How To Draw Animated Neon Shapes With Back Lit Lighting In After Effect

Make a logo pop like a neon sign using a combination of layer styles in Adobe After Effects.

What you'll need

This sample file is an Adobe Stock asset you can use to practice what you larn in this tutorial. If yous want to use the sample file across this tutorial, you tin purchase a license on Adobe Stock. Check out the ReadMe file in the folder for the terms that utilize to your use of this sample file. Any reference to "Nighttime Owl Market place" is for demonstration purposes only and is not intended to refer to any actual arrangement, products, services, or creative work.

In this project, you lot'll take line art created in Adobe Illustrator and make it expect like glowing, flickering tubes of neon against a brick wall in After Furnishings using a combination of Outer Glow and Inner Glow layer styles, a simple expression, and the Turbulent Noise effect.

Set up your layered artwork in Subsequently Furnishings. Working in the Standard workspace, choose File > Import > File and import your layered Illustrator logo design as Composition - Retain Layer Sizes. Open the comp and choose Composition > Limerick Settings. Ready a relatively short elapsing in the Settings dialog box (say, v:00) to salve on render fourth dimension while testing. Precompose each layer separately except for any layers that act in unison, such as the three Eye layers in our example. Group-select those before choosing Layer > Pre-compose. Since y'all'll exist making copies of these precomp layers later, give them singled-out colors now. Right-click each layer's color fleck and choose a unique colour for information technology from the menu.

A realistic glow requires three line styles: a broad, feathered outer glow for the illumination effect, another above it for a medium-wide glow, and one on top of that to simulate the tight, halo-similar glow that is brightest in the heart of the tube and darkest toward the border. Drag-select all the precomp layers and indistinguishable them (Edit > Duplicate) twice. Going from top to bottom, suspend _Tight, _Medium, and _Wide to the grouped layer names. Glows expect all-time against a black solid, so create i (Layer > New > Solid) and place it at the very lesser. Correct-click it and select Guide Layer. This ensures you lot'll take a black solid for testing purposes that won't be visible in the final comp when y'all add together the brick wall behind it later.

To add the outer glows, right-click Body_Wide and choose Layer Styles > Outer Glow from the menu. Expand the Outer Glow settings in the Timeline panel and, post-obit our example, alter the values for Alloy Mode, Opacity, Color, Spread, and Size. Select that Outer Glow layer style and re-create it to the Clipboard (Edit > Copy). Select the other two Torso layers, as well every bit the other two Broad layers, and choose Edit > Paste to utilise the changes. Click away to deselect all. At that place are too many copies of the exact same glow, then for Body_Tight, lower the Outer Glow size substantially (try 15) and for Body_Medium, reduce the size by about half (try 100). Alter the Outer Glow colors for the other Wide layers so they match their corresponding line art colors. At present copy the Outer Glow settings for Body_Tight and Body_Medium and paste them onto the respective layers for Eyes and Moon, updating the colors to match.

At present add the inner glows. Right-click Body_Tight and cull Layer Styles > Inner Glow. Expand the Inner Glow settings in the Timeline panel and, following our case, change the values for Blend Fashion, Opacity, Colour (FFFFFF), Source, Asphyxiate, and Size. Apply that line style to all Tight layers. It looks better if Moon_Tight uses a Blend Mode of Linear Contrivance and a lower opacity. Conform whatever inner or outer glows until you are happy with the results. Preview at Full Resolution to encounter the glows accurately.

Let's make the neon flicker. Pick any Medium layer and display the Opacity setting (press T). Selection/Alt-click the Opacity stopwatch. In the Expression field, supercede "transform.opacity" with wiggle(50,10) and then click away. Re-create that Opacity setting to the Clipboard and paste it on the other ii Medium layers. As you scrub the playhead, see how the ruby Opacity value constantly changes, causing the slight flickering upshot.

A subtle neon plasma upshot enhances the await. Open the Moon precomp and elevate the Turbulent Dissonance effect from the Furnishings & Presets panel to the Moon layer. Following our instance, change the values for Fractal Blazon, Effulgence, Complexity, Opacity, and Blending Mode. Move the playhead to the start of the comp and set a keyframe for Evolution. Move to the end and set a keyframe for Evolution at 36 revolutions (and aught degrees). Preview to see the slight oscillating neon plasma effect added. Deselect the layer, select it again, and re-create the Turbulent Noise effect to the Clipboard. Open the other precomps, set the playhead at goose egg, and paste the effect. For the multilayered Eyes precomp, elevate-select each layer before pasting the effect. The Opacity setting copied over from the yellow may be too much for other colors. Lower the opacity for the blue (try 15%).

Neon signs await great on a black background, but they ofttimes appear against a brick wall. To blended your sign in front of a wall, correct-click your chief logo comp and cull New Composition from Selection. Duplicate the layer in the new comp and gear up the Blending Fashion of the lower one to Linear Light and Opacity to fifty%. Create a new black solid layer and place it at the bottom of the comp. Import the brick wall image, drag it just above the blackness solid, and duplicate it. Prepare the upper wall layer's Track Matte to Alpha Matte and reference the logo layer above it. This automatically turns visibility for that logo layer off, so click the eyeball to restore its visibility. The wall is too saturated, then lower the lesser wall layer's opacity accordingly (try ten%).

Adding more neon elements to your sign is every bit unproblematic as importing the artwork, calculation it to your principal logo comp, and applying the glow, flickering, and neon plasma effects. If your new artwork uses thinner lines, reduce the Inner Glow size. If the Outer Glow on your artwork looks flat, increase the Range setting slightly. This controls the gradient between the core and outer edges of the glow. Finally, give your sign some personality by turning a neon element briefly off or on in its precomp. For example, you could open the Eyes precomp and trim the Right Eye Top layer to a couple dozen frames then the right heart winks rather than remaining lit. Try to make the moon briefly plough off.

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Source: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/how-to/neon-glow-effect.html

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