Sweeping light effect

I am making a movie abot lighthouses. I need a sweeping light typical for light houses. The lighthouses are of different siizes and different distans. I would be gratefull if somone could suggest a plugin. Motion is to difficult for me for such task.

Motion is easy to learn and use if you take a course like at Ripple Training. And it is the software you need to do that sort of effect. You're not going to pull it off very well inside FCPX. You could, but you need to build a mask, keyframe it to change appropriately, and have it show some white like (a white generator) through only it's "light beam" section. That's going to be some serious work. You want to apply this to photos or actual video clips?

sort-of …?



Nice idea for a Motion-project … slammed together in a few minutes (forgive me some imperfections), for a start of your own Motion project.

after DL and unzip, drag folder into your ~/Movies/Motion Templates/Generators folder.
On next launch of FCPX, you should notice in the GenTab a 'ks_LightHouse'…

Drag to your project timeline gives:



the OSC allows to drag the source-point wherever you like. Set in the Inspector/Composition to SCREEN

The published parameters allow to tweak a few 'effects', tried to gave 'self-explanatory' names … Speed of rotation could be adjusted by length of generator, or by adjusting 'Rate' (use multiplies of 90 to make it loop), Z-endpoint defines length of beam …



… just try …
Hope you like it …

Thank you so much both of you. So the best option to dig in Motion. Karsten thank you for this tutorial, it seems not so difficult. You saved me by sending to me the generator

Makki wrote: … it seems not so difficult. …

hmm, well … no first-steps.project, I'd say, but using blurred replicators to mimic Volumetrics is indeed a 'common' technique …

Haven't published it in our plugin-morgue, it's a bit too special …
Lacks a few more 'knobs': adjusting amount of light when beam hits camera, cam position/pan' tilt, 'atmosphere', blinking, axis-off-set…
hmmm, task sounds simple, but could be a bit endless :silly:

Feel free to modify to your needs.-

Glad you like it!

Thank you once again Karsten, with the generator I got the desired effect without modification. I have to experiment a little more with the speed of the beam. But it is difficult to make such a generator, Tried it in Motion I became so confused that I almost fainted.

Makki wrote: …have to experiment a little more with the speed of the beam. ….

due to its a Generator not set to loop (it loops, but … in Motion-lingo), you simply grab its end and drag it to some length: shorter=faster, longer=slower
Or use diff, values in the Rate (Inspector) - smaller numbers=slower …

Makki wrote: … But it is difficult to make such a generator, Tried it in Motion I became so confused that I almost fainted.

<cough> you said 'simple', I said 'not a starter project'
But an excellent beginners project, cause you learn a lot about how to set up such an 'effect', and Replicators, and Behaviors, and OSCs and all that stuff …
If questions, just ask.

Rate did the trick. This is perfect a generator; And the effect, smooth light sweeping exactly as lighthouses behave. I am so glad Karsten for this perfect solution.

Best to you and many thanks
Finnur

Makki wrote: … This is perfect a generator; …

… and now millions of LightHouse-filmmakers will download this effect, I add a price-tag of 79$ at it, I get a millionaire, an iMacPro, my own lighthouse on an island and… oops, wrong pills this morning, obviously :silly:

… if it's ok for you, post some screenshots, of the gen in use in your project. (?)

On a serious level: this shows (again) how easy you can create effects AND share them; that plug-in-concept of the FinalCut ecosphere is just awesome.-

I can not figure out how to put my short clip into this box.

Makki wrote: I can not figure out how to put my short clip into this box.

to embed videos, you have to upload to YouTube and post the link here. (or use any other upload/share service)
to embed stills, follow my advice given here
www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/...-about-pics-in-posts

Hi Karsten
The simplest way for me would be send it to you via email. I can understand that you may not want to expose your email address
. :blush:

Makki wrote: … via email. I can understand that you may not want to expose your email address …

no, for such purposes I do have a 'public' eMail:
karsten dott schluter att gmail dott com

the double t's are my harsh German accent… and to confuse bots.-

(gmail has excellent spam filters, just to promote that :woohoo: )

I just sent you a tiny clip, there is such size limit in mail I am so bad in english that I wondered for a moment who this Karsten Dot was :sick: but all is fine now and I have been addicted to your generator, it is so fun to experiment with it.