Trapcode Fluids Tutorial: Realistic Waterbending

hello and welcome to CG visuals my name's Zack and today we'll learn how to create realistic waterbending simulations inside of Adobe After Effects and trapcode particular for so without further ado let's get started [Music] now that we've opened After Effects let's take a closer look at the effect we'll be creating today we'll cover the techniques used to achieve the classic waterbending effects from Avatar The Last Airbender while also taking our footage into consideration to help composite the water into our scene this video is separated into two exercises while the first can be achieved in trapcode particular three the second project benefits highly from the use of trapcode fluids a brand-new physics engine included in version 4 but is only compatible with Adobe After Effects CC 2017 or later regardless of which version you choose you'll have a versatile and fully procedural water simulation that can be adjusted on the fly directly inside of After Effects so to begin we'll start by creating a new composition setting the duration to 10 seconds and choosing the HD 1080p preset after importing your plate drag the image or media into the layers panel and adjust the scale if needed right-click in the layers panel and create a standard point light rename it to motion path 1 accordingly and click OK this will allow trapcode particular to recognize the light as a motion path we'll also create a camera and choose the 35 millimeter preset to match the wide angle of our scene next we'll create a new solid layer and choose trapcode particular from the effects menu by default the particles won't be aligned to the motion path so to resolve this copy and paste the position values from the motion path directly to the corresponding position values and trapcode particular set the emitter type to an obj model and choose a spherical object finally in the physics tab under air choose motion path 1 the particles will now be guided along the specified motion path to achieve a more condensed look we'll reduce the emitter size to a value between 0 and 25 set the velocity to 5 and the velocity from motion to 25 when animating the motion path it's important to remember that if the original starting position is changed we must also manually update the position values in trapcode particular otherwise the particles will no longer be aligned to the motion path this only needs to be done on the first keyframe however so from this point forward we can focus on getting the animation just right the best way to do this is to loosely plot down the desired course keeping the keyframes evenly spaced apart if the particles disappear too early simply increase the lifespan as needed select all the keyframes in the animation and right click to enable keyframe assistant opening the graph editor will allow us to refine the overall animation with even greater precision you can also alt left-click and drag on the selected keyframes to change the overall speed the graph editor gives us a visual representation of how each keyframe is being interpreted the goal is to make the overall movement and translation between the keyframes as smooth as possible to make this easier click on the fit all graphs a View button and then make sure the separate dimensions icon is also highlighted blue select and drag the motion path handles for each keyframe until the overall curve of the motion path looks more natural keep checking the animation playback to make sure there are no perceived sharp turns one way to do this is to create random s-shaped curves as they can result in more interesting and dynamic looking animations once you're done out left click on each of the x y&z position icons and have the following expression this will introduce smaller randomized movements to the animation resulting in an increased level of complexity the first value of three represents the speed while the second value of a hundred controls the magnitude of the expression next we need to add some evolution to the particles go to the physics tab and navigate to the turbine field option under air changing the size and position values will introduce a turbine field that affects the particles independently of the motion path set the scale to a value between two or three depending on the desired speed and increase the evolution speed to 750 now we can start focusing on how the particles behave increase the size to 30 changed their pasty randomness to a hundred and set the blending mode to screen enable motion blur in the rendering tab and set the shutter angle and phase values to 180 and minus 90 respectively we also need to keyframe the emission rate so that the particles are emitted in short concentrated bursts instead of one continuous stream going back to the particles tab changed the particle type to sprite colorized and then click on the choose sprite icon this will open trap Co particular is integrated sprite library which is where you'll find the water drop particle sprite in the size over life menu draw a custom curve so the particles gradually increase in size set the color over life option to random from gradient and change the ramp to a mixture of white and light blue to remove the black outline enable the unmold option in the particles tab this will detect any black areas and replace them with a transparent alpha Channel before making any more changes to trapcode particular go to the effects drop-down menu and under color correction choose a tritone effect use the eyedropper tool to sound all the background colors until they match the overall mid-tones highlights and shadows in your scene add a map choker and set the geometric softness and choke intensity to zero and the gray