Glow effect on shape layers

[mushanga75]

Hi everybody I use this topic cause to ask a suggestion about the glow effect:

I'm trying to reproduce this with AE

the dashboard in the pic is realized with AE too.

I'm working on the speedometer on the left and i have to create the glow effect for the notches and i need to increase the glowing.

I created a Shape Layer to build the nothces and i applied the Glow effect to that Shape Layer but I couldn't obtain the same effect of the pic.

What can I do about it?

I'm using AE CC2015 on a Mac.

...sorry for my English 🙂

Mushanga75

[Szalam]

I'm not quite sure what you are saying. I only see one image in your post. Is that the image you are trying to emulate? If so, can we see what you've gotten so far? That is to say, you say you haven't gotten the same effect, but we have no idea what you have going on.

[mushanga75]

Yes sorry,

probably i haven't correctly explained what I mean.

I am trying to emulate this video tutorial : Dashboard Collection- After Effects Project for videohive.net - YouTube

At the very beginning, when the dashbord goes on, the numbers and everything else seems they have a glow.

I don't know how to add that glow to the notches and the numbers...

This is what i made until now.

I need to give a glow effect to those light blue notches

hope now is clearer... if not sorry i will try to explain much better.

Mushanga75

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

Just a screenshot of artwork doesn't show us what you are trying. That isn't really a tutorial, It's an ad. Did you purchase the collection? Are you new to AE. Here's a screenshot with all modified properties of a shape layer revealed that shows one of about a dozen easy ways to create a glow effect on vector layers:

I put the timeline to the left of the comp panel so you could see the modified properties of the layer. Note that the glow is based on the alpha channel and only the radius, intensity and A color have been modified. No matter how you generate a glow you need a blend mode like add or screen somewhere in the pipeline to make it look like light is being added to the scene. If you carefully examine this screenshot you'll see how the entire dial was created with a single rectangle and a repeater and a single effect with only a few modified properties.

[mushanga75]

Hi Rick,

yes I'm new to AE and yes, I know that it was not a tutorial but just a sample... I didn't purchase the collection yet... probably i will but first i wanna try to make it on my own.

About your answer is exactly what i'm trying to make but i was not able to explain it correctly cause i have not a good english

thnx a lot

Mushanga75

[mushanga75]

OK, I guess now i've reached the most difficult step of this project : the dashboard's animation.

I created a Counter for the speedometer and the rev counter with a null object and using this expression

beginCount =thisComp.layer("Counter").effect("Slider Control")("Slider");

stopCount = thisComp.layer("Counter").effect("Slider Control")("Slider");

beginTime = 0; // start counting at time = 0

countDur = 5; // count for 5 seconds

Math.round(linear(time,beginTime,beginTime + countDur,beginCount,stopCount))

to increase the value of the counters.

Now i wish to parent the Counter layer with the needle on the tach.... so when the needle starts to move also the Counter start to increase the value automatically and the needle is pre-composed with the pin.

I already parented the needle with the Counter but the rotation degree of the needle doesn't correspond to the zero of the Counter.... what I need in the end is to create the correspondence between Counter and the speedometer nicks : when needle is on the 2 the Counter must shows 2000 and so on...

Hope it's clear what I mean

Is it possible?

Mushanga75

[Rick Gerard]

You just need to convert the counter numbers to angle. It's simple math. I would not use time to run the counters, it's much to complicated and it works you into a dead end where it's extremely complex to simulate acceleration and deceleration. I would just use a slider and round the value. Now you can just keyframe.

Then you take the value of the counter, figure out how many degrees it is between your pointers and do the division.

Here is how I would set it up:

The first thing I would do would be to add an effects control slider to an empty text layer and then add the expression

math.round(value)

This will round the value of the effects control slider no matter what it is set to.

Then I would add this expression to the Source Text field:

effect("Slider Control")("Slider")

This would retrieve the value of the slider and display it as text

Then I would draw a pointer with the anchor point precisely at the center of rotation and add this expression to the rotation value:

v = thisComp.layer("Counter").effect("Slider Control")("Slider") / 10;

value + v

I came up with the divisor by taking the degrees of rotation in the repeater (20) and deciding that I wanted each hash mark to be worth 200 on the counter (RPM for example). You just change the devisor for different ratios. The value + statement at the end allows you to set the starting value for the pointer. If I wanted each hash mark to be worth 100 I would have set the devisor to 5. (do you get the math? to rotate 1 hash mark you need to rotate 20 degrees. 100/20 = 5)

You are way over thinking the problem. This simple approach will work for any type of instrument display.

BTW, it's a really good idea to use a monospaced font for your counter so the number columns don't jump around.

One more note. This question is really a different subject. It makes it easier for other folks to find solutions on the forum if you start a new thread for each new question that you have.

Good luck with your project.

[mushanga75]

Thnx again Rick...

I will follow your suggestions... also that one about the new topicses!

Mushanga75