XR 80's Chrome
Mac only, no Windows version. Download with a free account - created in 30 seconds.
80s chrome type, right inside After Effects. The effect applies to a text layer - or any shape with an alpha channel - and builds a shaded black-and-white version of the type, whose values are replaced by a color gradient. These aren't highlights and shadows: it's a reflection. Black becomes the sky, white becomes the ground, and the dividing line becomes the horizon running through the letters - which is why the result looks like metal, not colored-in text. Everything is derived from the layer's alpha: no layer to duplicate, no outline to draw.
A reflection, not a gradient
Five colors from sky to ground, and a distortion noise that warps the horizon line - that's what reads as a reflected landscape rather than a straight gradient. "Phase" rotates the whole gradient at once: the fastest way to completely change the look of the metal.
Everything from the alpha
The distance to the edge gives the curved face and the bevel; its gradient gives the normals, hence the lighting. The edge is lit by a positionable point light, with the genre's signature double-reflection bevel and its adjustable glow.
Ready to animate
"Auto-drift" makes the horizon noise drift on its own, "Auto-orbit" rotates the bevel light. Built-in finishing - soft glow, grain, sharpening - and up to 3× supersampling for perfectly clean edges on the final render.
Requirements
- Recent macOS
- Apple Silicon or Intel - universal plugin, no Rosetta
- After Effects (SmartFX API, since CC 2015)
- About 2.5 MB of disk space
- No AI model, no internet connection, no license
License
Personal plugin, distributed as is, without warranty. All the code is original; it embeds no model and no third-party asset. The method is inspired by the two Texturelabs chrome tutorials.
Found a bug, got an idea?
Private message, sent directly to Xavier Reyé with the plugin name. Nothing is published. Leave an email address to get a reply.
