What is the best software for adding special effects in post? Our needs are pretty simple right now, like muzzle flashes from gun fire, but we'd like to get something we can grow with.

I didn't know whether to post this in "post-production" or "technology".

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Jay Enterkin
for wholmmovies

I use adobe after effects. pretty easy to learn and it can some very cool stuff.

Thanks for your input! We're not using Adobe Premiere for NLE, could we still use Adobe After Effects or does it require/work better with Premiere?

Also, are you using the Professional Bundle or the Standard version?

Anyone else have comments about After Effects, good or bad? or using something else that you would recommend or stay away from?

I use adobe after effects. pretty easy to learn and it can some very cool stuff.

I use AE and the whole Adobe Pro Bundle. I like AE but it can be somewhat awkward. It’s really more useful on motion graphics like 3D animation and other cg graphics but I’m sure that you can get it to do muzzle flashes and stuff. Also, someone on the Adobe Expert Center website which can be found at http://share.studio.adobe.com/Default.asp may have already created the perfect effect where all you have to do is download it and implement it. AE will export to any format you prefer so should be useful across platforms. I’ve also heard good things about Artel Software’s Boris FX, Boris Graffiti, and Canopus’ Xplode but I have not personally used any of them.

I use FCP for editing and just export the scenes i need to fiddle with into AE. You can look at my last project at homepage.mac.com/resinifilms. I used FCP to edit the video and compiled it in after effects.

After Effects Production bundle is a good app, but Discreet's Combustion is a better value. Not as many tutorials and how-tos or trained users for Combustion, but I'm finding it quite excellent.

Boris Red and Commotion Pro are also useful tools. And don't forget Photoshop!

I've used After Effects for years. It's a very powerful application and is certainly capable of doing most anything you'd want to do. Still, Combusion is getting very popular within the effects industry. So, you might want to go that route.

You can certainly move footage between After Effects and Final Cut Pro. No problem.

Also you might take a look at ArtBeats http://www.artbeats.com/. Do a search for "gun" and you'll find a lot of interesting media they have available.

Good luck.

Hi, if all you want to do is add muzzle flashes ect, theres a much easier way.. Theres a program called Alam DV that lets you do this, add lightsabres, explosions, and all kinds of stuff.

And has a much easier learning curver then after effects.. tho any excuse to learn that is a good one.

Also alamdv only costs about $40-$60 (i forget exactly ow much)

find out more at.. www.alamdv.com

Thanks for the tip on AlamDV ... I want to test-drive the next generation (AlamDV3) when it comes out. Killer music track on their AlamDV promo flick :shock:

After Effects Production Bundle
Photoshop
Avid

This is all you need!

Hey man,

Been teaching post production for three years at a film school in B.C. and all we ever trust is after effects. Its been around for a whle and adobe has done a great job takin out all glitches and bugs, it is basically 100 % reliant now and can do more than your imagination canm handle. Combustion2 is also a wicked program but is verybig. (combustion is the size of a bus while after effects is the size of a car.) I would definatly recommend learning after effects first and then after realizing the capablities to invest in combustion


NICK

Wholm, If you go to discreet, Download the full version of max7 (30 day demo) and as long as its not a commercial video but used in an indie filmfest, you could use 3D Studio max. there are tones of tutorials on the net to teach you how to make a flash and smoke effect.

basically you use the pulldown under geometry to partical systems, you will have to download "Partical Combustions for max6" which will work in max7. it will create fire, smoke or water effects. Its a free plugin.

Also, max comes with a free demo version of after burner which is a smoke plugin for partical systems.

If you need help, just pm me, Ill walk you through it. For a flash effect, try and use glow.

but max renders pretty slow. So you might want to try AE first. I havnt used AE much, myself. I used an older v4.

good luck.

I'm a Combustion guy... I love the app... I have been messing with After Effects lately, but Cumbustion has some real power behind it.

Muzzle flashes can be done with your NLE and photoshop.

