• Adobe After Effects

  Projection on to fog.

  Posted by Wildfire on May 22, 2006 at 11:26 am

  I would like to crate an effect whereby it looks as if a movie is being projected on to a blanket of rippling fog. Any idea on how to do this? I have tried using Fractal noise and vairous transfer modes and track Mattes, but it always looks as if there is just fog passing over the top of the image. I’m totally stumped.

  I have access to 3D Studio Max if that helps?

  Thanks

  Chris

  Wildfire replied 19 years, 11 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Alon_a

  May 22, 2006 at 4:26 pm

  This may not be easy in AE, but one thing I would throw into the mix on top of transfer modes is a Displacement Map. Use the fog layer (or, better, a copy of it) to drive the displacement, so the projected movie will get slightly distorted by the fog – as it should. You may need to tweak the levels of both the fog and the movie, and it may be better to make the visible background fog less contrasty than the fog used for displacement (this is why it’s better to duplicate the fog layer). I think you should be able to get a decent result this way.

  Another useful addition might be a volumic light representing the projector beam. Trapcode Lux may be useful here.

  By the way, this may not necessarily be easy even in a 3D app, unless you have a dedicated plugin for making 3D fog and are comfortable with texturing, lighting, volumic lights etc.

  Hope this helps,

  AA
• 

  Christopherbook

  May 22, 2006 at 5:06 pm

  Displacement map is the way. Lets say you have 2 layers. Fog & image

  Apply displacement map to your “image” layer, use the fog layer as a disp map. tweek the values, remember you may want to set the blending mode within the filter to luminance.

  duplicate you fog layer and put it ontop of the image layer. select your image layer and set it to luma matte the fog layer.

  This is a very simple techniq, but I
• 

  Chris Smith

  May 23, 2006 at 4:03 am

  You need a volumetric light. In AE you would need LUX.

  But it’s a piece of cake in 3D. Just create a light, set it to visible (with noise to break it up). Then in the light color channel, assign your quicktime movie. Then it will be a movie projected in fog.

  Chris Smith
  https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com
• 

  Wildfire

  May 23, 2006 at 10:15 am

  Thanks guys!! I’ll give both ways a go. I’m not to bothered about the volumetric effect and it doesn’t have to be too realistic, it’s mainly I wanted the image to deform slightly with the fog waving.

  Thanks

  Chris!!

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