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Universe

GRADIENT RAMP

Gradient Ramp creates an RGB gradient with two or three colors and gives control over alpha, interpolation, aspect, noise, and compositing modes. Includes noise controls to avoid banding.

Presets

Gradient Ramp offers a wide array of color progressions, wipe-ready panels, and text schemes to make your overlays pop with only a couple of clicks. Find these presets via the blue Open Dashboard... button or the Choose a Preset... button below it.

As with all other Universe tools, you can modify or create a Gradient Ramp look and then save it under its own name by pressing the Save Preset... button.

Core Concepts

Gradient Ramp provides a convenient framework for adding two- and three-color gradient ramps to some or all of your comp as well as to your text layer as a fill. Gradient behavior is largely determined by where you position your effect Start and End Points as well whether your effect is linear (straight, parallel bands) or radial (concentric circles).

Gradient Ramp offers three types of presets. Classic Ramps cover the entire comp area. As you see in the following example of the tri-color, radial Atmosphere preset, the Start Point is located above and beyond the edge of the comp's top-right corner. We then drag the End Point from near the comp's center to beyond the lower-left boundary. Observe how the color mix changes and expands as we do so.

Panel presets cover a portion of the comp area. Curved panels use a radial Ramp Shape while the diagonal and straight panels use linear ramps. Straight panels appear straight because their Start and End Points share the same x or y axis values. Color bands tilt when one point moves out of axis alignment with the other point, as shown below.

You can achieve dramatic wipes and other effects by keyframing your Start and End Points beyond the comp's boundaries. In the below animation, we began with the Curved Panel Bottom preset, changed its Start Color to a purplish blue, lifted the End Point to higher in the comp, then gradually keyframed the End Point's y-axis value from 400 to 1400.

You might notice that our circle's radius shrinks as the Start and End Points grow closer together. If we wanted our glowing sphere to maintain the same size as it moved off screen, we would keyframe both points in tandem.

Finally, Text presets offer the same radial and linear ramps within the confines of your text layer's characters, as shown in this application of Gradient Ramp in a text layer (using the Hot Spot preset) on top on our prior panel layer.

Modify the Effect

• By default, the Start Point is the strongest, most solid part of the color gradient. Use the cross-hair control or x/y numerical parameters to reposition this point to a new location.
• The Start Color selector allows you to change this dominant color to suit your needs.
• Middle Color lets you change the middle color to suit your color ramp needs. This control is deselected unless Ramp Color is set to Three Color.
• Use the cross-hair control or x/y numerical parameters to the reposition the End Point to a new location whenneeded.
• End Color allows you to change the bottom or edge color to suit your liking. Note in the below image how the Start Point sits in the center of the Start Color, but the End Color is well beyond the End Point's position. With a radial ramp such as this one, the distance between the two points establishes the effect's size, not the position or width of the effect's color bands.
  
• Click the Reverse Colors button to switch the Start and End Colors.
• Ramp Color enables a Two Color or Three Color gradient. Selecting Three Color activates the Middle Color control.
• Ramp Shape let you choose between a Linear or Radial ramp.
• The Interpolation drop-down menu establishes whether a linear gradient displays in a Smooth or Linear gradient pattern. Notice how the Linear option (left image below) spreads the gradient in a wider blend than Smooth (right).
  
• The Start/Middle/End Alpha controls correspond to the Start, Middle, and End Color parameters. Each controls the opacity of that color to reveal or conceal what lies behind it. In the below example, we applied our tri-color radial gradient on a black solid. In the left image, all three alpha controls are at 100 percent. We then dropped the Start, Middle, and End Alpha controls, in that order, to 0 percent.
  
  You'll notice that many Gradient Ramp presets use an End Alpha of about 9%, which is enough to give the effect a noticeable outer glow without dominating the underlying layer.
  
• Falloff moves the position of the blending falloff between the colors.
• Radial Spread turns on when you select Radial from the Ramp Shape. This parameter controls the radius width. It also impacts how much the Start Color "crowds out" or pulls away from the Middle and End Colors. Consider the below comparison showing Radial Spread values of 0.15 (left) and 0.80 (right). At 0.00, the Start Color essentially consumes the entire effect.
  
  
• Noise adds a slight noise patterns to your gradient for a more organic look that covers the banding you may encounter with some gradients. Shown are the minimum (0, left) and maximum (500, right) values.
  
• Chose from the Blend Mode drop-down to select the blending mode used to composite the gradient over the background or in-image if the generator effect is applied to a layer that contains an image or text.
• Preserve Alpha, enabled by default, ensures that Gradient Ramp, respects the underlying layer's alpha channel.

Want More?

Gradient Ramp is even better when used in conjunction with other Universe tools. Watch the following two-minute video to see what happens when we combine Gradient Ramp with Universe Texturize Motion and Compound Blur.