How to Make Light Streaks
In “Under 5 Minutes” Mark Spencer will teach you how to make animate light streaks in 3 easy steps.
He will start by creating a Shape Source with the bezier tool, make a path for the streaks to follow, then animate the light streak using a Sequence Paint Behavior with custom Rotation and Opacity parameters.
While Motion contains some great light streaks in its Library, it’s fun and easy to build your own custom light streak in 3 quick steps.
I’m Mark Spencer from RippleTraining.com, welcome to MotionMagic where you’ll learn visual effects and motion graphics in Under 5 Minutes.
First, I’ll create a shape source for my light streak by selecting the Bezier shape tool and drawing a random shape. I’m clicking and dragging to make smooth curves. I’ll click the first control point to close the shape, then in the Heads-up-display I’ll add some feather. In the Layers list I’ll rename it to Source and turn it off.
Second, I’ll create a path for my light streak by first pressing Space-Command and dragging left to make some room, then reselecting the Bezier tool and draw a looping, curving path that starts and ends off the screen. I’ll press Return to end the path, then in the Shape Inspector, in the Style tab, I’ll turn off the Fill, set the Outline Brush Type to Image, and drag the source shape to the well.
I need to modify the path’s parameters. I’ll set the Color to a orangish red, increase the width, decrease the spacing, and then enable the Additive Blend checkbox to create a glowing effect. Then I’ll tweak the color to get just the glow I like.
In the Stroke tab, I’ll open the Opacity gradient, click to create several more tags, then right-click each and select alternating gray and black colors to create transparency in the streak.
I’ll open the Angle Over Stroke graph, select the ending keyframe, then crank up the Angle Over Stroke parameter below to have the shape twist along the path.
Then I’ll open Brush Scale and adjust X and Y to my liking.
The third step is to animate the light streak. I’ll use the Behaviors shortcut menu to select Shape, Sequence Paint.
I’ll select both the Shape and the Behavior, move the playhead forward a bit, press O to trim them both, then set a play range out point just after that.
In the Behaviors Inspector, I’ll add Rotation and Opacity. I’ll set rotation to about 90 and Opacity to 0. Then, I’ll set Sequencing to Through Inverted and the Spread to about 10. If I deselect everything and play, we have a nice animated light streak.
The cool thing is that I can easily change how it looks by modifying the original shape source, or any of the other parameters.
Click the subscribe button below. If you have an idea, comment or suggestion, leave those below as well. Go to rippletrainging.com for fast professional training on Final Cut Pro, Motion and DaVinci Resolve from industry professionals.
I’m Mark Spencer from RippleTraining.com, welcome to MotionMagic where you’ll learn visual effects and motion graphics in Under 5 Minutes.
First, I’ll create a shape source for my light streak by selecting the Bezier shape tool and drawing a random shape. I’m clicking and dragging to make smooth curves. I’ll click the first control point to close the shape, then in the Heads-up-display I’ll add some feather. In the Layers list I’ll rename it to Source and turn it off.
Second, I’ll create a path for my light streak by first pressing Space-Command and dragging left to make some room, then reselecting the Bezier tool and draw a looping, curving path that starts and ends off the screen. I’ll press Return to end the path, then in the Shape Inspector, in the Style tab, I’ll turn off the Fill, set the Outline Brush Type to Image, and drag the source shape to the well.
I need to modify the path’s parameters. I’ll set the Color to a orangish red, increase the width, decrease the spacing, and then enable the Additive Blend checkbox to create a glowing effect. Then I’ll tweak the color to get just the glow I like.
In the Stroke tab, I’ll open the Opacity gradient, click to create several more tags, then right-click each and select alternating gray and black colors to create transparency in the streak.
I’ll open the Angle Over Stroke graph, select the ending keyframe, then crank up the Angle Over Stroke parameter below to have the shape twist along the path.
Then I’ll open Brush Scale and adjust X and Y to my liking.
The third step is to animate the light streak. I’ll use the Behaviors shortcut menu to select Shape, Sequence Paint.
I’ll select both the Shape and the Behavior, move the playhead forward a bit, press O to trim them both, then set a play range out point just after that.
In the Behaviors Inspector, I’ll add Rotation and Opacity. I’ll set rotation to about 90 and Opacity to 0. Then, I’ll set Sequencing to Through Inverted and the Spread to about 10. If I deselect everything and play, we have a nice animated light streak.
The cool thing is that I can easily change how it looks by modifying the original shape source, or any of the other parameters.
Click the subscribe button below. If you have an idea, comment or suggestion, leave those below as well. Go to rippletrainging.com for fast professional training on Final Cut Pro, Motion and DaVinci Resolve from industry professionals.
