We all know by now that Tom Cruise kind of lied to us about their use of CG in Top Gun: Maverick. If you're one of the 761 CG and VFX artists who worked on the film, we appreciate your hard work!

Well the good news for VFX artists is that you don't need a pilot's license to make a Top Gun quality movie. In fact, all you really need is good 3D and compositing software and an ActionVFX subscription.

I recreated a scene from Top Gun: Maverick spending only 10 credits ($69.30 during Black Friday!) at ActionVFX. No, it's not quite Top Gun quality (I threw it together in less than a week), but you get a pretty good idea of what's possible with high-quality VFX assets.

Here's the full tutorial:

This Tutorial Covers:

• Importing and animating 3D jet models in Blender.
• Creating missile trails using Blender's particle systems.
• Simulating handheld camera movements using Blender noise modifiers.
• Using HDRIs and Sky Textures for realistic lighting in Blender.
• Rendering EXR multi-pass outputs for compositing in After Effects.
• Compositing explosions, debris, and heat distortion effects in After Effects.

Assets Used in Tutorial:

• F-15 Strike Eagle Fighter Jet (4 credits)
• F-16 Fighter Jet (4 credits)
• Steam Jets (free for subscribers)
• Gun Smoke Vol. 1 (free for subscribers)
• Falling Ashes (free for subscribers)
• Jet Flames (free for subscribers)
• Air Explosion (1 credit)

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