Knoll Spark Pack 3.0 Manual

custom lens flares and lighting f/x

Knoll Spark Pack 3.0 manual

Easily create lens flares and lighting effects for AutoDeskʼs Advanced Systems.

[ from: Digital Anarchy ] f/x tools for revolutionaries knoll spark pack 3.0 : table of contents

Introduction 5 System Requirements 5 Support 5 Registration 5 Installation 6 SGI/IRIX 6 Linux 6 Purchased Installation 7 Get a License for hostid 7 Find Your hostid 7 Demo Installation 7 Knoll Lens Flare Pro spark 8 Four Input Clips 8 Lens Flare Pro Interface 9 Main Page 9 The Lens Editor 9 Edit Page 9 Animate1, Animate2 10 Important Notes 10 Main Page Interface 11 Result button 11 Setup button 11 Process button 11 Preview button 11 Bg + Flare button 11 Anim button 12 Reset All Keyframes 12 User Position 12 Auto-Track 12 Multi-Track 13 Show Center 13

Brightness 13 Scale 14 Angle 14 Global Color swatch 14 Tint button 14 Obscure button 15 Source Size 15 Browse button 15 Lens Editing Parameters 17 Edit button 17 Preview area 17 Scale, Position, Color 18 Elements List 18 Quality button 19 Redraw At End button 19 Lens Primitives 20 GlowBall 20 SpikeBall 20 StarFilter 20 Polygon Spread 21 Circle Spread 21 Elliptical Caustic 21 Star Caustic 21 Faded Ring 21 Stripe 21 RandomFan 21 PolySpikeBall 22 PhotonSpikeBall 22 Aperture Reﬂ ection 22 Chroma Hoop 22 Single Polygon 22 Disc 22

Ellipse 23 Sparkle 23 Chroma Fan 23 Element Parameters 24 Position 24 Anamorphic checkbox 24 Load/Save area 25 Load button 25 Save button 25 Knoll UnMult spark 26 Front button 26 Front option 26 Matte option 26 Both option 26 Knoll Min/Max spark 27 Min Button 27 Median option 27 Max option 27 Square button 27 Knoll Screen spark 28 Get it Free! 28

Introduction

Thank you for trying out Digital Anarchyʼs Knoll Spark Pack. You will ﬁ nd this set of tools to be remarkably powerful, easy to use, and a great extension of the capability of your AutoDesk Advanced System.

Knoll Spark Pack includes the following sparks: Knoll Lens Flare Pro, Knoll UnMult, and Knoll Min/Max. Knoll Screen is available separately as a free download from the Digital Anarchy website, www.digitalanarchy.com.

System Requirements

Knoll Spark Pack is compatible with any version or higher of the products listed below: AutoDesk™ eff ect® 5.0, fl int® 5.0, fl ame® 5.0, inferno® 2.0, smoke® 2.0, and fi re® 2.0.

Knoll 3.0 is compatible with 64-bit IRIX systems, and now supports 32- and 64- bit Linux systems.

Support

We hope that you ﬁ nd Koll Spark Pack gives you all the control you could want, while still being simple enough that you can set everything up in a few minutes. Itʼs our desire to make sure youʼre satisﬁ ed with your purchase. If you have any questions, comments, or whatever, weʼd love to hear them. Send an email to [email protected].

Registration

Registration occurs when you purchase the sparks. We register you in our database using the contact information you supplied upon purchase, and the serial number weʼve given you. If you need a serial number, installer, or any other material support, just contact [email protected].

Installation

To install Knoll Spark Pack, you will ﬁ rst need to download the appropriate installer. This page gives you links to versions for 32-bit IRIX, 64-bit IRIX, 32-bit Linux, and 64-bit Linux. These installers are the same for the demo and purchase.

NOTE: On the following page, the remaining instructions are diﬀ erent for installing the purchased version and the demo version.

SGI/IRIX

If you download the installer from your SGI running your AutoDesk system, the installation process should happen automatically if you are logged in as root.

If you download the installer from a Mac or PC, copy the tardist ﬁ les over to your SGI. Make sure Binary is set in your FTP client, and do not change the name of the tardist ﬁ les. If your SGI machine is connected to the Internet, you can FTP these links:

For 32-bit: http://www.digitalanarchy.biz/knoll/Knoll_LFPro_3.01_32.tardist For 64-bit: http://www.digitalanarchy.biz/knoll/Knoll_LFPro_3.01_64.tardist

On your SGI, log in as root and use the ʻtardistʼ command in a UNIX shell to run the installer. Then type: tardist //

The directory “user/AutoDesk/sparks/DigitalAnarchy” will be created and all necessary ﬁ les will be copied into it. This directory can not be changed.

