Post Process Effects

2022-JUN-15 Author: Aximmetry

Please note that this is a BETA version of the document. All information presented is correct but we are working on improving the details.

Introduction

In this documentation, we will talk about Post-Process effects in Aximmetry. Post-Process effects are effects that are applied to the scene after it has been rendered by the system.

Using the Post-Process Effects

We have some of our Post-Process effects already added to the render compounds and we suggest adding further compounds here as well.
These render compounds are the following:

Render_General for non-PBR workflow with virtual or tracked cameras
Render_General_PBR for PBR workflow with virtual or tracked cameras.
Render_LEDWall_4-Wall for Ledwall production.

Before going any further we suggest unlinking the Compound:
You can read more about compounds here.

This will ensure that any change you make will not be saved into the original compound.
Once unlinked, you can enter it by double-clicking on it.
Post-Process effects can be found on the right of the Camera 1 module.

Antialiser effects

Aliasing is a visual artifact that usually happens on the edges of the models making them look zig-zagy like this:

We offer 3 different antialising algorithms, MSAA, SMAA and TXAA, you can use them separately or combined but always keep in mind that these effects are not cheap performance-wise.

MSAA

MSAA can be set in the Camera 1 node's property editor:

You can set it to None,2x,4x, and 8x. We suggest not going for over 4x unless it is very necessary.

SMAA

SMAA can be set in the Antialiser node's property editor

You can change it's:

Quality - sets the overall quality of the effect
Base - selects the channel the jagged pattern search is based on.

TXAA

TXAA can be set in the TX Antialiser GW node, we reckon the default settings are good but you can always play around with it.
Uses the NVidia TXAA method to reduce not only the jagged edges of the objects but the aliasing caused by the motion of the image.

Sharpener

Can be used to make the rendered image sharper, it can also reduce the blurriness caused by TXAA

Ambient Occlusion effect

We offer our own Ambient Occlusion effect as well as Ambient Occlusion GW which is created by Nvidia. Both serve the same purpose to create an AO/contact shadow where objects are close to each other or in tight spaces.
They offer a few parameters to fine-tune the AO effects.

Ambient Occlusion

Quality - Can be used to change the quality of the AO thus making it nicer or have less performance impact
Strength - Can be used to increase or decrease the AO effect
Radius - Can be used to adjust how big the space the AO will cover
Angle Bias - Can be used to set what angle(between objects or parts of the object) the AO is visible at.
Blur Radius - the AO effect gradually gets weaker around the contact point blurring makes this fade more natural you can change the Blur Radius to adjust the fading of the AO effect
Blur Sharpness - You can adjust how sharp the blurring is, increasing this value will make the edges sharper and stronger
Gamma - Can be used to adjust the fading of the AO effect. Decrease to make the fading effect darker or increase to make it lighter.

Ambient Occlusion GW

Radius - Can be used to adjust how big the space the AO will cover.
Bias - You can adjust this to hide low-tessellation artifacts.
Large Scale AO - Scale for the large-scale AO.
Small Scale AO - Scale for the small-scale AO.
Gamma - increasing this value will make the AO effect darker
FGAO - turn the Foreground AO on or off.
FGAO View Depth - Depth at which the AO footprint should get clamped.
BGAO - Switches larger-scale AO in the distance on/off.
BGAO View Depth - Depth at which the AO footprint should stop falling off with depth.
Precision - If ON, greater precision is used, but with a larger GPU load.
Edge Mode - Adjust this to hide possible false-occlusion artifacts near screen borders.
Blur - Switch blurring the AO with an edge-preserving blur.
Blur Radius - Radius of the applied blur.
Blur Sharpness - The higher, the more the blur preserves edges.

Tone Mapper

Tone Mapping is the process of converting a High Dynamic Range color to a lower Dynamic Range, in our case we convert a full HDR image to an SDR image.
On top of that, we also use this node to adjust the Exposure of the scene allowing us to make it overall brighter or darker, however, we suggest adjusting the lighting in your 3D modeling software.
You can use the White Luminance property to increase or decrease the bright parts of the scene.

