Lens Flare causing Black BG

[Ari Grunzeweig]

Hi Dave,

I gave that a try.. but no luck..
Any other ideas?

Thanks!

[Michael Szalapski]

Are you using the built-in lens flare or a plugin? If you’re using Knoll Light Factory there is an option to apply the lens flare with alpha (if you’re using optical flares, I think there’s an option there too, but I don’t have that plugin).

Alternatively you can use Red Giant’s Knoll Unmult or a similar plugin on your lens flare layer.

However, I think if you apply the continuous rasterization switch in your main comp on the precomp with the lens flare, your blending mode should work.

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

[Kevin Camp]

have you tried adding the unmult effect. if you don’t have it, it’s free from redgiantsoftware.com (downloads>free).

it will remove the black from the effect.

you can also create your own ‘unmult’ by adding the channel combiner effect, setting ‘from’ to max rgb and ‘to’ to alpha. then add the remove color matting with the color set to the solid’s color (presumably black).

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Walter Soyka]

[Ari Grunzeweig] “The lens flare on the ring cuases a black bg when I layer this comp on top of an other. Basically, then lens flare layer is causing the alpha of the later to disappear.When I disable the lend flare layer I regain my alpha. Is there some way around this problem, while still keeping the lens flare layer?”

The lens flare must change the alpha relative to the underlying layers, because it’s adding new pixels. If you applied the alpha of the ring to the lens flare, you’d cut most of the flare out.

Your plugin may have an option to composite over transparent instead of compositing over black, but either way, an additive blend mode is still probably best for a light effect. It will keep the flare looking realistic.

I’d change the blend mode first, and then adjust the flare settings to taste in context.

[Ari Grunzeweig] “The only solution I found is to set the comp to ‘add’ inside the other comp it sits in, but that doesn’t give me the best results.”

What results are you getting, and what results are you looking for?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Ari Grunzeweig]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Kevin’s DIY unmult effect did the trick.. not perfect.. but pretty close!

Thanks again!

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

This is good. You can then add Alpha Levels for fine-tuning.

HTH
RoRK

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[Chelsey Thompson]

Hi Ari,

Would it be okay for me to edit your screenshot image for a project I am working on? The modified image would be the background for another photo I am creating. Please let me know if this would be okay or not! I understand either way.

Thank you!

Chelsey