To grow with somehting maybe start out with After Effects... Although I started with Combustion which I think is better than AE... but that's because I've been using it for a while. After Effects seems pretty simple to use and for someone just starting out, it should be great for you to learn on and grow...

Now if you want something better than AE and Combustion... get Digital Fusion.

My next production is going to be a short samurai film, and I need a program that can do heads cutting off (maybe one scene of this) and a few cuts... I have an artist that uses Maya but does Maya do the same thing as After Effects?

I have After Effects 6.5 but I don't know how it works really

Thanks in advance

you could do a three pass blue screen on the head chopping thing, just within FCP...

1 shot of background plate
1 shot of dude getting head chopped off with head wrapped in blue tight hood
1 shot of fake head on top of blue stand (at same place in the frame as dude was - or just against blue screen)

for muzzle flashes and how to:

http://www.detonationfilms.com

they have tons of free muzzle flash and explosion footage and some how to use its.

I don't have FCP...

it'd be the same thing in premiere and vegas and avid and anything else that can do multiple video layers.

I am kinda new to editing (last time i did it we were still using 2 vcrs and a cassablanca system) I have been messing with photoshop for years and love it..but I am not so sure about its uses for video..which from a few posts (unless I misread them) makes it seem like you can do stuff to video with it.

I am looking into getting a new Power Mac G5 (top of the line dual 2.7 ghz processor... 1gig of ram... 800gb of HD *2x400gig* ATI Radeon 9650 w/256mb DDR SDRAM... 30" HD Cinema Widescreen Display....16x Superdrive Dual Layer DVD Burner..... Mac OSX 10.4) and 2 cameras *preferably HD*

Final Cut Pro Studio (Final Cut Pro 5..Soundtrack Pro..Motion 2... DVD Studio Pro 4) Photoshop and After Effects.


Any other suggestions for 3D animation and CGI *explosions..laser streams..etc* Is the computer powerful enough or do I need a better video card or more Ram? Would you guys recommend the 1 big display or 2 23" HD displays for best use when editing and doing graphics.

My next production is going to be a short samurai film, and I need a program that can do heads cutting off (maybe one scene of this) and a few cuts... I have an artist that uses Maya but does Maya do the same thing as After Effects?

I have After Effects 6.5 but I don't know how it works really

Thanks in advance

Maya is a 3D animation program. After Effects is a 2D compositing tool with some 3D-"like" effects within. You'd use Maya to make a 3d model of a spaceship, and you'd use After Effects to composite the 3D model of the spaceship into filmed backgrounds.

If you're going to be cutting off heads on the cheap, I'd probably go the route of ye old makeup effects + cutting away from the effect, as opposed to 3D animation or compositing. The CG route is enormously difficult to do without getting drawn into a horrible time sink. You'd have to 3D model the head, deal with hair, motion, liquid effects - that's just not going to happen professionally on a no-budget movie.

I am kinda new to editing (last time i did it we were still using 2 vcrs and a cassablanca system) I have been messing with photoshop for years and love it..but I am not so sure about its uses for video..which from a few posts (unless I misread them) makes it seem like you can do stuff to video with it.

I am looking into getting a new Power Mac G5 (top of the line dual 2.7 ghz processor... 1gig of ram... 800gb of HD *2x400gig* ATI Radeon 9650 w/256mb DDR SDRAM... 30" HD Cinema Widescreen Display....16x Superdrive Dual Layer DVD Burner..... Mac OSX 10.4) and 2 cameras *preferably HD*

Final Cut Pro Studio (Final Cut Pro 5..Soundtrack Pro..Motion 2... DVD Studio Pro 4) Photoshop and After Effects.

Any other suggestions for 3D animation and CGI *explosions..laser streams..etc* Is the computer powerful enough or do I need a better video card or more Ram? Would you guys recommend the 1 big display or 2 23" HD displays for best use when editing and doing graphics.

