PDA

View Full Version : Highlights in Advanced Renderer?

DaveD
05-14-2008, 10:08 PM
What exactly is it highlighting? I can't seem to tell if it keys in on the object's glow, specular, or something else? I'm getting some areas that are way too blown out with highlights and I can't seem to track down what needs adjusting. I'd check the manual but other than a 200+ page "quick start" guide, I can't seem to track down a manual either.
JamesMK
05-14-2008, 10:30 PM
It's simply triggered where the brightness/intensity of a rendered pixel is higher than the Threshold value. So, that is the first parameter you'll want to tweak. The lower the threshold, the more highlights you'll get, and vice versa.

It's worth pointing out that the brightness is measured on the raw unclamped image data, so that's why a value like 150% can actually make sense (you'd usually think that nothing can be brighter than 100%, but that's not the case for the unclamped float buffer).

The reference manual as such should be on your product CD, and also accessible (cleverly hidden) in the Help menu (Help->Help).
scanmead
05-15-2008, 01:16 AM
I did a very basic tutorial on them.

http://scanmead.com/tutor/cinema/highlights/highlights.html
DaveD
05-15-2008, 01:53 PM
Both great tips, thanks. That would explain why everything I tried seemed to have some effect but nothing seemed to help overall. Now I know.

As for the manual, my disc only contained the same quickstart guide and the help menu is empty. I just tracked down the manual (all 104MB of it) from the Maxon website though.
ChrisCousins
05-15-2008, 02:08 PM
Changing & testing settings with the Highlight effect is pretty painful, it's especially cumbersome using the highlight editor. As a head-start I've found the best settings are actually pretty different from the defaults, if you try a Threshold only just over 100%, say 110-130%, with a 1% minimum, 10% Max that seems to work fairly well. 15% Flare size seems OK but I guess that is dependent on your scene size.

It's one of the more useful post-effects once you get some settings that work however.

Cheers - Chris
AdamT
05-15-2008, 11:53 PM
Better to do it in post, IMO. If you do it in Cinema be aware that the effect is very sensitive to AA and render size changes.
Shademaster
05-16-2008, 10:59 AM
Better to do it in post, IMO. If you do it in Cinema be aware that the effect is very sensitive to AA and render size changes.

Same as Cinema4D's DOF unfortunatly, low AA=>High Bokeh Flickering.
CGTalk Moderation
05-16-2008, 10:59 AM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.