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A momentary bright shimmer of reflected light, generally diamond- or star-shaped, and short-lived. Groups of them tend to appear and vanish in various instances.
Sparkle, glint, and diffraction spikes all refer to similar patterns of bright lines radiating from a point. They are not clearly differentiated, and usage tends to be context-sensitive. In general:
- Sparkle is considered the base case. Usually four lines at right angles radiating from a point. Associated with eyes, liquid or particulate matter (e.g. raindrops, snow, sand), or nothing (appearing mid-air). Can appear in large numbers.
- Glint is associated with solid objects, especially ones which are metallic and/or sharp. Usually appear singly or in small numbers.
- Diffraction spikes is the technical term for the phenomenon in general, but is used less often. Can be used for more realistic-looking effects or conversely when appearing extremely large and exaggerated. More likely than sparkle and glint to be asymmetric or to have more than four radiating lines.
See also
- sparkling aura for multiple sparkles around a certain object or character.
- iridescent
- lens flare
- bokeh
- light particles
The following tags are aliased to this tag: sparkles and sparkling (learn more).
The following tags implicate this tag: sparkling_aura (learn more).