Linux

In Linux, become root and use the rpm shell command to run the proper installer for your system.

Type this for 32-bit: rpm -Uvh http://www.digitalanarchy.biz/knoll/Knoll_LFPro_Spark-3.01-1.i386.rpm

Type this for 64-bit: rpm -Uvh http://www.digitalanarchy.biz/knoll/Knoll_LFPro_Spark-3.01-1.x86_64.rpm

Alternately, you can download the ﬁ les from our website at these locations:

For 32-bit: http://www.digitalanarchy.biz/knoll/Knoll_LFPro_Spark-3.01-1.i386.rpm For 64-bit: http://www.digitalanarchy.biz/knoll/Knoll_LFPro_Spark-3.01-1.x86_64.rpm

Purchased Installation

Once the fi le fi nishes installing Knoll Spark Pack (see previous page for the initial steps), a Notifi er window comes up asking if you would like to install a license.

If you are a registered owner, or are trying out a time expiring demo without the red X, then select the ʻYesʼ button. The Install License window appears asking for the speciﬁ c license for your SGIʼs hostid number.

Get a License for hostid To get a license, please contact Digital Anarchy at [email protected] or call (415) 586-8434. We will ask for the eight digit hostid number shown in the Install License window. We will authorize a permanent license or time expiring demo license which must be entered into the Install License window. Write down your hostid number and Knoll Spark Pack license number and keep it in a safe place for future reference.

If you are installing from Software Manager, after the license is entered, the Manager will ask if you want to save the distribution, and if you have any other software to install. If you are done installing software, then hit ʻNoʼ twice. You can then launch your AutoDesk system and access the Knoll Spark Pack.

Find Your hostid If you need to ﬁ nd your hostid number in Unix, in a Unix shell type ʻsysinfo -sʼ. You could also run the Install License utility again. The Install License utility can be found at /usr/AutoDesk/sparks/DigitalAnarchy/INSTALL_LICENSE.

Your hostid in Linux can be found by typing ʻ/sbin/ifconﬁ g/ʼ.

Demo Installation

Once the fi le fi nishes installing Knoll Spark Pack (see previous page for the initial steps), a Notifi er window asks if you would like to install a license.

If you are trying out a demo version, simply select the ʻNoʼ button. The three sparks will function in demo mode, rendering a red X over the image.

After you decide to purchase a fully functional license, simply run the Install License utility again. This can be found at /usr/AutoDesk/sparks/ DigitalAnarchy/INSTALL_LICENSE.

Knoll Lens Flare Pro spark

Knoll Lens Flare Pro is much more than a lens fl are. In fact, John Knoll originally wrote it specifi cally to create the Photon Torpedos in Star Trek First Contact. This spark is a complete lighting eff ects kit from which you can create and save custom lighting eff ects ranging from lens fl ares to lasers.

When Lens Flare Pro is ﬁ rst applied, a default Basic Lens Flare is rendered. From there, you can generate hundreds of diﬀ erent lighting styles.

Four Input Clips

Lens Flare Pro is designed to work with four input clips. When the spark is selected, four blue text ﬁ elds become visible to the right of the Delete button, explaining what each input is for.

The ﬁ rst input is the Background (Bg). This is the layer that the lighting eﬀ ect will be applied to.

The second input is the Tint control layer. This input is used to tint the color of the light to the RGB values found in this clip.

The third input is the Obscure layer. This input is used to automatically control whether a lighting eﬀ ect is on or oﬀ , and is usually comprised of a black-and- white mask composition.

The fourth input is the tracker layer. This layer is usually comprised of individually rendered out ʻlightsourcesʼ from your footage that the spark can use to automatically track and position the lens ﬂ ares.

If you do not need to use any or all of these additional inputs, simply select the Background input multiple times.

Lens Flare Pro Interface

The Lens Flare Pro interface has been set up to sprawl across four parameter pages. These pages are named Main, Edit, Animate1, and Animate2.

