There is so many ways to create a glow effects in After Effects, in this post I will share what I have learned over the years, I will go over how to create multiple glow effects in After Effects using different methods. Whether you are a newbie or advanced in motion graphics these info should help you move your composition to a another level.
My objective here to show you how to make amazing radiant glows with different method, in addition I will share a bunch of example with the project files, so you can use them, try them out and make it even better! By the end of this post you should have a better understanding on how glow effects works and which plug in work best for your budget and need.
Below the section overview so you can jump straight to the info you need.
The default glow effects in After Effects
Out of the box After effects come with standard glow effects that are basic and useful when you quickly need to create a glowing effect.
Let’s go over the different glow option that After effects provide.
Layer Style – Outer Glow
In After Effects you can find the outer glow in Layer Tab > Layer Style > Outer Glow
The outer glow can be used on layers, composition, footage.
Layer Style – Inner Glow
In After Effects you can find the inner glow in Layer Tab > Layer Style >Inner Glow
Keep in mind to make a more realistic glow effects you both need an outer glow and an inner glow.
Stylize – Glow
This standard glow effects that is the most used when you don’t have other plugin.
You can find it fast in the Effects & Presets panel or top bar Effect > Stylize > Glow
Image Creative – Dimension – Glow+Shadow
Another effect you can use to produce multiple glows behind your layer is Dimension Glow + Shadow, you can find it in the Effects & Presets panel under Image-Creative. See screenshot below.
Basically dimension glow+shadow use a set of 3 drop shadow to create a glow effect.
How to make a neon sign in after effects
In a few bullet points I will show you a simple way to create a neon sign in After Effects using the default glow effect, the final result image below.
- Open After Effects
- Create a new Composition 1920×1080
- Import your image background and drag it into the timeline
- Create your text and make it outline by clicking on the stroke Color (screenshot below)
- Add a bevel alpha effect to the text, you can find it in the Presets & Effects panel.
- Add the a glow effects to your text, type glow in the Effects&Presets panel to find it.
Make sure you used the same settings as below such as:
Glow Threshold: 63%
Glow radium: 17
Glow Intensity: 3.6
- Add Another Glow effects,
This time let’s bump up the glow radius so it look the sign is glowing further behind, check the setting below
- Congrats your glow is completed.
Want to play with my glow effects project? you can download the free neon sign After Effect project here
The best plug-in to create glow effects.
After Effects standard glow effects are ok but honestly there is a lack of option and it can be time consuming to get good glow effects. With Plug-in on the other hand you can make a glow effect much faster with a much more believable and photo realistic style.
Below is a list of my favorite “glow plugins”
Universe Glow | Redgiant
The universe glow plugin provide some key features to create a customized glow on your images and footages. You can soften the bright area of an image, isolate specific colors and channels and apply your glow to a specific color. You can also use the color aberration to create glow that feels more natural. With Universe Glow you can also control the saturation, tint and quality of the color aberrations. In addition there is customizable presets that are ready to use and adjust to your own need.
Universe Glow provide 7 options of glow: Chromatic Glow, Edge Glow, Glimmer, Glo Fi, Glow, Point Zoom and Quantum.
In each 7 option I just mentioned you will find a bunch of presets, see video below:
Also a good video tutorial to familiarize yourself with Universe Glow, it goes in depth on how to apply a glow on a night time image and how to manage your glow intensity and channels.
If you want to know more on Universe Glow feel free to visit the website here
Optical Glow | Redgiant
Optical Glow is a fast photo-realistic glow effect plug in use in professional visual effects and motion graphics.
It produce high quality glow, Optical Glow is only available as part of the VFX Suite at Maxon.
Below a video tutorial for Optical glow which should give you an idea of how powerful this plug in can be.
Deep glow | AEscript
Deep glow is another great plug in that provide a lot of features to make great glowing animation. It has intuitive compositing controls to refine your glow results. Checking the effects control image below you can see that deep glow core feature has Glow aspect ratio, Chromatic Aberration, Blur quality controls, Tint options and blending modes to add color to your glow and Dithering controls to reduce color-banding artifacts.
To have a better understanding of what the deep glow plugin is capable of, I recommend watching the video below
You can try the plug in before you purchase the Deep Glow plug-in here the cost is $50
SABER | Video Copilot
Saber is one of the best free plug in to create amazing glow effects, it come with 50 presets where in one click you can create a fire glow, electric glow, neon glow, pulse glow, energy glow… Saber also have plenty of options to customize your glow effects such as flicker, glow distortion.
Below a tutorial video to learn how to handle the glow effects
You can download for free the SABER plug in here
Starglow | Redgiant Trapcode
Starglow allows you to create multi pointed glowing stars on a layer, image or video. It uses the brightness of your layer and define where to integrate glowing stars.
If you want to know more about Starglow here a good video tutorial.
Here is the link if you want to know more about starglow
After effects Flicker Expression with a Glow Effect
There is 2 expression you can use to produce a flickering glow effects in After Effects.
Here is the first one, which flicker randomly. On your glow intensity property add this expression
wiggle(100,.5)
The first wiggle number is the speed on how fast you want your flicker blinks.
The second number is the Value meaning how intense the glow should be.
See screenshot below
Here is the project file with the wiggle flicker expression
The other expression you can use that is more linear is the one below
value+Math.sin(time*x)*y
same process add it to your glow intensity you will see the glow flickering in a linear fashion.
The number in for x to change the speed, how fast the glow oscillates and the number for y change for much the glow increases and decreases in strength.
Free Glow Effects Gallery
Now come the exiting part of this post I have created a bunch of glow effects example below, before you download any of the glow After Effects source file, make sure you have the SABER plug in installed you can download it here for free.
In conclusion glow effects in After Effects get a better result from plug-in than the default AE glow already installed. Because plug in have more controls and effects are optimized you can get closer to a photo realistic glow.
Hope this beautiful glowing effects post was able to guide you in the right direction 🙂 Please drop a comment I am always happy to hear from you! Thank you
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