This video is made possible by Storyblocks Video.
Hey guys, Jordy here for Cinecom.net and welcome to CopyCat Friday,
a weekly series in which we recreate visual effects from famous music videos and films.
And today, I have no idea what we're doing.
Yannick!
Guys, sorry for that.
But as you heard, I'm Yannick and I do know what we're doing today.
And today, we are recreating the time-traveling effect from the movie 'Back to the Future.'
You know, that really old movie from the 80s about time-traveling.
A real classic.
And you're probably thinking, "Why this movie?"
Well, we got the idea from our boomer, Jordy.
He's almost as old as the movie and that's..pretty old.
Now, maybe we can talk a little bit more about the movie.
Maybe we could even do a 'Yannick's Fun Fact Fountain.'
And the fun fact I have for you is about what they used as a time machine.
We all know that they used a DeLorean in the movie
but before that, they had the idea to use a fridge and that would be weird..and cold.
Definitely cold.
However, they didn't go with the idea because they were afraid that kids would crawl in the fridge
and lock themselves in while recreating the film.
I can get that because kids stealing their parent's car and drive super fast is much safer to recreate the movie.
Clever thinking.
Clever thinking?
Now that happens to be one of my specialities
because, you know, guys, I'm looking for something like Storyblocks Video, today's sponsor,
in which you can find unlimited video assets such as lasers, and explosions,
and muzzle flashes, sparks, and so much more. It's really incredible guys.
It's the perfect thing that I need to build my time-travel machine.
And you know what else you can find in there?
Well, 4k high-quality studio stock clips. That's right!
You can make your own cinema inside of your time-travel machine.
And, of course, After Effects templates.
You can just swap your footage or your logo with any template in there, render it out,
and you've got something beautiful to look at.
And you might think, 'Super expensive!'
Oh, no worries guys!
Because I don't have any money more with this time-travel machine.
This thing here ate all of my money and that's why I got Storyblocks
because there's only a single price through here which allows you to download everything you want.
Everything!
Unlimited downloads, guys, unlimited! So amazing!
So you probably want to start downloading as well.
Well, simply click that first link in the description below and you can.
And now back to the future, guys.
[yeets out]
Okay, now for this time-traveling effect, we thought to ourselves, 'Maybe we can do it practical.'
So on Wednesday, we started with our testing.
And now we are going to test the flame in front of the car and, hopefully, it will work
because it's already Wednesday.
So in two days, this needs to be done and I don't have a good feeling about it.
Let's hope it will work.
So, guys, we found the Bengal fire.
Is it called Bengal fire?
I don't know.
But, either way, we found it and now we're gonna test it in the studio.
Let's hope we don't burn down the studio.
That would be bad.
That would be really bad.
We are ready to test our Bengal fire practical effect, but first, safety tips:
Safety glasses, a bucket of water with some rags to throw over the fire,
and, of course, a fire extinguisher because you can never be safe enough.
So, now that the safety instructions are behind us, let's start with the test.
And guys, something happened that you cannot imagine.
Our first test was a complete success and was already perfect for the end product.
This never happens.
We usually need like 20 tests before we can start.
Amazing.
But I'm not complaining.
This means more time to create a stunning effect and we are doing this in After Effects.
It's not going to be a difficult effect, but we need some tracking so After Effects is mandatory.
Now before we can start with the effect, we need a shot to work on.
To get this, we went to a dead-end road because we had to take a shot of a moving car.
To do this, we placed Lorenzo with the camera in an open trunk of a car.
This way, he could film the car riding behind him.
Now, guys, we were only driving like 12 miles per hour in a dead-end road.
So if you want to recreate this shot, please don't do this in public roads or at high speeds.
Be safe and be more clever than the car stealing kids from the 80s.
Okay, now that we are safe and have our shots, let's go into After Effects.
Place your shot into a new composition.
And the first thing you now do is a simple motion tracking.
In the 'Tracker' options, you can also select the rotation and the scale.
Then place your tracking points somewhere on the bumper of the car.
Just make sure that they are easy to recognize for After Effects.