The Knoll Spark controls have been updated in Version 3.0 with the ability to load, edit, and save out custom lens ﬂ ares. Animation controls have also been added.

Main Page

The Main page contains all of the controls that were explained in the previous section. From here, you can go to the Edit page, which contains controls that can be tweaked for each individual ﬂ are element. You can also access the Animate1 and Animate2 pages, which each animate one ﬂ are element.

The Lens Editor The IRIX versions have a stand alone editor, called the Lens Editor, that can be launched from the Main page. This application cannot run in the Linux environment, however, so all of its functionality has been duplicated in the spark interface in order to increase the sparkʼs versatility.

A detailed explanation is in the Lens Editing Paramters section.

Edit Page

The Edit page allows you to modify the lens ﬂ are ﬁ le that is currently loaded into the spark. The parameters in this area become activated when the Edit button on the Main page is pressed.

NOTE: Before hitting the Edit button, it is strongly recommended that you use the Save As option in the Main page to save out your own copy of the lens fl are fi le. Otherwise, you will be editing the original preset fi les.

To edit the ﬂ are elements, select the element from the pop-up on the right side of the interface. This pop-up list is limited to 20 entries, so any ﬁ les that have more than this will have ---Back--- and ---Next--- items listed in it to reveal the rest of the elements.

To create another element, choose the type from the Add Element popup. The Delete, Move Up, and Move Down button operate on the currently selected element. There are only 7 name entry controls for renaming elements. These will adjust to center around the current selection (if you have more than 7 elements). The other controls available will depend on the current selection.

Note that these controls canʼt be animated, and they wonʼt aff ect your setup fi le. Any changes you make will be saved into the fl are fi le.

Animate1, Animate2

The Animate1 and Animate2 pages contain 14 element Boolean controls to edit the individual fl are elements. These are usually used for editing, but the lens fi le format doesnʼt store them. They are instead part of the fl ame setup fi le, so they canʼt scroll like the name controls. Since you are not actually editing the fl are fi le itself, the Edit button on the Main page doesnʼt need to be active.

These pages also have controls to override the current fl are. This is where you can animate fl are fi les. You can also use these pages to modify a fl are without creating a new fi le. Each of the two pages provides one override.

Change the Animate popup from None to Flare Element and select an element on the right. (These override pop-ups, unfortunately, stop at 20 elements because they are part of the fl ame setup fi les.) The other controls can animated and will be part of the setup fi le.

The override controls can also be used to create new elements. Switch the Animate popup from None to New Element and choose the element type on the right. This element will be added at the end of the elements in the ﬂ are ﬁ le.

Important Notes NOTE 1: If both of these pages are set to New Element or None (not Flare Element), youʼll start will an empty fi le. This allows you to create a 1 or 2 element fl are with no fi le at all.

NOTE 2: As you switch to new elements, key frames will be set to match the default values of the element you selected. This means that editing a lens might overwrite your override values.

The individual parameters contained in these pages are explained in the Lens Editor Interface section and in the Element Parameters section.

Main Page Interface

When Knoll Lens Flare Pro is ﬁ rst applied, a default Basic Lens Flare is rendered on top of the Background. This opens up the Main page of the spark interface. The four interface pages are listed in the Lens Flare Pro Interface section.

In the Main Page, the ﬁ rst column of buttons below the Exit button are used to display the inputs selected from the desktop. The Track input is labeled as ʻAuxʼ. You can view any of these inputs for precise alignment of light source locations.

Result button

The Result button shows the composite of the Lens ﬂ are Pro lighting eﬀ ect and the Background. This Result is seen in the image to the right.

Setup button

The Setup button contains options to load and save spark setup ﬁ les for Knoll Lens Flare Pro.

Process button

The Process button is used to process the clip. The processed clip starts from the current frame and renders to the out point.

Preview button

The Preview button is used to refresh the render. This is sometimes necessary when a custom lighting eﬀ ect is ﬁ rst loaded with the Browse button, or when the Redraw preferences are set to never redraw.

Bg + Flare button

The Bg + Flare button can be switched to Flare Only. This disables the Background input and allows you to preview or process the lighting eﬀ ect against a clean black background.

AutoKey is turned on by Default. If parameters change at diﬀ erent times, keyframes are automatically set. Note that the Muti-Track and Auto-Track features will override any location changes.

