Free Trial Buy Now
Buy Now
Free Trial Buy Now
Free Trial Buy Now
BCC Lightning

BCC Lightning

Category: BCC Lights

Effect Name: BCC Lightning

The BCC Lightning filter, part of the BCC Lights category, generates photo-realistic lightning bolts and plasma streams that will automatically flash or move over the image to which the filter was applied.

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.

  • Type: Selects the type of lightning used in the effect.
  • Source to Dest: Lightning bolt flows from the source point to the destination point. The lightning bolt is always displayed in full, and branches are omni-directional.
  • Direction: Similar to the Source to Dest type, but branches flow in a more singular direction.
  • Strike: The bolt appears and then disappears over time dictated by the value set in the Duration parameter.
  • Two Way Strike: Two bolt origin points generate lightning that meets in the middle.
  • Vertical: Generates lightning that is always vertical by ignoring the destination point.
  • Bouncing: Generates omni-directional lightning, similar to a real-world sheet lightning effect.
  • Lightning Number: Determines the number of bolts.
  • Seed: Sets the random number generator that controls the starting point of the look of the lightning source xy – sets the source point of the lightning strike.
  • Source Radius: Sets the radius of the starting point of the lightning strike – larger values will cause the starting point to move randomly and will also spread multiple bolts along a wider starting arc.
  • Dest XY: Sets the destination point of the lightning strike.
  • Dest Radius: Sets the radius of the destination point of the lightning strike – larger values will cause the destination point to move randomly and will also spread multiple bolts along a wider destination arc.
  • Bouncing Length: Sets the maximum length along which the lightning bolt can travel.
  • Bouncing Count: Sets the amount of bolts that are in the bounce / sheet lightning strike.
  • Width: Sets the width of the lightning bolt core.
  • Color: Sets the color of the lightning bolt and forks.
  • Flash Speed: Sets the speed or frame rate of the lightning pulsing on and off the screen.
  • Flash Amount: Sets the amount of flashing that occurs during the strike. a value of 100 causes the lightning to completely appear and disappear from the image as it flashes, while a value of 0 renders a bolt that is always visible.
  • Core Wiggliness: Sets the amount of turbulence in the bolt core. high values cause the bolt to appear more kinked than lower values.
  • Core Wiggly Amount: used in conjunction with the core wiggliness parameter to control the turbulence in the lightning bolt. higher values cause the bolt to appear more kinked than lower values.
  • Detail: Sets the level of complexity of the lightning bolt.
  • Taper Percent: Sets the position point along the bolt and forks where the tapering begins.
  • Taper Amount: Sets the amount of the visible taper that is applied to the bolt core and forks starting at the value determined by the taper percent parameter value.

    • Motion Control Group

    Used to control the motion of the lightning strike.

    • Oscillation: Sets the maximum width of the arc that the middle of the bolt can swing through.
    • Speed: Sets the velocity of the bolt as it swings through an invisible arc. Higher values cause the bolt to move faster than lower values.
    • Strike on: When enabled, the lightning bolt will move from the start point to the end point over the course of the timeline based on the value set in the duration parameter.
    • Duration: Sets the amount of frames that the strike takes to complete. this is total time of the effect, which includes the strike on and fade off.

    Fork Control Group

    Used to control the lightning forking.

    • Max Level: Sets the maximum amount of secondary branches that are generated along the bolt core.
    • Max length: Sets the maximum length of any secondary branch off the bolts main core.
    • Max Width: Sets the maximum width of any secondary branch off the bolts main core.
    • Max Density: Sets the amount of tertiary branches that are generated off of the secondary branches.
    • Max Angle: Sets the maximum angle that any branch can take.
    • Wiggliness: Sets the amount of turbulence in the branches. High values cause the bolt to appear more kinked than lower values.
    • Wiggly Amount: Used in conjunction with the core wiggliness parameter to control the turbulence in the branches of the lightning bolt. Higher values cause the branches to appear more kinked than lower values.

    Glow Control Group

    Used to control the glow of the lightning bolt.

    • Inner Width: Sets the width of the inner glow.
    • Inner Color: Sets the color of the inner glow.
    • Inner Opacity: Sets the opacity of the inner glow.
    • Outer Width: Sets the width of the outer glow.
    • Outer Color: Sets the color of the outer glow.
    • Outer Opacity: Sets the opacity of the outer glow.

    Obstacle Control Group

    • Obstacle Type: Determines how the lightning interacts with the target layer.
      • None: The layer to which the filter is applied has no effect on the lightning that is being generated.
      • Alpha: Feeds the alpha channel information to the lightning filter.
      • Luma: Feeds the luma channel information to the lightning filter.
      • Obstacle Amount: Sets the amount of pixel information from the selected channel (alpha or luma) that is used by the lightning.
      • Luma Threshold: Sets the 50/50 point of the channel that is being used as an obstacle map for the lightning bolt to run around.
      • Obstacle Layer: Determines what layer is used as an obstacle for the lightning bolt.
      • Mix with Original: Blends the effect with the clip to which it was applied.

      Apply Group

      Used to control how the lightning effect is applied or composited over the original clip

      • Source Alpha: When enabled the effect is composited using the original clip’s source alpha. Disable to ignore the image alpha channel.
      • Apply Mode: Sets the apply mode of the filter as it is composited over the original clip.
      • Apply Mix: Blends the apply mode selection back with the normal apply mode. a value of 100 does not blend and just uses the chosen apply mode, while a value of 0 blends the selected apply mode back to 100 percent normal.

    Please select your language

    The website is currently localized into the following languages