Lens Flare Shader

[elesar]

Ok
I create this thread to understand what is a lens flare (in depth) how we can create it and what can make it photoreal?
all of us know what is lens flare and we saw ugly lens flares of maya. but create a perfect and beautiful one is different.
bmcaff has a good article in his web but his skill is just for still images not for animations.( http://www.bmcaff.com/articles/lensflares.htm )
dose any one know GREAT and PERFECT lens falare shader?
(I think it should be a scientific discussion):cool:

[Phil_Wilkinson]

The Lens flare effects in Maya should be physically accurate (angles of light - aberration etc.). There are also many plugins available for AE - Knoll Light Factory etc. that work on the same (simulated) basic physics.

Don't know if anyone else would bother building lens flare effects from scratch for a single shot in a production.

[elesar]

The Lens flare effects in Maya should be physically accurate (angles of light - aberration etc.). There are also many plugins available for AE - Knoll Light Factory etc. that work on the same (simulated) basic physics.

Don't know if anyone else would bother building lens flare effects from scratch for a single shot in a production.


hi phil
nice to meet u again.
I dont know is that phiscal or not but its not look good
I dont like it
read the article ,it is not phisical it is a cheat but it looks
great..( http://www.bmcaff.com/articles/lensflares.htm )

I dont know those third party plugins
do you have links?

[Phil_Wilkinson]

Hi elesar.

Ahh, I see. You're looking for a subtle flare / spec. burn-out. This is easily done in post... make sure you render out a specular pass. Now, depending on the complexity of your shot, all you may need to do is apply a glow to this layer (maybe combine that with some blur?). You might find the Trapcode AE plugins (shine for eg.) useful?

It's funny though, in the 50's lens flare use to be a shot killer... now we try and imitate it like everything else!

[tuuhia]

Hi elesar.
It's funny though, in the 50's lens flare use to be a shot killer... now we try and imitate it like everything else!

yeah really funny :D ...elesar, lens flare can be easily done in comp...or look for knoll...

[elesar]

yes and no!

I have used AEshine
it looks good but not best
Im looking for best, and usually best is not post.;)
I told u bmcaff has a good skill but its just for spec
but watch these for eg.
these pictures are from nixus demo reel and pixar Cars
just look at them watch the difference with shine
I think this is a lens shader in nixus case
and for pixar just god knows!!!

[Phil_Wilkinson]

You could achieve these results in post (in fact, I'd be asking the Pixar crew ;) ). Knoll Light factory is a good plugin... post is not a one-click process - it takes quite a lot of time, patience and ingenuity. For example, you may have to combine some of the different flares that KLF gives you (with other techniques) to achieve the result you're after.

[mymental]

There is a profesional Plug-in i use a lot, and it had been use in many films i wouldn't be surprise if it was the one use in cars.

http://www.genarts.com/customer-testimonials.html

or this one is amazing

http://www.frischluft.com/flair/flair.php

[sgaspam]

There is a good description of making lens flares using Renderman in a book (on Renderman) whose title escapes me right now. It's co-authored by Larry Gritz I believe. In any case, the principle is to layer a transparent plane directly in front of the camera, compute rays to light sources, and then map lens flare haloes onto that plane's color/alpha. Sample shaders in RSL are given that are quite attractive and full-featured (source code is certainly on the net somewhere). It shouldn't be hard to write these same shaders in Mental Ray. An output shader similar to JS_Glare should do the trick as well.

SGA