Anim button

The Anim button contains the keyframe/curve editor for animating the spark properties. Only parameters in the AutoDesk interface can be animated. These animatable parameters include Location, Brightness, Scale, Angle (only rotates speciﬁ c Lens Primitives), and Obscuration Size.

Attributes in the Lens Editor can not be animated. This is because the Lens Editor was designed to mimic real world lens reﬂ ections, and these artifacts do not traditionally change over time. If you do want to animate Lens Primitives, you can create custom ﬂ ares containing separate Lens Primitives. Then animate each of these layers separately in Action or the DVE.

The X and Y coordinates are used to position the light source location. The location can either be changed in these text ﬁ elds by dragging or numerically entering values, or interactively with the cursor on the image.

By default, Knoll Lens Flare Pro is set to Redraw At End, so you will not see changes as you drag the pointer until you mouse up. As the light source location changes, the Lens Primitives will behave like real world camera artifacts.

Reset All Keyframes When you use Knoll Lens Flare Pro, the animation keyframes from the previous session might still be set so use the Reset All Keyframes button to delete them.

User Position

By default the light source location is set to User Position. This is the location set in the X and Y coordinates, or by choosing a position with the pointer.

This button can be changed to Auto-Track or Multi-Track, which will override the X and Y coordinates.

Auto-Track When User Position is set to Auto-Track, the light source location of a single ﬂ are is controlled by the luminance of the Track input (Aux button). If a single white dot against a black background is used as the Track input, the single ﬂ are will jump to the center of the white dot.

If two white dots are against a black background, a single lens ﬂ are will jump to the location in-between the two dots. To create lighting eﬀ ects in a CG environment, replace the light source with a small fully luminous sphere in the 3D application, render the sphere out separately, then use this clip as your Track input.

The light source location will then jump to the center of the sphere. Auto-Track also can be used in conjunction with the same input clip set for Obscuration to control the size of the ﬂ are depending on the size of the luminance area being tracked.

Multi-Track When User Position is set to Multi-Track, the light source location of multiple fl ares is controlled by the luminance of the Track input (Aux button). If two white dots are against a black background, two fl ares will be rendered, and each one will jump to the center of each dot. This allows you to attach multiple lens fl ares to particle systems, which can create some amazing light eff ects.

Note that the more particles, the more ﬂ ares that need to be created. This can dramatically slow down rendering time, and if there are too many ﬂ ares it can easily blow out the image.

Generally, lighting eﬀ ects that use the Multi-Track feature should have their global scale and brightness reduced. Multi-Track also can be used in conjunction with the same input clip set for Obscuration to control the size of the ﬂ are depending on the size of the luminance area being tracked.

Show Center

Show Center turns on a cross hair at the center of the ﬂ are. This is useful for precisely aligning your lighting eﬀ ect. The color of the cross-hair can be set with the color swatch below the Show Center Button. This feature only works when the location is set to User Position.

Brightness

Brightness is used to control the global brightness of the lighting eﬀ ect.

Raising this value above 100% will intensify the fl are until it blows out to white. Lowering this value below 100% will dim the lighting eff ect without aff ecting the size of the lighting eff ect.

A Brightness value of 0 is handled as a special case and will not render. You can use this feature to completely turn the lighting eﬀ ect oﬀ during an animation.

Scale

The Scale parameter is used to globally adjust the size of the lighting eff ect and all of the Lens Primitives without adjusting their position in the frame. This can be animated to simulate adjusting the focal length of a zoom lens. Raising the value above 100% will scale the lighting eff ect up. Lowering the value below 100% will scale the lighting eff ect down. When using the Multi-Track feature, it is probably necessary to lower the Scale parameter.

Angle

The Angle parameter is used to rotate speciﬁ c Lens Primitives so they produce a “crawling” eﬀ ect. Lens Primitives that can have an animated angle include Spikeball, Random Fan, Photon Spikeball, PolySpikeball, and Sparkle. A speed of about one degree per frame gives these elements a nice “life” to them.

This Angle control is not related to the angle control found in the Lens Editor interface.

Global Color swatch

The Global Color swatch below Angle is used to override the color of the original .lfp ﬁ le. To simulate an orange light, set this color swatch to orange. Only Hue and Saturation are used from this color sample.

For example, light orange and dark orange will result in the same render. Since only Hue and Saturation are used, gray, black or white will not make a ﬂ are darker or lighter, but rather will produce the original colors set in the .lfp ﬁ le.

