How I made my Star Trek battle in After Effects

For my earlier tutorial showing how to create a photon torpedo and have to automatically explode on impact (or rather “at the second keyframe”), I created a short skirmish between the starship Enterprise-D and a rogue Klingon bird-of-prey. It was all just for a bit of fun, but I ended up using lots of different techniques, so I thought I’d share here a quick explainer for everything involved.

In this behind-the-scenes video, I talk you through where I got the models, how I used Video Copilot Element to animate them in After Effects. I also talk about how I made the decloaking effect, the Klingon disruptor beams, shield hit and finally how I used a custom map for the Shatter effect to break apart the bird-of-prey.

Oh yeah, I also show how to use @BorisFXco Particle Illusion to create the nebula background and then slow down the particle animation without creating any jerking motions.

Enjoying this tutorial? Sign up for the Creative COW Newsletter!

Sign up for the Creative COW newsletter and get weekly updates on industry news, forum highlights, jobs, inspirational tutorials, tips, burning questions, and more! Receive bulletins from the largest, longest-running community dedicated to supporting professionals working in film, video, and audio.

Enter your email address, and your first and last name below!