light source facing camera

[Stephen Smith]

Try the light rays filter in the glow category.

Lone Peak Productions

Check out the TV Show Open I did.

Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2

[Ariane Fisher]

Yes, I did try that. I can get the circle to glow, but the maximum expanse on the light rays doesn’t expand very far at all. I also tried all the other glow filters and a combination of them. Is this possible with Motion 4? I’m not looking for shadows or reflections at this point, just a light source with rays emanating. Like you would see if the spot light shined at the camera.

[Stephen Smith]

If you put the object in a group and add the filter to the group you can get the light rays to go farther sometimes.

Lone Peak Productions

Check out the TV Show Open I did.

Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2

[Ariane Fisher]

Thanks for your help. I tried it. While it does make the circle and glow get quite a bit bigger, it’s not quite what I’m looking for. The glow is still very, very close to the circle. I guess what I’m looking for is a large circular gradient of light coming out of the circle. Now that I put it into words, I’ll try and duplicate it in Motion. I’m just not sure that it’s do-able in Motion 3 (or 4 for that matter). Is this one of those things I would need AE for?

[Stephen Smith]

Any way you can post an example of what you would like to do?

Lone Peak Productions

Check out the TV Show Open I did.

Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2

[Ariane Fisher]

Thanks so much for your help. I think what I created just might work for me, with a little tweaking. It’s supposed to look like a light source with rays emanating. If I add some flickering, clean up the gradient, and use it in the background, it should be good. Let me know if you have any other suggestions to make it more realistic.

Hopefully I got the embed code figured out.

[Stephen Smith]

Excellent, I’m happy you created what you wanted.

Lone Peak Productions

Check out the TV Show Open I did.

Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2

[Ariane Fisher]

I forgot to post how I did it, in case anyone would like to duplicate this effect.

I created a circle, filled it with yellow, and made sure it was centered at 0,0. I then added the following filters: light rays, glow, aura, and bloom. I maxed out the “amount” setting on bloom and light rays.

I then created a second group called rays. In this group I created two circles. The first was a very large one filled with a white-to-yellow radial gradient. I then added an image mask to this circle. The second circle was the same size as the first, filled with a grayscale radial gradient. Both gradients need to start at 0,0. On the grayscale circle, the gradient needs to end at a large negative number. In this case I used -395. Both circles in the rays group need to be positioned at 0,0 to perfectly align with the first one. I dropped the grayscale circle into the image mask of the yellow gradient circle and set the source channel to luminance.

With the rays group behind the original circle, you get this effect.

Thanks again for your help.

[Winston A. cely]

What about using the lens flare filter? I don’t really like the one that’s built into Motion because it only resembles what a flare might look like if directly facing into the camera. If the pic you posted is what you’re looking for the lens flare filter might be a nice touch. I just wish it would mimic what a lens flare does when at an angle, but there are a bunch of companies making more realistic lens flares.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 | Aja Kona LHe

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling allusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Ariane Fisher]

Thank you so much! That’s exactly what I was looking for, when combined with the other effects. I was missing the streaks of light.