mFlare, from MotionVFX, is a fascinating new plug-in from MotionVFX that creates lens flares. In fact, it is probably the most comprehensive lens flare generator I’ve ever seen.

• Nflares
• Mclaren Senna

If you’re looking to add organic lens flare effects to your footage, then there simply isn’t a better plugin than mFlare 2. Powered by Mocha tracking technology, mFlare 2 allows you to add custom lens flares to your clips, and track flares to objects in your footage without tedious key framing. The search for 'MFLARE' produced no results. Please note that you must be logged in to access most search features. Registration is free and only takes a minute. Please login above or click here to register now.

MFlare, from MotionVFX, is a fascinating new plug-in from MotionVFX that creates lens flares.In fact, it is probably the most comprehensive lens flare generator I’ve ever seen. Available at: mFlare 2 - the world's #1 professional lens flare tool. MFlare 2 has been one of the most an.

WHAT THIS IS

The plug-in contains more than 250 preset effects, more than 170 textures, supports both 2D and 3D lighting effects, real-time preview and automatic flare animation.

mFlare is Mac-only and supports:

• Motion 4 and 5
• Final Cut Pro X
• Final Cut Pro 7
• Photoshop CS4, CS5, and CS6
• Pixelmator

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With a retail price of $119, you can install a single license on 2 Macs. Volume licensing is available, as is a free trial version.

GET STARTED

At its simplest, mFlare allows you to add lens flares to your projects. Let me show you how this works.

Here’s a clip of an old barn standing in a wheat field. We need to make this look hotter, and a lens flare will help.

Open the Effect Browser (type Command+5) and select the mFlare category. Here you will find more than 200 lens flare presets.

Select the preset you want to use and drag it on top of the clip in the Timeline.

In this case, I’m dragging Golden. Poof! Instant lens flare.

Except…. its in the wrong place. This would look better in the upper left corner, not the upper right.

Drag the position dot over the hot spot to move the position of the flare.

Drag the distance and angle dot to change the size and shape of the flare.

Open the Inspector (Command+4) and tweak settings to alter the look of the flare.

NOTE: There are more settings available for this effect than are shown in this screen shot.

Click the curved Reset button to reset the flare to its original parameters.

In many cases, a simple preset and adjusting its location is all you need to create stunning lighting effects for your projects.

DISCOVER THE REAL POWER

However, mFlare has far more power available.

Scroll down farther into the Presets and discover individual Object elements.

And, interspersed through all the presets, are lens flares with textures. Textures are a new feature that MotionVFX recently added to this effect that provide a richer feeling to the lighting effect.

Or, to REALLY tweak the settings, click the Edit mFlare checkbox at the top.

This opens the mFlare editor. Here, you can customize all the elements of your preset, or even create a new preset specific to your project.

Select between Presets on the left.

Or individual Objects.

Then, at the bottom, you can individually adjust each of the different elements that are combined into one effect.

Click the solo button, in the top left corner to see and modify just one element.

Mclaren Senna

There are dozens of settings you can adjust on the right hand side. All display in real-time, so you can tweak your effect so that it looks exactly the way you want.

When you are done making changes, click the checkmark in the lower right corner and your changes are instantly reflected back into the effect you are using in Final Cut Pro X.

ANIMATION

While mFlare does support automatic animation, FCP X does not. So, to animate the position of your lens flare, twirl down the Light and Center parameters and set keyframes as necessary to change the position of the flare over time.

SUMMARY

MotionVFX is an expert in creating Motion templates and effects, having released more than 800 templates for Motion. While you can get started quickly and easily using just the existing presets, this application is very deep, very flexible, and very easy to adjust. You can create an unlimited number of flare effects for virtually every project that needs them.

mFlare sets a new standard for lens flare effects, with its high quality, unlimited variety, and infinite possibilities for change.

To learn more, visit the MotionVFX website, they have a wide variety of detailed tutorials explaining how this software works, as well as a free trial version.

mFlare 2 is a new FCPX plugin that allows users to create realistic organic lens flares that can be automatically tracked without having to use key frames.

Lens flares, when used sparringly (unless you are J.J. Abrams), can help create a bit of atmosphere and magic to an otherwise boring shot. They are also useful for helping to create transitions or continue a theme through a project. Big budget productions often add them to complex CG shots to help convey a little more of a realistic feel.

mFlare 2 allows users to add realistic lens flare effects to live action footage directly from inside Apple’s Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5 apps.

The plugin features 100 preset flares based on real life anamorphic flares. This gives users a very diverse collection to choose from.

No tracking!

Animating lens flares frame by frame with key frames, is not only tedious, but it’s also time consuming. With mFlare 2 you just select what area you want your flare to be in and you hit Track. The built in Mocha tracker then does all the hard work for you and will track your flare no matter where your shot moves. You can even combine your existing animation with a Track Brightness feature, which automatically dims the entire effect based on your clip’s content. Additionally, you can also enhance your Motion 5 compositions by switching to the Lights in Group mode, which will
instantly place a new flare in each of your 3D lights’ positions.

New colorization tool

mFlare 2 includes a brand new tool for finding the right colour palette for your lens effects. As in real life, it uses values from the light spectrum and automatically matches the secondary colors based on the picked conditions.

Specifications

Supported software: FCPX 10.3.4, MOTION 5.3.2 (or later)
Includes: MFLARE 2plugin + 100 lens flare presets

mFlare 2 is available to download for $149US. If you have the original mFlare you can upgrade for $79US. There is also a free trial version you can download if you want to check it out to see if it’s worth the $149US asking price.