9

Lens Effect s Flare Filter 351
You might notice that an individual part of the
lens flare effect might not appear as bright in
the smaller preview windows, compared to the
main preview. This is because the brightness
ofalensflareinthemainpreviewisaresultof
combining the br ightness of multiple effects, the
total brightness being greater than a single part.
All of the preview windows are multi-threaded
to increase redraw speed and t a ke advantage
of multi-processor systems. When you make
an adjustment to a lens flare property and the
preview window is act ive, the preview updates
automatically. A white line at the bottom of the
main preview window indicates that it is updating
achangemadewithinthelensflaredialog.
Prev iew—When you click the Preview button,
the window displays your flare in the upper left
corner if your flare has automatic or manual
secondary elements. If your flare does not contain
these elements, the flare is centered in the preview
window. If the VP Queue button is not on, the
preview displays a generic flare to which you can
make adjustments. Each time you change a setting,
the prev iew automatical ly updates. A white line
appears at the bottom of the preview window to
indicate the preview is updating.
Update—Redraws the entire Main Preview
window,aswellasthesmallerwindowseachtime
youclickthisbutton.Thisfunctioniscriticalwhen
you need to view changes you have made in the
Video Post queue, such as mov ing the Time Slider
to a different frame, changing your geometry or
a lig ht, or changing another filter that precedes
the current one in the Video Post queue. The VP
Queuebuttonmustbeontopreviewthecontents
of the Video Post queue. In this case, clicking the
Update button causes a small dialog to appear, with
an indic ator showing the progress of the update.
V P Queue—Displays the contents of the Video Post
queue in the main preview window. The Preview
button must also be turned on. Rather than having
to test render every t ime you want to see the result
of the effect in the scene, VP Queue displays a final
composite, combining the effect you are editing
w ith the contents of the Video Post queue.
Note: If you leave the Preview and VP Queue
buttons active when you exit Lens Effects Flare, it
w i ll ta ke several seconds to re-render the scene in
the main preview window the next time you st art
Lens Effects Flare.
The view in the main preview window also
depends upon which lens flare options you have
set in the Preferences panel (page 3–353).
Lens Flare Prope rties group
Specifiesglobalsettingsfortheflare,suchasthe
source for the flare(s), the size, seed number,
rotation, and so on.
Seed—Gives the random number generator in
LensEffectsadifferentstartingpoint,which
creates slightly different lens flares without
changing any settings. Using Seed guarantees a
different lens flare, even if the differences are very
small. For example, if you set up a ray effect for
your lens flare, you w i l l get slightly different rays in
the lens flare if you adjust the seed value.
Size—Affects the size of the overall lens flare. This
valueisapercentageofthesizeoftherendered
frame. Default = 30.
Otherpartsofthelensflare,suchasglow,ring,
etc., also have size adjustments, but this size setting
affects the entire lens flare, including secondary
flares. Adjusting individual sizes does not affect
this size variable, or vice versa. This p arameter
can b e animated (page 3–349).AnimatingtheSize
parameter causes flares to grow or diminish in size
over the course of your animation.
Hue—If Apply H ue Globally is selected, it controls
the amount of Hue applied to the Lens Flare effect.
This parameter can be animated.