Making text flash

[Magmatic Profile Private message]

I have tried to figure out how to make text (or any other object) glow or flash. One sees this a lot on TV. One way is, in an external editor, "dilate" the text -- make it "fatter". (This is not the same as just enlarging it.) Then blur it. Then use that as a separate layer in ProShow. Is that how it's done?

My attempt was not completely successful. (Right now I can't find my attempt, and don't know what I called it.)

A good example of a flash is in the featured show on the Proshow blog for June 24. The hotel logo flashes.

http://www.slideshowblog.com/

[debngar Profile Private message]

Capture the S as a jpg. Insert it in the slide, blur to 60%.

"Flashing Caption"
http://www.photodex.com/share/debngar/2abm9mg4

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Yep, create the object in a bitmap editor. Take it into Producer. Duplicate it. On the original, reduce the opacity, add a large blur. Then, use keyframes to change the opacity from 0 to 50ish (or more) and back to 0. That's the gist of it. You don't even need to change the size unless you really want to ... the large amount of blur takes care of that.

Dale

[Anna J Profile Private message]

Debbie & Dale,
Thanks! That's a neat tip.
Anna J

[Magmatic Profile Private message]

Thanks for the kind demo. I now see that's probably the way it was done in the hotel show. But it's not quite the effect I am after. I had tried blurring. But that makes the flash too soft. I was looking for something stronger, harder, but still a bit blurred.

Dilate still seems to be the way to go. (I'm using Paint Shop Pro.) The letters have to be white on a dark background because it dilates white. But then I have a dark background when I want it to be transparent. I had the bright idea to use chromakey in ProShow to get rid of the black, but that didn't work too well.

Here is an example.

http://www.photodex.com/share/Magmatic/8ppx9mg4

I hope this thing will play. It buffering seems to hang.

[debngar Profile Private message]

Hello David,

It looks ok for a one letter momentary flash effect but put a word together or series of words and the effect is quite muddied (or soft as you pointed out). Using the Chroma Key to remove the background works only so so for the one letter effect but doesn't look like there's a good way to produce the sharper looking effect you're essentially after without an additional program of some kind.

I noticed it seemed to look better using a fatter font letter, not a thin one.

I tried to view your demo but you're right, it seems to hang the presenter plug in. Don't know why it's doing that.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Magmatic,

I think the short answer to your question is yes, just like you thought. Changing the size of the graphic of multiple letters won't work as you probably found since the text spreads (vs growing with each letter).

In your graphical editor:
• Create your graphical text.
• Save it without a background to a PNG (for the transparent background). (saves work later!)
• Then, contour or add an outline to the same graphical text. The amount of contour will determine how big your "flash" is going to be. Save this to a PNG with transparent background too.

Both graphics containing the text should be the exact same size (eg. 1280x720 or 1600x900) to avoid size disparities.

Layer 1: Graphical Text
Layer 2: Contoured Graphical Text (add keyframes and blur to this layer to test your effect)

The sharpness of the "flash" will depend on the amount of blur you apply (0 for very sharp edges, 15 for somewhat soft, 20 for soft, etc). Varying your opacity will have an effect too.

Is this closer to what you seek? (multiple blur and opacity settings are used.
http://www.photodex.com/share/im42n8/4kgx9mg4

The demo used 0.25s between the keyframes used for the flash and opacity varies from KF1=0 to kf2=100 to kf3=0

Dale

[Magmatic Profile Private message]

After I slept on it, I realised that a mask would be a better way than chromakey. The chromakey result was ugly to my eye, whether one letter or many. A mask is a much better way to get rid of the "background", in this case, the black expanse the text lives on.

The countour is a nice effect. I don't know how to add a contour, or if it would make the text fatter in my editor, but Dilate in Paint Shop Pro is a way to make the text fatter, not larger, which as you say, does not work.

Actully, I don't need a mask if I don't mind the black as the background. But for some other background, I need a mask.

