Finally! Optical Flares is here and the behemoth of a lens flare plugin could not be more worth the months of hype! I decided to run through all the features, poke around and try out the plugin and give my exclusive opinion on how fantasmically AWESOME this thing is! Trust me, it has been well worth the wait.
January 25th has come and passed, and the release of the fabled Optical Flares has finally become a reality. This has been one of the most hotly anticipated plugins for a long time aside from Particular 2.0, and I am sure if you haven’t already gone out and bought it or watched the introduction videos, you are wondering if it is really all that it is hyped up to be. The short, easiest answer I can give you is… OH YEAH.
This plugin at first glance is so much more than just a plugin within itself. It has a completely custom interface, beautifully designed at that, that makes the user experience a joy to work inside of and almost makes it feel like it is it’s own program separate from After Effects itself. Like every product that Video Copilot comes out with, there is an enormous amount of TLC that goes into designing and shaping a product, especially one of this magnitude, and once you get yours hands dirty with this plugin you will know exactly what I am talking about.
First off, this thing is rich in features that will revolutionize the way you work with lens flares in projects. Gone are the days where you have complicated workarounds to link lens flares to 3d lights to move them around in 3d space or trickery to create anamorphic looking lens flares. We all know how annoying little workarounds like that can be, and that time adds up especially when you are working on a big project! Simple things like these are what we need in a lens flare generator! I swear its like they stalked the message boards and took every want and workaround and made it a feature. You can map your lens flares to the luminance of a layer, you can add textures to overlay onto your virtual lens so that whenever the flare moves over it you see that texture, there is their unique “dynamic triggering” system that makes flares sparkle or move when they get close to a certain area, and that is just the beginning!
Now the biggest pull about this plugin is the 3d capabilities, and we’re not just talking you can move these around in 3d space and they have mass, but the interoperability with layers in After Effects; being able to utilize 3d layer occlusion where the flare moves behind an object while being obscured like in the real world; tracking to AE lights: using their colors, intensities, or being able to map an instance of Optical Flares to lights that start with a certain letter. Then there is the ability to track to lights from a 3d scene saved out of Cinema 4D, or 3ds Max using Max2AE or whatever other program you can use to transfer your 3d data into AE, you can actually map your OF flares to follow the lights set up in your external 3d app of choice with ease… its crazy the way they have really simplified the process and hassle of working with flares.
Next comes the interface… ohhh the beautiful interface. You might think my drooling over something as the GUI of a plugin is ridiculous, but I have to be able to enjoy myself inside of a program to actually want to continually use it, and this got an A+ in that department. When you first come into the Design Interface you notice it looks nothing like any other plugin on the market. There are tons of preview screens, one big one for previewing the flare (which you can toggle the background to show or not… awesome), and all the littler ones are for previewing your individual elements that update as you move your flare around in the preview window. Each of these objects can be controlled by the global parameters, as well as delved into deeper by just clicking on each element and modifying it separately from the rest. You can also add a wide range of core objects or modifications of those objects to further customize your flares and you can also save those for later as well as custom presets. The preset browser ain’t too shabby either, with a ton of already made presets (and way more, if you get the Pro Presets Pack – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), you can apply, re-save, access and share presets across the preset network with people all around the world!
So now comes the big question… is this worth it? Are you kidding me? Do you actually have to ask that? Of course it is… this is probably one of my newest favorite plugins to work with, given the wide range of possibilities, ease of customization, and and the massive amount of extra little features that are built in. The uses for lens flares is almost infinite, you can integrate them into anything you create. If you are looking to add a bit more oomph to your projects, want to go a little nuts and boost After Effects’ internal lighting system, or just simply want a really cool plugin to have fun and experiment with, get it. It’s really a no-brainer, this is no doubt going to be one of the next big plugins to have for motion graphics and visual effects artists alike.
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that’s the next plugin on my shopping list. Awesome stuff!
good review..
The only problem I have found with OF is if you add a flare by pressing OK in the user interface you can’t then undo it via After Effects. So I have found myself having to be very careful and save each setup as a custom preset. Other than that, it rocks!
He is the Amazing Andrew Kramer after all, soon i will get my hands on it
VCs Optical Flares GUI and plugin usability itself is the new benchmark for plugin developers – especially for the BIG commercial ones.
The price is unbeatable and it still does NOT ruin the market.
This is greatness!
