ANR Lens Effects

Overview

Lens Effects adds the character of a real lens to clean CG or a finished comp, in one node: radial Distortion, Chromatic Aberration (red and blue fringes that grow toward the edges), Edge Softness and a Vignette. All four are measured from the same Center, which you drag in the Viewer. The node starts neutral: nothing changes until you raise one of them.

Lens Radius sets the scale of the treatment: 1 is half the shorter side of the format, so on a 16:9 frame it reaches the top and bottom edges, and the corners are about twice as far out. Clear Center keeps a disc in the middle free of fringing and softness.

It is a look, not a lens model. To match a real lens exactly, use measured distortion, such as Nuke's LensDistortion or an ST map, and use this node for the rest of the lens character.

Inputs

1. Sourcerequired

   The image to treat, usually the finished comp or a CG render.

2. Maskoptional

   Limits where the effect is blended, by its alpha.

Output. The treated image, in the same format and bounding box. The alpha is distorted along with the colour.

Quick start

1. Add ANR Lens Effects near the end of the comp, after any camera shake and before grain, and connect it to Source.
2. Drag Center in the Viewer to the lens centre, usually the middle of the frame.
3. For a subtle lens, start with Distortion 0.04, Chromatic Aberration 1.5, Edge Softness 1.5 and Vignette 0.8, then adjust each by eye.
4. Move the edge effects outward with a higher Lens Radius or inward with a lower one, and raise Clear Center to keep the middle sharp and fringe-free.
5. Shape the vignette with Vignette (in stops) and Vignette Start.
6. If the distortion leaves empty corners, set Outside Source to Clamp.

The panel

The node's panel as Nuke shows it, with the values of a new node. Click any control to see what it does; tabs and sections work as in Nuke.

All controls

Tips

• Positive Distortion bows straight lines outward (barrel), negative bows them inward (pincushion). Check it with a Grid or CheckerBoard through the node.
• Barrel distortion pulls picture in from beyond the frame, so the corners can come out empty; Outside Source: Clamp fills them with edge pixels, or scale the image up a little before the node.
• Vignette and Edge Softness reach full strength at Lens Radius and stay flat beyond it. On a wide frame, raise Lens Radius toward 2 for a vignette that keeps building into the corners, and raise Distortion and Chromatic Aberration to make up for the larger radius.
• Keep Clear Center above 0 on shots with a sharp subject in the middle, so fringing and softness stay at the edges.

Good to know

• To make the lens weaker, lower the individual effects rather than Amount or Mix. Those cross-fade the treated image with the original, so a partly applied distortion shows a double image. The same goes for the soft edge of a Mask.
• With Outside Source: Transparent, picture pulled in from outside the frame is transparent, and the alpha shows it.
• Runs on the CPU: no GPU and no AI model needed.

Works with

ANR Film GrainAdds film-like grain that follows the image's brightness, to match CG, paint fixes and clean comps to grainy footage.ANR Camera ShakeShakes a plate or comp like a real camera, from gentle handheld to earthquake, with impacts and motion blur that stays quick to render.ANR HalationAdds the warm red-orange fringe that film shows around bright lights and hot highlights.ANR GlowA soft, layered bloom around bright lights and highlights, with control over its size, spread and colour, and a matte input to choose which lights glow.