Tone Mapper can also be used to generate Bloom, Streak, or Ghost effect.

Bloom

Bloom effect is called Glares in Aximmetry this effect is a camera artifact that is present around very bright objects that cause the light to go beyond the borders of the object.
In the following gif, we are turning this on and off.
The image to the right shows the current settings for this effect.

Brightness Trashold is used to set objects from what brightness level will have a bloom effect, a higher value means that the object has to be brighter to have a bloom effect.
- The value you set here is the brightness you set in the Shaders Property, if the shader brightness is higher you will get a bloom effect around that object

Streaks

Streaks are unique characteristics of lenses and are widely used in films.
For Streaks to work you need to turn on Glares as well.
The image to the right shows the current settings for this effect.

We offer different streak types

Cinema - unique characteristics of anamorphic lenses, a horizontal streak around bright objects. This effect is used in the image above.
Cinema Cross - Cinema lens flare with additional diagonal streaks around bright objects
Cross - Horizontal and Vertical streaks around bright objects
Cross Filter - Similar to cross but much more intense
Snow Star - A star-like streak pattern around bright objects
Sunshine - Usually caused by shooting with a smaller aperture which lets less light in and causes the sun to appear small and starlike

You can change their:

Intensity
Gamma
Size
Rotation
Add Chromatic Aberration to them using Chrom Aberr property
Blue Depth for Cinema and Cinema Cross types

Ghosts

Ghosting is a camera artifact that is caused by strong light sources that are reflected from the camera's lens.
For Ghosts to work you need to turn on Glares as well.
The image to the right shows the current settings for this effect.

You can set its Intensity and Gamma.

Depth of Field

In short, depth of field can be described as the distance between the closest and the furthest parts of the image that are in focus.

We have two DoF modules:

Depth of Field

This works in a way that separates the rendered scene into 3 part

Blurred part in the front
Sharp part
Blurred part in the back

The blurred part in the front can be adjusted using the Fore Near and Fore Far parameters. The difference between them sets how sharp the transition is between the sharp and the blurred parts.

The blurred part in the back can be adjusted using the Back Near and Back Far parameters. The difference between them sets how sharp the transition is between the sharp and the blurred parts.

The Sharp part is between the Fore Far and the Back Near parameters.

You can adjust the blur amount with the Amount property and set the quality with the Blur Quality property.

Depth of Field GW

Depth of Field GW algorithm is created by Nvidia.

You can adjust it with the following settings:

Focal Plane - You can position the focus distance with this property
Sharp Radius - You can adjust the width of the Sharp part of the image
Focal Radius - You can adjust the transition between the Sharp and the Blurred part of the image, a higher value means a smoother transition
Min Blur - You can set the minimal amount of blur that occurs on the blurred parts
Near Max Blur - You can set the maximum blurriness of the blurred part in the front
Far Max Blur - You can set the maximum blurriness of the blurred part in the back
Blur Fall Exp - You can adjust the smoothness of the transition into the blurred parts

Diffusion

By default, this module is not present in the Render compounds but you can always add it from: [Common]:Compounds\Effects\Diffusion.xcomp

This effect adds a bit softer look to the scene. You can change its Depth and Strength.
The image to the right shows the current settings for this effect.

Fog

You can use this module to add a volumetric fog effect to your scene:
The image to the right shows the current settings for this effect.

There are some parameters that you can change to customize the fog effect:

Mode - Decides how the fog thickens with distance
Near - Set the starting point of the fog
Far - Sets the endpoint of the fog
Density - Sets how dense the fog will be
Height - Turning this switch on allows you to set the height of the fog
Height Near - Sets height for the near starting point of the fog
Height Far - Sets height for the endpoint of the fog
Height Gamma - Can be used to adjust the fading between the top and the bottom of the Fog effect. Decrease to make the overall effect thicker or increase to make it thinner.
Color, Near Color, High Color - Let you change the Overall, Near, and Far part's color

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