From after effects to flash poetry in motion graphics - part 9 ppt

10. Press the Home key to return the playback head to the start of the timeline. You

are going to start with the Glow Radius values. Add keyframes and change the value

at the following times:

Time Value Description

0:00:00:00 385 The glow seems to disappear.

0:00:01:00 102 You have the northern lights.

0:00:03:00 103

0:00:04:00 354 The lights are gone.

11. Press the Home key to return the playback head to the start of the timeline. You

are going to adjust the Glow Intensity values. Add keyframes and change the value

at the following times:

Time Value

0:00:04:00 5

0:00:05:00: 0

Scrub through the timeline and you will see, as Figure 10-20 demonstrates, that

you have a nice little effect. Turn off the Solo switch for the Deep layer and save the

project.

Figure 10-20. The text has a “glow on.”

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Now that the text is in place and the effect applied, you are now going to work on giving

the text some texture by adding some fractal noise to it. Follow these steps:

1. Select the Black Solid 1 layer. Open the Noise and Grain folder in the Effects &

Presets panel and drag a copy of the Fractal Noise effect onto the solid name in the

timeline. The words appear over the familiar smoke pattern.

2. Open the Effect Controls, twirl down the Fractal Noise effect, and use these settings:

Fractal Type: Dynamic Twist. The smoke develops some swirls.

Contrast: 224. The swirls become black and white.

Brightness: –32. The background turns black, and the swirls become more

distinct.

Twirl down Transform and use these settings:

Uniform Scaling: Deselect. You are going to distort the swirls.

Scale Width: 260. The swirls appear to stretch.

Twirl up Transform. Set Complexity to 7. The swirls become a bit more detailed.

3. Twirl up Fractal Noise in the Effect Controls panel. The next step is to hook the

letters in the Deep layer to the effect you just applied to the solid.

4. Turn off the visibility of the TextDupe layer and change the Matte setting in the

TrkMat column of the Deep layer from None to Luma Matte. You will see the colored

text in Deep has some texture.

5. The effect is rather static. You’ll give it some interest by adjusting the Brightness,

Scale Width, and Evolution values at a couple of points in the timeline. Select the

solid layer and press the E key to open Fractal Noise and twirl it down.

6. Move the playback head to the 0:00:01:00 point on the timeline and add a

keyframe for the Brightness value. Move the playback head to 0:00:03:00 and

change the Brightness value to 0.0. Move the playback head to the 0:00:05:00 mark

and change the Brightness value to –44.

7. To give the illusion of motion, you will have the Scale Width property change from

its current setting to a setting of 600% at the 0:00:04:00 mark. Twirl down the

effect’s Transform properties. Move the playback head to the 0:00:01:00 mark and

add a keyframe to the Scale Width. Move the playback head to the 4-second mark

on the timeline and change the Scale Width value to 600%.

8. With the growth of the noise pattern, you’ll also have it look like the pattern is

changing. You do that by adjusting the Evolution values. Add a keyframe to the

Evolution value at the 1-second mark. Move the playback head to the 0:00:05:00

mark and change the Evolution value to 1 x +180 degrees. Scrub through the

timeline, and you will see the pattern in the words has changed (as shown in

Figure 10-21).

9. Save the project.

Figure 10-21.

The final effect

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Another spotlight effect

Here’s an interesting method of lighting up a short block of text. It is particularly effective

for stationary text on the Flash stage.

1. In After Effects, select the Text tool, click the Comp window, and enter the follow￾ing: is a danger. Name the layer Danger, and set the layer’s In point to 0:00:05:00

and its Out point to 0:00:10:00.

2. Apply the Colorama effect to the text. In the Effect Controls panel, twirl down the

Output Cycle and select Caribbean from the Use Preset Palette pull-down menu. The

text turns blue. Drag the arrow that is pointing to the gradient in the Output Cycle

to about the midpoint of the gradient. This will soften the blue color in the text.

3. Open the Project panel and drag a copy of the black solid to the timeline above the

Danger layer. Set the solid layer’s In and Out points to 5 and 10 seconds to match

the duration of the text in the Danger layer. Open Effects & Presets ➤ Generate and

drag a copy of the Beam effect onto the solid just added in the timeline. You will

see a sort of red beam appear over the text. This beam will be used to create the

spotlight effect.

4. Open the Effect Controls panel and make the following changes to the Beam effect:

Starting Point: 0.0, 120.0. The crosshairs move to the left side of the Comp.

Ending Point: 316, 120. The end point crosshairs move to the right edge of the

Comp.

Length: 95%. The bar will stretch across the Comp.

Starting Thickness: 10. This value is the thickness of the beam at its start point.

Ending Thickness: 32. The beam thickens on the right side and pulls away from

the right edge of the Comp.

