Weather Map
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The Day After Tomorrow is a big film at the time of this tutorial, and although I haven't seen it, I have seen lots of weather reports. Here is a simple way to design your own!
Note:
- You need AE 6.0 to open the file, but you can follow along with 5.0+
- You'll need a map. I found a freebie at tiger.census.gov - free for educational purposes, and that's what this is, right?
Instructions:
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Import your map into After Effects. Make sure it's big enough to fill your screen. You don't want to have to scale it up and lose resolution. Maybe
you don't want to use a map with highways like I did...
- Create a new comp called “weather“ - Mine is 320 x 240, 5 seconds long, 29.97 fps, square pixels, background color doesn't matter (but I made my background licorice black).
- Drag your map into the “weather” Comp.
Create a new solid layer called “precip”. Make it the same size as your comp. The color doesn't matter. - Apply Fractal Noise to the “precip” layer (effect » Noise » Fractal Noise)
- Check out the fractal noise settings on the image to the right. Note that the areas highlighted in blue are keyframed. I keyframed the first and last frame. Now, depending on what area of the world you're making weather for, you'll get to determine which way the weather goes, how much, etc. If you can't really tell what's going on here, you can come back in a little while. Don't worry, I'll tell you when.
- Apply Set Channels to the Precip Layer. That's Effect » Channel » Set Channel. Set Source Layer 1 to Precip and set Alpha Source to Luminance. Leave the rest set to the defaults.
- Now the fun will begin! Apply Colorama (one of my favorite plug-ins) to the Precip layer. (Effect » Image Control » Colorama). Just take a look at my settings. I'm not going to explain how to set the colors with the colorama plug-in, but if you're unfamiliar with it, I'd suggest clicking around and dragging the arrows until you get what you want.
- Now it's time to go back and adjust your fractal noise settings.
- To give your weather a little depth, add a drop shadow. (Effect » Perspective » Drop Shadow). Don't make it too harsh!
- You could add a grid and a key if you wish, and you can even set everything to 3D layers and give them a bit of perspective, which I did on a recent project.