Expressions Help, After Effects - Lens Flares

You mean all those little white ones coming from the center? I was thinking of something else.

I think they need to be there, maybe just a little softer? I went through that film and stopped on most flares to inspect. I don't know if it's the compression or what, but they appear to be a lot softer than yours Pixel. This is the only example I checked though, I should pop in Independence Day and Serenity blu-ray and check it out.

 

Pop in Sunshine as well, if you're doing a flare-a-thon.

 

Yeah I popped in Sunshine first and then the other two, just kinda scrubbed through them, watched the cool parts.

Anyway, it seems like those really small lines are there but only either when the source of the light is very close to the lens, or when they have extreme telephoto shots and long lenses. Either way I still think they need to be softened a touch, they seem to digitally crisp IMO Pixel. I'll try to get some screen caps later.

 

Ryan, look at the link below.

http://claudiomiranda.com/lenstest/page2.html

That's mostly what I've been using as reference.

I wish they'd just update Knoll Light Factory to handle anamorphic flares correctly. Or someone else release a program that does. I'd write one myself if I knew how to code.

In the mean time, I'm going to have to use these complicated workarounds.

 

Yes, I see them... I'm just saying in none of those tests... or anything i think I've seen, do you ever get those super fine rays. The rest of what you're doing is fine.

 

I see what he is saying about those lines looking digital. Most of the flares in KLF I have problems with because of that... If only they could incorporate the controls from the photoshop version into AE, that'd be great. Or at least give a control for z-space control so I don't have to do tedious workarounds. Btw nice link Pixel. Abrams definitely has it bookmarked by now..

 

I don't think you should think of KLF as a completely realistic lens creator, but the foundation of one. Appropriate blur, multiple layers of different opacity, colour correction and grain should be considered. It's a big help, but not the end of the process by any means.

This isn't to say that future versions of KLF couldn't include this stuff.

 

New version...

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v58/PixelMagic/anamorphic_wip_9_21_09.png]

 

That works.

Is it entirely AE solids and stuff, or are you tricking us with your lies?

 

It's actually a combination of Ryan's expressions posted earlier, Knoll Light Factory, and some luma matting and transformation tricks to get it to behave properly.

 

If you were a better lover, you'd do this from scratch in an AE project.

I guess you're only mediocre.

Yeah. I did that.

 

Why do something from scratch when there are faster methods using plugins? That makes no sense.

 

Given Fig's previous post, I was hoping yours would be something that I could legitimately say "that's what she said" to. I'm ambivalent over whether this works or not.

 

*shrug* What if you need an anamorphic lookin' lens flare on a freelance job with no Knoll plugins?

Not that I'm taking my own argument seriously, but to lift a mirror to your statement, you just said "why would I need to know how to do it; the plugin can do it." Sure, if the one thing you'd desire to learn from the attempt to make an anamorphic lens flare is that a plugin can in fact do it, there's nothing lost by following through with just a plugin.

But there's always a dozen things to learn that you couldn't guess at, that are unknown and just happen as you fiddle with an effect, that you'd never learn by using a plugin because it doesn't require nearly as much innovation. You might learn ten things that are useless, or nine things that are useless and something you can save for later. Or ten things that are gems.

At the end of the day, getting the shot to look right is what's important, and however you come up with the flare is the way you should have done it. But at the end of the year, you want to know more about the nature of things like lens flares and how to fake them in a crunch than which plugin to buy when you need to do one.

Anyway, just for the last half hour or so I've been playing at doing an entirely-default-AE-effects anamorphic flare that can be controlled with a single null, here's what I came up with. Kind of a mess right now, but I think it could get a bit farther than even this. If you don't slide the controller above perfect middle, it resembles your most recent render, that very-slim-band look emanating from a flare.

[image=http://www.downinfront.net/images/flare-example.jpg]

Compressed, bandy render. (7 megs.)

EDIT: Hm. I wanna play with this more, but I don't know when I'll have time. I think it's possible to get your exact results this way, though.

 

Teague, that flare looks pretty good, but the problem is that it doesn't behave as an anamorphic flare does. Most elements in an anamorphic flare move horizontally only, with no vertical offset. This is why I had to use Ryan's expressions to control it. A couple of elements in a real anamorphic flare do move up and down, but the majority don't.

See this page for reference...

http://claudiomiranda.com/lenstest/page2.html

 

Yeah, that's easy to set up with this rig.

 

How so? I'd like to see your AE project file if you don't mind.

 

Requires AE 7 or higher.

By "rig," I mean the concepts at work in my project, not where it's at now. But it's not especially difficult to get that far with it.

 

Thanks, Teague. That's a pretty cool set up.

 

http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2009/09/new-product-preview-optical-flares/

 

See... now if any of us could just code this stuff into plug-ins we'd be rich.

 

I was just coming here to post that link. I'm so excited I could pee my pants.


I'm going to throw those lens flares on everything, including shadows. You guys will hate me for it.

You won't be able to see the lightsaber choreography, because the entire fight will be spinning anamorphic flares. That's what I'm talking about.

 

Ditto...

 

Alright, Teague, I played your game. This an an anamorphic lens flare out of AE, no plugins. Just standard lens flare, and some expression and layer mask insanity.

http://vimeo.com/7053428

 

Not bad. I like the artifacts a lot, the flare itself isn't there yet.

But as a proof of concept, you win.