Illuminate A Lovely Logo Light Reveal

Illuminate A Lovely Logo Light Reveal

on May 9th 2011 with 57 comments
Tutorial Details

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Hey guys! In this tutorial we’re gonna show you how you can create a cool logo or text reveal with Trapcode Particular. This effect has endless possibilities, so I hope you enjoy the enjoy!

Tutorial

Step 1

I create a composition by clicking Menu-> Composition->New Composition. Make it 1280*720 square pixels 20 seconds long, name it as ‘Batman Logo Animation’.

Step 2

Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. Change the color to Black. Make it comp size (1280*720) and name it as ‘BG’.

Step 3

You have to download the batman logo from this site [Download] I used the third logo.

Step 4

Now import the batman logo picture into After effects.Select the logo layer and hit the "s" key on the keyboard to scale it down.when you done go to Effect->Channel->Invert.

Step 5

With the batman logo layer selected go to Layer->Auto trace.Change the channel propertie to Luminance and turn on the preview checkbox to see the final result.Kepp that it you don’t need too many anchor points so just leave the Threshold, Tolerance, Minimum Area and Corner Roundness on default.

Step 6

So we have a new layer as you can see.You can delete the original layer because we don’t need it anymore.Hit the "m" key twice on the keyborad to reveal the mask properties.Select the Mask Path and hit ctrl+c or go to Edit->Copy.

Step 7

Create a new light. Name it as "Emitter" thistime the name is very important so if you want a different name then you will have to change a propertie in trapcode particular.The color is not important so leave the default color.

Step 8

Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. Change the color to Black. Make it comp size (1280*720) and name it as ‘Particular’.When you done then go to Effect->Trapcode->Particular.

Step 9

In the Emitter section set the following properties.You have to use the lights option as an Emitter Type.

Step 10

Before I forget. We have to reveal the Emmiter light position values so just select the Emitter layer and hit the "p" key on the keyboard.You have to select the position propertie and press ctrl+v or go to Edit->Paste.Now our particular emitter will follow the batman logo’s outline.If the animation is too quick or the keyframes are too close to each other then you have to select the keyframes, hold down the "alt" key on the keyboard and move them to right.Now select again the particular layer because we have to set more properties.

Step 11

Under the Particle section use the following properties.You can use the color over life propertie or the Set color propertie because we don’t use a gradient this time and use this color code #4696F8.

Step 12

Go to Effect->Stylize->Glow and set the following glow properties.

Step 13

Let’s duplicate the particular layer and change the particular settings.First let’s change the Emitter section.Set the velocity to 70 and decrease the Particles/sec to 455.

Step 14

Under the Particle section change the Practicle Type to Glow Sphere and the size to 0,3 and we use the same color, but if you want then you can change it and let’s add a little size random, opacity random and size over life changes.

Step 15

Let’s duplicate the Particular layer again and let’s start to change the folowwing properties.

Step 16

Let’s change the Particle Type to Streaklet and the size.In this particular part you can use your own properties or you can change particle types.

Step 17

Let’s change the Air properties.When you done you can duplicate this layer one more time and you can change the particle size under the particle section or you can create more copies.

Step 18

Now it"s time to create the flares. If you don’t have Optical Flares then you can use the pre-rendered flare animations and you can easily colorize the flares, but first let’s create the flares. Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. Change the color to Black. Make it comp size (1280*720) and name it as ‘Optical Flares’.

Step 19

Go to Effect->Video Copilot->Optical Flares and first click on the clear all button and after that you will have to add 3 lens object.

Step 20

I used a Glow, Streak, Glint and set the color to #4174F6. You can create your own flare if you want so the most important thing is the color.

Step 21

Let’s set the Positioning Mode to Track Lights and add a little Flicker.

Step 22

If you dont have Optical Flares then you have to import the Pre-rendered flare from the flare folder and you have to parent the flare position to the light’s position(alt+click on the position stopwatch).

Step 23

We want a blue flare so we have to colorize this pre-rendered flare. Go to Effect->Color Correction->CC Toner and apply it and set the Midtones to #4174F6. If you want to change more then add the curves+ the levels effect but this is not necessary.

Step 24

Create a new camera clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Camera.

Step 25

With the camera tools I create a simple camera movement.

Step 26

You can create simple or very complex animations this part is very optional.

Step 27

If you want to create the type reveal then you have to type in a text with a wihte color and you have to use Auto Trace as we did it with the batman logo, but if you use texts then you will need more lights because you will have more mask paths.Let’s see an example.As you can see we have a lot of masks if we trace a text for example as I did in the Aetuts logo text reveal.In this case you will have to copy all mask’s mask path and paste them in a Light Emitter.If you don’t do it then your text wont be complete.This happening if you use more complex shapes (Flourishes maybe).

