The Oklahoma City Meteor Revealed: To the Front Page of Reddit, to the News and How We Created It

Create Amazing. That's what we set out to inspire in fellow creatives when we started a special project on releasing training in a different way, and eventually creating the VFX shots around the Oklahoma City meteor. Who would have thought that the visual effects shots and videos would garner so much attention? The idea to show people what they too can create ended up being a shot so intriguing, it left people amazed, questioning reality and sharing it all over the world. For over 14 years we've released creative training in the same order: course and course visuals at the same time. But we wanted to try something different. With popular videos hitting the web like the Sydney shark encounter to the one catching steam this week on a bike vs. bear chase, we thought 'we have so much amazing training to help people create exciting and interesting things like this, let's show them'. We tossed around countless ideas and then settled on a meteor VFX shot inspired by, you guessed it, a Russian meteor. We tried to think of everything - from detailed planning on timing the footage across the city for the four shots we would create, to how we could release this into the wild on its own. Then to how we could release the training on the main shot to get people interested in what's possible with their creative skill set when they use our training library. The course itself on Creating a Meteor VFX Shot in After Effects can be watched completely free. The shots ended up taking on a life of their own. They've accumulated over 500,000 views (and counting), hit the second story on the front page of Reddit and even graced national and local news sites and stations. Now if you haven't seen the footage, here are breakdowns of three of the shots, plus some extra goodness about what's possible with Digital-Tutors training:   The feedback on the shots has been all over the place and nothing what we expected, though we remained open to whatever life the video took on. We had people wanting detailed information to help unearth prophecies and for extraterrestrial tracking (seriously), and they were quite adamant about us responding. Still, it was a new experience and one where we learned a lot. We help companies and creatives all around the world create amazing work with our training, from blockbuster films to the latest games to award-winning projects, and this was a chance to see something made in-house that got people talking. Even if some of our own awesome members knew, or at least guessed, that it was us from the very start. It all just shows how good they really are. You watch these shots and then we watch a movie like Gravity and we're honored to be able to help the artists and teams behind movies and projects that inspire us - it truly is a cyclical experience for trainer and trainee. It's been a fun ride. In the end, we truly hope to inspire others to Create Amazing.   Make sure to check out the free course on Creating a Meteor VFX Shot in After Effects. And if you're ever wondering if a video is real or fake, send it our way!   To our fellow Oklahomans, we apologize for any scare of property damage via a meteor, and hope you too take pride in the fact that an Oklahoma company is changing the way artists and designers all over the world learn and pursue careers doing what they love to do. We're right here in your backyard should you ever want to come visit, or even join the team and help us change the world! Here are some additional notes from the project: Map of reported sightings from others and our shot map   Dashcam footage   Our car damage (this was going to be the second part of the training, but after the meteor took off, it was only going to bring more doubt)   Reddit screenshot from reaching the homepage (thanks to someone creating an animated gif out of it) Make sure to check out the free course on Creating a Meteor VFX Shot in After Effects.