【Shost Tip】 How to use the Glow effect (Patreon)

Hello everyone.

Today, I'd like to explain how to effectively use the Glow effect, which was added in Shoost v0.12.0.

What is the Glow effect?

The Glow effect allows you to make parts or the entirety of an image appear to emit light.

In Shoost, the Glow effect is available in both the Layers and Effects categories. While the effect in the Layers category can be applied to individual layers, the effect in the Effects category is applied to the entire screen.

In this article, we will focus on the Glow effect in the Effects category.

How the Glow effect works

The Glow effect reacts to the "brightness" of the image it is applied to.

By adjusting the Threshold parameter, you can control the range of brightness that is affected.

The Threshold Smooth parameter makes the boundary of the brightness range smoother.

Usage Example

Apply the effect to a real scene and see how it works.

For example, let's consider expressing backlighting in a scene where a character has a window behind them.

Simply applying the Glow effect makes the entire image too bright.

First, display only the background and use the Threshold to determine the range of brightness to which the Glow effect will be applied.

Now, only the window area is glowing.

Next, when we display the character, the character appears overexposed in this state.

Use the Color effect in the Layer category to adjust the brightness until the character is no longer overexposed. By making such adjustments, you can control which parts emit light and which parts do not.

Incidentally, if you only want to make the background glow, you can achieve this by setting the Screen Effects to Glow only, without using the Glow effect.

Other Usage Examples

By applying the same technique, you can make only particle-like images glow or emphasize only the parts that are lit by Rim light.

Conclusion

The Glow effect requires a bit of skill to use effectively, but once mastered, it can greatly expand the range of expressions you can create. The key to using it well is to keep the background relatively dark while applying the effect subtly to the entire image.

I hope you all have a great Shoost life!