Fake guns for the win.
There's nothing worse than watching a low-budget thriller reach its climax and, quite literally, blow it as its hero is tragically defeated by an invisible bullet. Anything—especially cheap VFX—that takes your audience out of the moment could serve to bring your film into disrepute in its entirety.
That's why software company Rampant Design has partnered with the creators of the popular YouTube DIY filmmaking channel, Film Riot, and the founder of Triune Films to develop a series of easy weapon VFX (which they have deemed Rampant Style Effects) for you to play around with in post-production.
To get a better idea of what these VFX will help you accomplish, take a look at the video below:
The first of the series is called “Muzzle Flash & Smoke” and includes a collection of 205 muzzle and smoke elements and over 150 real drag and drop muzzle effects for your action film. From the site:
Each Style Effect in the collection is shot on RED cinema cameras in 5k, presenting filmmakers with hundreds of options to easily add ultra high quality, realistic organic effects into their sequences.
These VFX include:
- 47 automatic files
- 107 single shot files
- Includes sideways and head on shots
Weapons VFX include:
- Smith & Wesson Model 500
- Heizer
- Colt Combat Commander
- Smith & Wesson M&P
- AR-15
- Mini-14
- F&N – PS 90
- Remington 1100 Shotgun
- Glock 21-C
- Sig Sauer P20RS
- Springfield XD 45
- Kel-Tec PLR-16
Ammo VFX include:
- .50 cal
- .223 cal
- .45 cal
- 9mm
- 5.7 cal
- 12 gauge
- 5.56mm
Rampant’s Style Effects are platform agnostic, meaning they work with every editing suite application out there, from Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro and even Media 100. The entire Muzzle Flash & Smoke package is $59.50 and can be purchased here.
Your Comment
7 Comments
No VFX software here, just video assets. What's up with the headline?
August 12, 2016 at 1:57PM
This is cool. Not really software but, cool anyway.
What ruins gun shots in the movies for me is the, typical, lack of recoil. Most any gun bigger than a .22 will have considerable recoil and this is rarely seen in even big budget movies.
Then, there's the, almost always, complete control of fully automatic firearms. Keeping automatic weapons on target thru a long burst (or even a short one) is extremely difficult for even the manliest of men. The movies allow this time and time again and it always takes me out of it for a bit.
Silencers on revolvers. Ha! Though, I haven't seen this in contemporary movies it was popular to do this some years ago. You can put a silencer on a revolver but, it will have no effect on the sound emitted from it as the gases (and noise) come mainly from the gap between the cylinder and barrel. Silencing a revolver is virtually impossible.
Lastly... the gun that never seems to run out of ammunition.
A bit of gun trivia... sometimes you hear someone call a revolver a pistol.
Know the difference between a pistol and a revolver?
In a pistol, the chamber and barrel are one piece.
In a revolver, the cylinder (which is the chamber) is separate from the barrel.
August 13, 2016 at 5:29AM
Might want to read up on the Nagant M1895 before calling it impossible. Even had a gas-seal system.
August 13, 2016 at 1:01PM
Technically speaking, I said 'virtually' impossible but, OK... nearly all revolvers.
August 14, 2016 at 11:13AM
nice post
August 13, 2016 at 6:00AM, Edited August 13, 6:00AM
How right you are Richard. Not to mention that a "clip" loads from the top down and a "magazine" loads upwards into the chamber, but for some reason to these terms are used interchangeably.
I'm interested in seeing how these look in 5k.
August 13, 2016 at 12:33PM, Edited August 13, 12:33PM
You can get a blank gun for under $100 and fire blanks- for those of you that find these effects underwhelming.
August 14, 2016 at 3:37PM