Compositing in After Effects: Truck Explosion, Part 1

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.

course syllabus

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

Matching the miniature set with the live-action footage.

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.

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.

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