TITLE: Precomposition Text Effect
YOUR ROLE: Director/Lead VFX Artist
MEDIA: Visual Effects
SOFTWARE: Adobe After Effects
DURATION: 0:06
CLASS: FMX 322
PROFESSOR: Javier Olarte
SEMESTER / TERM: FA 23
INSTITUTION: University of Tampa
DESCRIPTION: In After Effects, a file that contains footage is known as a ‘composition’, basically consisting of the timeline and the elements that make up the footage on the timeline. A pre-composition, then, is essentially a composition within that composition, which can be accessed in its own composition and edited, with any changes appearing in the composition that the pre-composition is a part of. This is how I was able to achieve the ‘shining light effect’ on the 3D text I placed down after creating a tracking camera, selecting a handful of tracking nodes and creating a null object for my 3D Text to follow. Within the pre-composition, I added a black solid below a copy of my text that was similarly colored black, before adding a oval shaped white solid right between both of those. By adjusting the feature of that oval and adding an outwards radial blur, I was able to create the illusion of sunlight shining through the 3D text in the composition, casting brilliant shadows from the edges of where the light hit.