Step 28

The Font is also very important. While I tried this effects I discoverd if I use a very irregular font with very extreme curves then the effect was not too nice.So I tried to use simple fonts Arial works fine.

Step 29

Now let’s go back to our Batman animation.We need a cool background animation because this black background is a little bit flat and simple.Create a new solid clicking by Menu->Layer->New->Solid. Change the color to #2C7EDB. Make it comp size (1280*720) and name it as ‘Particles’.

Step 30

Go to Effect->Simulation->CC Particle World and set the following properties.

Step 31

Go to Effect->Stylize->Glow and set the following glow properties.

Step 32

Go to Effect->Blur and Sharpen->Lens Blur and set the following properties. Keep that it mind while you are working with the animation turn off the Lens Blur effect because this is very render heavy.

Step 33

Allright! Blue is a nice color but what if we want to use multiple colors? No problem let’s create a new adjustment layer by clicking Menu->Layer->New->Adjustment Layer. When you done then go to Effect->Generate->4-Color Gradient.I used this extra thing only in the Aetuts+ text animation and I used the following colors(#FF00C6 and #0715EA).

Conclusion

So this is it! I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and learned new things and methods.Try different ideas or customize the project file and improve your clients or your buyers. My name is Tibor Miklos and thanks a lot for your attentions.

 

 
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Hi everyone! My name is Tibor Miklos. I'm a self-taught freelancer graphic designer based in Hungary.  

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Discussion 57 Comments

  1. Thiamat says:
    May 9, 2011 at 9:40 am

    Good tuto man, congratulations! Put in requirements that also need
    plugin: Video Copilot Lens Flare. Nice job!

    Reply
    • Tibor Miklos says:
      May 9, 2011 at 9:54 am
      Author

      Thank you! I included the pre-rendered flare so everyone can re-create the whole effect without Optical flares.

      Reply
      • Sycojp says:
        May 11, 2011 at 11:20 am

        Awesome tutorial man! I really like the music on the preview as well… Did you build that, or purchase? Do you know where I could find it?

  2. IANH - BR says:
    May 9, 2011 at 4:35 pm

    Video TUT Please, but still looks good! Awesome!

    Reply
  3. Reinaldo says:
    May 9, 2011 at 11:41 pm

    Video TUT Please, I can reproduce this tut, but my result don’t apears the trail.

    Reply
  4. Stephen says:
    May 10, 2011 at 10:44 am

    ALWAYS do a video dude

    Reply
  5. Mads says:
    May 10, 2011 at 2:42 pm

    What a shame you need Trapcode Particular.. I dont have it.. :(

    Reply
  6. kurnikoff says:
    May 10, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    Guys and girls! Experiment with particular a bit :) I found “error” that fixes the “no light streak” thing. Simply, set Optical Flares layer to screen. Also, in each layer with Particular effect applied you have to set the size of the Emmiter. If its 0, it means that nothing is emmiting particles :) So, go to Particular -> Emitter Size X,Y,Z -> 1.
    I set it at one as I want a straight and thin line.

    Hope it helps as it works for me :) Great tutorial :)

    Reply
  7. kwaku nyantekyi says:
    May 10, 2011 at 7:46 pm

    Excellent tutorial. I realized that non video tutorials aren’t so bad if they’re well written like this one and if you have a dual monitor setup so you can have the tutorial on one screen and follow along on the other.

    Reply
  8. Mik says:
    May 10, 2011 at 9:19 pm

    Disappointing that you either have to be a member to get the Flare, or simply buy the Preset at Video Copilot to be able to finish this Tutorial.

    Reply
  9. ali says:
    May 10, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    hello,that is very nice.
    can get it video Tutorial.

    Reply
  10. Sycojp says:
    May 11, 2011 at 6:50 pm

    Awesome tutorial! Thanks so much! Also, I really like the music in the preview! Where can I get that?

    Reply
  11. Bryon Harris says:
    May 11, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    I love the beautiful music u chose
    what’s it called & who’s it by? I wanna use that so badly!!!!!

