Trying to make shimmer (vintage) (VHS) style effect on Droid Sans

[Angel5FBD]

Hello all, my goal is to make a style that's reminiscent of a VHS vintage look using Droid Sans. Plus some static-like Y2K centric hues wouldn't be a bad idea, I just don't know how to go about it.  I attempted to start with a gradient fill to give the shadow discrepencies, I thought I was on the right track, but the fill is being compromised by the background, which I want to keep as black. (If you look closely the borders of the rectangle are noticeable, that's my issue). I'd like if anyone could suggest a completely different approach to making this style, or any online tutorial that may help me on this journey. Thanks!

For those who wonder, the gradient fill is black on either side but opaque in order to let the text shimmer through.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Angel,

As I (mis)understand it, you can create a 100% opacity gradient on top of the text, then select both gradient and text but not the black background and click Make (Opacity) Mask in the Transparency panel with both Clip and Invert Mask unticked; in this context white in the gradient will leave the text white as it is, and black in the gradient will leave the text transparent, anything in between will be transitions between the two.