Assignment 2 - Illuminating Light Painting

This is a tricky effect to do because I do not have the "Particular" effect and if I use a trial version, there will probably have a watermark or X mark which will not look nice. Thus, I have used the CC Particle Systems II effect and I tried to create a similar effect/look. I am quite satisfied with the result and it looks like Zhen Hong (the actor) is casting a spell as the light is following the wand/pen that he is swinging.

The Particular effect and CC Particle Systems II effect have different effects control. From the tutorial, I have to parent the "Position XY" to the null object(finger track) which was not found in the effects control for CC Particle Systems II so instead, I have parent the "Position" to the null object.

For the position of the null object(finger track), I have dragged/shift all the keyframes forward by 1 frame because the light did not really follow the finger but appears after the finger have move to the next position.

I have changed the displacement of the turbulent displace effect to "Turbulent smooth" instead of "Turbulent" (from the tutorial). This is because the CC Particle Systems II effect does not show the effect/line smooth like the Particulars effect.

Displacement: Turbulent

Displacement: Turbulent Smooth (what I have used)

I was also once stuck when creating the glow for quite long but after that I found out that the visibility of the black solid at the bottom was not on. So the black solid is actually connected to all the other layers and if I turn the visibility off, I will not be able to see the particle effect.

Tutorial link: http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/vfx/create-an-illuminating-light-painting-effect/

Steps (what I did):
1. Layer> New> Solid.
2. Go to Effect> Simulation> CC Particle Systems II.
3. Layer> New> Null Object.
4. Alt + click on position, delete away the expression.
5. Click and drag the circle or parenting icon and drag it to the "position"(hit "p" to reveal it) of the null object.
6. Set keyframe by clicking on the stopwatch beside "position" of the null object (finger track).
7. Re-position the null object so that the edge of the null object follows the finger (frame by frame).
8. In the effects control,

• Gravity to "0"
• Velocity to "0"
• Longevity to "0.3"
• Change the birth rate to "1000"
• Radius X and Radius Y to "0.1"
• Size variation to "20%"
• Birth size and death size to "0.1"
  
• opacity to "25"
  

To create glow:
9. Duplicate "finger track" layer select it with the "particles" layer and pre-compose.
10. Go to layer> new> solid to create a new solid layer (choose black color), place the layer at the bottom.
11. Create a new adjustment layer, Layer> New> Adjustment Layer.
12. Apply fast blur effect for the adjustment layer (Effect> Blur & Sharpen> Fast Blur) and set the bluriness to "5".
13. Change layer mode to "screen".
14. Duplicate for 3 more adjustment layers and change bluriness of:

• 2nd layer to "20"
• 3rd layer to "40"
• 4th layer to "200"

15. Go back to main composition.
16. For the lightswirl pre-comp, change mode to "add".
17. Hit "T" to reveal opacity and change it to "80".

18. Go back to pre-comp.
19. Select particles layer, apply turbulent displace effect.
20. Change displacement to "Turbulent smooth" and reduce the size, amount to about "30".
21. Select the particles layer, hit "T" to reveal the opacity and set keyframe for the opacity so that the light painting will disappear/fade out (at last frame, change opacity to "0").

22. Create a white solid layer, Layer> New> Solid.
23. Use eclipse tool, at the start point, hold shift and drag to create a circle.
24. Change the mask feather to "10".
25. Reduce mask expansion.
26. Duplicate another layer, feather to "2", expansion to "-2".
27. Apply motion blur for both layer, and also change mode to add.
28. Parent both layer to finger track layer.