How to make coins glow in AE?

[Andrew Somers]

There are a few ways to handle this.

Since coins are flat discs, one way might be to use Mocha to track each coin with a mask, and then use those masks to select the coins on a dupe layer of the footage that had blur and exposure (boost) on it as effects. Adjust the feather of the masks for the amount of “glow”, as an example.

[Kevin Camin]

This is off topic. But what about fastening a mini bulb on the side of the coin facing away from the camera? I think what is going to sell the shot is that the coin is an actual light source illuminating her hand in a realistic way, in addition to just glowing. You can remove the cord running to the bulb in post or find a way to hide it on the actor.

Best regards,

Kevin Camin

[Ryan Atkins]

Thanks I’ll try this out and see how it works.

I may be back with more questions, but we shall see.

[Tudor “ted” jelescu]

To continue Kevin’s suggestion, use a LED light- bet you can find a tiny one that runs of a small watch battery- no wires there, and nothing beats practical effects. Mocha or hand roto as it was suggested before should give you the mask for the coins – use that to apply glow. One thing to consider is working @32 bit in AE, this way your glows will look a lot better.

Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist

[Andrew Somers]

Yes, anytime you can use a practical effect to help sell something do! This is especially true when you want something in the scene to light up its immediate surroundings.

Doing this effectively in post requires a bit of work “such as creating 3D light catchers).

[Gary Oberbrunner]

Sapphire should certainly be able to give you a nice glow on your coins; use S_Glow. It was used for Frodo’s sword in LoTR, for instance. As long as the background is darker than the highlights on the coins, even a quick garbage mask around them ought to give you a good result.

— Gary