Truly amazing, Topher, you put EVERYTHING I was thinking into words! I have one more thing to add which you forgot- EVERY VFX ARTIST NEEDS THIS PLUGIN!!! ASAP!!! Now we can all make a Sci-Fi film at home, or make more realistic lighted scenes in After Effects. Still hard to put into words… think how I and many others will feel when we GET the product!
I know VC is awesome, but I didn’t want to run out and buy the plug-in with out seeing a review. So thank you thank you thank you for writing this from the user’s perspective, I will now happily part with my money
Hmmm. .. just in the interest of comnpleteness, and without saying anything either way, we should point out that Topher works – albeit unpaid – for the VCP website as a moderator.
I’m sure that he has a totally impartial view, but in fairness this should be noted and I’m suprised he hasn’t mentioned it himself.
Nice plugin. But I am disappointed in the review. If something gets reviewed I expect it to be in great detail. It just sounds like someone who is so excited wrote it. You didn’t mention anything about render times, GPU rendering, 32 bpc rendering or types of flares etc., You have only one screenshot. For a good review, check out graymachine’s review on Radium Glow
http://www.graymachine.com/2009/04/review-radium-glow/
!! bingo!!
That’s the problem I have when going to video copilot web site.
It’s basicly a cheer leading contest. I like a good looking plugin like every one else,but I prefer a good full un-bias review to go with it.
I didn’t even read any draw back opinions in your review !?! nothing is that perfect.
So I’m still waiting… for a good review to come out.
by the way here’s a guy who tested OPTICAL FLARES even created some preset for the plugin…here’s his opinion on OF:
http://www.foundation3d.com/forums/showthread.php?p=148387
I’d be really interested in how this plug-in stacks up against the free 3D Flare addon to Knoll Light Factory Pro. I already own KLFP and want to know if this is really that much better before dropping the cash on it.
Hey Shane!
John did a small posting about OF and Knoll light. There are some comments, questions and maybe some answers. http://www.motionworks.com.au/2009/12/flare-wars/
Maybe that’ll help?!
great Light and Flare ever
I lost my vision with this flare! What’s going on?
It’s blindingly beautiful man! ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!
Lens Flares complete any project…it’s not finished unless there is Flare! As always Video Copilot takes the norm to the next level both in application and in beauty and style.
RESPECT …………..
it does seem a bit blatant to say that you’re reviewing a product while the next article up is a contest sponsored by the company that makes the product. Calling it a “review” implies that the author intends to provide an honest analysis of the product. Why not just refrain from using the word “review” and call it “Spotlight” or something? At least that way it can’t be interpreted as being dishonest. The important thing is not wether or not you agree with people’s perception that there may be a conflict of interest going on, but that you realize that at least some percentage of readers see it that way.
I have it, i love it !!!!! so easy to use………just adds that extra inch of professionalism to your work, that flare of professionalism.
Look’s nice!
Look’s nice !!
Looks like a cool and useful plug in!
YES, I WIN
Great plug-in, thanks Andrew Kramer!
It’s one of the MUST HAVE plug ins for sure. I bought it and I love it.
Thanks Andrew and Crew.
I’ve been using it since it was released and it looks amazing. It really is a next gen plug-in. Yes, it is slower than KLF, but it’s also doing a lot more (sometimes quite a bit more when you load in lens texture). And yes, it’s 32bpc aware!
Other pluses:
-Love the built-in animators for flicker and auto-shimmer. (no more wiggle() or rotation:time*10)
-Built-in chromatic aberration!
-You can preview your comp image in the preview window. Every flare looks rockin’ on black, but when you put it in your comp, things change.
-You can also animate your pivot point — so your reflections don’t have to pass through the center of your comp.
-Lastly, it has built-in outline control to get that killer bokeh look in your multi iris.
My dings against it is the UI isn’t resizeable. Every lens element requires a lot of scrolling to see all the parameters. And if you have many lens elements, you have to scroll through the Object Stack. Also, you can’t downsample (most flares look better with a ‘lil blur).
AAAHH.. That’s what I like to read !
Give me pros and cons. I’m not a child , I can handle the truth 
I read some articles stating that OF was faster then KLF !?! But I do understand that OF is doing a lot more !!!
Thanks Navarro Parker !
Great review, thanks so much ae tuts+!
Hail Andrew Kramer. This is awesome.
Now lets wait for KLF 4D ))
And finally the time has come, when lens flares become a boring cliché and don´t need to be used anymore.