How do ya'll think this was done exactly? (I want to do something similar for a new project).

http://www.goldengod.net/2007/07/12/lightpainting-photography-used-to-shill-cellphones/

They tell you right on the page. You tae a boatload of light painting photos, then cut them all together.

It's basic animation.

If you're not sure how to take a light photo, you put your camera on a tripod in a very dark area, then leave the shutter open, then draw with a flashlight. It's that easy. 

What makes this spot hard is the synchronization of all the folks painting. Amazing amount of work.

I'm having a difficult time getting my head around it exactly. lol. -- especially drawing relatively precise imagery with a flashlight. Have you done it before?

Perhaps you could have giant drawings behind the camera that you would point the beams at; following the curve outlines -- for reference? Anyway, it seems that there would need to be some sort of reference for some of the imagery.

I'm thinking that maybe there is a way to do something similar with a BCC 5.0 video effect... or After Effects/Boris Red...

 Or maybe using lights in XSI...

Here's part one of a two part video podcast on achieving this effect in after effects:

http://cowcast.creativecow.net/podcast/light-writing-part-1--9

Thanks... great tutorial. I've done a litte research and I believe the paint effects in Boris Red (Avid FX) is an even better option than After Effects, fwiw. I believe the same or better can be achieved with less work... at least I'll see how it goes...

To update... I am fooling around with creating this effect in Avid FX and it does appear to be MUCH easier... fwiw.

Using the paint tool and spline/pen to adjust vectors...then applying BCC glow effect, etc., and adjusting pressure sensitive parameters for Wacom tablet... nesting into spline track to keep it above the video, etc...

It is looking pretty good, imho...

Now that the tutorial has just been made public, I am free to say that I've been working with Boris who has created this tutorial on the light painting effect in Avid FX (Red).

As I noted...it is far easier than doing it in After Effects, imho. Here is the link:

http://www.borisfx.com/tutorials/LightPainting.php

Since this has basically become about Avid FX, I have moved it to Studio from the general forum.