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.

Episode 19: Creating a Transporter Effect
Hosted by Eran Stern

In this episode, Chief Engineer Eran Stern works furiously to get his Starship’s transporters back on-line to rescue a fellow crew member trapped on a hostile planet. But time is running out. Will Eran be able to build the transporter in After Effects before it’s too late?

You can watch the episode here.

And, as usual, you can get a discount on Trapcode Particular, Knoll Light Factory, Key Correct Pro, and Magic Bullet Looks, but going here.

In honor of Star Trek (of which I am a huge fan), I’m also offering a discount on my own product, Crowd Control: Pre-Keyed Alpha Stock Footage. Use the code “startrek” for the next seven days, and get 50% off the cost of Crowd Control credits.