Quba HQ

If the playback of the tutorial stops at the end of the intro, just let it pre-load a bit more and it should play fine. Otherwise simply download the tutorial and watch it locally.

It seems that white noise plays tricks with MP4 compression.

There is also something funky happening to the audio of the tutorial (too much treble) – I will try to fix the sound and re-up the better quality version soon.

awesome tutorial, thanks for sharing your knowledge, greetings from Argentina

So cool tut dude ! Thank You !

love the intro!

[...] | Published: August 3, 2010 QubaHQ is back with another tutorial and preset, this time the after effects and trapcode particular LightWall tutorial and preset uses an animated image map to control particle [...]

Thx for this great tutorial!
But how can i do with Maya?

Wowwwww. Hi my friend, tuts new verygoodddddddddddd
thanks for share

Hey everyone, thanks for lots of positive feedback :)

Riko:
I’m sorry, but I haven’t used Maya in many years now, and I honestly don’t know how to seed an element on a surface. Perhaps some of the readers could help? All I could dig up was this: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/modeling/poly-tools/c/dupliverts. It is a MEL script that seeds selected object(s) onto the vertices of a target object. Not the same as polygon center, but all you need to change is make your solid divisions lower by one (9×7 in case of this tutorial).

If anyone knows a better method, just post it in comments, I can even record a supplement to the tutorial for the Maya users (just don’t ask for 3D Max – I don’t use it)

[...] and the tutorial. The difficulty is Beginner to Advanced and is 70 min aprox long. So check it out here and enjoy with your After [...]

Thank you for this cool stuff and for the inspiration…
And by the way… what a crazy orchestra at the begining :-)

awesome awesome tutorial! I’m looking for a plugin similar to Optical Flares where I can set the flare to the light path. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Elaine:
To my best knowledge, there are three major players when it comes to visualizing lights in AE:

1. Video Copilot Optical Flares ($125)
http://www.videocopilot.net/products/opticalflares/

2. Knoll Light Factory Pro ($400)
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/knoll-light-factory-pro/

3. Trapcode Lux ($199)
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/trapcode-lux/

You can pretty much forget about Lux. While Trapcode produces tons of great plug-ins, this is not one of them. At $200 it is also way overpriced for a relatively small feature set.

Before VCOP came out, I used KLFP for all my flare needs. It has served me well, but the plug-in is definitely showing signs of aging. Outdated interface, buggy performance and user-unfriendly flare building system will push you to rely on the built-in presets, which are not impressive at all, except for maybe 2 or 3. At the price point of $400, it is an expensive choice, not really justified unless you have old projects that require this plug-in. 99% of the users of KLFP run it for one preset only: Chromatic Lens 2, but I already rebuilt it as a preset for VCOP – free from here.

VCOP is cheap ($125, damn!) and versatile. It performs great, keeps getting updates (just the other week it got motion blur) and best of all – offers a friendly interface easy for a beginner, but sophisticated enough for any pro.

[...] Visit Tutorial [...]

hi cool tut but i can’t use it in afer effects cs5 german version. I get an error message for all light layers:

After Effects warning: class ‘Effect’ has no property or method with the name ‘Layer’ (Ebene) Expression disabled.

Error in Line 2
Komp.: ‘Komp1′ //Comp
Ebene: 2 (‘Light 0′) //Ebene = Layer
Eigenschaft: ‘Farbe’ // Eigenschaft: ‘Farbe’ = property: ‘color’

Hope i translated that correctly
note everything behind // is translatd by me.

Any Ideas how to fix that?
Please help me.
THX in advance.
Marc

thank you so much! I think I’m going to go with Optical Flares, it seems to be the best that’s out there. and I’m still impressed with this tutorial! it’s awesome!

Marc:
yes, my expressions are written in English version of AE and don’t work on any other language. I remember people having the same problem with the SplatterType preset. There are quite a few comments regarding localization in the comments of that tutorial.

