LightFlow Project

Recently I have been doing an introduction to special effects project in After Effects.
The project I selected to begin was a light flow. A light flow is when there is a light behind an object or phrase that illuminates it as a shadow.
This effect is easiest to use in Adobe After Effects, so this was my program of choice.
There were many different parts to keep up with, but the most difficult part was definitely keyframing the shot to make it look clean and smooth. Thankfully, though, I didn't have to nix the tutorial and I was able to just move through from my last save, so I restarted keyframing itself a time or two, but never the entire project.
My favorite part was overlaying a music track on top of it to really give the entire project a kick.
I can use everything in this tutorial later, especially for intros. Any introduction or logo can be given the gloomy/baroque look to it, so I'll definitely be able to reuse everything I learned.
I had so much fun with this tutorial, and I can't wait to mix and match parts with others.
I am so proud of my final result, so I can easily look back in hindsight with satisfaction and pride.
To do this yourself, go to http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/advanced_3d_light_rays/ and follow the tutorial.
Another fun part of the project was looking back and watching how much progress was made as well as how many different parts were incorporated.
It begins with a simple phrase, so I chose to use my "production" name: Lewis Productions.

Of course, once completed, it requires to be on top of a layer to begin the 3D transformation. So, I simply made a new plane, enabled the 3D feature, and flipped it horizontally. Once that was done, I found it necessary to lower the plane a bit to capture the 3D effect.

 Once I got the plane in there, it was all little things until I got to the good part: movement editing. A timeline can be pretty intimidating and stressful the first time you use them, but if you take it all one step at a time, it's no big deal at all. The first thing you want to do is to look at what you have prior to any keyframing and time editing. In all simplicity, this is what I had.

You'll notice a few big differences, there's a background now and a shadow effect, but you'll also notice how much harder it is to read.  So you must go back in and add a light (and a hue to such light if you so choose).

 A few key changes include the big blue light behind the letters. Now, it doesn't look like much, but the process is only so far completed. The next step, the most noticeable, places a fractal noise in the production. A fractal noise is like a smoke that fills up a layer in the file. Think of it like a computerized smoke machine. This was the most difficult part what with adding different curves in the color, but the most rewarding in the final steps. 

Now we can begin the fun part: adding keyframes and bringing this 2D picture to a 3D opener.

All you have to start with is adding a new camera, and then you just swing the camera from one side to the other using keyframes and the top view. The camera is the little pink box towards the bottom of the pictures. 

 This allows for the following production to be made:

When this was, done, I figured I wanted some music involved to really bring it out and and to the effect, so I brought the file into Photoshop and dragged the music onto the video. This was the final result.

Music Provided by Three Days Grace and RCA Records