Tutorial: How to Composite Atmospheric Smoke & Fog in After Effects

Looking for free, professional-quality footage to practice this technique? Explore the ActionVFX Practice Footage Library! actionvfx.com/practice-footag... In this tutorial, Lendon Bracewell shows us how to composite ActionVFX Atmospheric Smoke & Fog elements inside of After Effects.
Download background plate at: www.actionvfx.com/blog/how-to...
ActionVFX provides the best stock footage for realistic Visual Effects. View our collections at: www.actionvfx.com/

[@RedBellyMedia]

This is the best After Effects tutorial I've seen in a long time! love your work! so many new techniques!!!

[@VFXProductionsRT]

That turbulant displace technique is excellent! Never would have thought of that, great tutorial :)

[@unigatemediacompany399]

When I add to screen I see this square edges from the footage. What do I miss?

[@MikeMBurke]

You are a fantastic teacher of AE! Your passion for it makes these video tutorials much more exciting. You do great work and it all looks very realistic! Thanks for all the knowledge!!

[@FilmLearnin]

Well done guys, this taught me some great new techniques! Always happy to learn new ways of compositing :)

[@FrikanihFX]

Agree! I learnt a lot with this one, that way of getting rid of the rough edges was like WOW. Also pretty awesome the "set matte" effect, no more infinite duplicating & precomposing layers!

[@avtpro]

One of the best AE tutorials I have seen. Amazing. You rock. Thanks for sharing these advanced techniques for solving the most common problems I see with smoke and fog compositing. Again. Amazing!! Thanks.

[@nicobarbieri]

This is definitely one of greatest tutorial I've ever seen. Well done!

[@DatIsKevin]

Wow never taught that AE is so powerfull. Great tutorial!

[@CarnagemiseryEdits]

Ohh I love the set matte effect. It saves me so much time, thank you :D

[@JFikeVisuals]

Lots of great tips here. Thanks, man!

[@Tracks777]

Awesome video,Keep it up!

[@joeyelston420]

By far the most helpful tutorial on the subject. Thank you.

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Glad you enjoyed the tutorial, Joey!

[@alzajel1]

man that's a great tutorial, thank you very much

[@mindbolt6398]

Great video, love it!

[@Spider._.dust_music]

Great tips!! Leaning lots🎬

[@winiyeung2407]

Well explained into details - This is the best ever made for set matte and fog.

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Thank you, Wini!

[@paulcristo]

Dude, you're awesome.

[@andreapmo]

Great tutorial! Thank you!

[@lordmelon3943]

Absolutely amazing, keep up the great work

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Thanks for watching!

[@kittanipinked3387]

This channel should have at least 200k sub!! Thanks a lot for many of AE techniques!!!

[@ActionVFXofficial]

We appreciate the support! We just posted a blog about common video fixes in After Effects if you're still interested! If you want, click here: www.actionvfx.com/blog/5-ways-to-repair-problematic-video-with-after-effects

[@DoeDillinger]

thank you! good stuff.

[@Sebuky]

amazing! thank u very much! :D

[@nagarajuj5321]

Thanks for doing the great composting tutorial

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@MutantWorm]

Now that was fun! You opened my eyes to som really cool tricks, especially the offset seamless fog mix using motion tile. What a brain tease. That'll come handy. Unless we can shoot the fog practically ;)

[@clinttustin]

Wow man, you are a beast! Thanks

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Thank you!

[@nagatom]

This is very thorough. It's really impressive

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Thanks! There are other great tutorials just like this over on our channel!

[@lohithp7778]

Fantastic Tutorial....

[@jrock198121]

love actionvfx!!!!!

[@ActionVFXofficial]

We love you!

[@jrock198121]

really cool compositing tips!

[@budello78]

Thanks for this amazing videos! But i don't I can not trace the camera. What setting is wrong?

[@ZMAMShow]

Very impressive. May have to use some of this for my zombie series. Yes. I think I will. :) See how I quickly talked myself into it.

[@coryking1598]

hey man i looked at your show and i gotta say its pretty incredible! the cheapest feeling thing imo is the audio, like the voices seem shallow if that makes sense. i think better mics(maybe lavalier) and equalization to make it sound bigger would really bring up your production quality! seriously amazing thing youre doing over there!

