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Flashlight Titles

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Flashlight TitlesTrapcode Lux, Shine, Starglow, and my CE PixelSampler. See what you can do with this amazing combo and learn to create this cool title sequence.

I’m not really a fan of installing plugins. I believe that After Effects provides all tools required to complete any given task, but if there is something that you could do better and easier, it’s with the Trapcode plugins. And no… I’m not getting payed to tell you that.

This title sequence was created loooong time ago and I was thinking about recording this tutorial ever since, so I’m glad I finally found some time to do it. The original project file that was created when I was working on that title sequence is far to complex to be fully covered in this tutorial, so I focused on the main idea behind this technique. Luckily for you I’ve attached the original project file, so after watching the tutorial you can go in-depth on what I did.

The main difference is in the amount of layers used, but like I said - the idea behind all expressions and everything else is the same. It takes a lot of time to set the effects just right, and I simply didn’t want to waste your time on moving the sliders around.

The font used in this tutorial is called Viper Nora. If you want you can download it from DaFont.com. Click here.

Download project file: FlashlightText.zip (After Effects CS3 Professional)

27 Responses to “Flashlight Titles”

  1. Yay, a new tutorial! Cool stuff.

    Mike said this April 23rd, 2008 at 22:41

  2. Thanks for your great tut!
    by the way,you are one of the best AE user i’ve ever known, best wishes frome china :)

    thingkingPoly said this April 24th, 2008 at 3:33

  3. Georage your are best buddy….!!!!! nice title effects…. amazing by using this we can nice titles…. and logos effects….

    your CEs are awesome….!!! :)

    umairvfx said this April 24th, 2008 at 5:44

  4. Youah !! i love you’re tuto !! thank’s

    R-max said this April 24th, 2008 at 7:34

  5. Nice one :)

    Shame the pixelsampler does’nt work in 7.0 Pro :(

    Shkaa887 said this April 24th, 2008 at 8:19

  6. There are always keyframes you can use. He he he. ;)

    Maltaannon said this April 24th, 2008 at 9:00

  7. :)

    Shkaa887 said this April 24th, 2008 at 9:37

  8. I had a problem with the AE file. Says “Project contain 5 references to missing effects, starglow, shine, lux + missing font” Are these extra plug-ins or should I have them with my basic CS3 install?

    Thanks for the tutorial!

    Sebastien said this April 24th, 2008 at 15:26

  9. The plugins are part of the Trapcode family and they do not come with the basic CS3 package.
    Trapcode website: http://www.trapcode.com/
    Starglow: $99
    Shine: $99
    Lux: $199

    Matthew said this April 24th, 2008 at 16:15

  10. thank’s Maltaannon
    it’s agreat tutorial .
    i’m very happy because you come back with amazing tutorials
    thank’s
    keep going

    khaled said this April 24th, 2008 at 17:41

  11. Welcome back!
    And at the beginning of the tutorial I thought you turned into someone else who makes tutorials o the web ahahah
    Where is your alter ago?

    Mazzimiliano said this April 24th, 2008 at 20:17

  12. oh my Genius-M, u r superb. I got lost in the midway with the expressions but then after watching it several times I got into track. Mind Blowing EFX, Really Cool!

    Thnx Genius-M, ur the one expression JUNKIE ….. hehehheh

    Superb TUTORIAL, keep them coming.

    Mark said this April 26th, 2008 at 6:03

  13. Great stuff as usual, a bit mind boggling, but I love when there’s something wrong in the expression and you go “ah, of course…”! You could be Europe’s own Dan Ebberts.
    Thanx!

    Urt said this April 26th, 2008 at 17:42

  14. Thank you so much for this tutorial, it helped me out a lot!!

    Vinnie said this April 26th, 2008 at 21:27

  15. Hi!! I cannot find the font you used? Can anybody help me out?

    j.spank@upcmail.nl

    Thanxxx

    rob said this April 27th, 2008 at 11:29

  16. so nice one
    keep on it

    mostafa said this April 27th, 2008 at 15:09

  17. The font is called Viper Nora. It’s a freeware font. You can find it on dafont.com I think.

    Maltaannon said this April 27th, 2008 at 15:11

  18. [...] network is Maltaanon.com. Check out his two newest AE video tutorials: Growing 3D Vines and Flashlight Titles. They are really [...]

    aefreemart : Maltaanon.com Tutorials said this April 29th, 2008 at 21:48

  19. very nice tutorial, gives a good insight into expression combined with lux and starglow, perfect. the results are cool and can be used in like to many things. thanxs for sharing this one Maltaanon.

    Ultimate Bart said this May 10th, 2008 at 9:23

  20. I’ve been trying to replace the text layer with a PSD file and I get this error: After Effects error: layer does not have a source. 26:335. Any clues?

    Amitzi said this May 11th, 2008 at 17:04

  21. It’s exactly what it says. You simply cannot replace a Text layer with a footage. Footages, compositions, and every other object other than Shape Layer and Text Layer do not have a source property - meaning there is nothing in the Project panel that relates to the layer, so there’s nothing to be replaced when you Alt-Drag your PSD to the Text Layer. If you want to do it, you can first precompose the Text Layer, or just delete it and put your PSD file in it’s place. Remember that you will have to relink the PixelSampler to the new layer, and maybe set some other things up that were related to the original Text Layer.

    I hope that helps. Good luck!

    Maltaannon said this May 11th, 2008 at 18:13

  22. I first time install the preset,and got this problem.Whatever I installed,like 3Dextrude or PixelSampler,got the same error prompt:
    After effects warning: Undefined value used in expression.Could be an out of range array subscript?
    expression disabled.

    error occurred at line 0;
    Comp:”Comp 1″
    layer:…..
    Property:’Reference Point’

    My AE CS3;
    Windows OS;

    Johnbaby said this May 19th, 2008 at 4:51

  23. [...] • 22 Comments [...]

    TGD said this May 26th, 2008 at 20:39

  24. You do great work Jerry, are you a freelancer?

    WebMaster Wayne said this June 9th, 2008 at 14:40

  25. I run my own company. Details: http://maltaannon.com/about/

    Maltaannon said this June 9th, 2008 at 14:57

  26. man u can post in after fx 7?
    i have the trapcode in 7, i can use the same on cs3?

    exarock said this June 12th, 2008 at 0:09

  27. Very cool! First time I’ve actually used my Lux plug in! Thanks for the tutorial!

    Melissa said this June 22nd, 2008 at 0:14

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