You're mentioning 3D animation and CGI, but you're not actually listing any 3D applications. On the Mac, you're pretty much relegated to using Lightwave, which IMHO, is the best of the packages for the low-budget indie guy. Here's the bad news on 3D / CGI: if you want to do it fast but good, you need a bank of computers, as there is such a thing as "render time." So if you're planning on making the next Star Wars, and want to get it done before you die of old age, you might want to budget in a couple of extra computers and a little network so you can render out your animations quickly. Caution: good 3D work is not for the faint of heart or the impatient. You might do better to steer clear of that stuff and hook up with someone that doesn't have a life and spends all of his/her time in front of their 3D application.

Photoshop is primarily good for tweaking single image files (titles and that sort of thing).

Lightwave, Maya, carrara, animation:master, blender, cinema4d, combustion, POV, POV-Ray, Pixels3d, electric image

these are all available for mac OSX

<edit>oh yeah, and blender is free and has a maya like interface.</edit>

Lightwave, Maya, carrara, animation:master, blender, cinema4d, combustion, POV, POV-Ray, Pixels3d, electric image

these are all available for mac OSX

<edit>oh yeah, and blender is free and has a maya like interface.</edit>

Right, Blender's got a good reputation. Quite a few in the industry use it, but I've never messed with it... it does have a fairly large community support group, too and has much to reccomend it.

But I can't recommend the others. While Maya's available on the Mac also, its future is in doubt since it's been bought by Discreet, makers of 3dsMax, plus I never had good results with it on the Mac platform. At the time, at least, I don't think it was fully cooked. Animation master's been around for a while, but no serious production has been done with it in a long while. Cinema4d's in the same boat. POV, POV-Ray are okay as ray tracers, and some people do decent stuff with it in regards to still images, but they are not complete 3d modelling & animation packages and are guaranteed to drive you either insane or into a bearded fat guy sitting at a computer all day long like that nerd character on the Simpsons. Pixels3d & electric image are below the radar and probably won't be around much longer, or will eke out a miserable existence like Animation master.

Believe me, if you're a small production company about to pick a 3D package, pick one of the big 3 - Lightwave, Maya, or Max. Why?

First, because you don't want to have to be making custom shaders, scripting, or plugins. That's very advanced stuff. You want something that a small number of people - or one person - can use to generate results (with talent, of course). You don't want something that requires a big team to support. These packages come pretty much ready to play - modeling, animation, rendering, etc.

Second, you'll find the most number of professional users online of those three, and be able to get the best community support. (Like everything else these days, don't expect to get any support from the manufacturers themselves). The others have smaller pro communities, with the exception possibly of Blender... (which is being adopted in some of the larger studios because its software is open source. Great for big studios, not so great for the small indie guy).

Thirdly, if you need to or anticipate needing affordable labor, pick one of big three. In that category, Max is on top, because you can throw a stick and find people using it these days. Maya's a close second. LW's got the smallest labor pool of the big three.

Fourth, pick a package that you are certain will be around for years and years with the pros. There are plenty of packages (such as Bryce 3D) that made a big impact in the amateur community, but eventually dropped off the radar altogether, causing pain for many early adopters who ended up having to change their entire business.

Picking a 3D package is a lot like buying car. Can you get it serviced? Will the manufacturer be around for a long time or are you buying a Tucker or a Delorean? Can you drive it? And so on.

I just bought After Effects 7.0. It has quite more of a learning curve than Illustrator or PhotoShop. Don't EVEN bother buying After Effects without buying the 14 hour Total Training DVD. Reading the manual is slower than retardation!

I had an animator do some muzzle flashes with After Effects. You can also do touch-up stuff, fancy titles and logos and DVD authoring graphics. If it's JUST touch-up stuff and fancy titles that you want to do then it shouldn't take very long to learn how with AE.

BTW does anyone know how to do touch up with AE? Say I want to get a boat in the ocean background out of a shot. Am I dealing with Mattes or feathered Masks or what? I have yet to learn this.