I enjoyed the last one going from tiny tits to... not. I originally had this in one long smooth motion, but decided to stagger it a bit to show the different stages. The first frame is the original size of her chest.
Extras | [gif version] • Source: Emma Sweet for MetArt (Imgur)
![[gif version]](https://i.imgur.com/oRPGJMy.gif){kind=link}
I did go back to using reFlex warp, it's really good at adjusting the size within itself without having to do really weird things. I'm not super happy with the bounces, I was pretty lazy there.
I’m curious to know how you handle shadows. As the growth progresses I notice your shadows grow very realistically. I try to achieve the same with drop shadows and increasing opacity but the shadow applies universally, not just on the desired layer (e.g. the torso, as in this example). Any tips?
ReplyDeleteI know it's really tempting to use Drop Shadow here, but in After Effects it really just won't work in a lot of cases (as you found out).
DeleteI use 2 different styles of shadows on everything: Shadow on the breast & a Shadow that's casted.
Shadow on the breast is just inside the precomposition, so it's before all the growing/bouncing effects. Pretty easy to control that way. I prefer to use Lumetri or just general Hue/Saturation/Lightness stuff and use masks to limit those effects to certain areas.
Shadows that are casted are trickier because they separate, but still need to grow/bounce right along with the other layer(s). I usually use a solid in the ballpark of the right color of the shadow directly using the same mask (usually linked too) to the original breast layer. Then copy all the effects (and link them all with expressions if I'm going to change anything). Then I add either liquify or CC Smear to "scoot" the shadow out from under the breast layer at the bottom of the effect pile so it's last. These can be keyframed as well so that as the breast grows, the shadow can move out. This sounds pretty simple but is really annoying to keep the masks in line since when you blur the shadow (also keyframed) you'll need more masks to make sure the shadow doesn't peek out somewhere it shouldn't (like the top or something).
For this one I had three different Shadow effects on the breast (inside the precomp), and I believe I had 2 casting shadow layers per breast. On the breast on the right I should have blurred them a bit more, you can see the two shadow curves around 15sec.
I do a lot of expression working because I enjoy it, it let's me re-time a lot of stuff pretty easily at the end but comes at a pretty heavy cost of performance. If you just do a really straight forward timing of growth you don't need any expressions.