Created with Adobe Firefly by Danica Do

There are many more things we can do with this project. One of the most exciting is to combine videos into a "Composite", such replacing the background of a sculpture video with something else. Premiere can do this but it works best if the background is one solid color (that isn't also in your model) such as bright green. (Any bright, unique color will work). It's even possible to add a video of YOU pretending to interact with model to create a 3-layer Composite in Premiere. We'll start by making changes to Blender that make the background green without affecting the color of the model.

2300223 Blender Greenscreen Render.mp4

Blender Greenscreen

Transparency in video is tough if when the MOV Quicktime format is not available. We can use MP4 footage if you have Blender replace the background with a color NOT used in your model (such as bright green in this case), though other colors can also be removed using the Ultra Key tool in Adobe Premiere.

Original Tutorial by Tux Designer

230221 After Effects - Starfield BG plus.mp4

After Effects Starfield Simulator

After Effects is an incredible piece of software. One of the hundreds of things it can easily do is generate moving stars that give the illusion of flying through space. Each simulation has various controls you use to customize the look, in this case, the spacing, speed and size of the stars.

230224 Compositing Greenscreen Footage.mp4

Compositing Two Videos

Deleting the green from our Greenscreen version makes it possible to then see the Starfield background we made with After Effects. We end up using several of the model clips and shortening the 1 minute background, adding some Cross Dissolve transitions and even keyframe a little Turbulent Displacement just for fun.

Compare Results

End Result: I was not able to detect any difference between the two settings talked about in the tutorial. The small size and slow speed of these stars means the YouTube preset provides us with enough data to accurately show each one without having to compress the pixels too much. We'll try this again with a crazy-busy background!

230227 After Effects Fractal Noise.mp4

Animating Fractal Noise

Fractal Noise is a kind of mathematically generated randomness that has tons of settings to tinker with to make totally unique animated backgrounds. There are some "colorize" effects you can use to try and brighten things up, but it's hard to get any exact results you may have in mind.

From the WayBack Machine...

These may be 10 years old, but they are still excellent examples of Compositing. All students had to animated a rocket, so aren't you lucky!? I love the particle engines.

Approach this from a "let's see what happens" point of view and have fun playing with a creative "nuclear reactor"! Just know that a meltdown is likely at some point - save frequently and if you end up at a dead end, you just have to back up and try another path. If you want to make looping backgrounds like the ones below, there's an extra option under Evolution called "Cycle" that allows that.

Combination Example

This render makes use features from several tutorials: the green background, a slower spin, a camera view that zooms in on the doorknob, which can only be transparent thanks to what the Cycles render engine is able to do.

Page updated

Report abuse