BONUS

TUTORIAL

STYLE
GUIDED TOUR +
STEP-BY-STEP

DIFFICULTY LEVEL
EASY-MODERATE

Ramp It Up

his tutorial starts by comparing various techniques for creating soft

vignettes for a layer, showing off the merits of a deceptively useful plug-in called Alpha Ramp. This effect is part of the Image Lounge
package and is included free on the DVD courtesy Red Giant Software.
Well then walk through a step-by-step tutorial demonstrating how
you might put Alpha Ramp to use to create a more interesting composite. Well also use an adjustment layer with blur and blend modes
to add contrast, and animate on a title using the new Text engine.

Theres more than one

way to prepare a
vignette
Concepts
covered in:
Chapter 7:
slip editing
Chapter 8:
time stretching
Chapter 10:
blending modes
Chapter 11:
masking, including feathering
Chapter 12:
track mattes
Chapter 14:
3D layers and orientation; views
Chapter 16:
spot lights
Chapter 21:
applying effects

Click on the image above to play the final movie.

Trail Head
First, make sure you install the free effects included on the DVD that
came with this book particularly IL Alpha Ramp and Boris BCC Tritone,
which will all be used in this project.
If you have a problem playing the above movie from this PDF file,
open the Bonus Tutorials>BT4-Ramp It Up folder and play the finished
Creating Motion Graphics
3rd Edition

Chapter 22:
adjustment layers
Chapter 25:
creating and animating text
Effects Used:
Fill, Ramp, Roughen Edges,
Boris BCC Tritone, IL Alpha Ramp

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movie BT4-RampItUp.mov so you can see what the end result will
look like.Then open the BT4-RampItUp.aep project.
The first five example comps compare the various methods you might
employ to create a vignette for a layer. Lets explore them one by one.

Vignette Shootout
Creating a nice vignette (which a dictionary might describe as a picture
shading off gradually at the edges ) involves making a matte with a
gradient that ramps from white to black so that the object fades
smoothly to transparency. Simple to describe, but how precisely to do?
Theres more than one solution, and theyre not all created equal.
The example comps weve created cover five different techniques
for you to compare. Consider the issues of render times (RAM Preview
them to get a feel for how fast or slow they process although this is
less of an issue with faster computers), whether you
have one or two layers to manage, whether you
have to save a file to the hard disk, and of course,the
final look for example, if youd like the image to be
opaque in the center, the gradient needs to have a
solid white center. In each comp, click on the Alpha
swatch at the bottom of the Comp window to check
out what the matte actually looks like.

Option #1: Adobe Ramp Effect

[Ex.01] uses the Standard edition effect Render>
Ramp applied to a Solid layer (layer 1).The resulting
gradient is then used as a luma matte for the movie
below (layer 2); note that the mattes Video switch
must be turned off. The Ramp effect is set to Radial,
and transitions from white in the center to black on
the outside. Open the Effect Controls window (F3)
and move the Start of Ramp and End of Ramp points
around to edit the center and the end point of the
radial gradient; you can even animate these points.
This is similar to the radial gradient produced by
the gradient tool in Photoshop, using the preset
Foreground (if white) to Background (if black). The
problem with this type of gradient is that there is no
solid area of white, so very little of the image being
matted becomes fully opaque in the center.

Creating Motion Graphics
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Option #1: Using the Ramp effect allows a gradient

to be animated, but has a weak center, falling off too
quickly. Footage courtesy Artbeats/Business World.

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Option #2: Mask & Feather

[Ex.02] uses a mask shape (Chapter 11) to define the
opaque area; a large mask feather ramps the layer
smoothly to transparency. Select the layer to see the
masks shape and handles outlined in yellow in the
Comp window. By editing the shape of the mask and
the amount of feather, you can control the vignette.
However, its often difficult to achieve a very large feather with a fully opaque center, since adjusting the feather value affects the area inside the mask shape to a
large extent. Once youve decided on the feather
amount, you can use Mask Expansion to move the
feathered area more to the outside of the mask shape;
a negative value for Mask Expansion moves it more to
the inside.

Option #2: Using a wide mask feather is also animatable. To get the size of the hot spot right, either
resize the mask shape or use Mask Expansion
(below) to move the feathered area more to the
inside or outside of the shape.

