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.
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