BCC+ Smoke & Fog

The BCC+ Smoke & Fog Filter adds a realistic auto-evolving fog and smoke to any scene with the click of a button. The filter includes individual control over the color of both the fog and the smoke as well as the speed and direction of the animation. Users can also select from a variety of hand picked image sprites to alter the look of the generated smoke.

Presets and the FX Editor

The FX Editor provides a convenient way to store and retrieve factory installed and/or user generated filter presets. To select a preset, open the FX Editor interface and pick one from the Presets panel. Click the apply button in the FX Editor to return to the host user interface.

To save a custom preset, click the “Create Custom Preset” icon in the top right corner of the parameter list, next to the filter name, set a name for the new custom preset in the dialog that appears and click done.

Filter Parameters

PixelChooser / Mocha: The BCC PixelChooser provides a way for the user to select which pixels in the filtered source are actually going to be affected by the filter, via the generation of image based mattes, gradient mattes and vector shape masks. Mocha planar tracking and vector shape masking options are included in the PixelChooser, which allows for the generation of motion-tracked mask shapes as a hold-back mask.

For more information on the PixelChooser, Click Here.

The Beat Reactor Group: The BCC Beat Reactor is an animation control suite which drives effect properties based on the contents of an audio track. This lets you seamlessly tie visual FX to an audio soundtrack without the need for ANY manual keyframing.

For more information on the Beat Reactor, Click Here.

The Smoke Group

Speed: Used to adjust the overall speed of the smoke’s movement. Higher values will result in faster movement.

Opacity: Used to adjust the overall opacity of the smoke layer.

Contrast: Used to control the overall contrast of the smoke. Higher values create a more intense contrast between light and dark pixels than lower values.

Color: Used to set the color of the smoke. In it’s default state the glow is white. By selecting a color with the color chip, the smoke can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the smoke color can be selected directly from the image pixels.

Coherance: Used to adjust the movement and evolution of the smoke pattern. Higher values result in a smoother oscillation , whereas lower values result in a more chaotic movement.

Scale: Used to adjust the maximum size of the smoke pattern.

Density: Used to adjust the complexity of the smoke pattern.

Smoke Sprite: Click to select a different sprite image to alter the look of the smoke.

The Fog Group

Opacity: Used to adjust the overall opacity of the fog layer. fog

Scale: Used to adjust the maximum size of the fog pattern.

Contrast: Used to control the overall contrast of the fog. Higher values create a more intense contrast between light and dark pixels than lower values.

Color: Used to set the color of the fog. In it’s default state the glow is white. By selecting a color with the color chip, the fog can be set to any RGB value. With the eyedropper, the fog color can be selected directly from the image pixels.

Level: Used to adjust the complexity of the fog pattern.

Speed: Used to adjust the overall speed of the fog’s movement. Higher values will result in faster movement.

Use Source Alpha: Applies the fog to the source alpha layer.

Blend: Determines the blend mode to be used to create the fog effect.

None: The fog layer is not blended into the image. It remains opaque.
Normal: The fog layer is blended evenly into the image.
Add: The fog is added to your image.
Screen: The fog is combined with the image using a Screen blend mode. This looks kind of like the Add blend mode, but highlights are retained.

Seed: Used to add randomness to the fog layer.

The Prism Group

Enable: This checkbox enables independent control over the prism effect parameters.

Amount: Sets the amount of the the prism, with lower values generating a smaller prism effect, and higher values generating a more intense prism effect.

Weight: Sets the smoothness of the prism with lower values generating a more visible stepped offset and higher values yielding a smooth continuous prism

Short Color: use to set the first color in the prism

Mid Color: use to set the second color in the prism

Long Color: use to set the third color in the prism

The Color Correct Group

Enable: This checkbox enables independent control over the color correction parameters.

Hue: Used to control the overall hue of the effect

Saturation: Used to control the overall saturation of the effect. Higher values create a more intense color saturation than lower values.

Brightness: Used to control the overall brightness of the effect. Higher values create more intense highlights than lower values.

Contrast: Used to control the overall contrast of the effect. Higher values create a more intense contrast between light and dark pixels than lower values.

Gamma: Used to control the overall gamma of the effect.

Temperature: Used to control the overall temperature of the effect. Moving the Temperature slider to the left (negative values) will yield a cooler result, while moving the slider to the right will warm up the shot.

Cyan/Magenta: Used to control the overall amount of cyan/magenta in the image. Moving the slider to the left (negative values) will add a cyan tint, while moving the slider to the right will add a magenta tint.

Red: Used to control the overall value of the red color channel. Higher values increase the overall influence of the red color channel than lower values.

Green: Used to control the overall value of the green color channel. Higher values increase the overall influence of the blue color channel than lower values.

Blue: Used to control the overall value of the blue color channel. Higher values increase the overall influence of the red color channel than lower values.

Mix with Original: Used to blend the filter effect back with the unfiltered input mage.

GPU Rendering: allows for the selection of GPU or CPU software rendering.