This tutorial
will show you an easy way to create the “Ray of Light” effect.
Assumed Knowledge: Basic Drawing and Reshaping in SWiSH.
Getting Started
Before beginning, take a look at the layout. Notice that
the light is behind the center letter, and that the further
the rays are from the light the wider and shorter they become;
also notice that the letter in front of the light has rays
extending from both sides of it. In this example there are
an odd number of letters in the word, leaving two pairs of
letters of equal distance from the light. If the word(s) you
choose has an even number of letters, you will need to take
this into account when pairing the letters off; leaving either
the first or the last letter unpaired.
This effect can be achieved fairly easily in SWiSH. Reshaping
the rays is the most time consuming task in creating this
effect. For this tutorial, you may find it easier if you choose
a word(s) that has letters with few curves, and choose a sans
serif font (such as Arial) using upper case letters.
Creating the Rays
1. Begin by making the movie’s background black. Create
your word or words using white text.
2. After you have created your text, draw a line and center
it horizontally across the text. This guide will help you
keep the rays centered.
Determine where the light source will be coming from.
3. Create a rectangle to use as the ray for the first letter,
making it between 1 ˝ and 2 times the height of the letter
(the more letters you have in your word(s) the shorter the
height of the outside rays) and at least 4 times its width.
4. From the Shape Panel, choose a solid line in a color
that will be easy to see over the text and against the background,
and choose none for the fill.
5. Place your rectangle over the letter so that the right
side of it completely covers the right side of the letter.
Drag to adjust the dimensions, and center horizontally over
the line.
6. Make a copy of this shape, paste and place over the last
letter, covering the left side of this letter. Center it horizontally.
Reshaping the Rays
7. Select the rectangle over the first letter, and from
the toolbar, select the reshape tool. Drag the top right corner
point of the rectangle to the select the rectangle over the
first letter, and from the tool bar, select the reshape tool.
Drag the bottom right corner of the rectangle over to the
bottom right corner of the letter. Right click and insert
anchors as needed, dragging each anchor to a point on the
right side of the letter, such that the right side of the
rectangle conforms to the shape of the right side of the letter.
8. When you have completed shaping this ray, reshape the
rectangle over the last letter conforming the left side of
its shape to the left side of the letter's.
9. Create a rectangle for the second letter, making this
rectangle taller and narrower than the rectangle for the first
and last letters.
10. Copy and paste for its corresponding letter, and reshape
these.
11. Continue creating, centering, and reshaping rectangles,
until you reach the center letter.
12. When you are shaping the rays for the center letter,
conform the rectangle for the left ray to the letter's left
side, and the rectangle for the right ray the letter's right
side.
Adding a Gradient Fill
13. Each ray will have a linear gradient white to white
fill. The edge of the ray that is furthest from the light
should be set to 0% white and the inside edge of the fill
to 100% white, as shown in the example. Remove the solid lines
from the ray as you fill them.
14. The center letter will also have radial filled circle
about 2 times the height of the letter. You may choose a white
to white or color fill, and you may add a solid line as one
in the example shows. Set the starting alpha value to 100%
and the ending value to 0%.
15. If you would like to add a star/beam as the example
shows, create a very thin radial filled ellipse. set the starting
alpha value to 100% and the ending value to 0%. Copy and paste
to create a second ellipse. From the transform panel, rotate
one of these 180°, center and group.
Adding the Effects
16. The rays have the Fade Out effect applied to them. In
this example, the movie fps is set to 20, and the duration
of each effect is 5 frames.
17. The letters have the Fade In effect applied to them,
have a duration of 4 frames, and begin 1 frame after the first
frame of the ray effect.
18. The next ray's effect begins one frame after the preceding
letter's effect begins: for example at frame 1, the ray for
the first letter fades out, at frame 2 the first letter fades
in, and at frame 3 the ray for the second letter fades out,
etc., until you reach the center ray.
19. Both the right and left rays for the center letter begin
at the same frame. The center letter and the radial filled
shape begin at the same frame as well. the center letter has
a duration of 5 frames.
20. The radial filled shape has the Fade Out effect applied
to it, with a duration of 5 frames. One frame after this begins,
the star group has a Place effect applied to it, with the
Alpha Value set to 100% transparent, then the Fade In effect
for the duration of 3 frames that is rotated to 90°, followed
by the Remove effect.
You may prefer a slower effect, especially if your word(s)
has more letters. Adjust the duration and spacing of these
effects as desired.
