Sweeping colour band?

[richmondfloyd]

Hi,


I'm looking for some nice very polished effects for a wedding DVD I am producing (my first). I would like to have four small blocks, surrounded by black and with black separating them (i.e. the background, absence of a clip). The clips will all be black and white. I'm good so far.


Then, rather ambitiously, I would like to create a sweep of colour that makes its way from the bottom left to the top right. The sweep will be narrow and diffuse, turning the image to colour as it sweeps and leaving the image black and white in it's wake.


This is possible and how hard is it to do? I am a novice at After Effects but quick to learn.


Please free to throw in any ideas for other shots which might also look good.


Thanks

 

[robster180]

I think what you want to do without seeing any visual reference is...
1. Pre-Comp your B&W Composition - for sake of ease lets call this 'BW'
2. Duplicate 'BW' rename it 'COL' and move this comp above 'BW' if it isn't already.
3. Apply Hue/Saturation effect to 'BW' and take the Master Saturation level down to -100
4. Activate the 'COL' Layer and using the pen tool draw a thin rectangle, thin enough for your effect and long enough to diagonally cover the X width dimension of your composition
5. Move the newly drawn Path to the bottom lefthand corner, Keyframe the Mask Path at the start of your Comp
6. Move your time indicator to say 2 seconds and Move your mask now to the Top Right corner

What you've effectively done is created a moving mask of 'COL' which should reveal a bit of colour within a band.
You can diffuse the mask using the feather option
Now you can add and tweak the effect to your taste, using layers and other filters