by Video Copilot·VFX
Images © Video Copilot. Used for product review; image policy.
Optical Flares earns its place in the toolfarm library as a staple among After Effects artists for building detailed, customizable lens flares, backed by an included set of Andrew Kramer tutorials.
Video Copilot Optical Flares creates lens flares in After Effects, with every flare fully customizable through an OpenGL-accelerated interface. It builds 3D lens flares that respond to After Effects lights, and its 3D occlusion can obscure a flare by alpha or luminance behind foreground objects, working with both 2D and 3D layers.
The flare itself is built from 12 core lens objects with distance, offset, and custom translation controls for anamorphic elements, plus a further 50 custom lens objects. Luminance tracking generates flares from bright spots in footage with resolution and threshold controls, while mask positioning animates flares along the contour of complex shapes. Auto-shimmering and light flickering add motion without keyframes, and chromatic aberration simulates color bleeding around the lens edge.
A live preset browser ships with 60 built-in presets, and objects and presets can be saved, shared, and rebuilt. Rendering reaches up to 32 bpc with GPU acceleration. Over 90 minutes of After Effects training by Andrew Kramer is included, and the plug-in is compatible with After Effects CS5 through 2023 on Mac and PC.
Video Copilot Optical Flares is best for motion graphics artists and compositors adding lens flares to footage, 3D animation, commercials, music videos, graphic transitions, and special effects.
Video Copilot Optical Flares is completely free to download and use.
Video Copilot Optical Flares was updated in version 1.37 with native M1 compatibility, so it runs in the M1-native version of After Effects. The developer notes that M1-native After Effects runs up to 3x faster than previous Mac versions. It is listed as Mac (Intel only*) and PC compatible, so the asterisk suggests details worth confirming for Intel support. For the exact requirements on your hardware, check Video Copilot's page before installing.
Video Copilot Optical Flares lists compatibility with After Effects CS5 through 2023, including MFR support, on both Mac and PC. On recent Macs, version 1.37 added native M1 compatibility for the M1-native build of After Effects, which the developer notes runs up to 3x faster than previous Mac versions. Host support can change with updates, so confirm your specific After Effects version and operating system against the developer's page before installing.
Video Copilot Optical Flares is listed as free in this catalog. Licensing and pricing can differ on the developer's own store and may change over time, so check Video Copilot's page for the current terms before you download. The package includes 60 built-in presets, 12 core lens objects, 50 custom lens objects, and over 90 minutes of After Effects training, so review what ships with your version there as well.
Video Copilot Optical Flares includes over 90 minutes of After Effects training by Andrew Kramer. The lessons cover real-world examples and building complex lens flare presets from scratch, including a wall of lights, a bright concert scene, and combining Optical Flares with live-action footage. The tutorials ship with the footage and images needed to follow along in After Effects, which helps new users get comfortable with the plug-in.
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