Removing the Jaggies
Multi-Pass Edge Blend
Using Edge Blend to Antialias already rendered images
Cel-Shade Video
Adjustable Soft Filter
Perfectly Blended Edges when Compositing Video on Video
Get the Image you wish to affect into the WaveFilter Image Interface:
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Insert WaveFilter Image as an image filter on the effects panel. (No need
to open the options panel) Render a frame of your animation. When the render completes, the WaveFilter Image interface will pop up. |
Turn on the Filter:
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Click the Edge Blend filter button to activate the filter. Click the Show button which will paint the image white on each pixel the Edge Blend filter will effect. |
Isolate the jaggies:
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Adjust the Edge Threshold value until you see the jaggies painted white.
A value of 200 will select all pixels, a value of 0 will select no pixels. Note: You are trying to find the lowest value that selects all the jaggies you wish to eliminate. Add 5 to the value to help assure that jaggies in all frames will be found. Note: Click on the preview to toggle between Zoom-to-fit and 1:1 Zoom modes to view different portions of the image to see that all the jaggies are selected. Note: In Zoom-to-fit mode, the Show function is not accurate as all pixels are not shown, so always use 1:1 Zoom mode for this step. Once you isolate the jaggies, click the Show button to turn it off. |
Zoom in close:
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Click on the worst jaggies in the image to bring them into the preview at
1:1 Zoom. Shift-Click on the worst jaggies shown in 1:1 Zoom mode to bring them into the preview at 4:1 Zoom mode. |
Blend away the jaggies:
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Adjust the Edge Blend % to adjust the strength of the blend. Note: The goal is to select the lowest number that eliminates the jaggies. Toggle the Edge Blend filter button on and off, watching the preview to see the effect of the filter. if the results are not ideal, then repeat until the results you desire are found. |
Some images with single pixel details, like stars or highly detailed models, loose some of the detail when the edge blend filter is set strong enough to remove unwanted jaggies in an image. For that reason, the Edge Blend filter has four multi-pass modes. Normally only a single pass is needed, but if you find your losing detail while removing the jaggies, often switching to more passes will help.
When you select more then one pass, the Edge Blend filter searches for edges and applies the blend at a power equal to the percent you select divided by the number of passes. For example, if you select Four Pass Edge Blend mode and have selected a blend % of 100, then the filter will apply a blend of only 25%. Once the first blend pass is complete, the edges are once again found, but this time fewer edges will be found, as those that needed only the light 25% blend will not be selected. This process is repeated for all four passes. This results in the pixels that needed the least blending only getting a 25% blend, while those that needed a bit more get 50% and then 75% blends. Only the worst jaggies get the full 100% blend.
This method preserves more detail while still removing the jaggies.
Placing WaveFilter Image in more then one Image Filter slot can also help in removing really bad jaggies. Just like using multi-pass modes, each filter will only select the jaggies that remain after processing in any previous WaveFilter Image. But remember, when you use multiple slots, the % is fully applied and so it is advised that you keep the % value as low as possible to avoid blurring the edges.
Using Edge Blend to Antialias already rendered images
In the past, if you render a large number of frames only to notice that they needed more antialiasing, you had only one choice... RE-RENDER - YUCK! A very powerful feature of the Edge Blend filter is that it does not require geometry to work correctly. That means that rather then re-rendering the frames, you can simply post process them at a few seconds per frame to get the added jaggy removal you need.
WaveFilter Image turns LightWave into a very powerful post-processing tool. Simply load the images as a sequence into LightWave and set the sequence as the background image. Then set the camera to exactly the same resolution as the original images and turn off any LightWave antialiasing. Set the images to render to a new filename and your ready to post process using any WaveFilter Image Filter, including the powerful Edge Blend filter.
LightWave includes a number of ways to create cel-style cartoon looking 3D based images, but there is no built in way to add the cel-style look to video. Combining the Edge Blend filter and the Palette filter found in WaveFilter Image, you can create cel-style output from standard video.
The first step is to load the video as a background image sequence. Then load up WaveFilter Image into two Image Filter slots. When you render your image, the first WaveFilter Image dialog will pop up. In this dialog, we want to create the cel shading for our video. For that, we use the Palette filter. Turn on the Palette filter by clicking on it. Then select the palette that best creates the cel look you desire.
