Rorschach Ink Blot Test

No, you are not going crazy! But if you feel the need to test a few of your friends or potential clients with a homemade Rorschach ink blot test, then look no further. Due to a need to recreate an Ink Blot animation that could be morphed into different shapes and images, I was a little worried I wouldn't get the job done. However, using a long time after effects filter, you would be surprised by how much you can do! By using Mr. Mercury, Mirror, time remapping, and a little graph editing, you too can create an animated Rorschach ink blot test.

To begin, start a new composition, white background, and add a solid black layer and then go to  Effects/Simulation/CC Mr. Mercury.

 fig. 1

In the presets, change Gravity to 0, Animation to Fractal Explosion, and Influence Map to Blob in and Out. 

Now add Effects/Distort/Mirror

 fig. 2

Change the reflection angle to 180 degrees, and now align your reflection center to the center of your comp.

Now precompose your layer by highlighting your layer, and go to Layer/Pre-Compose. Go ahead and re-name your layer if you want and select Move All Attributes into the new composition.

Now highlight the new layer and go to Layer/Time/Enable Time remapping.

fig. 3

Drag the timeline out a few seconds, or to a place where you feel the ink blots look good, and add a key frame. With the Keyframe highlighted, go to Animation/Toggle Hold Keyframe.

 fig. 4

Then right click the keyframe and add Ease In.

 fig. 5

Now to create a smooth looking ease-in to the moving ink blots, click on the graph editor and move the handle to the keyframe to create more of a curve into the Hold KeyFrame.  

And there you have it. You can have the hold keyframe hold for a few seconds and keep repeating the steps so it looks like several different ink images are being shown. As well, you use several different methods to animate an image right into the ink blots themselves. And go ahead and play around with CC Mr. Mercury presets, they can create some cool images! Its all up to you. Have fun!!

Any questions, feel free to contact me.
Bob Thompson, Commercial Editor, Charter Communications,

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