Displacement Map in Aharon Rabinowitz Video

[Mike Clasby]

Did you download the Project Files from his tut?

Open, Displacement_Part_1_AE_65.aep

The Table comp is where he does the Force Field, with Fractal Noise, Spherize and more. Pick the comp apart, see what makes it tick. Try to recreate it step by step.

The rain drops in the intro looks like it could be using CC Drizzle as a displaement on the wet street, or maybe since Aharon is a Particle Illusion guy, using a raindrop patters (a PI preset, or his modification) as a displacement layer.

[Espnetboy3]

very true , i will ahve to pick this thing apartment it looks terrific. I just dont understand why use black solids? thanks yikes

[Mike Clasby]

He used the Black solids to produce the Fractal Noise patterns, they need to be on a layer. I think he could have started with any color solid (Ctrl Y) as the color disappears when you add Fractal Noise. He has two layers because they are different at some times, and reinforce each other at others (like stacking modes in PS). You’ll figure it out.

[Espnetboy3]

Yikes I tried it and basically did what he did but my fractal noise my force field is not moving at all it stays still. I even added seeds which he has set to zero but it doesnt work nearly as well. My problem I believe is in my displacement map. I dont think I did it right, i got a bit confused with the precomposing part.

[Mike Clasby]

Try selecting the layer, then “U” reveals keyframes, maybe you missed some animation.

Alos “E” reveals effects, “EE” reveals expressions.

[Espnetboy3]

Interesting yikes I never thought about expressions. I figured making a force field looking thing wouldnt be too hard in AE. Even if you have a particle system it shouldnt be that challenging. Something Like you see in SW ROTS movie in the begining.

[Mike Clasby]

I just meant the “U” , “E”, and “EE” as a way to tear into a layer, to see what makes it tick.

Aharon’s effect is deceptively simple (no expression I can find)in that there aren’t a lot of keyframes (Fractal Noise), only evolution from 0 to 2 over 4 seconds (120 frames). He puts Spherize on that to give it the nice Global look (bounded by the Mask) and then Hue/Sat to get the colors and Saturation he wants, then Fast Blur to smooth things out. Not many keyframes or expressions here, just a smart combination of effects. There are also a few keyframes for Blur and Opacity.

It’s a little tricky looking at the Table comp in that the two Black Solid 1 layers can be confusing when you open the Effects palette to figure it out. Rename the second layer Black Solid 1b and then you can see the from tabs in the Palette, which is which. Drag the 1b out of the palette and you can see the Effects for both layers side-by-side. The only difference I see between the two is in the Fast Blur, being Vert&Horz in 1, and Vertical only in 1b (and the Blur going to 0 at frame 50, where the opacity drops to 30%). Also the Hue in 1b is blue vs purplish for 1.

I thinks it’s almost amazing that just the difference in Vert&Horz to Vert only gives those beautiful vertical bars that really sell the effect.

It’s the same Black Solid in the Precomp (that’s the displacement map in Table comp), except no Hue/Sat or Blur.

And by “E” on the Table layer you can see how the Displacement Map Effect was applied.

So there not a lot of keyframing here (just smart keyframing) and no expressions I see anywhere.

But it sure is nice when the tutorial authors give you an aep so you can break it down to see what makes it tick.

I don’t know what “SW ROTS movie” is. Is it something I should see, effects-wise?

[Espnetboy3]

Sorry yikes its Star Wars Revenge of the Sith Episode 3. And yes if you havent seen them you should at least for visual eye candy. I believe I got this thing down my whole problem is the force field is stagnent it doesnt move. I think its a problem with the way i applied my displacement map. I simply just added a displacment map to my layer I wanted effected and then precomped a black solid. I dont think this is right tho.

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

Sorry I didn’t label those layers I was rushing to get them up and I forgot to do it. I’m totally guilty of my biggest pet peeve. sorry about that.

Thanks for your help in expling things folks.

To animate fractal noise, just keyframe it’s evolution property. That’s the property that animates the noise – otherwise it stays still. You need at least 2 keyframes for this to work.

The rain drops in the intro looks like it could be using CC Drizzle as a displaement on the wet street, or maybe since Aharon is a Particle Illusion guy, using a raindrop patters (a PI preset, or his modification) as a displacement layer.

this one was done in maya using a displacement map I made with particleIllusion. – however, you are right you could do with CC drizzle and a little work. I just used footage from an old project.

Even better, if you watch part 3, I show you how to do it from real footage of water – so if you haven’t watched that part yet, you can get is as a podcast now, and it will be available as a regular tutorial very soon.

https://www.creativecow.net/aepodcast

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Mike Clasby]

I didn’t realize he didn’t see the second keyframe for evolution of Fractal Noise, probably because you offset the layer 10 frames to the right to give yourself a little lead-in time, and it slid out of view. I realized it must have been there somewhere, otherwise no change possible, but I think he missed it.

Aharon, thanks for all the good stuff, will go look at the pod cast asap,
looking forward to your take on time displacement.