Shatter question

[Travis Kelly]

Not sure what you’re doing wrong, but I just did a test and it worked fine, take the picture of the brick wall, I put a blank red solid under it, dropped the shatter effect on the brick wall layer, and it works perfectly, the wall shatters, and the red solid is underneath. Hope that helps

[David Bogie]

[Grayson Sedory] ” I’m having a problem when I apply shatter it applys it to all the layers, what the best way to apply shatter to a layer toward the end of the timeline and have another source behind it? “

Shatter is highly advanced because of its complexity and dozens of hidden parameters. But Shatter can only be applied to a single layer at a time so I’m assuming you are either precomposing improperly or trying to use Shatter on all layers.

Shatter starts affecting pieces immediately unless you keyframe the size of the force sphere. Do not attempt to keyframe the Strength parameter. It does not control which pieces begin to move, it just controls how fast they move. There is extensive SHatter help in the AE Effects documentation but you sort of have to search for it.

Here’s some help from the author of the effect, Brian Maffitt: The physics of Shatter are applied to any piece that has permission to go. You give a piece permission to go by touching it with the Force Sphere. You can movie it around or you can change the diameter of the sphere. If you move it around, you get a line of pieces flying off the layer. if you change the diameter, you get a shockwave effect. Remember there are two Force Spheres.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Grayson Sedory]

Hi, I greatly appreciate both your responses, I think my difficulty has to do with something simple to the trained AE eye however my project is due next thursday and this is just a tiny aspect of it that is neccessary only to my creative aspirations. That being said I came up with a round about solution. I completed and rendered out the comp with the brick wall exploding and put that back into another comp and used a luma key to key out the black and put the background footage under it. I know it was a somewhat unconventional way to come up with the solution but it worked just fine. I’m a student at Boston College and I’m taking a course focusing on After Effects next semester where I’m sure i’ll be able to fill in my AE gaps a bit. Thanks again.

– Grayson