Walker Effects Manual

Gradient Designer

Gradient Designer is the ultimate tool for building gradients. It has expert features to build practically any gradient you can imagine. A slick custom interface makes working with gradients super easy and supports dynamic creation of up to 12 colors. Gradients can be created in a variety of shapes or mapped to a layer. Furthermore, each color in the gradient has an alpha value allowing parts of the gradient to be transparent.

Gradient Type

Gradients can be created in two general ways:

Basic Shape

You can choose from a list of standard gradient shapes to create practically any kind of gradient you need.

Layer Map

Or you can use a layer map which will map the colors of the gradient to a layer channel.

Basic Shape

When using the Basic Shape Gradient Type, these controls will become available.

Shape

You can choose from a number of shapes including:

Horizontal

This maps the gradient from left to right across the layer. There are no additional options for this gradient shape. For more control the Linear shape is a good alternative.

Vertical

This maps the gradient from top to bottom across the layer. There are no additional options for this gradient shape. For more control use the Linear shape.

Linear

The Linear shape creates a gradient in a direction from the Start Point to the End Point.

Elliptical

The Elliptical shape produces a circular gradient. In this mode the transform controls will become active allowing you to move, scale, and rotate the gradient just as you would a layer. The Anchor determines the center point of the transformations.

Rectangular

The Rectangular shape produces a box style gradient. In this mode the transform controls will become active allowing you to move, scale, and rotate the gradient just as you would a layer. The Anchor determines the center point of the transformations.

Radial

The Radial shape produces a gradient that rotates around the center point in the same way the hand moves around the clock. This shape also supports transformation controls, even non-uniform scaling.

Layer Map

When the Gradient Type is set to Layer Map, these controls will become active. The Layer Map builds a gradient by mapping the colors to the specified channel of a layer. This can be used to create color corrections, style treatments and other special effects.

Layer

The Layer specifies the input layer for the gradient. If None is selected, then the layer on which the effect is applied will be used.

Channel

The selected Channel will be extracted from the Layer. You can set the Render Mode to Gradient Map to see the channel by itself with the Invert and Premultiply With Alpha options included.

Invert

If this checkbox is enabled the selected Channel will be inverted. Invert is calculated before Premultiply With Alpha. This will reverse the mapping of the gradient.

Premultiply With Alpha

Turn this checkbox on in order to render the Channel premultiplied with its alpha channel. This option is generally used for layers that have transparency.

Color Presets

As a starting point you can choose from the list of color presets. Each preset may vary in the number of colors used. From here it is easy to add or remove colors as you need.

Number of Colors

Gradient Designer supports up to 12 colors. You can set the number of color using this popup menu, or you can interactively add and remove colors using the Gradient Interface. When the number of colors is changed using this menu, colors are added/removed by number rather than visual order.

Repeat Mode

The Repeat Mode specifies how the gradient behaves beyond the initial range and when using the Cycle feature. You can create infinitely repeating gradients, or gradients that simply fade in and out.

Reverse

Checking this box will reverse the gradient. This option is available with all gradient types and will be displayed in the custom interface.

Dither

To help avoid gradient banding you can enable dithering by turning on this checkbox. Dithering adds slight random variation to the color mapping to help reduce visual steps in the gradient.

Gradient Interface

The Gradient Interface greatly simplifies the process of creating and manipulating colors. The interface is full of features and interactive widgets, discussed in more detail below. You can resize the Effect Control Window to resize the interface.

Tip: Hold down the shift key when dragging sliders to get finer control.

Control Bar

At the top of the Gradient Interface is the control bar. The Control Bar displays the name of any control as you move over or select it. In some cases the control value is also displayed making it easier for you to judge the changes you are making.

Display Color/Alpha

You can use this button to toggle between displaying the color gradient or the alpha gradient. The change will be reflected in the main viewing area of the Gradient Interface. The rendered gradient is unaffected by this change.

