How do you make light streaks in after effects without using red giant’s trapcode?
I imagine there’s some info on that in the AE section of creativecow.net. I recall Brian Maffitt doing a tutorial on this a looooong time ago (AE 3, I think it was, back in the '90s). You duplicate your layer (precompose for most efficiency then dup it), then use a luma matte to isolate the brightest parts of the image. Then you use AE’s “Radial Blur” effect (set to the zoom blur, with the settings cranked), probably along with some levels/curves/glow etc to taste. You composite this “shine” layer over the original with an Add or Screen blend mode.