5. Twirl up the Beam effect in the Effect Controls panel. Obviously, a red beam over

the text is going to look a bit cheesy. Instead, you’ll use the gradient in the beam to

give the text a bit of depth.

6. Select the Danger layer and change its Track Matte setting to Luma Matte. If you

scrub through the timeline, not much is happening. You’ll put the beam in motion

by changing its end point location at various times.

7. Select the solid on the timeline and press the E key to open the effect in the time￾line. Twirl down Beam.

8. Move the playback head to 0:00:05:03, add a keyframe in the Ending Point prop￾erty, and change the value to 285, 0.0. Move the playback head to 0:00:07:00 and

change the Ending Point value to 303, 216. Move the playback head to 0:00:09:05

and change the value to 317, 119. Scrub the playback head across the timeline, and

you will see the beam sweep, from the top to the bottom, across the text, thanks

to the end point changes (see Figure 10-22). Save the project.

Figure 10-22.

Yet another way of calling the text to the

viewer’s attention

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Creating wavy text

You don’t always need to use a text animation preset to create text effects that can be

used in Flash. Here’s one technique:

1. In After Effects, select the Text tool, click once in the Comp window, and enter the

text seeking you. Rename the layer to Seek and drag a copy of the black solid from

the Project panel above the Seek layer on the timeline. Set the In point for both the

Seek and solid layers to 0:00:10:00 and the Out point for both layers to 0:00:15:00.

2. Click the Solo switch for the Seek layer. Drag a copy of the CC Blobbylize effect

from Effects & Presets ➤ Distort and drop it onto the text. You will see the text

“flatten” and take on a wavy look.

3. In the Effect Controls panel, do the following:

Twirl down Blobbiness and change the property to Luminance. Set the following

values:

Softness: 12. The text appears to get smaller and look like it is dripping.

Cut Away: 12.

Twirl up Blobbiness.

Twirl down Light and change the Intensity value to 354. You won’t see a change

because the text is white. You’ll change that later.

Twirl up the CC Blobbylize effect in the Effect Controls panel.

The text is a bit flat. You want to stretch it out and wrap it around a sphere. Here’s how:

4. Drag the Spherize effect from the open Distort folder and drop it onto the text.

Use these values in the Effect Controls panel:

Radius: 44. The center of the text develops a bump.

Center of Sphere: 32, 123. The bump becomes less pronounced because the

sphere has been moved away from the text.

5. The text is static. You’ll put it into motion. Select the Seek layer and press the E key

to open the effect in the timeline. Twirl down CC Blobbylize and move the playback

head to 0:0010:00.

6. Twirl down Blobbiness, add a keyframe in the Softness value, and change the value

to 11. Move the playback head to 0:00:14:00 and change the value to 80. The text

suddenly takes on a very rounded appearance.

7. Twirl up CC Blobbylize and twirl down Spherize.

8. Place the playback head at 0:00:10:00 and add a keyframe to the Center of Sphere

property. Move the playback head to 0:00:14:00 and change the Center of

Sphere value to 289, 123. Scrub the playback head across the timeline, and you will

see the text has become wavy. Turn off the Solo switch for the Seek layer.

We could stop here, but the white text color doesn’t fit the feel of the piece so far. You are

going to add a gradient to the text by applying a Ramp effect to the solid.

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9. Select the black solid above the Seek layer. Twirl down the Generate folder in the

Effects & Presets panel and drag a copy of the Ramp effect onto the solid in

the Comp window. When you release the mouse, the gradient will appear.

10. Open the Effect Controls panel and make the following changes to the Ramp effect:

Start of Ramp: 14.6, 67.3

End of Ramp: 316, 120

The gradient will now run from left to right rather than top to bottom.

11. The final step is to put the Ramp effect in motion by changing the Start of Ramp

and End of Ramp values in the timeline. Select the solid layer and press the E key to

open the Ramp effect. Twirl down Ramp.

12. Move the playback head to 0:00:10:01, add a keyframe, and change the Start of

Ramp value to 0, 120. Change the values at the following times:

Time Value

0:00:12:00 Add a keyframe.

0:00:13:05 0, 64.

0:00:14:05 298, 97.

13. Move the playback head to 0:00:10:01, add a keyframe to the End of Ramp prop￾erty, and change the value to 47, 120. Change the values at the following times:

Time Value

0:00:12:00 320, 120

0:00:14:05 310, 119

14. To “hook” the text into the changing gradient, set the Seek layer’s Track Matte set￾ting to Luma Matte. Scrub across the timeline, and you will see the gradient move

through the letters as shown in Figure 10-23. Save the project.

Remember, the Ramp effect creates a color gradient, blending it with the original

image contents. In this case, it will be a simple grayscale gradient.

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