sfwriter | 10 years ago | 12 comments | 1.8K views
Hi all, happy holidays!
Got a couple of questions.
I have pictures that I want to display in my show as rectangles, squares and circles of various sizes. I will be rotating them in various ways as well. What I would like is to create neon tube like borders around these pictures. I would prefer if the tubes were slightly distanced from the edge of the picture so you can just make out the background. I also want the tunes to glow a little but not interfere with the picture it is framed around.
Finally, if it's possible, I would like to cycle the colors of the tubes so the whole tube changes color and not a gradient effect that winds it's way around.
Is this doable in BT and if so, could somebody please steer me in the right direction?
As always, any help is appreciated.
I think you are looking for the DECORATION DENSITY property of the LIGHT DISCS style of the text, EPS and traced picture layers. When you use a huge value, the discs blend into each other and start to look like one big neon tube.
With the 2nd slider of the DECORATION property you can set the distance to the picture.
michiel, 10 years ago
I tried using Light Discs with a value of 100 but can't figure out how to change the colors or make them 3D. They are appearing flat when I rotate the picture.
sfwriter, 10 years ago
This is correct, a disc is a 2D shape.
When you switch from LIGHT DISCS to LIGHT BULBS (3rd dropdown below the text box), the discs are turned into spheres. And a sphere is a 3D shape!
michiel, 10 years ago
Thanks Michiel. I'm still learning. :)
I added a border layer and changed it to light bulbs and increased the density so it looks like a neon tube, One last thing however, how do I make it glow slightly?
sfwriter, 10 years ago
Try using a darker colour.
You can make it flicker by applying the flare effect and using the FX FLICKER PERIOD property:
michiel, 10 years ago
Well, unfortunately, I can't seem to make this work. Here is what I am doing.
1. Add picture layer.
2. Attach border layer to above picture layer.
a. Select "Light Bulbs" preset.
3. Change Decoration Density of border to 38.
4. Set Decoration Size to 4,7,1
5. Set Color of border to 255,0,0
6. At this point I have a red neon looking tube bordered around my picture.
Now to try to make it glow I do the following.
1. With the border the active layer I click F9.
2. I change the First Texture to Flare16.jpg
3. I change the Effect to flare.fx
4. When I click OK the border disappears and no matter what I change any of the sliders to, it stays gone.
Any suggestions?
sfwriter, 10 years ago
Maybe neon tubes look better without a texture: press F9 and remove the Flare16.jpg texture.
michiel, 10 years ago
The tube still disappears.
sfwriter, 10 years ago
A good trick is to remove both textures and to apply the NotLightened.fx effect. This can all be done in the F9 dialog. This makes your layer visible so you can work from there experimenting with different textures and effects.
BTW, the same dialog is presented when you press F8, choose MEDIA > CHANGE TEXTURE... and MEDIA > CHANGE EFFECT... Yes, it is THE most important dialog of the app!
michiel, 10 years ago
How can I experiment with effects if I already have the "Notlightened.fx" applied?
sfwriter, 10 years ago
With "experimenting" I mean trying out different effects and textures to find out how they work out.
For example by replacing Notlightened.fx by NotLightened_Additive.fx or Flare.fx or any other effect. You can do this in the F9 dialog.
michiel, 10 years ago