[@calebbrown5149]

This guy reminds me of a young Andrew Kramer. Loved the tutorial man!

[@meeno11]

It's very similar to the early tutorial of AK, probably in 2008, including the jokes in the video.

[@marcusnobreus1967]

First off, You flipping' rock man! Thank you so much for the very in depth tutorial. Secondly, why are we adding a camera to each composition layer that we're creating?

[@AlbertAguirre]

thank you!

[@user-pd3od9co4s]

Could I use this tutorial video to be used as an academic reference?Thank you

[@prasanjitmathew6838]

awesome bro keep it up

[@baalhasulam2037]

19:24 now we turn on the grade layer... Damn that instantly turned into a friggin masterpiece!

[@PratikLawate]

Brother dropped hardest tutorial ever and just called it easy. I'm exhausted by just watching it and it's only been 4 mins 😅

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Hey there! I appreciate you checking out the tutorial! I understand it may have come across as more challenging than expected. Don't worry, we have a variety of other tutorials covering different skill levels. Feel free to explore our collection here: www.actionvfx.com/blog?category=tutorials - You'll surely find something that suits your current abilities! - Jonathan

[@PratikLawate]

@@ActionVFXofficial Thanks, Yes and ofcourse i meant I couldn't understand much because I'm new to this but I love how you explained everything in detail. I'll definitely get back to this and would love to reach these levels. Amazing work ❤️

[@mediatomotion4082]

Is there anything different you did with the mask on the girl to follow her movements? Fantastic tutorial. Brilliant end look. Keep them coming. Thanks guys!

[@n1lknarf]

Thanks a lot

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Most welcome!

[@sutuvfx]

mantab bro, ilmunya mumpuni

[@filmmakerslife5381]

I am working on a shortfilm where i got stuck in vfx scene the situation is that i tracked my footage but after creating a null when i put the image of something it doesn't go with the track and yes i have merged null to image i don't know what i am doing wrong any help would be much appreciated

[@GameThruz]

How do you track the fog to match the camera pan?

[@JohnJewel]

Really cool

[@ActionVFXofficial]

We're glad you think so!

[@JohnJewel]

@@ActionVFXofficial of course I'm really really really..studying it too. High energy things your all doing.When the time comes I.hope that by reaching out I will.find the answers and advice that I need.

[@ActionVFXofficial]

@@JohnJewel We will always be here to help!

[@ROJORMG]

GOAT

[@ActionVFXofficial]

🐐

[@bongstabootie]

Great Tutorial! How did you mask out the motion of the girl? Did you use the Roto Brush or did you just create / edited mask paths?

[@AlfonsoSalaverria]

Russell Bartnick did you ever get a response? Im wondering the same thing.

[@tomj.]

I'd imagine by using the Rotobrush. It's a lot quicker than creating a lot of keyframed masks.

[@MKermy]

tom j. umm when he tracked the camera the girl was selected

[@ElstonSurf]

When I precompose a shot, I no longer see it in my main composition. What am I doing wrong?

[@ahmadali-xs3zr]

How did you do color grading?

[@nizarrans]

is it possible to do this with Mocha pro?

[@alloneword154]

Why was the second tree you did so big ?

[@VFXProductionsRT]

How did you make the light rays?

[@VisionaryFire]

Hi, this is Lendon. Basically, the same way we did the fog. Just composite 3D light ray layers into the scene. I guess the tough part is creating the light ray elements. I should probably do a tutorial for that on Visionary Universe.

[@VFXProductionsRT]

That would be great if you could do a tutorial :) I'm already subscribed to you so if you ever get the chance to do it I'll check it out

[@Mickemacken]

Is this without plugins?

[@ive3737]

Watching this because I want to make an apocalyptic film. Thanks

[@vdeviialyssa]

How was your 2020 tho?

[@literallyshane4306]

Wow 😮

[@ActionVFXofficial]

We hope your "Wow" was because your mind exploded! Thanks for watching! We have tons of tutorials!

[@literallyshane4306]

ActionVFX exactly that!! The comprehensiveness of this video was amazing! I learnt so much from this one video. Been thinking about it all morning 👍

[@ActionVFXofficial]

We're so glad you enjoyed it! Head on over to our channel, there's a lot more where that came from!

[@Spider._.dust_music]

Please show how you masked out the girl... thx

[@mexdirector5746]

I would love to see a separate video on how you cut out the girl with this technique!