Here is my new demo, showing what I mean, and I could view it:
http://www.photodex.com/share/Magmatic/b7mx9mg4

I thank you both for your help. By the way, while I was playing with this some months ago, I discovered an "explosion" effect using a vignette. I'll show that some time.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Dilate is a foreign term to me, graphics-wise. So, I looked at the PS Photo Pro X3 manual to see what more information I could get; bummer: dilate is not to be found anywhere. (I suppose it disappeared after v9). But your demo indicates that PSP's dilate expands each character separately. So, outline/contour/stroke (CorelDraw/Fireworks/Photoshop) does exactly the same thing as Dilate (learn something new every day!).

Anyway, in your demo, you show three different layers: layer 1 is your regular text (I'm guessing), Layer 2 is your "dilated" text which serves as a mask, and layer 3 is a solid white layer. Each of your graphic text was white.

So, I have a question for you. If you removed layer 3 so you just have layers 1 and 2, moved layer 2's first keyframe to just before where you want the "flash" to occur and with an opacity of 0, add a 2nd keyframe 0.25 to 0.5 seconds later with an opacity of 100% and blur of 25%, and add a 3rd keyframe 0.25 to 0.5 seconds later with an opacity of 0, wouldn't you get exactly the same result that you've shown in your demo?

Dale

[heckydog Profile Private message]

Photoshop has a layer style called Glow and I would have thought Paint Shop Pro would have something similar so you wouldn't have to deal with masks or chromakeying.

I made this as a psd file so the black background could be removed. But it could also be outputted as png files.

Flash! 170KB, 5 seconds long, wmv

Joe

[Magmatic Profile Private message]

Joe, it's cool Photoshop will do a glow. I'm not sure how I would remove the black background of a flash file though.

Dale, I am using PSP X2. Wow, yes, using a wider text stroke is another way to make the text fatter! I didn't think of that!

The idea you suggest, using two layers seems like the first example in my demo. (I neglected to show a layer screen shot for that one.) So, yes, it would be the same result. An advantage of the third solid color layer is that you can make the layer any color you want, controlling the color of the glow from within ProShow, without messing again with that external editor.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Bear with me here! Let's assume the two layer scenario for the time being with Layer 2 being the one with the fatter outline around the text.

If you go to Slide Options | Layers | Editing you can colorize it to whatever color you want. You can set the intensity of that color change using the Contrast setting (for instance if there's some sort of texture in the layer that you want to remove, you'd move the contrast setting to -100). Upon selecting the Colorize option choose the color desired.

The mask option of a color layer is useful only if you plan on giving some kind of color gradient to the outline layer (but, in my experience this is of limited utility ... the gradiations of color aren't really apparent in this kind of use). But, if its just a single color you're using it's just a more complicated setup with no additional benefit (especially if you can get the exact same result without using a mask). I've used both approaches ... just depends on what I'm trying to do and my approach to it at the time.

When you only have a few layers in your slide, this isn't a big deal at all. But, when you start piling on the layers for your effect(s), you want to try and keep to just the absolutely necessary layers to achieve your effect(s). Otherwise, it can get fairly confusing. Just my 2 cents worth!

Dale

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

...keep to just the absolutely necessary layers to achieve your effect(s). Otherwise, it can get fairly confusing.

Do I ever agree with you. When I've piled on the layers, and once I'm sufficiently confused, I'll turn off layers singly, not just to remember what they're up to, but also to see if they truly serve any purpose at all. It's interesting how often a layer or 2 can be discarded or replaced with something simpler.

Barbara

[Magmatic Profile Private message]

I agree simplicity is best. But I haven't figured out how to use contrast to make the color intense when only using two layers and no mask. Changing the contrast has not worked for me. +100 loses the glow color completely. -100 makes the slide totally red (I colorized the glow layer red), losing the glow of the letters completely. 0 contrast gives a slight color to the glow. With the mask/extra layer method, if I colorize the extra layer with Edit Layer | Solid Color Options, I get a nice intense color.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Another method of intensification--and it may not be applicable in this instance but is worth noting--is to tweak the White and Black Points, which always work better than Contrast. I find Contrast often behaving like a baseball bat used for killing a flea.

Barbara