Translucent Light Beams in AE?

[mksalva]

Is there an effect in AE where I can simulate some light beams that would, preferably, flicker a little?

See the image below.

Easy effect, or is it a lengthy process? Thanks!

[Dave_LaRonde · Accepted solution]

I think I would try the Beam effect.  You can animate the various properties with a wiggle expression.  If the beams are on their own layer, you can use the Add blend mode to get the look in your picture.

[Rick Gerard]

You can do this a bunch of ways. A simple shape layer with a blur and fractal noise and a blend mode would be very effective. If you have no idea what I'm talking about then let us know. Blend modes, animation and transparency are the key to recreating this effect. You'll also get more controllable and realistic effects if you set the project to 32Bit in the Project Panel.

You can also use beams or a combination of beams. If you want to put more than one Effect>Generate>Beam on a single layer you just set the other copies to composite on original then put your footage below. Here I've also added fractal noise and shown you all of the modified properties.

[mksalva]

Rick, I think the Beam effect will give me what I need, but I may also want to try your Fractal Noise suggestion. I will try to play around with it some more, and look at the settings in your illustration. (When I tried to apply Fractal Noise to my beam, it turned grey.) Thanks!

[Rick Gerard]

Fractal noise is always black and white but you can use the blend mode in the Effect to use the luminance values to effect colors.

The screenshot was grabbed after I pressed the u key twice to reveal all modified properties so that you could easily see everything that I changed. uu is a great troubleshooting tool. You should get in the habit of using it often. I'll bet I use the shortcut about 100 times a day.

[Szalam]

You could also look into the (free) Saber effect from Video Copilot. It's kind of like the Beam effect with fractal noise built in, but with more options.