level softness amount to 35 since water is partially transparent we'll need to pad a color range effect from the key menu and use the eyedropper tool and fuzziness settings to remove some of the darker pixels next we'll add splashes that separate from the main body of water this can be achieved by enabling the use of exhilarate articles and trapcode particular firsts and the emission type to continuous and increase the particles per second and velocity to a hundred change the particle types of cloud alert and set blending mode to screen decrease the size of the particles to 1 and the inherit velocity to 50% increase the opacity to 100 the opacity randomness to 75 and then create a custom curve for the size and opacity over life so the particles fade in and out of existence more inconspicuously next we'll set the life randomness to 100% and then scroll down to the axillary physics controls set the gravity to a thousand air resistance to three in the turbulent position 250 a quick preview render reveals that the auxilary particles are behaving as intended however the main effect is lacking volume open up the shading tab and enable shadow Lots for main particles set the opacity to 100 adjust the size to 15 and the adjust distance to 5 in the layers panel duplicate the liquid water layer and replace the color range effect with a tint effect in the rendering settings increase the opacity boost to 5 and create a new adjustment layer set the track mount option to use the layer directly above itself as an alpha Channel go to the effects and stylize menu and choose a motion tile effect set the width and height controls to 110 and then check the mirror edges option next we'll add a turbulent displace set the amount to 115 and the size to 35 oh left-click on the evolution stopwatch and add a time expression of 115 then we'll duplicate the turbulent displace effect and change the displacement type to turbulent smoother set the amount to 25 size to 5 and the complexity to 10 this will add smaller ripples on top of the larger displacement in the effects menu under noise and grain choose a median denoiser effect and set the radius to 5 this effect samples surrounding pixels to calculate an average which softens the image next create a displacement map and place it after the first turbulent distortion set the maximum horizontal and vertical distortion values to 80 and 60 respectively finally we'll add a second displacement map after the median blur but this time set the values into the negative with minus 40 and minus 10 respectively make sure the second turbulent displaced small is always arranged last in the list so the smaller ripples are still visible if the turbulent distortion looks too static try increasing the evolution speed with the time expression in this case a value of 650 was more suitable it's important to take the time to look depth the simulation at various stages for example when combining the displacement with the original liquid layer the artist concluded that decreasing limiter size to 0 actually improved the overall look of the effect finally it's time to add realistic korsak's and specular highlights to the simulation we'll start by duplicating the Luna map layer and resetting the motion blur pasty boost to zero delete the tint and Matt choker effects so that the tritone is the only color correction that remains disabled the screen blending mode for the main particles and then add an extract effect from the list of available keys if this option is not available you can also use a color range effect instead start by adjusting the black and white point and softness sliders until only the specular highlights are visible then choose an effect stylize CC plastic effect and set the bump layer to gnarnia adjust the softness height and light direction until you get a result that matches the lighting in your scene a pro tip is to then go back and fine-tune the white softness controls in the extract effect until the light actually wraps around the water droplets the final result is a highly detailed and realistic water simulation that can be dynamically adjusted in the compositing stage complete with detailed reflections and specular highlights this concludes our first exercise in water bending in the next exercise we'll learn how to create one of the most iconic water bending effects from Avatar the last air for this project we'll create a new composition with the same settings as before and choose ok right-click in the layers panel and create a point light out left click on the position of the light then and a wiggle expression with the speed of 0.5 and a magnitude of a hundred this will apply some random movement to the position of the light and 3d space create a new solid from the effects menu choose trapcode particular under Mitte type choose an obj model and then select a sphere smooth reduce the velocity to zero and increase the particles per second to a thousand next use the pick whip tool to Parham the position data of trapcode particular to the position data of the point light if this is done correctly the particles should inherit the random movement of our point light reduce the lifespan of the particles to 0.8 and set the life randomness to 25 in the physics tab choose fluids and change the fluid force to use of wort x-ring setting the buoyancy to negative 200 counteracts the upwards force of the vortex resulting in a constant push and pull dynamic setting the random swirl scale values to 5 and 3 respectively will deform the effect adding random turbulence next go to the global fluid controls and increase the viscosity to 50 this will help to conform the fluids into a single gelatinous blob finally change the visualize relative density field option