Does anybody know how the effect was done in the first matrix movie when Neo just comes back to life in the hallway? The hallway seems to flex as Neo flexes his muscles and when he releases, the background seems to ripple away into the background... Is there a plug-in for AE that does this? Any comments are appreciated...

Way to make a pointless post, Mike. Diego, that shot was most likely done in front of a greenscreen, with a digitally animated background. You could try using a "spherize" distortion effect on the background and keyframing it, it's in FCP, probably AE has it too. Single-frame Photoshop animation is also always an option. Just rewatch that shot over and over and try to replicate what happens using the tools that you have. If you don't have a greenscreen, get a giant flat (no texture) surface like a wall or something and paint it a bright vibrant green, then light it evenly and key it out. There are tutorials all over this site, or search on Google. If you already know how to chroma key, then more power to ya. Good luck, let us know how it comes out.

thanx guys

I don't really have a step-by-step instruction, but I'm sure you can get some very decent results using the "reshape" filter (which is a stock AE filter under distort if you have the PB or AE Pro).

Essentially, it works like a morphing tool or "liquify" filter in photoshop. It is very powerful and often overlooked.

It's more rewarding if you cut your clip every two frames, then edit it with your distorion, making it an animation... you don't need no god-danged new fangled hippy professional programs.


*Solid lover of animation creation*

Though, I think this was already said... I kinda' just wanted to re enforce it.

Umm... bye now.