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 2.00

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

[Texturelabs]

Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback and hope you've enjoyed the vid! Couple notes based on requests: I’ve added a few optional steps at the end of the written description above if you need a different background (or keyable graphic). As for the music, I pulled a sample from the Ring of Fire intro, slowed it down, played around with some reverb and a beat from SampleSwap. Wish I had a full track but I just looped out enough for the intro!

[BenMarriott]

This is insane! I'm floored. Such beautiful effect and elegant process.

[JakeInMotion]

I'm with Ben. Pretty sure this just took the award for best tutorial of 2021.

[ssscout]

this looks incredibly realistic, the smoke is the cherry on top for me

[barny_knikman]

Man, Brady – you’ve been holding out on us! :D That is amazing! Creating such a cool and responsive look with like five AE effects. I can’t wait to see the next tutorials

[TheDrMike]

I just love how efficient it all works! Putting every native effect on AE to work on their best! Great great job

[STRAIGHTP]

Wow. you did EVERYTHING to make this accessible and easy to follow and learn. The Video, the markers, the description is a textual walkthrough. Well done

[mareksuchanski]

WOW. These are really mind blowing tutorials, not just for the amazing results, but also when considering the planning and in-depth knowledge of After Effects to come up with this stuff. Thank you!

[gabepe]

Awesome as ever! Never ceases to amaze!! Even the most basic edits are HEAVY with knowledge for people to absorb and put to use in their own works.
thanks!

[Boissevain]

Your Ps. tutorials are all amazing and now your first one on After Effects makes me even more excited for your future uploads! Learned so much from this video alone! Thank you so much for sharing your experience! :)

[EmmelineToussaint]

Your tutorials are always the most comphrensive and thorough! I can't thank you enough ♥ I hope you make more After Effects tutorials!!!

[philhighfield]

Possibly the most beautiful AE effect I've seen yet! Thanks for sharing!

[mrCetus]

Awesome. What a great, useful and well-structured tutorial! It's been a long time since I've seen something so effective and comprehensible. Thanks a lot for this! 👍😊

[lupin]

This is the best native burning effect i've ever seen being done on youtube. Great job my dude. Great job! Being a VFX artist / Motion Graphics Designer myself I cannot commend you enough on this tutorial. Keep it up! Subscribing now!

[FrancescoScaramucci]

bro this is the most amazing tutorial I've EVER seen in my whole life. wish I discovered your channel earlier, your way of explaining stuff is so easy to understand yet very specific. thank you very much for sharing, can't wait to see more stuff from you!!!

[DavidRenartMaciasOfficial]

This tutorial is nuts! It's it so elegantly done that it drives me crazy. Awesome job man!

[fnkfrsh]

This is my first time commenting on YouTube in 11 years.
Your fx chains processes are phenomenal. You make the most inspiring tutorials on Youtube.

Thank you

[felipemiranda]

I can say, for sure, that your channel is the best thing I discovered on youtube this year. Thanks so much!

[majorpaiyne]

Nice! One of the best tutorials I've followed in years of fiddling with AE. Thank you for your contributions! 👍

[BingBangPoe]

Jawdropping tutorial. Insane to think this can be done without a single plugin. Gorgeous effect and an even better tutoring. Thank you so much for this. You're arguably one of the best AE designers I've ever seen and I'm baffled I didn't find your channel sooner.