Positioning "lens flare" in Premiere Pro

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Premiere Pro 1.5, Window XP Pro SP1

I have a clip that features a candle that moves from left
to right across the frame, stops at about 3/4 of the way
across, then moves back to the center of the frame. I am
using Premiere's Render->Lens Flare effect on this clip.
I am keyframing the movement of the lens flare and the
motion looks great, however it seems that the resolution
of where you can locate the "center" of the lens flare
on keyframes is too coarse. If I place the center of
the flare exactly on the candle flame when it is in the
3/4 to the right position in the effects setup dialog,
when I come back to the preview window, the center of
the flare is not where I placed it. If I try to enter
the horizontal location manually, Premiere only accepts
one decimal place of input. It appears that there is
a 10 x 10 grid of possible locations where the flare
can be centered on a keyframe. As a result, I can't
get the lens flare to track with the movement of the
candle.

Is this just a limitation of Premiere that I have to
live with or is there some trick to getting finer control
over the flare location?

-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Perhaps you are placing too many keyframes in the structure. The lens flare
motion is going to follow a path in time with the candle from starting point
to end point and then returning. Place a keyframe at the beginning point,
the end point and then back to the beginning point. It should follow pretty
closely. That is given the motion from point to point is pretty smooth. If
not adding one here and there will help.

In any event I would place the ones mentioned above before adding any
others. See how close the lens flare follows then. Overshoot the end point
if necessary.

Lens flares normally do not follow an object but move adversely across the
path of a brightly lighted object reflection. If you want to place a halo
glow around this candle then place the lens flare behind it, not in front of
it. By doing this the chance the audience will notice any path discrepencies
is lower by a greater degree, and will give more realism to the shot.

Place the keyframes as I mentioned above. Now, overlay another copy of the
original clip on Video 2 and give it a transparency of about 50 to 60%.
"Tim Witort" <trw7at@ixdot.netcomdotcom> wrote in message
news:Xns96C96113DC01Etimwitortwrotethis@207.217.125.201...
> Premiere Pro 1.5, Window XP Pro SP1
>
> I have a clip that features a candle that moves from left
> to right across the frame, stops at about 3/4 of the way
> across, then moves back to the center of the frame. I am
> using Premiere's Render->Lens Flare effect on this clip.
> I am keyframing the movement of the lens flare and the
> motion looks great, however it seems that the resolution
> of where you can locate the "center" of the lens flare
> on keyframes is too coarse. If I place the center of
> the flare exactly on the candle flame when it is in the
> 3/4 to the right position in the effects setup dialog,
> when I come back to the preview window, the center of
> the flare is not where I placed it. If I try to enter
> the horizontal location manually, Premiere only accepts
> one decimal place of input. It appears that there is
> a 10 x 10 grid of possible locations where the flare
> can be centered on a keyframe. As a result, I can't
> get the lens flare to track with the movement of the
> candle.
>
> Is this just a limitation of Premiere that I have to
> live with or is there some trick to getting finer control
> over the flare location?
>
> -- TRW
> _______________________________________
> t r w 7
> at
> i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
> _______________________________________

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

>> I have a clip that features a candle that moves from left
>> to right across the frame, stops at about 3/4 of the way
>> across, then moves back to the center of the frame. I am
>> using Premiere's Render->Lens Flare effect on this clip.
>> I am keyframing the movement of the lens flare and the
>> motion looks great, however it seems that the resolution
>> of where you can locate the "center" of the lens flare
>> on keyframes is too coarse. If I place the center of
>> the flare exactly on the candle flame when it is in the
>> 3/4 to the right position in the effects setup dialog,
>> when I come back to the preview window, the center of
>> the flare is not where I placed it. If I try to enter
>> the horizontal location manually, Premiere only accepts
>> one decimal place of input. It appears that there is
>> a 10 x 10 grid of possible locations where the flare
>> can be centered on a keyframe. As a result, I can't
>> get the lens flare to track with the movement of the candle.
>>
>> Is this just a limitation of Premiere that I have to
>> live with or is there some trick to getting finer control
>> over the flare location?

Innocent Bystander seemed to utter in
news:khsTe.16093$xl6.4826@tornado.tampabay.rr.com:

> Perhaps you are placing too many keyframes in the structure.
[snip]

I only have three keyframes in a 10 second clip: the starting
position of the candle, the position at the right side of
the frame, then the center. But even if the candle stays in
one spot and never moves, unless the candle flame falls on
one of the "supported" flare center positions, it will not
look right. The flare always places a bright spot at the
"flare center", so if you have a stationary, bright candle
against a dark background, but Premiere will not allow the
flare center to be placed at the location of the candle
flame, then you have this odd, off-center spot next to the
flame.

I seem to recall reading that After Effects gives you much
more control of the location of the lens flare effect. I
can't justify a $1000 purchase for this one clip. I was
hoping there was some way to get finer positioning of the
flare center in Premiere Pro. It looks like I may be out
of luck!

-- TRW
_______________________________________
t r w 7
at
i x dot n e t c o m dot c o m
_______________________________________