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LightWave > AE OpticalFlares Integration trick!

SonicN2OSonicN2O0 Posts: 0Member
edited April 2012 in Tutorials #1
I don't know If anyone has figured this out yet or if I'm just repeating the obvious, but this is a trick I figured out to have ALL bright objects in your scene generate a flare, without the need of motion tracking.

I actually don't have OF yet, so I'll try to describe each step as well as I can.

I. So, you have your scene ready for breakout and comping. select all of the lights and turn ON Lens flare, then set all the settings you want for how it behaves (i.e. Fade in distance, Fog, etc.) as desired. Then turn OFF all of the visual elements such as reflections and streaks EXCEPT for "central glow".

II. Turn ON Flare2Alpha and any other Bloom or Corona effects you want.

III. DON'T break out your scene just yet- render the entire footage as a .exr sequence or some other file type that is 32-bit and has embedded alpha. save it as LensFlarePass_000.exr or something...

IV. Turn Corona, Bloom, and especially Flare2Alpha OFF before continuing.

V. Save your scene.

VI. Breakout and render the rest as separate passes.

VII. Load everything into AE.

VIII. Composite however you want, and then put the LensFlarePass_000.exr sequence on top.

IX. Make sure you are working in 32-bit mode, and then pre- compose the LensFlarePass_000.exr sequence.

X. In the new comp, select Color Correction > Colorama and put it onto the pass.

XI. Set Output Cycle> User preset palette to Ramp Grey.

XII. Click on the black portion to make a new black node.

XIII. Drag it clockwise around the circle until only what you ant to flare is visible.

XIV. Create a new black solid.

XV. Set blending mode to Add and put Optical Flares on it.

XVI. Set settings as desired.

XVII. Set tracking mode from 2D to Track Luma.

XVIII. Go back to your original comp and see lots of anamorphic streaks.



Hope this was helpful.
Post edited by SonicN2O on

Posts

  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    way convoluted, with track luma you can just use a regular pass, that's what it's for
  • Chris2005Chris2005675 Posts: 3,096Member
    Never did like tracking with luma mattes... if the white area gets too small, the flare begins to flicker.
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  • SonicN2OSonicN2O0 Posts: 0Member
    use dynamic triggering to make the blinking out flares look a little nicer.
  • SonicN2OSonicN2O0 Posts: 0Member
    IRML wrote: »
    way convoluted, with track luma you can just use a regular pass, that's what it's for

    The reason I wrote it that way is that you can also use this technique with live action footage.
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    I don't get it, making lens flares in lightwave for live action footage would require tracking of its own, and then you're going to use track luma on the result anyway

    I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding you but this doesn't make any sense to me
  • SonicN2OSonicN2O0 Posts: 0Member
    No... I mean that If you have a light source in live action footage, you can track Luma, then increase the threshold setting, which is probably an easier solution than the one suggested above.

    I might make a video tutorial at some point or post the same thing with visual aids.
  • Chris2005Chris2005675 Posts: 3,096Member
    IRML wrote: »
    I don't get it, making lens flares in lightwave for live action footage would require tracking of its own, and then you're going to use track luma on the result anyway

    I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding you but this doesn't make any sense to me

    Here is what SonicN2O is talking about:
    https://www.videocopilot.net/products/opticalflares/features/luminance_tracking/

    Provided you don't know already, lol.
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  • Toa_KaitaToa_Kaita332 Posts: 0Member
    Upon seeing this post, I did a test using 3ds Max and got this:

    If anyone wants me to do a comparison shot I can upload it. :)
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    Chris2005 wrote: »
    Here is what SonicN2O is talking about:
    https://www.videocopilot.net/products/opticalflares/features/luminance_tracking/

    Provided you don't know already, lol.
    it would be pretty stupid of me to come in this thread if I didn't know what track luma was
  • Chris2005Chris2005675 Posts: 3,096Member
    IRML wrote: »
    it would be pretty stupid of me to come in this thread if I didn't know what track luma was

    Well, I mean in relation to this particular plugin...

    I guess I misinterpreted your statement "I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding you but this doesn't make any sense to me."
    AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
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