"The Bloom Effect"

When I was looking at new video games, I noticed they all had this glowy look to them. After doing some research I learned that the term for this is "Bloom effect". It is used to simulate hotspots in light and give depth to the atmosphere, thus giving it a real life effect. So I thought I would give it a go, and try to figure it out.

Its actually really simple in 3ds max. you add a blur effect in the effects pullout menu.You then choose the "pixel selections" tab.Uncheck "whole image", check "Luminance" set the brightness to 100%, The min to 85% and the feather radius to something like 15%. Blend to 30% and Max to 100% Make sure its on mental ray when you render. It takes a few seconds after complete render to kick in. Do not use default scan line renderer, it chokes up something awful.

Here is the test image I made. I think the bloom effect is my new friend, it looks so cool! Here is the before and after.