AFTER EFFECTS PLUGIN · GLINT

ASheng
Glint

Turn highlights
into starbursts.

Glint does not create light of its own; it grows starbursts and anamorphic streaks from what is already bright in the frame: text brightened with turbulent noise, city lights, metal highlights — all can throw four-, six- or eight-point stars. Add highlight glow, overall mist, dispersion and gradient colors, sweep a bright band across the frame, or let text and images appear and vanish along the light’s leading edge. The library ships 9 presets; apply one and fine-tune with the sliders.

Apple Silicon · M seriesmacOS 14 or laterAfter Effects 2026GPU accelerated

20 USD · 365-day license · 1 Mac

Buy license ↗Download for Mac Already licensed? Activate

Output is watermarked until a license is activated. The license runs from the time of purchase and does not auto-renew; buy another to keep using it after it expires. The Golden Pass already includes Glint. Prices follow the live plan on the purchase page.

Turbulent gold text

Click above to switch · every frame is rendered by the plugin (built-in presets and default parameters, no post work)

Starbursts

4, 6 or 8 points —
the same night scene with only the ray count changed.

“Glow Source” first decides what counts as bright: based on luminance or alpha, with threshold, threshold softness and concentrate-highlights sliders choosing how bright a point must be. Those points then throw 4 (cross), 6 or 8 rays according to “Ray Count”; angle, length, brightness and rainbow are sliders. The three images below are the same night scene and settings with only the ray count changed.

Night scene with four-point starbursts — **4 rays**The familiar cross-shaped star.

Night scene with six-point starbursts — **6 rays**Six points, like those cast by aperture blades.

Night scene with eight-point starbursts — **8 rays**Eight points; the highlights really stand out.

Length and rainbow

Long or short,
with or without a rainbow edge.

“Length” is in pixels — short gives tiny crosses on each highlight, long spans the whole frame; “Rainbow” spreads spectral colors along the ray, 0 for clean white light, 100 for a full rainbow.

Night scene with short starbursts — **Length 70**Short, delicate stars.

Night scene with long starbursts — **Length 520**Long rays sweeping across the whole frame.

Starbursts without rainbow color — **Rainbow 0**Clean white light.

Starbursts with rainbow color — **Rainbow 100**Rays carrying the full spectrum.

Anamorphic streak

The cinema-lens kind:
one streak of light across the frame.

The anamorphic streak is a separate element (off by default): highlights throw one very long streak, with angle, length, thickness, brightness and color adjustable. Use it alone or together with starbursts; set the color to “Solid” or “Gradient” for the classic blue cinema streak.

Night scene with the anamorphic streak only — **Streak only**Highlights throw one horizontal streak.

Night scene with cold blue anamorphic streaks — **Solid · Cold blue**Tinted cold blue for a cinematic feel.

Night scene with starbursts plus anamorphic streaks — **Stars + streak**Short stars plus one long streak.

Highlight glow and overall mist

Two kinds of haze
with different reach.

“Highlight Glow” puts a ball of light only on the selected highlights and leaves the shadows alone; “Overall Mist” blooms the highlights and also blends the whole frame toward a blurred copy, lifting shadows and lowering contrast like a soft-focus filter on the lens. Each has its own switch, radius and strength, usable alone or stacked with the starbursts.

Night scene with highlight glow only — **Highlight glow**Only the highlights bloom.

Night scene with overall mist only — **Overall mist**The whole frame goes hazy.

Night scene with starbursts, glow and mist stacked — **Stars + glow + mist**All three together: a dreamy night.

Color, light fill and dispersion

Change the color, change the texture,
then add a touch of dispersion.

“Color” offers source (follows the picture), solid and gradient: solid takes any color and tint amount; gradient uses the same gradient editor, with every band getting an equal share of light so what you place on the ramp is what you see, applied to starbursts, streaks or glow. “Light Fill” swaps the solid light for halftone dots, diagonal lines, donuts, crosshatch, grid or tri-color dots, and the pattern can pulse, flow or rotate. “Dispersion” offsets red, green and blue. Gradient plus light fill is the liveliest: gradient colors in dots or lines give pop-art starbursts — the built-in “Neon Pop” and “Sunset Stripes” presets apply in one click.

Night scene with source-colored starbursts — **Original**The star color comes from the picture itself.

Night scene with gold stars — **Solid · Gold**Everything tinted the same gold.

Night scene with ice-blue stars — **Solid · Ice Blue**Cool-toned stars.

Night scene with rose-pink stars — **Solid · Rose Pink**Pink stars.

Night scene with gradient-colored starbursts — **Gradient**Color bands appear one by one from source to tip.

Night scene with dispersed starbursts — **Dispersion**Red, green and blue offset.

Stars with solid fill — **Solid**The default light.

Stars with halftone fill — **Halftone**Light made of printed-looking dots.

Stars with line fill — **Lines**Light made of diagonal lines.

Stars with ring fill — **Rings**Light made of tiny rings.

Stars with crosshatch fill — **Crosshatch**Light made of crossing fine lines.

Starbursts with grid fill — **Grid**Light made of pixel blocks.

Stars with CMY dot fill — **CMY Dots**Cyan, magenta and yellow dots, like color printing.

Night scene with the Neon Pop preset — **Gradient + dots | Neon Pop**Hot pink, yellow, cyan and purple gradient in halftone dots — the liveliest night scene (built-in preset).