Try using the TranslateExpressions 2.0 script from here: http://www.motion-graphics-exchange.com/after-effects/TranslateExpressions-2.0/4997cf5f52a49 – I never tried it, but heard good things about it.

[...] Visit Tutorial [...]

[...] Visit Tutorial [...]

hey thank you so much. it works fine. was a little tricky cause i did not found a manual. however it works really good.

[...] Visit Tutorial [...]

Hi, great tut thanks a lot!!

By the way, I really want to know, what the name of the “song” at the start is?

Nathanael:
The music I used in the titles is an extremely poor rendition of Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra I found on YouTube (link is in the main post.

The original music is most likely best know through its usage as the main theme of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey.

[...] bisa download AE Projectnya disini….untuk lebih jelas tentang tutorialnya langsung aja ke http://qubahq.com/2010/08/tutorialpreset-light-wall/ joy [...]

[...] Visit Tutorial [...]

Ohh, the video server is so slow..what a pitty.
I need to skip it, and go foward straigh to the project files.

francoe:
Must be something with the traffic routing between you and my host. It’s playing just fine from here – around 10 seconds of buffering and then uninterrupted playback.

Why don’t you try downloading the MP4 file of the video – I really don’t think the project files will be of much use to you without the tutorial.

[...] Quba Michalski elaborou um tutorial para After Effects (e um preset!), onde cria um belíssimo efeito com luzes (e um pouco de Cinema 4D). Vale a pena! [...]

Hi,
I have a reaaally strange glitch here…
I am using CS4 and after I end the lights lyres they are still active…
I mean when I make a row of lights and trim down the layers of old lights and add all the needed code and presets to the new control layers. The row animates as it should but the lights which were there before still shows up even if they are no longer on the time line…
Is my PC haunted or what? xD

Povilas:
You’re using Video Copilot’s Optical Flares, right?

The plugin is coded in a weird way – it continues reading the lights even if their layers are trimmed in the timeline.

the way around it is to name your lights properly. For the first group name them “A Light 1″, “A Light 2″ etc, and for the second “B Light 1″, “B Light 2″ and so on.

You will then be able to set VCOF to only read the lights with the name beginning with “A” for one set and “B” for the other.

I had the same problem when developing this effect, and that’s how I solved it.

Good luck and let me know if it worked out for you.

i gotta a problem and i need help, just the 0 light is working and i dont know what to do. ….

i fix it :)
thank you very much for you time to do this tutorial thank you

Hi,Quba!
I work in AE and compositing for quite a few years and saw, I believe, quite a few thousands(!) of tutorials and I have to say, that your tutorials are spectacular!
They are original,very nice built, advanced user orientated.
Seriously,you’re very good.You have a private email?I’d like to contact you directly.

Andre Friedman(DarkRoom)

[email removed to protect you from spam :: Quba]

Thank you for this wonderful sharing of knowledge.

dude thank you very much for this tutorial, ive always wanted to pull this stuff off. im now downloading but i already know im gonna learn alot. besides just doing this.
thank you again
greetings from Guyana

Love the tutorials, can’t wait for you to make more.

I’m having some issues with After Effects Open_GL while trying to preview the build. If I try to scrub AE locks up and gives me an Open_GL warning before crashing. Any thoughts? I’m running AECS5, doing the light rig wall with no particles but Optical Flares enabled and my rig is 15 wide by 8 tall.

Keep the tutorials coming Quba, you rock!

You need a really beefy video/graphics card in order to use OpenGL with the rig as heavy as this. I usually disable OpenGL when I do lights and flares. Well, that is until I get the new rig (coming soon).

Try turning OpenGL off in preferences (as well as in Optical Flares) and see if this helps.

Good luck and thanks :)

I very very like your tutorial ！I think it’s batter than videocopilot and more

Hi, could it be that this project is not suitable for AE CS5?

