Smoke effects are tough to achieve without specialized and computational heavy smoke simulators. They generally rely on 3d software, long calculations, and long render times.

 

Motion graphics artist Fred Kennedy created this smoke effect inside of after effects using the Particular particle generator. The goal was to create a realistic smoke trail that could be manipulated on the fly and rendered quickly inside the 2.5D After Effects environment.

 

The trick here is to use a smoke element as a particle. This way particular’s particles have two levels of smoke detail - one, the emitted particles themselves and the turbulence, air resistance, and rotational velocity that guides their movement, and two, an actual smoke element that behaves as you would guess… just like smoke. Using a smoke element as a particle really sells the effect because it adds the realistic intricacy that particular doesn’t do so well to create.

 

Fred attached the smoke emitter to a null object with motion driven by the Motion Sketch utility in After Effects. Motion Sketch allows you to record a hand drawn gesture with a tablet and apply it’s speed and direction to an object.

 

On the final composite of the smoke, Fred colored the smoke with a tritone effect. A couple tricks to squeeze some more detail out of the simulation was another layer of Turbulent Displacement, as well as AE’s unusual “Vector Blur” effect. The vector blur adds a blur to a layer based on the direction and velocity of the layer’s movement (from what he can gather…). What it does in this context is that it connects some of the smoke particles along their paths to create a bit of a more wispy quality to the smoke. It’s also great for flame effects. To go along with the smoke theme, Fred created a layered heat distortion effect using footage of a flame to drive a displacement map and blurriness.

 

The end result is a somewhat realistic smoke effect that can be used for accents, transitions, and atmospheric effects, and you never need to leave After Effects.

 

To find out more about Fred's work and what we do at Newfangled Studios contact Executive Producer Jenna Vandermost.