Gradient plug-in

Gradient is designed to easily create and animate gradients by using a non-traditional setup. Typically, a gradient tool has a color picker and markers that define the gradient. Our Gradient tool exposes each parameter, which lets you define the gradient dynamically. For instance, use expressions to change its look or set up other filters or events along the timeline. You have up to six colors to work with and four different types of gradients, with a lot of control over how your gradient looks.

 

Gradient plug-in.

 

 

Note about banding

Whenever you use a gradient, you run the risk of 'color banding'. Banding happens when there’s not enough color depth in the output device to show the full range of colors. The result is ugly solid bands of some colors. No matter what your output target is, you need to be aware of the limitations of the output device. A printer, TV screen and computer monitor all have different limitations. A gradient that looks great on your computer may look horrible on a TV.

You should check any gradients you create – in any gradient tool – on a TV Monitor or Vectorscope. Trying to fix color banding problems after you’ve completely designed something can be disasterous. While you can add effects like Noise to reduce the banding somewhat, typically you will have to adjust the colors.

 

 

Color group

The Color group has six sections that each contain four controls: Use Color checkbox, Position, Color and Transparency.

By default, only the top three colors are active and generating the gradient. You can turn colors on and off by selecting the Use Color checkbox. Colors can be changed or animated by adjusting the Color that is used, its Postiion along the gradient and its Transparency level.

 

 

 

Color> Use Color checkbox

Turns the Color box on or off. If the Color is turned on, its color is blended with the colors in front and behind it. If it is turned off, the colors in front and behind are blended to remove it. The exact effect this Color will have is determined by its Position in the gradient.

You can animate turning the color on/off, however it will not smoothly transition. It abruptly changes from one to the other, much like flipping a light switch.

 

 

Color> Color box

Colors are deternined by the Color boxes (Color 1, Color 2). You can change the color by clicking on the Color chip. Alternately, use its Eye-dropper tool to select a color from anywhere on your screen. Colors can be animated and will smoothly blend from one color to the next.

 

 

Color> Position

Sets where the Color lies along the gradient, measured in percentage, which determines its effect. The Position slider is a simple way of setting up a gradient. Since Position can be animated, it also gives you a precisce way to control the look of the gradient.

The default position of the three colors that are initially active create the default gradient shown below. Red has a Position of 0, Yellow has a Position of 50, and Blue has a Position of 100. Since Yellow is at 50%, it's smack in the middle of the gradient, getting blended with Red and Blue.

 

The default Positions.

 

A Color's Position can be in any order. Color 1 could be the last color in the gradient, Color 6 could be the middle color, and Color 3 could be the first. In the following example, notice that Color 1 is in the middle, Color 2 is last, Color 3 is NOT used, and Color 4 is the first color in the gradient. As you can see, it makes no difference how your colors are arranged.

 

The default Positions have been changed.

 

There are a variety of configurations the colors can take. For example, Position does not need to start and end at 0% and 100%. If the first color starts at 25%, then the first 25% of the gradient will be a solid color. Only after 25% will the color start blending with the other colors in the gradient.

 

In this example, the solid colors are achieved by setting the Position of the two middle colors next to the start and end Positions.

 

 

Color> Transparency

Sets the transparency of a Color. Each Color has its own transparency setting so transparency can vary throughout the gradient. If you want a gradient to show another image behind it, set Transparency to 100%. The surrounding colors will blend in both color and transparency.

 

Left to right, Gradient with transparency (over white) and without transparency.

 

The Transparency setting will affect your alpha channel if nothing is behind the layer that Gradient is applied to. If you are going to take the gradient to a different application for compositing, you should not save out a transparent gradient to a PICT sequence or QuickTime movie. Instead, save out the gradient with no transparency, and then save out the alpha channel seperately, which you can use as a matte. If you save out the gradient and alpha channel seperately, the alpha produces a result that looks exactly like what we had in AE originally. You want the pure color to be transparent, not a color that's been blended already.

 

At left, a transparent gradient rendered over black. In middle, a solid gradient. At right, an alpha channel. Where the light blue becomes fully opaque, you’ll notice that transparent colors are more saturated than when you used a transparent gradient over black.

 

 

Blend First and Last Color checkbox

When turned on, this automatically separates the two colors of a gradient and forces them to blend, producing a smooth edge. Blend First/Last will also make the transition from one cycle to the next more blurred. The further away the first and last colors are from the extremes of 0% and 100%, the more they will blend, when the gradient is cycled.

This checkbox is only necessary if your gradient is animated for more than one cycle. When the gradient cycles, there is usually a hard aliased edge (the stair-stepped ‘jaggy’ look) between the last color of the first cycle and the first color of the second cycle. You can get rid of this aliasing manually by setting the first Color to Positon of 2% and the last Color to Position of 98%. This positioning puts a little space between the last and first colors, giving them room to blend. Otherwise, there is no space between the two Colors and no room to blend them together to get rid of the hard edge.

 

At left, first Color at Position of 5% and last Color at Position of 90%. At right, first Color and last Color at 0 and 100%.

 

 

Type pop-up

There are four types of gradients. The Linear and Radial gradients are by far the most common and useful, but Wrapped and Square are useful too.

 

Left to right, Linear, Circular, Square and Wrapped.

 

 

Type> Linear option

Creates a blend from one side of the layer to the other. You can use the Direction dial to control the angle of the gradient. By default, Direction is set to 0, which results in the gradient going from bottom to top. A color with a position of 0, will be at the bottom, a color with a position of 100 will be at top.

As you rotate the direction around, the positions change. If Direction is set to 180, then a color with a position of 0 will be at the top and the color with a position of 100 will be at the bottom. This is fairly intuitive so play around with the direction and see what you get. It makes it considerably easier to rotate a direction than the way the Ramp filter works.

