Very Simple Effect... How to make it ?

#1

Hello everybody !
I’m using Combustion 4, I need to make a simple effect of UNDERWATER look (like all screen / background is waving just like in many animation movies) and the SAME effect I guess for diffrent goal such as ILLUSION OF HEAT, like in a DESERT and the SUN is over burning…
the thing is that I want to get it most REAL and not just look like a wrap effect that won’t match the goal.

I guess the HEAT and UNDERWATER are almost the same effect, but can somebody please explain me how can I make them ?

THANKS ! :thumbsup:

#2

For the heat effect:

-Apply a displace operator to your footage
-create an opaque solid layer underneath and apply a turbolence operator

  • in the displace operator choose the turbolence as displace source

You only have to animate the turbolence and tweak the size, frequency…

Another approach would to use a particle system like steaming smoke as displace source.

If you want a one click solution check out the Tinderbox Plugins, there is an effect called “Heathaze”

#3

Thank you neogeo51 - I will give it a try, I never messed around with the particles or displace operator, I will try to follow your step by step as you explain and hope to get a nice results.

about the plugin you recommanded I will check it out, but if the resaults are the same, I think the plugin is nothing then give my money away for something that can be done anyway within combustion as you explained… so I will give it a try.

THANKS for your help !

#4

How do I add the HeatHaze effect (or any other effect I want, it’s a general question)
OVER my background but ONLY on specific place (like a specific PART from the ALL picture)
I tried to add a mask but what I got is… that all was GONE and I saw a part of my Background picture.

Let’s say I want ONLY the middle of the BACKGROUN PICTURE to affected by the HeatHaze Effect …how can I do that ?

#5

You will need a matte for that.

One way is to apply a draw selection operator before your effect and draw an ellipse or what you like. Set the feather setting of the selection to 10 or 15 to get a soft border.

If you want to affect a spefific color range then a keyer would be better.
Apply the Discreet Keyer or the Diamond Keyer and set the output from key to selection.
This method is similiar to the magic wand tool in Photoshop.
Combustion has also a magic wand tool, but the keyer method gives you more control.

The main task in compositing is often to pull mattes. You will need them everywhere.

#6

neogeo51 - Thanks Again,
Since my English isn’t very well I didn’t understood what did you mean by “Matte” …I believe you ment color/create a shape and it will be the “SHAPE” to affect the area.

I do all the backgrounds using Photoshop, and What I was thinking I should do is just create a paint brush shape over the places I want and import it OVER the background (inside Combustion) but then I did a few tests with the MASKS in Combustion.

And it seems to work, what I did was:
created a Mask OVER the Background Footage layer, and the problem that I had (like I wrote in the first message of this thread) was that I worked with 1 window, so I saw the MASK view only while making it, so I couldn’t really see how it AFFECT the compositing, so I switched into 2 windows to work, One for the Mask, other for the Overall Composit (to see how it affect in realtime). <== that was the REAL problem I guess…

I added the effect I want to the Mask Layer and… BOOM ! it works exactly as I wanted.

I’m still learning Combustion so it’s hard to stick to the new features of Combustion 4 like you mentioned on your last reply, the reason is that I need to speed up my work so I’m only learning while creating the project, I believe I’ll come with more questions and hope that more people will see the answers to those issues.

Thank you so much for your help, I apreciate it a lot !

#7

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