Freeze Effect from Billie Eilish (Lovely) in After Effects

Published on June 21, 2019

After Effects Tutorials

After Effects, Billie Eilish, Blending, Camera Tracking, Fake 3D, Freeze Effects, Maksing

Boys and girls, welcome to another lovely episode of Copy Cat Friday. Get it, lovely. No? Well we are recreating some effects from Billie Eilish her music video Lovely. We know it is an older one, but the music clip is awesome and has a cool effect in it. Of course I’m talking about  the freeze effect in the end. Which is not that hard to recreate, but we are taking it to the next level with some extras. Like building the glass box inside after effects and using some practical effects for the water on the walls.

For the water water effect, we first tried to make it completely in After Effects. But after some trying and testing, we decided it would never look realistic enough. That’s why we aren’t doing the idea of recreating the water completely from scratch. Instead we started to search for practical alternatives and with some brainstorming, found a quite good one. With some camera tricks, plexi glass and a garden hose we found a way to fake the water falling over the glass walls. And of course it will look realistic as it’s real water in the same space and lighting as the rest of the scene. Now personally I’m a big fan of practical effects as they can be more realistic the CGI. But don’t get me wrong, somethings can’t be done without CGI. It’s just that practical effects makes it easier for actors to react to what is happening.

For example the actor will react completely different if the explosion behind him is real and not added on in post production. However you always put the safety of the actor first. So if the actor would be to close to that explosion, then you have no other choice then do it in post production. Another reason and maybe the reason we all have to use, is that we don’t have the budget to let things explode. And the experience, because letting things explode isn’t that easy if you don’t want to blow yourself up. So guys, don’t play with explosives, let’s add it in post production. There are other things we can do safely with practical effects.

StoryBlocks Video

This video was supported by Storyblocks Video, an easy to use site full of stock footage, After Effects templates, backgrounds, motion Graphics and much more.