Text with the Sunset Stripes preset — **Gradient + stripes | Sunset Stripes**Yellow, orange, magenta and purple gradient in diagonal lines, very pop-art on text (built-in preset).

⏩ Sweeps and transitions

No keyframes,
the light moves by itself.

“⏩ Sweep” runs a bright band across the frame, looping or once, straight or circular, and starbursts can appear only where the band passes. “⏩ Transition Mode” makes an image or text appear, vanish, or appear then vanish along the light’s leading edge: timing, delay, soft edge and edge glow are adjustable, straight or circular (expanding or contracting). All four clips below are actual plugin renders.

Transition · Straight revealText appears along the leading edge.

Transition · Circular revealCircular edge paired with gradient color.

Sweep · StraightA bright band sweeps the gold text and stars follow it.

Sweep · CircularA circular band sweeps the night scene.

9 built-in presets

Turbulence, city night, diamond, cinema —
one click to apply.

The library ships 9 presets: Turbulence Glints, City Night Glints, Diamond Sparkle, Cinematic Anamorphic, Warm Gold Rays, Dreamy Mist, Cinematic Lens, Neon Pop and Sunset Stripes. Each is a full parameter snapshot you can fine-tune after applying and save as your own; the library is shared, so your presets sit alongside. All thumbnails are actual plugin renders.

Turbulence Glints preset, actual render — **Turbulence Glints**湍流星芒

City Night Glints preset, actual render — **City Night Glints**夜景星芒

Diamond Sparkle preset, actual render — **Diamond Sparkle**鑽石八芒

Cinematic Anamorphic preset, actual render — **Cinematic Anamorphic**電影橫向光條

Warm Gold Rays preset, actual render — **Warm Gold Rays**暖金漸層光芒

Dreamy Mist preset, actual render — **Dreamy Mist**夢幻柔霧

Cinematic Lens preset, actual render — **Cinematic Lens**電影鏡頭

Neon Pop preset, actual render — **Neon Pop**霓虹普普

Sunset Stripes preset, actual render — **Sunset Stripes**夕陽斜線

Zones, mix-and-match, stacking,
and GPU acceleration.

“Zones” limits starbursts to the area around 1 to 5 points you place, fading with distance. “Mix & Match” has a “Randomize” button that picks a combination and intensity of streak, highlight glow, mist and dispersion in one click; fine-tune the one you like and save it. “Stacking” offers light on top, source on top, or light only (for your own compositing). “GPU Acceleration” is on by default on the Apple Silicon GPU (Metal), falling back to the CPU with the same picture, only slower.

Night starbursts with no zone limit — **No zones**Every highlight throws a star.

Night scene with starbursts only near two points — **Two points**Stars appear only at the two chosen spots.

Night scene with light stacked on top — **Light on top**Light composited over the source.

Night scene with light only — **Light only**Only the light, everything else transparent, for your own compositing.

Getting started

Three steps to get going.

Requires an Apple Silicon (M-series) Mac, macOS 14 or later and After Effects 2026. No Intel Mac or Windows version yet.

Download the installer
Click “Download for Mac” on this page and unzip. The installer is notarized by Apple.
Quit AE, then install
Save your project, quit After Effects fully with Cmd+Q, then run the installer; the 9 built-in presets are added to the preset library at the same time.
Add it to a layer with highlights
Reopen AE, find ASheng_Glint under “ASheng - Light”, add it to a text, photo or video layer with bright points, then pick a preset or set ray count, length and color yourself.

Good to know

Where is it in AE?

Under “ASheng - Light” in the Effect menu; the name is ASheng_Glint.

How is Glint different from Bling?

Bling creates its own sparkle — glints, rings, bokeh and light dust scattered over the frame. Glint creates no light; it pulls starbursts and streaks out of what is already bright, ideal after another effect (turbulent noise, say) has put light into text. The two can be stacked on the same layer.

What kind of footage suits it best?

It needs highlights: text brightened by turbulent noise or another glow effect, city lights, specular on metal and jewelry. If nothing is bright enough, lower the “Threshold” or switch the basis to “Alpha”.

Does the Golden Pass cover it?

Yes. The Golden Pass covers every ASheng AE plugin, including future releases, so Glint activates directly.

Can I output only the light and composite it myself?

Yes. Set “Stacking” to “Light Only” and the output contains only the light on transparency.

Which bit depths are supported?

8-, 16- and 32-bit are all supported.

Does it use the GPU?

Yes. “GPU Acceleration” is on by default and renders on the Apple Silicon GPU (Metal); if the GPU is unavailable it falls back to the CPU with the same picture, just slower.

Does it support Premiere Pro?

After Effects only for now.

Can I use it without a license?

Yes, you can try it with a watermark on the output. With a valid Glint license NFT or Golden Pass, click “Activate / Manage License” in the “License” group of the effect panel to activate.

See the Golden Pass All plugins

ASheng Glint

4, 6 or 8 points —the same night scene with only the ray count changed.

Long or short,with or without a rainbow edge.

The cinema-lens kind:one streak of light across the frame.

Two kinds of hazewith different reach.

Change the color, change the texture,then add a touch of dispersion.

No keyframes,the light moves by itself.

Turbulence, city night, diamond, cinema —one click to apply.

Zones, mix-and-match, stacking,and GPU acceleration.