"Rays-of-light" filter or effect
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
"Rays-of-light" filter or effect
Hello. Hope you dont mind me asking this question in this forum as it would maybe fit better in a "Where can I" category. Within the last year I've come across at least a couple different posts (as best as I can remember in this forum) where I viewed a clip of someone using a "title-ing filter (for lack of a better term) that allowed them to create a white title on a black background where it appears light is streaming out and moving around from behind (or through) the letters in the title....sort of like "rays of light". In both instances .....I remember another poster asking how they created that effect and the original poster provided a link to a page where you could purchase the "filter or title effect'.....one link being quite an expensive product and the other one more economical. I'm currently working on a little AS project where I think this effect may be appropriate.......but wouldnt you know it......can"t find the link now (to the more economical one). Was wondering if anyone has any idea what I'm talking about and where to find this. As an alternative.....was wondering if it might be possible to do this with AS and any shape .......for example.....a white circle on a black background....but hav"nt been able to figure it out.
This is an effect normally done in a pixel-based program. One common way to achieve it works with an outline of what you want to appear as backlit, like the title letters. Imagine this outline as an irregular (thicker, thinner, interrupted) white line which is zoomed into while the aperture of your virtual camera is open, thus the white will "smear" and create the rays. The result needs some glow effect. That's it.
If you want to do something similar in AS, you need:
1. an outline to play with, e.g. your title text.
2. an origin of the light. I make this a cross on a separate layer (just to work with)
3. light rays. These have to suit your taste.
Now all you have to do is to arrange them neatly around your title, all emergin from the same origin. Make them differently in size and brightness. Voila.
If you want to do something similar in AS, you need:
1. an outline to play with, e.g. your title text.
2. an origin of the light. I make this a cross on a separate layer (just to work with)
3. light rays. These have to suit your taste.
Now all you have to do is to arrange them neatly around your title, all emergin from the same origin. Make them differently in size and brightness. Voila.
Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure I understand your instructions for creating the effect. Is there any masking involved here? What creates the sense of movement with the rays? In the examples I've seen (to keep things simple if you had a small white circle or keyhole in a dark room)....its like someone is holding a flashlight up to the round keyhole from the outside and moving it from the left to right or up and down.
That I'm able to describe the effect in general doesn't necessarily mean that it's easy or even posible to recreate it in AS ... *fg*
I tried it myself for some time yesterday, and it is a lot of work. I would recommend to do this in a bitmap based program like AfterEffects, they're built to do such stuff with relative ease.
I tried it myself for some time yesterday, and it is a lot of work. I would recommend to do this in a bitmap based program like AfterEffects, they're built to do such stuff with relative ease.
Thanks for the link to that title software. As you mentioned....it does look powerfull and would probably be able to do the effect I'm interested in.......however I think I'll still search for a more economical way to achieve this as I dont think my budget is fat enough to pay $50.00 for an effect that I may only use once.