OTCU Glow
A glow that looks like light, not like a blur. For After Effects and Premiere Pro, part of OTCU FX.
Bloom that behaves like a real highlight
OTCU Glow lights up the bright parts of a layer. It works in linear light with a smooth falloff, so highlights bloom the way light does in a lens instead of being smeared by a blur.
- Threshold and Threshold Softness pick what glows, with a soft edge instead of a hard cut.
- Separate widths for red, green and blue, and for X and Y: colored fringes and stretched glows.
- After glow: a second, wider halo behind the first.
- Streaks: horizontal and vertical light streaks.
- Edge glow, highlights and atmosphere for rim light and haze.
- Background and Matte layers: glow over another layer, or only where a matte allows.
- 13 built-in looks in the preset browser, and presets of your own.
- 8, 16 and 32-bit color, multi-frame rendering, every control keyframable.
How fast it renders
| Settings | GPU (DirectX or CUDA) | CPU |
|---|---|---|
| Main glow only | 0.35 ms | 16 ms |
| With after glow | 0.5 ms | 20 ms |
| Full default (after glow and streaks) | 0.7 ms | 32 ms |
Measured per frame at 1080p on an Intel i9-12900KF with an NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti. Your times depend on your machine, settings and footage. In After Effects it renders on the GPU with DirectX 12 or CUDA; Premiere Pro uses the CPU version for now.
Questions
Is OTCU Glow sold on its own?
No. It is part of OTCU FX, together with Drop Shadow and Shake: $50 once with a year of updates, or $40 a year. The 14-day trial starts by itself when you install it.
Does it work in Premiere Pro?
Yes. The same effect appears in After Effects and Premiere Pro under OTCU FX. After Effects renders it on the GPU; Premiere Pro on the CPU for now.
Does it work in 32-bit and linear projects?
Yes. It works in 8, 16 and 32-bit float. Its Linear Light switch is on by default; in a project that already works in linear light, switch it off.
Is there a Mac version?
Not yet. OTCU FX is for Windows. A macOS version is planned.
Requirements
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
- After Effects or Premiere Pro 2024 or newer
- A CPU with AVX2 (any CPU that runs After Effects 2024 or newer)
- GPU rendering in After Effects: DirectX 12 or an NVIDIA CUDA graphics card (optional)
- An internet connection for activation, then it works offline