User’s Manual
2
Contents
Quick Start 3
Introduction 3
License keys 3
Point Lights 4
Point Light Model 4
Light’s Intensity 5
Intensity 5
Softness 5
Radius 6
Individual Radius 6
Source Intensity 7
Source Radius 7
Spot Lights 8
Spot Light Model 9
Light’s Intensity 9
Intensity 9
Start Distance 10
Reach 10
Individual Reach 11
Reach Comp Layer 12
Set Reach Layer 12
Reach Both Sides 12
General 13
Use Lights that are 13
Name starts with 13
Look 14
Gamma 14
©Trapcode 2003. All rights reserved.
3
Quick Start
Create a new composition. Then create a camera and a
spot light. Then create a composition-sized solid and apply
Trapcode Lux. You will right away see Lux rendering the light
cone of the spotlight. Try and orbit the camera (press “c” on
the keyboard) around the light to see it from all directions.
Introduction
Adobe After Effects produces wonderful lighting and shadows
on layers, but what about the actual lights? The lights them-
selves are not visualized in any manner by After Effects. That
is where Lux comes in handy. Trapcode Lux renders represen-
tations of all point and spot lights in a scene. Just apply it to a
composition-sized 2D solid and it will automatically get the po-
sition, color and all other properties of all point and spot lights
and render visual representations of them.
Lux can even be set up so the spot lights reach a certain 3D
layer in the composition to make the “on-stage-spotlight” effect
look very realistic.
This manual will describe in high detail all the controls in Lux.
It should be used as a reference when working with the plug-in.
For more hands-on training material, there are tutorials at the
Trapcode web site.
License keys
Trapcode Lux is distributed as an unlockable demo. It is fully
functional, but will render a red cross over the frame. At any
time, a license key can be purchased and fed into the plug-in by
clicking “Options”. When a valid name & key pair is entered,
the red cross will disappear. License keys can be purchased at
the Trapcode web site.
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Point Lights
Point lights in After Effects are points in 3D space that emit
light uniformly in all directions. Lux uses three of the prop-
erties of the point light to render its representation, they are:
position, color and intensity.
In Lux, there are controls for how point lights are rendered.
The controls are:
Point Light Model
The Point Light Model controls what type of visualization is
used; the look of point lights. There are five settings:
Off No visualization of point lights.
Natural Light falls off with distance squared
(1/R
2
). This is the most physically
correct model.
Radius Constant light up to a certain radius. It
has the look of a volumetric sphere.
Radius+Source Like above, but adds a smaller sphere in
the center.
Source Only the smaller center sphere.
Natural Radius
Radius+Source Source
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Light’s Intensity
The Light’s Intensity check box controls if the intensity values
from the lights should be used. It is on by default, but can be
switched off when desired that all point lights look the same
regardless of their individual intensity setting.
Intensity
This slider acts as a master slider for all point lights’ intensi-
ties. By increasing this value all point lights will be visualized
with more intensity by Lux. It however has no effect on the
lights’ own intensity values, only on how they are rendered by
Lux. The top row in the image on the left shows how a light
using the Natural Point Light Model is affected. The bottom
row shows a light using the Radius model.
Softness
The Softness slider sets the softness of the visualization. The
top row in the image on the left shows how a light using the
Natural Point Light Model is affected. The bottom row shows
a light using the Radius model.
Low Medium High
Low Medium High