If I were to add a glow... how do i get reflections?

[Mylenium]

Glow is a lens artifact or an atmospheric phenomenon and thus it does not reflect (reality check: even in the thickest fog, only the light source itself reflects, not the scattered halo). Luminous emission and specular shading is a whole different thing and will require you to generate normal passes from your 3D programs which you can then post-light with plug-ins such as ZBornToy. Or of course elaborate masking and warping of layers matching the light color...

Mylenium

[vfx]

I didn't think of it that way Mylenium, thanks for the info. I think the best bet then is to include small coloured lights to catch colour reflection, or increase the luminance on the material applied to the object to get the same effect. Thanks for the link to ZBornToy, I'll look into that.

[jussing]

Well, if the object is reflective enough, like chrome or mirror, the reflection of the light source will be (almost) as bright as the light source, and hence, cause the same flares or glows.

In that case, I'd render out a matte pass (assuming the metal character is CG) from the 3D program, where the glowing area has a white, self-illumnated material, and everything else is black, but still with reflective materials where needed. Then the glowing area will be reflected properly, and use can use that as a matte for the glow in AE.

- Jonas

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