Zhuoyi Chen
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Personal project · VFX compositing

World destruction

A clock tower tilting over a street in black and white, smoke filling the sky behind it.
Format
Personal project · VFX compositing
Role
Compositing, VFX
Tools
After Effects

A personal compositing piece made entirely in After Effects: an ordinary street shot turned into a scene of destruction, with a clock tower, smoke and a black-and-white grade added to the plate.

Overview

A personal project made entirely in After Effects.

The starting point is a flat, ungraded shot of a building against a grey sky. The finished composite adds a clock tower and smoke, reframes the shot and grades the whole frame to black and white.

Before and after

Before — raw plateAfter — composite

Drag the handle: raw plate on the left, finished composite on the right.

Final composite

No sound

The finished shot.

Stills

  • The clock tower rising behind the building at the start of the shot.
  • The tower leaning further as smoke spreads across the frame.
  • The original plate: a plain building and grey sky before compositing.

Techniques

  • Compositing
  • Smoke and destruction effects
  • Reframing
  • Black-and-white grade