Option #3: Photoshop Gradient

[Ex.03] uses a still image of a radial gradient created
with Photoshops Gradient Tool and customized in the
Gradient Editor, which gives you nice control over the
radius of the solid white center and the falloff rate from
white to black.Once the gradient is created, its saved to
disk, imported, and applied as a luma matte for the
movie.You can then use Edit>Edit Original to hot key to
Photoshop to make changes (see Chapter 6). By creating the gradient at a large size (say, about three times
larger than your comp), you can scale and squish and
rotate it as often as you like to create ellipses and other
Creating Motion Graphics
3rd Edition

A gradient created in Photoshop was saved as a

grayscale image and used as a Luma Matte in
After Effects.

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shapes that better fit the image you are trying to matte. This gradient
approach renders quickly, but making changes is awkward, and you
have two layers to keep track of. (If youre wondering exactly how we
used Photoshops Gradient Editor to create this image, the steps are
covered at the end of this tutorial.)

Option #3: A custom gradient

image in Photoshop used as a
luma matte. This method is
flexible, but requires going to
Photoshop to create it, and
importing an additional file
into After Effects.

Option #4: Alpha Ramp Effect

[Ex.04] Our next example uses the IL Alpha Ramp effect (on your DVD)
from Red Giant Softwares Image Lounge package. Its usually applied
directly to the movie, where it creates a gradient in the alpha channel
which affects its transparency. (You can also apply it to a solid and create a gradient thats used as a stencil luma for multiple layers below.)
The gradient shape you can produce with this effect can be varied
from linear to radial, and you can control the size of the hot spot in the

Option #4: The IL Alpha Ramp (previously offered by Pinnacle Systems, now distributed by Red Giant
Software) creates pleasing animatable gradients that are applied to the movies alpha channel.
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center and falloff using separate sliders. Since its an effect, you have
only one layer to deal with, and dont have to save anything to disk.
To see the ramp it creates, select the layer and open the Effect
Controls window (F3). Change the View Mode from Normal to Ramp.
The Ramp Edge Point is actually placed at the bottom of the opaque
(white) area,not the center as you might expect.With this effect selected,
drag the Ramp Edge Point around in the Comp window this sets the
outer edge of the ramps transition zone; we placed it on the womans
chin.The Ramp Curvature slider changes the ramp from linear to radial,
deciding how large the hotspot is; Ramp Width sets the width of the
feathered edge. Ramp Angle is more useful for changing the direction
of a linear ramp, but you can use it to animate a radial ramp as well. The
parameter Alpha Inversion has been changed to 100%, so that it ramps
from white in the center out to black the default is 0% which creates
transparency in the center. All in all, this is a very flexible way to apply
a soft transparent falloff for a layer, with reasonable render times and
a nice look. (Check out the Free Plug-ins>Red Giant Software Image
Lounge folder on the DVD for full instructions on using this effect.)

Animation Preset:
ILAlphaRamp_linear_diag.ffx

Animation Preset:
ILAlphaRamp_linear_horiz.ffx

Alpha Ramp Styles

To see the different styles possible with Alpha Ramp, open [Ex.05] and
solo each layer. The effect was applied to white solids, and the background color is black. Explore the settings and experiment until you
get a feel for how the parameters interact with each other. Remember
that youre not creating a white-to-black gradient, the effect is creating
transparency the black you see is the background color (change it to
another color if you dont believe us).
Each one of these ramps has been saved as an Animation Preset.
These are the series of ILAlphaRamp_xxx (where xxx describes different variations) in the DVDs Goodies>CMG Presets folder. If you
installed these in your main Presets folder before opening After Effects,
all the presets that use Alpha Ramp will appear under the Animation
Presets popup along the top of its Effect Controls window. Bear in
mind, however, that these presets were saved when the effect was
applied to 320240 solids, so theyre useful for working with our tutorial size only. If you think youll find these presets useful in your own
project, you might want to apply our presets to solids at the size you
normally work at (for instance, NTSC or PAL) and tweak the Ramp Width
and/or Ramp Edge Point accordingly. Re-save these settings as your
own presets (Animation>Save Animation Preset).
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3rd Edition

Animation Preset:
ILAlphaRamp_linear_vert.ffx

Animation Preset:
ILAlphaRamp_radial.ffx

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Option #5: 3D Spotlight Matte

