Compositing in After Effects: Truck Explosion, Part 1

Taught by Kirill Pleshakov

Course Number:
AFX232
Software Version:
 
Original Run Date:
March 2020 
Duration:
2 hours 52 minutes 
vfx
new
This course, taught by Kirill Pleshakov, is focused on compositing a live action miniature explosion filmed at a scale of 1:13. The real explosions are filmed with multiple cameras from different angles, as each explosion object is destructed with one take.

In order to get two heavy R3D cameras behind the tempered glass at a proper scale for the miniature explosion (1:13), compromises are made for the lenses and position. This ends of leading to a lot of work that needs to be done in post production to deal with the imperfections of matching. This matching and manual warping of the static elements (to match the moving exploding elements) will be the main aspect of these 17 frames of challenge.

This course is a really great introduction for those who want to learn about miniature explosion compositing.
 
Compositing in After Effects: Truck Explosion, Part 1
Watch our overview of the course

Class Listing

Class 1: Prepping the plate

Extracting the rain, masking the foreground objects and actor, background replacement, and compositing.

Class 2: Matching the shots

Matching the miniature set with the live-action footage.

Class 3: Warping

Warping and animating the static truck layers, to match the movement of the exploding truck. Animating the occlusion of the foreground objects with the fire.

Class 4: Lighting the comp

Compositing the lighting of the explosion on the 3D rendered background using Z-depth and fire mattes. Drawing additional masks to blend the fire and its interactive light.

Class 5: Final elements

Compositing additional special fx elements, working on details, polishing the shot.