BCC Laser Beam

Category: BCC Lights

Effect Name: BCC Laser Beam

The BCC Laser Beam filter, part of the BCC Lights category, adds multiple strobing lights to a scene with a built-in fog generator which can be used to create light sword effects or to simulate and array of light beams.

Working with the Filter

Presets and Common Controls

• BCC filters come with a library of factory installed presets plus the ability to create your own custom presets and preview them with the BCC FX Browser™.
• BCC filters also include common controls that configure global effect preferences and other host-specific effect settings.

For more information about working with presets and other common controls, Click Here.

Effect Controls

Motion Tracker

The BCC Motion Tracker allows you to track the motion of an object, then use the motion path to drive other geometric properties of the effect without the need for keyframing.

For more information on the Motion Tracker, Click Here.

Beat Reactor

The BCC Beat Reactor is an animation control system that drives effect properties using an audio track. This allows visual effects to sync automatically to sound without manual keyframing.

For more information on the Beat Reactor, Click Here.

• Composite on Source: When enabled, the effect is composited on the source image.
• Use Source Alpha: When enabled, the source image alpha channel is used in the effect.
• Apply Mode: Determines how the trails and source layer are composited. For more information on various apply modes, click here.
• Apply Mix: Blends the Apply Mode setting with the Apply Mix From setting.
• Camera: [After Effects only] Determines which camera controls to use when running in After Effects.

• Built–In: Use the camera controls built into the filter.
• Comp: Use the native After Effects composition camera

Comp Light Group

[After Effects only] Parameters to control how the filter uses host native lights that are present in an After Effects scene.

• Select Lights: Determines which lights are affected by the filter
  • On: Only lights that are turned on are used.
  • Off: Only lights that are turned off are used.
  • All: All lights are used regardless of whether they are on or off.
• Name Starts With: Selects lights according to the way they have been named in the After Effects composition.
  • Anything: The name of the light is not taken into account by the filter.
  • A through I: The filter will only use lights whose name begins with the letter selected in this pop-up.
  • Light: The filter will only use lights whose name starts with the word Light.
• Start Width: Sets the width of the light at its “source” end.
• End Width: Sets the width of the light at its “target” end.
• Color:Sets the color of the light at its center or core.
• Outside Glow Amount: Sets the intensity of the glow around the outer edge of the light.
• Length: Sets the relative length of the light beam along it path.

Light Strobe Group

Provides control over the details of the automatic light strobing.

• Light Strobe On: Toggles the automatic strobing effect.
• Amount: Sets the intensity of the strobing with a value of 100 allowing the light to flicker completely off.
• Speed: Sets the speed of the strobing pattern with higher speeds yielding faster rates of flickering.
• Random: Determines how randomized the flicker pattern is over time with a value of 0 producing a steady sinusoidal flicker pattern.
• Random Seed: Generate a new random starting point for the flicker pattern, for example to allow multiple effect instances to generate different patterns of flickering.

Built-In Light Group

Laser Beam allows up to 3 built-in light sources, each of which can be independently enabled/disabled with identical sets of lighting controls.

• Lights Source On: Toggles the light source controls.
• Color: Sets the color of the light at its center or core.
• Intensity: Sets the peak intensity or brightness of the light.
• Position XY: Sets the X and Y coordinates of the light source point.
• Position Z: Sets the Z coordinate of the light source point.
• Target XY: Sets the X and Y coordinates of the light end point.
• Target Z: Sets the Z coordinate of the light end point.
• Start Width: Sets the width of the light at its source end.
• End Width: Sets the width of the light at its target end.
• Outside Glow Amount: Sets the intensity of the glow around the outer edge of the light.
• Length: Sets the intensity of the glow around the outer edge of the light.
• Light Strobe On: Toggles the automatic strobing effect.
• Use Target Layer: Enable/Disable use of the target layer.
• Target Layer Map: Selects which layer serves as the target for the light beam.