Light Sweep Tutorial in After Effects |
This simple tutorial shows how to make a light shine out through a logotype. It covers most of the basic controls in Shine. Just follow the steps below. The finished tutorial is also included as an Adobe After Effects project file, named "finished.aep". The result will look like the movie on the right. |
Begin in Adobe After Effects 6.5 or later. Make a new composition. 640 by 480 pixels, 29.97fps, and 2 seconds long. Name it "main". Import the picture "shinelogo.psd" from the Shine Projects folder. Drag the picture into the comp window and let it snap to center. Apply Effect>Trapcode>Shine to the layer. |
First, let's change the colors. Open the Colorize group. In the Colorize pop-up, select Enlightenment. This is a 5-color preset, so when selected, the 5 colors below the pop-up will change and become enabled for tweaking. Note: If using a multicolored logotype, and the desired effect is to let the light rays pick up the colors of the logo, then use Colorize None. |
To make the rays a bit longer, increase Ray Length to 8.0. To brighten up the image a bit, set Boost Light to 1.0. |
The comp window should look something like this: Turn keyframing on for Source Point and set the value to 22, 240 on frame 1. Press the End key to move to the last frame and change the value to 618, 240. This will sweep the light rays across the text. |
Now, let's try a mask. Open up the Pre-Process group and check the Use Mask checkbox. Using Radius and Feather you can tweak the size and softness of the mask. For this tutorial, simply leave them at the defaults. Press "RAM Preview" again to see how the mask works. |
Finally, let's use a transfer mode to make the logo more visible. In the Transfer Mode pop-up, select Add. Set Source Opacity to 20%. Note that you have to change the transfer mode first, since Source Opactity has no meaning when transfer mode is None. |
Press "RAM Preview" in the Time palette to see the final animation. |