DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

How to make it snow in your photos and videos using Adobe After Effects

Dec 18, 2017 by John Aldred Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Well, ’tis the season. Although some of us might be living in a winter wonderland, that’s not all of us. So, perhaps our videos need a little artificial assistance to give them some of that “Christmas spirit”. Well, this short video from Adobe shows us how we can add foreground and background snow to our scenes in just over a minute using Adobe After Effects.

The process is quite simple. Bring in your footage, add a black solid layer. Duplicate your footage on top, then add another black solid layer on top of that. This gives you a total of four layers.

The two black solid layers should be set to Screen blending mode with the CC Snowfall effect applied. The “Background snow” layer should have a lot of small snow particles while the “Foreground snow” layer gets fewer, larger snow particles. The “Foreground plate” layer is the duplicate of our footage, and this we mask around the subject that we wish to be in front of the background snow. This results in layers that look something like this.

The example shown in the video is based on a still image, which is then animated with the addition of the snow. It does make for an interesting cinemagraph style shot. But you can apply this to actual moving video, too, it just requires a little more work.

For a start your mask would need to be animated to account for both a moving subject and possibly moving camera. This means you’d also need to animate the snow moving to match the camera, too. And I think that to really sell it, you wouldn’t just want to have the snow falling straight down, either. So, you’d want some kind of “air turbulence” to give it a more natural and organic movement.

But, at that point, you’d probably be better off just creating your own snow with a particle simulation using the CC Particle World effect.

It’s still a very neat and quick technique for making wintery cinemagraphs, though!

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Adobe After Effects now has content-aware fill which lets you remove objects from videos Default ThumbnailSnow Globe L.A. Is A Shaped Bokeh Time Lapse In A Snow Globe These timelapse videos make New York snow squall look like the apocalypse How to spawn clones of yourself in video with Adobe After Effects

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: Adobe, after effects, compositing, snow, visual effects, winter

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« 5 tips for shooting portraits in harsh midday sun
$35,000 worth of gear stolen from The Camera Store »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy