Final Trailer

I decided to heavily modify my original trailer to include some clips of footage that i have taken myself.
I imported the original trailer into a new, cut the individual scenes up and then removed the scene of the asteroid colliding with a planet. I then imported this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-WNBsp15Bc

I cut the clip at the point of impact and then cut the first part into 3 pieces with the razor tool. I replaced the clip of the asteroid hitting a planet with the second half then cut some of the parts of the other scenes out so that i could put in the three clips of the first half. I then imported the clips i recorded and slotted those in as well, then i put in dip to black transitions between all of the clips except the ones of the planets, which were dip to white to make it look like a flashback.I then adjusted the audio of the recorded footage to have have maximum peak gains of +2DB because they were too quiet. This then caused them to have a loud hiss which I managed to reduce slightly by putting noise reduction effects on them set to -20DB.
I then applied saturation and contrast adjustments to the recorded footage using the Contrast and brightness effect with the contrast set to 30 and the ProcAmp effect with the saturation set to 50. This gave a more serious/epic look to them. I then created 3 black colour mattes on the a video track above the recorded footage on the main track, then applied Gaussian blur effect of 471 to them as well as a track matte key effect on the recorded footage with the Matte set to track 5(the track of the colour mattes). This created a vignette effect and helped with the epic/moody look. I then noticed that 2 of the 3 scene i recorded were out of focus so i applied a sharpen effect to them of 53.
Finally i cut the last scene from the original trailer and duplicated it onto track 2. I then applied Gaussian blur to the duplicated clip and set it to horizontal blur then set the blending mode of the clip to linear dodge (add) so that it made the scene look like it had a bloom effect applied to it.
I exported this sequence to a quicktime movie and ticked the 'render at maximum quality' option. After this was finished rendering I reimported it back into premier and into a new sequence, then opened photoshop and created this graphic.

This was made using two textures from cgtextures.com.

http://cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=3389&PHPSESSID=lsjfdbagpt2e59uv74sqj96gg3 (image 2)

http://cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=50035&PHPSESSID=lsjfdbagpt2e59uv74sqj96gg3 (image 2)

I imported the metal floor texture into the bottom layer then cut the corner off using the polygonal lasso tool. There was then a problem with the fact that the texture didnt cover the whole width of the canvas so i selected the rest of the canvas along with part of the texture with the rectangular marquee tool and then filled the area with 'content-aware' which created a similar looking area to the rest of the texture. I then blurred the edge of this with the blur tool since it looked like it had been cut in the middle. Then I selected the pixels of this layer, created a new layer, removed some of the inside of it to get a thick border and then filled it with grey. I then created a new layer and imported the second texture into it and deleted most of it except the bolts at the top then selected the blank space and some of the remaining texture then filled this space with 'content-aware' to get some more bolts on it. I then selected the pixels on the previous layer to select the large border and then applied a mask to the second texture. I applied a bevel effect to it with a size of 1px, a depth of 144% , the tecnique was set to hard chisel, shading angle was set to 48 degrees and the altitude was set to 21 degrees. I then set the blend mode of the second texture layer to overlay and applied a hue adjustment to it. I then changed the hue to 222 and ticked colourize, reduced the lightness to -24 and the saturation to 7. I exported this as a png file then imported it to premier.

In premier, on the second sequence, I imported the png onto the second video track above the recorded footage and moved it into the bottom right corner of the screen. I then created a title with the text: 

'E3

First Impressions'

This was in the same white font i have used previously and had a shadow at -130 degrees. This was then placed on track 3 over the png on track 2 and created a label over the video footage to inform people of who the was, helping them understand the person perspective. I then put an black alpha glow effect on the png, set the glow to 8 and the brightness to 94 then exported the sequence as a Quicktime movie in DV25 Widescreen format with the 'render at maximum quality' ticked.

The Developer Logo

To make the logo of the developer i first took this screen shot of a tank in-game

I then imported it into Illustrator and then outlined it with the pen tool. I then outlined the turret and the composite armour and some of the other details. After outlining the major parts i then deleted the screenshot and just worked on adding details with the line tool, pen tool and shape tool. I only gave it minor details because as its a logo you don't want to much detail on it. I made the barrel bigger to make it seem like its closer to the camera and make the tank more intimidating.
After finishing the tank i added the text. The text was made from the same font as the game's title but i made the A and the S myself using the pen tool. I then went over the text adding lines and dots that i added using the line tool and the brush tool to make the text look like its made of armour.
I made it look like there was dirt over the text by creating lots of dots with the brush tool set to 3pt round then changed the sizes to make them vary. I made a small patch of these then turned them into a symbol and stamped them around the text with the symbol sprayer tool. I then varied the rotation of them with the symbol spinner tool and the positioning of them with the symbol shifter tool.
I finally made a border by creating a large white square and a slightly smaller black square with the square shape tool, selecting both of them and clicking the subtract button on the pathfinder.

The back of the cover

After studying some other games' cover art i made my own art for the back of the cover.

To make the metallic looking borders i first made a square with the rectangular marquee tool then filled this square with a varied gradient to make a metallic look. I added some nodes to the gradient on the gradient tool and set them to a variety of greys, whites and blacks to make a shiny metallic look. I then selected the all the pixels on that layer by CTRL + Clicking on the layer's thumbnail then transforming the selection, reducing the scale by holding ALT + Shift then re-sizing it down to the size of the inside of the border. I then used the polygonal lasso tool to make the patterns on the corners by holding ALT then drawing the pattern while holding Shift to keep the lines at 45 degree angles. I then added bevel effects to it in the effects options and set the technique to Chisel Hard to make it look like metal, the depth to 184% and the size to 2px. I then set the shading angle to -37 degrees and the altitude to 37 degrees. I ticked anti aliased to increase the quality of the shading and then set the highlight and shadow modes to normal because they weren't showing up properly. I also set the opacity to 100% to make the shading sharper. Finally i added white radial gradients make light flares to make the metal look shiny.

After making the borders i then got 2 screens shots of a similar game and then re-sized and masked them into the borders. One of the screenshots i took myself in-game and the other one i got from this site:
http://86bb71d19d3bcb79effc-d9e6924a0395cb1b5b9f03b7640d26eb.r91.cf1.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/supreme-commander-forged-alliance-screenshot-big.jpg

I then added a blue tint using the hue and saturation adjustment layers then setting them to only affect the layer below them, setting them to colourize and then playing with the sliders till i got a result i was happy with.
I then added blue radial gradients to the sides of the screenshot borders to make it look like its a hologram or is being lit and then set them to overlay. To add to the holographic/digital look I added blue glowing lines by getting a guide, setting the brush to about 3px then clicking on one point of the guide, holding shift, then clicking on another point further down. I then duplicated this line further down the image by selecting them, holding alt, then dragging it down a few pixels then duplicating those two lines and repeating this until i had enough lines to cover the size of the screenshot. I then added blue glow effects to the lines in the effects options then set the blend mode to Vivid light to make the glow more colourful and the size to 5px.

To make the text box in the middle i made a rounded square vector shape then selected the path and applied a blue stroke to the outside of the selection of about 8-10px then applied a blue glow of 27px to the layer. Then gave it a black background with the rectangular marquee tool and wrote the text with the text tool then applied glow the text of 9px then duplicated the main body of the text, rasterized the duplicate, then masked out most of the words except a few of them. I then set opacity to 46% to make the text have a backdrop in some areas to enhance the holographic look.  I then duplicated the 'THIS IS THE LAST WAR' then applied a wind effect from the filter menu. I set it to blast and then also applied a wave effect and played around with the settings so the text looked distorted then set the opacity of this layer to 46%. I then duplicated the main body and rasterized it and hid the original. I selected parts of it with the rectangular marquee tool and moved them along by about 2px and then converted some text into binary, made a new text layer with the binary on it, applied the same glow effects as the previous text to it, reduced the opacity to 18% and then placed the layer behind the other text.

Finally i tried to create a rubber texture similar to the on below but more of a silicone material.

