In Shine, fractal noise can simulate smoke or fog within your scene, potentially layering in even more drama atop your already impressive crepuscular rays. Specifically, this noise appears within the effect’s light rays, as shown here:
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| Original image | With Fractal Noise enabled |
You can access most of the Fractal Noise group’s controls by checking the Enable checkbox.
As we’ve seen with other Shine elements, you’ll discover some interplay between Fractal Noise and other controls. For instance, the comparison below shows Shimmer Amount cranked insanely high, then we simply enabled Fractal Noise. The result reminds us of that fascinating whorl effect you can observe when lasers emit in a thin sheet through mist or smoky particles.
The Center tool provides crosshairs and x/y value inputs to let you animate the noise. For example, watch as we drag the Fractal Noise Center tool from left to right across the image. This is the noise moving, not the light rays. Also notice that the Center tool is distinct from the Source Point, which is located over the C.
The X Speed, Y Speed, and Evolution Speed controls can make even quicker work of animating fractal noise without using keyframes. Let’s look at how X Speed and Y Speed values specifically simulate wind in the clip below. X Speed increases the speed along the x axis, with a positive value moving the wind from left to right. (Negative values move from right to left.) The further the value is from 0, the faster noise moves. Similarly, a positive y value moves the wind from top to bottom, while negative moves from bottom to top. (Keyframe these to show shifting wind directions!) In the example below, we set both values to +5.0, selected the Lysergic color scheme, and set our source clip to playing.
To animate noise evolution, adjust the Evolution Speed control. This causes noise to "evolve" and animate automatically, almost like omnidirectional turbulence in the surface of a bowl of water. The higher the value, the faster the animation.
NOTE: To turn off fractal noise animation completely, all three of these values must be set to 0.
The Noise Type drop-down menu lets you choose how to control fractal noise. We’ll describe each option in turn.
The Brightness control expands white areas into the image's gray and darker areas if set above its default value of 100. You can darken the image by lowering the setting below 100.
NOTE: Brightness only affects the fractal noise, not the light created by Shine.
Raise the Contrast control value to intensify the difference between black and white areas of the noise pattern. Alternatively, decrease the Contrast value to bring black and white areas closer to gray.
Opacity lets you adjust how opaque the noise is. Higher values create more opaque noise. Reducing the Opacity value increases the fractal noise’s transparency, letting the background layer show through. Notice in the comparison below how it becomes difficult to distinguish between the white lettering and the bright noise next to it when fractal noise Opacity is maxed out.
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| Opacity 100% | Opacity 50% |
Size allows you to control the size of the fractal noise. Reducing the Size value creates more finely detailed noise.
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| Size = 70 | Size = 15 |
As an aside, let’s throw in a bonus example of what happens when you modify fractal noise Size after elevating Brightness and Contrast to 200+ levels. The top image shows noise with a fairly small Size, and the high Contrast makes those noise regions clearly defined, as does having more Complexity (described below). You can see how that might resemble a horde of bugs or birds flitting through the mist when animated, right? Taking Size up to 60 results in far fewer shapes, but they almost look like strange continents projected on a map.
Fractal noise is created by compositing layers of noise together. The Complexity control influences the number of these layers (from one to four) used to create the noise. Lower Complexity reduces detail in the noise. High Contrast with a Complexity of 1 will create blobs.
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| Complexity = 4 | Complexity = 1 |
Rotation lets you rotate the noise layers around the Center point if 2D is chosen in the Noise Type drop-down menu or around the light if you select a 3D option.
NOTE: When Noise Type is set to 3D Light with Parallax, animating Rotation will create parallax. Otherwise, all noise layers will rotate together.
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| No Rotation | Rotation = 90 degrees |
With Use Noise Mask enabled, an elliptical mask will limit the radius of the fractal noise. This is helpful if you want to simulate fractal noise gathering around the light, like how fog appears in the real world.
Adjust mask boundaries with the Fractal Mask Radius property. Larger Fractal Mask Radius values increase the radius of the mask while lower values shrink it.
The edges of the noise mask can be softened by increasing the Fractal Mask Feather value
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| Noise Mask enabled | Noise Mask enabled | |
| Fractal Mask Feather = 0 | Fractal Mask Feather = 85 |
Chose from the Fractal Blend Mode drop-down to select the blending mode used to composite the fractal noise over Shine's light rays. These resemble the blend modes in Adobe After Effects save for the Cutout blend mode, which removes the fractal noise’s white and light gray areas.
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| Add | Cutout |
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| Screen | Lighten |
Not least of all, the Fractal Detail property lets you to reduce or increase overall noise detail. This is particularly helpful if your camera gets close in and you need some additional noise detail.