Lens Effects Layer

V-Ray Lens Effects simulates real-world camera lens effects such as bloom and glare. This plug-in uses a fast multi-threaded technique to compute the result and provide immediate update in the VFB. V-Ray Lens Effects are applied in the effectsResult channel together with other post effects executed over the RGB rendered image.

The Lens Effects layer is accessible from the Layers panel in the VFB and can be activated when the Enable Lens Effects checkbox is selected. Lens Effects can be blended with the rest of the layers in the VFB.

Additionally, V-Ray includes a standalone Lens Effects Generator Tool for composing custom lens filters.

UI Path: ||V-Ray Frame Buffer|| > Layers > Lens Effect

Enable Lens Effects – Enables the V-Ray Lens Effects.

Size – Specifies the size of the filter as percentage of the image's diagonal. See the Size example.

Intensity – Multiplier for the bloom/glare source bright pixels. Increasing the value can boost the effect by simulating up to 20 times brighter source pixels. Values lower than 1 can be used to produce subtle bloom/glare from overbright sources. See the Intensity example.

Bloom – Controls the blend between bloom and glare. A value of 1 forces bloom to be applied to its full extent, without any glare. A value of 0 removes the bloom completely and applies only glare. Values in-between blend the two effects proportionally. See the Bloom/Glare example.

Threshold – Sets a minimum value for the rendered pixels to be considered as lens effects sources. The Lens Effects are generated only in regards to pixels with larger value than the specified threshold.

Rotation – Rotates the final result effect, regardless of this is a filter image or a procedurally created one. 

Saturation – When the value is set 0, the effects use the original hue of the bright pixels to create bloom and glare. Larger values intensify the hue set with the Cold/Warm option. See the Cold/Warm & Saturation examples.

Hardware Accelerated – Enable this option to calculate lens effects on the GPU. When multiple devices are present, V-Ray prioritizes the best one available.

Cold/Warm – When enabled, the Lens Effects are toned to cold hues. When disabled, the effects receive warm hue. The hue shift requires Saturation values larger than 0. See the Cold/Warm & Saturation examples.

Interactive – When enabled, the lens effects are automatically recalculated and applied after any V-Ray lens effects parameter change.

Update – Manually forces the recalculation of the lens effects.

Clicking the  button displays a short menu that resets all the parameters for a lens effect to their default values.

Blades – Enables the Blades effect.

Sides – Sets custom camera aperture blades number to be considered for the lens effects. This parameter directly controls the number of "rays" of the glare.

Blades rotation – Controls the rotation of the camera aperture and blades.

Streak blur – Determines the width of the angle at which glare rays spread. The larger the value, the wider the spread. If set to 0, rays are directional; if set to 1, glare rays spread out and completely blend together. Observe in the Streak blur example how values in-between change the glare rays appearance.

Peripheral grating – Enables grating along the sides of the aperture shape. 

Density – Controls the density of the grating effect in percent, where 100 is fully black.

Length – Controls the length of the grate lines.

Zoom – Controls the size of the halo around the lights.

Slope – Controls the direction of the lines.

Strength – Controls the strength of the blades effects.

Occlusion – When enabled, it controls the aperture shape by occluding part of it.

Symmetric – Enables symmetric occlusion of the shape. When disabled, the occlusion appears only on one side of the shape.

Percent – Controls how much of the shape is occluded.

Rotation – Determines the position of the occlusion over the shape by rotation.

Arc – Controls the arc of the occlusion. A value of 0 sets a straight line, while a value of 100 makes an arc.

Lens scratches – Enables the lens scratches effect.

Pattern – Specifies Random, Stripes, Square, or Hexagonal type of pattern for the scratches.

Symmetric – When enabled, creates a symmetric pattern of the scratches. This option is available only when Pattern is set to Random.

Streaks – Specifies the number of streaks that are clustered together. If Symmetric is enabled, the streaks are stemming from one point with equal angles. If Symmetric is disabled, the streaks are scattered from random angles.

Density – Controls the density of the scratches effect in percent, where 100 is fully black.

Length – Controls the length of the scratches.

Slope variance – Randomizes the direction of the scratches.

Width variance – Randomizes the width of the scratches.

Seed – Specifies a seed parameter to introduce variance in the randomization.

Zoom – Controls the size of the pattern.

Rotation – Determines the position of the scratches by rotation.

Strength – Controls the strength of the effect.

Lens dust – Enables the lens dust effect.

Pattern – Specifies the Random, Square, or Hexagonal type of pattern for the dust.

Density – Controls the density of the dust effect in percent, where 100 is fully black.

Radius variance – Specifies a variance in the radii of the dust dots. A value of 0 makes the dust dots uniform.

Jitter – Controls randomization of the position of the dots.

Zoom –  Controls the size of the dust dots.

Rotation – Determines the position of the dust dots by rotation.

Strength – Controls the strength of the effect.

Obstacle image – When enabled, an obstacle image can be specified. You can use it to simulate various effects on the camera lens. See how this changes the lens effects in the Obstacle Image example below.

Path – Loads an obstacle image.

Zoom – Controls the size of the obstacle image. 

Rotation – Rotates the obstacle image. 

Strength – Controls the strength of the effect.

Obstacle images used

Enabling this rollout disables the controls for the generated filter:

Filter image – Enables a filter image from the Filter generator tool to be used.

Path – Specifies the path to a filter kernel. You can create filters using the Filter generator tool which comes with the V-Ray installation.

Chromatic aberration – Applies a chromatic aberration effect to the scene.

Strength – Specifies the amount of chromatic distortion from the center to the edges of the viewport. See the Strength example.

The Aperture Preview panel is loaded by default, but can be minimized like the other Aperture groups. The aperture shape shows the result of the applied lens effects.