Easy Digital Light Write Tutorial in After Effects

[ameet21]

dude nice fx

[DigitalMelon1]

Thanks for the simple yet effective tutorial. This will help me get better with AE, since I just got it. Peace!

[Mrhairbag]

It was so easy and yet I was so far from it... Thx a lot, ill post my video. Got some nice ideas!

[kejikimchi]

wheres the tutorial..

[kintarusama]

grt video dude

[jayandersons]

how do u combine the layers, i got close.

[jayandersons]

I liked it better then the partlekl trap code

[oneillperson]

Thank you sooooo much!!! I have been searching to find how to do this for ages. I use Adobe Premiere, but it has the same effects and works the same. Thanks again!!

[sisilia1993]

I didnt get it..

[sharkman2910]

searching hours for this, thanks!

[captainspuds]

Thanks!!!

[captainspuds]

Thank!!!

[okboy100]

imo real light painting looks better. but this is still cool :)

[MsDancingpotato]

do you video it on fone?

[flipualexflip]

Thanks alllot!

[deoxy95]

neon rainbow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kennykalinowski]

Great - Just what I was looking for! Thanks man

[theCRAZYturkey]

my preferred settings -50 brightness

50 contrast

black point 6 (room was pitch black)

echo time -0.0333

number of echoes 1000 ( makes it slow until you export it)  less echoes means less light time on vid

i turned intesity down to 0.90

i havent messed with glow much

[DmitroZa]

Thank you - very helpful!

[RollaSu]

Yeah!!!!!! I've been looking all over for this! I knew for videos it was going to be an AE setting and not a special camera!

[etfometit]

Haha thanks for the comment.. The enthusiasm makes me happy

[gloooos]

Im using After effects CS3 no effects>Adjust>the brightnes.....

[etfometit]

sorry for the late reply, but there should be something that adjusts the brightness and contrast to where you need it. I know in photoshop you can accomplish this with the effect "Curves" This is where you are editing the characteristic curve of an image. The steeper the curve the more contrast (actually called gamma) and the lower the curve (y-direction) the lower the average pixel counts) so you are looking for a curve that has a steep slope and low value. Now the brights will stick out.

[theCRAZYturkey]

@gloooos color>brightness / contrast

[TheNewVideos]

I will soon videorespond to you. Althou I did not do mine on After Efects, I made it usuing echo, ghosting in adobe premirere pro 2.0

[etfometit]

oh cool, I'm excited to see

[TheNewVideos]

well, it is not only writing and just doing some lines in the air. Here is something else, U can to, look at my videorespond.:)

[KouroMedia]

good job, and thank you! ^_^ I'm going to use this in my next experimental video and I needed to know how to do it!

[etfometit]

thank you..no problem...let me know when i can see your video!!

[qtsypootsy]

why do you appear in real-time but the light stays on the screen?

[etfometit]

thats the point of the effect

[yuoooooaw]

Did you do this on Adobe After Effects?

[etfometit]

yea it's After Effects

[xXrickstarXx]

Thank mine, your video help my response. One Question through I can never get the edge of the light smooth and it takes so long to render a screenshot I cant experiemnt too much without waiting 5mins a time!

How do I make the egde of the light smooth without added a glow?

[xXrickstarXx]

*man

sorry about the spelling mistakes, hope u understand my dyslexic self!

[etfometit]

no problem, thanks for the responses. Im sure there are a couple ways to achieve softened edges..Have you tried a normal blur? you could also duplicate your light streak layer and blur only the top one. This will give you a strong light base (with your original) with what might look like a glow. There are many settings in the echo effect, and I didn't use that many echos which gives a streakier effect and less render time.

[xXrickstarXx]

Thanks John, Imma try that out soon. I think I'll try it a lil less echos coz the render time is ridiculous! Thanks again

[miguel6052]

After effects just rock!!

[cromocromosoma]

Thanks for the tutuorial!! 5 stars!!!

[ufgators3x]

THANKS !!

[mandelni]

ohhooooh

[PikachuSketch]

lol u look soooooo happy ^.0 but nice job wit the effect!

[kylekott]

lol i feel smart....

[kylekott]

which program did you use?

[gasmostarda000]

he says at the beginning of the video..!!!

[JimBean0587]

Lol dude. Not cool.

[snackz]

hey man thanks for the lesson. it works. what i did on my videos was put my echo effect last and add some dust and scratch to the pre-composed layer to eliminate the fuzzy echo. i also added the curves effect, but it's not necessary. i'll post both videos to show you even though they're the same video clip.

[chaOsMastaGuru]

this is actually very nice. Main problem is that this makes camera moves impossible, but there are always pros and cons ;)

[brainfactor]

i am german but i can speak english good and i dont understand that video!

[briantran1]

what is command?

[etfometit]

apple or control on pc i believe

[his1nightmare]

very cool and easy!

[dcheat]

Thank you!

[spiker369]

any chance of a cs3 tut?

[bezakor]

nice man, thanks for this!

[TimeKoder13]

Cool in a rush and didn't feel like refreshing w/those other 20 minute tutz.

[NEddG]

yo lol next time you come up let me get final cut son

[anarki450]

thanks, this is nice! much easier way to do light writing

[etfometit]

your welcome, thank you, and yes under these footage conditions, you could use a mask if you couldn't extract out all the black background.

[anarki450]

probably you should make another tutorial for that? I mean theres a lot of people has no idea at all, would save lots of effort just to find out how to mask lol.

btw, more people should watch this video, i do recommend people watch this in my blog and youtube reply. I used animating method before had took me heaps of time. and this light is more genuine lol

[etfometit]

Well thank you again, but yea i made this tutorial because it was quick and easy, the masking may be a long process, so your footage needs to be right to avoid having to do it

[onearm15]

what fill program did you use lol

[etfometit]

did you mean film program? as in editing software? i used final cut pro. and i made the music with logic pro.

[emopunk84]

well its good to be thinking the way you do.. most if not all effects can be replicated in after effects without fancy 3rd party plugins. just gotta set your mind to it

[emopunk84]

fantastic work! no 3rd party plugins just old skool image manipulation. Andrew Kramer can suck a d1ck you rock.

[etfometit]

haha well thank you very much. i was happy about this one being pretty new to after effects i just thought i could do it with the tools i knew and it worked nicely.