I started off with a dark grey/black colour for the ribbing and a lighter grey for the crevices. I created these with the rectangular marquee and filling the selection. I then added some outlines for the edges of the ribbing and made them a lighter grey for the side of the lighting then a darker browner colour for the opposite side. I did this by selecting the ribbing with the magic wand tool then applying stroke to selection. I did this on two layers then removed the the light shaded side on the second one, then applied a black glow of 10px with the spread set at 18% and the blending mode set to normal to make add shading to the crevices. I then went over the ribbing three times with the brush tool set to dissolve with the flow set to 1% to add lots of pixels and then added motion blur of about 53% degrees to it to make fibers  I then added Gaussian blur to help it blend in a bit better then set the opacity to 94%. I then added a faint white radial gradient to each bit of ribbing to emulate light reflecting off of the surface. To do this i made a large radial gradient then flattened it down by transforming it and rotated it till it fit the ribbing. After adding this to all of the ribbing i set the opacity to 6% to make the lighting subtle. I then masked the whole rubber texture to the area i needed it and then added the text.

(Just about) Finished Trailer

I have gotten my trailer to a point where it can be considered finished. I may add some extra bits later on but here is what i have so far.

The changes i made from last time are:

• Added blue lens flare to the first scene and modified the lens flare in the second scene to be blue
• Added a glitch effect to the first scene
• Changed the font for 'IT'S COMING' to the font of the title
• Added more glitch effects to the title as well as a background
• Added the release date, developer and publisher after the title

To add lens flare I added a solid layer in After Effects then added the lens flare effect with a colour balance effect and turned the blue shadows and midtones up to 100. I then added a Change to Colour effect to change the brown/orange colours to blue. I then added camera lens blur and set the radius to 2 to soften the lens flare so it looked more realistic.

I tried using the tracker to track part of the clip. This didn't work because there was no point on the screen that stayed looking the same the whole way through so the tracking points kept coming out of place. So i ended up having to manually move the lens flare for each frame.

After adding the motion to the lens flare i then added a motion blur effect by adding directional blur to the layer. I then went through and set keyframes at the start and end of each large movement then set the blur amount according to the speed of the motion.

I then added a glitch effect when explosions happened and the camera shook. To do this i added fractal noise to a new solid layer then set the blend mode to screen. I set the fractal type to turbulent smooth and the noise type to block. Then created 2 keyframes, one at the start and one at the end. I then set the keyframe at the start to 0x and the one at the end to 25x. This made the fractal evolve over time and made the scene look glitchy. I then added a gaussian blur to make the glitch later in the scene look smoother, since the camera shake wasn't as harsh i made the glitchyness less harsh. I adjusted the length of this layer to as long as in needed to be then added keyframes for the opacity to make the glitch appear when it is need as well as keyframes to the gaussian blur strength ramping to 100 after the initial explosion and then set it to 30 for the following explosions.

For the second scene i increased the brightness slightly and then copied the colour changing effects over from the previous lens flare to make it blue.

For the glitchy title I generated multiple title layers in photoshop at different distorted states by getting the original title then applying a wind effect from the filters, then mezzotint set to long lines then finally adding a wave effect. I then repeated this many times to get a lot of titles in different states by playing with the settings of the wave effect. I then imported the photoshop file into after effects then took the layers i wanted and put them onto the timeline, each for a few frames to make the animation. I then went over and added some horizontal Gaussian Blur each layer and set the blur to 10, this made them look smoother.
I then made another layer in photoshop of the release date, publisher and developer using the text tool. I then looked at the valve logo and replicated it using the text tool and rectangular marquee tool. After making this i then repeated the process for the title again to get the distorted/glitchy look i wanted.
After this i then added a solid layer and then added a fractal noise effect then set the noise type to linear and the fractal type to turbulent basic i also set the contrast to 120 i also then added a keyframe at the start and end of the title then set the evolution at the end of the title to 5 so it would evolve over time. I then reduced the opacity of this effect to 30%, then added a colour balance effect to make it blue. I set the red midtones and hilights to -100 as well as the green midtones to -60 and the green hilights to -50. I then added this clip between the title and the fractal and set the blend mode to screen.
I then got the following clip of dust from youtube.

Then set the clip blending mode to screen and added Gaussian blur set to 2.0 as well as a colour balance with the midtone red balance set to -100, midtone green balance set to -46 and the hilight red balance set to -7.
Then i added 2 solid layers of particle playground effects and played with the properties until the particles looked like slow moving slow or dust. I added Gaussian blur to both layers and set one of them 28.2 and the other to 100. This made the particles look like they were at different distances from the camera.

