Use 16bit or higher for the Color Depth of your project.
The ZbornToy uses depth images and other types of images that require fine details and even take advantage of floating point numbers. Although it is possible to work within an 8bit domain, it's not really recommendable. However, treating photographs in 8bit works very well for different reasons. But we do encourage you to make experiments with it in every conceivable way!

chose the type of operation that should be performed by the plugin.

all computes all used features

refraction only computes only refractions and skips all lighting and shading.

caustix only computes only caustic projections and skips shading and refractions.

shadows only computes only shadows...

highlights only computes only highlights and reflections...

normalmap outputs the surface normal image, either computed normals or the chosen normal texture.

depthmap outputs the depth image with all modifications that have been applied by the user.

surface color outputs the surface color as it was designed by the user.

multiplies the pixel values to define the depth from original values 0 to 1.0. Whereby 0.0(black) is the background and 1.0(white) is the foreground and therefore closest to the camera. It also corresponds directly with the 'alpha depth factor' provided by pixologic's Zbrush. Should the depth image be in float format and contain actual depth values, a multiplier of 1.0 would preserve the original values.

interprets camera lens openings to compute specular highlights, reflections and refractions.

an option to apply a change in gamma for the internal computation.

intensity of light

color of light

size of the light source, effects diffuse and specular shading as well as translucency

defines direction in which the direct light shines. Since it is a parallel light, suggesting to come from infinity, the pointer represents the direction like the pointers on a clock

rotates the light forward along the direction angle. Default position 0.0 points directly along z-axis and therefore wouldn't show any change of the light angle. Value is read as radiance, therefore a value of around 1.57 (half PI) represents a 90 degree rotation to line up with the screen plane.

enables shadows

determins smoothing iterations for the shadows to simulate soft shadows

intensity of light

color of light

size of the light source, effects diffuse and specular shading as well as translucency

defines the radial fade of the light intensity

defines the color the illumination attenuates to during falloff

this is the x/y position of the point light

this is the depth position of the point light and is absolute. Changes in the depth factor will not keep the light relative to the new depth!

enables shadows

determins smoothing iterations for the shadows to simulate soft shadows

layer to be used as environment

currently there are two types supported.
The panoramic type interprets the image to be wrapped on a sphere around the entire scene and ideally is used with an image that loops perfectly horizontally and has proper polar regions (top and bottom prepared to avoid squeeze!)
The spherical type is in support of spherical hdr footage and interprets an image as if it was the reflection over a chrome sphere. It's not only the fastest type, it also makes it very easy to create your own pseudo illumination by creating such an environment layer yourself.

layer to control amount of reflectivity

defines the amount of contribution the image provides to the reflection

uses a bias function to control the brightness levels of the chosen layer seen as reflections. For example, if you only would like to see highlights reflected from the image you would use a negative bias like for instance -0.99!

defines the amount of diffuse illumination coming from the chosen layer

defines the amount of blur used on the chosen layer. A value of 0.0 would result in a sharp representation of the image and would look much like a reflection. A value of 1.0 would completely diffuse the chosen layer and usually is what you would want most of the time, particularely when you make use of photographs.

enables quick mode for the ambient occlusion approximation

defines the strength of the ambient occlusion. 1.0 represents 100% use of the occlusion approximation and is usually desirable.

determins the radius which will get examined by the occlusion approximation and is measured in pixels

By default the color mix parameter multiplies the surface color with the color of the original image. Checking on the additive mix changes the multiplication into an addition. Effectively this means the original colors brighten up the surface color, when color mix is increased!

defines the amount of color of the original image contributed to the surface color.

controls the saturation of the original image. Effects can mostly be seen when color mix is increased, but since it effects the color information coming from the original image this paramter can effect the depth values, interpreted for all the 2.5d processes. The saturation paramter also has an automatic chroma correction implemented!

applies a bias function to the original image before getting interpreted as a depth image!

applies a gain function to the original image before getting interpreted as a depth image!