Reset Cycle

This button provides a quick way to reset the Cycle parameter. This will not modify the colors or positions in any way.

Space Positions Evenly

You can clean up a disorderly gradient by pressing this button. The current order of colors will be maintained, but the spaces between will be evenly spread out. This change only affects the color positions.

Histogram/Gradient View

The main viewing area of the Gradient Interface displays the layer histogram or the full gradient depending on what Gradient Type is selected. If the Layer Map is being used, a histogram of the channel map will be displayed superimposed with the gradient. If the Basic Shape type is being used, then the viewing area will display a full gradient.

Cycle

The Cycle can be interactively set in the Gradient Interface by dragging anywhere in the main viewing area. The cursor will change to the hand as an indication. Alternately you can set the Cycle using the standard angle parameter below.

Histogram Scale

When the histogram is visible, there is a slider control at the right of the interface that sets the histogram scale. This allows you to zoom into the histogram to see smaller details more clearly. This feature is only available with the Layer Map.

Color and Alpha Gradient

Below the main viewing area of the histogram is the gradient display. This is separated into two portions: color and alpha.

Color Controls

Each of the color controls can be moved freely by dragging on the triangle or color box. When the mouse is over a control it will slightly highlight with a darker border, and the name and value is displayed in the Control Bar.

To select a color simply click on it. The active color is highlighted in blue and a connection line is drawn to the color picker. Changes to the color picker directly affect the selected color.

Adding a Color

Colors can be dynamically added to the gradient by clicking in any empty space between existing color controls. The cursor will change to a pen '+' to indicate the mode change. After clicking, allow After Effects a moment to register the change. When the maximum of 12 colors has been reached, you will be unable to add any more colors and the cursor will change to the pen 'o'.

Removing a Color

Colors can be removed from the gradient by holding down the control key and clicking on a color. When the control key is down, the cursor will change to a pen '-'. After removing a color allow After Effects a moment to update. The removed color will be returned to the Color Bank for reuse. Colors can be removed until just 1 color remains.

Color Picker

The Color Picker interface is built into the Gradient Interface to provide optimal color picking capability. The selected color is indicated by a connection line in blue. Changes made to the color picker will directly affect the selected color. To set the alpha value of a color, use the Alpha slider at the bottom.

Cycle

The Color Bank lists all of the color controls used by Gradient Designer. Rather than encapsulating all of the controls into a single parameter, individual controls store the data to provide maximum flexibility in animating. You can enable animation for any of the controls in the color bank by clicking on the standard stopwatch icon.

Color Bank

The Color Bank is carefully managed by Gradient Designer and will add and remove colors as needed. Unused colors will be disabled gray. To see which colors correlate to the Gradient Interface, the Control Bar in the interface displays the number of each color as the mouse moves over it.

Render Mode

The Render Mode gives a few different render output options:

Gradient Map

This mode will render the grayscale gradient map without color. This mode is most useful when using the Layer Map.

Gradient Only

This mode will output just the gradient with its own opacity. Use this View Mode when you don't care to composite the gradient over the source layer.

Composite

The Composite mode will render the gradient composited over the layer on which the effect is applied. With this mode selected, the Composite Mode and Opacity controls will become available.

Composite Mode

You can use the Composite Mode to control how the color is mixed with the original layer colors. This option is only available when the Render Mode is set to Composite. The default setting of Normal simply replaces the original layer colors. Other Composite Modes can be used to create more dynamic coloring effects.

Preserve Transparency

When this option is enabled the alpha channel of the original layer is preserved. Otherwise the glow region has it's own alpha and may extend beyond the edges of the original alpha.

Opacity

The amount of color applied is controlled by the Opacity. At a value of 0, no color is applied to the image, while at 100% the color is fully applied.

Blend With Original

Use this slider to blend the result of the effect with the original input layer. If Blend With Original is set to 100, the effect will not render.