Real Lens Flare

INSPECTOR PANE

The inspector pane provides context for and control over the currently selected item. This is where all fine tuning of lens flare aspects take place.

Depending on the context (e.g., when a core projection or lens barrel is selected), the inspector pane will display controls for the following components:

• Lens element
• Aperture
• Image plane
• Projections
• Light source
• Lens flare properties
• Core projection

For an example of how context changes the inspector pane’s contents, compare the following two images. The first has a lens simulation preset selected. The second has a core projection within that preset selected.

As shown above, when a preset is selected, the inspector pane shows three component areas: light source, flare properties, and aperture. We will examine these in the following User Guide sections.

Note: If you select a preset and then change a parameter in the inspector pane, those changes will not be saved if you click on the preset (or any other preset) again. For example, say you select the Panavision Primo preset shown above. Then you change the light source size from its default value of 9.0% to something else, perhaps 2.5 percent. That change will be visible in the preview as well as every projection on the projection strip. But if you click that Panavision Primo preset thumbnail again, all inspector pane values will revert to their original defaults. Thus, when you start making changes to a lens flare you’re likely to keep, begin by saving the changes as a custom lens flare, then work with that.

Light Source

A light source can be the simulation of anything from an LED flashlight to an interstellar collision. Within Designer, a light source is defined as the combination of a spectral model of a real-world light and a color filter placed in front of it, even if that filter is perfectly transparent. A light source is the object that creates the lens flare.

VFX Real Lens Flares allows control over four sets of variables:

• Color temperature. This control ranges from 1000 to 10,000 degrees Kelvin, with 6500K being the default.
• Brightness. This control ranges from 0% to 100,000%, with 100% being the default.
• Size. This control denotes the size of the light source, which can yield a different effect than just increasing brightness, with values ranging from 0% to 50 percent.
• Color filter. Click on the color picker control to adjust the filter being applied to the light source.

Flare Properties

When a preset is chosen, or you click on the lens barrel in the lens pane, the flare properties area becomes visible in the inspector pane. Five properties are available for customization:

• Scale. This control ranges from 0% to 5,000%, with 100% being the default.
• Angle. See the Aperture section under Lens Pane for details about angle controls.
• Exposure. This control ranges from -20.00 to 20.00, with 0.00 being the default.
• Noise evolution. Perlin noise is a form of pseudo-random noise (originally developed for the 1982 Disney film Tron) used to make computer-generated visuals appear more lifelike. Changing the noise evolution directionality alters the seed values used in generating those noise textures.
• Quality. This is a rendering function that controls the number of light wavelengths sent into the lens flare simulation. There are four options, each with its own number of contributing wavelengths.
  • Fast: 3 (red, green, blue)
  • Production (the default): 7
  • Best: 15
  • Extreme: 20

These quality settings can help optimize your workflow. For example, you might choose to work in Fast for the quickest system responsiveness when positioning and editing flares, then switch to Production for color adjustments and Extreme when rendering out to After Effects.

Aperture (minimal)

When a preset or lens barrel is selected, VFX Real Lens Flares offers this minimalistic aperture section at the bottom of the inspector pane. As we’ll see later, the program offers many more aperture options. This spartan version simply offers a quick means to tweak the f-stop setting.