After Effects Tutorial: Anamorphic Lens Flares

[ethanharveytv]

i see the flare in the preset browser/UI but not on my main output, can you help?

[baramin5kx]

Very useful technique! WHo would of known that using the luma matte will create realistic flares. Thanks a alot! Just added this to my favorites.

[producedbyHANS]

any way to mask when your original footage doesnt have a light source? (recorded with a green screen) i want to make sure the flare is "behind" the person the same way you did in the first part of the video, but i dont have a lightbulb or light source, any alternatives?

[jimmy70652]

@producedbyHANS I have same problem if recorded with green screen,how to do like this?

[dude4850]

Great teacher bro!

[EdgarFroez]

@RidingMad125 When you watch Andrew Kramer videos (he's the owner of Video Copilot), you will start to WANT to buy all his products, because he is such cool, humble and funny person, and he gives us the best After Effects tutorial totally free for us to learn, and a amazing basic tutorial. I learned after effects with him, before that i was shit on it. Just a note to clarify that his prices of his products are cheap compared to the benefits. Check out videocopilot(dot)net

[WhiteWK]

thanks so much

[yourmurderer1]

Super 8 was filled with these!

And you get to see them in Fringe pretty often too.

Go JJ Abrams.

[Toebex]

My after effects keeps crashing when I get to the luminance track

[SplinterCell37]

Video Copilot are BOSS. :)

[zachwingfield]

@SplinterCell37 good use of the english language.

[frantic0466]

A piece of nylon string in front of the lens can make this effect without software and editing.

[TheBiSux1]

Can you please help me? My lens flare just lay in the middle of the clip and dont move :/

[VIPBigBuddha]

so cool aha!!



[stmahlberg]

Nice tutorial. Amazing stuff.

[marinmaker]

J.J. Abrams gave this a thumbs up.

[Milkshakman]

@RidingMad125 Stopped reading your comment at "what is piracy".

[RidingMad125]

@Milkshakman :S that makes no sense.....

[izvarzone]

I just wondering, why are these blue strips seen on cameras? Mine have vertical instead of horizontal, and it's blue+black thick line, when I face sun.

[OfficialLM21]

OMG thank you very much!! my music video going to be amazing lol ;D

[rodrigueskorn]

where can i download the video (footage) that you used in this tutorial?

Can I download it?

And great tutorial it was. Ty.

[jessrocked]

awesome tut but WHAT IF THE LIGHT SOURCE IS THE SUN?. :(

[ssand116]

J.J Abraham like this video

[AbdullahAlwakil]

GR8 TUT..

[SkyFlyZz]

Just use SONY VEGAS 10.0 you can get a trial and add many effects like the lens flare effect

[chokeonthedrama]

I'm actually having problems with keeping the flare in the same position.. Am I doing anything wrong?

[btfrager]

looks like any given shot of Super 8...

[9012oh]

why is it only showing my views? :)

[9012oh]

Why does my light flicker so bad?

[littlewittlepup]

Such a helpful friendly guy :) thanks!

[le0nard0125]

@RidingMad125 you ever heard of a torrent

[RidingMad125]

@le0nard0125 dont be a smart ass..

[nigeleckzdee]

@RidingMad125 then quit being a cheap ass and buy it if you're not gonna torrent it.

[RidingMad125]

@nigeleckzdee stop being a wise ass, implying I'm being cheap because I wont shell out that amount of money for such a small package... and no, I'm not going to torrent it.

[HyperblexMedia]

@nigeleckzdee YEAH torrents!

[Kenimness]

i have cs5.5 on a mac. you sort of brushed over how you opened up mode/screen on the light layer. how do i do it manually because i dont have the same options as you do on your windows.

[kaenlaithai]

@RidingMad125 same as me...

[AnkaxHacks]

i have it and i didn´t pay

[embrytic]

Great tips, thanks so much, lovin' the motion tile; shake and the luma technique - I'll definitely use them all

[ImmersionImagery]

Is there any way to apply a lens flare or multiple lens flares on footage without having to track or use this process? I love these new flares however I find that in some situations when I am feeling lazy I will apply a magic bullet 'anamorfic lens flare' although it is no where near as good it it alot simpler to apply to footage.

[Charlemagne0815]

no way ... i can film on a tripod and add the handshaking later ?

now i need actors that play flawless and a plugin that can add outtakes later ... ;)

just kidding, i see the point, keep up the good work.

[TheTimeLordAnthony]

this is really good :)

[charvelgtrs]

That's a lot of work just to get that effect.

[allanpalmer12345]

lol a damn tutorial that when you get half way in, be busts out a heres one I made ealier lens flare...wtf? Right I'll stop watching this one and go and find a tutorial on how to make your own lens flare...

[98stwarmachine]

could this be lens flare? /watch?v=eg6TM_QnoJk&feature=f­eedf

[FeA37HD]

today is it 1 years since you released this video!!! checked the date when I thought about what verision on AAE you have! ^^

[GamersIHeaven]

@RidingMad125 Just youtube how to get Optical Flares for free :)

[smKerz]

Cool video, thanks

[ewupawly]

god the advertisements on this are obnoxious

[ewupawly]

anyone know where i can find a tutorial for rap video optical flares? all the tutorials I find are for like making stars and sci fi stuff I have no use for

[MouthofSaurons]

Hey why don't you put up a link for download for the preset used in this tutorial?

[petenicezz]

i have optical flares install on AE4 and i have AE5 but i'm having problem installing optical flares on AE5A. Do you know how i can install it on A5?

[NextWaveG]

@petenicezz I believe they have an update that you need to download.  Contact VideoCopilot for more info.

[HorizoNEntertaiment]

@petenicezz i Got SAME PROBLEM if u know the answer could u messege me?

[runemaster253]

I.LOVE.YOUR.VOICE.

[ThomasDrimm]

more videos please

[JippaLippa]

i did not understand what camera have you used to shoot that footage.

[LastShotprods]

saw the ad and changed video. youtube are loosing so many people because of putting stupid adverts before a video!!!

[Just4Th3Lulz]

I thought he saw a broken piece in his equipment so it transitioned to him being all sad like/surprised.

[nicholasheathcote]

love the tutorial! how do you bring up the optical flare options?

[SunRunnerNY]

Great Tip...very interesting. I have O.F. but haven't used it too much...but this is pretty inspiring. Thanks.

[TSCSOUNDS]

Damn Selena Gomez, I don't wanna see your freakin Disney Advertisement.

[CarbonFiberSpoon]

Cool.

[superiorsoundstudio]

great tutorial! question for you how did you create that god animation video with the dog and grill on your website? DID you use illustrator? Lovin it!

[NextWaveG]

@superiorsoundstudio I designed the artwork in Illustrator and animated it all in After Effects.

[jodroboxes]

Nice tutorial man .. but why are you running Vista?? isn't XP is much faster. i love XP.

[NextWaveG]

@jodroboxes Actually this is Windows 7 and it's faster than XP.

[jodroboxes]

@NextWaveG Thats true.. my bad. I'm watching your cinematography vids.. they're very good! keep em comin' !

[Xboxc3ntral]

@NextWaveG yah but winows 7 sucks

[usmceflips]

@NextWaveG

how could windows be more faster when it requests double more ram

[HiramVazquezStudio]

VETE ALA VERGAAAAAAAA YOUTUBE PORKE ME PONES PUBLICIDAD? POR ESO HAS ESTADO TAN LENTO? HIJOPUTA

[hotgypsylips]

A lot of pro equip. and your video quality is ZYXJ, your face completly blown up (highlights and pink face.

[ronaireshella]

skip advertisment by clicking this >>0:01 thumbs up let others know

[SEIKdesigns]

This AINT a TUTORIAL!!!

[geoffwebb1]

This is a great tutorial but even after following along several times i can't seem to link the flares to the luminance of the matte. Even after switching the flare positioning mode to luminance and the source layer to the matte comp, the flare sits in the middle of the comp with no relation to the lights (although the brightness and color of the flare do seem to be relative?)

any idea what I might be doing wrong? or could it be a bug?

thanks!

geoff

[grated801]

@geoffwebb1 yea same here.i still got like a lil flare over the solid part im tryina get that flare behind me and not quit over on me.i done once and worked but now i cant get it right.what are we doin wrong???

