Overbrights

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

I am using Hyperfocal Design Timelapse HDRI to light this car, and ArionFX for AE to tonemap and add glare. Working with 32bit EXR here. I am having real trouble here with overbright pixels.
I was actually using Optical Flares first to add the glare but got black spots inside of the highlight. Switched to ArionFX and the glare couldnt be adjusted to a smaller size when I realised it must be the unclamped pixels (pink area in the screenshot). AE info gives me stranges numbers for those areas.
What can I do to solve this, please?

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

I'm working in 32 bit depth btw,srgb colour space, linear workflow checked. Changing to 16 solves the Problem... But isn't there a way to stay in 32?

[nikolay.kusht]

What values have those pixels in the VFB? Have you tried using Clamp output with more suitable values?

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

I'll check the value, but I'm not saving from VfB but directly to float exr. Is there a clamp option?

[nikolay.kusht]

The Clamp output option is located under the Color mapping section of the render settings. The default value will clamp the brightest pixels to "1", but you could change that.

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

I'll try. Is that the same as clamping in after effects (or other apps)?

[dgruwier]

Did you by any chance use the "screen" blending mode to add the flares layer? If so, try using "add".

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

Yep, used screen. Add makes them so bright lol I will try and just scale brightness down. Thanks!

[glorybound]

Have you tried lowering your max ray intensity?

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

I thought that's for secondary rays and gi ...

[dgruwier]

I think screen does something like invert both layers, multiply them together, the invert the result, and I think depending on how exactly it was written to handle values above 1 and below 0, it can cause some weirdness. Don't know if that's the issue for sure, but I've had problems before using blending modes in AE 32bit other than add and multiply.
I figure clamping should help too, either in Vray or in AE. I'm curious to hear what you find out

[glorybound]

I thought that's for secondary rays and gi ...

removes noise resulting from over bright sources

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

removes noise resulting from over bright sources

From the docs:
" Its effect is similar to the Subpixel mapping + Clamp output options of the Color mapping section, but the Max ray intensity is applied to all secondary (GI/reflection/refraction) rays, as opposed to the final image samples."
I'll try it out anyways

[Anthonyyg]

In AE you can apply a levels effect setting the Output White > Clip to Output White to "On" to set the over bright pixels to white rather than black.

[MANUEL_MOUSIOL]

Sorry to reply to my own thread so late and bump it but I just want people to know the best way to clip those HDR white:
in After effects there is an effect called "CC Overbrights" and it does what the levels effect clipping does but in my opinion more effectively (I had some trouble really clipping those whites sometimes, and with cc overbrights it always works). You can also asign a color to the overbrights, but anything but pure white is probably only for artistic purposes.

there is also the HDR Hightlight Compression effect which does a great job of retrieving detail in overbrights.