Tint button

The Tint button by default it is turned oﬀ . When Tint is turned on, the color of the lighting eﬀ ect will tint to the RGB value found in the same position in the Tint input clip.

As an example, if you wanted to apply a Lens Flare against a stained glass window the Tint input can be the same input as the Background. This way, as the lens ﬂ are moves position over the Background, it will tint to the color of the stained glass. Other shots might require a separate Tint input.

To fully take advantage of the automatic tinting, make sure the Global Color swatch is set to white.

Obscure button

The Obscure button by default is turned off . When turned on, the Obscure input clip is used to determine whether a fl are is on or off . The automatic obscuration is based on the white or black values of the Obscure input clip.

When the light source location is in a position where the Obscure input is black, the ﬂ are will be completely turned on and use the values set in the Brightness and Scale parameters.

When the light source location is in a position where the Obscure input is white, the ﬂ are will be completely turned oﬀ . Any intermediate shade of gray will produce an intermediate intensity depending on how light or dark it is.

For instance, letʼs say that an airplaneʼs matte is used as the Obscure input. When the light source location enters the white area of the matte, the sun shuts off . The Obscure button has an Inverse Obscuration option as well, which invert the behavior of the black and white areas. In the airplane example, if Inverse Obscuration is set, then the fl are will be off until it hits the white area.

Source Size

Below the Obscure button there is a Source Size parameter. This value determines how long it takes for a ﬂ are to turn on or oﬀ as it hits an obscuration.

The default value of 2 means that the fl are will go two pixels inside the white border before it completely turns itself off . Those two intermediate pixels will produce a dimming of the lighting eff ect.

If the Source size is raised to 10 pixels, then it will have a 10 pixel transition from on to oﬀ when it hits the matte. This is similar to blurring the matte.

Browse button

The Browse button is used to browse custom lighting eff ects created in the Lens Editor. These fi les are saved in the .lfp format, and can be found in the following directory: /usr/AutoDesk/sparks/DigitalAnarchy/fl ares. This directory should automatically come up when the Browse button is pushed.

Knoll Spark Pack comes with over thirty .lfp fi les created by John Knoll for his productions, and additional fl ares and lighting eff ects can easily be created and saved in the Lens Editor. When saved out of the Lens Editor, two fi les are created: xxx.lfp is the fl are fi le, and xxx.lfp.p is the proxy image used in the browser as seen above.

If the ﬂ ares show up in this directory without the proxy images, then switch the display functionality from Titles to Proxies in the upper left of the window.

Lens Editing Parameters

There are two ways to access the Lens Editing parameters. One is through is a small, separate application called the Lens Editor. The Lens Editor was present in Version 2.0 and we have kept it around for folks who are comfortable with that editing environment. The Lens Editor only exists on Unix systems. It doesnʼt exist on Linux systems.

The parameters in the Lens Editor are also present in the primary sparks interface. These same parameters are accessed through the Edit, Animate1 and Animate2 pages.

The Lens Editor - or the Lens Editing pages – is where you create, modify, load, and save custom lenses and lighting eﬀ ects. The interface is broken down into four main parts: the Preview area, the Elements List, the Element Parameters area, and the Load/Save area.

Edit button

The Edit button allows you to dynamically update elements in the loaded ﬂ are ﬁ le. If this is not activated, you wonʼt be able to change anything within the Edit or Animate1 or Animate2 pages.

Flare Style option

The Flare menu includes an option called Flare Style, which brings up the Lens Editor interface. The Info menu contains an about box and information about the software.

When Flare Style is selected from the Flare menu, the Lens Editor interface is opened. If FlareEdit is opened for the fi rst time in a session, it will default to the Basic lens fl are seen at right. If the Lens Editor has been used earlier in a session, it will default to the last lighting eff ect created and validated with the OK button.

Preview area

The Preview area is for visual feedback only. It lets you test drive the lighting eﬀ ect interactively to see how it will behave once applied to your shot. The Fast Drags check box renders the preview at half resolution to speed up redrawing complex lighting eﬀ ects. The Brightness,

Scale, Position, Color

Scale, Position, and Color parameters in the Preview area are for previewing only, and mimic the animatable controls found in the spark interface.

When the fl are is saved into a .lfp fi le, these parameters will reset to their default values. When the .lfp fi le is loaded into the spark interface with the Browse button, these attributes can then be set using the standard spark controls.

