How do a simulate 'Earthquake/explosion"?

[Jared Cicon]

Hi people,
I am going on a shoot tommorrow and need some information. There will be a scene where a mini-van blows up, . . . or so I want the viewer to think it did. Is there a special effect in FCP that gives the frame a certain amount of 'shake' or vibration', or is this something where I actually have to shake the camera during the shoot? I will be 'shaking' the clip where an onlooker witnesses the carnage through his rear-view mirror. By the acting of the witness and the shaking of the camera and a little smoke I hope to 'sell' the scene.
Sorry if this question sounds very Rooky-ish. It is probably a very simple basic effect that I should know. Up until this point I have avoided camera shake like the plague.
jared

[Daniel Alexander]

Hi Jared,
One way of getting the effect your after is by keyframing your image to move off point repeatedly however this can take a while and can be abit tricky to look convincing. There are plugins for this type of thing tho, like i know sony vegas uses a plug in called 'quake' which is actually a script and it gives you a good amount of control to simulate a 'shake' or 'explosion'. I hope this helps

[Gregg Bond]

shaking the camera worked for Star Trek :)