S_Glare Composites rainbow halos and/or glint-like rays at locations where the Source clip is brighter than the threshold. Lower the threshold parameter to produce glares in more areas. Use the Style menu to select different glare types. Set the Glare Res parameter to 1/2 for faster rendering with slightly softer glares. Use the Convolve option for smoother results. Glares are best observed on dark images with a few bright spots. In the Sapphire Lighting effects submenu. Inputs: Source:  The input clip that determines the glare locations and colors. Background:  Optional.   The clip to combine the glares with. If no background is given, the Source is also used as the Background. Mask:  Optional.   If provided, the source glare colors are scaled by this input. A monochrome mask can be used to choose a subset of Source areas that will generate glares. A color mask can be used to selectively adjust the glare colors in different regions. The mask is applied to the source before the glares are generated so it will not clip the resulting glares.

Parameters:

Style:   Popup menu,  Default: Rainbow Rays.
The style of glare to apply. Custom glare types can also be made, or existing types modified, by editing the "s_glares.text" file.

Rainbow Rays:  rays with rainbow.

Rainbow Rays 2:  rays with larger rainbow.

Rays 60:  cluster of 60 rays.

Rays 20:  cluster of 20 rays.

Rays 16:  cluster of 16 rays.

Rays 12 Rand:  12 rays with random orientations.

Rays 6:  cluster of 6 rays.

Rays 4:  cluster of 4 rays.

Rays 4 Ring:  4 rays with ring and glow.

Rays Multi:  several clusters of rays together.

Rainbow Only:  rainbow.

Rainbow 2 Only:  larger rainbow.

Rainbow Double:  2 rainbows.

Round Coin:  simple solid circle.

Glint Rays:  similar to the default settings of Glint.

Rainbow Rays 3:  a cross with a spray of rays and a textured rainbow ring.

Streaky Rainbow:  rainbow ring with radial texture.

CCD Saturation:  bright vertical white line, simulating digital camera CCD saturation or overdrive.

Convolve:   Check-box,  Default: off.
Determines the method for applying the glares to the Background.

Brightness:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 or greater.
Scales the brightness of all the glares.

Scale Colors:   Default rgb: [1 1 1].
Scales the color of the glares. The colors and brightnesses of the glares are also affected by the Source and Mask inputs.

Saturation:   Default: 1,  Range: -2 to 8.
Scales the color saturation of the glare elements. Increase for more intense colors. Set to 0 for monochrome glares.

Threshold:   Default: 0.8,  Range: 0 or greater.
Glares are generated from locations in the source clip that are brighter than this value. A value of 0.9 causes glares at only the brightest spots. A value of 0 causes glares 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 glares generated on areas of the source clip containing that color.

Threshold Blur:   Default: 0.0056,  Range: 0 or greater.
Increase to smooth out the areas creating glares. This can be used to eliminate glares generated from small speckles or to simply soften the glares. Increasing this may put more highlights below the threshold and darken the resulting glares, but you can decrease the Threshold parameter to compensate.

Size:   Default: 0.2,  Range: 0 or greater.
Scales the size of the glares. This parameter can be adjusted using the Size Widget.

Rel Height:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 or greater.
Scales the vertical dimension of the glares, making them elliptical instead of circular.

Rotate:   Default: 0,  Range: any.
Rotates the ray elements of the glares, if any, in degrees.

Rays Num Scale:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 or greater.
Increases or decreases the number of rays.

Rays Length:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 or greater.
Adjusts the length of the rays without changing their thickness.

Rays Thickness:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 or greater.
Adjusts the thickness of the individual rays.

Blur Glare:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 or greater.
The glare is blurred by this amount before being combined with the background.

Hue Shift:   Default: 0,  Range: -1 to 1.
Shifts the hue of the glare, in revolutions from red to green to blue to red.

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

Full:  Full resolution is used.

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

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

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

Glare From Alpha:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 to 1.
Set to 1 to generate glares from the alpha channel of the source input instead of the RGB channels. In this case the glares will not pick up color from the source and will typically be brighter. Values between 0 and 1 interpolate between using the RGB and the Alpha.

Glare Under Source:   Default: 0,  Range: 0 to 1.
Set to 1 to composite the Source input over the glares.

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

Bg Brightness:   Default: 1,  Range: 0 or greater.
Scales the brightness of the background. This parameter only has an effect if the background input is provided, and is visible due to a partially transparent Source image or a reduced Source Opacity parameter value.

Expand Borders:   Check-box,  Default: off.
If enabled, transparent borders are added to the input image before processing. This allows the result to include soft edges beyond the original image size. When off, the effect only occurs within the frame and the result will retain an edge at the borders. This parameter does not appear in FCP or DF because those applications don't support image expansion.

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 Size: Check-box, Default: on.
Turns on or off the screen user interface widget for adjusting the Size and Rel Height parameters.

See Also:

Glint Glow LensFlare Convolve

Sapphire Plug-ins Introduction

© 2009, GenArts, Inc. All rights reserved.