tests with new fractal types in beta 3 (AEP included)

This is the "Bubbley HiComplex" comp that uses the Multi SmoothRidge type. Here used with the Seamless Looping functionality to create this ever-looping GIF.

"Oil Flow" - same as above but with specular and almost no diffuse. 

Here is the SmoothRidge fractal type lit with a few lights and Material properties setup so there is almost no diffuse and lots of specular. Lux also used here to visualize the lightsources.

Also included is another test with the technique from the Mir Thing tutorial.

If you want to check them out here is the AE project (CS6): mir_beta3_stuff.aep

You'll need Mir v2 beta 3 to render correctly.

There's a couple more comps in there too. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Mir Thing Tutorial

Here's the final clip we'll be re-creating:

Tutorial on creating the above:

Using Trapcode Mir v1
For finishing touches also uses Trapcode Shine and Form.

Covers setting up the "spikey" shape using an amplitude map for the fractal. Also shows the "finishing"; creating the background, light-rays, shadows, glow, atmospheric particles etc.

Procedural audio reactive animation

I did some tests with letting Sound Keys control Mir that came out pretty cool.

Download AE CS6 AEP: AudioMir.aep

Download AE CS5.5 AEP: AudioMir_CS55.aep

Procedural audio reactive animation.
Quick test using Trapcode Sound Keys controlling Mir to generate visuals from audio.

In this case, three expressions are used on Mir:
Rotate Y = time*20;
Amplitude = 200+thisComp.layer("SK").effect("Sound Keys")("Output 1");
Frequency = 200+thisComp.layer("SK").effect("Sound Keys")("Output 3");

Where SK is the sound keys layer and Output one is setup to capture bass and Output 3 is setup to capture the high frequencies. An invert effect was manually inserted.

Music: "Fortress" by -ono- (freemusicarchive.org/music/ono/document_of_life/06_Fortress)

Volumetric fractal smoke - 2 approaches

Two little experiments to create pseudo-volumetric smoke objects in After Effects, one using Particular, the other using the built-in fractal noise plugin in AE and an awful lot of layers.

Both have their own unique look. The Fractal noise version took hours to render compared to the Particular version (which took about 30 mins). The project files are free to download and reuse under a Creative Commons license from the Digital Distortion website.

Particular version:

Fractal noise version:

There are issues with visual artifacts when you get closer in to the fractal noise version (you can see the individual layers, creating an ugly "scanline" effect), so hopefully someone else out there can improve the technique and share it!

Update: Based on feedback, I've done a new version of the Particular one, using a custom smoke comp generated using fractal noise. This gives kind of a hybrid look of the two approaches.

The project file is downloadable here.