The LenzFX Glow properties enable you to determine which pieces of geometry in your scene will have the glow applied to them, as well as how much of a glow is applied.
You can turn on more than one option at a time.
Specifies the objects in the scene that will have a glow applied to them.
Whole: Applies a glow to the whole scene, not just a particular piece of geometry. This makes each pixel in the scene a potential glow source. The areas of the scene that have glow applied to them are determined by the settings in the Filter section of the dialog box.
G Buffer ID: Applies the glow to an object with a specific G Buffer (geometry buffer) ID, if the object matches the Filter settings. To apply a G Buffer ID glow for an object, right-click the object and select properties from the menu. Then, set the G Buffer ID. Set this field to match, and LenzFX glow will apply the glow to that object and any other objects with the same ID.
Material ID: Applies the glow to an object or part of an object with a specific Material ID, if the object or part of the object matches the Filter settings. You apply a Material ID in the Materials Editor by assigning the material to one of the available Material Effects channels.
The glow will be applied only to areas of the geometry where the ID is present.
Note: To apply different glow settings to different pieces of geometry or IDs, add glow entries to the video post queue. Set each glow entry to affect a different Material or G Buffer ID, and set the appropriate settings. This process will call the glow routine multiple times, increasing your rendering time. Try to keep the number of glow routines to a minimum per frame.
Unclamped: An unclamped color is brighter than pure white (255,255,255), which is possible for bright highlights or explosions. This spinner determines the lowest pixel value that will be glowed. Pure white has a pixel value of 1. When this spinner is set to 1, any pixels with a value above 1 will be glowed. To invert this value, click the button to the right of the spinner.
Surf Norm: Glows part of an object, based on the angle of the surface normal. A value of 0 is coplanar, or parallel to the screen. A value of 1.0 is normal, or perpendicular to the screen. If you set Surf Norm to .25, only surfaces with normal angles greater than .25 will be glowed. This value can be inverted.
Mask: Glows the mask channel of an image. The spinner ranges from 0 to 255, to represent the 255 levels of grayscale present in a Mask. When this is set, any part of the Mask images larger than the set value will be glowed in the final image. This option can be inverted.
Alpha: Glows the alpha channel of an image. The transparency of an alpha channel is interpreted opposite that of the Mask channel. The spinner ranges from 0 to 255. This option can be inverted.
Z Buffer Hi and Lo: Glows objects based on their distance (Z buffer distance) from the camera. The Hi value is the maximum distance and the Lo value is the minimum. Any objects between these two Z buffer distances will be glowed. The A button animates this option over time. Use TrackView to set the animation settings.
Filters the Source selections to let you control how the glow is applied.
All: Selects all source objects in the scene and applies a glow to them.
Edge: Selects all source objects in the scene and applies a glow to their edges.
Brightness: Filters the source objects by their brightness values. Only objects with a brightness above the spinner setting are selected and glowed. This option can be inverted.
Hue: Filters the source objects by their hue. Select the hue by clicking the color swatch next to the spinner. You can choose hue values from 0 to 255.
The Effects Channel ID can range from 1 to 8.
If you give the same Effects Channel ID value to more than one material, all these materials will be post-processed.
Note: For Multi/Sub-Object materials, post-processing applies at the sub-object/sub-material level. The Effects Channel ID of the parent Multi/Sub-Object material is ignored.
When the RLA file has saved the Object and Material Effects channels, you can use the rendered scene file as an Image Input event or a Filter or Layer mask, and continue to use the Object or Material Effects Channel data.