    Reply
    • Tibor Miklos says:
      May 11, 2011 at 9:53 pm
      Author

      I found this nice song here–> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAYQziXYC6Q

      Reply
      • Nagy Tibor says:
        May 17, 2011 at 4:57 pm

        Szia Tibor, remélem tudsz magyarul….
        Az az egy problémám van ezzel hogy mindent megcsináltam és a végén az a probléma, hogy az a fénylő gombóc megcsinálja a betű íveit csak nem húz maga után csíkot ezáltal nem látszik a szöveg amit közölni szeretnék… :( Ez miért van? Miért nem húz maga után csíkot a fénylő gombóc? Nem húzza ki a betű vonalait és nem látszanak a betűk…. A köríveit megcsinálja de utána nem látom a szöveget :(
        LÉGYSZÍVES VÁLASZOLJ!! PLEASE REPLY

  12. Mads says:
    May 11, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    So, I got it working.. But in the end, there is nothing that follows the Flare.. The Flare just moves around the Batman logo, but it doesn’t create a trail after it.. What did I do wrong? :/

    Reply
  13. jonson says:
    May 12, 2011 at 6:28 pm

    bro pls we need a videotut

    i dont know why people stil write tuts – u can do videotuts and u have even less work

    Reply
  14. Patrick McLean says:
    May 12, 2011 at 6:34 pm

    Hi:

    I have particular, a premium account but not the optical flares package yet. When I download the project file, there is not flare image in the download for me to use in the meantime. Please help? Can you please send it to me or provide another link with your tutorial.

    Thank you,

    PM

    Reply
  15. Oli says:
    May 21, 2011 at 5:07 am

    THis is awesome, Great effect.

    I’m stuck on Step 9 though (sorry, bit of a noob). When you say “In the Emitter section set the following properties.” – how do I bring up that properties section? Presumably it’s in the Project pane, is it? But I can’t find how to get bring it up! I’ve got an “Effect Controls: Emitter” tab, but no details below it to work on!

    Thanks so much for any help

    Reply
  16. Patrick McLean says:
    May 21, 2011 at 11:23 am

    Thank you very much for taking the time to upload the file. It is greatly appreciated (o:

    Patrick McLean

    Reply
  17. Shaddy says:
    May 25, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    PLEASE DO A VIDEO TUTORIAL AS I CANNOT GET THE TRAIL TO WORK PLEASE HELP!!! THANKS

    Reply
  18. Samuel Jah says:
    June 1, 2011 at 4:28 am

    like the tutorial…thank you very mush :)

    Reply
  19. Moritz says:
    June 1, 2011 at 11:22 am

    Hi! Thanks for the tutorial! Is there a possibility to create this Logo without Trapcode particular? I want to create something like this, but don’t want to pay another 399$ for the program…

    Reply
  20. Katsuro says:
    June 3, 2011 at 6:30 am

    Hi All,

    I got the Trapcode and Video Copilot effects.
    And I did everything step by step and skipped step 22 & 23.
    But what I see is only the particals part and no batman logo.
    What did I wrong? please help me out.

    Thank you.

    Best

    Katsuro

    Reply
  21. Tobias says:
    June 7, 2011 at 10:03 am

    Hey,

    i tried it with a text (png) but if i copy and paste the mask path position of my first letter it don`t follow at the outline….it looks like this !

    http://oi56.tinypic.com/rml385.jpg

    Don`t know what i`m doing wrong!

    Reply
    • Tobias says:
      June 7, 2011 at 10:08 am

      If i use the batman logo its the same problem..the new outline is much bigger than my working area..

      Reply
    • Tibor Miklos says:
      June 8, 2011 at 1:36 pm
      Author

      Greetings Tobias!

      When you are apply the auto trace settings then you will get a new layer it’s called “Auto-traced” and with this layer selected if you hit the “s” key on the keyboard and resize it then copy and paste the position values of the masks then hopefully this solution fix your problem.

      If something is still not okay please write me an email

      sir.tibor.miklos@gmail.com

      Reply
  22. Michael says:
    June 8, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    Hmm, I have no idea what I did wrong, or it might be that it’s the first time I touched AE.
    I kinda followed all steps, but I have no idea how to make the movement etc, anyway you can describe this?

    Reply
    • Michael says:
      June 8, 2011 at 10:45 pm

      I think it’s chasing the path now, but it’s not leaving a trail like in your vid. Where did I miss this?

      Reply
  23. Jason says:
    June 12, 2011 at 2:44 pm

    EVERYONE HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THE trailing LINE… as kurnikoff so nicely pointed out, the author of this tut, forgot to point out you need to set an emiiter size in the Particle layer. Set the XYZ value to 1 and it will show up. Very lucky he posted that because i never would have figured that out.

    Hope that helps!

    Thanks Kurnikoff!

