S_Rays Generates beams of light emitting from the bright areas of the source clip. Lower the Threshold parameter to generate rays from more areas or raise it to generate rays from only the brightest areas. Set the Rays Res parameter to 1/2 for faster rendering with slightly softer rays. In the Sapphire Lighting effects submenu. Inputs: Source:  The clip to be processed. Background:  Optional.   The clip to use as background. Mask:  Optional.   If provided, the ray colors are scaled by this input. A monochrome mask can be used to choose a subset of areas that will generate rays. If the Mask Type is set to Color, a color mask input can be used to selectively adjust the ray colors in different regions. This input can optionally be blurred or inverted using the Blur Mask or Invert Mask parameters.

Parameters:

Center:   X & Y,   Default: [360 243],  Range: any.
The location from which the rays beam outwards. This parameter can be adjusted using the Center Widget.

Rays Length:   Default: 0.25,  Range: -5 to 1.
The length of the rays. A length of 1.0 gives rays that continue forever, although they may still fade out as they go. To make the rays look longer you can also increase the Rel Outer Bright parameter. If Rays Length is negative the rays can beam inwards instead of outwards. Note that processing times increase for longer rays. This parameter can be adjusted using the Center Widget.

Rays Brightness:   Default: 3,  Range: 0 or greater.
Scales the brightness of the ray beams.

Rays Color:   Default rgb: [1 1 1].
Scales the color of the ray beams.

Bias Outer Bright:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 to 1.
Determines the variable amount of brightness along the rays. This is normally near 0 so the rays fade away at their outer ends, 0.5 causes equal brightness along the rays, and 1.0 causes maximum brightness at the ends.

Rays Res:   Popup menu,  Default: Full.
Selects the resolution factor for the rays. Higher resolutions give sharper rays, lower resolutions give smoother rays and faster processing. This 'Res' factor only affects the rays: the background is still combined with the rays at full resolution.

Full:  Full resolution is used.

1/2:  The rays are calculated at half resolution.

1/4:  The rays are calculated at quarter resolution.

Threshold:   Default: 0.5,  Range: 0 or greater.
Rays are generated from locations in the source clip that are brighter than this value. A value of 0.9 causes rays at only the brightest spots. A value of 0 causes rays for every non-black area.

Threshold Add Color:   Default rgb: [0 0 0].
This can be used to raise the threshold on a specific color and thereby reduce the rays generated on areas of the source clip containing that color.

Shimmer Amp:   Default: 0.5,  Range: 0 or greater.
Modulates the ray source image with this amount of noise texture to give the rays a shimmering look.

Shimmer Freq:   Default: 40,  Range: 0.1 or greater.
The frequency of the shimmer texture. Increase for a finer grained shimmer effect, decrease for larger, softer shimmer. This has no effect unless Shimmer Amp is positive.

Shimmer Seed:   Default: 0.123,  Range: 0 or greater.
Used to initialize the random number generator for the shimmer texture. The actual seed value is not significant, but different seeds give different results and the same value should give a repeatable result.

Shimmer Shift:   X & Y,   Default: [0 0],  Range: any.
Translation of the shimmer texture. This has no effect unless Shimmer Amp is positive.

Shimmer Speed:   X & Y,   Default: [0 0],  Range: any.
Translation speed of the shimmer texture. If non-zero, the shimmering is automatically animated to shift at this rate.

Affect Alpha:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 or greater.
If this value is positive the output Alpha channel will include some opacity from the rays. The maximum of the red, green, and blue ray brightness is scaled by this value and combined with the background Alpha at each pixel.

Rays From Alpha:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 to 1.
Set to 1 to generate rays from the source's alpha channel instead of its RGB channels. This will typically cause many more rays to be generated. Values between 0 and 1 interpolate between using the RGB and the Alpha.

Rays Under Source:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 to 1.
Set to 1 to composite the Source input over the rays.

Source Opacity:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 to 1.
Scales the opacity of the Source input when combined with the rays. This does not affect the generation of the rays themselves.

Bg Brightness:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 or greater.
Scales the brightness of the background before combining with the rays. This parameter only has an effect if the background input is provided.

Use Source Chroma:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 or greater.
If this is 1, the chroma of the Source input affects the chroma of the resulting rays. If it is 0, only the brightness of the Source input affects the brightness of the rays, and the rendering speed should also be faster. Values between 0 and 1 interpolate between these two options.

Mask Type:   Popup menu,  Default: Luma.
This setting is ignored unless the Mask input is connected.

Luma:  uses the luminance of the Mask input to scale the brightness of the rays.

Color:  uses the RGB channels of the Mask input to scale the colors of the rays.

Alpha:  uses the alpha channel of the Mask input to scale the brightness of the rays.

Blur Mask:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 or greater.
Blurs the Mask input by this amount before using. This can provide a smoother transition between the masked and unmasked areas. It has no effect unless the Mask input is provided.

Invert Mask:   Check-box,  Default: off.
If on, inverts the mask input so the effect is applied to areas where the Mask is black instead of white. This has no effect unless the Mask input is provided.

Show Center: Check-box, Default: on.
Turns on or off the screen user interface widget for adjusting the Center and Rays Length parameters.

See Also:

EdgeRays Streaks BlurMotion WarpChroma EdgeDetect Glow

Sapphire Plug-ins Introduction

© 2009, GenArts, Inc. All rights reserved.