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Adding Displacement Map to Force Field Layer
I had created a force field around myself. Using footage of myself and then 2 solids which hold the fractal noise and other such effects to accomplish this. The solids have masks that surround me keeping the force field in place. My question is to get a wavy looking heat waave effect hence using a displacement map I cant get anything to work. I make a grey solid put it under my footage and yet I get nothing. I precompose the solid and try again adding it my video layer setting the grey solid and yet nothing. Any help would be great. I nested the solids or at least i think i did and nothing.
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4 Replies
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NO basically i have my layer with the force field footage
I want to then make the inside of the force field look wavy using a mask and a displacement layer. When i make a grey solid put it under the footage and apply a Displacement map to the footage and use the grey solid as the displacement nothing happens. If i use the layer itself as the map it works a little bit. -
The displacement map effect only sees the original unaffected gray solid in the same comp. If the fractal noise effect were applied in the same comp as the displacement map effect, the displacement map effect does not see that effect. That’s the way AE works: if an effect points to another layer, it only sees the original source (the gray solid), not any effects (fractal noise) applied to that source within that comp.
That’s why you have to precompose the layer that has had fractal noise applied: so that the displacement map effect points to the precomp. If you then try to apply any effects to the precomp within the main comp, the displacement map will not see those either … because it cannot see any effects applied to any layers within the same comp.
It’s like “this comp ain’t big enough for the two of us”. The displacement map effect won’t see any other effects applied within the same comp when pointing to a layer that has had effects applied.
Like Dave says. Pretty much.
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I could be reading it wrong, but it sounds like you are just adding a gray solid with no effects or anything added onto it… When used in a displacement map, perfect 50% gray is read as ‘Do nothing’ or ‘No Displacement’. In order for the displacement map to have any effect at all, then it has to have varying grayscale values. The farther from 50% gray the values go, the more displacement will take place in that spot. Check out Aharon Rabinowitz’s Tutorials on displacement mapping for more details.
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Ben your right I need to add noise or somethign so its not just solid grey. Im just confused on when and when not to use precompose and if you need to nest the displacement or not.
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