what effect should i use to reproduce this visual (make highlights glow parallel rays) ?

[ronfya]

Hi Guys,

I have this shot where the tubes are spinning around her.


I want it to look like laser saber from star wars. Like this



I create the shot above in FCPX using the "streaks" effect. But for some reason, it does not apply on the 5th tube. I tried to match the color and luminance of that 5th tube to the others before applying the effect, but I does not work. Didn't figure out why. It does not work even if I try do it only on the 5th tube by keying or so ... So in FCPX I cannot get that last tube glow which is annoying.

So I would like to do it in After Effects, but I have no clue what effect can I use to make the highlights glow parallel rays at an angle I can set so they are parallel to the tubes and can hide the tape & the hanging wires at the same time.

Here the angle is random so you can see what I mean


Please note that I don't want to use generators like Beam, or Video Copilot's Saber because that would imply the use of masking and tracking when the lights get behind her head and feathers.

I gave it a shot at the Glow effect, Trapcode Shine, Trapcode Starglow, but unsucessfully.

Do you have an idea ?

Thank you so much !

[Mylenium]

Try to isolate the beams and generate a matte for them e.g. using the Channel Combiner based on luminance and the magenta portions....

Mylenium

[ronfya]

I already have my mattes ... but that doesn't tell me what effect I should use to create what I want afterwards ...

[Mylenium]

Not sure I understand your issue then. If you have mattes, you should easily be able to make everything glow as you want it. Sounds more like you may want to spend more time on it and apply the effects separately to each beam to vary the look on each one and get correct mutual obscuration behavior. You could e.g. frizzle up the mattes with Roughen Edges or Noise to vary the distribution of the rays emanating from the neon tubes...

Mylenium