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POINT ZOOM

Use zoom blur with added glow to create a "holographic projection" look when applied to text or images. Create the illusion that your object is coming from a light source.

Presets

Point Zoom's presets offer shortcuts to four common effect implementations. Find these via the blue Open Dashboard... button or the Choose a Preset... button below it.

As with all other Universe tools, you can modify or create a Point Zoom look and then save it under its own name by pressing the Save Preset... button.

Modify the Effect

• Use the Position control to change the location of the effect source point with the cross-hair tool or the x/y axis numerical controls. In this example, we wanted the give an impression that the word INVASION was beaming from the alien spacecraft while still not obscuring the alien bodies, so we set the Position point near the spaceship's base.
  
  
• Length allows you to adjust the length of blurred rays from the applied layer's edges to the Position control point. This also applies if the point is positioned beyond the applied layer's edges. The image below compares Length values of 100 (left) and 300. Notice how the longer glow helps more clearly define the source's edges.
  
• TheBlend with Original control mixes the effect of Point Zoom with the footage to which it’s applied. The INVASION image above has this value set to zero. Following are examples of 75 (left) and 100.
  
• Chose from the Blend Mode drop-down to select the blending mode used to composite the Point Zoom result over the original image.
• Mask
  • Enable the Use Mask checkbox to constrain the Point Zoom effect to the masked area (or its inversion, as per below). Visualize Mask reveals the mask (see image below) and is invaluable for helping refine the mask shape and location. When you’re done adjusting the rest of the controls, turn Visualize Mask off before rendering the final image.
    
    
  • Select an option from the Shape drop-down menu to set the mask to either an ellipse or a rectangle.
  • The Mode drop-down defaults to Apply, but other options allow you to see how the mask appears in other modes useful for adjusting the composite. Choose from: Show Mask, Show Red Mask, andShow Inverted Red Mask.
  • The Invert checkbox, when enabled, switches the glow effect to occur outside the selected mask shape instead of inside it.
  • The Point A cross-hair control corresponds to the position of the top of the mask image. Point B controls correspond to the mask's bottom position. Moving these points squashes or stretches the mask shape as well as moves its position.
  • The Radius control will spread the influence of the masked glow laterally outward from the center.
  • Feather Size increases mask edge translucency along a gradient. Setting this to 0 will yield a sharp mask edge. Alternately, giving a square a high enough value will make it seem circular.
  • Feather Direction pulls the transparent gradient toward the mask's center if lowered toward -100 or out toward the edges if turned up to 100.
  • Useful in compositing, the Red Opacity slider may be adjusted to make the red in the mask more opaque as needed.
  • When checked, the Mask Alpha checkbox shows what parts of the effect in the masked area are included in the alpha channel as opaque and transparent.
  • TheStraighten checkbox shows the effect without the premultiplied alpha channel applied.

Bonus note: Point Zoom lends itself well to combining with other Universe tools. The "X" image above shows Point Zoom essentially running in a vacuum by itself. Here's the same idea when combined with one of the "X" images we developed in the Universe Ecto guide: