Animating Lens Effects Properties

Lens Effects let you use Track View to control parameters that can be animated while Video Post remains open. Any parameter with a green arrow button next to it can be animated.

When the Auto Key button is selected, the associated spinner or variable is displayed in Track View and can be animated. If it is not selected, the green button turns gray to indicate the parameter can no longer be animated.

There are two ways to set Lens Effects parameters for use in animation:

Enable the Auto Key button, set the frame in which you want to create a key, and set the value.
Use Track View.

Using Track View

To use Track View with Lens Effects, one of the Lens Effects dialogs for a particular filter must be open when you start Track View.

NoteIf you open Track View without one of the Lens Effects dialogs being open, the first Lens Effects object does not appear in the Track View List. If you have more than one Lens Effects object in the scene, you will see multiple Lens Effects objects in Track View.

When Track View is open, the Lens Effects filters you have applied are listed under Video Post on the left side of the Track View interface. Under each filter are the parameters which can be animated. These are displayed individually. You can animate only the parameters you need to.

When viewing Gradients in Track View, notice that the first two flags have only a color track associated with them. This is because they are the start and end points of the gradient and never move. Any flags created after the first two will also have a position track associated with them. This means that you can animate not only the color of any flag in any gradient, but also its position over time as well.

If you disable the animation capabilities for a particular lens flare parameter, the corresponding entry in Track View immediately disappears. For more information, see Track View.

WarningWhen you animate Lens Effects parameters, this creates pointers into the actual scene, so Lens Effects animation is lost if you save the Video Post queue in a VPX file. To preserve the animation, save the Video Post data, including Lens Effects animation, in the MAX file.