After Effects Tutorial - Fractal Noise Energy

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You can manipulate super-useful Fractal Noise effect to create an energy wave. This is good for energy impacts and wipes, and also for stylizing clips. For example, you can have this effect cascade down a superhero’s body or a product image.

Let’s begin with a solid, any color, and add the Fractal Noise effect. It’s found in the Noise and Grain effects.

Find the fractal type and noise type that works for you. In this instance, I’m using the Dynamic Fractal Type and Soft Linear Noise Type. I’m also going to invert it so I get more of an energy wave appearance. Next, I’ll bring down the brightness. Let’s also crank up the contrast for this effect. Finally, I’m going to set keyframes for Evolution so we get some nice movement.

In this instance, I’m going to make an energy ball explode outwards. So, I’ll make a circular mask and feather the edges. I’ll keyframe the mask expansion so the energy moves outward. Then, I’ll duplicate the mask, set it to subtract, and alter the expansion keyframes to follow my initial mask keyframes. This will provide an end to the energy effect.

Next, let’s get the color right. Add CC Toner, found under the Color Correction effects, and change the color to your preference.

I don’t like the border of the effect, so I’m going to add the Roughen Edges effect found under Stylize. You can look through the edge types, but in this instance I’ll use Spiky. I’ll also adjust the border, edge sharpness, fractal influence, and scale to personal taste. I’ll also set Evolution keyframes. Move this effect above the Fractal Noise effect.

I think we can help the edges even more by adding the CC Vector Blur from the Blur and Sharpen effects. Just adding a little to the Amount value creates a nice fall off.

Finally, we can add the Glow effect. I’ll set keyframes to make the glow brighter at the initial point of the explosion, and then we can decrease the glow over time.

With the effect complete, we can add a background and sound effect. On the background layer, we can add the displacement map effect. Choose the layer with the fractal noise as the displacement map layer, and be sure to select Effects and Masks instead of Source to control the displacement. We’ll just add a little displacement based on luminance. We must also set our Fractal Noise layer to Screen so we can eliminate the black parts from showing in our energy pattern.

Enjoy this efficient way to create an energy-like effect that has many uses and customizations for your After Effects projects.

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