[MouthofSaurons]

Is this CS4 or CS5?

[boogyman10o1]

@MouthofSaurons From the date that this video was released it is CS4.

[narutokiller9]

omg i knew youd use optical flares. i was praying to god. i live on videocopilot. it is my favorite website. andrew kramer is a freaking god.

[UNVIart11]

3D space in AE project "Arena titles " - plus lens flare effects were made by standard AE tools - without third party plugins.

[oSpiTFiRe]

THANK YOU!! :D

[MaybeYesNo90]

I followed your instructions precisely and did not get anything like what you get in this video. Once I've gotten to about 8:15 and I change Source Type to "Luminance" and Sourcetype to "Luma Matte" my Flare gets so bright the window gets ONLY white. When lowering the brightness I instead get a bright center circle with a star-like shape around it, nothing at all like in your video.

Hope there's nothing wrong with my After Effects software or something. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

[MaybeYesNo90]

@MaybeYesNo90 *Source Layer to "Luma Matte"*, just a correction :)

[FLASHGABExMEDIAx]

fuclk you its not free!

[MaybeYesNo90]

I don't get the part where you keyframe the bright from the dark, how exactly do you make the keyframes?

[AngieLove242]

great video

[SnoocheeBoochees]

i just recently got given after effects cs3 (secondhand) and this plug in as a gift, shot a very short bit in my room and am trying it out, will however be going to shoot a little more tomorrow as the footage i used tonight sucks lol thanks for the tutorial, very useful. i'll post my best one as a video response, just a question tho, if there are 2 light sources and u put 2 ellipse masks in the composition will the program automatically make 2 flares?

[kudjo24]

hahaah this way is so much easier than just keyframing lens animation into the footage like I did yesterday, thanks for the vid! prollly gonna go check out ur others too

[bilashhossain]

so this wont work on Sony Vegas?

[halfblackmaniac]

Verrrrrrry Nice Tutorial. You took me to a next level!

end of line.

[aspiringart]

What type of computer do you use? I just got a fast quad core and it handles After Effects, but what would be a good solution for AE? Or what would be the best type of pc for the price to run this program smoothly?

[worldhighlights]

Just search For Aries Films and get your copy of VideoCopilot Optical Flares NOW... its finally cracked and only at aries films file section

[ProvocativeTV]

lol stop actin like you were andrew kramer

[nguyenjohn357]

@ProvocativeTV haha

[jfb112697]

if anyone made one without optical flares pm me

[WIN7GT]

@jfb112697 google Videocopilot Optical Flares on demonoid...

[dcsfilmproductions]

wait how do i get an anamorphic look on my comp if it is 1440 x 1080?

[KingSkulkZ]

you cant

muahahahha

[Bready55]

Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together.

[theTradeOfficial]

you are not andrew kramer lol

[jeremiahjw]

Now anyone can be Michael Bay or JJ Abrams. :-P

[misterdaviz]

Good stuff! Is there also a way to do this final cut pro? I like Adobe After Effects, but I have apple....

[NextWaveG]

Possibly, but the Optical Flares plug-in is made specifically for After Effects.

[yyyy2999]

@NextWaveG how do i get this on sony vegas 9

[KingSkulkZ]

@yyyy2999 you cant

its an after effects plug-in only

[yyyy2999]

@KingSkulkZ can u get after effects on pc

[KingSkulkZ]

@yyyy2999 yeah yeah corse you can

thats what the tutorial presenter is using it on

unless you wanna pay around $1000+ $100 for the plug in

[yyyy2999]

@KingSkulkZ what are some other ways to get this effect

[kylerichards33]

You can download After Effects for Mac

[steveoconeevo]

After Effects is a Mac program, it works on PC too.

[BobTubeStudios]

You can get after effects for macs too.

[TheSpiderFilms]

@misterdaviz Adobe After Effects works best with a Mac :D !

[ralphy501]

@misterdaviz you can still get AE for apple

[iQuicksc0p3z]

@misterdaviz get After Effects on your mac

[IPb0mber]

@misterdaviz After Effects is made for Mac as well

[jodroboxes]

@misterdaviz There is also AfterFX for apple ;)

[h1a1l1l1o]

Great Tutorial.

