Animating Skies and Writing Text With Light!

This is how it's done;



PART A: Using the "T_Sky" Filter to create an animated sky


1) Create a new composition in After Effects, 15 seconds long, 720x270, 29.97fps and name it 'sky comp'

2) Create a new layer, any color, same size as the composition and name it 'sky'

3) Move the Time Marker to 06:00 in the timeline, and apply the 'T_Sky' filter to the new layer.

4) In the effects window, open the 'controls area' and select 'Armageddon' from the pull down 'presets' menu.

5) Set keyframes for the following parameters by clicking on the parameter name (in the effects window) while holding down the 'option' key (Mac):

sun>color, sun>brightness,
atmosphere>brightness,
atmosphere>red shift,
atmosphere>background sky gradient,
clouds>size, clouds>color,
clouds>brightness,
clouds>sharpness,
clouds>density,
clouds>speed,,
clouds>height,
clouds>under lighting.


6) Move the time marker to 00:00 and make the following changes in the effects window:

set the sun>color to a medium bright yellow (I used the HSV picker with settings of hue angle=56, saturation=50%, value=100%),
sun>brightness to 1000,
atmosphere>brightness to 172.2,
atmosphere>red shift to 0.26,
atmosphere>background sky gradient to (see picture)

clouds>size to 30,
clouds>color to light blue (I used the apple HSV picker set to hue angle=198, saturation=36, value=100),
clouds>brightness to164.2,
clouds>sharpness 0.5,
clouds>density to 1.5,
clouds>speed to1.66,
clouds>height to 0.0,
clouds>under lighting to 100.


7) Preview animation, and make any final adjustments.

8) Save project, make a movie naming it 'sky.mov', and save the effect as a favorite for future use.

PART B: Using 'luma mattes' to create the text source movie clips


First, we need to create our source material in illustrator (or equivalent vector art app).



1) Create a matte 1440 x 480, left half black / right half white, and name it 'halfmatte'.

For information on how to create mattes in Illustrator, click here.

White half is shown as stroked with black for illustration
purposes only. Your matte shouldn't be stroked.

2) Create a black matte 1440 x 480, with a 10 pixel wide white vertical stripe placed dead center, and name it 'barmatte'.

3) Create a new document, and type in some text. Set the font style and size it 4 to 5 times the size needed. This is necessary because we are going to scale the text up in size at the end of the animation, and this will keep the edges nice and clean. Set the stroke width as appropriate for the text size, and leave it unfilled. Select 'white' as the stroke color, and name it 'stroked text'.
For information on how to create text in Illustrator, click here.

The text is shown as being stroked in 'black'
for illustration purposes only. Yours should be
set to 'white', which of course would make it
impossible to see against the white background.

4) Create another file, identical to the one above, but this time fill it with 'white', leaving it stroked. Name it 'filled'

5) Import all the files (half matte, bar matte, stroked, and filled) into your after effects project.

6) Create a new comp, 720 x 270, 10 seconds long, and name it 'text reveal comp'. Drag all four of the files we created above, from the project window into the timeline or on top of the 'text reveal comp' icon (project window). Arrange them in the timeline so that 'half matte' is the uppermost layer, 'stroked' is the next layer, 'bar matte' the next layer, and 'filled' the bottom layer.

7) Turn off the visibility of the 'bar matte' layer, and the 'filled' layer. Set the 'stroked' layer to 'luma inverted matte'

8) With the time marker at 00:00, set the position of the 'half matte' layer to "0.0, 135" and create a keyframe. Set the scale of the 'stroked' layer to 25%, and set a keyframe.

9) Move the time marker ahead to 06:00 and set the position of the 'half matte' layer to 720, 135. Select the 'stroked' layer and set another scale keyframe (25%). Move the time marker ahead to 08:00 and set the scale to 40%. Move the time indicator ahead to 09:00 and set another keyframe (still at 40%) Move the time marker ahead to 09:15 and change the scale to 200%. Preview the layer. The stroked text should now be revealed over time, then scale up to 40%, pause for a second, then scale up rapidly to 200%. If the look is pleasing to you, save the project, and make a movie named 'text.mov' with output set to RGB+alpha, 'animation' codec, 'most' quality and reimport the movie into the project.

10) Copy and paste the position keyframes from the 'half matte' layer and paste it to the 'bar matte' layer.

