How to create fog/dust in After Effects

Blade_Jones · Aug 14, 2006

I recently bought After Effects. What would be the best way to create the effect of white dust floating in the air? For this scene a guy has swept what looks like drywall dust into a ventilation grill and it's filled the air. Is there a GO TO plugin for this (and fog and smoke)? Adobe? Another company? :huh:

Will Vincent · Aug 15, 2006

I guess it would depend on what exactly your ultimate goal is.. you could do it with particles I suppose, though that seems like it would be a major pain, AND it would be very processor intensive.

knightly · Aug 15, 2006

detonationfilms.com has a bunch of dust and fog that can be comped in...nice folks too.

King Goldfish · Aug 15, 2006

if you download the Max8 demo from discreet and find a cumbustion or partical cumbustion for it, you can create dust, smoke, clouds. its a free plugin and a free demo that (at least v6 and v7) has no watermark. So you can use it fully for 30 days.

I have a partical cumbustion that is free distribution if you want, but I dont know if it will work with max8

Blade_Jones · Dec 20, 2006

I just discovered Delerium. Works great. Best to get the Final Cut Pro version -- not the After Effects version which takes an eternity to render.

knightly · May 27, 2010

I've actually started using the particle generator in Motion (could easily use AE or blender[free] as well) to make a library of different types of smoke/fog footage so I can just grab and comp them within my editor when I need them. Works like a champ.

I'm revisiting this 4 years later because I just got a hit on YAFI from "Lion TV" in London with this thread as a referrer - and I've had experience with this topic not too long ago, but long after I initially posted.

grinner · May 30, 2010

+1 for particles. You can animate them according to the action, unlike a flat filter over the entire scene.

wheatgrinder · Jun 1, 2010

watch this tut.. might give you some ideas..

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/ancient_titles/

sonnyboo · Jun 1, 2010

Blade_Jones said:
I recently bought After Effects. What would be the best way to create the effect of white dust floating in the air? For this scene a guy has swept what looks like drywall dust into a ventilation grill and it's filled the air. Is there a GO TO plugin for this (and fog and smoke)? Adobe? Another company?

DELIRIUM from Digieffects has these exact plug ins.