Hey Moira! It seems that you didn’t read my reply in the other post; unfortunately, it’s not possible to achieve the same exact result without plugins in AE, maybe using real footage of ink going inside water and then using some advanced layering of effects. Blender can do this but if you never used it, some pain is in the horizon.
If you wanna go the easy way, I recommend installing “Trapcode Form” and following this tutorial. if you have 30 seconds of your time, please lemme know if that helps!
Here is the tutorial, i hope that helps getting you in the right direction! You need to install the trial or the full version of a magic plugin called “Trapcode Form” 🔥
Hey Chirs i recorded a 15 minute guide helping you optimize AE for performance + 2 methods to make proxies (one standard, one more powerful more complex), Enjoy! 🔥
Hardware wise, make sure your processor has at least 16 physical cores running at 5hgz + minimum 64gb of ram, keep your projects at 8bpc and enable (cuda) if that’s available. Good luck and let me know if you like the help!
without a plugin? no it can’t be done to look even similar to that. I do know how to achieve it with a couple of paid plugins, i can record a free tutorial for you if you want!