Anamorphic Streak

Threshold decides what streaks — sources above it grow streaks, everything below is left alone. The shipping Threshold = 200 keeps lit faces and walls put while bulbs, glints and blown windows pass. Set it from above: raise until the streaks die, then walk back down to where only the sources you meant are firing. Threshold 120–160 brings softer sources in on a plate with no true speculars; 230–250 isolates the single hottest thing in a busy frame.

Threshold Soft decides how sharply that line is drawn. At low values a highlight is either in or out — fine on a locked frame, a problem on a light approaching camera or a glint rolling across chrome, where the source crosses the gate mid-shot and its streak snaps on between two frames. Threshold Soft 25–40 turns the line into a band, at the cost of a little spill from sources sitting just under the gate.

Streak Length sets how far the smear reaches, in comp pixels rather than a share of the frame — the same value covers less of a bigger comp, which is what Master Scale is for. Streak Length 60–120 is the restrained photographic version on an HD comp; 200–350 reads as a deliberate lens choice. The slider stops at 500 and the hard range at 1000, hero-glint and abstract territory rather than footage.

Streak Angle tilts the pair off horizontal. Leave it at 0 for the true anamorphic read — any tilt you can see is a tilt the audience can see. Streak Angle 3–8 is the exception, enough to follow a rolled horizon or a raked product edge. The slider stops at 45 in each direction.

Boost drives the streaks’ intensity and ships at Boost = 0. The working zone is narrower than the slider suggests: most looks land in Boost 8–25, and the travel above that is headroom for a deliberate white-out. Judge it on a moving frame — a streak that reads as restrained on a hold reads as hot once the source is traveling. Master Amount multiplies it, so ride one or the other.

Edge Tint and Tint Strength color the streak, weighted by horizontal distance from the frame center: no cast down the center column, the full Edge Tint color out at the edges. That across-frame gradient is why raising Tint Strength doesn’t read as a flat recolor. The default Edge Tint is the familiar cool blue and Tint Strength = 50 is a cast you can see without the shot turning blue; 65–85 is the stylized version. On a warm plate — sodium street lights, firelight, tungsten practicals — set Edge Tint into the shot’s own palette, or the blue fights the grade.

The ghosts are the counter-flares — the second image a lens makes when light bounces between elements instead of going straight through. Each copy lands mirrored about the frame center, so you place them by placing the light: a source near the left edge throws its ghosts out to the right, a source near center barely separates from itself, and a reframe rearranges the whole set. When a ghost lands somewhere you can’t have it, fix the framing or the source rather than the dials.

Ghost Count sets how many, Ghost Count = 0 through 5, with zero switching the term off. Ghost Count 2–3 is the tasteful zone on footage — glass, not a lens test — and 3 is the default. Save Ghost Count = 5 for a hero glint you want the audience to notice.

Ghost Spacing spreads that set out. At Ghost Spacing = 0 the copies sit almost on top of each other and read as one bright artifact; raise it and they fan apart along the line from the highlight through the frame center. The default 50 is a readable spread; Ghost Spacing 70–90 is the long train, one glint throwing a row of flares across the frame.

Ghost Brightness sets how much weight the ghost set carries and ships at 30. Ghost Brightness 20–40 stays believable on footage; above that the ghosts compete with whatever the shot is actually about.

Ghost Chroma is the dispersion dial: a color fringe on each copy instead of a neutral blob, the detail that most separates a lens ghost from a blurred dot. Ghost Chroma 20–40 is the glass look and 25 is the default; Ghost Chroma = 0 leaves the ghosts neutral, and 60 and up reads as deliberate color separation rather than a lens.

Streak Only drops the source image and outputs the streak and ghost energy alone — the compositing route. Duplicate the plate, switch it on for the top copy, blend with Add or Screen, and the flare becomes a pass you can grade, mask, blur, retime or fade without touching the picture underneath. It is also the easiest way to audition a gate.

Quality trades render cost against fidelity across Q1 to Q4, with Q2 shipping as the default: Q1 for scrubbing a heavy comp, Q2 for building the look, Q4 for the final render. It earns its cost most when Streak Length is long, so check a frame at Q4 before trusting a cheap setting.

Three macro dials ride the look you already built. Master Amount multiplies Boost and Ghost Brightness, Master Scale multiplies Streak Length and Ghost Spacing, Master Complexity scales Ghost Count, and 100 is neutral on all three. The suite law applies: ride either a Master dial or the dials it folds, never both, or the scaling doubles up.

Master Scale moves a look between comp sizes, since Streak Length is an absolute reach rather than a share of the frame. It fans the ghost set wider at the same time, so re-check the ghosts after a big move — or type the new Streak Length when you want the streak resized on its own.

Master Complexity lands on whole ghosts, so it steps rather than sweeps: from Ghost Count = 4, Master Complexity = 50 gets you two. A thinning tool, not something to keyframe — animated, it pops from one count to the next.

Master Amount pushes or pulls the effect as a whole. It multiplies the two dials rather than the rendered result, so the balance you set between streak and ghosts survives the move. For a flare that has to arrive and leave on a cue, put the effect on a Streak Only pass and keyframe that layer’s opacity instead — it fades streaks and ghosts together and lands exactly where you put the keys.