Easily Link a Lens Flare to a Null in Ae with the Quick Lens Flare Tool

There are quite a few options for using lens flares in Ae. One thing that should be part of your animation work flow is to create a control rig of some type for any object that plan to animate.

Easily create a lens flare that can be controlled by the null / light layer and have a foreground occlusion.

This will also hold true for a simple lens flare. Creating an object that you can easily move in the viewport can come in handy. The set up is simple, but can be made simpler.

QuickLensFlare2

This is where Quick Lens Flare Tool comes in. The tool itself doesn’t actually create lens flares. What it does is create a control null for a lens flare that can easily be moved in the viewport, making it simple to facilitate the placement of the flare in 3D space.

The Quick Lens Flare Tool works with either Optical Flares, or Ae’s own lens flare effect. Just select the flare and the control layer, and press create. Quick Lens Flare can also have a foreground occlusion active as you are moving the control null.

Quick Lens Flare can be found on aescripts.com under the “name your own price” structure, and is compatible with After Effects CS5 and up. Check out the Quick Lens Flare Tool here.