Process Breakdown
When I saw Pixrate's piece on Instagram, I immediately opened After Effects to see if I could replicate his melting sand effect. This urgency came from a place of artistic justification where I just knew I could get something similar to the original since I recognized some of the effects that were used. After numerous looped viewings and ceaselessly pausing and playing his post, I cracked the 3 main components of the piece:
1. Bevel and Emboss + Inner Shadow on the text for a 3D feel
2. Roughen Edges + Displacement Map on the text for the melting sand effect
3. Choose a bigger but similar font for the wipe reveal
Exercises like these are always fun because they test my After Effects knowledge but also encourage me to try out new approaches and effects. For example, upon my first few watches, I was convinced Pixrate used Sapphire's S_DissolveLuma effect for the messy/grainy wipe transition but my experimentation didn't look like his end result. This pushed me to test other effects but also made me think critically about what type of effects made the most sense to achieve what I wanted. While Displacement Map did the bulk of the work, it was the final addition of Roughen Edges that brought the piece together!