Post Effects

Camera Blur and Compositing by Colin Freeman

The Colin Effect

Colin Freeman used this interesting effect for some of his TWO render tests.

his forum post

V14 has some features and improvements to make this possible in A:M. V14 Beta 2 or later should work for this.

Walkthrough

Here is how to use a new composite to adjust an existing image or animation to get this look. As well as how to have this look applied to a camera's renderings.

New Composite

Here is how to make a new composite to adjust an existing image

1. Load or create a new project, and import an image, expanded to show its buffers
   1. Import the image or animation\image sequence you want to apply post effects to
   2. From the Project Workspace Tree's (PWS) Images folder, right click and choose new composite.
   3. Expand the image in the PWS to show its available buffers (typically one)
2. Drag a buffer and drop it on the new composite
3. Right click on the buffer under the composite's post effects folder and choose Insert Post Effect, Hash, Inc. -> Merge
4. Expand the new merge
   1. Drag the filled out input onto the Input Place Holder
5. Right click on the merge's first input and choose Insert Post Effect -> Merge again.
6. Expand the new merge
   1. Drag the filled out input on to the Input Place Holder
7. Insert Blur post effects onto the last two inputs in the PWS
8. Check that your PWS looks like this.
9. Set the merge properties to match the above PWS image

Camera Post Effects

Here are the steps to place this effect on a camera's renderings

1. load or create a choreography with a camera
2. Add a merge and blur post effect to the project.
   1. Right click the Post Effects folder in the Project Workspace Tree (PWS), and choose new post effect.
   2. Right click the new post effect and change its type to Hash, Inc. -> Merge
   3. Add a second new post effect and change it to Hash, Inc. -> Blur
3. Drop the Merge post effect onto the choreography's camera, to create an instance of it under the camera.
4. Drop the Merge post effect onto the new instance's first "Camera Output" input
5. Drop the Blur post effect onto the lowest two remaining "Camera Output" objects
6. Make sure your PWS looks similar to this.
7. Typically you'll want to make sure the camera's Output Options.Buffers.Apply Camera's PostEffects to Renderings is set to ON. If this is OFF the renderings will not have the effect applied, but a new composite will be created with this effect on the rendering.