Create 3D Clouds in After Effects with Displacement Maps
My Patreon: www.patreon.com/NBCmotion
To skip right to the actual cloud bit, skip to 4:51 in the video. (I fell into the trap of rambling a bit in this one, my apologies)
With the Displacement Map effect in After Effects you can manipulate the position of an image pixel based on one of many image properties (luminance, saturation, etc) associated with that pixel (or a pixel from another image in the composition).
In this video I use an example of storm clouds to illustrate the power of the displacement map effect. The dark parts of the image move in one direction while the white parts move in the opposite direction. The middle value pixels move very little (or not at all). When animated, this effect can give the illusion of parallax, which causes the clouds to appear to move in 3D space.
I begin the video with a demonstration of the effect using a 2D grid to illustrate on a basic visual level what is happening.
While this particular effect has some limitations, it is a quick way to add movement to a static image and give a little life to an otherwise unremarkable scene. I used this effect in a short film once to replace an empty sky with a storm (which didn't appear on set for the shoot, despite the director's repeated requests). You can see that film here: vimeo.com/139484761 (the sky replacements appear later in the film, during the storm sequence)
#AfterEffects #DisplacementMap #VFX
Пікірлер: 21
Explaining effects like how you did for the displacement map is a great help and leads to grow because it gives people the information to experiment on their own and get more out of it.
"That's a fun parlor trick, depending on who your friends are." Well said, well said.
wow, this is stunning, the clouds were really kind a looking 3D at 6:04, thanks for this tutorial!!
Thanks for this great tutorial! It's amazing what you can do to a still photograph giving it the appearance it's a 3D animation!
i like ur vibe ! great content
Nice and informative. Thanks!
Excellent, thanks for this great tutorial, very helpful
your really good at teaching tysm
Very helpful. Thank you!
Thank you for this tutorial! Thumbs up!
It's an amazing animation. I am struggling with the idea of deploying 5-sec animation to my web app: from total darkness to total sunlight in 5 sec and back to darkness again. I´m sure this displacement animation is the right tek to do that - but I couldn't find an artist to achieve that, yet. I have this crazy thought to ask whether you could consider this challenge, on a commercial basis of course? Just a question :)
This tutorial is amazing, thank you! Subbed. This is where the fun begins > : D 7:00
great!
You have the best voice ever 🤙🤙
@SilverRadio231
3 жыл бұрын
We're at the right kind of party 🥳🥳
This mans invented the new Tiktok trend lmao. I don’t know off he’s proud or ashamed.
Blurring the source of your displacement map - next damn level
Quick question... Can I do this with CS4 version? I'd really like to avoid infinitely paying for a program that I would use like once every 2 or 3 months, but would need for decades. So I stuck with the CS4 version. Can I use it to do this? Thanks. ☺
@NBCmotion
2 жыл бұрын
Since I've never used CS4 myself I cannot answer for sure but you can probably find out if you try it. I'm pretty sure these same displacement effects existed in previous versions.
anybody know why my displacement map isnt showing up ?
@NBCmotion
2 жыл бұрын
the most likely thing is you haven't selected the "effects and masks" option when choosing your reference layer