Position

Sets the center position of the flare on the x and y axes.

You can reposition the flare along an imaginary line between position and the center of the image using the offset control. In this case, set position to the coordinates of the light source.

Adjusts the flare along a line between the center of the image at 0 and the position, or light source, at 1.

Sets the size of the flare as described by three radii:

• inner - sets the size of the ’hole’ filled by the inner color control.

• middle - sets the thickness of the donut filled by the ring color control.

• outer - sets the outer limit of the donut.

Scales the flare globally, while retaining the ratio described by the radius controls.

Simulates anamorphic lens flares by altering the default 1:1 flare shape.

Colors

Sets the ring color of the flare donut. Flares fade from black at the outer radius to the ring color on the middle radius.

Sets the inner color of the flare donut. Flares fade from the ring color on the middle radius to the inner color on the inner radius.

Sets the blending or falloff between the outer radius and the background image.

Sets the blending or falloff between the inner radius and the background image.

Color Shifts

Moves chroma spread to and from the center of the flare. Positive values shift red outward and blue inward, and vice versa.

Note: You can use the color inner and outerfalloff controls to compensate for banding created by large chroma spread values.

Moves color components in the direction specified in the angle control.

Sets the direction of chroma shift. Positive values rotate the shift counter-clockwise and vice versa.

When enabled, angle is relative to the light angle (the angle between position and the center point of the image).

Visibility

Adjusts the overall brightness of the flare.

Setting this value to 0 makes the flare invisible.

Sets the relative distance from the light source to the matte, at which the flare is fully visible.

Sets the relative distance from the light source to the matte, at which the flare is fully invisible.

Enables the associated mask channel to the right. Disabling this checkbox is the same as setting the channel to none.

The channel to use as a visibility mask. The lens flare effect is limited to the non-black areas of this channel.

Where the visibility mask is white, the full brightness value is used. Where the mask is black, brightness is set to 0 (invisible). Gray areas are attenuated accordingly.

When a visibility mask is used, the mask is blurred by this radius.

Shape

If edge flattening is set to a value greater than 0, this controls the number of sides that make up the polygonal flare.

Simulates polygonal flares that some physical lens flares create. The default value of 0 creates a circular flare. Higher values push the sides toward the center of the flare, creating a star shape at values past 1.

Adjusts the sharpness of the angles created with edgeflattening.

Sets the position of the first corner of a polygonal flare. Positive values rotate the first corner counter-clockwise and vice versa.

When enabled, angle is relative to the light angle (the angle between position and the center point of the image).

Asymmetry

Sets the number of darkened sections around the circumference of the flare.

Sets how dark the darkened sections are. The default value of 1 creates no darkening, whereas a value of 0 sets the darkened sections to black.

Sets the falloff at the edges of the darkened sections. The higher the value, the wider the darkened sections.

Rotates the darkened sections around the center of the flare. Positive values rotate the sections counter-clockwise and vice versa.

Multiple Flares

Creates multiple flares with similar attributes. These are randomized according to the controls below. You can affect multiple flares by adjusting the overall seed or by setting seeds for individual controls.

Sets the master, or overall, seed for all the below attributes on all repeat flares. This produces random attributes for each flare. Change the value to randomly vary the attributes.

Randomly varies the offsets for all repeat flares along the line from the image center to position.

Randomly varies the offsets for all repeat flares. You can tie Multiple Flare controls together by giving them the same value here.

Randomly varies the sizes of all repeat flares.

Positive values scale the flares down and vice versa.

Randomly varies the sizes of all repeat flares. You can tie Multiple Flare controls together by giving them the same value here.

Randomly varies the colors of all repeat flares.

Positive values move the hue towards blue and negative values toward red.

Randomly varies the colors of all repeat flares. You can tie Multiple Flare controls together by giving them the same value here.

Randomly varies the brightness for all repeat flares.

Positive values increase the flare brightness and vice versa.

Randomly varies the brightness for all repeat flares. You can tie Multiple Flare controls together by giving them the same value here.

Randomly varies the visibility for all repeat flares.

Positive values increase the flare opacity and vice versa.

Randomly varies the visibility for all repeat flares. You can tie Multiple Flare controls together by giving them the same value here.

Randomly varies the edge flattening for all repeat flares.

Positive values push the sides toward the center of the flare. Negative values push the sides out, creating a more circular flare.

Randomly varies the edge flattening for all repeat flares. You can tie Multiple Flare controls together by giving them the same value here.

Randomly varies the rotation for all repeat flares.

Positive values rotate the flare clockwise and vice versa.

Randomly varies the rotation for all repeat flares. You can tie Multiple Flare controls together by giving them the same value here.

Extra

Decreases rendering time at the expense of horizontal resolution. The default value of 0 renders at full resolution.

Flares

Creates multiple preset polygonal flares along the line from the image center to position.

Rings

Creates multiple rainbow colored ring flares along the line from the image center to position.

Glowballs

Creates multiple preset bright flares along the line from the image center to position.

Sparkles

Creates multiple preset sparkle flares along the line from the image center to position.

Resets