Next, you can start the tracking and let After Effects do its thing.
After the tracking is done, create a 'Null Object' in the 'Layer' menu on the top.
Then, back in the tracker panel, you can edit your target to the 'Null Object' and hit apply.
Now that the shot is tracked, we can add the light on the front of the car.
Something super simple.
Just create a solid layer and add the free plugin from Video Copilot called 'Saber.'
Last week, we also made a video with this plug-in while recreating the blaster effect from 'The Mandalorian.'
Definitely check that out. It's super cool.
So to create this light grill, you have to draw a line with the masking tool in the shape that you want.
Then in the 'Effects control panel, you can go into the 'Customize Core' option
and set the core type to 'Layer Mask.'
This will make sure that the light is in the same shape as you drew.
The only thing left now is to parent the light layer to the null object with the tracking.
And now, the light will follow the car perfectly.
Easy, no?
The next step, adding the energy in front of the car, will also be super easy.
Just go to the link in the description below and download the assets that we made for you.
Once you got that, select the energy layer and place that on top of everything
and set the blending mode of the layer to 'Add.'
Then position and scale it so that it sits in front of your car.
Again, parent it to the null object.
And that's it.
If you want, you can always animate the scale from zero to your wanted scale.
This will make the energy come in slowly just like in the movie.
Okay.
Now before we start with the other details,
You probably saw that our assets contained more clips than just the energy clip that we already placed.
Well, these clips are the lightning beams coming from the car when it's going to time travel.
We already made some variations for you which you can use in the same way as the energy I just explained.
Just place them into your comp, set the blending mode to 'Add,'
position them, and then parent them to the null object.
Damn, this tutorial is easy.
However, if you want to recreate these light beams from scratch, let me explain it real quick.
Do you remember the Saber plug-in we just used?
Well, again, add it to a solid layer, and again, draw a line with the 'Mask' tool like before.
Now, to make the light line move,
you just need to animate the mask to where you want.
Now, there is nothing more to it than this.
So you can draw as many lines as you want or you can just use our pre-made ones.
Okay, we already have the basic effect
so let's add the details.
The first one is the extra glow from the front energy.
You just take your original clip and duplicate that.
Now, in the 'Effects' library, search for the 'Curves' effect and drag that to the duplicate.
In the 'Channel' option, set it to red and drag the line up.
Do the same for the blue channel and this will make your image magenta.
Now with the 'Pen' tool, create a mask in the same shape as your energy but a little bit longer
Feather it a great bunch and maybe even lower the opacity
and this, this will give you a nice glow emitting from the energy.
Well, the last two details we are doing are not mandatory, but really finished the effect.
The first one is the fire exhaust on the sides.
This is just a stock clip I find on Storyblocks.
You can place it into your comp and change the blending mode to 'Add'
and then parent it to the null object.
This will now stay perfectly in place but it's missing some glow on the ground.
So do exactly the same as you just did for the energy glow but this time for the fire glow.
The only thing different here is that the glow needs to be orange and not magenta.
And the very last details are the light leaks.
Just look for one you like and that will fit with the lights in the scene.
Add them to the comp, change the blending mode, and boom, You are done.
Doc?
Oh..Yannick.
Oh, look at my latest time-travel experiment.
This is gonna be a big one, Yannick.
What are you testing?
All your questions will be answered.
Now, let's get this thing to the road. Come on, Yannick!
You ready, Yannick?
No, no, no the car it's more important.
Okay, I'm ready.
Yes, it's working, Yannick, it is working.
It's working.
Yannick. Yannick. No, Yannick, stay here. Stay here. Film the car.
Come on, it's working, Yannick! 80 miles per hour.
Yannick!
It worked, Yannick, it worked!
Boy, oh boy, oh boy.
And that was it for today, guys.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
If you have some cool CopyCat ideas for us, definitely let us know in the comments below.
Thank you so much for watching.
Thank you Storyblocks Video for the support.
And, like always,
Stay creative.
This video is made possible by Storyblock Video.
Radio voice.
Hey, guys, Jordy here for Cinecom.net and welcome to CopyCat Friday.