[Ex.06] Our final option exploits a not-so-obvious use of 3D
layers and lights. In this approach, we use a white light with
its type set to Spot to illuminate a white comp-sized solid
that has its 3D Layer switch enabled (required for it to react
to the light).This solid in turn is used as a luma matte for the
image layer we want to vignette which can remain a 2D
layer.This technique yields a surprising amount of control.
In [Ex.06], select Light 1, and type type AA (two As in
quick succession) to reveal the lights parameters.
Experiment with the light and its parameters as you
explore the following points:

You can aim the lights Point of Interest at the feature that
you want to be center of your vignette. In this example, we
placed the Point of
Interest on the bridge
of the womans nose.

The size of the
vignette can be controlled with the lights
Cone Angle parameter. Dragging the
light further away in
Z space from the solid layer will also increase the size of the vignette.

The width of the feather of the vignette can be controlled with the
lights Cone Feather parameter.

You can change the shape of the vignette by dragging the back of
the light (its Position) relative to its Point of Interest. The further apart
they are, the more elongated the vignette becomes. You may find it
easier to steer the light by opening a second Comp window using
View>New View, and switching this one to Top view (views are discussed in more detail in Chapter 14).

Option #5: A spot light cast onto

a white solid with its 3D Layer
switch enabled, which in turn is
used as a luma matte, creates a
very flexible vignette. Aim the
light for precise control over
the position and shape of the
vignette; edit the lights Cone
parameters to control its size
and feather.

Of course, there are a couple of gotchas with this technique as well:

3D lights take longer to render; this is the slowest of the five options.

Depending on your lights settings and how it is aimed, the center of
the vignette may not be completely opaque by default; you may need
to increase the lights Intensity. In [Ex.06], turn on the Video switch for
White Solid 1, and drag the cursor around it while watching the Info
palette; you want the center of the vignette to read 255/255.
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Ramp It Up
We compiled this step-by-step tutorial to show how you might put the
IL Alpha Ramp effect to use; well also throw in a few other tips and
tricks along the way. If you havent already, play the final movie from
page 1, or play BT4-RampItUp.mov from the Bonus Tutorials>BT4Ramp It Up folder, so you can see the final result.
Step 1: With the BT4-RampItUp.aep project still
open, use Window>Close All to clean up your workspace. Type Command+N on Mac (Control+N on
Windows) to make a New Composition and name it
Ramp It Up. Enter a size of 320240, set the frame
rate to 29.97 fps, 05:00 duration, and Full Resolution.
Step 2: Select the file HD_snare drum in the
Project windows Sources>Movies folder, and type
Command+/ (Control+/) to add it to your comp, centered in the Comp window. RAM Preview the comp.
Step 3: Our goal is to replace the static blue-purple
background in this movie with something more
animated, but without doing any tedious frame-byframe rotoscoping. To make the edges of the movie
transparent (or at least semi-transparent), select the
movie and apply Effect>Pinnacle Image Lounge>IL
Alpha Ramp (which we explored earlier).
Step 4: This effect defaults to making the center of
the movie transparent, so the first step is to set the
Alpha Inversion slider in the Effect Controls window
to 100%, which makes the center opaque. Change
the View Mode to Ramp so you can see the matte
clearly, and adjust the three parameters below it
until youve created a radial gradient centered
roughly where the snare drum is, with a white center and a nice soft falloff to black.To accomplish this,
youll have to move the Ramp Edge Point towards
the bottom of the Comp window to do this, make
sure the name of the effect is selected in the Effect
Controls window, and drag the effect point (the +
symbol) around in the Comp window. Settings that
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Step 2: The original movie (courtesy of Herd of

Mavericks). We want to replace the blue background.

Step 4: Set the IL Alpha Ramp effect to focus the

opaque area on the snare drum.

