Tutorial: Highlights Glow Effect

In this the first tutorial for 844/X User, we explore the process of how to create a highlights glow effect in 844/X using the built-in realtime processing power of the Genesis Engine (844/X Hardware). This is a great effect that can applied to may different types of footage, such as sports and lifestyle programs promos. This tutorial will work on the 844/Xe or 844/Xi, however it does require you have the xBlur option.

In the example below the effect has been applied to the 844/X tutorial footage, so you can all give this a try.


Original Image


Image with highlight glow effect


To start you'll need a piece of footage, such as the shot above, which has some bright areas which we will use to create our glow effect.

Step 1: Create a new timeline and place the clip you wish to apply the effect, onto V1 track.


Step 01 - Clip on timeline


Step 2: Now copy the clip on V1 and place it above itself in V2. We do this as we are going to use the keyer to isolate the highlights areas of this clip, while the clip below (V1) will remain untouched.


Step 02 - Clip copy in V2


Step 3: Click the filter icon on the clip in V2 to display the clip information in Parameter Editor. This is so we can get access to the filter effects for this clip.

Step 4: In the Parameter Editor select the Keyer filter. Then select Luma/Component as the key type.


Step 04 - Select Luma/Component in Keyer


Step 5: We want to be able to see only the clip we are working on, so in the Viewer window, change the view type to "view clip"


Step 05 - Change the view type


Step 6: Using the sliders in the keyer start to isolate the highlight areas of your clip, you don't need to be to precise as you can always come back and change them later. Below are the setting used for the 844/X tutorial footage.


Step 06 - Key setting


Step 06 - Isolate highlight areas

Step 7: Once you've isolated the highlights, we can now change the View window back to display "clips in context"

Step 8: Select the xBlur filter and dial in about a 30 pixel blur. As you are doing this you should notice that you highlights are beginning to glow. If the effect is looking very subtle, the next step with help intensify the glow.


Step 08 - Blur keyed highlights

Step 9: Select the Composite filter and change the composite mode to Add. This will cause the 2 clips to combine their luminance levels, effectively doubling the brightness of the highlights.


Step 09 - Highlight glow effect

You should now have a nice glow effect in the highlight areas of your clip. If you need to decrees or increase the highlight area, simply go back to step 6 and adjust the keyer settings. You can also use the color corrector to adjust the color of the glow, or increase the intensity by increasing the RGB gain.

Hope you all found this one useful.