• Adobe After Effects

  Ink Bleed Effect

  Posted by Francis Robertson on July 12, 2011 at 10:46 pm

  Hi, Don’t know if this is the right forum for my question but if not maybe you guys can point me in the right direction

  I want to create some nice ink bleed mattes like this…

  https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/681190/ink-blot.html

  as used here…

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr2uPF83-m0&feature=related

  and here…

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

  Now I know this effect has been discussed to death on these boards, but all anybody says is “get some paper and ink and just film it”

  Has anybody actually attempted that??

  I spent all day in my kitchen today with ink, food coloring, about 10 different types of paper and cloth, some wet some dry. I tried diluting the ink, filming from below a glass table, tilting the table to make the ink run, I’m out of ideas.

  The problem is that ink in real life doesn’t spread anywhere near as quickly or as satisfyingly as it does in these videos.

  If anybody has done this and done it well please get in touch as I’m tearing my hair out.

  All help much appreciated.

  Francis

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  Leo Hageman replied 13 years, 5 months ago 5 Members · 10 Replies
• 10 Replies

• 

  Stephen Smith

  July 12, 2011 at 11:17 pm

  Get out and film it yourself sounds like a lot of effort to me. I would not bother.

  What software are you using?

  I have done this many times with Compositor’s Toolkit 1 & 2. I would check out the clouds and inkdrops. It looks really cool.

  Stephen Smith
  Utah Video Productions

  Check out my Motion Training DVD

  Check out my Motion Tutorials
• 

  Francis Robertson

  July 12, 2011 at 11:31 pm

  Thanks for your reply, I’m using FCP & and Motion, I just want to create some interesting transitions/filters for a documentary I’m making.

  Yeah I’ve looked at Compositor’s Toolkit before and will definitely be using the ink drops as I don’t own a high speed camera.

  However I can’t see any nice ink spreading that covers a large portion of the screen on those DVDs, unless I’m missing something.

  Also, I enjoy creating effects that are purely my own work form start to finish, yeah its more hassle but it’s more fun. Plus I can’t see my production manager paying for stock footage unless my director says he has approved the look. Bit of a catch 22 situation.
• 

  Stephen Smith

  July 12, 2011 at 11:51 pm

  You are in luck. Use the Bezier tool and create two points. Check Outline in the Shape – Style tab. Click on the Shape Style button and choose something like Liquid, Ink Bleed 01 Heavy. Increase its Width. It can look just like an ink drop if the distance between the two points is small. For more texture duplicate it and change its opacity and make its width bigger then the top one.

  Next treat the white “ink drop” as an image mask. If you have not worked with image masks check out this link to my Creating a Hologram tutorial. What you are after is in the middle of the tutorial. Hope this helps and best of luck.

  Stephen Smith
  Utah Video Productions

  Check out my Motion Training DVD

  Check out my Motion Tutorials
• 

  Francis Robertson

  July 12, 2011 at 11:57 pm

  Great! Thanks Stephen, I’ll try that in the morning (London time).
• 

  Stephen Smith

  July 13, 2011 at 12:01 am

  Sounds good.

  Stephen Smith
  Utah Video Productions

  Check out my Motion Training DVD

  Check out my Motion Tutorials
• 

  Bill Kelly

  July 14, 2011 at 7:17 pm

  Nick at greyscalegorilla.com just put up a free ink preset for Trapcode Particular yesterday. You could give that a shot.

  https://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2011/07/free-3d-ink-preset-for-trapcode-particular/
• 

  Francis Robertson

  July 14, 2011 at 9:31 pm

  Thanks Bill, Looks Good.
• 

  Mirko Parmigiani

  June 28, 2012 at 8:59 am

  Hello All!

  I was wondering if someone could direct me to a good ink bleeding free footage I can use in AE ?

  Thanks

  Mike
• 

  Stephen Smith

  June 28, 2012 at 3:23 pm

  The only place I know of for free is Rampant Design: https://rampantdesigntools.com/rampant-design-tools-ultimate-free-sampler-pack/

  Stephen Smith
  Utah Video Productions

  Check out my Motion Training DVD

  Check out my Vimeo page
• 

  Leo Hageman

  November 26, 2012 at 2:58 pm

  Hi,

  I don’t know if you still need this but here is a good free download for ink spread mask:

  https://studiorethink.com/blog/view/ink_spread_mask#

  Good luck

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