Adding Realistic Lens Flares in Toolbag

What’s New? 

We’ve updated the Lens Flare effect in Toolbag 4.04 to accurately replicate how light interacts with lens elements using an advanced effect modeled on the flares created from complex, real-world optical designs.

Adjusting Lens Flares

Lens Flares can be customized to preference with adjustments available individually per light and globally per camera. Below we’ll take a look at where you’ll find these settings and how you can make the most of them. 

Light Object Settings

You can toggle lens flare on/off per light source and control the intensity of each lens flare. To edit an individual light’s lens flare, select the Light object in the scene, enable Cast Lens Flare, and tweak its strength.

Camera Object Settings

After deciding which lights will cast lens flares, it’s time to play with the overall flare effect! To do this, select the Camera object of your choice and look to the Flare and Focus sections of Lens settings to control the visual aesthetic of the flares generated. Some settings of interest here include Strength, Coating Color, and Size adjustments.

Adjusting Aperture Shapes

Changing the Aperture shape for your camera in Toolbag offers more room for creativity,  giving you the ability to mimic specific bokeh and flare effects you may have in mind. There are a number of Aperture shapes available for your desired lens flare effect such as circles, hearts, and multi-sided rings, and you can even load a custom aperture shape.