8

Lens Effects Flare Filter 367
main preview window indicates that it is updating
achangemadewithinthelensflaredialog.
Prev iew—When you click the Preview button,
the window displays your flare in the upper left
corner if your flare has automatic or manual
secondary elements. If your flare does not contain
these elements, the flare is centered in the prev iew
window. If the VP Queue button is not on, the
preview displays a generic flare to which you can
make adjustments. Each time you change a setting,
the preview automatically updates. A white line
appears at the bottom of the preview window to
indicate the preview is updating.
Update—Redraws the entire Main Preview
window,aswellasthesmallerwindowseachtime
youclickthisbutton.Thisfunctioniscriticalwhen
you need to view changes you have made in the
Video Post queue, such as moving the Time Slider
to a different fr ame, changing your geometry or
a light, or changing another filter that precedes
the current one in the Video Post queue. The VP
Queuebuttonmustbeontopreviewthecontents
of the Video Post queue. In this case, clicking the
Update button causes a small dialog to appear, with
an indicator showing the prog ress of the update.
V P Queue—Displays the contents of the Video Post
queue in the main preview w indow. The Preview
button must also be turned on. Rather than having
to test render every time you want to see the result
of the effect in the scene, VP Queue displays a final
composite, combining the effect yo u are editing
w ith the contents of t he Video Post queue.
Note: If you leave the Preview and VP Queue
buttons active when you exit Lens Effects Flare, it
w i ll take several seconds to re-render the scene in
themainpreviewwindowthenexttimeyoustart
Lens Effects Flare.
The view in the main preview window also
depends upon which lens flare options you have
set in the
Preferences panel (page 3–369) .
Lens Flare Properties g roup
Specifiesglobalsettingsfortheflare,suchasthe
source for the flare(s), the size, seed number,
rotation, and so on.
Seed—Gives the random number generator in
LensEffectsadifferentstartingpoint,which
creates slightly different lens flares without
changing any settings. Us ing S eed guarantees a
different lens flare, even if the differences are very
small. For example, if you set up a r ay effect for
your lens flare, you wi l l get slightly different rays in
the lens flare if you adjust the seed value.
Size—Affects the siz e of the overall lens flare. This
valueisapercentageofthesizeoftherendered
frame. Default = 30.
Otherpartsofthelensflare,suchasglow,ring,
etc., als o have size adjustments, but this size sett ing
affects the entire lens flare, including secondary
flares. Adjusting individual sizes does not affect
this size variable, or vice versa. This parameter
can b e
animated (p age 3–365) .AnimatingtheSize
parameter causes flares to grow or dim inish in size
over the course of your animation.
Hue—If Apply Hue Globally is selected, it controls
the amount of Hue applied to the Lens Flare effec t.
This parameter c an be animated.
Apply Hue Global ly—Globally applies the Hue of
theNodeSourcetotheotherFlareeffects.
Angle—Affects t he amount that the flare rotates
from its default position, as the position of the flare
changes relative to the camera. This parameter
canbeanimated.Thelockbuttontotherightof
the Auto Key button locks the secondary flares so
they do rotate. When the button is disabled, the
secondary flares will not rotate.
Animating the Angle parameter does not animate
the manual and automatic secondary flares unless
you turn on the L button. The default behavior