How to create this neon effect animation?

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Level 1

8 points

How to create this neon effect animation?

Hi all,

I was asked to inherit this project at work and re-do the animation as the background and lighting structure shape changed. I have been using final cut for some years but never used Motion 5.

Please see the below link for the existing animation:

Optilli - Audio on Vimeo

My main question is:

1. how to make neon lighting effect that constantly changes color?

2. how to combine background image with lighting structure? (by using layer?)

I have no idea how to start, tried to find some tutorial but no luck. I would appreciate your help!

Thank you.

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Aug 3, 2018 10:48 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Karsten Schlüter

Level 7

34,125 points

Aug 4, 2018 7:24 AM in response to keke129

generally, very generally spoken 😉

@#1)

'Neon' is mostly made of semi-transparent, white = the 'tube'

and a copy of that tube, with some Glow effect:

now, when you keyframe the color of that glowing copy, you get this:

the trickier part is the reflection:

basically a Clone of that Neon group. rotated and repositioned... BUT:

(my animated-gif doesn't show well…)

you need TWO Layers of background:

one, showing detail (water ripples, wet floor in your examples), with an image mask, and a 2nd one, dimmed = giving the impression the neon 'lits' the environment ...

… generally spoken 😉

No real beginners task...

Disassemble my free Neon plugin:

http://www.fcp.co/forum/text-titles/25341-neon-powered-by-mark-spencer

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Answer 2

Aug 4, 2018 7:24 AM in response to keke129

maybe to make my last point a bit clearer…

a Neon letter, a clone, transformed to a 'reflection'…

On the the left, opacity a bit lowered = not convincing…

On the right: the Neon 'lights' the water = better (a bit over-brightened, for demonstrational purposes)

and in the Motion project:

the background is doubled, a dark one, and a bright one, the brighter one is 'masked' with the reflection group = the neon lights the waters, but only in the reflections…

Instead of Image Masks and stuff, you can give on the Reflection Group a diff Comp Mode a try (e.g. Hard light)… but it depends much on the BGpic, wether it offers enough texture…

Hard to explain in words, hope the illustrations do better ("a Red Arrow is worth a Hundred Words!") … 😝

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Answer 3

keke129 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 5, 2018 12:52 PM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Hey Karsten,

It was 32 degree in London and I was already melting, 35 sounds pretty hectic!

Your suggestion about airbrush sounds good and I think I can mix it with what I did today to make it more interesting.

I did some study today, let me share it here just in case you are interested.

If you watch this tutorial from 3:42 to 4:40, this one is using the image mask.

Image Masks in Apple Motion - Apple Motion Professional training 17 by AV-Ultra - YouTube

0. I added a gradient color image layer.

1. I made the shape using the image mask.

2. Then I used 'keyframe' to move the gradient color background to show the color gradience change within the shape

3. I added light rays to the shape

4. I created a black shade in photoshop (png), added it and used keyframe so that the shape appears and disappears.

In this way, I kinda worked out how to do the second effect. My only issue with this is that I don't understand why a glow filter doesn't work. I had to use light rays which is not ideal.

I still have no idea how to do the third effect, if you have any suggestion, I would appreciate.

Also, you mentioned fox Mahoney, I don't know who this person is, is he/she hangs around in this community?

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Answer 4

Aug 4, 2018 8:56 AM in response to keke129

glad you like it … or at least it's helpful, a 'bit' hot here in Europe 35°C … that's beyond my comfort zone.

so, generally spoken 😉 conc. animation:

when you don't use a Solid Color but an Airbrush, …

… you do have access to the Stroke parameters…

Now keyframe the Opacity over stroke:

which gives the wanted effect.

Now some Replicators … done. 😝

Generally spoken… sorry, I'm too lame for an in-depth advice, maybe Motion Master fox Mahoney joins the party and gives better advice. It's too hot! LOL

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Answer 5

keke129 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 4, 2018 7:56 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Thank you Karsten! Your post is very helpful, now I got an idea of how it works.

The video consists of three different effects as you know (plz see the pictures below), I managed to do the first effect, which is the basic neon effect with fade in and out (thanks to your tutorial).

I still don't understand the second one and the third one tho, where there are various color changes and even color rotations within the lighting structure. If you don't mind, can you please help me further on this and teach me how to do the second and third effect? I think a base layer with color gradient was used, but I am not really sure how it's done.

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How to create this neon effect animation?

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