Realistic Waving Flag/Banner Effect?

Hey all,

Working on a project where I need to place some banners or flags with text on video footage of various US landmarks. For example, a giant banner on the entire side of the Washington Monument.

Want to make it look as realistic as possible. I know there are lots of tutorials out there...almost too many and lots of them look OK but still have that computer generated feel. Anyone figure out a great way to do this? Or have seen a particular tutorial that works particularly well?

Thanks in advance!

Nevin is correct - while you can do some pseudo waving distortion maps in After Effects without plugins, they're pretty hokey looking. Zaxwerks 3D Flag is the best of the lot short of cloth simulations in true 3D software. The only shortcoming is that it's a one trick pony - make sure your project will more than pay for the plugin.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

Thanks guys!

Just out of curiosity, do any of you know what the more popular 3D software applications are? Might be something I'd be interested in messing around with.

Thanks!

My experience with Zaxwerks, including both the 3D Flag and Invigorator Pro, have been terrible. Constant crashing, super slow the little times it does work, etc. Calling for support gets a lot of "let us look at it and get back to you", but no one ever returns calls or messages with an answer. I can only recommend staying away.