Tutorial 6 - Glow and LightFX

Tutorial 6 - Glow and LightFX
This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of "4D Blue" functions, especially that you know how to move, adjust and rename objects. In this tutorial we will start from an existing simple scene. We will make adjustment, then set it up to accommodate and render Glow and LightFX effects.
Step 1 - Adjusting existing scene.
	We will start this tutorial with an already existing scene, in our case we will call it "ExampleSimple". Please load now "ExampleSimple.blf" scene. The scene should look like the image on the left.
	Select the "Default Camera" and adjust its position to (1.0, 2.0, -2.0).
	Select the camera's "Look At" node and adjust its position to (-0.1, 1.0, -1.0).
	Now select the "Light" and adjust its position to (1.5, 2.0, -1.2).
	In the light constructor adjust the decay type to "Quadratic".
	The scene should now look like the image on the left.
	If we render the scene right now we will see an image such as on the left - Three toruses illuminated by invisible light. In this tutorial we will change the fact that the toruses are illuminated by invisible light, and thus lights for the first time will be "visible".
Step 2 - Setting up the scene to render object glow.
	In the "Shading Editor" in the "Materials Editor", select the "Checker" material and adjust its "Glow Intensity" to 1.0
	In the "Render Setup" dialog under "Render Options", adjust the parameters as shown on the images.
	Make sure to enable "Post-Processing Effects" to enable Glow and LightFX effects.
	Render the scene right now. We can see the very strong glow being emitted by the torus objects. It seems to be too strong and that it needs adjustment.
	We can adjust the glow intensity in the materials setting for each material, or we can adjust the global glow intensity for the whole scene. We are going to do exactly that. In the "Render Setup" under "Render Options", adjust the "Glow Intensity" to 0.3
	Render again. The glow is significantly weaker, and it seems to be good enough for this tutorial’s needs. When you finish this tutorial, feel free to change and adjust all the global glow parameters too see how they affect the glow effect.
Step 3 - Setting up the LigthFX effect for lights.
	Select the light. Then select "Adjust LightFX Attributes" in the light constructor.
	We will start with the "Glow" effect. It offers the greatest number of options and it is the most customizable one. In this tutorial we will only adjust few parameters, but make sure to try all of them when you are done with this tutorial. Adjust the type to "Lens Flare" which produces nice colorful effects. Then increase the “Star Level” to give it the characteristic "star like" effect and then adjust "Rotation" to rotate it slightly, so it doesn't look so fake.
	Now we will add "Halo" effect which is usually a supporting effect to the "Glow" one. In our case we will add simple exponential halo.
	Eventually we will add the "Lens Flare" effect which produces the characteristic circles on the camera lenses. Intensity controls intensity of each circle, which count is specified by the "Circles Count". Then the "Min" and "Max" size parameters specify the minimum and maximum size that the size of the circles can fluctuate between. Eventually the last three parameters specify where the effect should have its axis and how large it should be. Please try different value to see how the whole thing works.
	The complete effect should look like the one on the left image.
	Here is the final image. With this step, you just successful completed this tutorial. But before you finish this lesson, please try to adjust all the "Glow" and "LightFX" parameters to see all the possibilities that these effects can produce. There is infinite amount of them.

Tutorial 6 - Glow and LightFX

Step 1 - Adjusting existing scene.

We will start this tutorial with an already existing scene, in our case we will call it "ExampleSimple". Please load now "ExampleSimple.blf" scene. The scene should look like the image on the left.

Select the "Default Camera" and adjust its position to (1.0, 2.0, -2.0).

Select the camera's "Look At" node and adjust its position to (-0.1, 1.0, -1.0).

Now select the "Light" and adjust its position to (1.5, 2.0, -1.2).

In the light constructor adjust the decay type to "Quadratic".

The scene should now look like the image on the left.

If we render the scene right now we will see an image such as on the left - Three toruses illuminated by invisible light. In this tutorial we will change the fact that the toruses are illuminated by invisible light, and thus lights for the first time will be "visible".

Step 2 - Setting up the scene to render object glow.

In the "Shading Editor" in the "Materials Editor", select the "Checker" material and adjust its "Glow Intensity" to 1.0

In the "Render Setup" dialog under "Render Options", adjust the parameters as shown on the images.

Make sure to enable "Post-Processing Effects" to enable Glow and LightFX effects.

Render the scene right now. We can see the very strong glow being emitted by the torus objects. It seems to be too strong and that it needs adjustment.

We can adjust the glow intensity in the materials setting for each material, or we can adjust the global glow intensity for the whole scene. We are going to do exactly that. In the "Render Setup" under "Render Options", adjust the "Glow Intensity" to 0.3

Render again. The glow is significantly weaker, and it seems to be good enough for this tutorial’s needs. When you finish this tutorial, feel free to change and adjust all the global glow parameters too see how they affect the glow effect.

Step 3 - Setting up the LigthFX effect for lights.

Select the light. Then select "Adjust LightFX Attributes" in the light constructor.

Now we will add "Halo" effect which is usually a supporting effect to the "Glow" one. In our case we will add simple exponential halo.

The complete effect should look like the one on the left image.

Here is the final image. With this step, you just successful completed this tutorial. But before you finish this lesson, please try to adjust all the "Glow" and "LightFX" parameters to see all the possibilities that these effects can produce. There is infinite amount of them.