Apply blur to an affect in an adjustment layer, but not other layers?

Question

I imagine this is possible but im still learning the program so a little confused. I want to apply a blur to a light ray, but I want the blur to only affect the light ray, and not the layers below the adjustment layer. I would imagine this could be done through pre composing? But the difficult im having is that since the light ray needs to affect all the layers below it, how could i apply a blur to *just* the light ray without the blur also being applied to the layers below it. A little confused as to what ordering trick im missing but it seems so simple im sure their has to be a way to do it in AE. Thanks!

Rick Gerard · Accepted Answer

Your workflow does not make sense. CC Light Rays need an alpha channel (transparency) on a layer to work properly. You would apply CC Light Rays to a layer, not an Adjustment layer. If you want to add additional effects to just light Rays you need a copy of the layer with the transparency, apply CC Light Rays to that layer, set the Transfer Mode option for the top layer to None, and then add your additional effects below CC Light Rays. Let's call the layer with transparency your Hero layer. It could be any layer with transparency. If your hero layer is a text layer you'll need to add Grow Bounds to the text layer or pre-compose it to fix edge problems.

If it were my project I would:

Select the hero layer in the timeline and go to the Edit menu and select Copy with Relative Property links
Paste the new layer into the timeline so that it is above the original hero layer
Pre-compose if the layer is a text layer
Apply CC Light Rays to the top copy of the layer and set the Transfer mode to None
Change the blend mode of the top layer to Add or Screen
Add something like Radial Fast Blur and Glow to the effects stack and start tweaking the settings
If you use another effect like Radial Fast Blur that has a position property open the Parent Links panel (Shift + F4), and link the position properties of the effects to the Position property of CC Light Rays
Because you copied the layer with relative property links any transform property animation you make on the original hero layer will be reflected in the copy, even if you pre-compose the layer

The comp will look something like this. It will take about 2 minutes to create what I did.

Jose Panadero · Answer

Why don't you apply the blur effect directly to the light ray?

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded