The Light plug-in is perfect for highlighting your images and drawing attention to them. It is also good for creating wild effects, such as a scanning laser beam or roving spotlight.

If you have an image with metallic textures or coloring, the Light effect can be used to enhance that as well by giving it chrome-like sheen. Or, use the Spotlight to suddenly shift the focus of an image to a different region or highlight specific areas that you think are of interest. With the GIF-X plug-in and the Light effect, your images can suddenly come life.

To add light to an image:

1. Open an image within the image editor in which you use the GIF-X plug-in.
2. Create a selection area.
3. Click the Ulead Effects: - GIF-X menu command. It is located on your image editor's Filters menu, or wherever it places APS plug-ins. (For example, in Adobe Photoshop, you click the Filters: Ulead Effects - GIF-X menu command but in Ulead PhotoImpact you should click the Effects: Creative - GIF-X menu command.)
4. When the GIF-X dialog box opens, select the Light effect from the Effects thumbnails. The effect parameters change accordingly.
5. Select the type of light you want to create from the Mode pull-down menu. Both Beam and Metal create lines of light that can be positioned vertically or diagonally while Spotlight creates a ball of light that can be positioned anywhere.
6. Set the Range to define the width of the Beam or Metal light.
7. The Strength parameter defines the strength or brightness of the light.
8. Set the Softness to define the soft-edge of the light. A lower value creates a sharper edge, while a higher value creates a softer one.
9. For Beam and Metal, set the Direction from which you want the light to come. To position a spotlight, simply select it in the preview window and then drag to the location you want to move it.
10. To animate the light, add a new key frame to the end of the animation sequence and then change the parameters that you set above. When you click the Play button in the Key Frame Control, the light animates between the two different settings. You can save your animation by clicking the Save button, or you can create a still image based on any of the frame by clicking Ok.