Getting more out of glow

[Steve Morris]

I have the same problem. The radius, intensity and threshold don’t seem to give me the effect I am looking for. Watch Andrew Kamer’s tutorials. He discusses glow. I can’t seem to get the same amount of glow that he does.

[Quejet]

hehe, I appreciate that, unfortunately i really have. although i will admit that the images i showed you didn’t demonstrate ramping the intensity up for the larger radius, still, this really has a constrained effect, what i mean by this is that once radius gets to some value, it doesn’t matter how much intensity i have, it just doesn’t do anything.

[Quejet]

Hmm. I appreciate that I’m a bran spanking new member of creative cow, however my experience with after effects isn’t as limited as you think it is. (refer to sig for example)
glow isn’t doing what we want, not because of threshold. the point of this is that for one glow effect, all the settings, no mater what they are set to, don’t give me the result im looking for, which is a much larger bloom.

I have a feeling this point isn’t getting across so to illustrate this better for you, Dave could you do me a favour and open after effects? Create a comp oh say 480 640 (thats the resolution i commonly work in anyway…) and create a thin solid (10 px sound good?) for the glow

set this in the centre and try to glow this layer so that you get a strong bloom that reaches the top and bottom of the composition.

if you successfully get this to work, post a picture of this and give us some settings. And you will have solved the problem!

[Darby Edelen]

[QueJet] “glow isn’t doing what we want, not because of threshold. the point of this is that for one glow effect, all the settings, no mater what they are set to, don’t give me the result im looking for, which is a much larger bloom.”

Then perhaps it’s time to look at 32bpc and linear compositing for more realistic blooming effects.

Also, keep in mind that you have more control when you keep it simple: duplicating your source layer, parenting it, switching it to Add mode and using a box blur will not only give you a glow effect, but it will render faster. Add a levels effect to get more out of the self-made glow.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Steve Morris]

It may have something to do with the original color of the solid you are working with. I seem to notice a better glow when the color has more white or saturation. Make sure to watch the tutorials of Andrew Kramers. The light saber and light streaks tuts should help you some. He has some newer versions of these tuts on his own site. http://www.videocopilot.net

[Mike Clasby]

If you don’t have shine, try Radial Fast Blur (100, Brightest).

Also you can (on a duplicatred layer … or not) duplicate, triplicate or quadricate (is that a word?) the Glow Effect and it grows at an amazing rate.

Also, depending on what it’s applied to, you might need to Grow Bounds to see your effects.

Ciao.

[Quejet]

hmm perhaps you are right about glow being the wrong tool, however i don’t believe trapcodes shine is the perfect tool either (though a notable suggestion none the less)

the reason I’m thinking this is that:

trapcode shine is directional (emanating from a point)
trapcode shine is volumetric
trapcode shine 99 bucks .(

the blur seems interesting, and compacting layers on top of each other seems interesting as well, perhaps CC composite can be used? Ill start playing around!