NEON (powered by Mark Spencer)

// after dl, un-zip and drag into ~/Movies/Motion Templates .... //

Fresh from my kitchen-table:

the latest Motion5 tutorial from the ripple-twins™
www.rippletraining.com/articles/2016/04/...on-lights-in-motion/

inspired me to translate it into some Title-plugin = no Motion needed ....




First, go to www.dafont.com/de/search.php?q=Las+Enter
and dl the font Las Enter - please respect copyrights!!
(Pacifico is nice, Las Enter even nicer)

Then, NEON allows to create a shiny neon light ... (and no beziers needed, HA!)

In the Inspector you find ....

• a selection of colors for the light
• yellow and white for the tubes itself
• a checkbox to switchON/off the reflection of the background...
• a slider for the intensity of the bg light (incl. a spelling mistake .. late here <yawn>)
• a text field - in the original of Mark, he uses bezier curves, I found a diff. method
• position, rotation (z-axis), 3D rotation (y-axis), and scale...
• top-light intensity
• and two sliders for flicker control...

I don't like flickering lights, so by preset its off....



www.dafont.com/de/lasenter.font

www.dafont.com/de/pacifico.font

www.dafont.com/de/loki-cola.font

www.dafont.com/de/japan.font

www.dafont.com/de/amplify.font

www.dafont.com/de/thats-font-folks.font

www.dafont.com/de/wasted.font

www.dafont.com/de/clear-line.font

Bank Gothic should be preinstalled (??) on your system....

Just to stress it:
please read and accept user rights! ....






feel free to modify, post your improvements here!

Ha! Knew that one would grab your interest Karsten!

Squamish ed wrote: Ha! Knew that one would grab your interest Karsten!

:whistle:

It panhandled to be plug-in-ized ... LOL

And when you study Mark's original, he kindly offers for download, you make some interesting observations:
• he uses a ◼︎ glyph to create a 3D 'wall' . as longtime reader at fcp.co, a well known 'trick', saw that e.g. by Pielle
• to create the illusion of reflected lights, he uses additional Motion-lights - I learned that from Nurbz
• he uses beziers for that undoubtly better than mine looking 'tubes', but you can not type beziers .... learned from fox_m to 'link' text input to create a dynamic 'clone' of some title .....
• plus some UI ideas from me ...

just to be clear:
no one mentioned here is the 'inventor' of those tricks! And Mark does, again and as always, a great job with his (free!!) tutorial ....
... but it's really fun how you combine a few, known ingredients, stir a minute (ok, an hour) and get something new and beautiful looking like that ....!

kudos to Mark!
(lost in translation: does he mention, he will post it as a plugin too? ... that would be nice!)

Hi Karsten, nice work but I think too complex, look at the attachment and tell me what do you think. i've not included the flickering and the reflections just title but in 3D.
With friendship Pielle

Hi Karsten,

Tried to watch the video but get a message that I have to sign in - which I have (on fop.co). Tried via You Tube and am told it's private. A setting issue?

Pielle wrote: Hi Karsten, nice work but I think too complex, ...

... <cough> with all due respect, my Italian friend (btw: my son is actually in Milano, keep your daughters off the streets!! ), and my deepest kudos for your 3D artwork (that sword - omg, heaven!!) but ...




no, not even close... :pinch:

Amethyst as 'glas', instead of Marks idea with the soap bubble & fresnel effect ... THAT is interesting! ... I will play with your suggestion, but I'm afraid, for that kind of look and effect, it has to be that complex, or, as Steve says in the tut "many layers" ... therefor a plugin to make it more easy to use ...

Squamish ed wrote: Hi Karsten,
...Tried via You Tube and am told it's private. A setting issue?

yep, my fault - hit reload in your browser, now 'public'...
thanks for telling me....

Problem solved Karsten. Thanks.

Nice tutorial!

Thanks for the advice but I live in more than 100 Km from Milan.
Karsten I can not believe that you judge me so naive. Okay I have never doubted that your job was well done, I just proposed a simpler way to do it. And if send it to you is because it is good enough. I am fundamentally an esthete and I would never have sent you a thing so low. The name Amethyst is only the name of the glass material from where I started, and the bubble are useless just a relic of the old material. I send you this time a scene template with a wall and please look in the published parameters I’ve added also a palette to choose the neon color .



All this is to discuss and improve
Do you like the bike? it was a difficult creation. I think to create a scene in a store with your illuminated signs
Lol Luigi :lol:

Squamish ed wrote: ... Nice tutorial!

it's fun to make'm ... :woohoo:
allthough my assistent Allison has difficulties to pronounce a few words … "animate" for instance... strange, she's native speaker... (is there any feedback.apple.com/voice-output ??? ) And why isn't Siri avail as 'voice'???

Pielle wrote: .... Karsten I can not believe that you judge me so naive. Okay I have never doubted that your job was well done, I just proposed a simpler way to do it. ...

ohh, the man with the strong words strikes again! :silly:

I know what to compare what not:
you said "too complex"...

It's a translation of an existing Motion-only tutorial into a FCPXplugin - <slapping my own shoulder> Well done! esp. two hurdles to go, Mark mentions in his video: beziers and 'interacting with background'.

Last was easy to solve - add some lights, linked to some parameters, shining the clip 'underneath'...

The beziers was a bit trickier (which, btw look much better in the Original than my result!) - Motion doesn't 'transform' typed input aka glyphs into curves (maybe via SDK, I don't know)=> therefor my brute trick using a 'clone' (technical no clone but … anyhow...) with a lighter weight => mission accomplished.

ok, a bit butchered, the 'Coke'font shows, you'd have to adjust weight per font to avoid 'holes'... me no perfectionist, for some eye-candy good enough. Feel free to adjust or publish another slider..... (I don't like mile long Inspectors)

My goal is an easy to use TITLE, no complex Motion project. Mark did it allready.
So, no reason to apply a wall to it - as you did, Luigi, or as the creator, Mark, did.
Everyone can download the Motion project at rippletarining....

You can apply this TITLE to any background and it interacts with it (optional):
flicker, color ... automatically, and slightly adjustable...


My main goal with any plugin is easy-to-use - which, following best Apple tradition, reduces options but improves convenience.

e.g. I could have make an Apple color-selector to allow 'any' color - what would make the plugin internally even more complext, because diff colors create diff. shines = everything with everything connected = would ask for really complex rigging.
No, neon does not come in any color (grey??), so the kitchen-table-producer in far far away Germany decides for you: "these 7 colors - use it or leave it!"
.... :evil:

I'm aware, Amethyst is a boxed material, haven't having it on my radar ... worth further investgations ... I guess, our specialist fox_m could do some marvel with it, saw some demoes from him using 'glassy' materials.....

The bike is breathtaking - esp. when you know how its done, a whole new level of 'painting by numbers/letters'

... sorry for lengthy reply ... but calling me naiv triggers me, Dr Luigi.
A bit.

Great! Thank you so much! Have a good one. Joe

Karsten Holmes strike back again !!
I did not think about you. But as a young man you definitely worked for the Stasi. :evil: Two clues are an evidence. :lol:
Okay I endorse what you said about the plugin. Stop investigate materials; Amethyst, Green glass and Clear glass are presets created by me in my first animations (real 3D B, Cube neon light) starting from Soap bubble. That time I needed glassy material and do not yet know the program. Now that I think about it "Cube neon light" worth revisiting for what concerns the neon.
I like to talk to you Karsten, a greeting from Belpaese Luigi

// edited by me, PMs exchanged, all fine, this part of the board is no chatroom :woohoo: //