Presets, Transform and Keyframing

Bang

PRESETS, TRANSFORM AND KEYFRAMING.

Bang is a fully procedural photo realistic 3D muzzle flare generator, allowing for the quick and easy addition of muzzle flashes to your After Effects Compositions. You can start using Bang instantly by applying it directly to your source footage and choosing one of 20 presets that you can than position using 2D depth onscreen controls or property values for 3D positioning and more accuracy.

Bang gives the user total control over the width, height, glow, distortion and timing of the flashes with easy to use intuitive controls. In this section, we'll look at some of the most used properties of this incredible versatile effect.

Choosing a Preset

After applying bang to a layer, at the top of the effect you can choose a preset to become familiar with various muzzle flash looks both realistic and stylistic. .

Choose a Preset - Once clicking this button a pop up window will appear revealing 20 presets from 3 categories; Pistols and Handguns, Riffles and Machine Guns and Sci - Fi and Weird.
Search - In the top right hand corner you can search for a preset by typing a name to the right of the magnifying glass icon. Anything with the name you entered will display. Clicking the x to the right of the search field will clear the search.
Favorites - When you click on a preset thumbnail, a star icon will show in the top left corner, Click it to make it a favorite.
Cancel and Apply - With a preset thumbnail selected click Apply to see the preset muzzle flash on top of your footage or background selection. Click Cancel if you want to go back to the previous settings of Bang in your composition.

Transform Category

The transform section allow you to visualize, place and position you muzzle flash in 2D or 3D space.

UI Overlay is a default pistol overlay that appears on your layer. You can choose from 8 ovelay options including turning the overlay off. If you've chosen a preset, the overlay will change based on the preset values of that preset.
Place and Aim allows you to choose between positioning your muzzle flash in 2D + Depth or 3D from the dropdown. Depending on what value you select, the corresponding values below will become availble while the others will be greyed out. With 2D + Depth selected, you can use on screen controls in your composition window to position and aim the muzzle flash with no orientation values. With 3D selected, you can adjust the posiition and rotation of your flash using the properties that highlight below or attaching it to a Null and then using the nulls on screen controls.

Position is a 3D point for positioning the flash. Defaults to the middle of the layer, and at 0 in Z. Unlike other plugins, moving the flash back-and-forth in Z does not disconnect it from the point overlay in the Composition window (ie: there is no drifting of the point in x or y).
Aim represents the back of the barrel. By default, the Aim points the flash towards the camera. Tick the Point Away checkbox to orient the flash away from camera.
Point Away when checked changes the muzzle flash default and points it away from the camera.

Position in 3D is the same as position in 2D however works with the Sweep, Tilt and Roll rotation controls that can be attached to a null.
Create Null - When clicking this button the 3D Position, Sweep, Tilt and Scale values become linked to a newly created null layer. Adjust the position, scale, orientation properties of the null and these values will also change.
Sweep allows you to precicely orient your flash along the Y axis.
Tilt allows you to precisely orient your flash along the Z axis.
Roll allows you to precisely orient your flash on the x axis. This is very useful when rotating petals.
Scale will make the flash larger or smaller (as opposed to rendering it closer or further away when the position is adjusted along the Z-axis).

Keyframer

One of the most powerful features of Bang is how it handles keyframing. When moving your current time indicator to any frame and clicking the Add Keyframe button under Trigger, it will create a one frame flash at this time (ie: think of it as an if expression. When you click Add keyframe the flash is on and off at other times) If you've adjusted the Number of Rounds other than the default of one, when clicking Add Keyframe a keyframe will be added at the CTI and additional frames specified by the Number of Rounds and Rate of Fire (Rounds per Second). This is great for rapid fire weapons. You can also mix a rapid fire animation with manual triggers simply by playing with the values.

Rate of Fire (Rounds Per Second) is the number of rounds that go off a second after clicking the Add Keyframe button. Note: Best seen when the Number of Rounds is set to greater than 1.
Number of Rounds determines how many rounds will be fired once you click the Add Keyframe. The timing of these rounds is based on the Rate of Fire. In the below example, I've clicked the Add keyframe button with my CTI at 1 sec. My Number of Rounds are set to 6 and Rate of Fire set to 6 times per second. If you look in the timeline, 6 keyframes have been added between 1 and 2 seconds.
Trigger - Click the stopwatch or the Add Keyframe button to create a one frame flash wherever your CTI is. You'll know a keyframe has been added when the Add Keyframe button changes to a Firing button. Move your CTI to any frame where there are no flashes and the Add Keyframe button will reappear. You can now manully add additional keyframes to trigger additional one frame flashes. You can create an automatic (rapid fire) type animation by adjusting the Rate of Fire and Number of Rounds as outlined above.