Neon Sign...Anyone???


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Neon Sign...Anyone???
by filmapprentice on Sep 12, 2007 at 6:40:29 pm

Hey A_FX Gurus,

I'm looking to create a flashing neon sign effect. I have the image that I want to have flicker on and off with electricity, (i'm actually switching between two images to simulate movement) but i'm looking for a few tips in terms of what effects could be used to generate that bright, neon look. If possible, a plug-in free solution...

cheers!

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Re: Neon Sign...Anyone???
by Darby Edelen on Sep 12, 2007 at 6:52:49 pm

[filmapprentice] "what effects could be used to generate that bright, neon look."

Try putting a duplicate of the neon sign layer above the source layer and setting its blend mode to "Add." You can put a Blur & Sharpen>Box Blur on that layer (I recommend 3 iterations) in order to give it a glowy look. The higher your radius, the more diffuse the glow will be.

Note that if the source neon sign isn't lit (is dark) then the add blend mode will not do much at all to the underlying layers and you will need to add a bright color to the additive layer. If your neon sign has an alpha channel this could be easily accomplished with Generate>Fill. Whatever you choose for the fill color will be the color of the glow.

You could also try 2 or more layers set to "Add" if you want the core of the neon sign to glow a brighter/whiter color and the falloff to be more colored/dimmer.

Another alternative to give yourself a nice white hot core and a beautiful falloff would be making your project 32bpc and using a levels effect to boost the additive layer into the superwhite range. This will add to render time however.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

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Re: Neon Sign...Anyone???
by LifeType on Sep 12, 2007 at 7:44:01 pm

try the plugin that comes with ae .. vegas . you can create neon flashing signs etc.. i think that would be the easiest way to make it happen .. maybe not the best but def easy and real fast

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Re: Neon Sign...Anyone???
by Darby Edelen on Sep 12, 2007 at 7:50:40 pm

Vegas makes spots of 'light' that crawl along a mask or 'image contour' (edges). It doesn't work very well for creating something like a Neon Sign =/

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

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Re: Neon Sign...Anyone???
by lifetype on Sep 13, 2007 at 12:19:59 am

you can make it so its not broken up lines . but one big line around the sign and then another inside the sign .. works perfectly done4 something simliar of course with lots of lil tweaks

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Re: Neon Sign...Anyone???
by yikesmikes on Sep 12, 2007 at 7:46:03 pm

First off, for whiter whites and Brighter Bright, see Andrew's tut here, where he sets up a 32 bit comp, that's if you have AE7 or above.

http://www.videocopilot.net/videotutorials/earthquakehdr/index.htm

Maybe this is what you want if you're just using two images, oor add a flicker expression below to the top layer.

For a neon sign I like AudioWaveform on a mask (Path:Mask1), with no Audio layer referenced, you get a nice inner/outer color tube, very soft and neon like.

I like to chase that with CC Radial Fast Blur, Amount at 0, with this wiggle expression on Amount:

wiggle (30,2)

Change the 30 (frequency) or 2 (Amplitude ) to taste.

This Radial fast blur is fine by itself, without the opacity flicker, if you don't want the light to go completely out, just an electric surge kind of thing.

For a flicker, I like this from Dan, it's for a 3D light but works fine on Opacity of a layer.

http://www.motionscript.com/mastering-expressions/random-3.html

segMin = 1.0; //minimum segment duration
segMax = 1.5; //maximum segment duration
flickerDurMin = .5;
flickerDurMax = .8;

end = 0;
j = 0;
while ( time >= end){
j += 1;
seedRandom(j,true);
start = end;
end += random(segMin,segMax);
}
flickerDur = random(flickerDurMin,flickerDurMax);
if (time > end - flickerDur){
seedRandom(1,false);
random(100);
}else{
100
}

Change those top four variables to get the look you want.

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