Adding a Realistic Moon to Your Images with Boris FX Optics and S_Luna

Adding a Realistic Moon to Your Images with Boris FX Optics and S_Luna

Boris FX Optics is a powerful tool that allows professional and amateur artists to incorporate creative and realistic visual effects into their work. Amongst the many features available, one that stands out is the S_Luna effect. In this blog post, we will guide you on how to add a realistic moon to your images using Boris FX Optics and S_Luna.

Getting Started with Boris FX Optics

After installing Boris FX Optics into your system, either as a standalone or as a plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom, launch the program and navigate to the Render category. From there, select the S_Luna effect – a feature borrowed from Boris FX Sapphire. Upon selection, a moon is automatically added to your scene.

Customizing the Moon

To customize your moon, navigate towards the bottom left-hand corner of the screen where there is a series of moon presets available for your selection. For this example, we will opt for the Blood Moon preset. Once selected, reposition and rescale it to your desired location within the scene using the onscreen controls.

Setting Parameters

To further customize the moon, switch the mode to Luna Date, set it as Halloween in the year 2024, and adjust the hour to 10:00 with a GMT Offset of negative four.

Integrating The Moon to Your Scene

For a better integration of the moon into your scene, rely on Optics EZ Masks feature. With the S_Luna layer selected, click on the Add Mask button and add an EZ Mask. Temporarily, your moon will disappear. Use the Paint tool to brush over areas where you wish the moon to appear. Use the zoom controls, space bar, and bracket keys to adjust the size of your brush and paint strokes. Once you are satisfied with the foreground, switch your EZ Mask tool to Paint Background and paint over areas where you do not wish the moon to appear. After identifying the regions, click on the cogwheel icon to generate a mask.

Final Adjustments

To visualize your result better, deselect the mask icon on the S_Luna layer and select where you added the effect. If required, you can also turn off the onscreen controls for a clearer view. If further adjustments are needed, simply select the mask again, identify additional sections where you don't want the moon to appear, and click the cogwheel icon to regenerate it. Finally, head to the parameters of the Blood Moon and adjust the Sky Color controls. Click on the eyedropper to sample some of the sky color and mix it to taste.

Conclusion

Indeed, with Boris FX Optics and S_Luna, adding a realistic moon to your images has never been easier. And the best part is that these features are not only available in Optics but also in Boris FX Sapphire for moving imagery.

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