Procedural Fire in After Effects - NO PLUGINS!

Detailed raging fire effects in After Effects with no plugins! 2024 Update! I moved Texturelabs off of Patreon - you can now pick up the turbocharged template version of this project here: Fonts used in this tutorial: Check out the Texturelabs Channel for more content: Connect: Insta @texturelabs PROJECT SETUP 1920x1080, 24fps, 6 Seconds PROJECT MAP Layers and effects are arranged as they appear in the project. I recommend building the project starting at the bottom and building to the top. “FIRE“ (Main Comp): IF “SOURCE“ LAYER IS A TEXT LAYER 1) “SOURCE DISPLACE“ (Black Solid) Calculations Effect - Second Layer: “SOURCE“ / Effects & Masks, Second Layer Opacity: 100, Blending Mode: Copy Gaussian Blur Effect - Blurriness: 20 Fractal Noise Effect - Offset Turbulence: KEYFRAME from 960 540 to 960 0 Levels Effect - Output White: 127 IF “SOURCE“ LAYER IS NOT A TEXT LAYER 1) “SOURCE DISPLACE“: Duplicate of LAYER 6 (your SOURCE) with Displacement Map and Compound Blur Effects Gaussian Blur Effect - Blurriness: 20 Fractal Noise Effect - Offset Turbulence: KEYFRAME from 960 540 to 960 0 Levels Effect - Output White: 127 2) “COLORIZE“ (Adjustment Layer) Levels Effect - Gamma: .8 Colorama Effect - Output Cycle: Fire Preset, Blend With Original: 30% Glow Effect - Glow Radius: 300, Glow Intensity: 2, Glow colors: A&B Colors, Color A: FF6500, Color B: A91200 Unsharp Mask Effect - Amount: 100 3) “OVERLAY“ (Black Solid) Overlay Blending Mode Gradient Ramp Effect - Start and End Points adjusted to match subject Fractal Noise Effect - Fractal Type: Dynamic, Invert: On, Contrast: 150, Scale: 200, Offset Turbulence: KEYFRAME from 960 540 to 960 -1250, Blending Mode: Multiply Fractal Noise Effect - Contrast: 50, Brightness: -48, Scale: 9, Offset Turbulence: KEYFRAME from 960 540 to 960 -540, Evolution: KEYFRAME 0 to , Blending Mode: Add Turbulent Displace Effect - Size: 30, Offset Turbulence: KEYFRAME from 960 540 to 960 -50 4) “FRACTAL FLAMES“ (Instance of Precomp) Overlay Blending Mode Displacement Map Effect - Displacement Map Layer: “SOURCE DISPLACE“ / Effects and Masks, Max Horiz: 100, Max Vert: 100 5) “INVERSION“ (Adjustment Layer) Exclusion Blending Mode Gaussian Blur Effect - Blurriness: 50 CC Vector Blur Effect - Type: Direction Fading, Amount: 140, Angle Offset: 180, Vector Map: “BACKGROUND“ Displacement Map Effect - Displacement Map Layer: “FRACTAL FLAMES“, Max Horiz: 15, Max Vert: 75 Solid Composite Effect - Color: Black Fractal Noise Effect - Contrast: 75, Brightness: 40, Offset Turbulence: KEYFRAME from 960 540 to 960 100, Blending Mode: Color Burn Turbulent Displace Effect - Displacement: Twist Smoother, Amount: 20, Offset Turbulence: KEYFRAME from 960 540 to 960 -250, Complexity: 7 Turbulent Displace Effect - Amount: 20, Evolution: KEYFRAME from 0 to Offset Effect - Shift Center To: 960 560 6) “SOURCE“ (Text layer or any white shape with transparent background) Displacement Map Effect - Displacement Map Layer: “FRACTAL FLAMES“, Max Horiz: 6, Max Vert: 6 Compound Blur Effect - Blur Layer: “FRACTAL FLAMES“, Max Blur: 4 7) “BACKGROUND“ (Black Solid) “FRACTAL FLAMES“ (Precomp) 1) “Fractal Flames“ (Black Solid) Fractal Noise Effect - Fractal Type: Dynamic, Invert: On, Sub Scaling: 60, Sub Offset: KEYFRAME from 960 540 to 960 -570, Evolution: KEYFRAME from 0 to