After all the effects had been added i exported what i had to an MP4 format then imported it into adobe premier on its own sequence. I then copied the 'It's coming' title from the old sequence, put it over the top of the one in the imported footage, cut out the old title with the razor tool, then edited the title i got from the old sequence so it had the same font as everything else and exported it.

The Trailer (First Draft)

To create the trailer up to its current state i used the following clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgpOfVsw62g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhEYvOYceNs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfr2-gDL9qo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UvUbnEenGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Y5SyjbHAA

I started off with by cutting all of the clip out of the source footage by opening the source footage and setting the start and end markers of each clip then dragging the clip into the clips bin. For the music i only dragged the audio out into the audio bin. I then started by dragging the the PEGI 12 clip onto the timeline. I then added the clip of the robot combat scene followed by the clip of the drop ship. I then faded it in using the opacity settings by clicking on the timeline with the pen tool to add points to the opacity line then dragged the one at the beginning all the way down.
After these three clips i added a title with the text 'IT'S COMING' then adjusted the scale on the first and last frames using the keyframes making the title on the first frame smaller than the title on the last frame so that the title zooms in to give dramatic affect. I also faded the title in and out using the same technique as before. I then added the asteroid collision clip and slowed it down by 50% and enabled frame blending to make the animation smoother. I then faded it out using the same technique as before and added the clip of the robot powering up after it. I then left a space after this for text to be inserted since i was going to do this in after affects to add some effects to it. After this space i added the clip of the robot's eyes lighting up and faded it in and out using the opacity controls.

After adding all of the clips, i unlinked all of them,except the PEGI 12 clip, from their audio tracks and deleted the audio. Then replaced it with the audio clip i made earlier, I zoomed in on the audio near the start of where the title would be then cut the audio track with the razor tool. I then zoomed in on the end of the intense part of the song and split that part too with the razor tool. I then removed the piece i had cut out then moved the rest of the song up to the start of the title. I then faded the song out at the end using the same technique as before except with the volume controls.

I after looking back through what i had made i saw that i could make the scenes look better by adjusting the colour and contrast so i added colour balance and contrast effects to the first two clips after the PEGI 12 clip. On the first of the two i set the the green highlights to -50 and the blue highlights to -29 and then set the contrast to 20. This helped to make the scene look less washed out and gave the scene more of a deeper colouring. On the second clip i set the green and blue highlights to 10 and reduced the red highlights to -40 to make the scene look more like its an earth type planet at around midday. It also brought the blue colour out on the vehicles to match the colour scheme of the title and cover DVD Cover. I added an RGB Colour Balance to the asteroid collision clip and increased the reds from 100 to 150 to make the colours more vibrant as there is a lot of red in the scene. This also shifts the scene to a more orange colour which goes with the orange and blue scheme i have on the cover. I then added an RGB Colour Balance to the scene of the robot powering and increased the blues from 100 to 125. Going higher than this made the scene look strange and slightly purple so i added blue Colour Matte then set the blending mode to overlay and set the opacity on the first frame to 0% then 38% at about 3/4 of the way through. This make the colour get more intense as the scene progressed to match the style of that part of the trailer. Finally i added an RGB Colour Balance effect to the last clip and increased the blue from 100 to 120 to make it look colourful, improving the general look of the clip.

I then exported everything in the quicktime format set at 25 frames per second and at a resolution of 1280x720. I also ticked frame blending and use maximum render quality to ensure the highest quality image is gained so i don't lose quality when moving between premier and after affects.
In after affects i imported the title from photoshop by moving the title into its own PSD file the importing that. I then filled the blank section of the trailer with the title and then started to add effects to it.
I adjusted the colour of it to a deeper blue by using the Change to Colour effect and sampled the colour i wanted to change then selected the deeper blue that i wanted. I also added a Gaussian blur effect to it and set the blur to verticle and played around with the blur amount on several keyframes to make the digital distortion effect. I also added random movement to the title to make it look better by creating the start and end keyframe, selecting them then using the wiggler tool to make random motion within the keyframes.
I intent on changing the 'It's Coming' text and adding the release details after the second distortion of the title.

The Spine

I updated the DVD cover by adding the spine art.

