• Adobe After Effects

  lens flare from lightness

  Posted by Todd Morgan on September 13, 2009 at 4:14 pm

  Hi all,

  Is there any way to create a lens flare source from a white dot? I have a moving logo and I want to have a lens flare travel along a letter, all the while the logo is moving in 3D space. I have created a small white dot that is parented to the logo for where I want the flare to link to.

  Thanks!

  Curious Turtle replied 16 years, 11 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Jeremy Fabiano

  September 13, 2009 at 5:08 pm

  I’m not entirely sure exactly what you’re after, but you can link the lensflare position & centerpoint to the dot’s position & centerpoint.

  Or you can set the flares position somewhere (center perhaps?) and have the centerpoint follow the dot..

  I hope this helps, if not, post more details and we’ll try to help.

  -Jeremy
• 

  Kevin Camp

  September 14, 2009 at 12:28 pm

  to link the flare’s center point to the dot layer’s position, you’ll use an expression.

  select the dot layer and hit ‘p’ to reveal its position property. then select the lens flare’s center point property in the timeline and choose animation>add expression. click that expression’s pickwhip and drag it to the position property of the dot layer.

  this will link the flare’s center position to the layer’s and it should now track it.

  Kevin Camp
  Senior Designer
  KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW
• 

  Todd Morgan

  September 14, 2009 at 1:33 pm

  awesome!! thanks!!
• 

  Curious Turtle

  September 15, 2009 at 5:16 am

  Dan Ebberts has an awesome expression that also lets you link brightness to Z position to save you from keyframing brightness. Apply this to Flare Intensity:

  INTENSITY
l = thisComp.layer("YOUR DOT LAYER");
r = (l.transform.scale[0]/100)*(l.transform.scale[0]/100);
s = value*r;
c = thisComp.activeCamera;
p = l.toWorld(l.anchorPoint);
f = c.cameraOption.zoom;
dist = p - c.toWorld([0,0,0]);
vec = c.toWorldVec([0,0,1]);
dist = dot(dist, vec);
s * f / dist;

  You should link the Flare Center to the layer’s anchor point.

  Cheers,
  Ben

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