Maxon’s Cheap Tricks Returns with Dune’s Holtzman Shield VFX Tutorial

Today, Maxon released a VFX tutorial inspired by the upcoming sci-fi epic, “Dune,” the latest adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. In this Cheap Tricks episode, now out on YouTube, Dan “Hashi” Hashimoto, the Action Movie Dad, shows viewers how to recreate the film’s iconic defensive Holtzman Shield force field and other cool compositing effects in Adobe® After Effects® with tools from Red Giant Complete. 

WATCH NOW: CHEAP TRICKS #17 - Dune the Best We Can: Holtzman Shield VFX from DUNE

This tutorial includes two free templates for creating the final effect - one that uses After Effects only and another more advanced setup that uses Red Giant tools and produces even better results with less work. Once viewers learn to create the Holtzman Shield effects using either of the free templates, they can begin to create complex effects from scratch using expressions. In a second bonus tutorial, Hashi takes viewers on a deep dive into expression controls.

WATCH NOW: CHEAP TRICKS #17.5 - Building VFX with Expression Controls: Advanced Techniques for Creating Awesome Things

The full set of tools used includes: 

• Magic Bullet Colorista V: Magic Bullet Colorista V provides professional color correction for filmmakers, turning Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects into a high-speed professional color grading environment.
• Magic Bullet Looks: Magic Bullet Looks is designed to give filmmakers powerful looks and color correction, with over 200 fully-customizable Look presets and over 40 tools to customize or build new Looks. Get the best, most-intuitive color correction experience in the industry.
• VFX Optical Glow: A blazing fast, drop-dead gorgeous, photo-realistic glow effect for After Effects and Premiere Pro, Optical Glow makes adding picture-perfect glow effects to projects incredibly simple. 
• Universe Modes: Combine layers in entirely new ways using powerful features that go beyond the native blend modes found on your editing timeline.
• Universe Chromatic Aberration: A realistic lens distortion effect with chromatic separation, blur, texture and more.
• VFX King Pin Tracker: King Pin Tracker is a plug-in that brings the power of a planar tracker directly into Adobe After Effects.

Additional information on this installment of Cheap Tricks can be found on the Red Giant blog. 

Free Trial

Want to follow along? Download a free trial of Red Giant Complete and get access to fully functioning versions of all of the tools! 

Download the project files for Holtzman Shield VFX on the Red Giant tutorial page. 

About Maxon

Maxon is a developer of professional 2D/3D digital content creation solutions. In January, Maxon and Red Giant closed a merger of the two companies. The combined company’s award-winning Cinema 4D, Redshift 3D and Red Giant products have been used extensively to help create and render everything from stunning visual effects in top feature films, TV shows and commercials, cutting-edge game cinematics for AAA games, as well as for medical illustration, architectural and industrial design applications. Maxon products are available directly from the website and its worldwide distribution network. Maxon is part of the Nemetschek Group.