Elements List

By default, the Elements List contains a basic lens fl are made up of three Lens Primitives; a GlowBall, PolySpread, and a StarFilter. These three elements can be modifi ed or replaced to create your fi nal custom lens fl are or lighting eff ect.

Each layer in the Elements List has a visibility check box at left to disable the rendering of the Lens Primitive. This is useful for ﬁ ne tuning one Lens Primitives without being distracted by others.

If a layer is selected it is highlighted in black, and the Lens Primitives can be customized in the Element Parameters area of the interface.

Double clicking a layer allows you to change the name of the layer. Below the Elements List are two icons. The icon on the right is a trash can which is used to delete a layer. If a layer is highlighted, click on the trash can to delete the selected layer, or drag and drop the layer to the trash can to delete it.

The icon on the left is the New Layer icon. Clicking on this icon brings up a popup menu containing all of the Lens Primitives (see next section).

These 19 Lens Primitives contain nearly all of the artifacts found in traditional lens ﬂ ares, as well as additional scratches and light eﬀ ects. Combining multiple layers of Lens Primitives enables you to create anything from a Panavision camera lens to a photon torpedo.

Layers can be re-ordered by dragging them up or down the list. Layers can be duplicated by dragging a layer to the New Layer icon.

Quality button

The Quality button can be changed from full resolution to a lower resolution to speed up the redrawing of complex lighting eff ects. Note that Knoll Lens Flare Pro at Full Quality is limited to 8bit rendering. 12bit projects are not aff ected by the 8bit fl are, since it renders the 8bit lighting eff ect over the 12bit background into a 12bit image.

Redraw At End button

The Redraw At End button can be switched to Always Redraw or Never Redraw. Never Redraw can be rendered by using the Preview Button. Always Redraw updates immediately without a mouse-up.

Lens Primitives

This is a list of the Primitives you can choose. Primitives are the basic element shapes that constitute the various visual elements of a lens ﬂ are.

GlowBall

The basic Primitive of most ﬂ ares. The glow represents the overexposure, halation and light scattering that a bright light source creates when focused through a lens onto an image plane. The Lens Primitive Parameter Area lets you control the color and scale of the glow, as well as whether or not the characteristic red ring appears. The ring scale, brightness and softness can also be controlled.

SpikeBall

Most lenses exhibit at least a little bit of radial streaking from the light source, and the Spikeball Primitive simulates this. Spikes are randomly distributed, but you have control over the scale, brightness, density, color, rotation, and the random seed used to generate them.

StarFilter

Most lenses contain multiple bladed apertures to allow more or less light to pass through the lens, to control exposure. In most lenses, when the aperture is “wide open” the opening is perfectly circular, but as the lens is “stopped down”, the opening becomes a smaller polygonal shape.

For example, a ﬁ ve bladed aperture will create a pentagonal opening as the lens is stopped down. This is why you often see pentagonal or hexagonal shapes on a lens ﬂ are.

The aperture also refl ects light a little more right where the blades intersect, creating a star fi lter eff ect. For example, a fi ve bladed aperture closed partway down will refl ect fi ve linear streaks, and result in a ten point star eff ect. The StarFilter Primitive lets you simulate this eff ect. You can control the size, brightness, color, number of points, width and rotation.

Polygon Spread

As described above in StarFilter, the polygonal opening of a bladed aperture can cause a great many polygonal refl ections to be visible in a lens fl are. The Polygon Spread Primitive can be used to create a number of random brightness and positioned polygonal refl ections.

Since these are created randomly, there are sliders to control scale, brightness, number of sides, quantity, position, color, as well as three diﬀ erent random seeds used in their generation.

Circle Spread

Like the Polygon Spread, the Circle Spread Primitive lets you create a number of randomly sized and positioned circles. Most of the controls are the same as for the Polygon Spread. The Circle Spread is useful especially for making the tiny dots and small circles that frequently appear in lens ﬂ ares.

Elliptical Caustic

The Elliptical Caustic Primitive simulates a unique distorted reﬂ ection observed primarily in Nikon still camera lenses.

Star Caustic

Another odd shaped reﬂ ection.

Faded Ring

Generates a “rainbow ring” that fades out toward the edges of frame.

Stripe

Renders a tapered line with adjustable color, width, angle, brightness and position. Most anamorphic lenses exhibit a blue horizontal streak through the center, and most video cameras exhibit a reddish vertical streak through the center.

