Creating Glow Effects With BCC

Glow Alpha Edges Effect

The BCC Glow Alpha Edges effect will enable the generation of a halo style glow based upon the alpha channel of the image to which it is applied.

• Load the clip that you want to affect into the AE project window - this clip should include an alpha channel (for the purpose of this tutorial, we will use a still image with alpha.)

• Create a 5 second comp and drag the imported image into the new comp
• Select the image clip in the timeline
• Go to the AE Effects and Presets window
• Twirl down the BCC Effects group
• Drag the BCC Glow Alpha Edges filter onto the source clip in the composition

Immediately you can see that the filter has created a glow effect around the alpha portions of the image.

• In the Effects Controls window, set the width parameter to 20

Observe that this parameter controls the width of the glow effect that is applied to the image

• Set the Smoothness parameter to a value of 100.

Observe that the resulting glow is much smoother and that although the glow does not have the same level of detail that it did at it's default setting, the glow is still soft and smooth

• Set the Smoothness parameter to a value of 0.

Now the glow has a high level of detail and matches the contour of the alpha channel exactly.

• Set the Softness parameter to a value of 100

Observe that the glow has become less noticeable and that the edges of the glow appear to taper off in a soft gradient.

• Set the value of the Softness parameter back to it's default setting of 20
of the Smoothness parameter to 30

Now we have a nice soft alpha glow. Let's change the color of the glow from white to green.

• Click on the color chip to bring up the color picker
• Set the color to green using these values - r=9, g=219, b=39
• Click okay to return to the comp

The wheel now has a good glow around the edges of the alpha channel, but we're not finished yet. To make the image that we have at the top of this section, we'll add two more filters from the BCC set.

• Add the Spiral Blur filter
• Go to the BCC Color and Blurs group in the Effects and Presets window
• Drag the BCC Spiral Blur filter onto the image in the comp window

By default, the spiral center is offset from the center of this size comp

• Drag the Spiral Center on-screen control to position the spiral center position at the center of the comp

Now we want the spokes of the wheel image to push out from the center of the image, slightly twisting as they do so.

• In the Effects Controls window, set the value of the Zoom parameter to 100

Observe that the spokes seem to push out from the center of the image, which now bears little resemblance to the original artwork. To complete the effect, we'll add some lighting and contrast with one of the filters from the BCC Lights group

• Go to the BCC Lights group in the Effects and Presets window
• Drag the Light Zoom filter onto the image in the comp window

Observe result

• Set the Intensity parameter to a value of 200
• Set the Attenuation type to Exp Distance by selecting this from the pop-up menu

Now we've completed the treatment for this image and have used a few filters from the BCC package to change a simple image of a wheel, which was originally generated using Adobe Illustrator, into a much more interesting image.

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