light beam

[Mike Clasby]

Trapcode’s Shine is the industry Standard, but AE’s native Render > CC Lightwaves is a decent substitute, although I like Blur & Sharpen > CC Radial Fast Blur (put it on a Dup (Ctrl D) above the text layer) it spreads the light a little more evenly, play with the controls.

[Kayla]

Thanks…but was a Dup layer (control D)?

[Kayla]

i meant…what is a Dup layer?

[Mike Clasby]

Sorry, I mean duplicate the layer, select the layer and either Edit>Duplicate or Ctrl D. It just makes another copy of the layer, and the new layer is on top, and it’s sometimes handy for doing effects on since they can degrade the layer, and/or you can put an effect on the layer and use a Blending mode that gives a nice effect with the original layer below. In the Case of Radial Fast Blur, it kindof destroys the text layer when it makes the light waves, so if it’s a dupped layer on top you can still see the original text underneath.

[Kayla]

ah ok thanks!

[Mark]

I personally like the lights from BCC4. They are very cool and come with many presets. I like the fact that I have full control over the noise inside the light.

Mark

[Jimmy Brunger]

Or for a ‘vertical light’ or metallic shine effect using masks, look at an old trick by Aharon for putting a shine through text/layers: https://www.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/text_wipe_on/CC_Wipe_FullCD.mov

Adapt it for your project using the same principles.
Have fun!

*AE 5.5 Pro – *PS CS1 – *Combustion 3
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