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How Do I Achieve This In After Effects? (Noob Alert!)

Toa_KaitaToa_Kaita332 Posts: 0Member
edited August 2011 in Technical Questions and Answers #1
Ive been looking for a way to achieve this effect in Adobe After Effects for a while but Im not quite sure how to do it. I want the edge of the camera lens to flare up when a laser/phaser shot passes by the screen (without third party plug ins preferably).

supertrek_io9.mov-13.jpg

Would I have to create a solid set to screen and mask out the edge of the camera lens for every frame? Or is there another method?

Thanks in advance,

Toa
Post edited by Toa_Kaita on

Posts

  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    #2
    are you doing your lasers in after effects or in a 3D program?
  • juanxerjuanxer331 Posts: 0Member
    #3
    An idea: let's say you are already hand-animating a lens flare FX to sweeten the phaser beams, keyframing flare origin and intensity. You could:

    - Add a second lens flare effect (in the same solid or in a separate one), place it a bit offscreen.
    - Reveal both lens flare effects' Flare Center coordinates.
    - Add a Expression to the offscreen flare's Flare Center: highlight the "Flare Center" term and then Add Expression via the Animate menu.
    - And then, using the expression pick whip (the small twirly icon that now appears under the Flare Center coordinates), click and drag the whip onto the main lens flare's Y-Coordinate. Doing so, the offscreen flare's Y-Coordinate will get tied to the main flare's one.
    - Do the same with Flare Brightness if you are using that to control main flare intensity, or transparency…

    That would provide you with a side flare that is automatically vertically aligned with the main one. I don't know if that would be a real lens behavior, though (possibly it ought to do the inverse?). You could further sophisticate this a lot, and/or further filter it via Levels and so to obtain the degree of burn you want to achieve. Perhaps you could also paint some sort of full frame smooth texture to burn in in order to get that Abrams look, plus some sort of dirty map to use as a mask for the flares, to simulate lens dirt.

    There is a commercial lens flare plugin that automates all these details: Video Copilot's Optical Flares. You should check their demo videos, as they'll give you lots of ideas about how to make lens flares more interesting and try to reproduce its features without the plugin.
  • Toa_KaitaToa_Kaita332 Posts: 0Member
    #4
    @IRML, Im using 3DS Max to create the pulse blasts from a Super Spray Particle System.

    @juanxer, Ill give those tips a go, thanks :)
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    #5
    in that case I would render an overscan pass, this doesn't have to be everything at high quality, just your lasers with no AA or motion blur etc, then you can apply blurs to that in after effects to get the edge flaring up
  • L2KL2K0 Posts: 0Member
    #6
    an "only laser" pass, the directional blur on it, set to horizontal, and the mode to screen or lighten, and youre done.
    from there, just duplicate the layers and play with the setings
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