Anamorphic (Fake) Flare Test RED MX

[Andrew Walker]

This is a little test I shot a couple nights ago to put some flares in using the Optical Flares plugin for After Effects. The plugin is very cool and has a awesome interface. It was shot at ISO 2000 and 3200 using some Zeiss ZF lenses and a Sigma 20mm 1.8. If you want to go flare crazy this is the plugin to do it with.

http://599productions.com/599/Media/Anamorphic_Flare_Tests_1920x805.mov 39MB

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/11418772

 

[K. cromwell]

Nice I like how with the tracking you were getting refractions and reflections how long did all this take you?

 

[Andrew Walker]

Nice I like how with the tracking you were getting refractions and reflections how long did all this take you?

The work in AE took about 1.5 hours and I know very little about AE. There was also a lot of messing around with putting stuff into the flare and taking it out.

 

[Omar Saad]

Andrew that is awesome! This is the second time in as many weeks I've seen someone use this plugin and both times it looked great. Looks like I need to pick this up... from Video Copilot, right?

 

[Andrew Walker]

Andrew that is awesome! This is the second time in as many weeks I've seen someone use this plugin and both times it looked great. Looks like I need to pick this up... from Video Copilot, right?

Yeah, its really worth the $139 if you buy it with the presets. It also kind of saves me the trouble of renting some anamorphics because I really wanted those type of flares. As I said before the interface for building and adjusting the flares is awesome. You can make them as crazy or as simple as you want.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Optical Flares by Andrew Cramer Video Copilot>>>

 

[Brad Webb]

Pretty impressive stuff. I would love to see how this reacts out in the sunlight as well.

 

[Andrew Walker]

Pretty impressive stuff. I would love to see how this reacts out in the sunlight as well.

As soon as I get my camera back from a rental I'm planning a couple more tests and to make some daylight/sun flares in AE.

 

[Matthew Bennett]

Best post flares I've seen man!

You had to hand track the light points though? Totally worth the work, lovely effect and very convincing

 

[Shane Kelly]

Looks great, very convincing.

 

[Andrew Walker]

Best post flares I've seen man!

You had to hand track the light points though? Totally worth the work, lovely effect and very convincing

Yeah I had to hand track them but its really the only way to make it look as real as possible. I'm sure with CS5 it would be much easier with its little auto tracking deal...if the plugin works in CS5, which it might.

 

[jake blackstone]

Yeah I had to hand track them but its really the only way to make it look as real as possible. I'm sure with CS5 it would be much easier with its little auto tracking deal...if the plugin works in CS5, which it might.

I'm not so sure on the tracking thingy. It's not up to AE to provide the ability to track. AE SC4 and almost all versions before had tracking capability for a long time and, to my knowledge, that didn't change in CS5. I had used this Flares plugin on this video, shot by Rick Darge http://vimeo.com/10426072 a while ago and I found it a bit puzzling, that simple tracking capability would be left off. May be it was left for the version 2?

 

[Andrew Walker]

I'm not so sure on the tracking thingy. It's not up to AE to provide the ability to track. AE SC4 and almost all versions before had tracking capability for a long time and, to my knowledge, that didn't change in CS5. I had used this Flares plugin on this video, shot by Rick Darge http://vimeo.com/10426072 a while ago and I found it a bit puzzling, that simple tracking capability would be left off. May be it was left for the version 2?

Well the demo of AE CS5 at the FCP Super Meet during NAB showed a badass tracking feature that did a lot of the leg work. Of course you would still have to put some fine touches on some of the key frames. But it would get you pretty close. Its kind of like the whole content aware thing in Photoshop.

Also this plugin allows you to make all kind of custom flares and save them for later. As I understand it this plugin came out at the beginning of the year. If you haven't gone to Video Copilot yet, do it and check out the plugin.

 

[Eirik Tyrihjel]

Nice work Andrew!

Thanks for pointing out this plugin, looks like something I will have a lot of fun with!

 

[jake blackstone]

Well the demo of AE CS5 at the FCP Super Meet during NAB showed a badass tracking feature that did a lot of the leg work. Of course you would still have to put some fine touches on some of the key frames. But it would get you pretty close. Its kind of like the whole content aware thing in Photoshop.

Also this plugin allows you to make all kind of custom flares and save them for later. As I understand it this plugin came out at the beginning of the year. If you haven't gone to Video Copilot yet, do it and check out the plugin.

Yes, AE does the tracking and it always have done it, but at this point, there is no way to use the tracking info in the video copilot.

 

[Andrew Walker]

Yes, AE does the tracking and it always have done it, but at this point, there is no way to use the tracking info in the video copilot.

Seems kind of odd that you wouldn't be able to use the info generated from the tracking with the key frames.