to brightness and adjust the random seed controls to refine the overall look next we need to customize the size over life curve so that the particles spawn in and out of existence more naturally increase the particle size to 225 and set the randomness of 25 we can then copy the custom curve we created for the size over life and paste it into the opacity over life modify the curve points to match the example on screen and then open the shading tab once in the shading tab changed the opacity and adjust size values to 25 in the adjust distance to 250 enable motion blur and the rendering tab settings and the shutter angle and shutter phase values - 360 and - 180 respectively James the particle type - a custom sprite and choose the water drop sprite option from the default library immediately will notice the black outline has returned simply enable the unmarked option as before to generate an alpha Channel next we'll create a new camera and adjust the positions of the effects it's more comfortably in the scene create a map choker and set the geometric softness 1 to 75 choke 1 to 110 grey-level softness to 35% geometric softness two to 1.75 choke to 250 and finally gray level softness 2 to 0 had a vector blur and changed the type to perpendicular increase the blur amount to 15 set the ridge smoothness level to 10 had a displacement effect set the amount to 10 the size to 10 and the complexity to 3 vote left click on the evolution stopwatch and had a time expression with a speed of 150 under effect color correction add a tritone effect and use the eyedropper tool to sample the background colors of your scene finally we'll add a color range effect and set the fuzziness settings to 50 this will replace and the darker pixels with more transparency going back to the layers panel we'll duplicate the water ball layer and then rename it to luma matte will then select the camera and duplicate both the layers again pre-compose the layers into a new composition and then double-click on the precomposed layer to open it this action will have created an expression error because the link between the position values has been broken to resolve this issue first undock the pre-comp by dragging and dropping it to either side of the layers panel this will split the layers panel into two separate windows allowing us to simply reconnect to the position data from the pre comp to the point light following the example on screen out left click on the positions stopwatch to disable the broken expression then out left click again to access the pick whip tool and reconnect the position values once you've reset the layers panel to its default state go back into the pre comp and replace the color range effect with a tint unlike the first exercise we're going to be using this layer as an animated displacement map which is why it first needs to be pre composed to do this first create a new adjustment layer back in the main comp and move the pre comp directly above the adjustment layer add a motion to all effect with an output width and height of a hundred and ten and check the mirror edges option create a turbine displace and set the track mat of the adjustment layer to use the luma matte as an alpha channel so that the distortion only affects the particles set the amount to 125 the size to 25 and then out left click on the evolution stopwatch to add a time expression of 150 add a displacement map effect and then select the luma matte pre-comp as the displacement map layer adjust the maximum horizontal and vertical displacement values accordingly depending on the desired look soften the displacement with a median noise and grain effect and set the blur radius to three duplicate the displacement map and set the displacement values to minus 40 and 10 respectively finally create an additional turbulent displace effect to use for the smaller ripples set the amount to 25 reduce the size to 5 and increase the complexity to 10 changed the displacement type to turbulent smoother and animate the evolution using a time expression of 300 next we'll rename the unused luma matte layer to water highlights and change the particle type to a sprite colorized change the set color to random from gradient and modify the color over life ramp to a light blue and white gradient delete the cc-vector blur and color range effects and replace them with a medium blur setting the radius to 15 add a CC plastic effect from the stylize menu and make sure the bump layer is set to OFF the softness height and light Direction settings can be adjusted as follows depending on the desired look add a color range effect and increase the fuzziness amount to the maximum value of 200 next we'll create a CC glass effect and make sure the bump map is also set to none change the property type to alpha reduce the softness to 7.5 the height to 25 and the displacement to minus 300 using a curves tool create a contrast s-shaped curve in both the RGB and alpha Channel until only the specular highlights remain at ACC cross blur with an X radius of 5 and set the transfer mode to screen duplicate the effect setting the blur radius to y only with an increased length 420 and changed the transfer mode to additive will enhance the effect with a glow setting the threshold to 85 and the glow radius to 65 lastly we'll change the blending mode for the layer to screen upon closer inspection our waterball layer appears to lack transparency we'll need to open the color range effect and use the eyedropper tool to sample more of a mid-tone range increasing the fuzziness to 60 should help disperse the transparency more equally next it's time to start adding smaller water drops to the simulation first duplicate the water ball layer and delete all the presets except for the tritone effect rename the layer to water drops and change the particle type to a sphere reduce the particle size to 4 and then reset the size and opacity over life curves using the example on screen this will simply allow the particles to fade in and out of existence more naturally in the rendering tab set the corresponding motion blur shutter angle and phase values to 180 and minus 90 accordingly then open up the particles tab increased the opacity randomness to 75 the life to 1 and the life randomness to 50 finally changed the blending mode to screen in the fluid menu increased the vortex strength to 400 and the global fluid time factor to 3 set the auxiliary particles to spawn continuously and change the emit probability emission stopped percentage and the particles per second 250 increased the particle velocity and inherit main velocity to 100 set the lifespan to 1 and the life randomness to 75 reduced the particle size to 4 size randomness to 15 set a linear Rumph for the size over life increase the opacity to 100% capacity randomness to 75 and then create a similar curve for the opacity over life go to the physics tab and set the gravity to a thousand air resistance to five in the turbulent position to 25 closed partic'lar and then create a map choker effect from the effects menu changed the geometric softness and choked them out to zero and increase the gray level softness to 35 then duplicate the whole layer and rename it to water drop specular add an extract effect and adjust the values until only the brightest pixels are visible create a CC cross blur set the radius Y to 22 and the transfer mode to additive at this stage we did try boosting the specular highlights even further with an additive glow however it looked a bit excessive when combined with the water highlights this effect wouldn't be complete without the ability to have the water physically interact with a surface to do this simply duplicate the water drops layer and rename it to something like leaking water drops change the physics model to bounce and then go to the emitter tab increase the velocity to 250 and the velocity from motion to 25 in the rendering tab set the opacity boost to a value of 10 or above depending on how bright you want the particles to be go to the physics tab and in the bounce options change the collision event to kill create a new null object to use as our floor plane and use the 3d tools to rotate the object into position now we can go back to the physics tab in our particles layer and set the floor layer to use the relevant null object we'll also want to reduce the opacity of the exhilarate articles to 15 and then duplicate the whole layer again for this effect we want to create the appearance of splashes as the water hits the floor first we'll reduce the opacity boost to 0 in the motion blur tab and then change the axillary particles to only emit at the bounce event in order for the splashes to be visible we'll first need to set the gravity to 500 in the physics tab reduce the opacity for the exhilarate particles to 15 and change the parkour type to a cloudlet the velocity settings to refine the look of the splashes an experiment with the values speaking of improvements let's also increase the number of particles for our water drops lair from 1000 all the way to 2500 will carry this change across to the water drop specular layer as well for this last effect we've actually included a custom sprite which you can download in the description open the tutorial files and import the ripple sprite into the project window and then drag and drop the sprite into your composition create a new solid layer and a null object used as a second locator from the effects menu choose trapcode particular and then parent the position values to the null object using the pick whip tool change the emitter type to a sphere set the velocity to zero and modify the admitted size parameters as follows to form a flat disc in the particles tab changed the particle type to a textured polygons open the texture there and navigate to our custom ripple sprite choose the start at birth play once for the time sampling and increase the size to 200 randomize the opacity and then change the blending mode for the particles to screen using the ripple object / null object and made the position so that it loosely follows the path of the water splashes but just the values as needed and then change the blending mode for the whole layer to screen add a CC glass effect to the ripples and change the bump map to none set the softness to 0.5 the height to 15 the displacement to minus 300 the height to 45 and adjust the light direction so that it matches your scene finally we'll add a tint effect sample the background colors and adjust the amount to tint as needed that concludes our second exercise in waterbending let us know in the comments which one of these effects you found most useful stay tuned for more content and be sure to let us know what effects you'd like to see next time for example after finishing this tutorial we were immediately tempted to try making a fire bending versus water bending Joule using trapcode fluids in any case we'll see you soon and thanks for watching [Music] you [Music]

Channel: CG Visuals # VFX

Views: 123,564

Keywords: Water Bending, Waterbending, Water Bending Effect, Katara Water bending, Katara’s Waterbending Powers, The Last Airbender Effects, Water Bending in real life, Water Bending in After Effects, After Effects, Trapcode Particular, Trapcode Fluids, CG Visuals, Zack McCarthy, Trapcode Fluid, Liquid Effects, After Effects Water, Water in After Effects

Id: EM47KL-XRTw

Length: 24min 26sec (1466 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 12 2019