Creating Fire and Brimstone Type Animation Motion Graphics in After Effects

Motion graphics and VFX artist Ran Ben Avraham shows how to use the 3D and compositing features in After Effects to create a volcanic landscape and 3D type.

After Effects is a very versatile tool. On one hand, it's a powerful compositing and post-production program. On the other hand, it is capable of producing some very impressive 3D visuals, with the help of plugins like FreeForm Pro.

In this course, you'll learn to take advantage of these powerful features. The first half of this course uses AE as if it were true 3D software, producing a unique 3D landscape—a volcano spouting fire and brimstone—rendered into several image sequence passes. In the second half, author Ran Ben Avraham shows how to use AE's powerful compositing abilities to combine the render passes, add environment particles, build 3D text, and use a few post-production tricks to produce this "volcanic" scene.

Like all of our project-based learning experiences, each step of the process is rich with object lessons that are applicable to scenarios the motion design artist will face in real-world productions.

Introduction

• Welcome
• Using the exercise files
• What you’ll need to complete this course

1. Work with the FreeForm Pro Plugin

• FreeForm Pro plugin
• 8, 16, or 32 bits

2. Model the Volcano

• Model the volcano's basic shape
• Create the color map
• Create the basic displacement map

3. Add the Lava Flow

• Design and animate the basic lava flow
• Color the lava flow
• Paint the lava trails
• Add displacement to the lava trails
• Composite the lava flow on top
• Nonflowing lava animated texture
• Add lava flow to the color map
• Add lava flow to the displacement map
• Sink down the mouth of the volcano
• Create small lava veins
• Add lava veins to the displacement map

4. Animate the Scene

• Add a camera to the scene and rig it
• Animate the camera rig
• Use FreeForm Pro to fill in the blank gaps

5. Illuminate the Scene

• Design the scene illumination

6. Render the Different Passes

• Final tweaks
• Bump up the resolution tessellation
• Render the beauty pass
• Render the depth-of-field pass
• Create and render a lava matte pass
• Create and render a lava pass
• Create and render a sky background pass

7. Compositing the Rendered Passes

• Import and composite the rendered passes
• Clean up and place the precomps

8. Environment and Smoke Particles

• Build the environment particle system
• Divide the particle system
• Animate the Particular effect's visibility
• Create smoke particles

9. Create the 3D Text

• Design the text displacement map
• Create 3D text and place it in 3D space
• Adjust 3D text material properties
• Create a reflection map for the text

10. Add Depth of Field and Heat Waves to the Scene

• Add depth of field using the DOF pass
• Animating the depth of field
• Create and animating the heat waves map
• Adding heat wave displacement

11. Time Remapping

• Time remapping the scene
• Adding motion blur to the scene