RandomFan

Generates an attractively asymmetrical radial streak. It responds to the “angle” control with a subtle motion of the rays.

PolySpikeBall

Creates an eﬀ ect like Randomfan, but it renders much faster. Itʼs not as attractive as the Randomfan, but if youʼre adding just a subtle asymmetrical streaking to a ﬂ are, this might do the trick a lot faster.

PhotonSpikeBall

Just the thing to make Photon torpedoes.

Aperture Reflection

Most fi lm cameras will exhibit a bit of aperture refl ection. In fi lm cameras, fi lm passes through the movement, where it is exposed to light. The movement has a rectangular hole called the gate that the focused image from the lens shines through onto the fi lm.

In most cameras, this aperture is polished stainless steel, and is highly refl ective. When the focused image of a bright light gets close to or slightly outside the edge of frame, it can refl ect off of this shiny surface back into the image causing an aperture refl ection.

Chroma Hoop

Creates a circle of streaky rainbow lines that pass through the center of the light source. This eﬀ ect is frequently seen in ﬁ lms shot in Super35.

Single Polygon

The Single Polygon Primitive is just what it sounds like, it gives you complete control over the generation of a single polygon. You can control its position, brightness, color, size, number of sides, softness, rotation, and the degree to which it varies in brightness as it moves from the center of frame to the edge.

Disc

Like the Single Polygon, the Disc Primitive gives you precise control over the generation of a single circular ramped primitive. You have control over the position, size, color, brightness, gamma, and four parameters that control the shape of the disc.

Ellipse

The Ellipse Primitive is like the Disc, except that the shape is elliptical, not perfectly circular. In general, the glow at the light source is circular, and reﬂ ected elements are elliptical.

Sparkle

The Sparkle Primitive generates a number of short linear streaks radially distributed about the center. The dashes respond to the angle control by moving in and out from the source.

The “Unidirectional” check box limits the motion to all inward or all outward (depending on what direction the “angle” control is moving). This Primitive simulates the sparkle you get when a laser aims into a camera lens.

Chroma Fan

The Chroma Fan Primitive generates rainbow diﬀ raction patterns. These patterns often appear when a net is used for diﬀ usion over the lens, or when there is fog or mist in the air.

Element Parameters

The Element Parameters area becomes active when a layer is selected in the Elements List. The various controls for each Lens Primitive are available here to modify.

Diff erent Lens Primitives have diff erent parameters, so only some of the ten sliders will be enabled for some of the Lens Primitives. Each slider behaves uniquely for each primitive, and the names of the sliders will change to refl ect this.

The Preview Window will update in real time as the Lens Primitives are modiﬁ ed. To precisely enter a numerical value for a slider, click on the number above the slider.

Position

Most of the Primitives have a Position parameter. This position is always along a line that passes through both the center of the image and the light source.

A Position of 1.0 places an element at the light source. A Position of 0.0 places an element in the center of frame, and a Position of -1.0 places an element on the opposite side of frame from the light source.

Anamorphic checkbox

Many of the Lens Primitives contain an Anamorphic checkbox. Anamorphic fl ares (those with wide elliptical elements rather than circular elements) only happen with anamorphic lenses, and anamorphic lenses are used to shoot wide screen motion pictures. Super35 and 16mm motion pictures, as well as fi lm shot for television and video cameras use “fl at” lenses.

Therefore, it is not technically correct to use an anamorphic fl are in a Super35 fi lm or a television show. Similarly, the blue horizontal stripe seen in many anamorphic fl ares is an artifact of the way anamorphic lenses are built, so you wonʼt see them in fi lm shot with fl at lenses either.

Load/Save area

The Load/Save area is used to open and save custom .lfp ﬁ les. Cancel closes the Lens Editor without changing the settings. OK closes the Lens Editor with changes in tact, though the .lfp ﬁ le is not changed.

Load button The Load button is used to load in a .fl p fi le. The .lpf fi les can be found in the following directory; /usr/AutoDesk/sparks/DigitalAnarchy/fl ares. Once a .lfp fi le is loaded into the Lens Editor, it can be modifi ed then saved out into a new .lfp fi le. Custom fl ares can be created on a Mac or PC in Pinnacle Systemʼs Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop or After Eff ects (supports Combustion), then transferred as binary fi les to your SGI for use in the Knoll Lens Flare Pro spark.

