Glow Properties

Command entry:Video Post toolbar

(Add Image Filter Event)

Choose Lens Effects Glow from Filter Plug-In list.

Setup

Properties tab

The Lens Effects Glow properties let you determine which pieces of geometry in your scene will exhibit the effects of the glow filter, as well as how much of a glow is applied.

Procedures

To set a material ID Channel:

In the Material Editor, make the material you want to be post-processed the active material.
Choose a non-zero ID from the Material ID Channel flyout.
The ID Channel can range from 1 to 15.

If you give the same ID Channel value to more than one material, all these materials will be post-processed.

NoteFor Multi/Sub-Object materials, post-processing applies at the sub-object/sub-material level. The ID Channel of the parent Multi/Sub-Object material is ignored.

To set up an RLA file so it saves Object and Material ID channel data:

Place an Image Output Event in the Video Post Queue.
In the Image Output Event dialog, click Files.
Choose the .rla file type and a file name, and then click Setup.
In the RLA Image File Format dialog, select Object, Material ID, and then click OK.
Click OK.
When the RLA file has saved the Object and Material ID 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 ID Channel data.

Interface

The Properties panel is divided into two sections: Source and Filter.

Source group

Specifies the objects in the scene to which a glow is applied. You can select more than one source option at a time.

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.
Object ID: Lets you apply the glow to an object or part of an object with a specific Object ID (in the G-buffer), if the object matches the Filter settings. To apply an Object ID glow for an object, right-click the object and select properties from the menu. Then, set the Object Channel ID. Set this field to match, and Lens Effects glow will apply the glow to that object and any other objects with the same ID. This parameter can be animated.
Effects ID: Lets you apply the glow to an object or part of an object with a specific ID channel, if the object or part of the object matches the Filter settings. You apply an ID channel in the Material Editor by assigning the material to one of the available Material ID channels. This parameter can be animated.

The glow will be applied only to areas of the geometry where the ID is present.

NoteTo apply different glow settings to different pieces of geometry or IDs, add more glow entries to the video post queue. Set each glow entry to affect a different Material or Object 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). 3ds Max keeps track of these "hot" areas which tend to show up when your scene contains bright metallic highlights or explosions. This spinner lets you determine the lowest pixel value that is glowed. Pure white has a pixel value of 1. When this spinner is set to 1, any pixels with a value above 255 will be glowed. You can invert this value by clicking the I button to the right of the spinner. This parameter can be animated.
Surf Norm: Glows part of an object, based on the angle of the surface normal to the camera. A value of 0 is coplanar, or parallel to the screen. A value of 90 is normal, or perpendicular to the screen. If you set Surf Norm to 45, only surfaces with normal angles greater than 45 degrees will be glowed. You can invert this value by clicking the I button to the right of the spinner. This parameter can be animated.
Mask: Glows the mask channel of an image. The spinner value represents the level 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. You can invert this value by clicking the I button to the right of the spinner. This parameter can be animated. Range = 0 to 255.
Alpha: Glows the alpha channel of an image. The transparency of an alpha channel is interpreted opposite that of the Mask channel. This parameter can be inverted, and can also be animated. Range = 0 to 255.
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. These parameters can be animated.

Filter group

Filters the Source selections to let you control how the glow is applied. For example, you can have ten spheres in your scene, each with the same Object ID, but different colors. If you set the Source as the Object ID of the spheres, which selects all of the spheres, that is the only place in your scene that Glow applies an effect.

However, now that Glow knows where the pixels are that can be glowed, it needs to know which ones to actually apply the Glow to. Glow uses the filter controls to find out which source pixels to apply a glow to.

All: Selects all source objects in the scene and applies a glow to them.
Edge: Selects all source objects along a boundary edge and applies a glow to them. Applying a glow along the edges of objects produces a soft halo that exists on both inside and outside edges of your object.
Perimeter Alpha: Applies a glow only to the perimeter of an object based on its alpha channel. Selecting this option glows only the outside of an object without any spill on the interior. Perimeter Alpha keeps all the edges clean because it relies on the scene alpha channel for its effect.
Perimeter: Applies glow effect only to the perimeter of an object based on Edge inferencing. Although not as precise as Perimeter Alpha, you might need to use the Perimeter option at times when the alpha channel is unavailable.
Bright: Filters the source objects based on their brightness values. Only objects with a brightness above the spinner setting are selected and glowed. This option can be inverted. This parameter can be animated.
Hue: Filters the source objects by their hue. Select the hue by clicking the color swatch next to the spinner. The spinner beside the Hue color swatch lets you enter a variance level so that the glow can find several different hues in the same range as the chosen color. This parameter can be animated. Range = 0 to 255.