Lens flares in AE: new comparisons

Lens Flares in After Effects, a mini-roundup at PVC, has been updated with links to 2 new review resources from Michele Yamazaki and from Mylenium, a longtime student of lens flares and creator of presets. Both plug-in comparisons look at the big products from Video Copilot, John Knoll, Boris FX, and Genarts.

As an aside, here's the video for the SIGGRAPH 2011 paper, Physically-Based Real-Time Lens Flare Rendering:

Lens Flares in After Effects @ PVC

Lens Flares in After Effects is a new mini-roundup at PVC.

The built-in lens flares in Adobe products are quite long-in-the-tooth, but there are a bunch of tutorials, filters, and real world examples to help you get beyond the common look. The most recent tutorial by VinhSon Nguyen aims to "Breathe Life Back Into After Effects Lens Flares," yet again.

Pro Presets 2 for Optical Flares

Video Copilot has released Pro Presets 2 for Optical Flares, which includes 50 new presets, 10 After Effect template projects, 7 professional fonts, and 3 new video tutorials. And as you'd expect there's a nice video product tour and other demos.

For more on the Optical Flares plug-in and other lens flare news notes and tutorials, see Video Copilot Optical Flares in review and posts tagged Lens Flare at AE Portal.

Create the Harry Potter lumos effect

Michael Park shows you how to create a Harry Potter "lumos" wand effect at Creative Cow. This effect seems popular on YouTube if you want to challenge Fred, but with the added bonus of tips on After Effects tracking, a zoom blurred Lens Flare, and homemade animated chroma hoop without 3rd party filters.

To turn the lumos off, you won't "need a miracle" or have to invoke a goddess of the night (Nox) -- just turn the eyeball off in After Effects.

Lens Flares for weapons, not just cosmetics

via @adamwilt and The Register...

Anamorphic lens flares are used in the Lockheed video below in an attempt to make its rejected airship prototype sexy to someone, anyone. Is the "kiss of love" more than "bring the sex"?

For more on lens flares see Video Copilot Optical Flares in review and posts tagged lens flare.

Breath life into stale lens flares

Graymachine is reviving some older tutorials onto Vimeo that may have been shuffled around in blog changes. Here's the 2007 movie for Breath life into stale Lens Flares, which explained "using shapes, Trapcode Shine [or the built-in CC Lightburst], and expressions to breath new life into the old AE Lens Flare."

Reviving AE Lens Flares from graymachine on Vimeo.

Anamorphic Lens Flare with the Glow filter

Grant Swanson shows you one way to think outside the box in his new After Effects tutorial video, Anamorphic Lens Flare (via @lesterbanks). He uses the Glow filter with Glow Dimensions set to “Horizontal” only and several refinements.

His tutorial is based on his older one, but now custom lens flares are far more accessible with the release of the inexpensive yet deep VC plug-in. For background see Video Copilot Optical Flares in review.

Motion blur added to VC Optical Flares

Video Copilot has added native motion blur, along with bug fixes, in a free update to Optical Flares:

"The feature is simple to use, just turn on motion blur for the layer and comp switch, then adjust the samples in the plug-in Motion Blur roll-out. The light streaks in the sample video are made with Particular and the light is moving with a wiggle expression. Remember, too many motion blur samples can be slower so adjust the value as needed for your project."

For more on Optical Flares, see Video Copilot Optical Flares in review or click the tag Lens Flare.

Video Copilot Optical Flares in review

[update: Toolfarm is having a Video Copilot Sale -- 30% on ALL Video Copilot products Wednesday and Thursday, May 26 & 27, 2010 only.]

Video Copilot has released CS5 compatible versions of their After Effects filters -- free upgrades (OF, others, + update) from the previous versions. The standout among these is Optical Flares, a newer plug-in that leapfrogs longtime industry leader Knoll Lens Flare Pro in interface and features for about 1/3 the price. Here's a demo:



Andrew Kramer and company have taken a page from the Magic Bullet Looks approach to create a powerful and easy-to-use interface. The custom interface offers drawers full of visual presets and detailed control over individual flare elements, as well as a large adjustable preview of the composite or the flare alone. The advanced UI along with GPU acceleration allows users to build, edit, and manage unique and complex lens flares with speed and simplicity.

All of these features and more are built into this one plug-in:

• 3D lens flares with AE Lights
• 2D + 3D occlusion or obscuration
• edge flare-ups
• auto-tracking
• auto-animation
• textures
• matte box

In the latest release for CS5, the preset drawer has been dropped in a favor of an exposed browser panel, but new abilities to rearrange, resize, and toggle window panels are nice. The best way to evaluate Optical Flares yourself is to review the profusion of video intros and tutorials at the Video Copilot website -- there is no eval or trial version. Owners of Optical Flares get access to even more training, so there's no need to purchase extra training. There's also the VideoCopilot Preset Network and filter forums for help and inspiration.

