In this tutorial we'll use Particular and a single smoke picture to create pretty realistic smoke trails in After Effects. As a bonus I will also be using Optical Flares to add the bright lights. Watch Tutorial Check out our New Plug-in: Optical Flares!

One year before I was born HBO made a very ambitious intro that was said to be the most expensive and innovative concepts at the time (for the medium). I love the idea of incorporating techniques from the real world inside of After Effects for even more unique results. In fact the whole idea of mattes for compositing come from the early days of film-making... Watch the final intro above then be sure…