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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects helicopter effect from aerial still

  • helicopter effect from aerial still

    Posted by Dan Huber on October 14, 2008 at 1:46 pm

    I’ve got an aerial still and helicopter SFX with which I can make a credible animation of a fly over. I’m wondering whether anyone can suggest some ways of creating subtle tweaks that might add to the realism of the effect. Maybe a way of simulating the shadow from rotating blades or some vibration that will punch my sequence up a notch – thanks,

    Alan Mills replied 17 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Alex Dinnin

    October 14, 2008 at 2:24 pm

    without seeing the shot it’s a bit difficult to say.. but camera shake works well.. also depending how high the copter is, some paper flying around is good. there is a tutorial on video co pilot that shows a power ball type thing…. however he creates some flying paper. check it out.

    simulate the shadow by duplicating the helicopter, downing the levels so it is black, bluring it a little then scaling in -100% in y.. should get you started

    sorry I have wittered a bit here. but I hope it helps

    Alex

  • Dan Huber

    October 14, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    Thanks for the input. I’m sorry, I wasn’t very detailed in my description of what I have so far. My aerial shot doesn’t include the helicopter. It’s actually a still of a Power plant taken from an elevation to show the full property. By scaling and rotating the shot and adding SFX, I can give the impression that video is being shot from a helicopter. But, I’m wondering if a little vibration (how little?) and/or simulated shadow from the blades might turn this from a nice effect into something special. The sequence only involves 15 seconds in a 15 minute safety video so I don’t want to go crazy but I think with some advice I might be able to punch this sequence up – thanks,

  • Alan Mills

    October 15, 2008 at 11:47 am

    You could get around the perspective issue by using the Photoshop Vaniushing Point technique to import the power station as a 3D set of planes. Not perfect but you can get some small perspactive changes from a still photo that way.

    Videocopilot has a video tutorial covering this if I remember right.

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