After Effects Heat Shimmer

Heat Shimmer

If you live in the hot areas you have probably seen heat shimmer coming off the road. A heat shimmer is an extended time interval of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and unusually humid weather. To be a “heat wave” such a period should last at least one day, but conventionally it lasts from several days to several weeks.

In this After Effects tutorial we will try to create a same effect using particles. So, launch After Effects and create a new composition by pressing Cntrl + N.

Step 1: Drag the image on which you like to simulate this effect.

Step 2: Create a New Layer by pressing Cntrl+Y on the PC. Name the layer Particles. Color of the layer doesn’t matter.

Step 3: Choose Effect >Simulation>CC Particle World. (Cycore Effects which ship with AE need to be installed).

Step 4: Twirl the Physics property and choose the Fire Animation Preset from the dropdown.

Step 5: Open the Producer property and enter a value in the Y position to set the particles on the ground. In my case this 0.36. Also widen the particles on the ground to cover the area using X radius. I have chosen a value of 0.50

Step 6: In the Effect Controls Panel, increase the Birthrate to 4.0.

Step 7: Also Change the Longevity value according to the length of the particles to cover the scene.

Step 8: Finally, twirl down the Particle property and change the Birth and Death colors to the same shade of red.

Step 9: Press Cntrl + D to duplicate the layer and change the Birth and Death colors to the same shade of green. Lower the Birthrate to 3.0 and the Longevity to .6 or as per your scene in the new duplicate layer.

Step 10: Now create a new adjustment layer and apply a Fast Blur with 5 pixels value.

Step 11: Select adjustment layer and both the particles layers and Pre-Compose the layers (Layer > Pre-compose) and move into new composition.

Step 12: Now turn off the visibility of pre-compose layer.

Step 13: With the Background layer selected, choose Effect > Distort> Displacement Map. The Displacement Map effect allows you to use color channels from one layer to displace pixels in the current layer. Because the Heat shimmer layer contains Red and Green particles, distortion amounts can vary and not look rigid.

Step 14: With the Background layer selected, choose Effect > Blur & Sharpen > Compound Blur. In the Effect Controls Panel, select the Heat shimmer layer as the Blur Layer, and decrease the blur to 5.

That’s it, make the RAM preview and enjoy the heat.

- Suzane Smith suz.smith@hotmail.com