After Effects Realistic Snow with CC Snowfall - Dots not Lines!

[AaronTuretsky]

Hello,

Im looking for some advice with making a realistic snow fall effect with CC Snowfall. I will be using the video as projection material for a theatrical performance. The problem that I am running in to is that as soon as I increase the speed of the flakes their shape goes from a dot to a line. As I increase the speed further, the lines become longer and longer, making it look very fake.

I understand that when you video snowfall it will blur in the camera and turn into lines, however when you see snowfall with your own eyes, it only looks like dots no matter how fast it is moving. Therefore when you project snow on stage if it is moving lines rather than dots, it looks like a  video of snow rather than realistic snow flakes. I have gone as far as I can with the internal settings of CC Snowfall but I can't seem to have it not stretch the flake from a dot into a line.

Id appreciate any advice!

Thank you,

Aaron

[Dave_LaRonde · Accepted solution]

What's your comp's frame rate?  You could increase it, making the frame-to-frame changes smaller,  Make sure you use integer multiples of the delivery frame rate, because you will nest this inside the comp you use to deliver the animation.  Also, be mindful of the maximum frame rate in AE -- 99 fps.

[Szalam]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Dave+LaRonde  wrote

Also, be mindful of the maximum frame rate in AE -- 99 fps.

Not anymore it isn't.

[Mike_Abbott]

Good call from Dave - although as Szalam notes max frame rate is now 999fps. 

One further thing to note if you do this:

In the comp in which you've applied CC Snowfall go to menu: Composition > Composition settings, click into the Advanced tab - and tick / check the 'Preserve frame rate when nested...' option.

This will make the nesting work as per Dave's suggestion.