Easy Neon Trail Animation in Blender

Super easy neon trail animation you can make in 5 mins.

[@zackmercurys]

The source file with extended setup is available on Gumroad for free! gum.co/kfgkS

[@hellocatfoodold]

At around 6:00 when you're trying to get it to loop seamlessly, to do it insert a first keyframe with the Value of the Add node set to 0. Move along in the timeline and add another keyframe to the Value of the Add node and type (0.3333*pi)/$scale (but replace $scale with whatever the Scale of the Wave texture is)

[@ThatFalseHat]

very smart approach man! loved it.

[@MrGravicaper]

Cool lesson. Thanks a lot.

[@whynot-vq2ly]

excellent tutorial, keep it up :]

[@tcheadriano]

Awesome!!!

[@AdrianMRizo]

Brilliant! Like your style 😎

[@SourceAwareness]

Very excellent, thanks Zack!!

[@zackmercurys]

Thanks sir

[@jbragazzi4144]

Bro since 5 hears you saved my life whit this video. thanks

[@zackmercurys]

Glad I could help :)

[@NoideaSFM]

looking good reminds me of saber effects plug in for after effects

[@gamasX]

nice tutorial 😊

[@LordFrezzor]

How would I go about making the black part of the material invisible? So only the light trail is visible.

[@mamunurrashid1139]

thanks it's more helpful.

[@xdo0b]

Thanks.

[@user-yq6sw3nk6f]

Nice overall whold like to hear you a bit louder and see what shortcuts you are using thare is a software to this

[@masterxeon1001]

cool video!

[@zackmercurys]

thanks, master. you're a legend :)

[@kuangeric8067]

wow, look who i saw, i am your biggest fan, masterxeon!!!

[@lucutes2936]

4:10 the "multiply" node is now "math" node with multiply value selected

[@zackmercurys]

Always has been *points gun*

[@lucutes2936]

@@zackmercurys lol

[@vimbo]

dope! man thanks!!

[@philvoudou9803]

Great, but how do we actually animate it?

[@zackmercurys]

1. put your play-head to the first frame 2. make sure the node that contains the value you want to animate is selected. 3. put your cursor over the value you want to animate 4. hit I 5. put your play-head to the last frame 6. change the value 7. put your cursor over the value 8. hit I 9. select all keyframes on the timeline 10. hit T and choose linear interpolation

[@teknicalmage6370]

I can't hear you very well but I kinda followed along. Neet tutorial

[@zackmercurys]

thank you :) at first I thought you have a pewdiepie gaming chair as your pfp

[@fafaralla4973]

Can i make this with a drawing or a logo instead of a text?

[@zackmercurys]

of course, nothing is stopping you :)

[@baianinho140]

How do I add colored lights that are appearing on the thumb?

[@zackmercurys]

a color ramp or combine HSV + a bit of math nodes

[@baianinho140]

@@zackmercurys multiply or power?

[@zackmercurys]

@@baianinho140 I know how to make it work but I don't need to keep the exact setup in my head. there's a lot of ways to do it, and all you need to understand it is to make it your way from scratch. nothing complicated

[@zackmercurys]

@@baianinho140 hey again! I had this unreleased file that I planned to release on Gumroad for free, now it's up and you can use it gum.co/kfgkS

[@zundergiles5099]

if you are still interested : How to add the color change as shown at the start of the video ? Since this is not shown in this tutorial, here is a solution : [[xxx]] means Nodes name [xxx] means names off (in) or (out) Values [[Texture Coordinate]] - plug [UV] out to 1st [Value] of [[Multiply]] - plug [Value] out to [Vector] of [[Gradient Texture]] - plug [Color] out to [H] of [[Combine HSV]] - plug [Color] out to [Color] of his [[Emission]] shader You can change the second value of the [[Multiply]] Node to have different colors or Bonus : To add a random value on the [[Multiply]] you can attach a [[Value]] (located on Input / Value) and change the field to #noise.random()

[@zundergiles5099]

How to add the color change as shown at the start of the video ? Since this is not shown in this tutorial, here is a solution : [[xxx]] means Nodes name [xxx] means names off (in) or (out) Values [[Texture Coordinate]] - plug [UV] out to 1st [Value] of [[Multiply]] - plug [Value] out to [Vector] of [[Gradient Texture]] - plug [Color] out to [H] of [[Combine HSV]] - plug [Color] out to [Color] of his [[Emission]] shader You can change the second value of the [[Multiply]] Node to have different colors or Bonus : To add a random value on the [[Multiply]] you can attach a [[Value]] (located on Input / Value) and change the field to #noise.random()

[@zackmercurys]

yeah or check pinned comment

[@_casg]

how do i do this on cycles and is there a geometry nodes version of this>?

[@zackmercurys]

Hello! Could you please specify what didn’t work for you about this in Cycles? What exactly related to this video do you want to make in geometry nodes?

[@fadifadi-ug5cp]

Why I don't get the same results using Cycles engine?

[@zackmercurys]

Let's see... Cycles doesn't have bloom, so you have to do it manually in compositing. You might want to increase transparency bounces in light paths If you fix all that, it should work.

[@trellyproductions7685]

how do i make i animate it like a liquid flowing through a tube

[@zackmercurys]

That’s an interesting idea, I’m not sure its possible with just a single curve with a shader, you’d probably need to duplicate it, add a solidify modifier to the outer tube and so on, you get the idea

[@zackmercurys]

You got me inspired to actually make this

[@trellyproductions7685]

@@zackmercurys that's so confusing lol

[@zackmercurys]

@@trellyproductions7685 ah, nevermind then. :| I mean I can make a step by step instruction, but it actually has to click with you for you to learn something from it. this is not for absolute beginners, you need some experience in 3D modeling

[@trellyproductions7685]

@@zackmercurys oh I'm a begginer. And do I rlly need to use modeling cos is actually just a neon 3d shaped text animation

[@zorika6554]

but how do I animate now?

[@zackmercurys]

1. put your play-head to the first frame 2. make sure the node that contains the value you want to animate is selected. 3. put your cursor over the value you want to animate 4. hit I 5. put your play-head to the last frame 6. change the value 7. put your cursor over the value 8. hit I 9. select all keyframes on the timeline 10. hit T and choose linear interpolation or, if you want to have a somewhat decent idea about how it works in general, check kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYutpKqsrJ6qe9U

[@Viktor-pd2vy]

where are these shortscuts from , you say nothing about it for an beginner its very hard to understand you , sorry

[@zackmercurys]

hey, Viktorius. I'm sorry for that but this isn't intended as an introduction to blender video, this is for people who have basic knowledge. you should watch some beginner courses by Blender Guru or somebody else and then come back.

[@rithysong8704]

better tell what you type and shortcut key, people can't continue

[@zackmercurys]

Not intended for absolute beginners, but next time I’ll try using an addon showing hotkeys, yet they may be of no use for people using a different keymap or a keyboard with different layouts. The point of this video is to… show the approach?