Make advanced (muzzle) flash effects

[CodyBDrawin']

Hey, hey, hey; I'm new in town. I've been using Moho for a few years and have made some animated .GIFs for my DeviantArt page and for commissions, but still have a lot of questions on my mind that would benefit from answers from those with more knowledge than I.

One of them is a question on how to make this effect for a sci-fi gun muzzle flash, as seen below (the source is the film Prometheus):



Apart from knowing basic stuff on timing and frame-by-frame animation, I'm really not sure how to achieve something like this in Moho, like what sort of effect that would be, whether it's particles or some sort of effect that I don't know about (because there is a lot to Moho that I A) don't know about; and B) wouldn't have context to, which is why something like this effect isn't something I can Google - I don't know what it would be and what I'm searching for). I've done basic gun muzzle flashes below, I have seen Poptoogi's video on muzzle flashes (but even then, those were rather basic in style, which is okay for some art styles and preferences), but I'm curious on how to make the animated equivalent of something like the effect in the .GIF above, where the shotgun's muzzle flash glows and sort of sparkles as it dissipates (like virtually every muzzle flash, it's extremely brief, so I had to really slow down the thing as best as I could).

I'm not necessarily asking someone to make a demo (though it would be fantastic and highly appreciated if anyone was willing to do so, since a visual aid would be great, even if it's a series of screenshots), but any sort of tips or instructions on what I would have to do to make something like the muzzle flash effect above would be appreciated just as much.

[slowtiger]

It seems to be only 3 frames, so I'd go and create each of them myself. Moho isn't exactly the best choice for that, this is more a job for a bitmap program.

[CodyBDrawin']

I'm not well-versed in bitmaps and bitmapping (in fact, this is the first time I've remembered hearing the term, and I did Google it after you said so. From my research, I'm guessing it's image types like .JPEG and .PNG); I'd love to try and keep it all in Moho if possible, so even if it isn't the best choice, would you have any suggestions on what you would do to try to replicate the effect?

[slowtiger]

White shapes and blur?

[hayasidist]

... and you could use scatter brush for the fine detail shapes ... then put the set of vector layers in a switch (or an FBF group).

[Greenlaw]

I always comp footage of actual muzzle flashes. IMO, you can't get more real than the real thing. This is what I do for live action and animated productions I've worked on. I forgot where I got the footage I use at home but I don't think I spent very much for it. (I'll look it up later and update this post.)

Alternatively, I've used the Muzzle Flash tool from HitFilm. This is available in their own compositing program or as a separate After Effects plugin. (I use the Ae version.) It's pretty cool! Has tons of options for representing various firearms, and it can be rotated to any angle to match the footage.

I've also painted flashes in Photoshop and comped that over footage. Try Screen as your Blend mode because Additive tends to blow out the footage too much.* Muzzle flashes are typically only frame or two long, so this is really easy. I would download some examples from, say, YouTube and study what makes a muzzle flash by stepping through it frame by frame. (Lightning is also interesting to study frame by frame...the motion of real lightning is probably not what you think.)

*Additional note: If you're using After Effects and these modes don't look the way you want, try Luminescent Premul (it's at the bottom of the list.) Assuming your flash footage is over black, this mode takes the luminance of your footage and uses that for the alpha. The result is a cleaner fx comp with no matte line and more solid looking flash. This option works especially well for footage of real fire shots against black. If the footage isn't shot against black, you may need to matte and/or key the BG and crush it to black first.

[CodyBDrawin']

The issues I have are that I don't have access to those programs, and especially whereas this one is very brought blue and white and has a sparkling effect after the main burst, I'm basically stuck with Moho and maybe an art program like Clip Studio Paint. I'm also trying to stick to a more cartoony style for consistency's sake.

I much appreciate the suggestions for stuff like blend modes in particular though, since I'm still trying to get a hang of that in both Moho and other programs. Thanks, man.

[synthsin75]

Your gif is just a single frame flash of a static shape followed by another static shape (the sparkling) being scaled into the muzzle. There's zero frame by frame effects there.

[Greenlaw]

As mentioned, I've also done this sort of thing by simply painting a frame or two of the effect in Photoshop and comping it over the animation. You can paint this in CSP or Krita...the paint program you use doesn't matter, and if you're using the screen or add blend mode to comp, the image doesn't even need an alpha channel.

Moho should be fine for compositing this effect, it doesn't need to be done in a dedicated compositing program. It's a bit easier to work in a compositing program for this sort of thing, but it's totally doable in Moho.

The one additional thing in the GIF I see is a lens flare. Moho doesn't have this effect built-in but you can find free lens flare images or stock footage on-line or on YouTube. If it's shot against black, you can screen it over the muzzle flash in Moho. The lens flare doesn't need to be animated footage since it appears so briefly...just ramp up and down a still image of a flare for a couple of frames.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

Did a quick search on YouTube and there's a ton of muzzle flash footage there you can download...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... zzle+flash

If you want it to look more graphic and stylized, you can output the footage as an image sequence and post-process it in your paint program of choice. Since it's only a few frames, you don't need a compositing program; your paint program should work fine for this. I suggest using a Levels or Posterize filter to limit the color range, and maybe an edge filter if you want it to look drawn with an outline. If you add a glow, you can probably do that in a final render pass in Moho.

[ggoblin]

Of course the advice from the experts is correct.

But for fun if you want to try and do it all in Moho using vectors, here is my beginners attempt.. I know its more of a missle launch than a gunshot but the principle applies.



I've included the project file here in case you want to play around..

https://we.tl/t-VOffFZAXOF

Essentially I just animated a gunshot blob vector object over a few frames. The shape has a gradient applied to it (orange->yellow->white), and soft edges from the Effects dropdown. I had the blob opacity set to 0 before the gunshot, 100% for the gunshot, and again had it taper off to 0 after the gunshot.

[FloridaJo]

I did this with blob brush and blur. Then real short frames.
https://youtu.be/vrOt_FytK9s