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Step 4: Adjust Alpha Ramps parameters to get a radial gradient centered roughly where the snare drums head
is (left). This will start to fade off the edges of the movie (right).

worked for us were Ramp Edge Point = 200, 240, Ramp Width = 160,
and Ramp Curvature = 75%.
Return the View Mode to Normal when youre happy with your ramp.
The comps background color should be visible in the corners where
the movie ramps to transparency; this tells you that placing a movie in
the background will show up in these areas.
Step 5: From the Sources>Movies folder in
the Project window, select GI_Syn_DigitalJoy
and drag this layer to the left side of the
Timeline window, below HD_snare drum.
Make sure it starts at 00:00. (This movie is dissected in Bonus Tutorial 6, if youre curious
how it was created).
Step 6: Drag the time marker along the timeline; the GI_Syn_DigitalJoy movie should be
visible in the corners, adding movement and
interest. The only problem is that the yellowgreen color scheme doesnt suit the blue-purple background in our snare drum movie.
Select the GI_Syn_DigitalJoy layer, and apply
Effect>BCC3 Color & Blurs>BCC Tritone. The
default is to tint the movie blue, which helps,
but we can match the movie even better by
using colors from the snare drum movie.
Creating Motion Graphics
3rd Edition

Step 5: Place GI_Syn_DigitalJoy (courtesy Getty Images)

behind the snare drum. It starts to show through around
the edges, particularly in the top left area but the color
doesnt quite match

Ramp It Up // BT4

Step 7: Select the HD_snare drum

layer, and temporarily turn off its
Alpha Ramp effect so that you can
see the full movie again. (You can
either turn it off from the Effect
Controls window, or uncheck the f
switch in the Timeline window.)
Notice the blue-purple midtones,
and the warm pink tone to the highlights.In the BCC Tritone effect, select
a similar color palette: blue-purple
color for the Midtone Color, and a
pink color for the White Color. The
eyedropper tool comes in handy for
borrowing colors from other layers.
Turn back on the Alpha Ramp effect
when youre done, and tweak the
colors further if you need to.
If you want to use the same colors we used, and have already
installed our presets, click on the Animation Presets popup along the
top of the Effect Controls window and select BCCTritone_purples.
Otherwise, set to taste; dont worry if they look a little flat right now.

Step 7: Applying BCC Tritone to

GI_Syn_DigitalJoy and selecting
colors from HD_snare drum
improves the color blending. Weve
saved our colors as the Animation
Preset BCCTritone_purples.

Step 8: RAM Preview the animation up to this point.The circles in the

background move at a relaxed pace, while the drumming is quite
upbeat. Since the GI_Syn_DigitalJoy movie is 10:00 long, and our
comp is only 05:00 long, we can double the speed of the background
movie to pick up its pace.
Context+click (Control+click on Mac, right-click on WIndows) on the
column headers in the Timeline window to get the context-sensitive
menu, then select Columns>Stretch to add the Stretch column. The
GI_Syn_DigitalJoy movie is currently at 100% Stretch. Click on this
value and enter 50% for the Stretch Factor, for a new duration of 05:00,
and click OK. (You can also select Layer>Time Stretch and enter 50% in
the dialog.) Preview again to see how the new speed works.
Step 9: To give the whole composite a more saturated and filmic
look, well add a little blur and composite the blurred result in Overlay
mode. With the time marker at 00:00, select Layer>New>Adjustment
Layer, and apply Effect>Blur & Sharpen>Fast Blur to the adjustment
layer. Set Blurriness to about 2, and enable Repeat Edge Pixels. During
Creating Motion Graphics
3rd Edition

Step 9: Apply Fast Blur to the

Adjustment Layer; Repeat Edge
Pixels removes any dark fringing.

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Step 10: Before the Adjustment Layer, the colors matched but were a bit flat (left). To give the whole scene an
overexposed filmic glow, we applied Fast Blur to an Adjustment Layer, and set it to Overlay mode (right).

rendering, an adjustment layer internally makes a copy of the composite underneath it, applies any effects assigned to it, and then composites the result back on top of the underlying layers.
Step 10: Hit F4 to toggle from Switches to Modes, and set the Modes
popup to Overlay for the Adjustment Layer. This composites the
blurred version of the layer stack on top of the original layers using a
blending mode. Turn on and off the eyeball for the top layer so you
can see exactly what effect its having, and try a few other blending

Step 10 complete: The layer stack in the Timeline window after creating the Adjustment Layer.

