REFLECTIVE TEXT in After Effects:
20 Easy Steps
by Sean Mullen

After Effects has a reputation for being an intimidating application. I've talked to a lot of editors who tell me they own After Effects, but don't have the time or energy to jump in and learn how to use it. They want to create cool effects, but there's a barrier of fear that keeps them from getting started. The good news is that there are some cool tricks that anyone can do in After Effects in just a few short steps. One of them is creating a reflective text effect. So launch AE and follow along. In this article I'll teach you how to create reflected text by the numbers. Just follow these 20 simple steps:

1: First we'll create our text. Go to the Composition Menu and select New Composition.

2: Input your settings (for this project I'm using the 720x480 NTSC DV preset). Name the composition TEXT, and Click OK.

3: Select the Text tool and type your desired text in the Composition window.

FIGURE 1: Select the Text tool and type your desired text in the Composition Window.		FIGURE 2: Create a Gradient layer, and drop your text over the gradient.

4: Now, create another Composition (Composition Menu - New Composition), and name it Reflection.

5: Create a solid by going to the Layer menu and selecting New Solid.

6: Click the Make Comp Size button and choose white as your color. Name this layer Gradient and click OK.

7: Highlight the Gradient layer in your timeline, and go to the Effect menu. Under Generate, click on Ramp.

8: In the Project Window, drag your TEXT comp into the Reflection comp.

9: Click on your Gradient layer and hit the “E” key. This lists all of the effects you have applied to the layer.

10: Double click on the Ramp effect. In the Ramp Effect Control window, change the start color to white and the end color to a light gray.

11: Adjust the start of ramp and end of ramp positions so that the horizon fades out around the middle of your text height.

FIGURE 3: Adjust the start and end colors in the Ramp filter so the horizon fades out around the middle of your text.		FIGURE 4: Change the scale property on the Y axis to -100 and tap the “P” key to edit the position properties of your reflection layer.

12: Now click on your TEXT layer and under the Edit menu click on Duplicate.

13: Double click on the duplicate layer and name it Text Reflection.

14: With the Text Reflection layer selected, hit the “S” key. This reveals the scale properties for the layer.

15: Next click the Constrain Proportions checkbox so you can edit the X (left to right) and Y (up and down) values separately.We'll leave the first value, or the X axis alone and click on the second or Y axis.

16: Change the Y value to -100.

17: Hit the “P” key to show the Position properties of your Reflection layer.

18: With the layer highlighted, click the down arrow a few times to create a small space between your text and it's reflection.

FIGURE 5: With the text duplicated and the scale set to -100 on the Y Axis, the reflection effect is beginning to take shape.		FIGURE 6: Using the rectangular mask tool, draw a mask from across the bottom of your text to below the frame, then hit the "F" key to apply a feather to the mask.

19: Now double click on the Text Reflection layer. Using the rectangular mask tool draw a mask from across the bottom of your text to below the frame. 20 In the timeline window, click on the Text Reflection layer and hit the “F” key. This shows the feathering properties for all of your masks. Change the feather on your mask from 0 to 45.

20: In the timeline window, click on the Text Reflection layer and hit the "F" key. This shows the feathering properties for all of your masks. Change the feather on your mask from 0 to 45.

FIGURE 7: The final result is a sweet reflective text effect.		FIGURE 8: You can use this technique to add a reflection to any object, not just text. Adding reflections to your logos is a great next step.

There you go, a cool text reflection in just a few simple steps. For even more control, you can adjust the opacity (just tap the “T” key) of the reflection to determine just how reflective you want your text to be.

By the way, this technique works with logos as well. Just drop your logo on top of your gradient layer, duplicate it and change the Y value of your scale to -100. Double click on it, create a mask, add a feather, and then dial in the opacity to make it look like your logo is reflecting on a glass floor. Try playing with various blending modes like Add or Screen to give it a different look. Now that wasn't too bad, was it?

Digital Juice's Sean Mullen has more than 60 credits as a Visual Effects Artist/Compositor in feature films and television; most famously for Charmed, Ally McBeal, Nip/Tuck, Six Feet Under and Alias.