3D Studio MAX: Makes 3D effects magic with Video Post FX

"Video post" effects can be applied to your scenes to enhance their visual appearance, as the before and after images to the right demonstrate. Max includes a number of Lens flare, Glow and brilliance effects that can be added to a scene -- even one you've already rendered. Indeed, video post production is akin to audio studio production, where leading producers often have their artists sing their vocals "clean," without reverb or other effects, and then "fix it in the mix."

To add a video post "Sparkle" effect to the current 3D model you are working on:

• For this example, we'll assume the model is a teapot. You can create a teapot by clicking MAX's Create (sparking finger) icon, clicking Teapot, then dragging the mouse a very small distance in the Perspective window.
• Then, from MAX's Rendering menu, choose Video Post.
• In the toolbar along the top of the video post screen, you'll see several icons. The one that looks like a teapot is the "Add Scene Event" icon.
• Now it's time to select the view that the effect will be applied to. Typically, this will be the Perspective view.
• To the Video Post queue, we must now add an event that tells MAX what to do to this frame. Click the icon that looks like a wavy line on top of a rectangle. Its tooltip identifies it as "Add Image Filter Event."
• From the drop-down list of filter options, choose "Lens Effects Highlight." Then, click the Setup button just below it.
• By clicking the Preview button in the dialog that appears next, you can see what this filter will do to a sample scene (cool, huh?) Click OK. But wait -- you can also preview your actual scene, after performing the next step.
• Now it's time to add an imge output event. That's the next icon -- it looks like an arrow pointing away from a rectangle. Click it, then type a name and choose a directory path where you want to save your "post processed" image. For simplicity's sake, choose the c:\Windows\Desktop directory or its equivalent on your system.
• The next dialog that appears will differ depending on whether you have chosen to save an AVI or other file type. Assuming that you elected to save an AVI, you then have to choose the codec (compressor/decompressor) that will be used when saving the file. If it is available, try Intel Indeo 5.0x -- it produces good results and small animation files on our systems. Click OK, and OK again to return to the VP queue.
• Now, double-click the Lens Effect entry in the queue. As you will see, the previously unavailable "Update" and "VP Queue" buttons are now active -- this is because we chose to save the file. Click VP Queue, but don't expect anything amazing yet -- we still have to set up the effect.
• For immediate gratification, try checking Source "Unclamped" and Filter "All." The screen should automatically update to display the effect. You can force a display update, as you might have guessed, by clicking "Update."
• Experiment with different settings until it looks the way you want it to. Try setting the Unclamped value to 0.9, for example. On the Geometry tab of the dialog, you can set the angle of the Brilliance filter's star effect; the Preferences tab allows you to adjust the size and/or the number of points of the effect.
• When you're ready, click OK, then click the running man icon to run the process and write the file.

To create the particle systems in the images above we used a plugin called Special Purpose Particles to create the weaving "force field" effect. In the second image (above, right), we've added video post sparkles with the Brilliance option. We applied the Video Post effect using the brightness of the non-black values as the input for the sparkle effect. You can preview your video post effects, either on a sample picture or, after setting up an output file, by clicking the VP button and selecting "Preview" or "Update" as required. If you regularly add a specific type of effect, you can save its settings as a preset from within the Lens FX dialogs.

In the image to the right, based on a particle spray produced with a standard MAX particle system, we've layered two video post effects: Highlight and Glow.

To add a video post "Sparkle and Glow" effect to a pre-rendered Video for Windows (AVI) file:

• As above, from MAX's Rendering menu, choose Video Post
• In this example, you'll select the icon that looks like an arrow pointing into a rectangle. This is the "Add image input event" icon.
• Now it's time to select the movie or still image that the effect will be applied to. Locate and load an AVI or JPG file (there are lots in MAX's "Images" directory) or, if you prefer, one of the other supported file types.
• To the Video Post queue, we must now add an event that tells MAX what to do to this frame. Click the icon that looks like a wavy line on top of a rectangle. Its tooltip identifies it as "Add Image Filter Event."
• From the drop-down list of filter options, choose a "Lens Flare Glow" event. Then, click the Add Image Filter Event again and add a "Lens Effects Highlight."
• As in our first example, you should then add an image output event. Remember, it looks like an arrow pointing away from a rectangle. Click it, then type a name and choose a directory path where you want to save your "post processed" image. Again, we'll recommend the c:\Windows\Desktop directory or its equivalent on your system. As before, you'll need to choose the codec that will be used when saving the file. Click OK, and OK again to return to the VP queue.
• Then, click the Glow Image Filter event in the queue and set it up with a setting something like this: Source: Whole; Filter All, then click the preferences tab and change the Effect size to 4.0. Clicking the VP Queue (if it isn't already active) will allow you to check out your glow effect.
• Depending on the scene you have selected, you might like the effect the Inferno tab produces, too. Try clicking Electric, checking Red, Green and/or Blue until you are pleassed with the effect, then click OK. Trust me -- this is a killer effect on a glowing, animated particle cloud explosion.
• By clicking the Preview button in the dialog to preview a sample scene or your actual scene, with VP Queue.
• For an interesting effect, try checking Filter Hue, with Source "Whole." You might also want to adjust the size of the effect under Preferences> Effect>Size. On many images, a Size setting of 2 or 3 looks great. As before, you can force a display update by clicking "Update."
• Remember that in the Geometry tab of the dialog, you can set the angle of the Brilliance filter's star effect; the Preferences tab allows you to adjust the size and/or the number of points of the Highlight effect.
• When you're ready, click OK, then click the running man icon to run the process and write the file.

For these images, we rendered and saved the files in AVI format using the Indeo 5.0x codec set to 85% quality.