modes as well. Overlay is one of our favorites when we need to boost

contrast and saturation, but you may need to reduce the Opacity
somewhat. We used 75% Opacity for this example.
Step 11: Now lets turn our attention to the Ramp It Up title. Type
Command+T (Control+T) to select the Type tool. If the Character
palette does not open, select it using Window>Character. Click on the
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Ramp It Up // BT4

arrow in its upper right corner to open its Options menu and select
Reset Character.
Click on the eyedropper, and choose a shade of blue in the Comp
window.Then place your cursor roughly in the upper left corner of the
drum head and type RAMP IT UP (with a return after RAMP), then hit
Enter (not return) to accept the text. Use the Character palette to
choose a font style and size you like; we selected Trajan Pro Bold, set to
58 px. When done, type V to return to the normal Selection tool.
Step 12: To make the text appear to lie downon top of the snare drum,
were going to take advantage of 3D space to match the perpsective of
the drum head. Hit F4 to toggle the Switches column forward, and
enable the 3D Layer switch for our Text layer RAMP IT UP (look for the
3D cube icon in the Switches column header). With RAMP IT UP still
selected, type R to reveal its Orientation and Rotation properties.
Orientation is good for posing a layer; scrub its X,Y,
and Z values until the text seems to have the same
perspective as the drum head. We used values
around 308, 9, 12. We also nudged its Position to
better center the text inside the head.

Step 11: The Character settings

we used for our title.

Step 13: To help the illusion along, toggle back to

Modes (F4), and select the Multiply blending mode.
This will allow the blue text to merge with the shadow of the drum stick, helping to sell the impression
that the title is actually on the drum skin itself.
To make the type appear to be beat up from the
drumming, you can optionally apply Effect>Stylize>

Step 12 and 13: Text is added, and tilted back using 3D Orientation to have the same perspective as the drum
head. The Multiply blending mode adds to the illusion; the Roughen Edges effects gives it a beaten down look.
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Roughen Edges. Set the Edge Type to

Rusty, and adjust the Border size to taste.
Step 14: Now all you need to do is to animate on the title one word at a time.To do
this, were going to use a text animator.
In the Timeline window, twirl open the
layer RAMP IT UP. To the right of the
word Text is the word Animate and an
arrow; click on this arrow and select
Opacity from the list. A number of new
parameters will be revealed, including
Opacity. Set its value to 0%.
Step 15: Expand Range Selector 1, then
twirl open its Advanced section. To pop
on whole words, set the Based On popup
to Words. Then set the Units popup to
Index,which will make it easy to count the
words. Press Command (Control) to slowly scrub the Start value, and note how it
controls how many words are visible in
the Comp window. Set Start to 1, so that
just the word RAMP is visible.
Step 16: Make sure the time marker is at
00:00; if it isnt, press Home. Then click on
the animation stopwatch next to Start to
set your first keyframe. Move the time
marker to 01:00 and set Start to 2, creating a second keyframe and popping on the second word IT; then
move to 02:00, and set Start to 3, so that all three words are visible.
Step 17: Press 0 on the numeric keypad to RAM Preview. Hey the
words are fading up,rather than popping on! Thats because the default
keyframe interpolation is linear. But we want to pop on entire words at
a time, without interpolating.
Click on the word Start to select all of its keyframes. Then press
Command+Option (Control+Alt) and click on any one of those keyframes to toggle them to Hold Keyframes (the icons will change see
figure on next page).This will hold each keyframe value until the next
keyframe is reached, without interpolating. RAM Preview to verify.
Creating Motion Graphics
3rd Edition

Steps 14 17: To make each word

pop on, we clicked on the Animate
popout menout and added a text
Animator for Opacity; we then set
Opacity to 0%. Under the Range
Selectors Advanced options,
we set Based On to Words and
Units to Index to make it easier to
count the words to be animated.
Hold keyframes then pop on the
words individually.

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Step 18: Lets finish off our animation by adding some music. We used
KS_EvilBirds.mov from the Sources>Audio folder, but feel free to use
your own percussive track. Add it to your comp, and play around with
timing this audio track better to the drumming video:

Hit Option+Home (Alt+Home) to make it start initially at 00:00.

Type LL (two Ls in quick succession) to reveal the audios Waveform
in the Timeline window.

Hit End, and then type Option+] (Alt+]) to trim the out point here.

Step 18: Add your music track

starting at 00:00, trim it to the
length of the comp, and type LL to
reveal its waveform. Those spikes
are where sticks are hitting drums.

