Open topic with navigation
Optical Glow
DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS, PHOTO-REALISTIC GLOW EFFECTS
Getting Started
-
Drag the
Optical Glow
effect onto your clip, or apply it from the Effects Menu.
Modify the Effect
-
My Footage Is
contains options that help Optical Glow determine how best to blend its effects. Select
Video
,
Log
, or
Linear
depending on your footage type. Video is the default, as it applies only minimal adjustments.
-
Amount
adjusts the intensity of the glow effect.
-
Uniform Size
toggles whether the
Amount
affects the horizontal and vertical axes equally. Alternatively, (when unchecked) this control offers
Size X
and
Size Y
parameters for finer adjustments.
-
Size / Size X
and
Y
controls the overall glow radius. Note that brighter sources will appear to have a larger glow radius than dimmer sources, depending on the Falloff setting (see below).
-
Size
controls the overall glow radius. Note that brighter sources will appear to have a larger glow radius than dimmer ones, depending on the Falloff setting (see below).
-
Size by Channel
offers Red, Green, and Blue Size parameters that adjust the glow radius on their individual color channels.
-
Note: This does not affect tint, which is handled under the Color
section below.
-
Note: Separating RGB channel glow sizes will increase rendering time
-
Falloff
modifies the brightness relationship between the glow effect’s inner and outer regions. The default value of 100 creates a realistic, inverse-square light falloff. Higher values increase the “tightness” of the glow, making the core brighter and the outer edges of the glow dimmer. Falloff values below 100 soften the glow effect, creating more of an appearance of diffused light.
-
Highlights Only
controls which lluminance values of the source image contribute to the glow effect. This control is similar to the Threshold control in other glow effects. At the default value of 0%, the entire source image contributes to the glow. Increase this value to gradually restrict the glow to brighter values. Note that since Optical Glow works on 32-bpc sources, this value can be set above 100 percent.
-
Highlight Rolloff
lets you adjust the bright core of the glow effect. Because Optical Glow respects and generates HDR pixel values, the brighter areas at the core of the glow can appear harshly clipped. Highlight Rolloff gently suppresses these HDR values to bring them back into the 0% to 100% range of pixel values. This can create a pleasing look, with the core of the glow maintaining color saturation and a softer appearance.
-
Radiate
adds radiating light extending from the glow effect.
-
Note: Rendering time can greatly increase as Radiate values increase.
-
Radiate Center
provides coordinates for the center of the Radiate effect.
-
Color
-
Vibrance
increases the color saturation of the glow effect.
-
Colorize
adjusts the overall color of the glow effect. Use this to subtly tint the glow or to add color to a monochromatic element.
-
Inner Tint
and
Outer Tint
selects tint colors of the inner and outer areas of the glow, respectively.
-
Glow Only
blends between the final result of the glow effect added to the source image (0%) and the glow element on its own (100%).
-
Dimensions
determines whether the glow extends on the
Horizontal
or
Vertical
axis or both at the same time.
-
Quality
determines the smoothness of the glow effect. Higher quality settings may increase render times. Generally, you can leave this setting at Production. Only with very large or intense glows will you tend to see any difference at the various quality settings.
-
Draft
is the fastest setting and can look fine at smaller Amount and/or Size values.
-
Production
the best choice for most applications, providing a blend of speed and smoothness.
-
Best
is a good choice for large and/or intense glows.
-
Extreme
provides the best quality, which is more noticeable with very large, intense glows.
-
Alpha Channel
controls both how the alpha channel of the source image (if any) is treated as well as whether an alpha channel is generated. Note that glows are best composited additively, so generating an alpha channel for a glow effect is often not the best way to work with a glowing element.
-
None
renders with a solid alpha. If the source layer has any alpha channel, it is replaced with solid black. This allows Optical Glow to control how the glow is blended for maximum quality.
-
Preserve Original
respects whatever the original alpha channel information was on the clip to which the effect was applied.
If the glow effect extends beyond the boundary of the original layer’s alpha, it will be cut off.
-
Extend (Unmult)
adds alpha channel information from the glow on top of whatever alpha channel information was already present.
-
Generate (Unmult)
ignores the source layer alpha, but generates a new alpha channel based on the glow effect's brightness.