how to do polaroid developing effect

[Steve Roberts]

I’d animate the levels or curves effect.

Steve

[Tom J]

Another way you can attempt this is to use Fractal noise in an adjustment layer above your target image.

Quite some time ago I worked on this idea and this is how I stacked my layers:

1. Polaroid frame (white border mask created in PS w/ alpha, saved as a tif and I applied “Bevel Alpha” to give it some shape in AE)

2. Mask to isolate the emulsion or photo area (I used a light gray layer color 225 rgb)

3. Adjustment layer w/ Fractal noise applied (set to “Cloudy”, Noise Type: Soft Linear, Complexity set to 9.0 and Transfer mode set to “screen”)

4. Source image to be exposed

I then animated over time to taste the following fractal noise settings:
Under Sub Settings:
Sub Influence
Sub Offset

Then I animated
Evolution and Opacity

Give it a shot, mine turned out pretty convincing from what I recall. If you work on the adj. layer or perhaps the source layer and try other filters you may be able to create a more defined edge as the source is exposed.

Hope that helps.

Tom Juliano
Visual Separation