I tried it but your light wall controller preset looks different than in the tut, for example, I can only select Animation Preset in light map, the rest (map blur, rig size etc) gives me no option at all and it doesn’t seem to do anything at all.

The project is CS3, CS4 and CS5 compatible. I have had a lot of people contact me after successful animation :)

All I can say is – watch the tutorial again, carefully, and pay close attention to the order in which all the actions need to be performed. Since it is just a preset and not a plugin, it is prone to errors if not applied in correct order.

Also, it will only work on the English version of AE, as I did not have a chance to localize it for other languages.

Great Tutorials Quba..thanks so much.

I’m an experienced AE user but for some reason I can’t get the “Light Map” layer to behave properly when i adapt it to an HD comp. It seems the light map isn’t scaled properly and is repeated many times.

30 lights wide x 7 lights tall
1920×1080 Comp size

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5983499/Projects/test-light_rig.aep.zip

If anyone can help at all i’d greatly appreciate it. The posted project is stripped down to only the light wall to showcase the issue.

Thanks!
josh

It’s been ages since I’ve done that tutorial and quite honestly I forgot a lot of the setup procedures, but after opening your AE file, I see that your lights are ordered incorrectly. Light0 is the column1-row1, but the Light1 is in column1-row2 etc. In other words you fill columns (vertical) first and then go to the next row.

What you need to do is fill the first row and then jump into the next one.

WRONG:
1 4 7
2 5 8
3 6 9

RIGHT:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

If you change your Rig Size from 30,7 to 7,30 you will start seeing your map emerging (only that it will be stretched, mirrored and flipped by 90degrees due to the wrong light order).

Thanks a lot Quba. I really appreciate that you took a look at the project file.

I stacked hte lights in the proper order (without correcting layer names) and all was good.

thanks!

Hello,

First off, your tutorial is amazing and thank you for making it. However, I am having a problem getting the smoke emitters to work. I have followed the tutorial to a tee and have made the vertical bars. But, instead of the light wall following the emitters path, it still follows the 10×8 lights, even though I have the lights end at the 5 second mark. It is strange that this is happening. Do you have any idea what its going on? Thanks

Hey Dan,

I’m sorry but it’s been quite a while since I released this tutorial and I honestly don’t think I remember how the whole thing was set up (I usually do all my vfx from scratch for each project).

I also had a major hdd crash since I recorded the thing so I don’t really have any files besides what can be downloaded from this site.

My guess is that it has something to do with layer naming in expressions – try to see if the smoke emitters link to the correct map… maybe… damn… I really don’t know.

If you cannot solve it using the stuff available here, drop me a mail (check the “about” page) with the project file and if I find a bit of spare time, I’ll try to figure it out.

[...] Originally planned to be released in June 2010, this tutorial concludes the four-part series including: 100% Accurate Reflections, Automated Light Rig and Light Wall. [...]

Hi,
I used this tutu and created a video for my good friend who is a DJ. I added some math to all the nice visual effects you can check out the result here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G89kel5uEXs

Hi
after i add the light map all the light working i can’t read the text

http://img683.imageshack.us/f/captureqj.png/

You probably set the map incorrectly or are using a font that’s too thick. I recommend you watch that part of the tutorial again and verify all the steps.

Thanks a lot Quba
:)

Hi Again… :)
the preset
QubaHQ_LightWall_Smoke.ffx
make me AE CS5 hinge minutes.
i doin no why.!?
i’m using computer win7 64x
this is my CUP info…..
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E7300 @ 2.66GHz
Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Gaming graphics: 2431 MB Total available graphics memory

make me AE CS5 hinge for minutes.

Sorry mate, but what you are saying isn’t even coherent. Are you using some sort of automated translator?

looooooolz
sorry quba for my bad english
anyway problem solve…

Hey Quba,

Just recently came across your site, love your work and your presets, thanks so much for all your dedication to the Motion Graphics community!

