Glow Effect With Dark Images

thiscan wrote on 11/21/2003, 5:42 PM
I am trying to use the Glow effect on a shot that has characters silhouetted by moonlight streaming in through a window. The glow effect adds a fantastic 'air' to the shot... However on close examination e.g. external monitor or post DV render; what I can only describe as 'contour' lines appear in the effect. It looks VERY FAKE.

I have tried various options in the settings but the contours are very visible particularly on a dark backgrounds.

This appears to be a limitation with the plug in.

Any suggestions? Is there an alternative way to achieve the same effect? Or does anyone know of a plug-in that can do the same job without the contours?

Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 11/21/2003, 7:28 PM
Its a tough call without seeing the video you're working on. Part of the "fun" of using Vegas is trying the various filters, frequently in combination to achive the effect you want.

People don't "glow" in moonlight so you're starting off on the wrong premise. You could try Light Rays. The trick will be to get not only the strength and limit the size but to postion the light source carefully and then tint it more towards cooler shades. I would try it with a fairly high setting for sensitvity, low on strength and high on feather.

If that don't get the effect you want try some other filters.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 11/22/2003, 6:21 AM
Would it possible to see a small sample of what you're referring to?
thiscan wrote on 11/25/2003, 5:23 PM
I have posted some images at:

http://www.new-light.co.uk/powerless/glo.htm

The 'non-moving' version of the clip does not fully show the effect. I have enhanced the still image (by decreasing the supression) to show the 'contors'.

It is a shame, because the effect looks so great.

Let me know what you think....

Thanks BillyBoy for your suggestion on using 'light rays' however the shot uses a steady cam and another light source (a flashlight) therefore using that effect makes a mess of the shot...there are already 'rays' coming in through the window in the shot anyway.
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/25/2003, 5:40 PM
Those are compression artifacts, you are actually seeing this in the .avi file? That would be strange.
Even so, while it sounds a bit odd, you might try adding a .001 Gaussian blur, or even using motion blur set quite low as long as the scene isn't moving too fast. By using your photo, I was able to add .011 Gaussian to only the Blue channel, and that seemed to work pretty good. I'm working with a very low res image, but it got rid of the contouring in your image. I have the
Glow-.379
Intensity 7.424
Suppression-.091

Gaussian:
H-.016
V-.011

I'll be interested to know how this works on the higher rez file. Are you working in PAL, or just the photo shot is compressed at an odd resolution?
thiscan wrote on 11/25/2003, 6:02 PM
I am seeing this in vegas before render, with a preview on an external monitor, and in the final PAL DV Render.

Thanks for the suggestions I gave them a try. It seems to have a different effect on the actual footage, the blue chanel blur just adds blue halo around the glow. However different levels of blur do take the contors away a bit. But now I loose the crispness of the image :( Is there any way i can apply the blur to the glow effect only?