One of the biggest benefits of After Effects is its ability to create studio3Danimation.
But how do lights work in After Effects and how do you use them?
Let’s dive in and check it out.
It’s much more likeSouth Park’s style(although South Park is created in Maya).
Make it1920 by 1080(which should always be your working standard).
Set theFrame Rateto23.97and make it around10 secondslong.
Once we’ve done all that clickOK.
Creating a Light
Now that we have our composition set up let’s create a light.
In your drop-down menu at the top of the screen selectLayer>New>Light.
We have a few options,Parallel,Spot,Point, andAmbient.
Parallel Light
A parallel light is something kind of light a lightbox.
It creates a plane that projects out the light from it, rather than it being an individual point.
An ambient light would be used most often if you want to affect the lighting of the entire frame.
SelectSpotfrom theLight Typemenu and let’s check out its other features.
We have the color of our light, changing this will change the color of your light.
Next, we haveintensity, a measure of how bright the light is.
Odds are if you’re making lights in After Effects, you’ll want them to be casting shadows.
To do that, we’ll need to be sure that ourCasts Shadowsbox is checked here in ourLight Settingswindow.
Once we check that Shadow Darkness and Shadow Diffusion will become available to change.
Darkness is obviously how dark the shadow is, and diffusion is how soft or sharp it is.
For now, let’s put diffusion at 10.
Once we click ok you’ll see your light appear in your composition.
These control the X, Y, and Z positions of the light.
You’ll also notice with spotlight we have a line and a dot coming off of it.
This controls where the spotlight is pointing.
That is the spot light’s Point of Interest.
ChooseLayer>New>Solidor useCommand + Yto bring up the Solid options window.
Even if we drag it below our light in the timeline it still isn’t being affected.
You’ll notice right away that there doesn’t seem to be any shadows happening.
You’ll see Casts Shadows is set toOFFby default, so toggle that toON.
You should see a shadow appear behind this layer and on top of your other one.
Conclusion
So there you have it, those are the basics of creating light in After Effects.
