Use Autodesk’s free app to create amazing fluid and smoke simulations

Special effects have long been easy to create on desktop tools. The likes of iMovie and numerous plug-ins can already create cool effects that you can use in your home movies. Usually, you capture your footage and then add the effect afterwards.

Motion FX -- a free app on the Mac App Store -- is a bit different though. It’s also a great deal of fun. It comes from Autodesk, the software giant behind heavyweight pro applications such as Maya and Flame -- both tools used in countless feature films and both with excellent particle emitters. What’s a particle emitter, you ask? Well, it’s something that enables you to generate smoke, flames and other effects with ease -- and taking into account real-world physics. Motion FX brings particle effects, in the form of real-time emitters, to your desktop.

The premise of this application is very simple: using your FaceTime or external camera, you can generate particle effects based on what you’re filming. This includes fire, smoke and some more hallucinogenic effects. At its most simplistic, you can sit in front of your FaceTime camera and watch as particles spew from around your face. As you move -- on the default setting -- particles track your movement. There are multiple options for generating particles, including being able to paint effects onto your video and, bizarrely, create fire coming from your eyes.

While the effects on offer are certainly not movie quality, they are excellent fun and can create some hypnotic, dream-like sequences that you can insert into your footage. You can also use your trackpad, mouse or tablet to paint with light, with gravity then taking effect on the particles.

It’s an application that’s definitely worth the download -- for free it’s brilliant fun, and with a bit of experimentation you can record some cool particle effects for use in your iMovie or other video projects. By using the Make Movie command you can quickly and easily record your movements and the particles that emit around you. You can also take stills to use as digital art -- or just to amuse yourself.

So let’s take a look at what Motion FX can do, and start having some fun with particle effects.

The Motion FX Interface

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Create Cool Effects with Motion FX

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  Setup

  Open Motion FX. If you have a FaceTime camera you’ll automatically appear in the preview window and an effects simulation will start around you. The default setting is Motion Detect. Make sure there’s as much light in the room as possible. Now move your head around!

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  Face Detection

  Try clicking the Face Detect mode icon at the top-right of the interface and you’ll see smoke rise from your eyes (and any other eyes in the frame). It’s not actually that useful, but can be a lot of fun. Move your cursor to the bottom of the preview and choose a color.

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  Paint Effects

  For more control over effects, switch to the Effect Paint mode. This enables you to use your mouse, trackpad or graphics tablet to paint on effects. Of course, you can record this as you go, by hitting the Make Movie button (as with any effect) for an interesting light painting.

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  Color Detect

  This option enables you to pick a color in your preview video and then emit effects of that color. To start the particle effects emitting, click on a certain color in your video preview. Now, pixels with that same color value (or thereabouts) will start emitting particle effects.

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  Quick SFX

  How to use effects in your projects? Motion FX provides a fun way to quickly add special effects to your projects – even though you need to record them as you go and there’s not a huge amount of control over them (the particle effects are generated dynamically)…

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  Smoke and Fire

  To create a smoking title, create a title in a word processor or image-editing app and print it out. Pin it up on a wall in a well-lit room and position your Mac. Next, select the Color Detect mode and, moving your cursor to the bottom of the video preview, select the smoke effect. Your title will now start smoking. Click the Make Movie button and then hit Start Recording. When you’re done, simply import it into iMovie, edit it and add it to your project.

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  Quick Tip

  You can take a snapshot of your video preview – creating a still image file of the current effect on screen – by hitting the Snapshot button. Show snapshots by hitting the Reveal Snapshot button.

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