Murmuration Effect

What is it?

The Murmuration Effect lets you create realistic bird murmurations in Adobe After Effects. Your mumuration animation can included thousands of 3D starlings that undulate, swoop, and swirl in a synchronized aerial ballet. The birds automatically fly in random movements that mimic a real murmuration, and every behavior can be customized using easy controls. If you prefer to have complete control over their flight path, you can simply keyframe the position of a single "leader" bird, and the other birds will follow, while keeping some of their random, coordinated movements. 

The murmurations can be composited over footage with realistic results. A "Control Layer" with over 50 neatly-organized controls allow you to customize the starlings' appearance, flight behavior (like automatic wing-flapping), and flock characteristics (like randomness and 3D spread). Or to save time, just keep the default settings and render.

The Murmuration Effect was originally part of the "Flocks" template, which includes 12 species of birds with pre-programmed flight behavior. The "Flocks" tutorial gives in-depth instruction on customizing the effect. The section on murmurations shows how to boost the numbers in your flock to create murmurations with thousands of birds. 

This template includes three bird model options, so you can choose your preferred level of detail depending on your flock size, distance from the camera, and speed of your machine. The 1-segment birds are a single layer, and can be used for large populations of birds flying in the distance. The 4-segment and 8-segment bird models are constructed from multiple 3D layers, and feature wings that bend for a more realistic-looking flight. This template is not for animating birds that are landed. Music & backgrounds from the video are not included. This effect works in any resolution. Compatible with AE 2020 (v.17.x) and up.