I made this by starting with the text. I rewrote the title in 22.29pt text then reduced the line spacing from the original title to fit into the spine. I added a thick blue stroke effect as well as an inner and outer blue glow.  Then i added a white radial gradient and flattened it with the transform tool then placed it in front of and between the two lines of text. I also added another radial gradient behind the text which covers most of the area behind the title.
I then added a blue reflected gradient centred on the text which covers the entire spine and changed the layer blending mode to overlay. I noticed that the white gradient wasn't being tinted very well by the blue gradient so i added another blue radial gradient over the top of the white one then set the blending mode to overlay. This made the white gradient have a more vivid blue glow. I then added a black overlay and masked out the areas i didn't want it to cover to make the gradient smoother.
I then added small particles using the brush tool by setting the blending mode to dissolve and the size to about 250 as well as setting the flow to 1% and hardness to 100% drawing a line along the text. I then enlarged the particles with the transform tool then added horizontal motion blur of about 10px. I added a blurred blue effect over the top to make it look a bit more digital looking. I did this by creating 2 blue boxes with the rectangular marquee tool then right clicking and selecting fill. I then added vertical motion blur to the layer of about 70-100px and then a Gaussian blur of about 1-2px.
I imported the PEGI 12 logo and gave it a black inner glow and set the glow blending mode to normal to make it actually show up. This glow made the logo blend a bit better. I then added a product code above the PEGI logo. Both these layers were then sent to the bottom so that the blue gradient would tint them slightly to improve how they blend with the rest of the spine.
I finally added a white square to the top of the spine and put the 'PC DVD' text in it, tinted the text blue by creating an orange radial gradient on a layer above it then masking it to the text and set the blending mode to divide. I then unlinked the mask from the layer and moved the gradient below the text to get the effect i wanted. I then put a blue rectangle under the white one to give it an underline and help it blend in some more.
Finally i added a black outline around the PC DVD logo, gave it a black glow and set the blending mode to normal. This helped it blend in a bit better.

Backside graphics

On the back of the dvd cover you would usually have some sort of graphic to go behind the screenshots and text. This is usually in relation to the theme of the content.
Since my game is a sci-fi game i will compare some existing game cover art

A similar game to the style of the game i've gone with is Supreme commander
With this cover you will see that they went with a mixture of metallic and holographic looking graphics. This makes it look clean and futuristic.
http://www.covergalaxy.com/forum/attachments/pc/8106d1269682957-supreme-commander-german-supreme-commander-cover.jpg

With this cover they went with a full metallic look, using a rusted/worn look. This makes you think of armour or machinery.
http://www.covergalaxy.com/forum/attachments/microsoft-xbox-360/9890d1294800765-supreme-commander-2-pal-cover-disc-scans-supreme-commander-2-front.jpg

I also looked around for other covers that use other styles to make a sci-fi look but i couldn't find any. It seems that holographic and metallic looks are common themes in sci-fi graphics so i will have to design some for my cover.

Transferring to the DVD Case

Since the front cover is almost complete i decided to transfer it onto DVD Case template to see how it looked. I realised that it didn't look right so i then had to copy each layer over separately and then moved the title up slightly.

I then added stars in the background. I did this by rendering monochromatic noise then using the crystallize filter. Then i added some larger stars by adding white radial gradients, flattened them with the transform tool, blurred them, then added colour overlays on another layer to add some variety and make it seem a bit more realistic.

The Title

For the title i started with the words 'TECHNILOGICAL OVERDOSE' then gave the layer a grey stroke with the effects layer and rasterized it. I then added a bevel effect the text to make it look 3D and then rasterized the effects layer again. I added inner and outer blue glow as well as a blue overlay.

I then added various gradient effects with the gradient tool and set the blending modes to overlay or normal.

I added some blurred colours to the text to improve the look. I did this with the polygonal lasso tool then filled the selection and added motion blur of 999px at 0 Degrees. I used the brush tool to add dots behind each letter then added a large amount of motion blur at 90 Degrees.

I added specular highlights with the gradient tool on parts of the text as well as lens flare. Due to the image being CYMK i had to make the lens flare myself.

I added dust particles with the brush tool by setting the flow to 1% and the hardness to 100% then added motion blur to them to make the dust look like its moving. This layer was then masked away from the centre of the text because it was too bright. I also added some black overlays over the text to make the text a bit darker and to sharpen the gradients.

