Reflected Light

Reflected Light

Refl ected light is another “kiss of love” opportunity for a
scene. You might not notice that it’s missing, but a glimmer,
glint, or full refl ection can add not only realism but
pizzazz to a shot.
Glints are specular fl ares that occur when light is refl ected
toward the camera from shiny parts of an element in scene,
such as the chrome , taken from
the Chapter 5 color matching example.

The same plug-ins used for fl ares (Trapcode Lux, Knoll
Light Factory, and Tinderbox) can be used to create glints,
with more modest settings that don’t create all the lens
refl ections. Figure 12.12 shows that there’s not necessarily
a whole lot to a single glint. An Add mode makes these
work even in 32 bpc HDR (in which case they create overrange
values, just as they would on fi lm).

Light Scattering and Volume
Light scatters as it encounters particles in the air, most
dramatically causing the phenomena of volumetric light or
God rays. Our atmosphere does not permit light to travel
directly to the camera, uninterrupted, as it does in outer
space. Instead, the light ricochets off tiny particles in the
air, revealing its path.
The effect can be subtle. Lights that appear in the scene,
casting their beams at the camera, tend to have a glowing
halo around them. If the light traveled directly to the
camera, the outline of the source light would be clear.
Instead, light rays hit particles on their way to the camera
and head off in slightly new directions, causing a halo.

Add more particles in the air (in the form of smoke, fog,
or mist), and you get more of a halo, as well as the conditions
under which volumetric light occurs. God rays are
the result of the fact that light from an omnidirectional
source, such as the sun, travels outward in a continuous arc.
The Devil Rays are a baseball team; these are God rays.
The CC Light Rays effect is probably most helpful among
those included with After Effects to re-create volumetric
light effects, and even God rays. It not only boosts and

causes halation around the source light, but it also adds
rays coming straight at camera. These rays can be made
more prominent by boosting radius and intensity, but in
order to create a God rays effect and not overwhelm an
entire image with rays, it’s usually best to make a target
source and apply the effect to that. For example, you can
1. Add a solid of your preferred color.
2. Apply Fractal Noise (default settings are acceptable
to begin).
3. Mask the solid around the target God rays source area.
Feather it heavily.
4. Apply CC Light Rays. Place the Center at the God rays
target. Boost Intensity and Radius settings until the
rays are prominent.
5. For rays only (no fractal noise) set Transfer Mode
to None.
6. Set a Subtract mask or Alpha Inverted track matte to
create occluded areas for the rays to wrap around.
You can further hold out and mask out the rays as needed,
even precomping and moving the source outside of frame
if necessary. To make the rays animate, keyframe the Evolution
property in Fractal Noise or add an expression such as
time*60 causing it to undulate over time. Different Fractal
Type and Noise Type settings will also yield unique rays.