hello everyone i'm zach and welcome back to another hitfilm tutorial today i'll be
showing you how to create a customizable vortex or wormhole effect this effect can be anything from a
doctor who style time vortex to a star wars style hyperspace tunnel we will model the 3d vortex
in blender and we'll then texture it in hitfilm express users will need the 3d model add-on
let's hop over to blender to create a 3d model for our vortex delete everything in the default scene
and press shift a to add in a cylinder object increase the depth to be the length of your tunnel
then disable the caps as we don't need the ends to be filled in i'll rotate the object so it's facing
the right way if all you need is a straight tunnel like you'd see in a star wars hyperspace effect
this model is pretty much done we'll be creating the illusion of movement by animating the textures
in hitfilm so we don't have to model a huge tunnel for our camera to fly through press one
on the numpad to go to front view and create a new camera press zero on the numpad to look through
the camera then adjust the camera's focal length i decided to use a wider angle lens which will make
the movement seem faster and the tunnels seem longer select the cylinder then from the right
click menu choose shade smooth then press tab to go into edit mode make sure everything is selected
and flip the normals this makes the inside of the cylinder the side that will render properly
go over to the uv editing workspace the cylinder object comes already uv unwrapped but we want to
rotate the uv's 90 degrees press r type 90 then hit enter this is to take better advantage of
our texture resolution in hitfilm since it will have a wider aspect ratio instead of being square
now is also a good time to set your project resolution and frame rate
i'm going for a more chaotic dr who style vortex so there's a few more steps to add the twists and
turns in edit mode hit ctrl r and type in a number to add many loop cuts to divide up the cylinder
we need this extra geometry so we can bend and warp the object back in object mode add a simple
deform modifier set it to bend duplicate the modifier and select the other axis
playing with the angle values will bend or tunnel in different directions
set the angle values to zero then insert an animation keyframe for both modifiers
we won't be animating these values by hand instead we can apply a noise modifier to add some random
variation go to the animation workspace and make this panel into a graph editor
hit n to show more options add the noise modifier then adjust the settings
to your liking i increase the scale and strength to make slower larger movements
click this button to copy the modifier then paste it on the other animated value
change the offset settings so they don't match
if you want your vortex to have some 3d detail in addition to the 2d
textures we'll add later you can apply a displacement modifier to the object
create a new texture for the displacement and set the type to clouds
adjust the strength of the modifier and smooth it out by adding a subdivision surface modifier
drag these modifiers up so they come before the deform modifiers
to make the displacement move add a new empty object and animate its position along the y-axis
set the keyframe interpolation to linear
on the displacement modifier set the coordinates to object and select the empty if you look through
our camera inside the tunnel you can see the effect we've created the camera is stationary
but it looks like we are moving let's export this 3d scene so we can work with it in hitfilm
there's a tutorial linked in the card on screen showing how to install the blender to hitfilm
exporter script this allows us to export the camera from blender to a hitfilm composite shot
next export the cylinder object as an obj 3d model
then export the animation as an alembic file
now that we have a base model for our vortex let's bring it into hitfilm to add all the
cool textures and details start by importing the hitfilm composite shot we exported from blender
then import the obj model file enable material override for the diffuse map so we can use the
hitfilm layer as the texture also make sure that the diffuse color is fully white so our textures
won't be darkened in the advanced options disable center anchor point and auto normalize scale
this ensures that the 3d model will line up with the camera from blender
dragging the model onto the timeline it lines up on the first frame but it isn't animated
import the alembic animation file and drag it onto the model's animation slot
now everything is looking like it did in blender so we can move on to setting up the textures
add a new composite shot and increase the dimensions so the texture will be more detailed
and less blurry i'll make mine 4096 by 2160 since that's the maximum resolution for express users
create a new plane layer then apply the fractal noise effect
make it look like we are flying through the vortex the noise pattern will be animated to move across
the screen since we'll be layering up many fractal noise effects we shouldn't animate the noise's
position value because if we needed to change the speed we'd have to change the keyframes on all
the effects instead let's animate a point layer's position and reference that on the noise effects
animate the point to move from left to right if you want to be moving forward through the vortex
drag this texture comp into the main comp and hide it
then select it as the cylinder model's diffuse map and the override materials controls
and now looks like we are traveling through the vortex
since i animated the displacement in blender i'll match my texture animation speed to that
we currently have an ugly seam running down our tunnel so let's fix that
make the texture and point into their own comp move the layer half of the comp's height down
then duplicate it and ctrl-click the position value to move it up
make one more duplicate reset its position
then add a mask covering the seam down the middle and feather it out
now our texture wraps seamlessly around our cylinder
with everything set up and ready to go we can now have some fun dialing in the look of our vortex
adjust the type colors exposure offset scale and axis scales of the fractal noise
duplicate the frontal noise effect change the blend mode and change the other settings again
to create the look shown at the beginning of the video i started with some dark gray clouds
then added some brighter brown clouds and some pale blue energy i then added some small bright
spots of blue red and magenta make sure to change the seed for these layers so they don't overlap
i also added some small bright star streaks by adjusting the axis scale setting to stretch out
the noise to give the appearance of motion blur add an angle blur effect
back in our main comp this vortex is looking pretty good but we can make it look even better
because my model itself has animation i can enable motion blur on the model layer
use color correction effects like curves to dial in the brightness contrasting color of your vortex
if you want a bright light at the end of your vortex add a white plain layer
below the model layer you can then enhance the bright spots of the vortex by using glow effects
i chose to apply the glows to a grade layer so it would bleed over the bright end of the tunnel
if it's now too bright you can use a fill color effect
to make the background play in a gray color instead of pure white
on a new grade layer i chose to add a fast shake effect to add
some more movement and make the shot more intense
finally let's add even more detail and interest to this shot with some lens dirt
i'll use a real lens dirt texture to make it more realistic
you now have a fully customizable vortex effect try playing around with different
textures to create totally different looks like the star wars style hyperspace tunnel
take it to the next level by adding a 3d model of a spaceship the tardis 3d model used in the
opening shot was created by tony c and he's got some great doctor who content created
with hit film as well as some hit film tutorials on his youtube channel linked in the description
check out this other tutorial to learn more about 3d models in hitfilm leave a comment
with any questions or suggestions and hit the like button if you learned something new
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