An Explosion test

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 11:55 pm

This explosion is a test for the Matrix: Regrets fan film I'm currently working on.

Here's the link to the vid.

There's quite a good amount of compression. If enough people ask for a better one I'll export a new copy that's not so compressed.

Please let me know what you think.

slimdog55 · Post by **slimdog55** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 12:25 am

Good. Maybe a little more debris. But still good.

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 12:30 am

Needs a lot of work to look good. Try creating your own explosion with smoke, rather than try to assemble two separate plugins to do the same. You need a hell of a lot mroe debris, and make it varying in size. If you absolutely must use pre-made plugins, then spend a TON of time beldning them, and making it almost seemless. A lot of work will go a long way...

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 3:06 am

By "plug ins" I assume you mean stock footage.

And how do you propose I create my own explosions? I'm not about to start messing with pyrotechnics and the CG ones I've tried look like complete cr**.

Quite a few people have recommended more debris, so I'll up that as well.

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 3:28 am

Well, you might as well try making your own, because your "stock footage" looks rubbish (or "creap" as you would say). Try messing around with After Effects, or something like Particle Illusion. Another option would be to get better stock footage. For this, try Artbeats.

Your footage is alright, it just looks too hosed. Too, "Hey, I just slapped this one here." I don't know, just do more work...

Justin · Post by **Justin** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 3:34 am

The explosion needs to be placed in the scene more realistically, it looks like you just placed it on top of the footage than distorted the building. Make the explosion seen from side of the builing too, it'll look better, and lots more debris, and the explosion is too bright. Sorry if I sound so negative, just trying to help you get the best possible result.

you can make your own explosion without pyrotecnics. I found out by accident, but it works great, and it comes with a black background already. Heres what happened.
I went out to cook some hamburgers on my gas grill. I turned on the gas, but coundn't get it to ignite. So I went to get a match, I stood back, through the match on, and boom, a five foot flame that looked like an explosion. All this was at night, so you couldn't see anything pass the grill, granted I live in the sticks in the middle of nowhere, but it works. Place your camera on a tripod, so you see just above the grill, throw the match, and you have an explosion, and with the black back, it can easily be keyed out.

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:20 am

Browncow: The stock footage actually looks pretty good. A lot of the lack of detail is just because of how compressed it is. I've changed a few small details and am going to export a much larger hi-res copy here in a bit.

Justin: What do you mean "make the explosion seen from the side of the building too"? Do you mean, at a different angle? Also, I would try the grill idea out, but I don't have a grill I can use. As far as the explosion being to bright, I don't think it is. Just overexposed in the first several frames, which is what would happen if you filmed a very bright explosion.

NOTE: The new higher res version is up. I doubled the amount of debris, changed the sizes of it (smaller), and how far it all came out. Let me know what you think.

EDIT: BTW, it's 6.31 MB.

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:21 am

Yeah add a little more.....you know boom!

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:33 am

You mean like a sound effect? Or make the explosion bigger?

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:36 am

a little of both, you know, make the explosion bigger if you have the resources and add a bigger sound BOOM.

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:43 am

I can easily make the explosion bigger, but I don't think it needs it. In the movie, the explosions is "caused" by a bomb similar to the one that blows up the elevator in the first Matrix movie.

As far as a sound effect, it's already there, but I didn't export it with sound to save on the file size.

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:58 am

Sorry, but it's still not looking that great. You need to work on blending the explosion in with the surrounding. There's also too much smoke too fast. The smoke (probably) wouldn't appear that much that quickly. The smoke is usually heaviest after the explosion. So, after the explosion, have the smoke pouring out of the window (if you want to continue the shot that long). If you leave the smoke, it needs to be a hell of a lot darker...

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 5:01 am

I'm not having the shot continue until after the explosion finishes. It cuts away to another one before that. I will darken the smoke though. Also, on another forum, someone pointed out the explosion looked to red, so I'm taking down the red balance in the next version.

U.S.Amateurfilmaker · Post by **U.S.Amateurfilmaker** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 6:32 am

Looks ok, could use a little bit of work, but good nonetheless!

One thing though, why is the building wavy?

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 6:41 am

The building goes wavy because this is the Matrix. Remember when the helicopter hit the building in the first one?

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:28 am

ChibiVader wrote:The building goes wavy because this is the Matrix. Remember when the helicopter hit the building in the first one?

OK so that answers one question, I was thinking heat waves from the exploaion,. which wouldn't appear much below the level of the explosion.
SO looks generally pretty good, a couple of tweky little things maybe.. the debris ejection would generally be a bit wider, both horizontally and vertically. With the blooming of the explosion to the right and down, I would expect some debris to also be eejected int hat direction at a different angle and speed. Also some of the lighter debris would be carried upward initially by the lift from the heat of the explosion. of the explosion. There would also be more mixing of the smoke and the fire of the explosion. As the fireball cools, smoke density should gradually increase, and the edges of the fireball fade into the gray as the gasses cool. The right side transition looks pretty good, but the left side is a little harsh on the separation. Also the smoke column will generally be wider than the intial blast due to smoke from burning debris being ejected. The one other thing, coming back to the debris, the initial partlicle debris, seems to eject too rapidly from the fireball. Looking at the last frame of the explosion, the flaming debris being ejected from all around the fireball, even though the initial debris appears to be the window, it seems to run away from the fireball too much, and would probably have a wider dispersal point, like it need more upward and downward expansio, most of the debris would eject out like it does, but there would be some with a more vertical component, both up and down.
Again, the overall effect is looking pretty good, these are just some ideas to tweak it a bit to add a bit more physics to the explosion. Nice clen compsite by the way!

Post by **Matt** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 am

I think you should add a change in brightness during the explosion. If you are using Premiere add a lens flare so that during the explosion you see a slight flash of light.

Also, if you, consider adding some camera shake at the point of the explosion as if the camera is disturbed by the shock wave.

I3lade203 · Post by **I3lade203** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 3:17 pm

Maby make it a bit faster?

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 4:45 pm

Yeah faster, and just play with it, tweak it up a little, just a little and it will look pretty good.

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Iwas thinking of having the background of the explosion go darker on the frame of the explosion and then fade back over the next few frames to simulate what would be seen by the human eye if there's a sudden bright flash.

But then I remembered that this would be on film, so the explosion would overexpose and the background would get lighter.

Either way is valid. Any opinions on which would look better?

Also, I'm starting to conisder taking each frame into photoshop and blending the explosion a bit better than I can in After Effects. If have time I might do that.

The idea of a bit of camera shake isn't a bad idea either.

Themovieman44 · Post by **Themovieman44** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:06 pm

well the camera shake? um don't really know about that, but it is your opinion. And yeah you should definetly look into blending the explosion that may help a bit.

Justin · Post by **Justin** » Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:53 pm

I don't know about the camera shake. In my opinion, people shouldn't know the camera is there, If the camera shakes, than it's showing the camera was in the scene, and makes it less believeable.

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 2:15 am

Here's the newest version http://www.s94958815.onlinehome.us/newtest.mov

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:09 am

That's a bad link. Here is the corrected url: NEW TEST

Looks better. I would recommend that you play around with some layering of the explosion elements. As to have the appearance of the smoke developing from all around the flames. Nifty building warp, but keep playing around with the idea. I like it, good job so far.

ChibiVader · Post by **ChibiVader** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 7:51 am

Thanks for fixing the link. And keep the comments coming.