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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Attach objects to points of very high/low brightness/luminance…

  • Attach objects to points of very high/low brightness/luminance…

    Posted by Michael Lansdell on February 16, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    I wonder if there is a way to do something like the in Video Copilots Optical Flares plugin does where you have the option to generate lens flares based on points of luminance. I would like to have something like an ink splat on dark points automatically, but I have no idea how to start! This is just for my own personal fun, so it’s not of urgency, it’s mostly that I really can’t think how you might start to go about something like this! If what I’m saying makes sense I’d appreciate any ideas or pointers :o)

    Thank you!

    Michael Lansdell

    Online/Offline Editor

    My system:

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    Michael Lansdell replied 15 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Michael Szalapski

    February 16, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    You can track as many points on a video as you would like and tie it to emitters’ positions or tie images to those points.
    Now, you can create your own custom lens flares in Optical Flares and make it look like an ink splat. If you want it attached to the darker areas, invert the image and use that to generate the flares.

    – The Great Szalam
    (The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

    No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

  • Michael Lansdell

    February 17, 2011 at 12:41 am

    But would it be possible to do it without Optical Flares? I’ve played around with it but don’t have it, and although it’s not unreasonably priced I don’t really want to spend £100 on a whim!

    Michael Lansdell

    Online/Offline Editor

    My system:

    2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
    5GB DDR2 RAM
    512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT
    OS X 10.4.11
    Final Cut Pro 6.0.4
    After Effects CS4
    Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme (6.6.2)

    Take a gander at my personal blog:

    http://www.monstersareart.co.uk

  • Michael Szalapski

    February 17, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    Like I said, you can track as many things as you want, but I don’t know of any particle generator or any other plugin or effect that would be able to generate an ink splat at points below a certain brightness threshold.
    Although, to be honest, I’m having a very hard time picturing what it is you’re actually trying to do. You want ink splats to appear when areas are dark? Are they animated ink splats? Do you just want a bunch of splats tracked to a shot?
    I’ve never delved into Particle Playground, so it’s possible it could have something. Also, perhaps you could get Form to do roughly what you want.

    – The Great Szalam
    (The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

    No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

  • Darby Edelen

    February 19, 2011 at 4:39 am

    You could potentially do this with an expression. You can use the sampleImage() expression to check random locations on the layer for their luminance, then stick a layer to those random locations that fall within a threshold.

    I’m imagining potentially tying a gradient wipe effect to this as well so that as something gets darker/lighter the ink spot grows/shrinks.

    This technique would have a lot of downsides though, and definitely wouldn’t function the same way that Optical Flares or Knoll Light Factory does.

    Darby Edelen

  • Michael Lansdell

    February 19, 2011 at 1:07 pm

    Actually, that sounds perfect. I don’t necessarily want it to behave like those plugins. Now just to figure out those expressions…

    Michael Lansdell

    Online/Offline Editor

    My system:

    2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
    5GB DDR2 RAM
    512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT
    OS X 10.4.11
    Final Cut Pro 6.0.4
    After Effects CS4
    Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme (6.6.2)

    Take a gander at my personal blog:

    http://www.monstersareart.co.uk

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