[@TotalDisgust]

did you ever find an answer to this?

[@ronleic]

a software called silhouette is very good or after effects witl roto too

[@rgkaczynski]

what happens if i don't create separate cameras for each rotoed foreground?

[@ActionVFXofficial]

You can set this up without duplicating the camera, however we do it here because we precomposed all of our matte layers to stay more organized. You need to place the camera inside the precomp to continue seeing that view when working inside of it! Does that help?

[@aznmike2904]

I tried to download a file from your website but it said the file was blocked by google chrome because it may be malicious "fog_in_the_woods.zip can't be downloaded securely"

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Thank you for bringing that to our attention! We are looking into it.

[@AB-rc1dz]

Can I move the fog element after pre-comp? the ''mask'' moves with it causing a hole in the shape of the mask in the element.

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Can you give us a timestamp so we can see the exact section you're watching? We're happy to help!

[@AB-rc1dz]

@@ActionVFXofficial I retried the entire thing and it worked. I think I might have forgotten the last pre-compose with the camera tracker and fog element, but I'm not sure if that was it. Thanks for the reply though!

[@ActionVFXofficial]

@@AB-rc1dz Of course! Let us know if you have any more questions!

[@zenox4527]

where can i get this video footage?

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Hello! You can download the background plate here: www.actionvfx.com/blog/how-to-composite-atmospheric-smoke-fog -Danasa

[@NIKONGUY1960]

More explosions!! More cowbell!!

[@daanmichiels3512]

this is next level

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Thank you! We're glad you think so! We have a bunch of other tutorials waiting for you on our channel.

[@daanmichiels3512]

Will deffo have a look and try it

[@unigatemediacompany399]

When I add to screen I see this square edges from the footage. What do I miss?

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Are you referring to the elements? These elements break the frame because they are so large and not meant to stay completely in frame. To fix this, you can add a mask to the fog layer and add a large feather, then adjust the mask so the fog fades out before it gets to the edge of the frame.

[@ActionVFXofficial]

This is done in the video at 9:30 if you would like a reference point to follow along!

[@unigatemediacompany399]

@@ActionVFXofficial thx a lot I appreciate that:)

[@ActionVFXofficial]

@@unigatemediacompany399 It's our pleasure!

[@melodyyy7954]

@@ActionVFXofficial did u mask out the girl frame by frame? Plz help....I am learning VFX on my own, so I don't have any guidance.....

[@GibranLahud]

1:00 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH! Nice!

[@FvS_UA]

шо по дикції?

[@rohankapoor8291]

Lol how much time it takes to reach this level of editing!?

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Practice, practice, practice!

[@melodyyy7954]

Did u mask out the girl frame by frame?

[@ActionVFXofficial]

Yes, he was rotoscoping her frame by frame. You can check out our blog on quick rotoscoping with AE for additional help! Go here: www.actionvfx.com/blog/when-should-i-use-after-effects-roto-brush-tool

[@h4seeb_.]

6y ago is crazy

[@ActionVFXofficial]

I know, but here for when your memory is a little hazy...

[@Bakantimo]

there also should be fog in the foreground, now the girl looks like she s been stamped to the video

[@gauthamc5833]

came here to see how the grading has been done, but.... :(

[@AN1Guitarman]

You glazed over the mask part so fast that I don't know half of what you're doing. I draw my shape but it doesn't do anything to the solid..

[@scop8036]

Laughing a lot here with "boring". Talented as hell, but with humor

[@xplorer3475]

Really fantastic !! i love it ! thanks !!Please, would you say that it's after effect or Nuke mist in the background, at 1min 12 or 3 min 54 ? or is it 3d fog rendered directly in the scene ? it's scattering light very well ... here, in the martian vfx breakdown :kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3Szk3yJoLWkgc0

[@karthikuk09]

autosave93.aep.....

[@demovideos2078]

Wtfog

[@CreepyFilmz]

It's good but way tooooo much to do.

[@ActionVFXofficial]

We're sorry you feel that way, but creating incredible VFX shots require lots of work, and then more work! We hope you enjoyed the video. 😀

[@n-kfilms6796]

he's trying to copy the way video copilot andrew kramer dose tutorials with the way he talks at the beginning LOL