Creating snow in Ae comes up time and time again, but creating very realistic and seamless snow in Ae is a bit more challenging.

[pull quote]The technique is relatively simple and requires only a single solid layer and a camera[/pullquote]

Kevin Gates has a look at his workflow for creating realistic and believable snow using techniques that he discovered working on his last film project.

Creating realistic snow is something that has been covered over and over again it seems… With plenty of tutorials showing how to create realistic snow in Ae, either with Trapcode Particular or After Effects’ own CC snow effect.

Kevin’s efforts however are probably the most seamless and realistic looking snow, integrating very well into the plate photography. Really, the technique is simple and only requires a single solid layer and a camera in After Effects.

Kevin shows how to simulate rAeeal-world dynamics with particle dynamics by tweaking some of Trapcode Particular’s parameters to suit the needs of the shot.

Snow-in-Ae

The tutorial covers creating the snow in Ae with a Trapcode Particular particle emitter, how to manipulate the wind speeds to meet the needs of the shot, how to force motion blur where Ae’s Motion blur will leave you lacking, and how to add depth of field to add more realism and depth to the final shot. Check out the tutorial for Creating Realistic Snow in After Effects here.