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underwater light rays with Trapcode Shine
Hi All,
I have a client project where I’m trying to create the look of underwater light rays (with a pov as if you were looking straight up into the sun).
They provided some excellent ref. photos, and despite my best attempts with Trapcode Shine and blending bits from other effects, etc., I can’t seem to recreate the right quality for the streaks in terms of texture and form. I have some small reference photos I could share, but it doesn’t appear you can upload images here.
Thanks for any help/advice,
~Chris -
4 Replies
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Wasn’t exactly sure what you wanted but I took my best guess and threw this together for you.
I couldn’t find a image looking straight up into the sun underwater but the principles are the same.
https://hanifl.com/cow_upload/2up_underwater.jpg <-- 2up before and after image. https://hanifl.com/cow_upload/underwater_lightrays.mov <-- 5mb animation The shine is applied to caustic animation that is turned into a 3d layer and then rotated into proper perspective. The volumetric rays are masked solids with a wiggle expression applied to the opacity to give it a more underwater feel. Only difference between this perspective and looking straight up I would probably use more perspective shine layers to make the rays shoot off each side. Hope this is helps. If you want the AE file to look at I can upload it. Just let me know.
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Thanks so much Hans, I would love the AE file to help deconstruct/rebuild. Still not sure how to upload here, but this was a good guess.
Thanks again for taking time to help me out!
Cheers,
~Chris -
Ok the file has been up loaded to:
https://hanifl.com/cow_upload/water_rays.aep <-- AE file https://hanifl.com/cow_upload/caustic_settings.jpg <-- caustic generator settings https://hanifl.com/cow_upload/Underwater_Statue.jpg <-- background image I didn't upload the caustic animation as it was a 120MB image sequence and it's faster to explain how to create it. Go to https://www.lysator.liu.se/~kand/caustics/
the caustic generator is a free program. I have uploaded a screen shot of the settings I used in the generator, it’s a super easy program to use.
Only other thing you need to make this work is the plug-in shine which is applied to caustic image sequence layer named cs_[001-120].bmpOne you generate out your caustic image sequence just import it into the project, select the caustics layer in the comp then holding down alt on a PC or option key on a mac, click and drag the new image sequence on top of the old layer. It should replace the layer but retain all the settings of the old one. Hope this makes sense if not repost and I’ll clarify myself. G’lucky
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Brilliant, thanks again! This all makes perfect sense, and that’s very cool about the caustics creation software. I work in C4D as well, but haven’t gotten into this yet.
Very kind and generous of you to help me out.
All the best,
~Chris
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