Post processing Effects in Director 12

The 'ppeffectlist' property is a camera property. Each individual camera can have its own 'ppeffectlist'. Note that overlays of the camera will not be considered for Post-processing effects.

Usage

The Post-processing effects make use of the following common variables:

• Texture List: You can specify the list of textures that are used by certain Post-processing effects.
• Operation List: You can specify the operations to be performed on the textures specified in the Texture List. The list of supported operations are:
  • Additive blending specified using “add”.
  • Multiplicative blending specified using “multiply”.
  • Subtractive blending specified using “subtract”.
• Type: Returns the type symbol of the Post-processing effect.

Adobe Director 12 provides the following new post-processing effects:

• Convolution filter
• Adjust color filter
• Blur motion effect
• Bloom effect
• Blend textures effect
• Depth of field
• Night Vision effect

newppeffect

This function is used to create a new Post-Processing Effect Object. The type of Post-Processing effect returned is determined by the parameter 'ppEffectSymbol'.

Usage

The ppEffectSymbol has to be any one of the following values:

• #ppconvolution
• #ppadjustcolor
• #ppblurmotion
• #ppbloom
• #ppblendtextures
• #ppdepthoffield
• #ppnightvision

Example

Convolution Filter

You can use Convolution filter to apply a wide range of imaging transformations, such as blurring, edge detection, sharpening, embossing, and beveling.

The values for achieving these transformations must be specified using a three by three matrix as follows:

• Gaussian Blur
  myList = [1.0/16, 2.0/16, 1.0/16, 2.0/16, 4.0/16, 2.0/16, 1.0/16, 2.0/16, 1.0/16]
• Sharpness
  myList = [-1, -1,-1, -1, 9, -1, -1, -1, -1]
• Edge-detection
  myList = [0, 1, 0, 1, -4, 1, 0, 1, 0]
• Emboss
  myList = [2, 0, 0,0, -1, 0, 0, 0, -1]
• Mean
  myList = [1.0/9, 1.0/9, 1.0/9,1.0/9, 1.0/9, 1.0/9, 1.0/9, 1.0/9, 1.0/9]

Usage

Example

Adjust color filter

You can use the Adjust color filter to edit a scene’s brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue. The Adjust-Color Filter effect lets you apply a 3 x 4 matrix transformation on the RGB color of every pixel in the input image to produce a result with a new set of RGB color. 

Here are the matrix values you can use for different colors:

• Red Channel
  myLists = [1,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0]
• Green Channel
  myLists = [ 0,0,0,0, 0,1,0,0, 0,0,0,0]
• Blue Channel
  myLists = [ 0,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0, 0,0,1,0]
• Black & White
  myLists = [0.3,0.3,0.3,0, 0.3,0.3,0.3,0, 0.3,0.3,0.3,0]
• Contrast
  myLists = [2,0,0,0, 0,2,0,0, 0,0,2,0]
• Saturation
  myLists = [2,1,0,0, -1,2,0,0, 0,-1,2,0]
• Hue
  myLists = [0,1,0,0, 0,0,1,0, 1,0,0,0]
• Normal
  myLists = [1,0,0,0, 0,1,0,0, 0,0,1,0]
• Invert (Negative)
  myLists = [ -1,0,0,1, 0,-1,0,1, 0,0,-1,1]

Usage

Blur motion effect

Blur motion effect causes blurring of objects in motion. Blurring is dependent on the velocity of the object.

You can apply blur motion effect to:

• A camera: Blur motion effect is applied to all the models that are rendered by the camera.

Property:

3Dmember.camera(1).blurmotion = true

• A Model: Blur motion effect is applied only to the specific model.

Property:

pSphere.blurmotion = true

By default, blur motion effect is disabled for all models and cameras. Blur motion effect applied to a camera overrides the effect applied to a model.

Usage

Bloom Effect

The Bloom Post-processing Effect is used to bloom the screen. This effect makes bright areas appear brighter.

Usage

• BloomThreshold: Controls the minimum intensity in the original image that will be bloomed. Only those pixels that are brighter than this value will be bloomed.
• BaseIntensity/BloomIntensity: When the bloomed image is combined with the original image, these values determine the intensity (brightness) of the respective images.
• BaseSaturation/BloomSaturation: When the bloomed image is combined with the original image, these values determine the saturation of the respective images.
• BlurX/BlurY: Controls the blurriness of the bloomed image in X or Y axis.

Blend textures effect

You can specify up to seven input textures and corresponding operations to blend them at run-time on the scene and create different effects.

Usage

You can also create effects such as masking and stereoscopy in Lingo using this feature.

Parameters

• Texture List: The Blend Textures effect supports upto 7 textures.
• Operations List: The Blend Textures effect supports up to 7 operations based on the number of textures in the Texture List.

Depth of Field

Depth of Field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image (from Wikipedia).

You can use depth of field to emphasize a specific object or a model while blurring or de-emphasizing other objects in the foreground and background.

Usage

Parameters

• DepthStart: Distance from the camera to the point up to which all the objects will appear sharp.
• DepthRange: All the objects between ‘DepthStart’ & ‘DepthStart + DepthRange’ blur gradually. Beyond ‘DepthStart + DepthRange’ objects appear completely blurred.
• BlurConst: Controls the blurriness of the scene that is not in focus

Night Vision effect

The Night Vision filter helps you to replicate a night vision goggles scene by specifying brightness, red/blue/green coloring in the scene. You can also use two textures for adding shadows and noise to the scene.

Usage

Parameters

• Brightness: Indicates the multiplication factor for brightness in the scene. Value of 1 keeps the brightness unchanged, while 0 makes the scene black. Values greater than 1 brighten the scene.
• RedBias/GreenBias/BlueBias: Indicates the respective coloring to be given to the scene. Values range from 0 (no color) to 1 (full intensity of color)
• NoiseOpacity: Denotes the opacity of the ‘noise’ additive texture (texturelist[2])
• ShadowOpacity: Denotes the opacity of the ‘shadow’ multiplicative texture (texturelist[1]). This is used to get the vignetting effect (edges are darkened)
• Texture List: The Night Vision effect supports two textures. The first layer is multiplicative blending, while second is additive blending. These are controlled by parameters NoiseOpacity and ShadowOpacity properties described above.
• NightVisionMatrix: This is intended for advanced users. It allows greater control over the exact look of the effect. NightVisionMatrix works just like the Adjust Color Matrix.
• LineWidth: Denotes width in pixels of the alternating white lines that are displayed when using the Night Vision Effect.
• LineOpacity: Denotes opacity of the alternating white lines that are displayed when using the Night Vision Effect. Values range from 0 to 1.

Limitation

Specify the values for redbias, greenbias, and floatbias in float.