Finally somebody, who used the luminance ;)

But if you want to achieve the Transformers or Star Trek look you have to put a great colorcorrection on your footage.

[sonicballer8888]

yea! I LOVE the color correction used in transformers. That same kind of color correction is used in so many movies and it looks awesome!

[h1a1l1l1o]

yeah the island and pelham 123..

it very easy to recreate with curves and looks awesome!

[klumpersuper]

cool:)

[sonicballer8888]

anamorphic lenses really aren't that expensive man. there is actually a real good one that is actually CHEAPER than optical flares.

There is a generic anamorphic lens on ebay for camcorders for only $115. great results, great price. more worth it than optical flares.

and there is another one that is about 400 and another for 700.

thousands? I don't think so. They'd only cost that much if you got one for an actual film camera, but for a dslr or a camcorder, they'd be pretty cheap.

[NextWaveG]

I've heard people having problems focusing with that adapter. Also it's only 52mm thread so larger lenses aren't compatible.

Yes you can get some anamorphic lenses for under $1k, but some of the nicer ones like Lomo or Hawk lenses cost several thousand.

Either way, OF gives you high quality results that are extremely controllable. Go ahead and make your own choice, but I like having OF as an option.

[sonicballer8888]

Well IMO, I think that Optical Flares is great for Motion Graphics and visual effects that don't have lens flares. It easily beats knoll light factory.

But Most people have small cameras anyway, and alot of people don't have an expensive program like after effects.

The generic anamorphic lens has GREAT results with the hv20, hv30 and hv40.

[ShizzMaster]

The fact that you say Optical Flares is better than Knoll Light Factory clearly shows that you no nothing about this industry and are a complete NOOB!!

So let the real professionals use the best tools for the job, whilst you and your pathetic kind upload videos of you and your handful of friends onto youtube, playing around with your lightsabers and completely molesting the footage with OF.....oh and Film Magic Pro too!!

Thanks Andrew Kramer for giving kids the opportunity to make fanboy films

[sonicballer8888]

have you ever even used optical flares? hahahaha.

I've used knoll light factory and optical flares. Knoll light factory's flares look SOOO fake, and they're not as realistic as optical flares. there is no luminance tracking with knoll either. The only reason most pros use Knoll Light factory is because optical flares just came out. And already some commercials and music videos have used optical flares. Yes, it's way better than knoll light factory. and if you cant see that then YOU'RE a noob.

[ShizzMaster]

It looks fake when you use it because you're a gigantic boob who needs to use presets from a kids toy! SHIZZAM BITCH!!!

[sonicballer8888]

I don't even have optical flares. But I've seen the results of both. And I've used Knoll Light Factory from scratch. You must be blind or something, just because knoll light factory is used by some pros doesn't mean its the best. Knoll light factory's flares look SO) cgi (did I mention that their only 2d). Optical flares has 3d flares, that can nearly replicate the look of a real anamorphic flare. Transformers used light factory, but I could easily tell which ones were real and which were fakie.

[ShizzMaster]

I understand your opinion x

[jfb112697]

nice

[dcsfilmproductions]

@ShizzMaster: idiot

[ShizzMaster]

witty lol

[DrSanto12]

@ShizzMaster why you dont post some of your work to see what you do??? anyone can talk shit... at least we already know what Andrew is doing and if you gonna talk crap about people let us know what you have, we could learn something from you too...

[Frace91]

isn't a lens flare the result of a bad coating of the lens?

[NextWaveG]

Lens flares are caused by multiple factors. Dust or water on the lens can cause spots and streaks of light. The main thing that affects a lens flare is the optics of your lens. Anamorphic lenses stretch the image and create a unique flare. Some people try to avoid getting lens flares, others like the look. The nice thing about OF, is that you have a lot of options to make your flare look the way you want it.

[Frace91]

thanks for the detailed answer :)

[teckcode1]

VideoCopilot is AWSOME you are to

[detriplea]

Are you a professional film editor? And if so, how is the atmosphere?

[masterpiraka]

Guy sounds like Bob Odenkirk.

Did I already say that?