BCC Laser Beam

Add multiple strobing lights to a scene with built-in fog generator which can be used to create light sword effects or to simulate and array of light beams. This filter is hardware accelerated for enhanced performance.  BCC Laser Beam can be driven by either the filter’s own built-in 3D camera and lighting system or, when running in After Effects, by integration with the native host camera and lights.

Function

By default the filter is set to generate built-in lights and uses the built-in camera.  To use it in a host without a camera or lighting system apply the filter to any clip and use the built-in filter camera and lighting controls to light and navigate around the scene in 3D space.

To use the After Effects light and camera system you can set the filter’s Camera and Light Source menus to Comp.  Unless there is an AE camera and light present in the comp no effect will be visible when you select this option, therefore, if you have not done so already, add a spot light or a point light and an active camera to the scene. The BCC Laser Beam filter will automatically detect the added light(s) and use it to create a volumetric light beam.

As you move the camera around the scene, you will notice that the volumetric light that is generated by the filter will remain locked into the scene and you will be able to move around the light and view it from any angle. Of course you can also animate the AE light which will  also animate the volumetric light applied to the scene.  The AE light and volumetric light effect that the filter is generating are locked together in space and time.

If you have more than one light in the scene, the filter will pick up these lights and apply the same level of volumetric light to each visible light. There are options in the filter to determine whether a light in the scene is used or ignored as well as options to control the lighting properties.

Auto-animating smoke can be added to augment the atmospheric intensity of the lighting.

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.

Load / Save Preset Mechanism

The built-in load save mechanism is used to access the factory installed or user generated presets.

Camera Pop-Up:  [After Effects only] Menu to select which camera controls to use when running in After Effects.

• Built–In:  Use the camera control built into the filter in the Built-In Camera group.
• Comp:  Use the native After Effects composition camera

Built-­in Camera Group

Controls the built-in 3D camera system.

Camera Model pop-up: Used to select the desired camera system. There are three available options to select from:

• Position: Enables you to move freely without restriction around the composition in XYZ space and includes the option of either Free or Target orientation modes.
• Orbit: Enables you to orbit around the center of the current composition in XYZ space.
• Pan: Enables you to pan and zoom across the center of the current composition in Z and Z space.

Zoom: Used to set the Camera zoom, which controls the view perspective. To achieve a wide angle effect, set a low Zoom value and use the Position Z parameter to move in closer to the composition.

Position XY: Used to control the position of the camera in 3D space along the XY axis.

Position Z: Used to control the position of the camera in 3D space along the Z

Camera Orientation:

• Free: When selected, the direction that the camera is pointing is determined by the tumble, spin and rotate parameters.
• Target: When selected, the camera will always point at the direction that is set by the Target X, Y and Z parameters.

Tumble: Used to set the direction of the camera along the Y axis when in
Free camera mode.

Spin: Used to set the direction of the camera along the X axis when in Free camera mode.

Rotate: Used to set the direction of the camera along the Z axis when in Free camera mode.

Target XY: Used to set the XY position for the Target camera mode.

Target Z: Used to set the Z position for the Target camera mode.

Orbit Radius: Used to set the distance from the camera to the center of the lights.

Orbit Tumble: Used to move around the lights along the Y axis.

Orbit Spin: Used to move around the lights along the X axis.

Orbit Rotate: Used to move around the lights along the Z axis.

Pan Distance: Used to move horizontally across the scene along the X axis.

Pan Advance: Used to move in or out of the scene, along the Z axis.

Smoke Group

Use to add smoke to the scene for more realistic lighting.

On: Smoke is added to the scene when this option is enabled.

Seed: Determines the value input to the random number used by the filter to change the particles of the smoke.

Density: Use to set the amount of smoke in the scene.

Speed: Use to control the speed by which the smoke evolves over time.

Motion Blur Group

Controls for adding realistic motion blur to moving light sources.

Motion Blur On:  Enable/Disable motion blur in the scene.

Motion Blur Control:  Choose between using the motion blur controls built into the filter or following the host’s native motion blur settings (when running in After Effects).

Shutter Angle:  Specify how widely spaced the motion blur samples are in time.

Shutter Phase:  Specify the time offset of the motion blur samples relative to the current frame time – trailing, centered, leading, or values in between.

Samples Per Frame:  Specify the number of distinct motion blur samples per frame.

Master Intensity:  Control the master intensity of all lights appearing in the scene.

Tip Sharpness:  Control the shape of the light beam tip (on the target end of the tip).

Light Source:  [After Effects only] Control Menu to select which lighting controls to use when running in After Effects.

• Built-In:  Use the Light Source controls built into the filter .
• Comp:  Use the native After Effects 3D Lights

Comp Light Group

[After Effects only] Parameters to control how the filter uses host native lights that are present in an After Effects scene.

Select Lights pop-­up: [After Effects only] Control which lights are affected by the filter

• On: Only lights that are turned on are used.
• Off: Only lights that are turned off are used.
• All: All lights are used regardless of whether they are on or off.

Name Starts With pop-­up: [After Effects only] Use to select lights according to the way they have been named in the After Effects composition.

• Anything: The name of the light is not taken into account by the filter.
• A through I: The filter will only use lights whose name begins with the letter selected in this pop-up.
• Light: The filter will only use lights whose name starts with the word Light.

Start Width:  [After Effects only] Width of the light at its “source” end.

End Width:  [After Effects only] Width of the light at its “target” end.

Color:  [After Effects only] Color of the light at its center or core.

Outside Glow Amount:  [After Effects only] Intensity of the glow around the outer edge of the light.

Length:  [After Effects only] Relative length of the light beam along it path.

Light Strobe Group

[After Effects only] Control over the details of the automatic light strobing.

Light Strobe On:  [After Effects only] Enable/Disable automatic strobing.

Amount:  [After Effects only] Intensity of the strobing with a value of 100 allowing the light to flicker completely off.

Speed:  [After Effects only] Speed of the strobing pattern with higher speeds yielding faster rates of flickering.

Random:  [After Effects only] Controls how randomized the flicker pattern is over time with a value of 0 producing a steady sinusoidal flicker pattern.

Random Seed:  [After Effects only]  Generate a new random starting point for the flicker pattern, for example to allow multiple effect instances to generate different patterns of flickering.

Built-In Lights

Laser Beam allows up to 3 built-in light sources, each of which can be independently enabled/disabled with identical sets of lighting controls.

Lights  Source On:  Enable/Disable the light source.

Color:  Color of the light at its center or core.

Intensity:  Peak intensity or brightness of the light.

Position XY:  X and Y coordinates of the light source point.

Position Z:  Z coordinate of the light source point.

Target XY:  X and Y coordinates of the light end point.

Target Z:  Z coordinate of the light end point.

Start Width:  Width of the light at its source end.

End Width:  Width of the light at its target end.

Outside Glow Amount:  Intensity of the glow around the outer edge of the light.

Length:  Intensity of the glow around the outer edge of the light.

Light Strobe On:  Enable/Disable automatic strobing.

Light Strobe Group

Control over the details of the automatic light strobing.

Amount:  Intensity of the strobing with a value of 100 allowing the light to flicker completely off.

Speed:  Speed of the strobing pattern with higher speeds yielding faster rates of flickering.

Random:  Controls how randomized the flicker pattern is over time with a value of 0 producing a steady repeating flicker pattern.

Random Seed:  Generate a new random starting point for the flicker pattern.  For example, to allow multiple effect instances to generate different patterns of flickering.

Use Target Layer:  Enable/Disable use of the target layer.

Target Layer Map:  Layer picker used to specify which layer serves as the target for the light  beam.

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.

Target Tracker Group

Additional Motion Tracking controls which offer access to a second tracker that can be tied to the coordinates of the light source target point.