Fig. 05: Just use these coordinates for your light and no one gets hurt.[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Fig. 06: Putting the light on an angle yields a soft gradient effect.

At this point, I'd like to thank your for your indulgence, as I just gave you a bunch of numbers to input there without any explanation. Your reward, of course, is that you are now free to play around. Try changing the Active Camera view to a custom setting (fig. 7, top left) and using the various Camera tools (fig. 7, bottom left) to find a view you can work with, and then try dragging the light position and focus settings right in the Comp window itself (fig. 7, right). Go ahead and mess with the Light Settings too (fig. 8) in case you want to up the intensity or make the Feather softer or harder or whatever. Get the look you want, and when you're ready, we'll continue.


Fig. 07: Change your view, use the Camera tools, and drag the light around for even more hijinks and debauchery!


Fig. 08: You can also mess with your light settings right in the Timeline by twirling down the Options arrow.

Step 7: Yet another comp
Now things are really going to come together in yes, another new comp. Select Composition:New Composition from the menubar, and then enter in the settings shown in Figure 9. This will create a new comp called ScreenFinalComp with a resolution of 720x540, which is the resolution I almost always use when I'm not sure where the final sequence will end up. This way, I can downsize the comp for DV or D1 output (either square or non-square pixels), or go even smaller for a CD-ROM or Web clip without having to deal with the horror and emotional scarring that goes with scaling up. Anyway, back to the task at hand. First, we're going to create a relatively simple background for our screenshot to hover over later.


Fig. 09: Behold, I give you Comp settings.

If it's not active already, click on the ScreenFinalComp tab in either the Comp window or the Timeline to bring it to the front. Then create a new Solid by Control/Right-clicking (again, either in the Comp Window or the Timeline) and selecting New:Solid. You'll get the Solid Footage Settings dialog box, so while it's there and all, you might as well name your solid Bed and click the Make Comp Size button to have the Solid size match your comp window. Keep the color whatever it defaults to (black in my case), and then click OK. Next, we're going to apply a simple Ramp (AKA gradient) filter to the Solid to complete the background. Select the Bed layer in the Timeline, and then go to the menubar and choose Effect:Render:Ramp. You should get a simple gradient in your comp window that flows from black at the top to white at the bottom (fig. 10).


Fig. 10: This gradient isn't all that fabulous.

This basic gradient isn't too tremendously compelling, so we're going to muck around with the Effect Controls for the Ramp effect to give it a little color. If the Effect Controls window isn't already open, activate it by selecting the Bed layer in your ScreenFinalComp's Timeline window, and then choosing Effect:Effect Controls from the menubar. We're going for a purplish/reddish gradient that goes from top left to bottom right, so just enter the settings you see in Figure 11. If you really want to match things up to what I'm doing, the RGB value for the Start Color is (100, 55, 145), and (30, 0, 0) for the End Color. After all of that, your gradient should look something like Figure 12.


Fig. 11: Here's your cheat sheet for the Ramp effect.


Fig. 12: This gradient, on the other hand, is fabulous.



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