Marvel Energy and Aura Flames in After Effects

A no-particles flame effect you can pull off with no plugins.

There’s some really cool VFX in the Captain Marvel movies, but my favourite is the firey aura that appears when Carol Danvers starts to use her powers. The process involved was shared in behind-the-scenes videos when Captain Marvel (2019) came out. In a nutshell, the VFX team recreated Brie Larson in 3D, and used the 3D model to drive complex particle simulations. Which apparently took months to refine. It’s a bit of a shame they didn’t consider using just After Effects to get a similar result! A similar effect can be seen in ‪@Netflix‬ Sandman series (Rose in the garden).

Obviously what they did was way more complex and stunning, but in this tutorial, I show how to use a few, simple included effects to create the look of energy emitting in waves from a figure. I start using the rotobrush tool to quickly isolate the hero from their background. Then using the Find Edges effect, I get outlines for all their detail. CC Vector Blur along with some Fractal Noise creates the flame look and 4-Color Gradient adds some colour. This will get you a basic look, but there’s nothing stopping you adding layers of this effect, with different settings to create richer, more complex flames.

Can’t see this video? Click here! If you are in Safari, hover over “Safari” in your menu, click “settings for creativecow.net” and toggle the “Auto-Play” to “Allow All Auto-Play”.

Enjoying the news? 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!