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.

Inputs:

Source:  The clip to be processed.
        

Parameters:

Center:   X & Y,   Default: [0 0],  Range: any.
The location from which the rays beam outwards. This parameter can be adjusted using the Center Widget.

Rays Length:   Default: 0.2,  Range: 1 or less.
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.

Rel Outer Bright:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 or greater.
The relative brightness of the outer end of the rays. This is normally near 0 so the rays fade away at their outer ends, but higher values can cause longer looking rays.

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 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.

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.

Rays Brightness:   Default: 2,  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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Use Src 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.

See general info for: Res, On Fields, Redraw, Undo, Load Defaults, Crop, Add Noise, and Use Gamma.


See Also:

RaysMask
RaysComp
RaysMaskComp
EdgeRays
Streaks
BlurMotion
WarpChroma
EdgeDetect
Glow
Sapphire Plug-ins Introduction


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