Beam Effect in After Effects Tutorial

I am on a rampage this week.

I just finished putting the final touches on a tutorial that explains all you need to know about how to create an animate blasters using the Beam Effect in After Effects.

Click here

Now, I know what some of you are thinking; that the Beam Effect is not the absolute best way to produce blasters.
But, that's not what this is about. There have been a lot of requests for a tutorial like this. So, for better or worse, I'm sure a lot of folks will find this helpful.

Please try to keep this thread on track and not turn it into a discussion about how it could have been done better. Thanks.

Enjoy!!

 

Argh! This ye great as always durb! Ahoyhoy!

 

I'm surprised this has only 1 reply!

 

By which you mean two (by which I mean three)?

 

EDIT: Sorry Durb, I'll pm you that in case you want to make an advanced tutorial.

Your tutorial would've been very useful when I started out in AE so I know the begginers will benefit from this. Good job.

 

Excellent tutorial. I will this. I am learning AE.

 

Thanks for another great tut!!

 

Nice tutorial, very detailed and good use of example shots.

This is nearly the exact same way like I did the blaster shots in my fan film last year. Only one thing that bothers me is that the blaster shots do not really "glow" that much.

And one thing I noticed that might have gone wrong in your tutorial. You have activated motion blurring for all beams in the timeline, but yet you don´t have activated motion blurring for the composition. When I watch your test clip, all beams are 100% clear and not blurred at all, that makes them look somehow fake. With motion blurring they would look definitely a whole lot better. You might want to check this.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I modified the last page to explain that.

I'm still a little on the fence about the automatic motion blur. That's why I failed to mention it. I don't necessarily think it looks good some of the time.
As an experiment, I turned those layers on, didn't really lie the result, then I forgot to turn them off again.
Since you mentioned it, I decided to let the individual decide, so I added instructions for how to make use of it.

 

Man... I cannot believe I have to bump this already.

/Shaking head in disbelief.