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376 Chapter 19: Video Post-Production
Pan—
Automatically rotates the individual
Highlight elements as they move laterally across
the screen. If you have objects in your scene
that are passing by the camera, they can be
automatically rotated based on their position. The
faster your elements move across the screen, the
faster they w ill rotate.
Highlight Preferences
Video Post toolbar > Add Image Filter Event > Choose
Lens Effects Highlight from Filter Plug-In list > Setup >
Preferences tab
ThePreferencespaneldefinesthesizeandnumber
of points on the hig h lig ht, occlusion sett ings, and
whetherornotitaffectstheZ-Bufferoralpha
channels.
Inter face
Scene group
Affect A lpha—D etermines whether or not the
highlight settings affect the alpha channel of the
image when you render to a 32-bit file format.
Affect Z B uffer—Determ ines whether or not the
high light affects the Z-Buffer of the image. When
this option is selected, the linear distance of the
highlight is recorded, and can be used in special
effectsthatmakeuseoftheZ-Buffer.Forexample,
the Focus module that ships with Lens Effects
blurs objects based on their Z-Buffer information.
IfyouwanttouseFocustoblurahighlight,
youmustselectthisoption. Ifyouarenotsure
about whether or not to select this option, leave it
disabled, b ecause you probably don’t need it.
Distance Fade group
Bright—Lets you fade the brightness of the
highlight effect based on the distance away from
the camera. This parameter can b e animated (page
3–349).
Lock —Locks the Bright and Size spinner values
together.
Size—Lets you fade the size of the hig hlight effect
based on the distance from the camera. In most
circumstances, you want the overall size of your
highlights to diminish as they get farther from the
camera. This option takes care of that for you.
This parameter can be animated.
Effect group
Size—Lets you determine the overall size of the
highlight effect, and is calculated in pixels. This
parameter can be animated.
Point s—Controls the number of points to be
generated for a hi ghlight effect. This p ar ameter
can be animated.
Color group
Gra dient—Lets you create the highlight based on
the settings in the Gradients panel.
Pixel—Lets you create the highlight color based on
the pixel color of the highlighted object. This is t he
default method for Lens Effects Highlig ht and is
exceptionally fast.
User —Lets you select a specific color for the
highlights through the standard 3ds Max Color
Selector (page 1–161). The color swatch shows you
the currently selected color.