In this tutorial we'll use the BCC Glitter filter in the Adobe After Effects host to generate a glittering sky on an Artbeats stock video clip, against which we will create an animated title. The BCC Glitter filter is OpenGL hardware-accellerated and can be used to generate glittering sparkles of pretty much any size. There are parameters in the filter UI to control the brightness, scale and color of the glitters and also the number of rays that each glitter has. The GLitters are set by default to automatically animate along a transparent horizontal path and to flash on and off over time. We're going to disable the horizontal animation of the glitters but we will leave the flashing.
Start by creating an NTSC D1 project with a 5 second duration
Import into the project the Artbeats clip that we are going to treat with the BCC Glitter filter
Drag the clip from the project window into the AE timeline
Slip the media in the timeline so that the last frame in the clip is the last frame in the comp
In order to isolate the glitters to the sky, we need to create a mask.
Double click the Artbeats clip to being it into the layer view
Select the pen tool and create a rough mask that follows the skyline and fills the sky
Close the layer view
Duplicate the layer in the timeline
Rename the top layer with the mask to Background Sky
Rename the bottom layer to Foreground Cityscape
Disable the layer mask from the bottom layer
Apply the BCC Glitter filter to the Background Sky layer
In the Glitter filter UI, set the Glitter Background Map pop-up to use the Foreground Cityscape
Now we'll fine tune the Glitter parameters so that they are small, sparkling but not moving in the x or y direction
Set the value in the Glitter Frequency parameter to 50 to generate more Glitters
Set the value in the Brightness parameter to 150, which will generate bright Glitters
Set the value in the Glitter Scale parameter to 0.15, which will produce small Glitters
Set the value in the Glitter Speed X parameter to 0 - this will freeze the glitters in place along the Horizontal axis
Set the value in the Glittering Speed parameter to 5 - this will cause the Glitters to sparkle on and off over time
Preview to RAM to see the result.
Next, we add the BCC Colorize Glow filter to the Glittering result
Apply the BCC Colorize Glow filter to the Background Sky layer
Because the Glitter filter has already composited the foreground and background layers, we need only apply the Colorize Glow effect to the Foreground Sky layer to see the effect over the entire image. We'll leave the Colorize Glow filter at it's default settings.
Next we'll generate the animated title, which will appear above the skyline and push / zoom forward in Z space. Usually I would animate the title push in Z space but for this tutorial I'll simply use the Layer Scale controls to fake this look.
Set the time marker to the start of the timeline
Select the Text tool and click in the Composite Window
Type the word Seattle in all upper case
Select the text and set the Font to Arial Black, 48 points
Disable the fill and enable the stroke for the title
Set the stroke color to R=255 G=178 B=87 (peachy color)
Set the stroke width to 4 pixels
Now we'll animate the scale of the title
Go to the start of the timeline
Set the scale to 70 percent and click the stopwatch to enable keyframing for this parameter
Go to the 4 second mark
Set the scale to 150 percent
Next we'll apply the Rays Radiant Edges to the title to lend the effect of volumetric lighting to the title
Apply the BCC Rays Radiant Edges filter to the title
Move the Light Center so that it is in the center of the title, which is in the center of the first letter T
Go to the start of the timeline
Set the Ray Length parameter to a value of 18
Set the Ray Style pop-up to Fat
Go to the end of the timeline
To finalize our look, we'll add an adjustment layer on top of everything in the comp and add the Curves color correction filter, setting up an "S" curve color correction to provide a little saturation and contrast to the final result.
