Render Look is a render look in FRCTL, the browser VJ studio. Filmic highlight rolloff with HDR bloom, halation, edge defocus and grain.
Runs live on video, images, a camera or generated art. Stack it with any other effect, and route LFOs, envelopes or any of ten audio bands to its controls so it moves with the music.
Re-expands the highlights past white, adds Bloom gathered across four mip levels and a wider red Halation around hot areas, then rolls them off through a Filmic curve instead of clipping. Threshold keeps the glow to the brightest pixels, Defocus softens and darkens the frame edge while the centre stays sharp, and Grain adds midtone noise. On the card the pale lines brighten and glow slightly.
Using Render Look
Where it works
The last pass before export, for cover art or a pack loop that looks flat next to a rendered image. Highlights that roll off rather than clip matter most on neon and laser looks.
With the music
Grain refreshes every frame by itself. B1 (kick) on Bloom flares the highlights with each kick, and a slow LFO on Exposure breathes the whole frame brighter and darker over a phrase.
Starting point
Exposure at centre, Bloom at centre, Threshold at three-quarters, Halation at a quarter, Filmic at three-quarters, Defocus hard left, Grain at a quarter.
Controls
Exposure
Stops of gain before the tone curve. Centre is neutral.
Bloom
Light bleeding out of the highlights, gathered across four mip octaves.
Threshold
How bright a pixel must be before it blooms. Right keeps it to speculars only.
Halation
Wide red scatter around hot areas, the way film glows through its base.
Filmic
Highlight shoulder. Left clips like the rest of the catalogue, right rolls off.
Defocus
Lens softness and falloff toward the frame edge. Centre of frame stays sharp.
Grain
Sensor noise, weighted to the midtones so highlights stay clean.