11) Set the scale of the 'filled' layer to 25% (width), 30% (Height)

12) Turn off the visibility of the 'stroked' layer (the visibility of the 'half matte' layer should already be off from when we set it to 'luma inverted matte'). Turn on the visibility of the 'filled' layer. Set the 'filled' layer to 'luma matte'

13) Preview the animation to see a narrow filled highlight of the text revealed as it moves across the screen. If this looks pleasing, save the project and make a movie, same settings as the previous movie, and name it 'highlight.mov' Reimport this movie into the project.

PART C: Using the "T_Rays" Filter to create the Text 'burn-in' effect


1) Create a new comp 720 x 270, 10 seconds duration and name it 'text w/effects'

2) Drag the 'text.mov' and 'highlight.mov' files into the timeline or onto the 'text w/effects' comp icon (project window) to bring them into the composition.

3) Drag the 'text.mov' file into the comp again so that there are two layers named 'text.mov'. Arrange the layers so that the 'highlight.mov' is the uppermost layer.

4) Select the 'highlight.mov' layer and apply the 'T_Rays' filter to it. In the effects window, set the mode to 'radial rays', the color to red (or color of your preference), and reduce the saturation (or level). Check the 'use color' checkbox, and set the 'radial rays>centre' control to 0.0, 135 and set a keyframe.slightly to avoid problems with NTSC monitors.

5) Move the time marker ahead to 06:00 and set the 'radial rays>centre' control to 720, 135.

6) Move the time marker to ahead until the highlight layer first appears on screen, set the 'radial rays>length' control to '150', then move backwards one frame, set the 'radial rays>length' control to '0' creating another keyframe in the process

7) Move the time marker ahead in the timeline until the highlight is just finished moving over the text. Set the 'radial rays>length' control to '0' creating another keyframe. Move backwards in the timeline 1 frame and set the 'radial rays>length' control to '150'.

8) Preview the animation to see the text being 'burned in' as it is revealed. Save the project.

9) Select the uppermost of the two 'text.mov' layers and set it's opacity to '0'.

10) Move the time marker ahead in the timeline to 08:00 and set an opacity keyframe (set to '0'). Move ahead to 08:05 and set the opacity to '100%'. Move the time marker ahead to 09:00 and set another opacity keyframe (100%). Move ahead to 09:15 and set the opacity to '0%', creating another keyframe in the process.

11) Select the uppermost of the two 'text.mov' layers, and apply the 'T_Rays' filter to it. Set the time marker to 08:00 and in the effect window set the 'mode' to 'radial rays' check the 'use color' box, and set the color to light green (or whatever you prefer). Set the 'radial rays>centre' to 360, 135. Set the 'radial rays>length' control to '0' and create a keyframe.

12) Move the time marker ahead in the timeline to 09:00 and set the 'radial rays>length' control to '100', creating a new keyframe in the process.

13) Save and preview the comp. If everything looks good, make a movie, using the same settings as before, name it 'Text w/rays.mov', and reimport it into the project.

PART D: Finishing up


1) Create a new comp, this time 720 x 480, 15 seconds long, name it 'final comp' and drag the 'sky.mov' file into the composition.

2) Move the time marker ahead in the timeline to 04:00 and drag the 'text w/rays.mov' file into the composition, so that it starts at 4 seconds.

3) Set opacity keyframes in the 'sky.mov' layer so that the layer fades in fairly quick at the beginning of the comp, and fades out fairly quick at the end of the comp.

4) Apply the 'T_Blur' filter to the 'text w/rays.mov" layer, and in the effects window, set the 'control>radius' to '0'. Move the time marker ahead in the timeline to 08:16 and with the 'controls>Source Crops>X Method' set to "repeat", drag the right crop control towards the left until the right edge of the text just begins to distort (it should distort all the way to the right edge of the comp). Set the time marker in the time line to 08:15, and move the 'right sources crop' control to the right just enough so it no longer distorts, and set a keyframe.

5) Move the time marker ahead in the timeline to 09:15 and then drag the 'right source crop' control farther to the left until the entire text just disappears, creating another keyframe in the process.

6) Move the time marker ahead in the timeline to 10:15, and adjust the 'right source crop' control so that it just barely keeps the text from appearing, creating yet another keyframe in the process.

7) Move the time marker ahead in the timeline to 12:00. Move the 'right source crop' control to the right so that the entire text is showing and the source crop just barely stops causing the right edge of the text to distort, creating yet another keyframe in the process.

8) Save the project, and output it as a movie.

That's all there is!



Enjoy,
Mark Simpson

---Mark Simpson is a leader in CreativeCow.net's Adobe After Effects COW. Would you like to know more about Mark and see other articles written by him? Click here.

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