SECTION 2 - Modeling and Detail Editor

34] How do I obtain a nice sparkle off the edge of a wine glass or chrome object (By George deBeaumont)?

I've got a quick thought on how to achieve a sparkle type of effect in an animation. Presumably You want something less intense than a lense flare, but something more than a simple specular highlight... the result of what one would see in real life from some minor imperfection or poorly seen detail on a rotating reflective object.

I'd approach it this way:

Create a primitive disk with even number of sections (lets use 12). Select every other point (pick points mode) and scale down (result = six point star).
Apply the Fakely texture to the sparkle object, TYPE NUMBER = 2 (this will affect the filter value of the object only), CHANGE THRESHOLD = 0.9 (this will make the sparkle object visible only when it directly faces the camera), SIDE RGB = 255, 255, 255, FRONT RGB = 0, 0, 0.
Group the six pointed star to the object needing the sparkles. Make sure to orient it such that it becomes visible (directly faces the camera) at the desired point in Your animation. Each sparkle object will now remain invisible until its plane is perpendicular to the Y axis of the camera.

Anyway that's the basic idea. You'd probably want to use multiple sparkle objects (with slightly d ifferent orientations) and keep them relatively small. You might want to experiment with other shapes as well.

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