Knoll Light Factory 3

Lens Designer

The Lens Designer is the heart of Knoll Light Factory. This is where you combine the built-in Elements and Sprites to create a beautiful lens flare effect. You access the Lens Designer by clicking the Designer button in the Knoll Light Factory plug-in palette.

No matter which host application you use, the Lens Editor interface will look like the screenshot below. There are three areas to the Lens Designer. There is the Preview Window, the Element Controls and the Elements List. This page talks briefly about each palette and links you to more detailed information.

Preview Window displays the light effect that you are designing. The preview shows the results of combining Elements and Sprites, and how the Element Controls change that effect. You can also preview how the flare effect will respond to changes in the Preview Controls, like Color and Brightness. Wherever you click or click-drag in the Preview Window, the flare effect will center at that click.

Preview Controls are visual settings that affect the entire lens flare effect within the Lens Designer. However, these changes are NOT reflected in the main Knoll interface. Preview Controls are a time-saving device that let you experiment with basic edits to your lens effect without leaving the Lens Designer interface.

Lens Flare Editor displays the Elements and Sprites that make up a lens flare effect.

Lens Flare Presets Panel shows presets that are prebuilt light effects that you can use as a starting point for your lens flares. When you build your own flare effects, you can also save them as new lens flare presets.

Element Controls displays the individual controls for each Element or Sprite, and lets you customize how each light object looks.

Elements Panel contains the building blocks that create a Knoll Light Factory flare. In the Elements Panel, you can access Built-in Elements, Sprites, and Presets.

• Built-in Elements are flexible light objects that can be layered to build up a lens flare design.
• Sprites are bitmap light objects that let you create effects beyond what the Built-in Elements can do.
• Element Presets are pre-made settings for the Built-in Elements that can further customize your lens effect. There are three preset groups:
  • Flares occur when extra light hits the camera image sensor and add to the exposure, or when light reflects off the glass surface of optical elements within a lens.
  • Ghosts occur when reflected light hits the camera sensor. Ghosting happens when the reflected light is closer to the focal plane, which makes the reflections appear as bright and more distinct points that look more in focus.
  • Spreads represent lens flare patterns that are spread widely across the scene.