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blur by luminance
I am using fractal noise with “block”. I am changing the evolution and therefore the blocks are getting brighter and darker. I wanted to set an expression to blur the blocks as they got darker.
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10 Replies
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I can’t help you with an expression, but I can help you with an effect. If you use a precomp with a duplicate of your fractal layer in it, you can use it as a map to drive the Compound Blur effect. Enjoy.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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I like the sound of that, but I must be doing something wrong. Can you explain that a little more in depth?
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Did you check out the link I gave you? It tells you exactly what the effect does and even links to a video tutorial.
In your case, you will want to duplicate your layer with the fractal noise. Precompose it (and make sure you move all attributes into the precomp). You may wish to invert the colors depending on what things you want blurred. If you want the darker parts blurrier, invert it, but if you want the lighter parts blurrier, leave it.
Back in your main comp, apply Compound Blur to your fractal layer and tell it to use your precomp as the map. Tweak the settings to taste.
Alternatively, you can duplicate your fractal layer, apply a Luma Key to it, create an adjustment layer with a blur effect and use the duplicate layer with the luminance key as a Track Matte.
I’m guessing that you’re not terribly experienced in AE. Have you seen these resources? I highly recommend them. If you build up a good foundation in AE basics early, you’ll be much less frustrated later. Trust me.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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I may just be unclear on what I am trying to accomplish, because I think I understand what you are saying, but it is not quite what I want to accomplish. If I use a luma matte to reveal a layer, the blur can only be set at a constant value that is essentially just being revealed. The blocks are gradually getting darker, so I need to GRADUALLY blur from say a value of 0-10, vs just revealing a 10. (0 being the white and 10 being the black). But like you said I could just not be that great at After Effects and you may be telling me the right way to accomplish that.
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Are you saying you need to blur the individual blocks independently based on their luminance? Or is it the overall luminance of the layer determining the blur amount?
Dan
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I need to blur the individual blocks independently based on their luminance. However, the blocks are not separate layers; it is a single layer with fractal noise applied that is creating the the illusion of separate blocks.
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Ah, I was afraid of that. I can’t think of anything.
Dan
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Compound Blur does more what you’re after, but I do have another idea.
Make multiple copies of your fractal layer. Use two Luma keys; one set to key out darker, one set to key out lighter. That way you can isolate a range of luminance. Add a blur effect to that layer. Then you can make as many different copies at as many different luminance and blur settings as you like.
Is that more what you want?
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Yeah I thought of that too.. hmmm. The fortunate thing is that I am not in a bind… I just wanted more options for the look I was going for. Feel free to ditch this forum if your busy, but if i’ve made you curious feel free to keep throwing me ideas. Thanks for the help guys.
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Without knowing exactly what look you’re going for, I won’t be able to make many more suggestions.
Just another thought, using different layers of fractal noise with different settings (rather than multiple copies with keyed luminance) set as track mattes would also give you various squares running around.Or you could use a particle system like CC Particle World or Trapcode’s Particular to get squares moving across the screen. You could either make the drop shadow part of the custom particle, or apply the drop shadow to the particle layer.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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