BCC Light Sweep

Category: BCC Lights

Effect Name: BCC Light Sweep

The BCC Light Sweep filter, part of the BCC Lights category, creates a linear beam of light that sweeps across the image.

Working with the Filter

Presets and Common Controls

• BCC filters come with a library of factory installed presets plus the ability to create your own custom presets and preview them with the BCC FX Browser™.
• BCC filters also include common controls that configure global effect preferences and other host-specific effect settings.

For more information about working with presets and other common controls, Click Here.

Effect Controls

Mocha Mask and Track

Continuum effects include integrated masking and matte tools that allow you to restrict the effect to specific regions of the image.

• Mocha masks: used to create custom spline masks. Mocha also includes Matte Assist ML and Matte Refine ML, which use machine learning to generate and track masks.
• Pixel Chooser: used to generate geometric shapes, gradients, or mattes based on channel, luma, or color-based selections. Additionally, an AI depth map generator, and an AI-powered face detection model allow for precise control of masks and mattes.

For more information, see Mocha and Pixel Chooser.

Motion Tracker

The BCC Motion Tracker allows you to track the motion of an object, then use the motion path to drive other geometric properties of the effect without the need for keyframing.

For more information on the Motion Tracker, Click Here.

Beat Reactor

The BCC Beat Reactor is an animation control system that drives effect properties using an audio track. This allows visual effects to sync automatically to sound without manual keyframing.

For more information on the Beat Reactor, Click Here.

• Light Center: Sets position of the light source along the horizotal and vertical axes.
• Direction: Sets the angle that the light beam makes with the horizontal axis.
• Falloff Distance: Sets the rate at which the light darkens or falls off, after it passes the Center point.
• Cone Width: Sets the width, in pixels, of the light beam.
• Center %: Sets the percentage of the cone width for which the light is fully applied. For example, if Center Percentage is 50, the center half of the lit region is fully lit, and the light in the quarters on each side of the center falls off as it approaches the edge of the lit region.
• Shape: Determines how the light falls off from the center to the outside regions of the beam. At higher values, the light falls off rapidly outside the center of the light beam, creating a hard- edged beam. At the lower values, the light falls off more gradually, creating a softer beam.
• Intensity: Sets the intensity of the light.
• Light Color: Sets the color of the light.
• Ambient Light: Sets the total amount of diffuse light on the image. The default setting of 100 does not add or subtract ambient light from the source image. Decreasing this setting makes the image darker before the other light is applied. Ambient light illuminates or darkens the image evenly, and is unaffected by any other lighting parameters.

Ambient Light overrides the PixelChooser in the Light Sweep filter. In other words, the Ambient Light setting is applied to all pixels, regardless of whether or not they are chosen by the PixelChooser. This ensures that the PixelChooser does not create discrepancies in the overall lighting of the image before Light Sweep is applied. At the default Ambient Light value of 100 (where no ambient light is added or subtracted), the PixelChooser behaves exactly as in other filters; at other values, the PixelChooser filters every parameter except Ambient Light.

Edges Group

The Edges parameters control edge detection and edge lighting. Note that the edges referred to here are edges in the source image, not the edges of the spotlight.

• Edges From: Determines which channel in the source is used to compute edges. Choose Alpha to light text, or to light a cutout image around the edges. Use Luma or an RGB channel to light the image based on the edges in the corresponding color channel.
• Edge Intensity: Sets the intensity of the edge light. If Edge Intensity is any value other than 0, the filter completes a directional edge detection on the source image.
• Edge Threshold: Determines how sensitive the filter is to differences between pixels when finding edges in the source image. The affect depends on the nature of the source image.
• Edge Pre Blur: Blurs the source image before edge detection.
• Edge Post Blur: Blurs the edge light after the edges are computed.
• Post Blur Quality: Determines the quality of the Post Blur.
• View Edges Only: Displays the edges created by the filter in black and white.
• Edge Color: Sets the edge light color.
• Edge Color Mode: Determines the interaction between the Edge Color and the Light Color.
• Ignore: The Light Color overrides the Edge Color.
• Mix: The Edge Light Color is mixed with the Light Color.
• Prefer: The Light Color fades away where the Edge Color is intense.

Common Group

The Common parameters offer more options for adjusting the filter. Use these parameters to control the mixing of ambient and applied light and/or to create gel or matte effects.

• Apply Mode: Determines how the filter composites the applied light with the image. For descriptions of all the possible Apply Modes, Click Here.
• Apply Mix: Sets the mix of the specified Apply Mode with the Normal apply mode.
• Shadow Transparent: When enabled, unlit regions of the image are transparent.
• Gel-Matte Layer: Selects any layer in the composition to use as either a gel or a matte.
• Gel-Matte: Dtermines how the Gel-Matte layer is used.
• Gel: Uses the Gel-Matte layer for color information to create a gel.
• Matte: Uses the Gel-Matte layer for color information to create a matte.
• Luma Gel: Scales down the applied light by the luminance values in the Gel-Matte layer. Not available in the Light Sweep filter.
• Luma Matte: Scales down the applied light by the luminance values in the Gel-Matte layer.
• None: No gel or matte is used.
• Light Apply Layer: Selects a layer in the composition to which the light is applied.