So I’m playing around with your light rig here, but I’m having some issues. The animated text layer I’m using as the image map isn’t appearing correctly in the lights. I can sooort of see the letters now and then, but mostly it looks like the lights just jump around kind of randomly instead of revealing the correct text. I’m wondering, does this have to do with the position of the lights? All the lights are named accordingly, stacked correctly, in the correct row order, under the light controller layer, etc. However, I arranged them in AE, since I don’t use Cinema4D. Do the lights HAVE to be spaced equally apart in all respects, as they are when you created them in C4D for your tutorial? I don’t think it’s a problem with the font I’m using being too fat or anything like that. I will play around with it a bit more, but any advice would be great!

I could send you the project file as well if you are totally baffled by this as well. Thanks!

Hey Groove!

There are a few common problems with the light wall that can be hard to spot:

1. The grid size in the controller may be set in opposite order (should be X,Y but maybe you made it Y,X)

2. The lights being stacked in a wrong order (check them again, please). Most commonly people either do:

1 4 7
2 5 8 <— columns first (wrong)
3 6 9

or

1 2 3
6 5 4 <— zig-zag (wrong)
7 8 9

They HAVE TO be:

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

Try testing the order in which the light light up by animating a solid rectangle passing horizontally through the map. You may be able to spot the pattern in there.

If the rectangle yields correct results, but the text is still unreadable, play with the map blur (I think that’s what the controller was called, maybe it was sample radius) or pick a thicker typeface.

Hopefully that will help, good luck!

Hey Quba,

So I went back and really took a look at the order of the lights, and indeed it was AAAAALL mixed up. After Effects has a really stupid way of duplicating objects and switching the order of things. In any case, once I got the order correct, everything works fine! Thanks!

You can check out the animation I used the presets in at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZd3YmOcCZo

I even gave you some props in the comment section ^_^

Hello mr Quba,
Thank a lot for your amazing work !
you are precious !
thanks alot

i looked at for translate or understand the error expression in line2 “layer”

He Quba.

Thanks for your tutorials, they are great!
I have a question. I’m pretty new to after effects but would like to apply the lights to go with beats of songs. I saw a videocopilot tutorial on getting particles to vibe with the highs and lows of a music track. Would you know how to apply expressions for your light settings? It would be great to use.
Thanks.

There is a bunch of ways of applying audio to the rig… hard to really give you a simple answer.

Two simplest ways would be to convert audio to keyframes and then:

1. Create a black solid on top of your image map and link up its opacity to the audio keyframes (all lights would shine in sync with music)

2. Create a matte for the image map (can be a simple solid with a “hole” made with a mask) and then link it’s position or rotation to the audio (depending on the audio volume, different sections of the wall would light up).

Thanks for the reply:

Thanks to you, this is what I made:
http://www.vimeo.com/21208379

Hi Quba Michalski,
thank you so much for your nice tuttorials.
I’ve learned manything from its.
By, the way, where we can find sky background images like you have man?
thank you for everything ;)
keep on going ;)

Hello Quba Michalski!
thanks for your amazing tuto but i have got just a problem about the light wall controller preset , it doesn’t work :(

CS5 Mac osx

@wesley If you are using French version of After Effects, the preset will not work, as it has been localized only for English version. Google translating after effects expressions – if I recall correctly, there was a script that did it.

If you AE is in English, then you must be doing something wrong. So far I had around 10 people contact me with “preset errors” and each time it turned out to be them missing a step in the instructions. Also check the comments above – maybe your problem is similar to what you’re experiencing?

Good luck!

Hey Kuba,
przetlumaczyc ci ten Preset na niemiecki AFX?
Pozdrawiam

General, spoko – bardzo chetnie wypuszcze update z dodatkowym tlumaczeniem. Z gory dziekuje.

Love the tutorial. Just had a question about it. I recall you saying that it was possible to do this entirely in AE and it says that the Optical Flares plugin is optional. I’m not sure if I missed it in the tutorial somewhere but is there a way to get the same effect without using Optical Flare and using something that’s native to AE?