This image wouldn't look as bright when printed.

DVD Front cover

I started this image in a larger size than needed so I could resize it later when I make the full DVD case and since it was going to be printed I use the CYMK colour space as well as a DPI of 300.

I started off with this picture

http://images.cdn.fotopedia.com/flickr-2222523978-hd.jpg

I then used the magic wand tool to remove the black background then added a layer behind it to make a black background. I did this to allow me to add effects to the planet only or the background only. I then added a dark shade, on a new layer, over most of the planet to make it look like the sun is behind the planet.

After this I added a blue layer and masked it so it only showed up on the side of the planet and switched the blending mode to overlay. I noticed that this didn’t look smooth enough and was too bright. So I added a black layer then set the blending mode on that to overlay as well. This made the gradient sharper, the shape smoother and the planet slightly darker with have more contrast. I then added a blue overlay over the image and added a mask to make it only show on the edge of the planet to make a more blue looking atmosphere and make the atmosphere look larger.

I then decided to add a lens flare but as the colour mode is set to CYMK i wouldn't be able to render a lens flare using photoshop so I had to create the lens flare myself. I started out with a simple radial gradient then added a vector circle then made the fill blue and the outline red. I then added red inner and outer glow using the effects to make the circle smoother and then lowered the opacity down to 5% to emulate real lens flare. I then added a white diamond gradient. I put slight orange hues over them then added a large white gradient behind these to make it look like the light is lighting the camera lens around the light source.

For the meteor i imported this flame from cgtextures.com. And these rocks from http://pixabay.com/en/wandering-rocks-stones-death-valley-3711/

I straightened it out with the liquify tool by making the brush size quite large and lowering the pressure down then nudging the middle of the flame inwards. I also made the flame look more violent by stretching it out. This made it look like the asteroid fly very fast. I then masked out most of the flame to make it look more realistic and added some embers to make it look more lively. To make the embers I used the brush tool, set the blending mode of the brush to dissolve, set the flow to 1% and the hardness to 100%

I then added a stroke effect of 1px to them in the effects menu to make them larger and more noticeable. I then rasterized the layer style to covert the effects to pixels, making them editable. I followed the motion of the flame with the liquify tool to make the embers look like they have motion and set the blending mode of the layer to overlay.

I added some extra rocks behind the meteor by cutting them out with the polygonal lasso tool. I then shrunk them down and added orange overlays to them. I also added an orange glow to the front of the meteors with the brush tool by setting the hardness to 0%. I then added several orange glow and blur effects to the meteor with the brush and using the motion blur filter.

I finally added some smoke behind the meteor and around the planet to give the planet more of an atmosphere and the meteor a trail. I did this by rendering clouds on 2 overlay layers and masking one of them to the atmosphere of the planet and the other to the area behind the meteor. I then added some embers behind the meteor and made a gradient mask to make them look like they are cooling off. I then removed part of the mask on the planet to make it look like the meteor is lighting part of the planet with the brush tool set to about 20% opacity.

Music Visualizer

The image above was made to be a desktop background for a 1680 x 1050 display, it is supposed to replicate a music visualizer. I wanted it to be high quality so i made the dpi 720 and saved it as a PNG. 

Here is how i made the image:

The shapes were made using the selection tool and then applying a stroke to the selection as well as filling it on a layer behind the stroke. These were greyscale to allow for colour modification later. Glow effects were added to the layers to get the effect that i wanted. A spectrum layer was then overlayed over the squares to make the colour effect that i wanted. I did also try other colours but i settled with the spectrum. I then made horizontal lines to give it a digital/hologram look and reduced the opacity to make them faint; these were also done in greyscale.

 

I then added small dots all over the screen using the brush tool, setting it to dissolve and reducing the flow to 1%. I then added motion blur to this layer to make it look like rain or dust and added a mask so it doesn't show up on the squares. This helped make the dark space a bit more lively.

 

I then copied the filled squares and then applied extreme vertical motion blur to make the shafts of light. I also copied the square outlines and added multiple blur affects to make the squares look a bit more interesting.

 

Finally i added a layer with a white circular gradient, then edited it to go along the bottom of the image, then created another layer and added more gradient to make the bottom of the bars to glow. I then finally added Gaussian Blur to these 2 layers to make them smooth.