    Reply
  24. bOynOiz says:
    June 18, 2011 at 5:24 am

    I try to set Emiiter size in the Particle layer. But nothing happen. So I try to change Render mode in The Optical Flares layer to Transparent and Yeah! I see the trailing line. :D

    Thanks for Tutorial

    PS. sorry for my bad english :P

    Reply
  25. jorrel says:
    June 20, 2011 at 7:43 am

    Can anyone help me please. After i copied the mask path of the logo and paste it to the emitter layer position the logo and the mask path didn’t match. it’s bigger than the logo and it excess to the actual comp. please can anyone help me bout this prob.

    Reply
    • Tibor Miklos says:
      June 20, 2011 at 9:04 pm
      Author

      @ Jorrel

      “I found an alternative solution because I realized that the emitter path was the same size as the original image you autotraced despite the scaling. So, I just made the logo smaller in photoshop accordingly to get the size I wanted.” by Chase Davis
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqr_ydPX7F0

      or you can still using a camera to controll the “size” but it’s just an optical illusion because you just pulling back the text or logo.

      Reply
  26. Brandon says:
    June 23, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    I’m trying to copy and paste the mask path size into the emitter position, but it’s not working at all. is there any other way to do it?

    Reply
  27. andido says:
    June 26, 2011 at 9:53 pm

    nice, I put in the batman png and scale it down but when i copy the mask to the new light emitter it doesn’t scale down to the same way i scale it down on the png. it stays the same so if i was to scale it down on the emitter the flare line would go out of the line from the mask

    Reply
  28. CHANDNI says:
    July 24, 2011 at 5:32 am

    VIDEO TUTORIALS PLZ

    Reply
  29. Sam says:
    August 10, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    Ab 10 schritt kann ich nicht weiter machen. Kann jemand mir helfen?
    vielen dank

    Reply
  30. Sam says:
    August 10, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    From step 10, I can not go on. Can someone help me?
    many thanks

    Reply
  31. Alex says:
    August 18, 2011 at 11:08 am

    Same problem there with the step 10.

    I’m trying to copy and paste the mask path size into the emitter position, but it’s not working, any help please?

    Thanks!

    Reply
  32. Mahmoud says:
    November 13, 2011 at 5:38 pm

    great, but i need it video!!! .. i cant understand your tut without real video
    thanks again

    Reply
  33. Romain says:
    November 15, 2011 at 2:58 pm

    Hi, what settings did you use to render it ? Did you use Adobe Media Encoder ? How can I have the best quality in HD formats to upload it on Youtube ? Thanks, really nice tutorial !

    Reply
  34. Luke says:
    November 18, 2011 at 5:44 pm

    ace tut i got it, but i cant get it to leave a trail :/ it traces but no trail

    Reply
  35. HUNKEN says:
    December 6, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    Perfect, It’s amazing! I do it now

    Reply
  36. Rohan says:
    January 7, 2012 at 9:53 am

    Hi there,

    First of all, awesome tutorial here and after a bit of improvisation, it worked out like a charm!

    However, I do have some questions though, slightly advanced perhaps but it would be great if you could help:

    1. How do I change the starting position of my emitter/trail for a given mask??

    2. If I wish to split a mask into 2, so that I can have simultaneous trails for the same mask, how do I go about doing that?

    Would be great if you helped me out here, but either ways a great tutorial! :)

    Reply
  37. Vishal says:
    January 8, 2012 at 2:07 am

    Hi! Everyone

    Those who faces no trail problem; just send Optical Flare layer below to Three Particular layers.

    OR

    You can follow the solution given by bOynOiz above. Lets I describe the same. Under Effect Control for Optical Layers change Motion Blur>Render Mode to On Transparent. But you will require to hide the Auto Traced layer, otherwise the while logo will also seen on the screen.

    Reply
  38. fixated says:
    March 12, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    Really confused on this one.. Step 10 doesn’t make sense? Its says to open the position property then paste? paste what? there was no copy of anything in the previous step? Haven’t been able to figure it out from this point as many people saying different things on the comments.

    Shame really. Looked like a good tut otherwise!

    Reply
    • Said Martinez says:
      May 17, 2012 at 7:27 pm

      Paste the Mask Path you copied in step 6 once you click on the position of the emitter layer.

      Reply
  39. Janglemyniptips says:
    April 2, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    Everything works except the white line streaks(outline)….any help???

    Reply
  40. Said says:
    May 17, 2012 at 7:25 pm

    I’m thankful, don’t get me wrong, but there are holes in explanation that make a huge difference on being able to follow along. I got maybe 95% of the way through. I just can’t seem to find the step where the Turbulence Field position shows the Wavy lights & also show the straight ones.

    Reply

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