Save button The Save button allows you to name and save a custom lighting eff ect into a .lfp fi le. This .lfp fi le contains all of the Lens Primitives with the settings pre-defi ned by the user. The .lfp fi les created can be transferred to a Mac or PC for use with Pinnacle Systemʼs Knoll Light Factory.

If you transfer a .lfp ﬁ le to a Mac, the File Type needs to be changed to “LFCF”, and the creator should be changed to “JKMF”. Knoll Renamer or ResEdit can change this very easily.

Knoll UnMult spark

Sometimes a matte is required for an element that never had one. Knoll UnMult creates a matte based on the luminance of the RGB channels, allowing ʻlightʼ events to be composited with an articulate matte. In addition, Knoll UnMult changes the RGB channels to be ʻun-premultiplied,ʼ giving you access to the RGB values of an element without any alpha-based attenuation.

Knoll UnMult is the perfect solution for extracting ﬁ re, smoke, ﬂ ares, explosions and type from black backgrounds without any black fringing.

Front button

The Knoll UnMult spark uses one input clip, and has three options which can be set by changing the Front button.

Front option The default option, Front, is used if you only want to un-multiply the color channel.

Matte option The second option, Matte, only renders the attenuated matte of the light event. In this example, the third reel from the bottom is the result of applying Knoll UnMult with the button set to Matte. If you now take the UnMulted color clip on reel 2 and composite it against another image using the UnMulted Matte clip in reel 3, the result would be a perfect composite.

Both option The third option, Both, renders a clip twice as long as the source, where every frame alternates the ﬁ ll and the matte. It can then be split up with the Deal tool in your AutoDesk system. The result can be seen in the top reel.

Knoll Min/Max spark

Typically used to adjust mattes, Knoll Min/Max adjusts each pixel to either the minimum, median, or maximum value found among the pixels that fall within a speciﬁ ed area around it. The spark requires only one input clip, then takes you into the Knoll Min/Max spark interface.

In the left row are two buttons below the Exit button. The Front button allows you to view the original input clip. The Result button allows you to view the result of the Knoll Min/Max spark. The Setup button allows you to save and load spark setup ﬁ les.

Min Button

Min looks at all the pixels within the sampling area of the pixel being adjusted and assigns that pixel the minimum (closest to black) of those pixels. If you have a matte with some noise in the black areas, applying Min will blacken any areas of white that are smaller than the radius you set. The Min button can be switched to Median or Max.

Median option Median looks at all the pixels within the sampling area of the pixel being adjusted and assigns that pixel the median (closest to gray) of those pixels. Again this is useful for cleaning up mattes, as well as eliminating unwanted noise or grain. (see left clip below)

Max option Max looks at all the pixels within the sampling area of the pixel being adjusted and assigns that pixel the maximum (closest to white) of those pixels. If you have a matte with some noise in the white areas, applying Min will whiten any areas of black that are smaller than the radius you set. (see right clip below)

Square button

By default, the Square button is turned on. This produces a single width for both the X and Y dimensions. When this button is disabled, the X and Y dimensions can be set independently in the parameters below the button. In both cases, the sampling area is deﬁ ned in pixels.

Knoll Screen spark

Simply put, Knoll Screen is the best digital compositing method for simulating the age old practice of double exposing two pieces of positive ﬁ lm.

By multiplying the inverse of the source and target clipʼs color channels, light values accumulate but donʼt clip, and black remains transparent. No alpha channel is used. Screen very elegantly composites ʻlightʼ events, such as lens fl ares, sparks, glows, refl ections, and even fi re and explosions.

There are still some advantages to using the Knoll Screen spark over the built in Screen Logic-Op. Many AutoDesk users are still working on older versions of Flame which do not have this new functionality. F rom a functionality stand- point, unlike the built in Screen Logic-Op, the Knoll Screen spark oﬀ ers control over the opacity of the foreground clip.

Get it Free!

Since a screen transfer mode has been added to the built-in Logic-Ops in AutoDeskʼs Advanced Systems, Digital Anarchy makes the Knoll Screen spark available free of charge.

The installer is located on the Digital Anarchy website, and must be installed separately from the rest of the Knoll Spark Pack. You can ﬁ nd this spark at: http://www.digitalanarchy.com/section/section_freebies.html