Instructions for 2nd Comp

I wanted to try making a ball of energy. To achieve that, I went back to Andrew’s tutorial at “http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/3d_light_casting/.”

new comp and solid

create two to three masks of wavy paths with the pen tool.

Vegas effect (effects, generate, Vegas) creates a line contour

Change segment to 1, midpoint opacity to 1, start opacity 0

Duplicate the Vegas effect and switch the path to your second mask. Then repeat the duplication and switch to mask three.

Pre-compose (layer—pre-compose—move all attributes) and offset (effects—distort—offset) your layer.

Animate the center point by adjusting the shift center

Effects--polar coordinates.

Change the type to “Rect To Polar,” turning the interpolation to 100%. Turn up the width of each Vegas Effect to about 4.

Create a feathered mask (New Solid—Ellipse—Subtract—Turn Up Mask feather). Alpha invert the second layer on your comp by using the toggle switch bring down the mask expansion to the negatives, feathering the edges as the energy goes out.

Pre-compose your two layers into one.

Go back to my String energy layer to adjust the offset x-position.

Create a new background layer.

select the 3D layer (Cube shaped icon) and duplicate the layer a few times.

Rotate selected layer with layers in ‘’screen mode.’’

Copy, paste, and rotate the layers until a volumetric form is in effect

use the orbit tool to help in seeing the ball in a 360-degree view.

To create the white glowing center make a new solid the same color as the lines but much lighter and feather it. Duplicate and feather the mask.

Transfer mode to add

Duplicate and feather the mask scaling it down a bit

Create a new darker solid. Take the ellipse tool and create another feathered mask; this time a bit bigger than the center change to add

Create a null and parented the energy line layers to the null and make it 3D.

Created black solid. Effects—Simulation—CC Particle World

Selected Particle Layer and changed it to Faded Sphere--Physics and altered the Velocity a bit and turned the gravity down to 0. Edited the Birth and Death size and also the color of each. Used the Depth of Field options for the camera; also adjusted the aperture and blur levels. Went back and changed the colors of one of my Vegas Layers. Went into the Null to edit rotation.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/3d_light_casting/