Lens Fare Effect Over Alpha

[Brendan Coots]

Apply the lens flare effect to a full screen black solid placed above your lower third element, then put the black solid in Screen or Add blending mode.

Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com

[Darby Edelen]

[Brendan Coots] “Apply the lens flare effect to a full screen black solid placed above your lower third element, then put the black solid in Screen or Add blending mode.”

I don’t think this will work if you want to render your sequence out with alpha (I couldn’t tell if you wanted to). You would need a way to create an alpha from the luminance of the lens flare. You could use a luma matte or the Channel > Set Matte effect for that.

Darby Edelen
Lead Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA

[Mark Johnson]

As suggested by Darby, I have successfully used the Luma Matte technique several times.

Mark R. Johnson

Partner/Preditor/Digital Artisan

ProWerks Media Group, LLC

http://www.prowerksmedia.com

[Brendan Coots]

Oops, I didn’t realize the poster needed to render this out with alpha. I thought he was just trying to get the flare to extend beyond his lower third element!

My bad.

Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com

[David Bogie]

what ever happened to Unmult?

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your responses.

I do need to output the file with an alpha.

I tried the channel>set matte effect, but couldn’t get anywhere with it. Would someone elaborate on how to work with it in this instance?

I also tried a luma key, but wasn’t able to get close to a reasonable key with the different luminance values present in the lens flare.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Joseph W. bourke]

Hi Eric –

I would suggest you use Xmult, a free plugin that you can find here:

https://www.fandev.com/xmult.html

Apply your flare effect over black, the apply Xmult. It will create an alpha for you where the black was. Works like a charm. You may need to stack a couple of copies of the final flare to give you the intensity necessary to make the flare convincing. That’s why you normally would composite the flare with black in Additive mode. It adds the values of the brighter pixels, making the effect more convincing.

Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the information. Xmult so far is the best of the different methods I’ve tried. It’s not perfect, but as you suggest, working with different transfer modes and layers in addition to Xmult seems to be a good solution.

Thanks again,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Jack Leto]

heres an interesting work-around

https://blog.damonledet.com/index.cfm/2008/6/9/After-Effects-Lens-Flare-with-Transparent-Background

if you’re going to work with flares or light effects a lot, I’d consider investing in Knoll’s collection. its way beyond adobes default limitations ( for starters the alpha channel is already figured into the effect =)

~~~
MOTIONOLOGIST
~~~

[Darby Edelen]

To use the Set Matte effect you need to first pre-compose your lens flare on the black solid layer and move all attributes to the new pre-comp.

Then apply the Set Matte effect to the pre-comp in your main comp and change the “Use For Matte” property to luminance or lightness.

Then change the pre-comp’s blend mode to “Luminescent Premul.”

Of course, this should have the same effect as using Xmult or Unmult… but sometimes it’s nice to know how to roll your own 😉

Darby Edelen
Lead Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA