Compositing in After Effects: Truck Explosion, Part 2

This course, the second of a two part offering taught by Kirill Pleshakov, is focused on compositing the close-up shot of the Truck Explosion, a live action miniature explosion filmed at a scale of 1:13 which is blended with a full scale shot. The original movie edit contains three shots of the truck explosion and this course covers the last one where the environment is completely covered with the fire and destroyed

To properly blend the full scale truck with the miniature set truck, we will have to warp and animate the static real truck. This time we will be using the amazing After Effects plugin "Lockdown", without which it wouldn't be possible to stabilize the perspective shifts and movement of the detailed warping surface.

This two-part course is a perfect offering for those looking to improve their skills in tracking and compositing in After Effects.

course syllabus

Compositing the background, extracting the rain, and masking the foreground.

Stabilization of the warping explosion miniature in After Effects, using the Lockdown plug-in and the After Effects Point Tracker.

Matching and animating the full-scale static truck to the moving exploding miniature plate. Restoring the motion for details.

Matching all of the fire elements using the Puppet tool.

Blending the fire with the environment.

Painting the interior of the diner and the truck cabin as well as compositing their interaction with the fire. Also, shattering the windows.

Animating the final destruction of the environment and polishing the shot for final.