A few years back, The Day After Tomorrow was a big film which used doppler weather reports to show the upcoming super-storm. Well, here is a simple way to design
your own doppler map!
Note:
You need AE 6/7/CS3 to open the file, but you can follow along with 5.0+
You'll need a map. I found a freebie at tiger.census.gov - free for educational purposes, and that's what this is, right?
Instructions:
Import your map into After Effects. Make sure it's big enough to fill
your screen. You don't want to have to scale it up and lose resolution.
Maybe you don't want to use a map with highways like I did...
Create a new comp called “weather“ - Mine is 320 x 240, 5 seconds long,
29.97 fps, square pixels, background color doesn't matter (but I made
my background licorice black).
Drag your map into the “weather” Comp.
Create a new solid layer called “precip”. Make it the same size as your comp. The color doesn't matter.
Apply Fractal Noise to the “precip” layer (effect » Noise » Fractal Noise)
Check out the fractal noise settings on the image below. Note that the areas highlighted in blue are keyframed.
I keyframed the first and last frame. Now, depending on what area of the world you're making weather for, you'll get
to determine which way the weather goes, how much, etc. If you can't really tell what's going on here, you can
come back in a little while. Don't worry, I'll tell you when.
Apply Set Channels to the Precip Layer. That's Effect » Channel » Set
Channel. Set Source Layer 1 to Precip and set Alpha Source to
Luminance. Leave the rest set to the defaults.
Now the fun will begin! Apply Colorama (one of my favorite plug-ins) to
the Precip layer. (Effect » Image Control » Colorama). Just take a look
at my settings. I'm not going to explain how to set the colors with the
colorama plug-in, but if you're unfamiliar with it, I'd suggest
clicking around and dragging the arrows until you get what you want.
Now it's time to go back and adjust your fractal noise settings.
To give your weather a little depth, add a drop shadow. (Effect »
Perspective » Drop Shadow). Don't make it too harsh!
You could add a grid and a key if you wish, and you can even set
everything to 3D layers and give them a bit of perspective, which I did
on a recent project.
Michele
Yamazaki is VP of Marketing for Toolfarm.com
where she focuses on web design and content development.
She teaches Adobe After Effects at an art college.
Previously, she worked at a post-house for ten
years and ran an After Effects website called
AE FreeMart. She is a contributing author to the
CMP book 'After Effects @ Work'.
