Basically K3DF is a new set of features to enhance Knoll Light Factory Pro, Hollywood’s go-to lens flare solution.

Currently, the feature set includes:

1. 3D Camera Aware: Link a lens flares to a 3D Light’s XYZ position.
2. Z-Depth: Distance of flare from camera effects flare’s intensity.
3. Color Linking: Light color effects flare color.
4. Intensity Linking: Light intensity effects flare’s intensity.
5. Multiple Lights: Apply to every light in your  comp.
6. World Scale: Control the amount of flare scaling  relative to a light’s distance from the camera
7. Edge Flareup: As flares near the edge of the comp they automatically brighten and flareup replicating natural lens phenomena.
8. Full 3D Obscuration: All 3D layers in your composition can be used to obscure the flare. As the 3D light travels behind a layer, the flare dims and goes out.

This is not a final or complete list. It’s just something that’s being worked on with the ultimate goal of making Knoll Light Factory Pro,  already an industry standard,  even better.

What’s really interesting to note is that Knoll Light Factory Pro has been able to do most of this stuff for years! 3D lens flares and light linking are not new. I’ve been using them for a long time. However it required some knowledge of expressions – which you can easily pick up at Dan Ebbert’s Motion Script.com.

Anyway we’d love to hear your thoughts on these features, and what you might want to see in Knoll. Personally, I’m really impressed with 3D obscuration. Being able to have the flare wink out of existence when it goes behind any 3D layer opens up a lot of possibilities and makes life a lot easier.

Episode 32: Feature Film Title Treatment
By Chan Bonanno

In this episode of RGTV, Chad Bonanno shows you how he created the motion graphics titles for the feature film “Dreamgirls.” These titles were also used in the broadcast ads and trailers for the award-winning film.

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Chad Perkins shows you how to create various elements for use in a Twilight Zone-esque TV show opening, using After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and Cinema 4D. Get ready to kick it old-school…

Watch the tutorial here.

Episode 30: 3D Motion Graphics Logo
Hosted by Carl Larsen

In this tutorial, Carl Larsen shows you how to create an array of 3D particles using Trapcode Form and Red Giant Plane Space to achieve a look that, under most circumstances, has been reserved for more complex, 3d applications.

Watch the episode here.

Episode 29: Form Text
Hosted by Tim Clapham

In this Episode of Red Giant TV, Tim Clapham shows you how to use Trapcode Form to create some particle-based 3D text along with a cool transition on and off.

Watch it here.

Episode 28: Building an Airport Scene – Part 2: Compositing
By: Mathias Möhl

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Mathias Möhl continues his airport project, and shows you how to motion track with Mocha For After Effects, and then to use that data along with MochaImport (His own Script) to easily create a solid composite.

Watch the episode here.

And get a discount on Magic Bullet Looks and Red Giant Warp here.

Click on image to see example video.

Episode 27: Building an Airport Scene – Part 1: Backplate
By Mathias Möhl

In this episode of Red Giant TV, Mathias Möhl shows you how to take footage of a parking lot, and turn it into the backplate for an Airport Scene.

Watch the episode here.

And get a discount on Magic Bullet Colorista here.

Something different folks – this week’s tutorial uses no 3rd party plug-ins. It’s just a straight After Effects tutorial with some good expressions information.

I know what you’re thinking… No plug-ins? why is it on RGTV? Well, why not? Our goal has always been to help you learn cool stuff. And sometimes cool stuff, doesn’t need a plug-in. That doesn’t mean we can’t share the info. So…

In this episode of Red Giant TV, I’ll give you some cool tips for working with numeric text, for things like video game scores and other digital readouts.  No 3rd Party Plug-ins are used in this tutorial – Just straight After Effects.

You can watch it here.

Courtesy of Dan Ebberts, This tutorial uses 2 powerful expressions. Here they are:

1. Round to the nearest whole number:

s = thisComp.layer(”Null 1″).effect(”Slider Control”)(”Slider”);
Math.round(s)

2. Layer marker triggers addition to current value:

s = effect(”Slider Control”)(”Slider”);
n = 0;
if (marker.numKeys > 0){
n = marker.nearestKey(time).index;
if (marker.key(n).time > time){
n–;
}
}
s + n

Please be patient when it comes to these updates. Our QA team has to test all our current FX Plug-compatible products with the final release version of Final Cut Studio 3. Just like you, we have seen the announcement but don’t have the shipping version. Testing and bug fixing is at the top of our priority list. But until we can get the real version of the products, we can only offer a preliminary feature compatibility assessment.

street tests from Najork on Vimeo.

Buy Trapcode Particular 2 here.

Oh, come on. You know you want to.