Heat Blur Tutorial

If I recall correct, some time ago someone asked how to make a heat blur for mech exhausts ext.

This tutorial is an after effect, so far I found that it only works on finished .jpg's ext.

A summery:
Gaussian Blur's,
Saving your selection and
the Ocean ripple Filter.

In this tutorial, we are going to add a exhaust heat to this MiG31:


First we need to select the area where the heat
would distort using the circle selection tool (M)


After having the right area selected, we can add the Gaussian blur:
Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur...


The Gaussian Blur window:


Tweak around with the Radius, just don't put it to high.

Next we need to save our selection, since we well need to use it again later:
Select -> Save Selection...


The Save Selection window:


We don't need to add a name since its the only selection save we will use this time.

Now we select a smaller part, within the previous selection that we just saved:


This is to give it a bit more effect. Repeat the Gaussian blur (Ctrl + F)

Reload the selection we just saved: Select -> Load Selection...
The load selection window:


We can just click OK.

Now that we have our original selection again, we can add the Ocean Ripple:
Filter -> Distort -> Ocean Ripple...


The Effect Filer Window:


Here we can add all kind of filters, each with there own effect.
But for now we keep it to the Ocean Ripple. Adjust the "Size" and "Magnitude"
to your liking. It's again advised to keep the values low for a more realistic effect.

So there you go, now the MiG31 has a exhaust heat blur:


This effect can of course also be used for fire's ext.

Digital Matte Painting and Techniques Tutorials

A friend of mine found this the other day on the intranet (internal network)
and passed it onto me as he thought I might like it also, which I do:

Digital Matte Painting and Techniques Tutorials

I haven't finished it jet, but from what I have read I'm sure you all
will find it also useful. It's in PDF format, which I assume most of you
can open or else you can download a free reader here.

Colour Harmony

During my break I took the time to look a bit into colour harmony.
First I came upon this site, which gives the general idea of the whole:
Color Harmony

After that I found this site that I think is very useful for all of us:
Color Harmony Tool (Flash required, free for download here)

Enjoy.