I wonder if anyone could point me in the direction of any tutorials for After Effects that would help me achieve a smoke jet effect such as you would see coming out the back of an aerobatics aircraft. I want to use it as part of a lower third.

Many thanks.

Red Giant's Particular could do that with ease. Plug in for AE.
It could also be done in Motion without the plugin. My guess is that with a few tweaks to the particle image, the stock AE could do it too.

Thanks for the reply Robert. I'll look into Particular (especially as you used the words 'with ease'!). What I was really hoping for is a tutorial on how to use the stock AE to produce the effect.

My objective is to have an aircraft wipe across from L to R, trailing thick white smoke which dissipates to reveal underlying text (the name of the person being interviewed).

I think you could play around with the Fractal Noise effect. Give is a whitish/greyish color via Colorama. Add Turbulent Displacement(?) to give in motion. Then create a round rectangular mask to give is shape & keyframe it from zero, to it's entire length.


Sounds easier said that done I'm sure, but worth playing around with to see if you can get it.

Thanks David, I'll give that a whirl. About to play with the trial of Particle although to be honest I can't really justify $399 for this project!

I use Boris Continuum, as well as Particular. Either will work. I believe there is some stock AE effects that will work as well. It's been a while since I've used the stock AE effects and don't remember. I'll take a look when I get home.

Hi Ian. I've made you a version with CC Particle World which might be a starting point but unfortunately the forum doesn't accept aep files so I've send a personal email to you with my contact info if you're interested. Version CS3.