Knoll Lens Flare Pro (which is not available for CS5 until summer 2010) has offered most of the same features with the addition of public beta releases, but without the integrated visual interface. Perhaps KLF's sole remaining advantage is that in addition to the main filters, 19 lens elements are also included for minute control over parameters, though you should be able to get similar control in Optical Flares using presets. For now, Optical Flares is an After Effects-only filter, but it is said that versions for NLEs, Photoshop, Fusion, and Nuke are under consideration.

If you don't have a dedicated lens flare filter, and there are only two in this league, you're in for a treat. Overuse of lens flares is common though -- but with a filter like Optical Flares, you can rise above the common cliche of the Photoshop default (at left). Individual flare elements can be used as the base, as seen almost everywhere, or as elements of design.

Use in more realistic shots may take some extra observation and self-control. Tony Reale recently introduced ideas on using lens flares in edits in his After Effects tutorial Add Anamorphic Lens Flares to Video. There's a lot going on beyond the basics with lighting, camera filters and lenses, etc. and lens flares can become obsessions to avoid, create, or recreate. One good resource for study is a cache of QuickTime movies of real world lens flares by Claudio Miranda.

Another obvious resource is J.J. Abrams' "ridiculous" use of kinetic halos in the latest Star Trek movie (Andrew Kramer did the titles). See various discussions of these mostly in-camera effects done by cinematographer Dan Mindel in Where No DP Has Gone Before at ICG Magazine, and more about ILM custom matching "SunSpot" CG in Back on Trek (Flare Madness) at Millimeter & Star Trek Returns at Post Magazine.

As a sort of an addendum, it's interesting to see how the idea grew for 3D lens flares in After Effects. From at least 2004, there were forum requests for help to go beyond parenting to a 3D layer. AE expression guru Dan Ebberts provided examples at MotionScript and explained a bit more about layer space transforms, which were also discussed by Chris Meyer not long ago at PVC. A few years later Mylenium's Building a Lensflare with Expressions (and Trent Armstrong's Making Light Disappear & Reappear Behind Objects Using Expressions) appeared at Creative Cow. Then in 2009, Andrew Kramer spread the idea further in Lens Flare on 3D Lights? and the race was on to incorporate 3D lens flares into an After Effects filter.

Update: Kevin McAuliffe wrote a substantive review of Optical Flares for ProVideo Coalition.

Update: Johan Romera shared Nuke2AE Optical Flares Gizmo, a Nuke script that corverts 3d data to 2d position to create AE keyframe data for Optical Flares.

Optical Flares Random Color Adjustment

via @hashae, Dan Hostler posted Optical Flares Random Color Adjustment Tutorial on Vimeo. This After Effects tutorial shows "how to randomly adjust the color shades in a set of multiple flares simultaneously" when using the Video Copilot Optical Flares plug-in. If there's dead air, you haven't necessarily stopped the video.

Optical Flares for CS5 is expected any day now.

Optical Flares Random Color Adjustment Tutorial from Dan Hostler on Vimeo.

Knoll Light Factory Pro & Editors Training

Red Giant has posted the David Vincent's Knoll Light Factory Pro & Editors Training DVD on Vimeo. Red Giant has more video tutorials for Knoll Light Factory Pro ($399) as well. Here's the intro to 16 videos:

1 Intro from Red Giant Software on Vimeo.

Add anamorphic Optical Flares to video

FreshDV posted a note on Add Anamorphic Lens Flares to Video, an After Effects tutorial by Next Wave DV. Host Tony Reale uses flares from Video Copilot Optical Flares to show how and why to use flares:

"This is a great alternative to spending thousands of dollars on anamorphic lenses for your camera. The results are very realistic and highly customizable. I also show you how to add realistic handheld camera shake to your footage. This can be very important when working with DSLR footage since most DSLRs have rolling shutter problems that create a “jello-cam” effect when moved quickly."

NextWaveTV Ep 10: Add Anamorphic Lens Flares to Video from Tony Reale on Vimeo.

Note: for more on lens flares, see Breath life into stale Lens Flares if you don't have a good lens flare filter and Real world lens flare tests for tests of flares from actual lenses.

3D smoke trails with Particular and Optical Flares

In a new After Effects tutorial from Vieo Copilot, Smoke Trails, Andrew Kramer uses Trapcode Particular and a single smoke picture to create smoke trails with 3D turbulence. Andrew also add bright lights with Video Copilot's hot new filter Optical Flares.

