Open topic with navigation

Real Lens Flare

Presets: Detailed Features

In the earlier Preset Browser section, we touched on many of Designer’s interface elements. Now, it’s time to dive into the different preset types and explore their inspector pane options.

Core Projections

We pointed out earlier that the five types of core projections are the building blocks of lens flares. You’ve already seen how these five projection types can exist on the projection strip and comprise the layers within a preset. Before we progress further under the hood with presets, it’s important to have a thorough understanding of each core projection type.

Starburst

The starburst accompanied by a lens reflection is probably the “look” most people associate with the term lens flare. However, starbursts are inherently tied to aperture. The graphic below illustrates how aperture size can reshape overall flare appearance.


(source: https://www.slrlounge.com/diffraction-aperture-and-starburst-effects/)

And here’s a fun fact: The number of blades in an aperture determines the number of spikes/points in the starburst. An even number of aperture blades yields the same number of spikes, but an odd number of blades will yield double the number of spikes.




Notice how, despite having the same number of points, the spikes for the aperture settings of 3 and 6 have different appearances.

This relationship between starburst and aperture is why the starburst, unlike any other core projection type, has two inspector pane sections: a starburst control set (shown below) and a detailed aperture control set (discussed in this User Guide’s lens pane section).

The starburst control set should look familiar if you read about the inspector pane’s light source group. Here, you have five attributes/features to control:

Glow Ball

As you see in the above image, the first five variables in the Glow Ball control set match those of the Starburst control set. That leaves four new variables to explore:

Halo

You know how smearing grease, fingerprint oil, or some similar substance on a lens can create a hazy “halo” effect in lens flares? Sometimes, tiny scratches on the lens create a similar effect. VFX Real Lens Flares faithfully produces these artifacts with the halo projection.

Whereas glow balls are produced from circular seeds, halos derive from rings. And just as glow balls produce fascinating chromatic effects in their spikes, halos create beautiful rainbows in their rings.

After the usual size, exposure, and colorize settings found in prior projections, the halo control set has several unique options:

Single Spike

The single spike, like the halo, is the sort of artifact you might witness from a lens smudge. Oils or other distortions on the lens create a linear flare that, especially when layered with a starburst or glow ball, can create striking visual drama.

The single spike control set contains most of the same settings found in earlier projections, including the spike settings found in the glow ball control set. The three new settings introduced with the single spike are:

Be sure to play with the possibilities of mixing spread with the chromatic effects of introducing spikiness. Compare the above default core projection to the variation on it created below.

Gate Flare

A gate flare mimics the effect of a light bleeding through an opening just off the edge of the field of view. To use the gate flare, set the light source position just outside the edge of the frame, then slowly drag to move it toward the center of the frame. In practice, this can be a bit tricky, so be careful and don’t blink.

The gate flare settings can be equally finicky. For example, in the image above, the flare is visible with a gate width of 105 percent. With no repositioning, the flare vanishes lower than 102% and higher than 109%, even though it remains visible in the projection strip thumbnail.

Maxon will be adding interface elements to help users more easily manipulate gate flares in an upcoming VFX Real Lens Flares release.

Reflections

Every lens flare preset contains a reflection on its projection strip. This may not be immediately apparent with core projections because reflections are hidden by default. VFX Real Lens Flares does this to help preserve the clarity of core projection forms when first viewed. You can see in the below capture of the Starburst – Kaleidoscope core projection preset why this might be advisable. The starburst gets a bit lost in its reflections. It’s better to work with a clean core projection first, then add in reflection effects.

Core projection presets begin with reflections based off a lens prescription selected by Maxon. To achieve a different reflections look, begin your custom lens flare by selecting a lens simulation, then modify its applied core projections.

Reflection controls are simple: exposure (-20 to 20), scale (0% to 10,000%), and the now-familiar colorizing color picker for tinting.

Core Projection Presets

VFX Real Lens Flares comes with 16 core projection presets: five starbursts, five glow balls, three spikes, two halos, and one gate flare. These core projections can be used individually or layered for more complex effects.

Each core projection is accompanied by a collection of attributes with preset values in the inspection pane. (These are the light source, flare properties, and minimal aperture sections detailed earlier.) Moreover, on the projection strip, each core projection is comprised of two elements: the core projection and the reflections caused by default light values passing through the default lens elements. Core projection presets have their reflections hidden by default.

Clicking on each projection contained in the projection strip will open a new set of attributes in the inspector pane column along the right. Since these attributes are specific to the core projection type, we’ll delve into each core projection in turn.

Lens Simulation Presets

VFX Real Lens Flares comes with 36 different lens prescriptions derived from some of the world’s most popular quality lenses

Depending on the context, Maxon may already associate a lens prescription with a given lens flare preset, but you may wish to mirror the camera used during the original footage capture or achieve a different flare effect. The three examples below illustrate just how different lenses can be in their internal element construction.



We will explore lens parameters in more detail in this guide’s Lens Pane section. From a preset perspective, though, recall that each core projection preset yielded two items on the projection strip. Every lens simulation preset yields three: a starburst, a glow ball, and (now visible) lens reflections. The Heliar Tronnier 35mm is the single exception; it adds a halo.

Keep in mind that Maxon optimized the settings in these lens simulation presets to best show off their unique lens attributes and reflections. Light source size, aperture settings, color, and projection settings all differ between these lens simulations. You will need to do some tuning and custom lens flare creation to see a direct apples-to-apples comparison between lenses.

Stylized Flare Presets

If you need fun, impressive examples of what VFX Real Lens Flares can accomplish, start with the 18 different stylized flare presets bundled with the program. You might think of these as creative shortcuts.

Stylized flares are comprised of a range of core projection components and have the same primary Inspector Pane control groups (light source, flare properties, and minimal aperture) as other presets. As with the core projections, every projection and reflection on the projection strip can be selected to reveal that projection’s more granular control settings. Studying and deconstructing how stylized flares achieve their look and feel is a great way to master the nuances of VFX Real Lens Flares.