Most of the time it is the best practice to manually control the lights in your After Effects scenes. There are situations however, when you may want to automate the dynamic changes in light color and intensity while maintaining high level of control over the look of your composition. That’s what the Automated Light Rig is all about.
In this tutorial I will show you how to link your lights with automated samplers on an image map, creating an ever-changing, yet unified, light rig. While the tutorial explains the expressions in depth, I am also providing you with presets simplifying the entire process into just few clicks.
As a little extra, I will also show you how to create a 3D light-aware smoke using Trapcode Particular (my method is a bit more involved than the standard Particular setup, but produces results that are much more true to life).
Music used in the trailer comes from Mr. Oizo’s Fiat 55 from the album Analog Worms Attack.
Running time: 45min
Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Required tools: After Effects
Optional plug-ins: Trapcode Particular
Preview video:
Tutorial:
Download the files associated with this tutorial below:
- Automated Light Rig Preset
(After Effects CS3 and above)
Localized for US English
http://downloads.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_LightRig_Preset.zip - Project File
(includes Automated Light Rig project, presets, demo project and other assets)
http://downloads.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_LightRig.zip - Tutorial (82MB MP4)
http://video.qubahq.com/tutorials/QubaHQ_LightRig.mp4
You may also download the tutorial from its Vimeo page. The preview video can also be watched on YouTube.
I have to apologize for a rather flat and non-energetic narration in this tutorial. I’ve had an absolutely nightmarish week and until the very last moment, wasn’t even sure if I will be recording any tutorials this weekend. If your attention span has a low threshold for monotonous voice-overs, here’s a little game you can play: count how many times in the entire tutorial have I used the word basically and post your answer in the comments (just a little habit of mine I noticed while editing this video). Enjoy!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Great, thanks friend, seri tutorials new very goooood……
thanks share
Great presets, dude … and clear explanation … thanks a lot !
Well, i had to translate some expressions into german to get it working, but finally i have my german presets ready ;)
Keep up that great teaching !
PS: Don´t know why you do this, but in the setup of “Optical Flares” you can just “solo” the glow…instead of having to click “hide” for every effect.
[…] after effects automated light rig tutorial By lesterbanks | Published: June 14, 2010 Quba is back with a tutorial and a preset on creating an automated light rig in after effects. He also provides a preset for what is created in the tutorial. Watch at QubaHQ. […]
Great tutorial very interactive!, it can be even better if you consider doing more work for the reflection, right now is more like a” mirror like reflection”,but since the comp is so interactive the reflection has to be interactive as well.(the smoke has wind and gravity but the reflection is like sitting on a mirror surface you need to take in consideration the lights to create shadows)
You can make some expression like “Look at the light – measure height and position = reflection”, then make some sliders to control the distortion, opacity, blur, etc. If you can do this your preset will be A great preset,(more like a great plug in)
one more thing:if you could make your tutorials exactly as your preview this will set you apart from the rest.
Your tutorials are kind of advance and different as it is …all The tutorials sites do the same thing , they show a great preview but the tutorial is all ways something more simpler, this is a great letdown for somebody new to AF. You can make the difference. Thank you and great work..muuooahh!
Ic3m4n:
There is a very good reason for clicking all the “hide” buttons, instead of “solo”… err… I did not think about it. Yea, that’s it :) Thanks for bringing my attention to that – next time it will be much simpler :)
Martin:
My goal with the tutorials is to teach you guys a technique, rather than show you step-by-step instructions on how to copy something I made. I strongly believe each AE user should explore the possibilities on their own – and I just help out by providing some tools.
I understand that each AE user needs to learn and make they’re own content,I just saying that it will be more help full if you teach how to do the full ting . I know is lots of work. but you are doing it because you want to help and also u want the attention of most AE users.
we all love the VC products and tutorials, it will be nice if ,there was another website with different content than VC, like yours but with the goal to be better than VC ..and u are kind of that guy. mey be you will get as much hits as VC tuts,.
I understand your point. this is just a suggestion, and I appreciate your tuts thank you.”.no reply is necessary just do what you think is best..”
No worries, Martin…
By the way – if you start with this tutorial, and then follow the camera steps on the 100% accurate reflections tutorial, you should come pretty close to the demo :)
QUIERE MAS TUTORIALS QUBA !!! need some more koo tutorials man!
[…] – a long-delayed new tutorial from the June series. It’s been around 6 weeks since the previous tutorial, but I have been incredibly busy building a new kick-ass hi-tech intro for the tutorials… No. […]
Having a problem installing presets can anyone assist me with install,
Leon:
What seems to be the problem? As long as you follow instructions.txt file that’s inside the zip you should be all fine.
If you are still having problems, please elaborate. Also, which version of AE are you using, which language version and what system are you running?
love your tutorial.expecting your new tutorialï¼
O(∩_∩)O谢谢
[…] in June 2010, this tutorial concludes the four-part series including: 100% Accurate Reflections, Automated Light Rig and Light […]
[0=0] !!
[…] here – a long-delayed new tutorial from the June series. It’s been around 6 weeks since the previous tutorial, but I have been incredibly busy building a new kick-ass hi-tech intro for the tutorials… No. Not […]