Hi Folks – Next week, I’ll be flying out to  San Francisco to interview John Knoll, for Red Giant TV. Unless you’ve been living in a cave free of VFX news, you know that John Knoll was ILM’s Visual Effects Supervisor for Avatar, Star Wars,  and many other films. He is one of Hollywood’s most in-demand collaborators for VFX, having won many awards (including an Oscar) for his contributions to some of the biggest films of all time.

We’ll be talking about his film work, co-creating Photoshop with his brother Thomas, and the evolution and use of his popular software, Knoll Light Factory,  in motion graphics and films like Avatar, Transformers,  J. J. Abram’s Star Trek, and many others.

I’m incredibly excited. I’ve worked with and met a lot of cool people, but this is a whole other thing. His influence on what we do is so profound, I just hope I don’t forget my own name** when I sit down with him, let alone remember to ask him some worthwhile questions about his work. So I need your help…

If there’s anything you ever wanted to ask this visual effects master, post it here, and I may just ask it for you.

No promises – but make it good, and I’ll do my best.

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** That may or may not have happened to me when I worked with Director Frank Oz (a.k.a. Yoda). I can neither confirm nor deny.

Just wanted to let you know that Knoll 3D Flare has been released. This free set of tools that allows you to easily create Knoll Lens Flares in After Effects 3D space. This add-on for Knoll Light Factory (2.5) in After Effects includes fantastic features like Edge flare-ups, color linking, Z-depth intensity, and full 3D obscuration.

You can learn more about it and its feature set here.

The short version is that Knoll 3D Flare adds 3D (and other) features into Knoll Light Factory Pro – the lens flare tools  used in Avatar, Transformers 1 and 2, Star Trek (yes, the J.J. Abrams one), and many MANY other films. Download a trial, and you’ll see why Knoll Light Factory continues to be Hollywood’s go-to lens flare tool.

Let us know what you think of Knoll 3D Flare. We look forward to hearing from you.

So you may have caught on twitter that I was playing around with something called Knoll 3D Flare. It’s something being worked on and tested here at Red Giant, based on a project file sent to us in August, by David Vinson, Senior Visual Effects Supervisor at Outpost Pictures.

Basically K3DF is a new set of features to enhance Knoll Light Factory Pro, Hollywood’s go-to lens flare solution.

Currently, the feature set includes:

1. 3D Camera Aware: Link a lens flares to a 3D Light’s XYZ position.
2. Z-Depth: Distance of flare from camera effects flare’s intensity.
3. Color Linking: Light color effects flare color.
4. Intensity Linking: Light intensity effects flare’s intensity.
5. Multiple Lights: Apply to every light in your  comp.
6. World Scale: Control the amount of flare scaling  relative to a light’s distance from the camera
7. Edge Flareup: As flares near the edge of the comp they automatically brighten and flareup replicating natural lens phenomena.
8. Full 3D Obscuration: All 3D layers in your composition can be used to obscure the flare. As the 3D light travels behind a layer, the flare dims and goes out.

This is not a final or complete list. It’s just something that’s being worked on with the ultimate goal of making Knoll Light Factory Pro,  already an industry standard,  even better.

What’s really interesting to note is that Knoll Light Factory Pro has been able to do most of this stuff for years! 3D lens flares and light linking are not new. I’ve been using them for a long time. However it required some knowledge of expressions – which you can easily pick up at Dan Ebbert’s Motion Script.com.

Anyway we’d love to hear your thoughts on these features, and what you might want to see in Knoll. Personally, I’m really impressed with 3D obscuration. Being able to have the flare wink out of existence when it goes behind any 3D layer opens up a lot of possibilities and makes life a lot easier.

Episode 32: Feature Film Title Treatment
By Chan Bonanno

In this episode of RGTV, Chad Bonanno shows you how he created the motion graphics titles for the feature film “Dreamgirls.” These titles were also used in the broadcast ads and trailers for the award-winning film.

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Chad Perkins shows you how to create various elements for use in a Twilight Zone-esque TV show opening, using After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and Cinema 4D. Get ready to kick it old-school…

Watch the tutorial here.

Episode 30: 3D Motion Graphics Logo
Hosted by Carl Larsen

In this tutorial, Carl Larsen shows you how to create an array of 3D particles using Trapcode Form and Red Giant Plane Space to achieve a look that, under most circumstances, has been reserved for more complex, 3d applications.

Watch the episode here.

Episode 29: Form Text
Hosted by Tim Clapham

In this Episode of Red Giant TV, Tim Clapham shows you how to use Trapcode Form to create some particle-based 3D text along with a cool transition on and off.

Watch it here.

New Episode Folks!

Episode 28: Building an Airport Scene – Part 2: Compositing
By: Mathias Möhl

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Mathias Möhl continues his airport project, and shows you how to motion track with Mocha For After Effects, and then to use that data along with MochaImport (His own Script) to easily create a solid composite.

Watch the episode here.

And get a discount on Magic Bullet Looks and Red Giant Warp here.

Well… I’m on the sandy beaches of Florida… so this week we got some help for RGTV…

Click on image to see example video.

Episode 27: Building an Airport Scene – Part 1: Backplate
By Mathias Möhl

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Mathias Möhl shows you how to take footage of a parking lot, and turn it into the backplate for an Airport Scene.

Watch the episode here.

And get a discount on Magic Bullet Colorista here.