 

 

Type> Circular option

Creates a radial gradient that radiates from the point set by the Center point. A color with Position at 0 will be in the center; a color with Position at 100 will be at the outer edge.

The ‘outer edge’ of the Circular gradient produces an interesting problem if you animate the Center point. Its outer edge is set by the edge of the layer that is furthest away. As the Center point gets closer to the center of the layer, the gradient circle will appear to shrink because the center of the layer has a shorter distance between any side of the layer. As the Center of the gradient moves away from center, one side of the layer gets further away from it, and that layer side is what's used to calculate the radius of the circle.

This produces some interesting effects when animated which may be desirable… or maybe not. When the Use Radius checkbox is selected, the radius of the circle is determined by the Radius parameter, not the layer edge. With Use Radius selected the circle will always maintain the same size, so as you animate it, it will look like a gradient ball floating around.

 

Circular gradient with the center moved. The white line shows the distances from the center to the furthest edge. This defines the radius of the Circular gradient.

 

Circular gradient with Radius at 300. Note that as you move the center around, the gradient stays the same size.

 

 

Type> Square

Similar to Circular gradient except the Square gradient radiates from its center in a square pattern. The size of the square is determined with the Center control in the same way as the Circular gradient (see above). If you want the square to stay the same size as it animates then use the Use Radius checkbox and Radius parameter.

 

 

 

Type> Wrapped option

This option wraps the gradient around its Center point. Very similar to what you would see if you applied a Polar Coordinates filter. If you create a donut-shaped mask or circular-shaped mask, the Warpped gradient will follow evenly around the mask, with the colors going from one edge of the layer to the other.

By default, there is a hard edge where the Wrapped gradient's beginning and end colors meet. To make the beginning and end blend smoothly instead, turn on the Blend First and Last checkbox. Then set your first color to something other than 0, say 10%, and set your last color to something other than 100, say 90%. This gives the filter some room to blend its colors into a smooth gradient. After all, why would you want a gradient with a nipple in the middle of it? The further away from 0% the intial color is, and the further away from 100% the last color is, the more the two colors will blend and the less obvious the seam will be.

 

At left, the Wrapped gradient with two circular masks. At right, the masks with a Circular gradient.

 

 

Direction

Sets the angle of the gradient. The effect of Direction varies with the type of gradient.

 

 

Center

Sets the center point of the gradient. The further away from the center of the layer that Center is moved, the larger the radius of the gradient, since you are increasing the distance from the furthest edge.

For the Square and Circular types, Center defines the center of the square or circle shape. If Use Radius is not selected and the Center is moved, the Square or Circle will appear to grow or shrink in size. This is because the radius of the Square or Circle is defined by the distance from the Center to the furthest edge.

For the Wrapped type, Center defines the position of the spot that the gradient is wrapped around.

 

 

Cycle

Causes the gradient to automatically repeat itself, which is helpful during animation. The value entered sets the number of repeated cycles.

 

Set Cycle very high (above 50) and use a Circular or Wrapped gradient to create interesting moire patterns.

 

Make use of Cycle and play with light and dark color to get an interesting nice pattern.

 

 

Brightness, Contrast

Built-in Brightness and Contrast controls that make simple color adjustment very easy. You can also use these controls to create effects. Below, we’ve cranked up the contrast to 100% and easily created solid colors. You could certainly do this with the Position controls in the Color section, but Contrast can sometimes be a quick and dirty option as well.

The use of these parameters can cause severe banding. In some cases this banding is desirable as it will reduces the gradient to strips of 3 or 4 colors. Usually it isn’t desirable, though, so be cautious using it.

 

Contrast at 100% creates solid colors.

 

 

Composite On Original checkbox

Blends the gradient with the underlying image that it’s been applied to. Use the Transfer Mode pop-up to determine how they blend.

 

 

Transfer Mode pop-up

Use the Transfer Modes to composite the gradient with the layer it is applied to. Do not confuse these with the Transfer Modes in After Effects' Timeline. The built-in Gradient modes will only affect the blending between the gradient and its underlying image. It will have no effect on how the Gradient layer interacts with other layers in your composition.

 

Transfer Mode overlays three gradients to create complex effects.

 

 

Corner To Corner checkbox

When turned on, this calculates the gradient to cover the entire distance between the corners, no matter what the Direction is set to.

Typically when you rotate a gradient, particularly a Linear gradient, you will see large areas of color pool in the corners. This is because the Gradient plug-in tries to interpolate between the length of the gradient vertically and horizontally. When it’s rotated, this distance is shorter than the distance between the corners, and you end up with areas of solid colors in the corners. The problem is particularly obvious with a Square or Circular gradient and doesn’t appear at all with a Wrapped gradient. The way to eliminate this interpolation is to turn on Corner to Corner.

 

At top, images without Corner To Corner. At bottom, images spread Corner to Corner, which eliminates the larger areas of color in the upper left and lower right.

 

 

Radius

Sets the size of the Square and Circular types. If you’re going to move a Square or circular gradient with the Center control but would like its shape to stay the same size, you must use the Radius control. Otherwise, the shape's radius will change because the distance between the Center and the furthest edge of the layer changes.

 

 

Use Radius checkbox

When turned on, the Radius slider is active. This checkbox overrides the normal way that the Square and Circular gradients get their radius.

When the Center point is moved around, the Square or Circular gradient shape will not change in size, since its size is set by the Radius control. This will cause distinctly different behavior in the way your Square and Circular gradients behave when animated. The way to eliminate this behavior problem is to turn on Use Radius and set a value for Radius.