Advanced Burn Effect - After Effects Tutorial NO PLUGINS!

In this tutorial, we’ll check out an After effects setup for a high quality burning transition effect. Using only native effects, we’ll generate glowing embers, trailing smoke, heat distortion, and more. 2024 Update! I moved Texturelabs off of Patreon - you can now pick up the turbocharged template version of this project here: PROJECT SETUP 1920x1080 24fps 16bit BURN OBJECTS (Precomp): 1) Adjustment Layer Fractal Noise Effect - Contrast 10, Brightness 30, Scale 3 2) White Text Layer TRANSITION MATTE (Precomp): 1) Adjustment Layer Brightness & Contrast Effect - Contrast 99%, Use Legacy On 2) BURN OBJECTS PRECOMP - Overlay Blending Mode Gaussian Blur Effect - Blurriness 40, Hue Saturation - Saturation -100 3)Solid - Overlay Blending Mode, 25% Opacity Fractal Noise Effect - Scale 200 4) White Solid - Scale 200% CC Burn Film Effect - Burn keyed from 0 at frame 30 to 100 at frame 130 Solid Composite Effect set to black MAIN COMP: 1) Adjustment Layer Transform Effect - Scale keyed from 110% at frame 0 to 100% at frame 120 CC Vignette Effect - Amount 250 Noise Effect - Amount 5% Gaussian Blur - Blurriness 2 Unsharp Mask - Amount 100, Radius 1.5 2) Adjustment Layer - Screen Blending Mode, Opacity 15% Gaussian Blur - Blurriness 200 3) Black Solid - Opacity 100% at frame 0, 0% at frame 40 4) Adjustment Layer Displacement Map - Displacement Map Layer DISPLACEMENT REFERENCE, Effects & Masks, Horizontal 20, Vertical 10 5) DISPLACEMENT MAP REFERENCE (TRANSITION MATTE PRECOMP) - Visibility off Fast Box Blur Effect - Blur Radius 25 Invert Shift Channels Effect - Take Alpha from Luminance Fractal Noise Effect - Complexity 4 6) EMBERS (TRANSITION MATTE PRECOMP) - Screen Blending Mode CC Wide Time Effect - Forward Steps 0, Backward Steps 60 Solid Composite - Black Fractal Noise - Contrast 220, Brightness -90, Scale 40%, Opacity 50%, Multiply Blending Mode Brightness & Contrast Effect - Contrast 100%, Use Legacy On Fractal Noise Effect - Contrast 200, Scale 10%, Blending Mode Multiply Turbulent Displace Effect - Size 50, Offset Turbulence - expression “[time*65,540]”, Evolution - expression “time*200” Set Matte Effect - Take Matte from BURN OBJECTS Set Matte Effect - Take Matte from DARKEN BURN / TRANSITION MATTE, Luminance, Invert Matte On Tritone Effect - Hilights FFDD83, Midtones 8D3F18 Glow - Radius 50, Intensity 3 7) SMOKE (TRANSITION MATTE PRECOMP) - Screen Blending Mode, Opacity 20% CC Wide Time Effect - Forward Steps 0, Backward Steps 10 Set Matte Effect - Take Matte from BURN OBJECTS Set Matte Effect - Take Matte from DARKEN BURN / TRANSITION MATTE, Luminance, Invert Matte On Fast Box Blur Effect - Blur Radius 10 Solid Composite Effect - Black Fractal Noise Effect - Fractal Type Dynamic, Scale 300%, Complexity 10, Sub Influence 90%, Sub Scaling 65, Sub Rotation 100, Evolution - expression “time*200”, Blending Mode Multiply Turbulent Displace Effect - Displacement Twist, Amount 40, Size 50 8) FIRE EDGE (TRANSITION MATTE PRECOMP) - Add Blending Mode Invert Effect Turbulent Displace Effect - Size 20 CC Composite Effect - Composite Original Multiply Fractal Noise Effect - Contrast 200, Brightness -25, Sub Influence 200%. Blending Mode Multiply Set Matte Effect - Take Matte from BURN OBJECTS Tritone Effect - Hilights FFDD83, Midtones 8D3F18 Glow - Radius 50, Intensity 3 9) DARKEN BURN / TRANSITION MATTE (TRANSITION MATTE PRECOMP) - Linear Burn Blending Mode Fast Box Blur Effect - Blur Radius 30, Repeat Edge Pixels On Levels Effect - Gamma .6 Hue Saturation Effect - Colorize On, Hue 30, Saturation 15, Lightness 15 10) BURN OBJECTS (BURN OBJECTS PRECOMP) Set Matte Effect - Take Matte from DARKEN BURN / TRANSITION MATTE, Use for Matte Luminance 11) Black Solid *Optional: For a background other than black: DARKEN BURN / TRANSITION MATTE LAYER After the other effects, use Set Matte - Take Matte from BURN OBJECTS, Effects & Masks, Alpha Channel Levels - Alpha Gamma at Turn off Adjustment Layers and Black Solid, but copy Displacement Map Effect to BURN OBJECTS layer and FIRE EDGE layer *For a transparent background, use the additional settings above, plus: DARKEN BURN / TRANSITION MATTE: Turn on Preserve Underlying Transparency checkbox (between Blending Mode and Track Matte in timeline panel) FIRE EDGE: Turn on Preserve Underlying Transparency checkbox SMOKE: After other effects, use Set Channels - Red Green and Blue Source set to Full, Alpha Source set to Luminance EMBERS: Before the Tritone Effect, use Linear Color Key - Key Color set to black 00:00 Intro 01:24 Burn Objects Precomp 02:53 Transition Matte 07:39 Set Matte 08:45 Burnt Edge 10:08 Fire Edge 13:57 Smoke 18:10 Embers 23:10 Displacement Map 25:30 Final Effects 27:31 Outro