A simulated light spreads from a source defined by the user. User defined parameters determine the style, length and intensity of the light rays.

Edge Lighting uses a synthetic light source to light the edges. It finds edges based on pixel-to-pixel differences in the alpha channel and applies light to these edges. The highlights and shadows can be blurred and applied separately with this filter. The position of the synthetic light source is controlled by the direction and elevation settings of the filter.

The BCC Rays Radiant Edges filter was used to create light from the edges of the alpha channel. There are many attributes of the rays, all of which can be defined and animated by the user.

This filter animates a simulated comet from the source point to the destination point. Particle density, gravity, air resistance, blur and camera zoom define the movement of the particles. The opacity, size, brightness, life span of the particles themselves are defined by the user and can all be animated. The amount of force with which particles move away from the comet center can also be designated and animated using parameters such as velocity, tumble, spin, rotate and spread.

Cartooner

For the fourth section of the project I used BCC’s Film Damage filter. It allows you to add scratches, grain particles, hair or fibers, and dirt, dust, or water spots. It also allows you to simulate camera shake and a flickering image. The color effects were the result of using the Difference mode; a mathematical operation that combines pixels on one layer of a composition with the layer behind it. In this composition I had a royal blue solid behind the layer with the keyed hand. The Difference mode I applied to the hand layer used the luminance values of the two layers and interpolated new values based on the difference.

On this footage, I started with BCC Linear Color Key and then used Keylight to remove edges I couldn’t get out with the first key. This slowed down rendering time considerably and as there were two shots; one of the front view of the mudra and one of the back view I needed to precompose. I rendered the front and back views separately with their alpha channels intact and started a new composition using these files. The shadows were also created from these files so I had four video clips in all used in this comp.

The twirl on the back drop was made by the BCC Twirl filter. It has a motion tracker which should animate the motion by following the movement of the arm but I used the "twirl center" parameter on the filter and manually generated key frames to follow the movement of the hand for a tidier motion. The motion tracker generated scads of key frames – far more than were needed. The BCC Glow Alpha Edges filter added a soft white glow to the masked arm that improved it’s compatibility with the back drop behind it.