I never made a tutorial guide before, but I'll try my best to explain on this guide. xD

This guide will teach how to make cinematic bars screenshots as seen in the thumbnail of the Guide (And some examples below :v)

• General building block from the Gmod spawnmenu and spawn in a # X 8 baseplate
  (The flat board thing floor block thingies. Any number with X8 at the end should be fine, or depends on what baseplate board you want to use, it's up to you. :v)
  
  
• Glow Material: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=394188041
  
  
• Advanced Camera Tool (So you don't have to adjust the camera angle every time you check your scene. But I highly recommend it since it has the zoom, roll options of the Camera weapon tool: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=881605937
  
  
  
• NoCollide Everything Tool (Helps move your baseplate freely without hitting the map ground (Or you can also make your scene higher than the floor level so you can move your baseplates freely)
  https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=105955548

Think up of something interesting and cool, like G-man flexing his HD sandwich at you.
Of course, you can make anything you like, let your creativity spark in, and add some lamps into it too, it's up to you.



Set up your advanced camera and aim it at your scene. You can also edit the settings of the camera by holding your Context menu [The "C" key] and right clicking on your camera and then "Edit Properties"


This will also help you save some time to adjust your scene without looking back to the direction you want your camera to capture the scene at.

We will be using the 1x8 or 8x8 baseplate (Or depends on what you want to use, but I usually use these 2 the most)

Then you'll place your baseplates like this. One baseplate behind the subject, and one in front of the subject.

And when you tab to your camera, this is how it would look like.


You can see how the baseplate from behind doesn't overlap in front of G-man. (Because... Well, it's behind him xD)

And you can adjust your subject to go in front of the front baseplate (Like G-man's arm and sandwich going in front of the front baseplate like it's reaching out to you)

You can adjust the baseplates how you want, it's your choice if you wanna slightly show or hide the subject by moving the baseplate. :v

Since we have added the baseplates, next thing we do is we add the glow material to it.




Then after selecting the "lights/white" material, which is the Glow Material add-on, go ahead and apply the material into the 2 baseplates, and after that, it will look like this:








As the text in the image says, it helps your lamps pass through the baseplate like a transparent glass so, it will not cast a shadow on your subject and not ruining it's lighting. Set the render mode to "Transparent - Alpha" so it will let your lamp pass through the baseplate without having to adjust the opacity of your baseplate.

You can add any color you want, you can change the background of your subject to white using a large 8x8 baseplate from far behind the subject.


And of course, adding the glow material to it



You can see how I change the white baseplates to black and the background to white, like an alternative. It's your choice what color you want.

Since you've done all the steps, you can try using the Bloom Post Process and follow the steps and settings I've provided in the screenshot:




After applying the bloom, it will look like this:

Compared to the non-bloom, the whiteness of the baseplate helps bring out that glow into it.

Ayy! You did it! Hopefully you learned a thing from the first tutorial guide I have ever made. xD


Here are some example screenshots I've made using the cinematic bar technique:







Oh yea I forgot to mention. This screenshot here I made, you can see both baseplates are behind Gaben. You can also do that. (I forgot to tell this to you in the guide, so... Yeah. xD)