Step 19: Now, lets time the music to the animation. As the drummer
was playing to a different piece of music than ours when the video
was shot, were going to have to fake the timing by lining up at least
one prominent hit, and hoping the others are close enough:

Scrub the time marker along the timeline until you see the drum stick
hit the snare theres a prominent hit at 02:00, for example.

Type Y to select the Pan Behind tool. Normally this tool is used for
either moving the anchor point, or moving a layer inside a mask. But if
you position your cursor over the audio tracks layer bar in the Timeline
window, it will turn into a two-headed arrow otherwise known as the
Slip Edit tool (see figure on next page). When this tool is active, you
can move the layers source while maintaining the same in and out
points in the Timeline window. (Note that if you can see the trimmed
frames at either end of a layer bar, you dont need to use this tool the
cursor will toggle to the slip edit tool when you move it over any
trimmed frames.)

Creating Motion Graphics
3rd Edition

Fast Toggling
To quickly toggle a keyframe to
Hold, press Command+Option
(Control+Alt) and click on it. To
toggle back to Linear, you can
just press Command (Control)
when you click.

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Click on the layer bar and drag left to slip the audio track, until a
spike in the waveform lines up with the time marker. Unfortunately,
the waveform does not redraw while youre slipping; release the
mouse periodically to check your new position.

RAM Preview (if your computer is slow, turn off Adjustment Layer
1 to speed up processing), and keep trying alternate edits until you
find one you like.
Step 20: Finally, lets more closely tie the text
animation to the music and video. Move the
time marker to 02:00, or whichever prominent
drum hit you were using for your timing. Select
RAMP IT UP, and hit the [ (left bracket) key to
slide the text to start at the same time. RAM
Preview and see how you like the result.We happened to pick timings for the text animation
which we knew would match up with the tempo
of our soundtrack; feel free to drag the keyframes for Start to line up with prominent drum
hits in your own music edit.

If you feel you got lost somewhere along the way, our version is
inside the BT4-Ramp It Up Final Version folder inside this project.
Feel free to pick it apart if you could not follow some step. In the meantime, we hope you picked up a few useful tricks for blending together
layers of a composition plus learned why the IL Alpha Ramp effect is
one of the more useful tools you can have in your arsenal.

Creating Motion Graphics
3rd Edition

To time the soundtrack to your

animation, place the time marker
either where you see a drum stick
hit the snare head. Then slip edit
the soundtrack to match a waveform spike to this time. Finally,
slide the text animation to synchronize with your soundtrack.

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Photoshop Gradient How-To

To create a hotspot gradient described in Option #3 back on page 3, make a new grayscale file in Photoshop CS, select the Gradient tool (G), click on the Radial Gradient icon
in the Options bar, then click on the wide gradient icon in this bar to open the Gradient
Editor. Select the Black,White preset as a starting point, drag the white swatch to
around the 50% Location, and the black swatch to the 100% Location. Give it a new
name like Hotspot 50
Ramp, click New, then OK.
Make sure the Mode in the
Options bar is set to Normal,
and Opacity to 100%.
Now create the gradient by clicking in the exact center of your file
and dragging to just inside the right
or left edge. Make sure that the
image reads full black on all edges.
Make variations with larger or
smaller white centers by changing
the white swatch location in the
Gradient Editor. For instance,
placing the white swatch at 40% or
60% location will give you a smaller
or larger white center, respectively.
Import this grayscale file into
After Effects for use as a luma track
matte, or use it as a luma stencil
The settings used in the Options bar (top) and Gradient
(see Chapter 12) to affect the transEditor (above) in Photoshop CS to create a gradient with
parency of multiple layers below.
a solid white center and a falloff to black.
Remember that if you create a
gradient at the exact size needed, youll be limited in how you can use it in After Effects;
if you need to offset the gradient to the right, for instance, or scale it a little larger, you
may have to recreate it again from scratch. For the most flexible matte, create an oversized file, say 1000 1000 pixels, take your best guess at the correct size for the hot spot
in the middle, and make sure the gradient fades completely to black on all four sides.
Now you can move, scale, and squish this image in After Effects, and hopefully repurpose it to serve as a gradient matte for multiple layers.

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