Christmas tree lights lighting up.

[Anita Sancha]

Thanks Dave..

Actually I don’t think I will mind a “cartoony” effect. I spent 15 years touring Europe with old animated mechanical hand painted magic lantern slides that dissolved through many layers using 5 different lenses projecting at the same time. It’s that effect of a gradual dissolve from day to night that I am looking for, with a bit of “gizmos”. But I am aware it would be technically “shit”. It’s just in the background, so I want sort of twinkles here and there, like diamond sparkles on a ring would be and then colored, as if a gel were superimposed. All this whilst one of the illuminated crap shop signs of a sledge and father Christmas flies by. Actally now I write it this does sound really awful.

Still maybe I can experiment ..how best can I make a sparkle like on a diamond ring? and then I will just drop that in on some of the candles as I fade it. Give it some “bling!!!”

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.

http://www.anitasancha.co.uk

[Anita Sancha]

Thanks Dave… I will try there.

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.

http://www.anitasancha.co.uk

[Kevin Camp]

if you are color adjusting the tree photo to the point of black for everything except the lights, you may be able to use that layer with a blending mode of lighten, screen or add (probably screen or add) over a less darkened image of the tree.

then you could try a layer with animated fractal noise on it as a track matte for the lights to get a bit of twinkle to the lights.

but a particle system could work too. in particular, you’d use a layer shaped like the tree as your ’emitter’ and you’d probably need a custom particle that would a nested comp of the individual lights (a handful cut from the tree). velocity would be zero, and then you could animate the particles to appear all at once and you’d have an animated opacity for the particles (either in the particle precomp or in the particle settings>opacity over life). this way the lights would be in the same place. or, you could have the life span be short and have the opacity fade up then down over it’s life. this way is simpler, but the light placement will be random appearing all over the tree….

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Anita Sancha]

Gee thanks loads to experiment with.

Thanks for all your help
Anita Sancha.

http://www.anitasancha.co.uk

[Chris Wright]

don’t forget the effect Glow. It’s perfect for the hdr bulbs. Get some inspiration from some actual twinkle footage, and play around with wiggle expressions on brightness, glow, reflections, distortions, bloom presets. The fractal effect is a really good idea too, that’s how our own sky twinkles.

Should be fun.

p.s.
here’s a random twinkle code
Jumpy Wiggle 1 makes wiggle skip and hold rather than move fluidly.
// Jumpy Wiggle 1 (moves at a random FPS)
v=wiggle(5,50);
if(v < 50)v=0; if(v > 50)v=100;
v

https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/