Note: The Palette filter uses any PhotoShop created palette file or an ASCII text file that contains the colors to use in the cel shading. The ability to specify exact colors to use makes the Palette filter a great tool to create cel-style shading. It is best to include several transition colors between the brightest and darkest versions of any color. This helps create both smooth shading and helps with the next step, cel-edges, as well.
Once you have the cel-style shading correct using the WaveFilter Image in the first slot, click OK and a new WaveFilter Image dialog will pop up for the second slot and will display the output from the first slot. With the cel-shading already applied, we can now add the cel-edges.
Cel-edges are added by turning on the Show feature of the Edge Blend filter and then selecting Tools->Edge Blend->Show Affected as Black from the menu. Set the Edge Blend % to zero and adjust the Edge Threshold value to select the edges to be painted black. The number of Edge Blend passes determines the thickness of the lines.
Note: This same effect can be applied to the surface of a model by using the Filters Affect Selected Surfaces setting rather then the Filter Affects Full Frame or Filter Affects Background setting.
LightWaves' Soft Filter is good, but your stuck with only two choices, on or off. Set the Edge Blend Edge Threshold value to 200 and you transform the Edge Blend filter into an adjustable Soft Filter. Use the Edge Blend % to adjust the strength of the blur. It's a super fast and very controllable way to add that soft filter look to your images.
Use more then one slot to add even more blur without adding much time to your render. If you need even more blur then Edge Blend can give, switch to using the Blur Filter. It's slower, but can blur as far as you want to go and the blur is one of the softest, most beautiful blurs available..
Perfectly Blended Edges when Compositing Video on Video
When you composite video on video, the sharp edge between the two video images is one of the tell-tale give aways of a poor composite. A great composite blends the edges perfectly and makes both elements appear as one. This is one reason that LightWave is not often used as a Compositing package.
The Edge Blend filter has a special mode to help blend video elements perfectly without antialiasing the video itself. To create a great composite, assign the background image on the Compositing tab of the Effect Panel. Then switch to Modeler and create a flat polygon using Create Box and hitting the N key to enter the size numerically. Then zero out the Z axis numbers and create the polygon. Use the Q key to set the surface to the name "Layer 1" and Put the polygon into Layout.
Switch back to Layout and you will see your new polygon. Size the polygon to overfill the view, no hard an fast rule, just make sure the polygon edges can not be seen by the camera. Bigger is better. Now enter the surfaces panel and select the Layer 1 surface. Set the luminosity to 100 and set the diffuse to 0. Then open the surface color texture panel by clicking the T next to surface color. Select Front Projection Image Map as the Texture Type and set the Texture Image to the foreground image you with to composite. You may be tempted to place your alpha image on this panel, but resist, we will get to that in a moment. Now click Use Texture and the Color Texture 1 for "Layer 1" panel will close.
Now open the Texture panel for the Transparency channel by clicking the T next to Transparency. Select Front Projection Image Map as the Texture Type and set the Texture Image to the Alpha image that matches the image you used in the Texture Color channel. Select the Negative Image option for this image and click Use Texture and the Transparency Texture 1 for "Layer 1" panel will close.
If you render and image with the scene as-is, you will get an alpha image that is white where the foreground video is and black where the background video is. The challenge is that to get LightWave to blend the edges, you need to use antialiasing which will antialias the entire foreground image and soften the video spoiling the composite. Instead, set LightWave Antialias to None and put WaveFilter Image in a Image Processing slot on the Effects panel, no need to open the options panel. Now render a frame and the WaveFilter Image interface will pop up when the render completes. If you have done everything right up to this point, you can select Alpha Channel in the dropdown just above the preview window and see that the two video elements are clearly defined in the alpha image. Once you confirm that you have done it all correctly, switch back to viewing the WaveFilter Image in the preview.
Now click the Edge Blend button the activate the filter. Set the Edge Threshold to 200 to cause it to blend all pixels in the image. This will soften the entire frame which is not a desirable effect for this purpose, so we also need to use the Tools menu to select Edge Blend->Only Alpha Edges option. This limits the effect to only the pixels that fall on each side of the edge of the Alpha Image. So the only blending that is done is where the foreground video meets the background video.
Now zoom to 4:1 Zoom in the preview centered an edge where the foreground and background video meet. Now adjust the Edge Blend % to give a perfect blend between the two elements.