LW Image Filter plugins

© 2002  Al Street. All Rights Reserved.

Unmult.p - Creates an alpha channel based on the luminance of the R, G, and B channels. Similar to John Knoll's Unmult plugin for After Effects, but implemented as a LightWave Image Filter.

post_Alpha2.p - Works like Unmult.p, except preserves the existing alpha channel created by geometry. Operation is like the Flare2Alpha plugin in LightWave 7.5, but renders considerably faster.  Here is some benchmark info using the SingleLightBackground_Crumple.lws scene at 1024 x 768 resolution:

scene with no image filter renders at 96.2 seconds

scene with post_Alpha2.p renders at 96.6 seconds    (0.4 seconds for image filter)

scene with Flare2Alpha.p renders at 112.0 seconds    (15.8 seconds for image filter)

The figure below demonstrates the differences in the plugins:

Limitations:

post_Alpha2.p : There is a Frame Width limitation of 4096 pixels. If you attempt to render a frame with a greater width while this plugin is active, you will almost certainly crash LightWave. Be warned!

Volumetric Ground Fog : Using Volumetric Ground Fog will result in a solid white alpha channel. Flares, glows, volumetric lighting are ok.

Neither of the above limitations apply to Unmult.p.

Acknowledgments:

Unmult is based on observed performance of John Knoll's unmult plugin for After Effects.

Download both plugins (LW 6.x and 7.x -- PC only):     Alpha_Plugins