Rayz O Lite – free half-hour course on programming awesome light rays in QC
Nov 28, 2007 at 10:14 am in dvcTV, editing, post visuals by 22-02-1989
Ever since the release of our DV Enlightenment lighting course, people are always asking us, “How did you make those awesome light rays on your titles?”
In that case, we used an excellent plugin for After Effects called Shine. Shine worked for a bit in Final Cut Pro years back, but then Apple changed the plugin API, and Shine no longer worked in Final Cut. (It works now, however!)
I’ve always liked the super-dramatic light rays effect, but the light rays filters in Motion and Final Cut Pro take too long to render… and frankly, they are pretty lame. So I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to help you create those super long, awesome godlike light rays, and preferably in real time! And finally, that opportunity is here.
I bet you probably own an amazingly powerful 3D graphics program that you’ve never even installed- even though it’s on a disc within sight of where you’re sitting.
It taps directly into the awesome power of OpenGL, OS X Core Video and Core Image to give you incredible real time effects. And the project files can be dragged right into the Final Cut Pro or Express timeline (just like LiveType or Motion) for pristine, uncompressed SD or HD animations that will knock your socks off!
WARNING: This is not a tutorial for non-techies! If you don’t have a propeller on at least one of your hats, you may be a little overwhelmed. Also, you must own OS X 10.4 or higher.
However, if you fancy yourself a bit of a nerd, if you’ve tinkered with HTML, PHP, or Javascript, if you feel you have a good grasp of relativity, or predicted the subprime mortgage meltdown, or understand the movie Memento, this free tutorial will open up a whole new world of visual effect programming that will allow you to create some animations no other common software program will.
It was designed to be presented in our patented Chunkalized learning environment, so it moves pretty fast. You’ll want to keep a hand on your space bar to pause the movie after each step if you are following along hands-on. Some of the presets have some additional controls, and some are similar, but we have total faith that you’ll have fun with them even though they are not quite finished! We will keep teaching you about this impressive secret tool!
Also, this tutorial was done with Tiger, but Leopard users will find the tutorial is still 100% current. It’s even a little cooler in Leopard.
Ask questions about the course by clicking here.
Enjoy!
The student files are in this zip file:
Click here to download student files
Extract the zip file and place the folder in your Documents folder.
Then download DVcreators University by clicking here and “buy” Rayz O Lite” for free!
Wow! Mind-blowingly-awesome. I can’t wait until a project comes along that can really take advantage of this.
Great tutorial on using the Quartz Compositor. An in-depth app so any help like your lesson is a good thing.
It’s great that you’re provideing in depth information like this, but I want to note that Trapcode Shine has been upgraded so that the same version will work in AE and FCP and Motion.
So glad you are publishing video tutorials for QC. MOREMOREMORE please!!
If you mix this with http://www.chv-plugins.com/cms/FxPlug/QC-Integration/QC-Integration.php
Could have your own fxplug
Thanks, Rich, I made the correction in the article.
I’m pixelshocked!
I’ve been researching/experimenting w/ QC lately and was so pleased to see this tutorial.
Very much appreciated.. Thanks!
Looking forward to more..
Amazing tutorial!!!
Sounds like a great idea to have this
I do not see the empty clip that the tutorial refers to. It was not included with the zip file full of presets as indicated.
Gary
Same question as Gary. The clip “DVcreators FX Empty” does not show up. The tutorial is OUTSTANDING. Super job.
thanks great the best tutorial in my life if i read “NOTE: Originally, this tutorial was intended to be part of a paid course” but if you plan to do a DVD let me know thanks. The file with the pressets and the empty project don’t show the empty project is not a problem but the presets it’s a problem because I try to make a title for a DV anamorphic project with no luck so if you let me know how can I do that I will apreciate that so much again that for this great tutorial.
Is there a way to put a company logo in there to get the ray effect the same way? I keep getting .
Excelent tutorial.
I´m on 10.5 and I don´t seem to find, Geometry Adjust > crop. There are no Geometry Adjust at all, have they renamed some of these for leopard?
Best tutorial I’ve seen in a while. Thanks for putting this up. I just went to the web to see what QC was and now feel I can start doing all sorts of stuff.
Fred, in Leopard, search for ‘Crop’ instead of ‘Geometry’ and you’ll find the same control.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!
I just found out about this application today and this is an excellent tutorial!
excellent tutorial! i’m installing quartz composer now!
Great stuff,
always interesting to see tools being used in an interesting and clever way – haven’t quite got my head around shine yet though.
This is the best material I’ve seen on Quartz Composer. It almost looks like Apple has set it on a shelf to collect dust which is a shame. You wrote “We will keep teaching you about this impressive secret tool!” – Please do!!!
I’m totally new to Mac. I just tried following this tutorial. Does anyone have information about the “Quartz Composer Patches” that are a part of the newer version of Quartz Composer? What is the proper way to use them?
I initially was creating blogs with just adsense and some plr articles but that doesn’t seem to make much money. I’d be interested in some article writing – do you outsource?
Awesome ! Clear, easy and very useful tutorial. Good work !
Note : In Leopard QC, the “Crop” patch in category “Geometry adj”… is called “Image Crop” in category “Modifier”.