Optical Flares: a new After Effects filter

Video Copilot's new After Effects filter Optical Flares is now available.

It's a deep filter with a low price, and includes a good number of demos and advanced tutorials, plus access to the Video Copilot Preset Network for sharing lens flare presets. There should be more on this filter here later. Here's the overview; there's 14 more at Video Copilot:

Knoll Flare 3D (Beta)

Red Giant is introducing Knoll Flare 3D, free 3D lighting tools for Knoll Lens Flare Pro 2.5 users:

"Introducing Knoll 3D Flare (Beta), a new free set of tools that allows you to easily create Knoll Lens Flares in After Effects 3D space. This add-on for Knoll Light Factory (2.5) in After Effects includes fantastic features like [AE Camera Awareness,] Edge flare-ups, color linking, Z-depth intensity, and full 3D obscuration."

You can also check out the Knoll 3D Flare intro tutorial.

Knoll 3D Flare + Optical Flares update

Knoll 3D Flare is a new feature set in the next version of the industry standard Knoll Light Factory Pro. Aharon Rabinowitz has some details, but no pictures yet, at the Red Room Blog. Apparently, RGS is not taking Video Copilot Optical Flares (nearing release) lying down!

Update: Here's an update from Andrew Kramer on Optical Flares,

"Our next-generation 3D lens flare studio Optical Flares is nearly completed, however I see an opportunity to make it even better with a little more time. Optical Flares is capable of building amazing 3D lens flare presets with precise and realistic qualities.

Now imagine the power of a free network where customers could upload and share these amazing presets online? The Video Copilot Preset Network is a perfect solution to continue the spirit of the website of sharing and contributing knowledge and presets, as well as enhancing the value of the product. This will also allow the style of lens flares to evolve beyond the built-in presets as artists develop them.

With this in mind, we have decided to wait about a month to give us time to incorporate this preset network and improve the built-in preset browser to allow multiple collections to be loaded at once. This is an exciting new endeavor and we know customers will benefit even more from this amazing software plug-in."

Drifting Title Sequence tutorial

Harry Frank returns quickly with a new After Effects tutorial, Drifting Title Sequence. In this follow-up to an old "Grunge Tutorial," Harry Frank shows you "how to use multiple nulls and parenting to simplify an otherwise complex camera move. Then use Particular and some additional effects to dress up the scene." This includes an expression to control a Lens Flare on animated layers.


Drifting Title Sequence from graymachine on Vimeo.

AE filters coming: Holomatrix & Optical Flares

It's not fresh news but both Aharon Rabinowitz and Andrew Kramer are close to releases of new After Effects filters. Holomatrix is a new set of tools designed by Rabinowitz and AE scripting guru Dan Ebberts, to be published by Red Giant Software. The plug-in creates "the look of holographic imagery, digital signage, bad TV signals, and ghostly apparitions."

Meanwhile, Andrew Kramer unveiled some features of the forthcoming AE filter Optical Flares in the most recent Video Copilot VP6 "podcast." The new filter will challenge the ancient but widely-used Knoll Light Factory (seemingly on life support at Red Giant). The humorously disjointed communique also showed a "Fight Enhancement Tip" in AE (paint in a punch impact) and parts of an upcoming bar graph tutorial.

Lens Flare on 3D Lights?

Andrew Kramer posted several suggestions answering a question on a recent tutorial in Lens Flare on 3D Lights? Answers include:

1) an expression on the Flare Center (thisComp.layer("Light name").toComp([0,0,0]);) mentioned in a 2008 VCP tutorial on bump maps

2) a Dan Ebberts "3D Lens Flare" case study

3) an anamorphic lens flare project.

See the options at Lens Flare on 3D Lights?

Real world lens flare tests

via Mylenium (and forums) is Claudio Miranda's real world lens flare tests, with some newer ones added. There's a lot going on beyond the basics with lighting, camera filters and lenses, etc. that lens flares can become obsessions to avoid, create, and recreate with shaders and filters like Knoll Light Factory.

Mostly tangential, check out "Father of the Lens Flare" podcast with John Knoll, "inventor of the digital lens flare, co-creator of Photoshop, 22-year Industrial Light Magic veteran, and modo user."

Update: via Prolost, see the SIGGRAPH 2011 paper, Physically-Based Real-Time Lens Flare Rendering; here's the video,


Physically-Based Real-Time Lens Flare Rendering (SIGGRAPH 2011 Paper) from Matthias Hullin on Vimeo.