[Scott Novasic]

when all else fails, manually do it. Im not totally sure what look your going for. A red light or a blue light shining on the cutout of a cop car will still cast a black shadow. Take your outline of the cop car and simply select the plug in drop shadow and multiply. Make sure your cutout is pure white. place it where you want it either in the pre-comp so it moves with the camera or track it manually for more of a stylistic look. Perfect and photoreal is not always the best way to go….

good luck

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

the plug in shade shape does an amazing job making ‘glossy’ buttons’ easy and with realism.

my 2 cents

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

trapcode 3d stroke is a nice option with even more flexability than the generate stroke feature allows.
If you have the plug in. It is a motion graphics “hall of fame” plug in…..

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

the easiest particle generator is particle illusion, and it could do this effect in no time flat and really nice looking, there are dozens and dozens of smoke presets that could work. Particular is an awesome tool as well, just slower and more complicated to get exactly what you want.
….
If you want to experiment, try something like the foam plugin and some blurs and glows, mess with the settings and you may get something acceptable. Animating the origin point and dispersion\life etc could lead to something useable if the shot is off in the distance some…

Good luck

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

I would recomend creating shapes in illustrator with 2 layers The top and the trail. You can scale them similar to the photoshop sample but not have to worry about how large you go.

OR create both the face of the stars and the trail directly in AE using mask tools, anchor points and animating vertexes. I would do it this way if it were me.

good luck

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

Thanks Ron, Ive used AE since version 1 when it was known as Cosa After Effects, and was competing against systems that cost hundreds of times more than AE and my Macintosh. Im a “child” of adobe software since all of their first versions and have been
spending my career using them all to create my imagery. For about 14 of my 17 years in the business I have also been a 3d enthusiast. Much of my work is built in a 3d application first, and accented in AE. So what I bring to this forum is a more of a mixed
media use of AE. Lots of post work and effects work. Some, but not much pure AE only animation. Id love to do more, but my clients, like the rest of us im guessing, tend to dictate what styles I use. I hope to chime in here and there when I think I can add something to a conversation or give a possible solution to someones AE issue. Glad to be here…

Scott

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

Hi, try the plug-in Radio waves. It should do just what you are looking for. You will find it under plug ins than generate.

hope that helps….

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

my guess is this was some hugely expensive “in camera” trails effect. With todays modern plugins, you would need these all shot on green screen. And then apply any number of trails effects, boris continuum complete has a decent one. Then its up to artistic taste as to what to apply ON TOP of the trails effects.
It looks like a kind of find edges\emboss effect and I would finish is off by applying “reel smart motion blur pro” to the whole thing. That will blur the images together in a ‘smoother way’
It can take a lot of effort to create, as Ron says, a CHEESY effect.

Good luck, its always fun. to me, to try and duplicate something created by a tool that probably does not
exist any more…

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

I would love to go. Never been to New Orleans. But this economy is making me stay home more than I would like to for now. Good luck with your gathering….

Scott

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Scott Novasic]

Dave has some good leads for you. My comments may not be of much help, but to me, this effect was most likely created using a custom written
effect in true 3d. (larger effects houses do this a lot, and have the talent in house to write the code) The fluid like disintigration is very complex and is
applied to both the removal of the ‘clothingskin’ layer AND the skeletal layer. If you are not a hi end 3d guy, a program like poser can give you a really good skeleton to match the general shape of the actor, giving you 2 layers of revealdisintegration. If the actor does not move in a complex way, I find using poser perfect for this type of effect (where a skeleton is needed – like cartoonstylized electrocution)
applications like real flow could have been used as well as composited stock splash footage. (i doubt that though)

the good news is, since as far as we know, people do not disintegrate in the real world, your artistic interpretation and your talent at executing the look is what will lead to success visually (or not)

the multilayered disintigration is the cool part, for me, on that shot.

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects