD! Mixed results with Mr. Mercury. Any better options?

  Posted by Rich Ramazinski on November 11, 2005 at 12:53 am

  ah, the lo-budget horror movie.

  i’m trying to make blood trickle down a wall, and am having mixed results.

  currently, I’m using the CyCore Mr. Mercury plugin, which looks passable until you realize that the random drips do not deviate from a linear path.

  blood, or other liquids would change course a little bit as they trickle, right?

  I’ve tried to make the particle emitter lead the drips, to no avail.

  I don’t have the time nor equipment to film some practicle drips.

  Any suggestions?

  Thanks.

  r

  Steve Roberts replied 20 years, 5 months ago 6 Members · 9 Replies
• 9 Replies

• 

  Jack Hilkewich

  November 11, 2005 at 1:50 am

  I’m not sure that I’m qaulified to answer this but if you get a good drip going in Mr Mercury couldn’t you duplicate the layer a few times then mask out different drops on each layer so you end up with an isolated drop on each layer then animate each layers position to suit your needs? Could put them through the wiggler to randomize them a bit as well.

  Sorry, I am fairly new at AE. I hope this may spark some better way to do it.
• 

  Steve Roberts

  November 11, 2005 at 4:50 am

  Well, based on my limited experience with blood and walls, I’d say that the blood only changes course in proportion to the variations in the depth of the wall surface. It’s a fluid, following the easiest course of flow. Rough walls produce variations, smooth walls would not. Another variation source would be the amount of oil or moisture on the wall, where sometimes liquids detour around dry spots.

  You could use the displacement map effect to detour the rivulets somewhat — maybe use a shot of a wall, then use the same shot as your displacement map.

  Steve
• 

  Antony Buonomo

  November 11, 2005 at 12:12 pm

  Hi

  I got some good results with –

  3D stroke
  Roughen edges
  CC Blobbylize

  all applied to a set of coiled up paths: think of them as a nest of snakes – animate the ‘head’ end in the direction of trickle by moving the end points and also keyframing the ‘end’ property in 3D stroke, then select a bunch of points in the main part and scale them up to make the ‘splat’ bigger (if you need to, I was doing more of a blood-seeping-out-then-trickling thing)

  Contact me if you want to see a clip and/or want more detailed settings

  Antony
• 

  Steve Roberts

  November 11, 2005 at 12:47 pm

  I’d like to see that. Maybe you should write a tutorial and submit it to the COW, Anthony …?

  Steve
• 

  Tim Vaughan

  November 11, 2005 at 4:34 pm

  I am quite interested as well…

  Tim
• 

  Eran Solomon

  November 11, 2005 at 9:44 pm

  ya I think a lot of people would find this usefull . .. please post the video\the way of making

  Thanks 😉
• 

  Rich Ramazinski

  November 12, 2005 at 12:17 am

  Hey- thanks for all the help, guys.

  I think i’m going with Steve’s Displacement map and Mr Mercury together.
  Although I may play around with Antony’s idea in the near future.

  Thanks again!

  r
• 

  Antony Buonomo

  November 12, 2005 at 1:07 pm

  Steve

  That’s a flattering request! But I’m not sure I’m to it, however I would love to have a go, so maybe if someone from the COW would point out the basics I’d be happy to try.

  Antony
• 

  Steve Roberts

  November 12, 2005 at 2:15 pm

  Hey, send an e-mail to Kathlyn.

  If she hasn’t written you already. 😉

  Steve

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