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Electric Image Animation System 7 Tutorials
Lighting / Flares
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Subtitles of the Movie (Electric Image Animation System 7 / Lighting / Flares)
You see a lot of Lens Flares in today's movies and they're usually added as a 2D effect in post. But Electric Image has a method of creating flares in 3D space. In our scene our Rim Light is visible to the Camera. It's low and in frame. That's important. In this light's Info Window, click the Flare tab. Also make sure that the Show Flare option is checked on in the left of the Window. At the top you see a popup menu for the Flare. This lists the Flare types that are available. Let's select Glow and we immediately see the Flare in the Camera Window. Please note that only the Camera Window will show the Flare. The Glow Flare looks a lot like the Glow effect in the Glow tab, but the Glow Flare is simpler. It doesn't allow for Rays and et cetera. Let's render. The size of the Flare's center is determined by the Size attribute in the light's Properties tab, here. The default size is zero, which means the light size is a point. You can change it to 1200, say, and now you get a bigger, brighter Flare center. Let's set it back to zero. Let's change the Flare Type. Our other two options are Lens Flare, which is similar to Photoshop's Lens Flare; or, Light Flare, which is a variation of the Lens Flare with some added goodies like a Star Filter. Let's switch back to Lens Flare. Click on the Plugin options to set parameters for the Flare. You have two lens types and then you have several fields and colors to pick from to alter the look of your Flare. You won't go through all these because they're pretty self-explanatory. Click OK. What we want to focus on is how the Flare works in our scene. The two Obscuration options lets you interrupt, or fade out the Flare. Object Obscuration makes the Flare disappear when the light is blocked by a model. I'll move the Camera like so. Cone Obscuration is when you're using a Spotlight and you want the Flare effect to fade between the Inner Cone and the Outer Cone. Enable Offscreen keeps the Flare's elements, like rings and circles visible, even when the light is at a frame like this. Enable Distance fades the Flare over distance, so if you wanted to animate a light as if it was an energy torpedo whizzing by the Camera, the Flare effect would diminish as the torpedo traveled away from you. Type in a value in the Flare Dropoff box to set the distance. Enable Background keeps your Flare in the scene even though our model is in front of it. Make sure Obscuration is turned Off. Let's move the Camera and render. If you don't have Enable Background checked on, then in this position the Flare looks like it's in front of the Sphere model. Not good. Enable Fog diminishes the Flare's intensity if you have any Fog turned On in the World Option, here. Back to our Light. And finally, Enable Intensity allows you to control the brightness of the Flare with the Intensity value of the light, as we have in the Properties tab. As an Effect Supervisor who's worked on several feature films, I caution the use of Flares. In-your-face effects are fun but can get gimmicky pretty quick. Bring your Flares into your scene in a smooth fashion. Introduce them. Obscuration and Distance can help you do that.
Tutorial Information
| Course: | Electric Image Animation System 7 |
| Author: | Scott Simmons |
| SKU: | 33996 |
| ISBN: | 1-935320-45-9 |
| Release Date: | 2009-06-01 |
| Duration: | 8 hrs / 102 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |
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