normal maps can be used as an alternative to the internal computation of surface normals. If low resolution geometry was used for the depth image, computed surface normals could reveal the facets of them. A provided normal layer with smooth normals would avoid such an appearance! Choosing a normal texture will also skip the computation of the normals and will speed up the rendering by some minor percentage.

chose the color channel or combined luminance, which shall be used as depth values.
Hint: since After Effects always splits off grayscale images into it's color components, you could skip a few computations by chosing any color channel instead of luminance.

defines the strength of the distribution of one pixel to it's surrounding pixels.

defines the required height difference between neighboring pixels in order to avoid being blurred. This would maintain shape-defining edges, while blurring finer features!

number of iterations for the blur algorhythm. The more the blurrier!

activates the discontinuity detection.

determines the threshold to discover discontinuities along a surface during the process of generating surface normals based on the depth/original image. This helps to reduce artifacts due to the challenge of interpreting the depth image as geometry. When a discontinuity is detected, surface normals will be generated by alternative means. Using a normal texture will make this feature obsolete.

offsets the front/white level of the depth image.

offsets the back/black level of the depth image.

set the base color for your entire geometry. It will act as a multiplier and therefore tint the entire image.

determins a layer to be used as surface color texture.

controls the influence amount of the surface color texture.

determins a layer to be used as multiplier to the glossiness level. That might sound a little bit confusing for a moment, but since the glossiness amount is the leading parameter to determin the glossiness and doesn't require a texture, this layer is merely modifying the glossiness amount by means of multiplication.

determins the glossiness/roughness of the surface. It effects more than just the specular highlights, but all the aspects that would vary based on the surface's properties like reflections, refractions and caustic projections.

determins a layer to be used as specular color. The replication of metal like reflections often suggests a tinting of highlights and other reflections. Therefore this texture will tint both types of reflections.

determins the amount of tinting the specular color texture could provide. Although it might come across as somewhat improvised, values above 1.0 will boost the highlights and reflections for additional special effects and more artificial alterations!

determins a layer to be used as multiplier to the translucency amount.

determins the amount of translucency, which represents the amount of light that gets distributed to the inside of an object's surface. To simplify this feature, translucency controls both the strength as well as the depth of the light's intrusion.

determins a layer to be used as subdermal color, so to say, or the tinting underneath the surface.

determins a base color for the translucency and multiplies the above chosen translucency color texture.

optional global softness addition to the shadows in order to support a subtle but more cohesive relationship between translucency and shadows for the simulation of sub surface scattering

for compatibility reasons it currently has been more beneficial to pick a background layer in order to process any deformations on it due to refractions.

determins a layer to be used as multiplier for the transparency amount

determins the transparency amount.

determins the amount of tinting/colorization of the transparency and caustics by the surface color!

determins the type of formula used to arrive at the refraction coordinates. This goes from perfectly accurate over normalized to completely heuristic approaches, which support both curiosity and speed of computation!

determins a layer to be used as multiplier for the refraction/refractive index.

determins the index of refraction used and goes by familiar values (e.g. 1.33 for water)

determins a layer to be used as multiplier for the refraction depth.

determins the depth a refracted ray travels. This can be used to dial in an out the effect of refractions and caustix for that matter.

controls the strength or brightness of the caustic projection of the light sources through the transparent areas. The amount of transparency as well as the intensity of the lights effect their brightness as well.

determins the amount of blur or diffusion that gets applied to transparency and caustix.

links the amount of blur to the glossiness levels and supports more visual coherence that way. The roughness of the surface therefore affects any transparent aspect.

clips black level to be invisible (alpha = 0.0).

fades out the entire image based on depth values. Great for fog effects and other phenomena of that kind!

sets a specific quality level for all quality parameters according to their specifications.

controls type of antialiasing for caustix only.

controls type of antialiasing for refractions. Whereby low is a supersampling method as opposed to sharp and smooth, which are our proprietary concept of combatting aliasing.

controls type of antialiasing for environment. Whereby low is a supersampling method as opposed to sharp and smooth, which are our proprietary concept of combatting aliasing.

determins samples taken for oversampling the illumination by lightsources.