How I Made This Poof Effect in After Effects #shorts

I couldn‘t find a tutorial online on how to do this kind of cloud poof, so I decided to make one myself :) It’s not too complicated, but I think there are some interesting bits hidden in there nonetheless.

The steps in more detail:

(1) Create a lot of ellipses on a shape layer, forming a cloud. The more, the better. It‘s important for them to all be on the same layer, so we can apply effects to it afterwards.

(3) Next I used a neat lil‘ trick I picked up from Ben Marriott and applied a gaussian blur (value around 30) and crushed the alpha channel using the levels effect to liquify the cloud (see his melting effect video for details). Here I had to put a rectangle with an opacity of 0% behind the ellipses (on the same layer) to prevent the blur from creating an ugly sharp edge. I thought you might be able to use the grow bounds effect for that, but it didn't work in this case.

(4) Move up the ellipses and scale them down as they move. I added a wiggle on the x axis of the individual shapes for some flavor. To wiggle only one axis (since you can‘t separate dimensions for individual shapes on a layer), you can use this expression:

wig = wiggle(3,30);
[wig[0],value[1]]

(5) Scale up the cloud before the poof, and add some sweet easing.

music:
‘Slice of Sun’ by Ketsa

[DrPandachaun]

Hi, the wiggle expression doesn't seem to work in the latest version of after effects. Says "undefined value used in expression". I just copied the expression straight from your description. Any ideas?

[chumberland]

More videos like this please this is so awesome and simple, it really appeals to people like me who know their way around adobe but still might need guidance in the right direction. Either tutorials are too beginner/short or too expert/long and u met the perfect balance of short and simple but might still be a challenge for some intermediate users. Ik I’m writing a paragraph over a 10 second video but this is just such a good format.

[Geregamo]

love this! also, what's the song?