I'm making a short that will require several gunshot effects. For example, I was planning on having one person getting shot in the head. Could i just film them acting as if getting shot, and then in AE generate the blood, scalp, skull, and brain matter exploding out the back of his head?

http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/blood/index.html is a great site to check out if you want to get that affect. It shouldnt be hard. Thats the simplist low cost, less hassle way way of filmming gun shots.

Okay, thank you. There are a couple shots though that I'd like to show from a medium distance, creating that method somewhat difficult/impossible. Can AE generate blood/gore?

Yes, you could do this in AE. It doesn't have a "blood and gore" effect or anything - you need to create the elements yourself (lots of ways in AE to do this).

Okay...thank you very much. I'll look into how to create them, creative cow probably has a tutorial or something on it.

They show a scene taken apart in "Shaun of the Dead" where they shot a watermelon on a stand that was painted greenscreen green and blew the back of it out for comping on the back of someone's head. That would be fun for the neighbors to watch.

Lol...that would be hilarious. I'll have to try that. Thank you

See if this guy can do it.... www.hdcgi.com