9

Flare Preferences 353
Blur Int—
Controls the streng th of the blur when
it is applied to the lens flare. The value set in this
spinner tak es full effect as the flare reaches the
Dist Blur distance in your scene. Flares closer to
the camera plane get a percentage of the intensity
setting. This parameter can be animated.
Soften—Provides an overall softening effect for the
lens flare This parameter can b e animated.
Flare Parameter tabs
Let you create and control the lens flare. Each of
theninetabscontrolsaspecificaspectofthelens
flare.
Wa rning: When you animate Lens Effects parameters,
this creates pointers into the actual scene, so Lens Effec ts
animation is lost if you s ave the Video Post queue in a
VPX file (page 3–1031). To preserve the animation, save
the Video Post data, including Lens Effects animation,
in the MAX file.
A flare is comp osed of eight basic par ts. Each part
of a flare is controlled on its own panel in the Lens
Effects Flare interface. Each part of the lens flare
can be individually activated and deactivated to
create different effects.
Prefs (page 3–353):Thispageletsyoucontrol
which parts of a lens flare are active and how they
effect the overall image.
Glow (page 3–355):Ageneralglowcentered
around the s ource object of the flare. You can
control the color, size, shape, and other aspects of
the glow.
Ring (page 3–355) :Acircularcolorbandthat
surrounds the center of the source object. You can
control the color, size, shape, and other aspects of
the ring .
A Sec (page 3–356):AutoSecondaryFlares.The
small circles you would normally see coming out
from the source of the lens flare. As the camera
position changes relative to the source object, the
secondary flares move. The secondar y flares are
automatically generated when this option is active.
M Sec (page 3–357): Manual Secondary Flares.
Additional secondary flares added to the lens
flare effect. They appear in the same axis as the
automatic secondary flares and look very similar.
Rays (page 3–358): Bright lines that radiate out
from the center of the source object, providing the
illusion of extreme brig htness for t he objec t.
Star (page 3–359): Bright lines that radiate out
from the center of the source object, generally
composed of 6 or more spokes, (instead of
hundreds, like a ray). Stars are generally thicker
andextendoutfartherfromthecenterofthe
source object than rays.
Streak (page 3–360):Widehorizontalbandsthat
run through the cen ter of the source object.
Inferno (page 3–360):Letsyouaddspecialeffects,
such as explosions, to your flare effect.
Fla r e Pr efer ences
Rendering menu > Video Post > Video Post toolbar > Add
ImageFilterEvent>ChooseLensEffectsFlarefromFilter
Plug-In list. > Setup > Prefs tab
In the Prefs panel, you can control whether or not
specific parts of the lens flare, such as the rays or
the star are rendered by turning them on or off.
You can a lso control the axial transparency of the
lens flare.